The combat is more engaging and there are many good characters.. The story is decent but the thing is very much like a shounen anime because that's the vibe Takahashi wanted so it has those elements, and can be lighthearted at times... It's a lot more bombastic than the first one and the villains are cool. I don't think the whole game is better than the first, but I think they are too different to really compare directly. Some things XB1 does better and some things XB2 does better, they also have different vibes so it's hard to say.. Having just replayed Xenoblade DE I can say the combat is far far better in 2, every chapter adds to a mechanic to the battle system and you start to have to think about synergies and other things. I also prefer muh sci-fi and XB2 feels more like a Xeno game to me in that regard (also KOS-MOS and T-ELOS are in it) and the DLC lets you play as shulk, elma and fiora so for a xenofag like me it's great lol also the expansion (torna the golden country) is really good and has different mechanics than the main game.
But for now, amazing disappointment compared to first Xenoblade.
