Maybe it's because of how RPG starved I've been this generation. But
Xenoblade Chronicles is my Game of the Forever right now. And that's that I had more interest in The Last Story during Operation Rainfall.
1. Scale: There's so much to do, so much to explore and the world is just huge. It had that feeling of, if I can see it, I can play on there. I still love going to the tip of the Fallen Hand's finger and falling a huge distance [to my death] to the Palm.
2. Music: my god it had some delicious tracks, and Monolithsoft really knows how to empower their cutscenes even more with the music. After getting to Mechonis, I'd get into battles JUST for the music.
3. Setting: C'mon, the world consists of 2 Giants, thats your playable area. And you can usually always see the opposite one. And Holy hell
4. Story line: A game with more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan film. Always felt engaged and what starts off as a simple revenge tale, throughout the course evolves into a fate of the world tale. Which is of course very JRPG, but the journey and the lead up to it was amazing.
5. Characters: Party characters, NPC's, the Villains, they all had their own tales, their own backstory and they were understandable. They were all represented well and meshed well together. Their Dialogue exchanges were always fun for me.
6. Combat: I never got bored with it. I was a little scared of the Auto Attack function, but actual hands on with it, and figuring out what attacks to chain together was really enjoyable.
7. Inventory: Everything you got Armor and Weapon like were actually represented and physically seen on your character, throughout its entirety, even cutscenes.