It took me 60 hours to beat it. I did some sidequests, but never really bothered to do many of them. It also didn't help that I spent a lot of time grinding for some though battles near the end of the game. It definitely is a massive game, rushing through the story would probably take like 50 hours.
My first playthrough took about 203 hours, if I remember correctly. I think I might have done a majority of the sidequests actually, but there was definitely still a lot I didn't do.
Also, it saddens me how ridiculously expensive Xenoblade is on Amazon.
I ended up paying $70 for it. I didn't want to have to pay that much but I figured that if I don't get it now, the price will get worse. I looked at that $70 price tag as something some games used to cost back then in the 90's. After playing and beating it, I really have no regrets and thought it was worth it.
Now I've been seeing the game for $50 at GameStop. They raised the price and then they lowered it. I don't know what's up with that.
It was really stupid of NOA to make it a GameStop exclusive.