While I agree with a good amount of those criticisms, I also think you've exaggerated them to some degree.
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For example, the combo system: assuming you have varied types of blades on each character (which really, you should), given that combos have multiple possible paths to completion, even if one of your AI allies switches their blade, there's still a good chance they'll be able to complete the combo. And even if somehow none of your characters or your allies' characters can finish the combo, you always have the Hail Mary option of activating final form Mythra, which lets you use any combo you want. So I can see how the design choice of making characters switch blades could be a bad one, but at the same time I've found it to be almost a non-issue.
Developing territories was also a mechanic in the original Xenoblade, and I think it works pretty much the same here. Just like before, developing a certain area gives you more quests and items, and sometimes developing an area is necessary for a quest at the same time--just like it was in the original. Most importantly, you don't actually have to do it at all. It's optional, just like most of the quests.
I also don't get your hate for Shackle Driver. It's a debuff like any other, and it can be protected against with Aux Cores and the like. It's just another element of strategy you need to keep in mind. The original Xenoblade had Arts Seal, which was almost the same thing; the only difference was that you could still do your auto-attack, but honestly that isn't much.
Battle chatter is another thing I hear a lot of people complain about that I just don't mind that much. Maybe because I have voices set to Japanese? I'm not sure if that changes anything, but honestly it makes fighting more interesting since each of the characters have something interesting to say during battle. The classic fighter-style narrator is also a fun touch, although I can see why some people might not like it. But this is also a non-issue because you can turn battle voices off in the game's settings.
I agree with some of your points about Blades being sentient a problem, but I also think others are not actually issues--for example, I don't believe that randomly acquired rare blades have no personality or are not people. The very first time I resonated with a random Rare Core Crystal I found, I got Finch by pure happenstance--and I love her so much I still keep her engaged at almost all times. Just from her awakening video you can tell she has kind of a silly, airheaded personality, and hearing her voice lines in battle, when you skip travel, when you give her a favorite item, when you level up affinity, etc. really build on that personality--and the other rare Blades are the same. As far as I can tell, many of them also have their own heart-to-hearts that you can view after getting affinity high enough, so it's not like they never converse with the other characters either.
I do agree with you about inns, though--I have yet to find any reason for experience to be given to you in two different ways, one of which requires sleeping at an inn to activate, instead of just having one exp. system in general like the original Xenoblade did.
One complain you didn't mention that I'll just throw in--where the hell are my Haste buffs? When I discovered what Haste gems could do in the original Xenoblade, I was floored. Adding Haste was incredibly powerful; making your auto-attacks far more frequent was helpful in so many ways--it charged your talent gauge, it helped raise the party gauge since you would get more criticals, it also obviously increased your DPS; it was such in incredibly useful tool and it felt great to use, so I'm sad that it appears to be nowhere in this game.
Developing territories was also a mechanic in the original Xenoblade, and I think it works pretty much the same here. Just like before, developing a certain area gives you more quests and items, and sometimes developing an area is necessary for a quest at the same time--just like it was in the original. Most importantly, you don't actually have to do it at all. It's optional, just like most of the quests.
I also don't get your hate for Shackle Driver. It's a debuff like any other, and it can be protected against with Aux Cores and the like. It's just another element of strategy you need to keep in mind. The original Xenoblade had Arts Seal, which was almost the same thing; the only difference was that you could still do your auto-attack, but honestly that isn't much.
Battle chatter is another thing I hear a lot of people complain about that I just don't mind that much. Maybe because I have voices set to Japanese? I'm not sure if that changes anything, but honestly it makes fighting more interesting since each of the characters have something interesting to say during battle. The classic fighter-style narrator is also a fun touch, although I can see why some people might not like it. But this is also a non-issue because you can turn battle voices off in the game's settings.
I agree with some of your points about Blades being sentient a problem, but I also think others are not actually issues--for example, I don't believe that randomly acquired rare blades have no personality or are not people. The very first time I resonated with a random Rare Core Crystal I found, I got Finch by pure happenstance--and I love her so much I still keep her engaged at almost all times. Just from her awakening video you can tell she has kind of a silly, airheaded personality, and hearing her voice lines in battle, when you skip travel, when you give her a favorite item, when you level up affinity, etc. really build on that personality--and the other rare Blades are the same. As far as I can tell, many of them also have their own heart-to-hearts that you can view after getting affinity high enough, so it's not like they never converse with the other characters either.
I do agree with you about inns, though--I have yet to find any reason for experience to be given to you in two different ways, one of which requires sleeping at an inn to activate, instead of just having one exp. system in general like the original Xenoblade did.
One complain you didn't mention that I'll just throw in--where the hell are my Haste buffs? When I discovered what Haste gems could do in the original Xenoblade, I was floored. Adding Haste was incredibly powerful; making your auto-attacks far more frequent was helpful in so many ways--it charged your talent gauge, it helped raise the party gauge since you would get more criticals, it also obviously increased your DPS; it was such in incredibly useful tool and it felt great to use, so I'm sad that it appears to be nowhere in this game.