Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
MSRP $59.99
“Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition gives a great RPG the second chance it deserves.”
Pros
- Mira is an open world unlike any other
- Strategic & snappy combat
- Smart quality of life improvements
- Side missions shine
Cons
- Systems can be overwhelming
- Main story is a bit of a snooze fest
I’ve never felt smaller than while playing Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.
Part of this is owed to the game’s grand sense of scale on display in sprawling alien landscapes and hulking creatures that tower over me. More than that, there is a constant through line about the folly of thinking I, as one person, can surmount all the tasks laid in front of me. While I am the protagonist of the story, much of my accomplishments are successful thanks to the help of community work towards a shared goal. It’s humbling for an RPG to take this approach to a heroic story, but also inspiring.
Originally released on the Wii U in 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X is something of an odd duck. Nominally part of the larger Xenoblade Chronicles series from Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft, X is a standalone story that leans more sci-fi than fantasy. As a story of survival on a strange new world, Xenoblade Chronicles X might lack the more grand philosophical tone of other entries, but it makes up for it in the side stories that flesh out humanity’s struggle.
With its new Definitive Edition releasing on Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles X is finally on a platform people actually own. Hopefully this gives it a new lease on life, as players might be surprised by what it has to offer. I know I was.
Something old, something new
Earth is gone, and the alien’s who blew the thing up are still hunting humanity down. Now crashed on the planet Mira, the last remnants of humanity struggle to keep the city of New Los Angeles alive. That’s where I come in, as one of the lucky survivors Xenoblade Chronicles X tasks me with doing my part. That means venturing out into the alien landscape and scrounging for resources, information, and whatever else might come in handy.
That is easier said than done, as Mira is made up of five massive continents to traverse. Learning the topography of each is a challenge in its own right. There are the rolling green hills of Primordia, which often make way to sudden rocky outcroppings that block progress. This often requires me to circumvent the obstacle in a roundabout path that involves climbing a different mountain halfway across the map and walking over a series of rock bridges to get to my destination. It’s almost inconvenient, but that’s because Xenoblade Chronicles X designs its world to feel like an actual obstacle in of itself, not a theme park for me to play in. These difficult journeys lead to beautiful vistas that put Mira’s stunning scenery on full display. Even when I unlocked my Skell, a giant mech that can fly, halfway through the main quest I found that I hadn’t lost my appreciation for the intricate map design.
Falling into combat isn’t a bad thing when it feels this good.
Mira’s wildlife is another obstacle, as most things on the planet want to kill me and my party. These range from massive creatures the size of mountains to small aggressive beasts that will run up to initiate combat. This can, like the confusing topography, sometimes be frustrating when a low level quest happens to put you in the path of level 50 monsters that will kill you instantly. While this can be frustrating as a player, it continues to feed into the larger narrative of surviving on a foreign planet. By not having enemies cleanly level as I enter new areas, Mira feels more alive and real. Falling into combat isn’t a bad thing when it feels this good.
Like other Xenoblade Chronicles games, X uses an MMO-inspired combat system in which the party auto attacks. During encounters, my party shouts out when I can use special abilities, called Arts, to deal greater damage or take advantage of enemy weaknesses. There are also Soul Challenges that put a quick-time event on screen that, if successfully pressed, will boost a morale meter for my party which can buff them and their abilities. My protagonist’s abilities can be upgraded and changed by picking different classes and equipping new weapons. These are just some of the many systems born out from combat that make it more strategic and fast-paced.
Not all of this plays out exactly as it did in the original Wii U release of Xenoblade Chronicles X. While much of the remaster sees fit not to mess with what already works, there are a handful of quality of life improvements. The most noticeable is the user interface, which has seen a massive overhaul that seeks to streamline the screen. This makes the Definitive Edition much less cluttered and easier to understand in moment-to-moment gameplay. Combat also has a new Quick Cooldown mechanic that seeks to speed up encounters. Other little changes include the ability to change party members at any time in the menu and more detailed quest tracking, including listing items needed for mission completion. The biggest change is the addition of new story content that occurs after Chapter 12, which is sure to be a treat for returning fans wanting answers to decade old cliffhangers.
It takes a village
While the physical world of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, and the ways I get to interact with it through traversal and combat, are immaculately realized, the narrative leaves something to be desired. I’ve always been told the charm of Xenoblade games are their deep stories, and X does not live up to that — at least in the main quests.
That’s exactly what I want out of a remaster: the opportunity for an overlooked game to find its audience.
From the start, my party is tasked with rescuing a special part of our crashed ship called the Lifehold Core. What follows is a lot of fighting evil aliens and hearing exposition. This isn’t helped by the game’s cast who are all one-dimensional. The exception is Elma, the leader of New Los Angeles’s survival effort who oftentimes seems like the real protagonist of the story. Her strong-willed but kind demeanor is the glue that holds Xenoblade Chronicles X’s narrative together. There are a couple wonderful twists along the way but they aren’t enough to carry a very threadbare story.
Most of my time with Xenoblade Chronicles X wasn’t spent in these few main missions, of which there are only twelve. Instead the bulk of my playthrough consisted of completing the game’s numerous side missions. At face value, these non-essential objectives are your run-of-the-mill busywork: Collect a dozen of this item, deliver something to this person across the map, that kind of thing. Yet in Xenoblade Chronicles X, these smaller stories are the most impactful. That’s because this is a game about community. New Los Angeles is a struggling city and everyone is doing their part to keep it alive, including me.
This is where that smallness comes into play again. It is so common for a game to cast the player as the single hero who saves the world but Xenoblade Chronicles X pushes against that. Sure, the main quest sees you recovering a vital resource, but that is only one of the many things New Los Angeles needs to survive. The dozens of other people stranded on Mira are equally vital and engaging. Their stories feel essential to understanding what makes this world so special. In a month’s time, I’m not sure I’ll remember the details of the main story, but I will remember finding parts for the local coffee shop wanting to bring a sense of normalcy to the community. It is a reminder that in the face of adversity and struggle, the most important thing is to connect with those in your community in order to work together but also to find joy when there seems to be none in the world.
Learning to love Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition was a process filled with highs and lows. In a similar way to planet Mira’s obstacles, the RPG constantly fought against me with its complexities and sometimes questionable design choices. Through all of this, however, I found a lot to love. That is something that would have never happened without its release on Nintendo Switch. That’s exactly what I want out of a remaster: the opportunity for an overlooked game to find its audience. It took a decade, but now Xenoblade Chronicles X gets that chance again. It, much like New Los Angeles, is a survivor.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition was tested on Nintendo Switch.