The strengths of XC were the charm, the heart, and Shulk himself.
It's just so weird to read an opinion like that. Xenoblade's main cast and premise seemed just serviceable to me. They weren't offensive, but the whole set up with Shulk and the city being attacked were so cliche I couldn't believe they actually went through with it. What made it stand out to me was the sheer scale of the game. I could spend hours with the initial party doing a bunch of sidequests before actually progressing the main plot.
You spend so much time watching cutscenes of people slowly explaining the geography and the factions and whatever, all things better shown than told.
There's a big info dump in the beginning, but that's hardly how you'll spend a significant amount of your play time.
The combat feels less satisfying, perhaps due to the focus on ranged ballistic weapons.
I don't get this complain. Melee builds are perfectly viable.
The music feels very tone-deaf, especially the rap stuff, and pretty much nothing from the previous game is improved.
The sidekicks aren't as interesting as the ones from the previous either, with no attachment to them or their motivations.
So far, at least, I'm enjoying the optional affinity characters, like HB, Boze and Hope more than the secondary crew from Xenoblade, but the main story characters are about on the same level, and I
really don't like Elma. She's basically the protagonist in the main story missions, but somehow manages to be even blander than Shulk.
I mentioned above that I didn't consider him charming, but at least he wasn't a negative, while, in Elma's case, I see myself actively preferring the storytelling when she isn't the main focus (like in the more elaborate side-quests and affinity quests) and the avatar has more urgency than (at least in the first half) in the main story where you're basically just following her around.