Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Review
“Another Sky We’ve Seen Before” Written by: Kyle (@Runicblade98)
Originally released on the Wii U back in 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X always felt like a strange game. At the time, it felt like a spin-off, having nothing to do with the first Xenoblade game, and in hindsight it really just feels like a big testing ground for what Monolith Soft would do for Breath of the Wild. It was a game that never felt like more than a one-shot with an unresolved story. Heck, in the present day, Xenoblade X has never been acknowledged by the trilogy, beyond a non-canon guest appearance from Elma in Xenoblade 2.
So here we are ten years later. Xenoblade X has been freed from the Wii U jail. Does this game even still hold up after all this time, and why were the fans so insistent on having it get a re-release?
With the last piece of the Xenoblade anthology finally available on the Switch, let’s peel back the layers and see what we’re dealing with here. Let’s find out if Xenoblade X really is worth all the hype.
Image Credit: Nintendo, Monolith Soft
The year is 2054. Humanity is caught in the crossfire between two warring alien races. The only option left is to evacuate the planet and start over on a new one. The Earth’s evacuation ship, ends up crash landing on a planet called Mira. Your player insert create-a-character gets rescued by Elma, a member of the New Los Angeles defender group known as BLADE, and ends up having you join when you get back to the city. The ultimate goal of BLADE is to locate the Lifehold Pod that was created to help preserve all of the data from life back on Earth.
Xenoblade X’s main story is a lot lighter on content than any of the numbered entries. The base game’s story is 12 chapters long, and it’s all standard fare for a sci-fi story. It’s a plot that’s very Hollywood-coded. A story about the indomitable human spirit rising up against hardships. It’s fun, but I’d hardly call it the selling point of the game.
To get to the “real” content, you’ll have to hit up the sidequests. As you progress through the game, more and more members of BLADE will join your available party. As you work with them, you unlock affinity missions for them, which exist to give you their backstory.
Xenoblade X is honestly the most MMO that the series ever gets. The game opens with you creating your own player character. You have to select one of eight divisions to join, choose a class that dictates what weapons and Arts that you use. You have to do side quests and explore the world before the main quest can continue. There are raids that you can do online either with friends or with randos. If you ever wanted to try an MMO without the commitment, then this is the game for you.
Image Credit: Nintendo, Monolith Soft
Xenoblade X has two flavors of gameplay: exploration and combat. The open world exploration in this game is incredible. Right from the start you’re given a sprint with no stamina attached to it. A jump button that lets you pull off some crazy maneuvers that make you feel like you’re sequence breaking. And there’s no fall damage, so you can take all of the leaps of faith that you want!
The game also doesn’t gate off your exploration progression after the first few chapters. If you want to go into the different biomes, you can. If you want to swim across the ocean for twenty minutes to get to Sylvalum before the game sends you there, you can. And this is all without any loading screens between the regions.
In the original game your map was displayed on the Wii U’s Gamepad. You used that for FrontierNav, essentially your way of fast traveling. Now the map is just tucked away in a menu. While I do miss the convenience of having the map right in your hands, you can barely tell that this game used a second screen at all.
By the time exploration starts to feel stale, the game gives you quests to pilot a Skell, a giant mech, after clearing Chapter 6. Skell exploration is great. It comes with a crazy high jump, and it can transform into a car, speeding up the exploration process. Then after clearing Chapter 9 you can unlock flight for your Skell, opening the rest of the world to you.
As for combat, Xenoblade X uses a similar style to the original Xenoblade Chronicles. You have your eight Arts set up on a bar, and when you use one it goes on a cooldown for a set amount of time. The Class that you’re using will determine what Arts you’re able to use. The big difference between this game and the mainline games is that there are no Chain Attacks. Instead you get the much cooler Overdrive after finishing Chapter 5.
In the most basic sense, there’s a number in the middle that increases as you attack enemies with Arts, capping off at a max of 100. When you activate Overdrive, the cooldowns on your Arts are significantly reduced. The goal is to do as much damage in the thirty second timeframe as you can.
Using colored Arts in certain orders will give you different effects. For example, using a Green Art into an attack Art will have the count increase by twice as much as normal. If you ever forget what your Art combinations do, there is an on-screen guide to give you some help.
Overdrive is a thing of beauty and it helps set X apart from its cousins in the mainline games.
With a proper understanding of how it works, you can set up an infinite Overdrive. The two Classes to focus on for the best immediate strong Overdrive builds are Full Metal Jaguar and Mastermind. They give you great Arts and Skills that will help new players learn how to use Overdrive effectively, rather than just spamming Arts and hoping for the best.
Though to be honest, sometimes I think that Overdrive is too good. For high level content, it makes sense that you’d need to understand it. But without using it, even regular story battles can take a long time.
If you want to learn more about the Full Metal Jaguar Overdrive build, check out my article on OP characters from earlier this year.
Image Credit: Nintendo, Monolith Soft
The Xenoblade games are always rich with character, and this game is no exception. One thing that I love doing is just watching the creatures exist in the open world. It really helps immerse yourself in the world. From watching the smaller creatures follow behind the giant dinosaurs, to getting jumpscared by creatures that disguise themselves as rocks and flora in the area. It’s a great touch that gets you to pay better attention to your surroundings. And the more that you have these “Xenoblade X moments”, the better you’ll understand the world around you. Remember that you’re on an alien planet. You have to learn all about the dangers of this new world.
The music in this game is fantastic. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, famous for composing music for anime such as “Attack on Titan”, “Kill la Kill”, and “Seven Deadly Sins”.
It’s a great soundtrack that I think suits the environment very well, sounding more science fiction, rather than fantasy flutes. A few standout themes to me are the environmental themes of Primordia and Sylvalum. To the battle themes “Black Tar” and “Uncontrollable”.
The voice acting is another job well done. The English dub was handled by Nintendo of America, meaning it’s not a British cast, but we do get Matt Mercer and Erica Lindbeck, so all is forgiven. And if you’re really hungry for British voice acting, Adam Howden and Carina Reeves (the VAs for Shulk and Fiora in Xenoblade 1) are available as voice options for your custom character.
Finally, the game just looks so much better. It’s been updated to look more in line with the numbered entries. Back on the Wii U this game looked like it was pulled out of the PS3 generation. Lots of browns and other washed out colors. The game now looks a lot more vibrant, making everything pop while you’re exploring Mira.
The HUDs have been cleaned up. The text is visible and not made for ants. Even the Arts pallet in battle even shows what type of weapon your Arts use. If it’s melee, it will have a slash design, while ranged Arts have a crosshair.
All of the quality of life changes made from the other Switch Xenoblade games are present here as well, such as being able to cycle between what quests you’re tracking, as well as quest collectables being marked on the map. It’s especially nice in a game with a world as big as this one. And it stops you from having to keep the Xenoblade Wikia open to find where something spawns.
Image Credit: Nintendo, Monolith Soft
Summary
Xenoblade X truly feels like an anomaly to me. By all accounts this should be a game that I don’t like. A massive open world game with a bare bones story and most of the meaningful content is hidden behind sidequests. But it turns out that if you make the open world fun to explore, remove restrictions on the player, and give them a sick combat system with tons of build variety and a killer soundtrack, it can make for a fun time.
As one of the last games to be released on the Switch, I genuinely think that this is worthy of your time. Give your console one last ride before the Switch 2.