Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Review – Best Of The Bunch

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Review

I had an excellent time playing Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. The gameplay loop is tight, the plot is cool, and the customization options are blessedly numerous. But the game still suffers from some serious pacing issues, and there’s a lot of content that feels like padding. Plus, for better or for worse, the combat is still extremely Xenoblade. But this is the most fun I’ve personally had playing a Xenoblade game thus far.

One thing you need to know about me is, I’m a complete freak for custom outfits on my party members. If I can change a character’s look whenever I want, I’m doing so at least thirty times throughout my playthrough. Chronicles X has some fascinating themes available, such as Hardened Warrior, Xenomorph Fetish Ball, and Beach. Or you can do a sort of Horny Business Magnate, or Casual Scumbag, or even Student. The possibilities are downright expansive. I love this kind of thing so much, it automatically adds a handful of points to any game’s total score. Sorry, can’t be objective about slutty little outfits, not even gonna try.

Sci-Fi Fashion Week

But even without the custom threads, Chronicles X still has a tight, focused, well-crafted gameplay loop. You set out from the hub city, New Los Angeles, on missions. Fast travel points are unlocked as you explore. Everything you pick up is useful for something, even if it’s not immediately obvious. And exploration is a major plot point, not just a useful activity. You always feel like you’re accomplishing something tangible whenever you set out. Lastly, the combat. It’s pretty fun, almost breezy stuff, compared to other entries in the series. But it’s still very much a Xenoblade affair before anything else.

To explain: combat in Xenoblade games is a convoluted mess, and Chronicles X is hardly an exception to this rule. There are arts and skills to assign, attack chains to manage, weaknesses to navigate, body parts to target, and gear to optimize. But also, the practical battle experience is you waiting for cooldowns while your character and your party kind of do their own thing. Because so much is automatic, it’s easy to get complacent. So when the difficulty spikes (and it will), you feel utterly blindsided. Then it’s time for twenty minutes to an hour of tedious upgrading, and the whole cycle starts anew. That is, until the Skells come into play.

Get In The Robot

You learn early on that Skells are a major part of this colony’s survival. They’re giant mechs controlled by a single pilot, and you need a license to operate one. They are an absolute game changer in combat, though they burn fuel like crazy. Plus, replacing them can get very expensive very fast. Skells teeter on the ragged edge of being overpowered. They almost break the game’s combat balance, but the whole system manages to hang together anyway. It’s honestly one of this game’s greatest strengths – you feel powerful in a Skell, and you are. But never to an unfair degree. They turn walking into a sucker’s pastime pretty fast, however.

All this great gameplay feels like the majority of the runtime. Which is rad, but you don’t get much room left for actual narrative. The plot of Chronicles X is crammed into a series of isolated story missions. Don’t get me wrong, these are great. This is a compelling, interesting plot that kept me playing for dozens of hours. How is the human race going to survive these impossible circumstances? Will the clock run out on us as a species, or will we somehow persevere? The trouble is, you can get multiple hours of rudderless gameplay in between these compelling developments. The pace grinds to a bloody halt after every chapter.

Some Pacing Woes

Beyond the major plot beats, little moments in the sidequests and affinity missions feel fleshed out thanks to the writing and voice acting. The english dub is pretty solid, though your character doesn’t talk at all. I was happy with the writing in all the quests and missions I played through, I just got overwhelmed after a while. You do so many of these tiny quests, and my focus can only hold out for so long. Eventually I was aggressively mashing my way through the dialogue. It didn’t get worse! I just ran out of gas. But a lot of them are pretty important.

There are whole alien races that you might never meet if you don’t do some of these side missions. New arms manufacturers are buried in these same missions. There’s also a cascading effect, where unlocking one causes several more to pop up on the map. Completing these missions has a tangible impact on New LA. Even if you’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of them, it’s still worth it to engage with these quests. If nothing else, you’ll receive a whole fistful of actionable benefits.

I’ve never played the original version of Chronicles X. Missed that entire console, to be honest. So while the new version features some mechanical improvements, I’m incapable of properly appreciating them. For example, you can now switch party members from the main menu. Crazy that this is a new feature, but here we are. The graphics have also been enhanced, and I assume that there’s other new features. But again, I wouldn’t really know.

Just Tough Enough

Difficulty feels properly balanced. You get some exceptions, mostly in certain boss fights. So far there’s been one battle where I gave up and let the game knock the difficulty down a peg. Even then, it was reset to the usual level immediately after I won the fight. You can leave the shame of that victory behind you and just pretend it never happened, you know? You can also run into incredibly powerful monsters without meaning to. It’s a nasty shock, but the level display above their heads gives you some warning. Also, if a monster is the size of a skyscraper, maybe give it a wide berth. Running from fights is harder than it should be, but you at least have the option available.

I’ve had a difficult relationship with Xenoblade games in the past. They’re enormous, unwieldy beasts that are weighed down with endless mechanical systems and floaty, disconnected combat. Somehow, all of this is applicable to Chronicles X, and I still love it. The combat feels more grounded, the mechanics more approachable, and the plot is more accessible. Plus, the custom outfits. Those really changed the game for me. Also, being able to pilot a team of mechs is a major bonus. Xenoblade games are still not for everyone. This is an imposing, enormous RPG series in every way. But against all odds, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is somehow the one for me.

***A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher***