TotA for me was that the world and characters (Luke, Tear, and Jade especially) were super interesting. It also really nailed the villains and had most of them be really cool and well developed. It also probably helped that I played Legendia before that.
It's a lot like FFX, I have no idea why people think that game is good. I hated nearly every second of it other than the GFX and the evolution of the turn based combat (even though it's turn based combat held nothing against some of the better ones of the time).
Re: Xillia. I loved it. The second one would have been great if the MC just didn't exist. I loved getting Gaius and team as playable characters. I also really enjoyed Zestiria and Berseria even though a lot of people didn't.
Yeah I picked up on that pretty early on too, and loved it, especially because XG is the all time favorite of mine.
Same here, want to see where it goes.