The latest console era has seen the Xenoblade Chronicles series grow from cult appeal to mainstream popularity, with new entries buoyed by characters guest starring in the Smash Bros games, and 3DS and Wii U ports of older releases getting a new lease on life on the Switch. It’s fitting, then, that the biggest (and perhaps most overlooked) Xenoblade has been remastered ahead of the Switch 2’s arrival.
Xenoblade Chronicles X always felt like a black sheep, with a setting divorced from its predecessor. But being let loose on an expansive alien planet with nigh-complete freedom to explore was just so tantalising back in 2015. More mind-boggling was that the wizards at MonolithSoft achieved this on the Wii U, and that the Switch remaster shrinks the file size further still – while also bringing enhanced textures and new content.
If you didn’t get to experience this massive RPG back on the Wii U, now’s the perfect excuse in the most definitive way.
Another world
If the mainline Xenoblade games are high fantasy, Chronicles X is pure sci-fi. Earth has been annihilated by a powerful alien race, and you’re among the survivors finding refuge on alien planet Mira. Made up of five regions, it’s rendered with breathtaking scope and teeming with wildlife, both benevolent and hostile and of all sizes. You’re more or less free to roam it however you like.
Joining an elite unit called Blade, your task is to aid the development of humanity’s new home (a rather bland city hub called New Los Angeles) by exploring, gathering important resources, and exterminating wildlife that poses a threat. It does have the problematic vibe of sci-fi colonialism, especially when the enemies you’re fighting are referred to as ‘Indigens’, but it’s just about balanced by the fact that you’re still being pursued by the aliens that wiped out your home planet, and clearly want to finish the job.
Exploration and the traversal are a real highlight. Mira has lower gravity than Earth, so you’re just bounding across these gorgeous landscapes when you run and jump, all set to a fantastic score. Meanwhile, the indigens that populate each region aren’t scaled to your level. Even in the first region, you’ll find low-level critters side by side with gigantic creatures at such a ridiculously high level that you’d be one-shot if you attempted to engage with them.
The trick is to also discern the docile from the hostile, as the latter also have symbols to indicate if they’ll attack you on sight or by detecting noise. While you might think you should avoid areas with high-level enemies, some missions actively dare you to carefully manoeuvre around the environment to avoid their attention, at least until you’re powerful enough. But one of the lessons the game instills in you is that even tens of hours later when you’re more powerful (and get to pilot giant mechs called Skells that transform traversal and combat significantly), you’ll always find something else higher up the food chain that’s going to stomp you.
Party partners
Combat has the unshakeable feeling that you’re in a single-player MMO. You and your party members’ different colour-coded and cooldown-based abilities work best in coordination with each other, such as staggering an enemy before toppling it and then laying down more punishing fire. In practice, it also means party members get annoyingly chatty, acting as cues for what ability you should use next; you can thankfully mute this and just focus on which icon starts glowing. A welcome new feature is a gauge that will let you ignore skill cooldowns, which also refills at the start of another battle.
There are various character classes to can master, and you unlock more abilities to customise all of your party’s play styles. It’s complex to navigate all the menus and mechanics, making it hard to discern what combination of abilities are actually going to be effective.
There are almost 20 Blade members to recruit and control during battle, but ironically the game is often lacking in character. Beyond a backstory you can dig into when you first unlock each one, or the few opportunities to deepen your bonds, chances are you won’t find them particularly memorable. Your two starting allies – the headstrong Elma and tech tween genius Lin – are the only real exceptions.
At least you have the option to switch between party members easily via the menu, and they’ll still gain XP even when not active in your four-member party, so there’s less party juggling involved. This definitive edition’s updated character models are also a noticeable improvement over the Wii U version, even if their designs are more generic than other series entries.
In for the long haul
Some of the original game’s quirks haven’t been ironed out along with the other quality-of-life improvements. The barrage of menus and systems don’t quite make sense, even after a pop-up tutorial comes up the first time they appear, and there are still to many fetch quests. You do them anyway, of course, because they raise your party’s level, access certain character-based affinity missions, or progress the story.
The main plot isn’t even that long in the grand scheme of things; it’s just gated between levels that mean you have to grind through a bunch of filler quests. Early on you’re spoilt for choice, but it’s annoying to find many high-level quests just taunting you on the map when you know you won’t be able to unlock them for another ten or so hours.
Still, when you’re tasked with exterminating a unique ‘tyrant’ enemy, these fights can feel incredible – provided it’s not ruined by an even higher-level tyrant interrupting and wiping you out in one move. And just being able to run around in this vast and strange alien planet is rewarding in itself.
To enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles X is to strap yourself in for the long haul. Heck, you don’t even get to unlock those Skells until almost 30 hours in, and even then you’d still have barely scratched Mira’s surface.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition verdict
Xenoblade Chronicle X was a phenomenal achievement on the Wii U a decade ago and this definitive edition still feels like a technical marvel on the Switch. It’s no wonder MonolithSoft have been an important co-developer on the open-world Zelda games this generation.
It’s by no means flawless, especially if you’re after a story that keeps you engaged for the many hours it demands, but having that freedom to run around and explore this vast world first on foot and then via Skells is almost enough to make up for the rote and grind-heavy quest design. It’s hard to think of another game that’s going to keep you as busy while you wait for the Switch 2.
