It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by Xenoblade Chronicles X. Even a decade after its initial release on the Nintendo Wii U, Monolith Soft’s JRPG is still uncompromisingly ambitious. You can go anywhere and do anything on the beautiful planet of Mira, even if the sole reward for your curiosity is a towering monster crushing you underfoot.
But despite its visual and mechanical achievements, it was doomed to obscurity all thanks to the platform it called home. A swansong for a failing system that saw only a small handful of people experience what it had to offer, it’s now being given another shot with a Definitive Edition that enhances graphics, streamlines mechanics, and makes it a far more palatable package for anyone who went onto play and enjoy other games in the series.
Prettier, Simpler, But Still Incredibly Daunting
It’s also a very different game, so much so that many will be taken aback by just how much choice it offers the player, and how it laughs in the face of conventional linear narratives in favour of a world and characters you must put in the effort to familiarise yourself with or end up left behind. While it takes some adjustment to fall in love with its characters and conquer its open world, the end result is astounding. After spending a dozen hours with its new form, I’m desperate to earn my Skell and make New Los Angeles a home worth fighting for. This is the return of a forgotten classic I’ve dreamed of.
I can’t talk about anything beyond the fourth chapter, which is still incredibly early on in the story (long before you’ve earned your Skell mech or ventured beyond the first three vast regions). This is a colossal game that doesn’t hold back.
The setup of Xenoblade Chronicles X is astoundingly simple. Earth is annihilated as a giant war between two alien races plays out in our atmosphere, destroying our planet and wiping out most of the human race in the process. But through the creation of colossal arcs built to house millions of human lives and centuries of knowledge, a few lucky souls are able to find sanctuary among the stars.
You are one such individual who spends years travelling across the solar system only for the same aliens to attack and send us crash landing onto the harsh planet of Mira. It’s a gorgeous yet hostile place, and after a handful of cutscenes and far too much exposition, we are given an opportunity to create a character and explore it on our own terms. There is loads of running, loads of jumping, and loads of getting lost on a planet that’s unwilling to hold your hand, and years later that remains one of its biggest achievements.
My avatar was a happy-go-lucky explorer who wanted to embrace Mira with open arms, only to have that optimism thrown back in their face. In order to make it our home we needed to fight back against evil aliens, disrupt local wildlife, and repeat the same grim mistakes millions of lightyears away from our doomed origins.
With a very hands-off narrative compared to other Xenoblade titles, you will need to connect the dots yourself and take on affinity missions to figure out whether X is the sort of game for you, because it’s more serious than the charming British accents and jokes of Xenoblade Chronicles, 2, and 3. It’s a more experimental outing, and one that is quite a polarising joy to revisit.
Ground Control To Major Tatsu
There are so many different mechanical systems underpinning Xenoblade Chronicles X that I would be here for thousands of words trying to explain all of them, so let’s stick to the most important things. The battle system is similar to other games in the series, albeit with a more MMO-esque approach to encounters with classes to switch between, skills to equip, and arts to perform, which can be chained together to carry out incredible combos.
Upon first glance, it is a lot, and until you’ve upgraded a few skills, levelled up, and nailed the timing and cadence of combos, it can feel like you’re whaling away at an impenetrable wall at times. But it’s well worth perservering through the earlier hours and never being afraid to jump into the fray and experiment.
I developed a habit of switching up my party members, playing with each and every new class, and leaning into the gear system that will swallow you whole. It’s so detailed, so dense, and what the battle system hinges upon. You are encouraged to pick up new gear after every major story development and upgrade what you already own, or the next boss will beat you to a pulp in seconds.
You have ‘Ground Gear’ and ‘Fashion Gear’ which determines your actual stats and how each character looks. So if you want to put style first, you can customise every body part to your liking. I only wish the user interface was less of a cumbersome nuisance.
Open world exploration is propelled by the probe system. Key points on the map you will be encouraged to seek out and claim in the name of humanity. These spots are then occupied by probes that can provide valuable resources, earn additional intelligence, or increase how many materials and so on you are able to store at any given time.
Finding these spots is an enjoyable exercise in itself, causing you to be courageous in exploration when the narrative is rarely providing a reason to abandon the beaten path. Linking probes together can provide bonuses, unlock new quests, and give you a concrete idea of exactly how sprawling Mira is. I opened the pause menu at one point, zoomed out, and gulped in a mixture of anxiety and anticipation of what was to come.
Mira Is A Splendorous Yet Hollow Place To Explore
Xenoblade Chronicles X has a wonderful battle system and one of the largest open worlds I have ever seen, but those don’t mean nearly as much without excellent storytelling or a cast of characters to back everything up. Compared to the original game and its two sequels, it’s hard to deny that this entry falls short. Elma is a courageous leader grappling with a past that she is afraid to unfurl, while Lin is a young inventor struggling with the balance of her love to create and the necessity of destruction in order to build a new home.
Other characters are fleshed out consistently through affinity missions and heart-to-heart conversations which are designed to make us care, but a lot of the time I was reaching for the skip button. Having a silent protagonist doesn’t help this feeling when Shulk, Rex, and the killer power couple of Noah and Mio prove how humanity has always been at the heart of Xenoblade.
After the first dozen hours or so, there is no big player in the main narrative for us to team up against, and our only vague goal is to turn Mira and New Los Angeles into a new home. It is a compelling setup, but Xenoblade Chronicles X takes so long to do anything with it that players in its grasp for the first time might wriggle free long before it reaches its full potential. I’m yet to earn my Skell and have my expectations subverted like they were in 2015, where dozens of hours spent running across the open world are suddenly cast aside as I’m able to pilot this transforming mech that makes Mira not only easier to traverse, but way more fun to explore.
This edition of the game has greatly improved the user interface and made elements easier to read and parse, but jumping between its countless menus and mechanics can still be quite overwhelming at times.
There is still a frankly ridiculous amount I’m yet to see in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, whether it be earning my transforming mech, delving deeper into the narrative, or mastering its battle system. I’m looking forward to all of it, but after a decade of absence, it’s fascinating to look at how Xenoblade has evolved, and how this cult classic both surpasses its siblings in some areas while falling woefully short in others.
- Released
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March 20, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen // Animated Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence