Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Review

It took me a while to dive into the Xenoblade Chronicles series, but after playing the Definitive Edition of the first game, I was instantly enthralled. As a fan of JRPGs with epic, sprawling stories, I knew I had to check out the other entries. To follow the release order canonically, I did what any dedicated player would do. I bought a secondhand Wii U, a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X, and set out to explore the vast world of Mira.

Since I played it years after its original release, there have already been countless interviews with Tetsuya Takahashi, founder of Monolith Soft, explaining that while Xenoblade Chronicles was story-driven, Xenoblade X had a different focus. They wanted to push the technological limits of the franchise, creating an unparalleled sense of exploration and freedom and squeezing every last bit of power from the Wii U’s hardware.

With that in mind, I knew what to expect from Xenoblade Chronicles X, so I went in with my expectations aligned.

That said, just because a game isn’t aiming for something specific doesn’t mean it’s immune to criticism. I accepted that Xenoblade X wouldn’t offer a fascinating epic like Shulk’s adventure, but that didn’t mean I would overlook its story. It exists and should be judged with the same critical eye as its other elements.

I liked the story in the original game, but I was left with a bittersweet feeling at the end because it wrapped up on a cliffhanger as if a sequel had already been planned.

I never imagined that, ten years later, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition would be released. This remaster improved everything in terms of gameplay systems, enhanced the visuals, and streamlined exploration, but also added new story content, answering 10-year-long questions, fixing plot holes and retconning some, but overall, putting all my doubts to rest.

Longtime Xenoblade X veterans might not be thrilled with the Definitive Edition’s ending, but longtime Xeno franchise fans? Oh boy. It’s a feeling you should experience for yourselves.

Without further ado, let’s begin my review of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition while I’m still trying to figure out what kind of dark magic Monolith Soft employed to create such a massive game on Nintendo hardware—no dissing intended.

The Future Of Earth Is Bleak

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition takes place in the year 2054 when Earth is caught in the crossfire between two alien races and destroyed in the process.

Humanity sends out space Arks in an attempt to save some of its people, but many of them are shot down before even reaching orbit. One of the Arks, the White Whale, is also attacked but manages to land somewhat safely on the planet Mira, where our journey begins.

Before beginning, we create a fully customizable avatar, though the options are not as expansive as expected from a character creator nowadays. Elma then awakens us, explaining that humanity, now living in a city called New Los Angeles, has spent the past two months trying to find its footing on this new planet called Mira.

Given our talent for slaughtering the native creatures of this world, we are invited to join the organization BLADE, whose mission is to explore Mira and make it the new home for humankind.

Our avatar is amnesiac, which serves as a narrative device to sprinkle in lore about the events that led to Earth’s destruction and various other world-building details throughout the main story.

However, one thing you need to understand is that we are not the game’s protagonist. We can decide what to do next, choose some dialogue responses, and even partake in online sessions with our characters, but we have virtually no relevance to the central narrative. The real protagonist is Elma.

That’s my biggest, and probably only, issue with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s storytelling. The player-created avatar is too generic and lacks emotional expression in every beat. They just sit there with a blank poker face, soulless. The few moments when they do take action are brief, and the spotlight quickly shifts back to Elma, Lin, or any other core party member.

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I understand why the game lets us create a character and how it ties into the gameplay system. However, plenty of other JRPGs with silent protagonists still manage to make them feel impactful and relevant to the story.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Xenoblade Chronicles X’s plot is more grounded than other entries in the franchise, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Throughout the game, we’re mostly just trying to survive on this planet while encountering mysteries, alien races—called Xeno here—and the usual problems that, well, I imagine colonization brings. There’s a plot twist here and there, but nothing particularly mind-blowing.

New Story Content Fills Plot Holes

That said, the original Xeno X left many questions unanswered. Some of them didn’t need answers, but others were crucial. Luckily, the Definitive Edition came in to fix that. It took me around 10 hours to get through the new content, which is mostly a lore dump rather than new gameplay segments. But I didn’t mind because I had been waiting for these answers for years.

I walked away satisfied with what I got, feeling at peace, though one or two explanations did make me frown. Ultimately, I enjoyed the main story, even if it still seems to be there just to unlock new features that allow us to explore Mira more effortlessly. After all, you can finish the game in 50 to 60 hours, but completionists can take over 200 hours to see everything the game offers.

But ask any die-hard fan of Xenoblade Chronicles X, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: the true heart of the game’s narrative lies in its side missions. And yeah, they’d be right.

Sometimes, before tackling a Main Mission, the game requires you to complete a few side missions called Affinity Missions. These focus on specific side characters while, finally, putting our avatar into the protagonism light. These Affinity Missions do wonders for Xenoblade X’s world-building, sometimes even providing theoretical explanations or additional context for the main plot.

Most secondary characters are full of personality and uniqueness and add something meaningful to the scenario. Whether it’s Yelv’s side story, which sheds light on an important aspect of human biology, or Neilnail, an archaeologist who offers clues about the planet and the universe’s history, treading some careful references to Xenosaga.

There are also Normal Missions, which aren’t tied to any particular character but are packed with lore. 90% of them are optional, and anyone wanting to see everything must dedicate hundreds of hours to completing them.

Unfortunately, this brings up a huge caveat. Storywise, most of these missions are worthwhile, especially for lore buffs. But regarding gameplay, they fall short because their execution is always the same: fetch this, kill that, talk to them. It never really deviates from that formula.

As a completionist and platinum hunter, I’ve grown accustomed to these repetitive tasks, especially since I’m a lore buff. Still, I can understand how it might get tiring for those looking for something beyond the game’s combat and exploration systems. Just be careful what you wish for, because some developers might use this as an excuse to cram endless minigames into their JRPGs to diversify the gameplay.

Time To Knock Out Some Indigens

Since I brought it up, let’s talk about the gameplay of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. All Xenoblade games have an MMO-esque battle system.

We control one character at a time, and when we encounter an enemy in an open field and engage with it, an auto-attack process begins. The player can select some Arts from their hotkey palette, which, when executed, go into cooldown. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is defeated.

The battle system is the one we love; easy to learn, but hard to master. There are several mechanics intertwined, like Soul Voice, a QTE during combat that kept me on my toes while playing. I also had to constantly move around to adjust my positioning because some Arts deal more damage from the flank or the enemy’s back while managing the use of Aura, Buffs, Debuffs, and other terms usually reserved for RPGs.

There’s a lot to learn here. Xenoblade X introduces tutorials gradually as it presents new mechanics, but it can get overwhelming quickly.

Once you understand and master the combat system, everything becomes much more enjoyable. When you think you’ve hit a plateau of repetition, you discover the immense variety within the class system.

Our avatar starts with a basic class (the strongest in the endgame) and can switch to 16 different ones, some evolving from previous ones. We can equip weapons, Arts and Passive Skills once we reach rank 10 with a class, which is a game-changer feature.

Every Art and Skill works on a percentage-based metric. This means that if you deeply understand Xenoblade X’s system, you can break the game and bulldoze enemies with highly specialized builds. On the other hand, if you don’t give it the time of the day and just wing it, you might eventually hit a wall and feel much weaker than intended down the road.

For context, I beat the final boss on foot because I knew how to master the Overdrive system, which was immensely fulfilling. Not that I had much choice. I was a poor citizen and couldn’t upgrade my Skells, and since I didn’t want to farm for money, I spent time analyzing my classes until I found the perfect combination, and voilà. The progression system in Xenoblade X works wonderfully.

Speaking of Skells, these are giant, human-manned mechs we can drive. They have similar battle gameplay but different progression systems. Instead of gaining experience and leveling up, Skells depend entirely on their equipment, an endeavor that gets extremely expensive in a heartbeat.

When you first unlock Skells, they are potentially much stronger than characters on foot. But if you stop investing in them, they become nothing more than a means of transportation.

While I enjoyed upgrading my Skells and roaming around in a giant mech, combat inside them is considerably more plain and repetitive. It’s Arts spamming all the way while minding our fuel. Yeah, fuel.

We can equip our characters with some gear that enhances the Skells, but I always preferred controlling them on foot, so I never really dedicated my time to the art of mech piloting.

All the battling happens alongside three AI-controlled party members. Each member has their own class, based on some that our avatar can select, but with distinct Arts and Skills. They’re generally competent on their own, but we can dictate some strategies.

But by the end, there were so many numbers on the screen and so much to manage that I preferred to focus on my build and let my companions fend for themselves. I’m the hero of my own story, after all, even if the game doesn’t acknowledge it.

Exploring The Gigantic Planet Mira

Between battles, leveling up, and customizing builds, there’s a lot of exploration. And I mean a lot. This is undoubtedly the defining characteristic that Xenoblade Chronicles X proudly showcases. No official metrics or direct comparisons exist, but the planet Mira is gargantuan.

It is clearly larger than the maps of games like Skyrim and GTA V and allegedly even bigger than The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. All this on the Wii U, mind you. It’s one of those things I swear is huge, but you won’t believe it until you see it.

Besides being immense, the entirety of Mira is explorable, with treasures to collect, enemies to fight, maps to survey, and missions to complete.

The primary goal of BLADE is to install data probes around Mira to collect information about the surrounding areas. Gameplay-wise, this means more markers indicating what activities we can do in each map segment, whether finding a lost treasure, a new task, or facing a Tyrant, a rare, empowered monster.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is extremely generous with markers. Now, all quests appear on the map, even those not being tracked. This is a blessing, but a curse as well. Making a beeline for the main mission while ignoring the markers on your mini-map is humanly impossible.

A yellow dot here, a mission objective there, and suddenly, while you’re gallivanting toward the horizon, you think, “just one more treasure, what’s the harm.” Before I knew it, I was caught in a vicious cycle of “one more treasure” and found myself way off my mission objective, treading into uncharted territory and lost in a cave with monsters 30 levels above mine.

I firmly believe that Mira’s world was created primarily to replicate a genuine discovery experience of pioneers on a new planet rather than just a gameplay gimmick offering various items and treasures.

Xenoblade X has five regions, each with its own biome, flora, and fauna. It all feels so organic and natural that I often found myself admiring the game and exploring just for the sake of marveling at it rather than having the motivation to find the next best weapon enclosed in an enemy base.

Once we unlock Skells, exploration expands even further, not only because they can transform into fast-and-furious vehicles, but also because they can jump incredibly high, reaching previously inaccessible vertical terrain.

It’s bonkers to think that, aside from some areas accessible only with a flying Skell, the map doesn’t have invisible walls from the get-go. I crossed an entire continent swimming. It took me 15 minutes or so, but the possibility was there. At least I activated a fast travel point, saving me some good minutes when the main story took me back there.

Yet, despite these feelings of awe and appreciation for video games as art, I still need to consider the gameplay aspect of exploration. And, just like the execution of quests, this part falls a bit short.

There are countless treasures to collect throughout the game, and most of them always reward you with money, experience, and sometimes an item or two. Cumulatively, if you actively hunt for these treasures, these rewards can make a significant difference.

But it’s still frustrating to spend minutes exploring a cave, fighting tough enemies, only to scavenge some alien debris and acquire, once again, experience and money.

The thing is, if you dive into Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition intending to explore a new planet as a new member of this surviving humankind, appreciating it for what it offers and its ecological variety, expect grandiosity. As a JRPG set in a hypothetical Earth future for the human race, it’s easier to tap into our expressionless character’s role, imagining that this scenario could happen. Not that the government would select me for an interstellar colonization adventure, but you know.

However, if you only explore in games to find new equipment and progress your character, you might quickly grow tired of what Xenoblade X’s world has to offer and stick only to the main mission. And that’s okay. Aside from a few sections, the game doesn’t strongarm you into exploring the most hidden nooks and crannies of the massive planet Mira, leaving its breathtaking vastness reserved only for the most passionate explorers and those with a lot of time in their hands.

Crisp Visual and Stellar Soundtrack

It’s old news that the Switch has outdated hardware compared to other consoles. But don’t underestimate the tech wizards at Monolith Soft. I repeat myself, but the sorcery they pulled off in creating this seamless, gigantic, open world without renouncing quality, presenting bugs, or any other issues is impressive.

The Definitive Edition makes the graphics crisper and more modern. It’s not state-of-the-art like most AAA titles, but it’s more than enough to justify a game released in 2025.

The framerate is locked at 30 FPS, but it’s so smooth and fluid that it doesn’t feel like it. I figured that flying with my Skell as high as possible while looking down at the world would set my Switch on fire, but that wasn’t the case. Witchcraft is at work to make this run in portable mode, but it does.

To pair the visuals with the exploration, we are always accompanied by a stellar soundtrack, banger after banger. Composed by the award-winning Hiroyuki Sawano, responsible for the Attack on Titan and Solo Leveling scores, he didn’t hold back. Xenoblade X features many vocal songs that always kick in at the perfect moment. Kudos to the audio direction as well.

I often found myself engaging in battle against a tyrant not to take down the monster but just because I wanted to hear its theme.

The score is a mix of epic orchestral music, metal, a twist of electronic, and even a sprinkle of rap. Most important of all, it works, and it allowed me to immerse myself even further into everything the universe of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition had to offer, keeping me entertained at all times.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is superior to its classic version. The gameplay additions are welcome and streamline the experience, allowing us to invest time where it truly matters, whether exploring or completing the most varied missions. The new story content may be divisive, but for me, it was the perfect conclusion to the game, leaving me intrigued about what to expect for the future of the Xeno series. My only caveat is that our avatar is way too inexpressive, and their presence can be jarring in some story beats. Xenoblade Chronicles X may not be my favorite in the franchise, but it is definitely a must-play for any JRPG fan.

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Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Reviewed on Switch

Systems

Released

March 20, 2025

ESRB

Teen // Animated Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op

Nintendo Switch Release Date

March 20, 2025

Number of Players

1 (Single-Player), 1-32 (Multiplayer)

Pros & Cons

• Good story becomes great with the new content
• Lore and world-building is first class
• Gigantic map to dive in and explore
• Combat learning curve is fulfilling
• Robust class customization system

• Emotionless character avatar is jarring
• Exploration rewards can be disheartening

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