The Xenoblade franchise has weaved an unusual path through Nintendo’s recent history, each new entry in the series being both separate and at once part of the greater whole. While Switch fans have been treated to the Definitive version of the original game, two stellar sequels, and even a whole game’s worth of DLC, Xenoblade Chronicles X has remained an oddity that, until now, remained cast out on the commercially unsuccessful Wii U.
However, the entire Xenoblade franchise will now be available in one place, with Xenoblade Chronicles X arriving as a swan song to the Nintendo Switch. That’s nice, because it’s one of the greatest RPG stories of our time.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is, in itself, an atypical example of the franchise. While the rest of the series feel like a merging of fantasy and sci-fi, Chronicles X leans far more heavily on science fiction, creating a universe-spanning adventure that sees humanity stranded on an alien planet.
Earth was caught up in a battle between two titanic extraterrestrial foes, forcing the survivors to escape on giant colony ships, with alien foes destroying many of humanity’s last hopes. Your ship, the White Whale, made an initial escape, but was soon brought down to an alien world filled with danger. At the opening, you’re busted out of your escape pod by soldier Elma, and you make your way to the city while learning the ropes of the game’s combat and basic systems.
Anyone that’s played the original Xenoblade Chronicles will recognise the action palette running across the bottom of the screen. You can set up to eight different arts here for your character to utilise, many of which will have different effects and interplay between one another, helping you to cause massive damage if they’re used in the right order. It’s an MMO-influenced system that I’ve loved since the original game, and it still works fantastically here.
Set in our future, Xenoblade Chronicles X feels more grounded and realistic than the other Xenoblade titles. The lost colony and the city of New Los Angeles within it, showcase a community trying to hang onto the trappings of their home, despite having crash-landed in the midst of a hostile and utterly alien world.
Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition has taken a sensible approach to remastering, and right from the the outset, the performance is much better than it was on the Wii U. It’s not gone crazy with improvements to the visuals or changes to make the art direction more cohesive, though this is the sharpest and clearest the game has ever looked. The scale and design of the world remain the key highlights, and though the contrast between realism and fiction might surprise people who’ve only ever played the central trilogy, it’s nonetheless an attractive and engaging experience.
There’s a further contrast in the different musical styles that the soundtrack hops between, one moment rock, the next hip hop, before settling into the swells of a vocal orchestra. I’ve always loved the weird, almost irrational approach to audio in Xenoblade Chronicles X, and it has continued to delight, even if, at times, it feels as though it might have been slightly more of-the-moment than I realised.
Xenoblade Chronicles X does make you wait for one of its best, and most integral features, the giant mech suits known as Skells. These huge units open the world up, being able to transform between their central robotic form and a super-fast wheeled vehicle, while giving you the firepower to get past Mira’s most powerful foes. It’s a treat you have to earn though, and you’ll be chomping at the bit to get your hands on one.
Thanks to its launch on the Wii U, and its change in outlook and direction from the original game, Xenoblade Chronicles X has always been the series’ outlier. However, it’s one of the most exciting and untamed RPG worlds, has a great story to tell, and fully deserves for its charms to be discovered by more players. Thankfully, that time is nearly here.
MegamanX666
A few heads up for reviewers with the upcoming release of Xenoblade X definitive edition.
Remember to update the game, version 1.0.1 is already out, for instance.
The game is not a spin-off, never was, never was called as such by the developers. Was never a black sheep either, its critical reception is higher than 2 and torna, and its user reception is as high as 1 definitive edition.
Also, careful with strong statements such as has no connection with the rest of the franchise. This does not match what said by developers in interviews around the time of 1 definitive edition. Instead, just say “you don’t need to play other games to play and understand this one”, which can also be said for each entry in the blade franchise, and is a more future proof statement.
On the game, please remember to check the options menu, there may be options there to customize the battle UI to make it even more clear. For instance, the Soul voice text bubbles.
For performance, remember that Zelda BOTW (which is also a Wii U game) and TOTK have several instances of noticeable frame drops, from kakariko, deku tree, launching enemies with two-hand sword, and going a bit over the top on crafting. If you guys mostly ignored these problems in Zelda, you won’t mind any minor potential rare drops in XDE, for consistency, right, right?
And since I mentioned Zelda, let’s talk about the silent avatar. Not all modern games put voices in the avatars, you guys are fine with Zelda and Baldur gates 3 doing silent avatar, so it comes to reason you should be fine with a silent avatar in XDE as well.
On Story and open world structure, remember that in Zelda TOTK, if you do tear of the dragon sidequest early you basically breaks the story, because then you are forced to watch characters making a bunch of dump questions or statements regarding Princess Zelda, and cannot do anything about because link, who is supposed to be you in the world, is not given an option to tell them what he/we already figured out eons ago, and yet many of you call that game an open world masterpiece. TOTK story is also full of inconsistencies regarding the events of BOTW, its direct prequel. Yet many of you fully ignored that. So I very much hope that, for consistency sake, I will not see some of you making a big deal of the Avatar in X not having much agency in the (main) story or about story quality…
Also, the avatar in X is effectively the Point of View character, but not the main character of the story, that, is clearly Elma. And that is FINE. There is no hard rules that says that the PoV char also has to be the main character. And if you, for some reason, needs to feel like the main character of the story, simply put Elma as the leader in the menu and play as her, done, simple as that. The avatar has a lot of weight however on the sidequests (normal and affinity missions), which is also story, regardless of not being mandatory, and are a big part of the experience.
On X being “too different” from the other Xenoblade, please, please be careful with hyperboles. While yes, it is different, it is not THAT different, we had entries in the Zelda series that are less alike between each other than that, and most of you don’t make a big deal out of it. Not to say then of Final Fantasy where the games can vary widely. So again, not a huge deal.