I haven't posted in this thread since I got the game, but I just want to say I'm in love with it. After MGS5 I thought I was sick of open world games, but Xenoblade X rekindled my love for them. The world is not only huge, but it's filled with things to do. It's very rare there's an area I find empty and boring. That's a remarkable achievement for such a big game.
I've been thinking of it in a similar way - obviously, the genre and structure are very different, but Xenoblade's handling of its open world is so much better, along with how the story and side content is integrated into it. NLA and Mother Base are also incomparable in terms of how relatively 'alive' they feel, with the latter being almost completely pointless.
Though I would have liked them to take influence from MGSV in one area - there's no option for a
butterfly emblem
I don't get this "cool...for Nintendo" stuff. They've been pretty progressive for a long time now...
Different parts of the company have different track records. I was speaking more in terms of FE14's tone-deaf handling of LGBT characters, and the general state of anime writing, which influences XCX.