Final Fantasy XIII had an auto battle system that ruined it, all other issues aside.

Metroid Other M I cannot speak for, but it is one of the weakeat links from what I hear.

Paper Mario Color Splash was ok, but a shell of what it should have been.

DmC was a decent hack and slash, but should have been a new IP instead of a unwanted reboot.

Meanwhile Xenoblade 2 had a deep battle system, stayed true to the franchise it belonged to, had a story that really pulls you in once it starts going, fantastic character development by anyone's standards, and a ton of interesting content.

Xenoblade is in a completely different league than those games, period.  If you do not like it, it does not take away from the quality of the game.

Example I am not a fan of GTA5, yet I can still acknowledge that it is one of the best games released during its time.  I guess some people cannot see quality beyond their own personal taste.  Does not change the facts though.

Lol, Xenoblade 2 stayed true to the franchise it belonged to? 

Yes.Aparently, you are one of the few people that think like that.

How many people have played the entire franchise? I'm willing to bet the minority.

I'm willing to bet the majority of people as only Xenoblade fans were following the games it's only with XBC2 were the series is breaking its niche barrier.

Well now we aren't really talking about the franchise are we? And if you start at 2 you would kind of have a skewed view of what the franchise is about wouldn't you?

If someone starts at 2 then plays the first game they'll see a number of similarities and references nothing would be skewered like you claim.

if you play 2 first you connect the other games to that one, that is a skewed view, lol.

No mate your argumnet here is skewered if anything because people connect from the first game by default hence why someone new to the franchise always asks if they need to play the first to understand the story.

Again, then they are not looking at the entire franchise.