Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition Review
Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is a visual refresh on a game that can’t help but show it’s age. When the game first came out on the Wii U I played through the main story and a good portion of side content. Revisiting it today it’s a struggle to get through.
Starting on a positive note, visually the game looks much better than the original. The Wii U version wasn’t bad per-say but it never felt like graphics were a key selling point. I remember experiencing almost constant texture popping in the original but have yet to see it on the remaster.
While textures and models have seen an improvement, the UI in both combat and menus is a mess. This is particularly true when playing in handheld mode where the text feels tiny and buttons feel crowded. Things look okay when on a bigger screen but it feels like there was a missed opportunity to optimise for the switch’s hardware.
Despite the early levels feeling a little grindy, the combat system is one of the best parts of the game. It can take some getting used to if you’re not familiar with the franchise but the party system, skills and combos thread together nicely. Your first few fights will probably feel a little point-and-click but as you add more skills and members to your party synergies will start to show. Eventually you’ll unlock a giant robot for each of your party members which mixes up combat yet again.
The game’s map is big and full of interesting things to find. Not big on the scale of modern open world games where the size of the map has become a bragging right but big enough that you feel like there are things to find. So many games these days go for size by adding more empty space between interesting places. Xenoblade games, this one included make a better trade off with a smaller land mass packed with things to do.
Despite the original being out a long time I won’t talk too much about story here in case you want to avoid spoilers. The game opens with people fleeing Earth and a colony ship crash landing on an unknown planet. You’re one of the survivors of that crash and you spend the game learning more about the reasons you had to flee Earth in the first place.
Looking at it overall, the story is interesting. Probably not the best story in a Xenoblade Chronicles game but interesting in its own right. The game doesn’t land within the timeline of the other three entries so it takes that freedom to do its own thing. I’d be interested to see another story in this timeline but time will tell if there’s interest there.
While the story is a strong point, the delivery of that story is one aspect of the game that feels clunky. Cut scenes feel slow and clunky, occasionally asking the player to chime in with a dialog choice that has no bearing on the ultimate outcome. Most of these cut scenes are several people standing around a fixed object like a table speaking very directly about what’s going on. There’s the occasional big reveal but the delivery of cut scenes makes the game feel much older.
There’s a lot in the game, and if you never played the original I would recommend picking it up and playing it through. Having played the original, I’ll admit I am finding it a difficult game to finish a second time. I know what’s ahead for me and there’s not quite enough that’s new to make that a journey worth taking. I’ll be putting this into the ‘maybe some day’ basket for now.
