This does put a smile on my face.

Glad to see Monolith finally getting some recognition and expansion. They've always made good game, but everyone else that owned them or worked with them, kind of mistreated the studio. Nintendo is helping them thrive.

Geez, Monolith started from the bottom. Nintendo had little faith when they started. A lot of their games didn't even get localized like Disaster: Day of Crisis in America. We had to beg for Xenoblade 1 to leave Japan. Now we are getting their games worldwide on the same day and are selling like crazy. Those Xenoblade American sales must have made Nintendo feel very stupid for not believing in them sooner.

Is Xenoblade 2 one of these highly praised JRPGs that have terrible writing, voice acting and tons of fan service? .

yay, faster xenoblade 3, x2, zelda!

Not gonna lie, it is definitely guilty of fanservice, and while the writing and VA are not overall terrible, (I actually quite like the regional British accents, and the story as a whole) there are definitely some cringey scenes.

For me it's a game that succeeds on the strength of its highlights overpowering its many flaws.

In a word: yes. 

In a sentence: yes, but don't tell anyone I said that.  

Writing and Voice-Acting: I thought it was good overall. There were definitely some cringe-worthy moments here and there. (Rex and Nia's relationship for example. Specifically this one particular scene...

... Where the fuck did that come from?!)

But other than small things like that, I enjoyed the writing and voice acting as a whole and thought it was good. Especially been Tora and Poppi - Not quite on the same level as Reyn and Riki from Xenoblade 1, but still pretty good.

Fan-service: Ohhhhhh yeah. 'Tons' is an understatement. 

The game is in my top 10...but holy crap did I hate that scene. Came of nowhere and accomplished nothing, you could have removed everything after the  reveal and literally nothing would change. I actually sympathized with Rex's response given how random it was.

Overall I thought the writing was great though. Sure there were some JRPG cliches like the fallen hero that has to keep doing what he's doing because it's too late and an evil fantasy pope, but the cast was fantastic overall, and where it was done, the character development was fantastic, especially on Rex. 

OT though: Great news...would like to see more of what this studio is working on. Xeno 3 (or 2-2 for me) would be awesome of course...but a new IP would be interesting too.

^Ah yes, the best scene of Xenoblade 2, wish I could forget it.

Anyways, is nice to see Monolith having a healthier development under Nintendo, both in studio growth and quality (Xenogears is ok despite its great story and Xenosaga is kind of a trainwreck).

Still would like them to have a more grounded development in terms of gameplay, feels like they try to be too experimental instead of polishing what is already there. An excess of ambition, which shows a lot in Xenoblade X.