Just revisited Xenoblade Chronicles X for the first time in ages last night, and I was really surprised how well it holds up. I'd forgotten how amazing it felt to pilot the Skells across the vast alien landscapes of Mira and take on massive creatures. I'd go so far as to say I think I actually prefer its combat and graphics over Xenoblade 2's. The latter does make some improvements like 3D grass meshes and real-time water reflections, but it just looks muddier overall and doesn't run as smoothly.

One month away.

The problem with X was that rare items required to build certain Skells were just too rare. Unless you fought the Global Nemesis online repeatedly it was almost impossible to get the proper stuff for your Skell builds. I don't like the idea of doing an online-only portion of a game in order to farm though. Xenoblade 2 solved this problem by introducing skills like Diving, Botanist, etc., that increased the number of items you would get from a collection point. With the right Blades you could get up to 27 items from a single farm point. So instead of running around for an hour just to get one rare drop, you could get it just from farming five or six points, and getting a ton of stuff instantly. 

All 3 Xenoblade games have these missions that ask you to find some random rare item. For all 3 games these quests were a bit annoying, but Xenoblade 2's farming system made it easy in comparison to the hours of farming required in the first two games. 

I cannot wait for the expansion story. I had purchased the season pass when it was released... But I need to get the physical version. So so happy they are giving it a physical release!

Yeah XCX's main issue for me, besides lacking a compelling story, was there was too much grinding and filler. That's why I felt XB2 was the better game overall, the narrative was interesting enough to keep me engaged and I spent less time doing dull side tasks. I feel there is still room for some streamlining though.

I haven't played XC2 since I finished it in January, but I think there were a lot of updates to smooth gameplay out. For example: I think you can turn off the Mercenary Missions' animations. Another example: I think opening new blade cores was sped up to take away the three flashes before the blade is revealed. Or you can skip it now or whatever. And then there's the ability to do New Game+ with your characters and/or blades keeping their progress towards skills/abilities, but losing their XP, and starting over at level 1. So if you ground through the game last year to unlock Ursula's best skills for example, you should be able to restart the game with all those skills still unlocked. I think...

Yeah I almost wish I'd waited before starting XB2 as some of the Quality of Life updates like skipping the crystal unlock animations and an Easy Mode would've made my playthrough less aggravating haha. I mean I still really enjoyed it, but a few of its rough edges rankled. Hopefully I'll enjoy the Torna Expansion even more now that these tweaks have been made to smooth things out.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/08/nintendo_explains_how_exactly_you_can_play_xenoblade_chronicle_2rs_prequel_story
For those still confused, Nintendo clarified the whole physical version thing.

That still seems quite ambiguous as to whether the physical box will contain an actual Switch cartridge or a download code card.