Xenoblade Chronicles X is not like the other games in the series. This is probably something that people familiar with the series are aware of, but it bears repeating – while the game shares a lot of obvious visual and gameplay elements with other games in the series, narratively, Xenoblade X is very much its own thing.
It’s important to state this upfront, because it is also important to not go into Xenoblade X with the wrong set of expectations. Fans of the numbered trilogy who come into this game expecting the same moving, operatic, epic stories that balance life themes with truly personal tales following their leads, for example, will find X to be disappointing. Or if you come into it expecting the sort of nuance to quest design or combat that the later numbered games in the series would go on to develop, you’ll find this title a step back. If you come into it expecting the same sort of soundtracks as the rest of the series – those soundtracks are widely acclaimed and among the most beloved component of the franchise, after all – then you will be disappointed. None of this is to say that this is a bad game, to be clear – just that where its strengths lie differs largely from where the strengths of the other games lie.
Xenoblade Chronicles X (and by extension this Definitive Edition) is, more than anything else, like an offline MMORPG. That description has often been used to describe the other titles in the series too, but it holds truer here than it ever has for those other games. Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn’t have the same sort of narrative focus those other games do. It has a core premise that sets up a reason for you to venture out into, and tame, its vast world, and then it largely leaves players to their own devices. There is still a story here, but the quests are gated by multiple requirements that space them out by hours – often dozens of hours – of gameplay, gameplay spent exploring the world, fighting the wildlife, completing quests, getting closer to the people of New LA, and more.
By definition, that structure implies a lack of focus on the plot – the story is being diluted specifically to facilitate more gameplay. Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn’t really have any pretensions towards being a narrative heavy title either. Unlike the leads of the other games, who are fleshed out, named characters who are often arguably the best in their respective games, X has you create your own silent character as the protagonist. Obviously it’s not focusing as much on the story then.
"Xenoblade Chronicles X (and by extension this Definitive Edition) is, more than anything else, like an offline MMORPG. That description has often been used to describe the other titles in the series too, but it holds truer here than it ever has for those other games. "
This can feel frustrating if you are coming into this game expecting anything like the numbered Xenoblade games, but it does work for this game. You see, the star of this game – more than for any of the other games in the series, which is really saying something – is the world. And everything in the game is specifically designed and structured to facilitate as much engagement with that world as possible.
The setup of Xenoblade Chronicles X has mankind fleeing Earth after an all out alien war above its skies scorched the planet. One of the ships that fled Earth crash lands on a planet named Mira, where they set about constructing a community, both in terms of the infrastructure, and the people who will populate it. An organization named Building a Legacy After Destruction of Earth (BLADE; yes, really) is leading the charge to help set things up and push exploration out further into the planet, so that it can be better understood, and humanity can learn to coexist in its new home with the indigenous life better. The protagonist obviously ends up becoming a member of BLADE, and then carrying out various missions and quests, both within New LA (the name of the human city on Mira), and outside it, in the wilderness of Mira itself.
Obviously things are never that simple, and eventually the plot does escalate stakes from its initial open ended setup to a more coalesced central conflict that seems to have chased humanity across time and space. The story in Xenoblade X is not bad, in fact it is on occasion surprisingly compelling science fiction. However, it is never the point – and that is one key area of difference between this game, and the other Xenoblade titles.
Actually exploring the world is where this game ends up being most similar to other Xenoblade games. The developers have put their experience of creating exotic and surreal seeming landscapes and vistas to good use here, creating a truly alien landscape that still nonetheless looks and feels cohesive and grounded, as if all of it could have naturally evolved on another planet. In parties of up to four, players go out into Mira’s wilderness to install probes for research and mining, to catalog and tame the wildlife, to find other survivors from the crash landing, and more. Along the way, you fight some truly impressive indigenous life. Every part of Mira is crawling with all sorts of life. And in true Xenoblade fashion, no area, no matter how early in the game, is safe from higher levered monsters skulking with the lower leveled grunts.
World exploration in Xenoblade X is a joy, something that you can easily lose hours to. The world lacks structure as much as the game itself, meaning once you are exploring Mira, you can simply keep going, guided by nothing but your own innate curiosity, or the jaw dropping sights and vistas on display, the treasure or the sinister lore you can uncover, or simply the challenge of getting to some place that you can see but not make your way to. Dozens of hours into the game, and exploring the world can still be a delight – in part because right around then is when the game finally lets players have the much vaunted Skells, mech suits that make traversal and combat a breeze, and open up Mira to the player like never before.
"The developers have put their experience of creating exotic and surreal seeming landscapes and vistas to good use here, creating a truly alien landscape that still nonetheless looks and feels cohesive and grounded."
Combat involves managing auto-attacks, cooldowns for player initiated abilities, and positioning. X rewards players who properly leverage status conditions and buffs, and unlike that game, it involves a full featured class system which ends up leading to a surprising amount of variety for the builds that players can create. In terms of the moment to moment combat, X is among the weaker games in the series, even with some of its own twists to the formula (such as forcing an ability before cooldown). The class system, however, does add a lot of nuance and texture to the act of creating builds.
Earlier I mentioned the soundtrack of X as being one of the areas where it differs from the rest of the hames in the series. And it does – whether that’s in a good way or bad is probably going to come down to individual music tastes. However, what I can say is that the musical identity and sound of this game is almost nothing like that of the rest of the series. That should theoretically lead to some of the best music in the series, if not outright across the genre and medium. Unfortunately, at least for me, that is decidedly not the case.
At best I find the music in X to be tolerable, perfectly bland and blending into the background. At worst – such as whenever I am in New LA – I find it grating and annoying, and it actively takes me out of the game. The music of the Xenoblade games has been a huge part of my immersion in their worlds and stories – X’s soundtrack disappointing me, in spite of the obvious talent behind it, is definitely a mark against the game in my opinion. Again, others may very well have different takes on this – music is a very personal and subjective thing, and if you like what you hear, I can see it being a big strength of the game for you. For me, however, and I imagine for anyone who wants something that sounds more like, well, Xenoblade, the music may be an uncharacteristic miss in X (the poor sound compression absolutely does not help either).
"In terms of the Switch release versus the Wii U one, it’s almost all improvements."
In terms of the Switch release versus the Wii U one, it’s almost all improvements. While obviously, Wii U specific functionality (such as dual screen gameplay enabled by the Gamepad, or Miiverse integration) is no longer a part of this release, everything else has made it over as is. The big exception is the UI, which has been greatly improved from how horrible it was in the original Wii U release, and is a lot more sensibly laid out and legible now.
Graphics also look better than in the Wii U release, including in the portable mode, an area where Xenoblade 3 and especially 2 both struggled on the Switch heavily. There are, however, framerate drops and pop in often enough to be noticeable. And, of course, there is the elephant in the room that is the new story content added to the game in this Definitive Edition. The original Xenoblade X left some threads hanging, and with the rest of the series not following up on those, it’s great to have them properly resolved here.
It’s also great to have X available on a modern system, other than leaving it stranded on the Wii U. In spite of my complaints with it, it’s a great game that has a lot going in its favour – chiefly related to exploring its exotic and hostile world. While its differences from the rest of the series mean that players may not enjoy it in the same way or for the same reasons that they do the rest of the series, its considerable strengths do mean that they will enjoy it all the same.
And hey, perhaps in charting out the wilderness of Mira, many Xenoblade fans will find a title that to them is far more compelling than anything else that the rest of the series has to offer. That is not where I landed on X by the end, but that doesn’t mean that will be true for everybody else too. More than anything else, it’s great that this game is now available on Switch, and people have the option and the opportunity to finally play it and form an opinion on its strengths and weaknesses of their own.
This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.
Amazing world design that beckons exploration and provokes player curiosity; a solid, good science fiction story; looks great in portable mode; almost across the board improvements over the Wii U version.
The different focus of this game compared too the rest of the series could lead to some miscalibrated expectations and disappointments; the music is... not the best; the combat and quest design feels a little basic compared to later games in the series.
