There aren’t many major Wii U games that haven’t made the jump to Switch at this point, and now Nintendo is preparing to cross off one of the last boxes on their “Wii U ports” bingo card with the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. The black sheep of Nintendo’s RPG franchise, Xenoblade Chronicles X opts for more of a hard sci-fi presentation and a unique approach to exploration and progression.
Despite its odd duck status, Xenoblade Chronicles X has its share of hardcore supporters eagerly anticipating the upgraded version of the game. But beyond that niche fanbase, is this Definitive Edition going to show those who skipped the game the first time around the error of their ways? Or is it destined to crash-land with audiences for a second time? I’ve had the opportunity to go hands-on with the new Xenoblade Chronicles X and can currently comment on its first four chapters (roughly the first 10 hours of the game). So, gear up and scroll down for my initial impressions.
While I'm sure they’re tied together in some obscure way, Xenoblade Chronicles X is largely unconnected from other entries in the series, with the game leaning into sci-fi rather than the usual fantasy JRPG tropes. Players take on the role of a survivor of the White Whale, an interstellar ark launched after an alien war forced humans to abandon Earth. Unfortunately, the aliens catch up with the White Whale and it crash lands on the surprisingly lively planet of Mira. After being rescued from your life pod, you soon find yourself in New Los Angeles, a spunky pop-up city built around the crashed ark's habitat unit. You're quickly recruited to join New LA's BLADE military unit under Colonel Elma and tasked with exploring Mira, eradicating threats, and discovering the location of the While Whale’s Life Hold, which is said to contain many more survivors.
Xenoblade Chronicles X’s setup is certainly interesting, and the world of Mira is a rich and interesting one, with a cast of mostly likeable characters (unfortunately, XCX vets will have to put up with Tatsu all over again). There are even a few decent twists later in the game, which we won't get into here. That said, a lot of XCX’s minute-to-minute storytelling is fairly dry, consisting mostly of characters standing around info-dumping and repeating tired jokes. This is particularly the case early on, where you'll have to sit for minutes at a time while characters exhaustively outline how everything in Mira and New LA works. The chattiness recedes after a while, but the first few hours of the game can be a slog.
To be fair, there is a lot to explain, as this is a dense game, stuffed with interlocking systems. New LA is a sprawling metropolis, consisting of several districts packed with NPCs, playable characters, vendors, and quests. Expanding Mira's map is a matter of installing data probes, which can be managed to passively produce and store various resources. Meanwhile, all your party members can be customized by assigning them different classes, skills, arts, and gear, and I'm only scratching the surface here! I haven't even touched on the game's pilotable mechs called "Skells," since they only come into play later in the game. It's not an exaggeration to say newbies will probably have to play XCX for 20 hours or more to get a real handle on its many systems.
Thankfully, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition makes all this complexity a bit easier to parse. The UI and menus in the original XCX were, frankly, not great -- a barrage of tiny text and menus laden with endless hard-to-navigate lists. Menus have now been redesigned to be much more navigable, but the changes are most noticeable during combat.
Xenoblade Chronicles X’s combat is similar to other entries in the series, with a few unique twists of its own. Your main controlled character and AI allies move and select “Arts” in real time, with many of these powerful moves requiring you to do certain things for maximum effect (attack from the side, attack when an enemy is toppled, etc.) XCX also introduces the unique and somewhat quirky “Soul Voice” system, wherein your allies shout out various requests ("Use a melee attack!" etc.), and if you fill those requests and properly execute a subsequent quick-time event, you'll get some sort of bonus effect. This is basically the only way to heal your party in the game, so paying attention to Soul Voice requests is essential to your success.
In the original Xenoblade Chronicles X, the screen was flooded with hard-to-follow information during combat, but this time around, the UI has been redesigned to be larger, cleaner, and more readable. The Soul Voice system feels much easier to get your head around now, with the game more clearly communicating what Arts your allies want you to use. UI updates aren’t super sexy, but considering how janky this stuff was before, it really makes a big difference.
Another thing that’s much better in this version of Xenoblade Chronicles X is the map. Originally, you could only access the world map on the Wii U GamePad, which was novel I suppose, but really limited the map’s functionality. Now, you can simply access the map on your TV screen, which allows for a much wider field of view and more detail. Other new map features have also been added, including the ability to track key quest-related collectibles.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s visual update isn’t quite the straightforward win its new UI is. Most of the game’s character models have been updated, but I don’t know if they’ve been universally upgraded. I honestly prefer Elma’s original, softer character design, but admittedly, most secondary characters, like Lin and Irina, are indeed significantly improved. Mira itself doesn't look that markedly different, but everything is a bit sharper. Color saturation, contrast, and lighting effects also seem to have been turned up, which often results in a more striking-looking game but occasionally makes characters and environments look a bit blown out, as you can see with the ghostly Lin above.
I was also somewhat disappointed that issues present in the Wii U version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, like frequent texture pop-in, are still present on Switch. Perhaps the draw distance is improved somewhat, but you'll still see enemies and objects blink into existence not that far ahead of you at times. The Switch version of XCX also introduced something I don't really remember being in the original game -- brief performance stutters. They're not terrible, and combat still feels very playable, but I definitely noticed them at times.
That said, don’t get me wrong, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is often a rather lovely-looking game. Perhaps not as visually polished as more recent entries in the franchise like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but the game's sense of scope and imaginatively rendered vistas remain impressive a decade later.
And really, it’s always been the world of Mira that makes Xenoblade Chronicles X a standout. A lot of the open-world design philosophies that Nintendo and Monolith Soft would later refine with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild were birthed here, and in some ways, Mira is even more interesting than Hyrule. The world is packed with mind-bending panoramas and getting to your next mission marker often feels like a puzzle to be solved. The wildlife you’ll encounter is quite the sorted menagerie as well, with not-terribly-intimidating enemies like alien boars and bugs hanging out right next to towering dinosaur-like monstrosities. Just fighting everything in your path isn't an option and often figuring out how to sneak past a nest of particularly nasty baddies is part of the environmental puzzle.
Despite having played through Xenoblade Chronicles X in its entirety a decade ago, I still quickly found myself drawn in by its fantastic world all over again. What I didn't get to see much (if anything) of during my early hours with this version of the game is any of the new content Nintendo hinted at. Those hoping to jump into the new stuff right from the main menu are out of luck, as it's seemingly all been integrated into the main game. Under different circumstances, I might find that decision a bit irksome, but given how much fun I'm having revisiting Mira, I don't think I'll mind pushing through to find the new goodies.
Current thoughts on the Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition doesn’t feel like a particularly radical upgrade through its first 10-or-so hours, but some UI updates and a limited visual makeover ought to make the game more approachable for the large majority of Switch owners who missed out on it the first time around. I still have a lot more to try out, including the game’s teased new content, but so far, it feels like X still marks the spot.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition arrives on Nintendo Switch on March 20. Look for Wccftech’s review closer to launch.
