Blair Loveday
In 2015 an excellent JRPG dropped on the Wii U called Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Unfortunately, that console was not well received. As such many fans were doomed to never experience the glory. Fortunately, it wasn’t doomed, thanks to the latest Switch release Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition!
Xenoblade Chronicles X kicks off with an intense cinematic.
Aliens are at war with each other and Earth is in the middle of it. Earth’s people attempt to leave in some massive ships called arks. Most of these arks are destroyed in the crossfire, but a handful make it out. We follow one that has lifepods scattered on a planet called Mira.
Here you get to create your own character.
This character wakes up from their pod by a woman called ELMA who takes you through the fundamentals of moving and takes you to the city New Los Angeles.
Your character suffers good old fashioned amnesia, so you follow her and become a member of BLADE. BLADE is a group that is hunting for more pods and survivors. This sends you off on missions, and in one of them you discover that you are a robot. Whaaaaat? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the remaining humans? The plot get’s thick. You are going to be playing this game for many, many, many hours, so there has to be more to it than that right? Yup, Mira has heaps of other races, and some of them don’t like humans. The plot keeps thickening. It’s actually a really interesting and well crafted world and story.
The gameplay initially is very Xenoblade Chronicles. It is initially the usual auto battle combat which is super fun and engaging. But it ramps up when you get your hands on the mechs called Skells. You encounter them early, but you don’t get to pilot one until you have progressed the story enough. At this point travelling around and battles ramp up to be even more fun. But you don’t want to rush to that. There are so many side missions that help you get allies in your team that are worth doing from a gameplay perspective, but even better for the world building.
The game runs shockingly well. When there is too much chaos going on it can jitter a little bit, but I have seen smaller games run much worse. It is a massive game and I am perfectly happy with some minor performance dips for the game to be this good on the go.
There are added characters and missions to the game as well. Unfortunately I have only played this version so can only speak to this as a contained experience, but there is something there for Wii U returning players.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a cracking good game. I am so grateful that this rerelease means more people get to play and enjoy this gem of a JRPG! If you like JRPGs or the Xenoblade series, this is a must play.
Released: March 2025
Rating: M
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Action
Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo