Okay now that I've beaten the game and currently well into post-game content, I just wanted to write up a few thoughts. No spoilers and I'll try to stay relatively brief.
The copy-pasted field areas in the first Tales of Xillia were very disappointing to me. The game was structured so that you initiate some story scene, then traverse what is essentially an arena to fight battles to get to the next story scene, with very little to do outside of battle other than click X on various chests and loot spots. There were very few dungeon areas, and those were often straightforward as well. So having to re-traverse those areas again, sometimes more than once due to the [light spoiler]
wasn't exactly thrilling. I tend to appreciate dungeon design that has me do /something/ other than fighting mobs, whether it's navigating a maze or solving a puzzle, but the Xillia series doesn't really have any of that at all. Not to mention everything visually looks the same, which is uninteresting. So the reusing assets criticism is definitely something I agree with, especially considering what was being 'used' in the first was already recycled.
However, the battle system in Xillia was good enough to get me through the game, and Xillia 2 plays very similarly of course. Some of the characters were tweaked considerably but all in all, as with most Tales games, I'm having fun trying out the different characters and learning how to play them effectively. I haven't really gotten to the arena yet, which will really force me to get the hang of the differing styles. Xillia 2 has a higher emphasis on weaknesses, which does add a small aspect to keep in mind as you approach battles. Bosses were sometimes a little frustrating, but usually turning the difficulty down to normal was enough to compensate. Perhaps not as intricate or deliberate as Tales of Graces, but I think the Xillia system is quite enjoyable in its own right.
The debt system never really felt too intrusive to me. I tended to take on giganto monsters when possible, and did some of the easier quests, and I typically had more than enough keep Nova happy and keep my item stocks up. I've seen some criticism that this system was a significant barrier to progress, or significant padding but I never really felt that as gald was so easy to come by. I did appreciate how equipment "synthesis" was brought back - elemental weapons especially are very useful, and worthwhile to take some time to collect components for. Also no longer having to sell items to grind shop levels is welcome.
The post-game seems quite improved over Xillia. Many gigant monsters return, and some are clearly way too powerful to take on right away. Looking forward to going through the EX dungeon and gaining new equipment and levels to take them out.
As for the narrative elements, I'm bad at discussing these, but it took a loooong time for anything to gain even a little bit of my attention. Many of the Xillia characters felt superficially attached to what was happening, and felt like they didn't need to be a part of the cast at all (even doing the character quests). And then we learn our goal is to collect plot coupons (waymarkers) to get to magical mcguffin land, all the while trying to impose some moral angle to
, I just couldn't care at all. The end of the chapter 11 and through chapter 12 were finally some party dynamics that were worth paying attention to, but then after that I felt ending game elements got more and more trite. Even as someone who is typically a sucker for the 'brotherhood' motif, the relationship between Julius and Ludger didn't grab me either. Perhaps if Ludger had a personality and could speak in more than just grunts, maybe.
So, in the end, if you liked Xillia's battle system, and didn't mind the field areas, you'll probably like Xillia 2. I think things like how shops work and more post-game content are definitely big plusses. I guess your mileage may vary on the debt/quest systems depending on how much you like to stray from the main storyline to gather things or just to experiment around in battle.
, and yeah they are still funny as in ToX1 so do not worry.