If you like Final Fantasy 13 and White Knight Chronicles, you'll like Xeno. Like those games, Xeno is polarizing.
Music/Voices 9/10: A tremendous musical score that is absolutely awesome. On of the best soundtracks I have heard in an RPG in a while. However, the voice acting is okay and you are forced to have British or Japanese voices, but no American ones. Still, they're pretty good and not too annoying, but there is not enough variety in battle one-liners.
Graphics 8/10: This game has probably some of the best graphics the Wii has to offer. Still, it's hard not to notice it's PS2-like for the environment and characters. The backgrounds are the amazing part though.
Story 6/10: The story revolves around around the Bionis (humans) and Mechon (Robots). The Mechon attack the Bionis with regularity, and the Mechon can't be hurt by normal attacks. Well, luckily, the main protagonist is studying a sword that can damage Mechon and see the future. I personally couldn't warm up to the characters and I found the story a bit ridiculous and cliche, but to each his own. There are also a number of annoying plot devices that force you to sub-optimal things (debris is now blocking your way, take the long way around, these enemies can only be defeated by this combo, you get to use the ultimate weapon right away, ect.).
Gameplay 4/10: This is where things get the most dicey. The game is unfortunately very boring to play. From the numerous, but very generic questing, to the battle system, which feels like a smaller version of World of Warcraft's battle system, but the game forces you to defeat certain enemies in very narrow ways, that I don't care for. The crafting is not fun as the outcomes are random number generated, so it's difficult to get consistent results. You can see the armor and weapons and they're okay, but most of the diversity comes from an item having more defense than attack, ect., but don't expect anywhere near Diablo 2's (talking about a 10 year old game here) amount of loot or armor sets. There are collectibles, but these items show up as "blue orbs" on the map and are random within a certain area as well.
The levels are a lot more like Final Fantasy 13 or White Knight Chronicles than people talk about in reviews. Long, snaky paths with an eventual wide-open space. This is where exploration comes in, except, you won't really want to explore because it's not worth it. There are high level enemies (70+ when you are 15), collectibles you aren't sure if you need (thankfully, your sword can tell you if some are needed for quest in the future, lol), and most of the "fetch quest, or kill x" objectives are on the main path. and plenty of aggressive monsters off it. There are no treasure chests to explore for, just monsters. At least death is painless in the game, as all you do is start at the last landmark you visited and having a quick travel system along with a save anywhere feature is wonderful. I think that's the appeal of this game, having some western ideas in a JRPG.
Interface 6/10: For the record, the setup I used is the Classic controller because that was recommended on the forums and it worked fine. However the interface is extremely menu driven and you must go through 3 screens to get to the one you need sometimes, or back and forth between some. It felt dated and clunky. The inventory system mashes all you characters gear together, which makes equipping more of a pain than necessary. The general lack of bugs in game was really nice though, that Nintendo polish.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a game I tried really hard to like. The great reviews and talks of revolution made me race out to get this game. However, the best way I can describe it is Final Fantasy 13/White Knight Chronicles with a few western conveniences. That is why I returned the game to Gamestop and why I am choosing to give the game a 6/10.