I'm interested in a Switch exclusive RPG. These are the 2 which interest me the most. The artstyle of Octopath Traveller is very appealing to me, and suits the Switch amazingly well. It looks more visually appealing than Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with its crisp visuals and amazing artstyle as well as the higher framerate. It looks like a good classic RPG game which I used to enjoy a long time ago and look to get back into with this game.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has an epic scale and third person camera which appeal to me. The combat is more animated and pretty good. It does look horrible though with the jaggies and aliasing and the low resolution with some framedrops. The voice acting is horrible, which is worse than no voice acting.

I would probably enjoy the 2 games but can't afford them so which do I play first? I wouldn't have time to play the other, as right when I finish the game I buy I'll play God of War on NG+ and then Spiderman, Red Dead Redemption 2, Just Cause 4, Metro Exodus, Days Gone, Sekiro, Devil May Cry 5.

That is a really tough call because they are both epic games.... And I love them both.

However if you liked Final Fantasy 1 to 10 with turn based-fighting. This would to be be the better choice. I to this day think that Square should have left FF with turn-based fights as it was and never gone to the action-based system that ultimately ruined the series. Well for me it ruined it. They could have made new IP's with action-based fight systems.

If you like action-based fighting then go Xenoblade. The story is overall more start to finish in line and makes for a nicer feel. The one thing I dislike in this game is getting the rare blades is painful and annoying

Me I'm really a turned based person so overall I like Octopath more for that. But I like a good complete story so Xenoblade is better for that!

Both games run at 720p 30fps docked, so performance is only really a deciding factor in handheld mode with these games. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 docked is also one of the few Nintendo games to make use of anti-aliasing these days as well. As for voice acting while I prefer the english voice acting in both games, Japanese VA is an option. (Side note: I loved watching the english voice actor for Pyra stream XC2 on twitch for charity/her project funding).

Anyway overall from the two games, I much preferred XC2, and the amount of DLC updates and content in the $30 expansion pass is astonishing.

As someone who finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and played the demo of Octopath traveler, I can tell you cannot go wrong either way. But let me tell you this about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I've played the game 80h and I've never found the voice acting horrible. Actually I found it pretty good, because it gave each character individuality and personality. To answer your question I would normally recommend Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as its just an big, semi-open world and epic RPG with an incredible battle system, with an amazing world to explore, insanely good soundtrack and an excellent story, but in your case I've got the feeling from your post that you are actually more interested in Octopath traveler. I mean you cannot go wrong either way as Octopath traveler has like Xenoblade an awesome battle system, a great art style and a fantastic soundtrack!

Octopath Traveller by a longshot.

Not because it is way better, I enjoyed them both for different reasons but Xenoblade 2 easily has one of the best value expansion packs.
It adds so much content but is best enjoyed alongside your main playthrough as one of my problems is replaying the game since I already know the story. (Had the same problem with Persona 5, enjoyed but couldn't replay).
So since you only have money for one, you wouldn't be able to afford the season pass.

I haven't played Octopath, but I can highly recommend Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Really solid cast of characters with an interesting story, and is genuinely fun to play. Also easily my favorite RPG of last year. Has some annoyances here and there though, including a gacha type system to unlock new (optional) characters, some tedious quests, and field skill system that requires you to pause in the middle of exploration. Also has a billion and two systems to keep track of, which could be a positive or negative depending on how much like RPGs in general.

I suppose it boils down to if you want a story-driven classic RPG or a more character-focused action-oriented one though.

Xenoblade 2 was by far the better game. Also, if you think it has bad voice acting then there probably aren’t very many games that have good voice acting in your opinion... and probably no rpg’s...

I'd probably recommend Octopath, but I've just never enjoyed XB's combat style very much, so that's just my own personal thing. I suppose the bigger question I'd pose is; are you looking for an RPG similar to old school Final Fantasys (FF6 and before), or a more open ended exploration game?

Octopath is old-school, but not particularly ambitious and doesn't come close to the heights of the better SNES JRPGs, but it is very polished and there aren't many glaring flaws, other than random battles.
Xenoblade 2 on the other hand, consistently reaches higher highs, but it is also flawed in many areas and if you care about playing undocked, the low resolution makes it basically unplayable.

I'd go for Xenoblade 2 as the most enjoyable RPG of the two, even if you do have to battle clunky design choices from time to time.

Voice acting isn’t bad, there were a few low effort lines that some displayed (like the screaming from Rex) but like him and a lot of others, they did a fantastic job. Pyra/Mythra, Morag and Nia are my faves.