Platform: Nintendo Switch
For once, Earth isn't doomed – it's already destroyed, the planet itself a casualty of two unknown species warring in orbit with seemingly no interest in us measly humans. A scant few survivors take to the stars, searching for a new home in ark ships, but only one vessel, the White Whale, makes it through the barrage. After years of searching, it crashes on the exotic world of Mira, an untamed frontier where humanity must start again – but when a violent alien faction arrives in pursuit, it begins to look as though the obliteration of Earth wasn't a random act.
What follows is a twisting, hard sci-fi story exploring themes of survival, colonialism, and even the nature of the human soul, but unlike the rest of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, there's no central character to hang it all on. Xenoblade Chronicles X instead has players controlling a user-created avatar, one built and tailored to supporting preferred play styles. The result is a game more focused on its systems and mechanics than character depth or emotion – classes, skills, a seemingly infinite array of weapon types with minute differences between iterations of even the same model, similarly endless upgrades, and more, all designed to showcase its team-based action driven combat.
This is an alien world so filled with incredible vistas, unimaginable creatures, entire thriving ecosystems, and astounding alien ruins that your jaw will regularly be scraping the floor as you explore it.
But XCX (an initialism that has a very different, brattier connotation now than it did when the game first launched on the Wii U back in 2015) was always an outlier, a product of developer Monolith Soft still figuring out what it wanted the series to be, especially in contrast to the earlier, only tangentially connected Xenogears and Xenosaga games. That lends the game an energy and a sense of wild experimentation that still shines through a decade later.
While your own character is an amnesiac survivor – an archetypal silent protagonist you occasionally make a conversation choice for – you'll be joined by a team of up to three allies as you explore Mira, which is the real starring character of the game. This is an alien world so filled with incredible vistas, unimaginable creatures, entire thriving ecosystems, and astounding alien ruins that your jaw will regularly be scraping the floor as you explore it. There's a material purpose for wandering the vast continents that make up the open world – activating data cores to expand the map and harvest resources to aid the survival and development of New Los Angeles, the city built from the remains of the White Whale – but you'll frequently go off-mission just to find out what's over the next horizon. It's glorious.
Party members are where the bulk of XCX's heart lies though, each with their own background to uncover and role to play in seeking out the "Lifehold" repository of Earth's species and uncovering the truth behind Earth's destruction. Key developments are drip-fed as you build affinity with them through combat, all helping to build a real sense of the stakes, large and small.
Yet even these figures are ultimately tools to the combat system, a speedy affair that has you hopping between melee or ranged weapon sets and timing the use of special moves that operate on cooldown cycles. Fights become a dance of attack and retreat, timing when and from which direction to attack enemies. Each ally specialises in a particular battle role - main companion Elma, who fishes you out of your lifepod at the start of the game, operates as a "Full Metal Jaguar", swapping between dual swords and a pair of pistols; tech genius Lin serves as a defence-focused "Shield Trooper"; "Partisan Eagle" Lao specialises in ranged attacks with a lance and sniper rifle; and many more besides. Success is down to building a squad with complementary skills. More importantly, each teammate also showcases their particular speciality – useful, as your protagonist is able to learn all of them, eventually mixing and matching for a unique approach.
The combat was always a highlight of XCX – a blessing, given you'll be doing a lot of it – but it's streamlined further as part of this Definitive Edition release. Arts can now be re-used before cooldown thanks to a new energy pool, while a visual cue highlights when best to use them. You can also swap active squad members at will, allowing you to quickly re-spec your team ahead of taking on specific enemies.
Other improvements include a new floating continent to explore, additional story missions to follow, and something of a visual overhaul – returning players will note improved character models, but this decade-old game still broadly looks its age – while functions that were once tied to the Wii U's distinctive second-screen gamepad are now streamlined into menu actions or abandoned entirely. It is indeed the definitive way to experience the game, and it's incredibly satisfying to be able to play all four Xenoblade games on one console, but don't expect a Metroid Prime Remastered level overhaul here.
Some of the rougher edges haven't been filed off at all, such as quests that rely on randomly mined resources – an automated process, but one you just have to wait to strike it lucky on – and a glacial pace to character levelling, leading to some areas simply being inaccessible due to enemies that wipe out your party on sight. Level grinding to proceed adds to an already inexorable sense of bloat, as XCX is ridiculously vast and time consuming – you're looking at about 30 hours of play before you get your first Skell, a giant robot to aid in combat and exploration that is the literal cover feature of the game – and well upwards of 120 hours to see everything Mira has to offer.
Thankfully, that tour is ultimately worth it – Mira is truly one of gaming's greatest unsung locales – but this battle for humanity's future is one that demands extraordinary amounts of patience and endurance to see through. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a fantastic experience, especially if its combat gets its hooks into you, but may be too much of a slog for anyone unwilling to commit.
