I actually quite liked Xenosaga 1's combat. It's been a while since I've played though, and I didn't have much rpg experience when I first played it so that might contribute to it. Why do people usually see the first game's combat as bad?

The Xenosaga series is probably my favorite of the Xeno series, although Xenoblade is close behind. That could change if I ever actually beat Xenoblade. I still haven't ever beaten Gears and really need to get around to doing that.

Xenosaga is extremely linear compared to the openness of Xenoblade. It's kind of surprising how much I like it compared to FF XIII (which I enjoyed). I think I just really like the more sci-fi setting of Saga, and I just really enjoyed the overall story.