I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles X right now, and I think the original Xenoblade is a masterpiece.
I will admit, I struggle to like this game at the start because I don't like military stuff very much, and everything appeared to be flat/mechanical, characters talked about mechanics/gameplay-wise stuff and not about their relationship or characteristic , that was what I think turned Xenoblade into something special. So, at the start, I was quite disappointed.
But the game grows with time. Now that I probably have a 50+ hours playing already, I don't regret a single minute of investing in the game. The game itself becomes much better after chapter 3~4 , somewhere you can reach within 6 or 30 hours ...
I'm someone who does EVERY SINGLE MISSION (not all basic on this game, because they looks to be countless, but all commom and beyong) possible, so this slow start was a slow bore to me, but it's gone.
After chapter 5 the game it's Xenoblade quality or very close to it. Characters are nice and I want to know more about them, the game give me bits of info that let me go further on their story and relationship.
The mechanics(gameplay) in this game are gorgeous.
The need to use ranged/melee and Art wisely to don't lose time in cooldown is something you learn with time, and there's a lot of classes, arts, skills, soul voices... two different people can play completely different from one another. I started to become a Astral Crusader (Javelin + Sniper), mastered, and now I'm trying to master each class, keeping my sniper skills/arts.
The world is fantastic. I love how sometimes I'm pissed because I can't reach somewhere even with the Skyrim-horse powers that your character have to climb. So I must discover new patches, new roads, new caverns and all this kind of stuff.
Primordia is Bionis Leg's more beautiful, more detailed, and just... bigger.
The scenarios are quite similar to the Xenoblade ones, but I think they crafted even better with the Wii U hardware.
The soundtrack is hit and miss. The city has 2 main songs, one is veeery fun, and the other I want to mute or shot myself everytime ot starts. Sometimes they don't know WHERE to put the songs, and what volume to use... but it's ok.
Some songs are really catchy, other good, others regular, some are horrible stuff. I mean... REALLY BAD.
The experience I'm having now is the same quality from Xenoblade Chronicles (original), but it's sad the start is so mechanical and souless. I don't like they don't let me use my characters in the main quest too (I use the avatar, L , Alexa, and Doug.). The characters are mostly good.
(I'm not playing online, so I can't say about the online experience...)