Speaking of Xenoblade there was some ratger interesting reasoning behind why this is Xenoblade Chronicles '2' instead of 3 or X2 or something else...
Because it is more story and character focused rather than focused on exploration...has me thinking that the story may still have nothing to do with the first xenoblade and be its own thing...which isn't necessarily a bad thing...just somewhat of an interesting direction...
I already have a concept of that in my mind for a while now.
During the Tree house, Takahashi also gave more explanation on why he used Xeno- as his signature for his games. He basically said Xeno means something different and unfamiliar, and the series are usually about characters with different characteristics and try to interact with each other.
Takahashi also stated that he tries to combine the story focused from XC and the exploration from X when making XC2. They story so far is great, and awesome to see most landmarks can be accessed seamlessly (Without loading like how they did with the original). One more thing that is interesting is they said XC2 uses the same engine that X uses. That's why they can make the game faster.
I always had hope XC2 is more than a sequel, or not even a direct sequel to the first game. Suppose it is then that means that players who didn't play the first game might get some spoilers to it, or even need to play the first game to bridge some plots.
The end of XC2 E3 trailer shows Tetsuya Nomura, one of the artist for FFVII designing a character called Torna (Not to be confused with the Nopon Tora). This is kind of a big deal... first a little background...
Remember back in Cloud's Smash reveal trailer where Shulk an Cloud standing on two sides of Midgar stage, and then the stage split in half? I bet there was a meaning behind it.
Takahashi's first Xeno game Xenogears was original to be a potential storyline for Square's upcoming Final Fantasy VII, they later rejected it because it was "too dark, too complicated" for a Final Fantasy game. They still let him make an entire new game, and thus he created Xenogears which was released in 1998. It was a game with a very complex and deep story. Takahashi originally planned 6 games for the series, but Square decided to focus on Final Fantasy. So Takahashi left Square and founded Monolithsoft, since Square holds the rights of Xenogears, Takahashi can only go on create a new game called Xenosaga with the help of Bandai Namco, which wasn't very successful. After Monolithsoft sold to Nintendo, Takahashi later make a game on the Wii which was called Monado: Beginning of the World. It was later Satoru Iwata changed to title to pay homage to Takahasi's previous works.
So same with Nintendo, FFVII also plays a sour spot for Takahashi.
Side note, while I was watching Xenoblade 2 trailer again. This comment just makes me shook my head...
when nintendo literally gets some one who draws porn for a living to do their character art
Technically, not Nintendo, but Monolithsoft...but anyway, it's not like we can't Google his name and know right?