Review: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch)
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a remarkable achievement on the Nintendo Switch. This isn’t a surprise; the original was a remarkable achievement on the Wii U. Here, Monolith Soft improved the visuals, made some key UI enhancements, and brought enough new content to make it a must-play (or replay) for JRPG fans. Some original development decisions, however, still prevent it from becoming a series best.
Quite a bit separates Xenoblade Chronicles X from the main series, beginning with its focus on Earthling protagonists. Caught up in an interstellar war between unknown combatants, humanity is forced to flee Earth just before it’s destroyed.
The aliens eventually catch up to one of the surviving ships and destroy it, too, but a city-sized escape pod manages to crashland safely on a planet dubbed Mira. The humans quickly establish this city as New Los Angeles and make it their base of operations as they set out to explore Mira and race the clock to recover important artifacts from the destroyed spaceship. I won’t get into why; you’ll need the surprises.
Players will create their character at the beginning, then quickly settle into a routine of taking on jobs and completing missions.
The vast majority of these center around pushing further into the five continents of Mira, installing survey probes along the way. These are mostly used to farm resources or raise money, and you’ll need a lot of both.
Of course, there are numerous native beasts and (rather quickly) enemy aliens blocking your path, many of which are impossible to beat at the start…or even towards the end. One of the first items you’re asked to retrieve, for example, is guarded by an “indigen” you won’t be able to fight until you’re a couple dozen hours into the game. Prepare for a lot of that.
And overpowered enemies are not the worst of your obstacles. That’s actually the planet itself, or at least its geology. You simply can’t reach many key areas of the map right away, and those you can reach often require a lot of work. Thank God for the “follow ball,” which is one of the Definitive Edition’s UI enhancements. This late add-on to other Xenoblade games serves as a guide to your objective, helping you to navigate the confusing terrain and leading you directly to your destination.
Hint: When using the follow ball or setting a task to recover items, be sure to add one of those items to the game’s collectopedia before you grab them all. Once the mission is complete, you’ll no longer be pointed directly to those items and will again have to rely on blind luck to find them.
Of course, combat plays a major role in your explorations; you’ll be fighting everything everywhere all the time. The battles take place in real-time, with your melee and ranged attacks happening automatically as you move around the enemy. You also have up to eight job-specific arts at your disposal, and you’re able to swap in new ones as you learn more.
All of them can be leveled up, too, making them more powerful as you progress. Certain arts are better from certain positions. Some can buff or debuff. More powerful ones often require TP which you may instead need to launch Overdrive or revive a fallen team member.
Those team members may also call out for a specific type of art you can quickly launch for combos. It’s a lot to consider and execute, but it’s very easy to do.
The combat simplicity is likely because “the separation is in the preparation.” How well you do in the game’s constant battles will depend mostly on how well-equipped you are. You can research and purchase new armor and weapons from four different manufacturers, each with their own specializations. Having trouble against an enemy’s electrical attacks. Well, there’s armor out there that dampens the effectiveness of electricity. Buy it and equip it. Or, just build a mod for it and use torso armor with an open mod slot.
This is good and bad. Good in that there was rarely a similarly-leveled monster I couldn’t overcome with the right armor, weapons, skills, and arts; the game never felt unfair. Bad in that you’re often forced to spend too much tweaking your party setup. Or grinding, I suppose.
The good thing about grinding in Xenoblade Chronicles X, however, is that there’s almost always a new job to give you something new to see and do, and you can quickly change party members to utilize their skills and keep them leveled up…not to mention increasing rapport with them so you can view all of their heart-to-hearts. Did I mention this game gives you a lot to do?
And this is well before you unlock the skells—mech armor that lets you walk and fly around like a giant robot. This really opens the game up and allays the frustration from being unable to get where you want to go. As with your standard armor, skells can be built and modified for different objectives. But they’re very expensive, so you’ve hopefully been keeping your research probes optimized.
Whether you’re fighting or exploring—whether you’re on foot or in mech armor—Mira is a stunning and exciting expanse to explore. The continents are radically different from each other, and the game practically forces you (in a logical way) to check out all of it; Mira and New L.A. are separated into grids with an objective to complete in each small sector. Hitting areas in the late game that you’ve been curious about from the start is very rewarding. I never got tired of taking on new jobs that helped me complete those sectors.
You’ll notice, however, that I haven’t talked much about the story. That’s because it’s practically non-existent. Yes, there’s that clock counting down throughout the game. There are plenty of smaller moments that teach you about your party members. There’s plenty to see and do in New L.A. You get to find out who likes cats and who likes dogs. But the focus on exploration pins down story momentum like a late-game gravity attack. And although nearly all the characters are likable (I could sure go for Amiibos of Murderess, Frye, and Hope), most are barely attached to the story. When the big twists and the inevitably heady themes roll in, they’re met with little more than a shrug and the expectation of more party tweaking.
That’s a far cry from Xenoblade Chronicles 1 through 3, all of which had great stories with numerous moments of emotional impact. Even if X had those moments, the stop-and-go storytelling would’ve rendered them meaningless.
Yet, the game is so much fun to play! It builds at a wonderful pace, slowly revealing itself in a manner that holds your attention despite the slower moments. It’s also willing to meet you on your terms. You can take on jobs that provide epic battles if you’re looking for action, or you can just run around New L.A. to meet new people and unlock sector info. Xenoblade Chronicles X may have protagonists, but it’s obvious that the main character here is Mira itself.
It also helps that the game looks amazing and plays so smoothly on the Switch. That’s at the expense of some physics issues; the developers apparently didn’t care if you’re facing the right way when shooting or whether you can just run right through enemies during combat. What’s important is that you look cool, and there’s never a moment when Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn’t look cool.
I wish I could say the same for the soundtrack, however, which is a schizophrenic mess. Sweeping orchestral scores are too often pushed aside for generic rockers that interfere more than they enhance. Maybe if they’d licensed The Power Station for a certain, previously referenced character?
Finally, what of all the new content? In addition to the UI enhancements and visual upgrades, you get two new characters, an extended narrative, and a new area to explore. They all feel like natural extensions of the main game, providing a bit more to do and work with. How well that wraps up the story and ties into the franchise as a whole, I’ll leave for you to discover…and wrestle with. There are also a few online options that allow you to play solo, with a squad of friends, or with up to 31 other players. The online missions and tasks are pretty much more of the same, but they will help you level up and obtain some of the game’s rarer items.
Whether you journey through Mira alone or with others, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a great game and a worthy entry in the franchise. It’s a solid sendoff for the Switch, and I’m thrilled I got to play it again.
