REVIEW: Xenoblade Chronicles X is still worth your time on Switch 4113t

The game that gave rise to Breath of the Wild No. Wii U arrives at Nintendo Switch at the end of the console's life, like a breath of fresh air, completing the lineup of ports with a golden key (and giant flying robots). Check out our review of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, one of the last major releases for the Nintendo Switch. 1y865

The Xenoblade franchise 274t37

Xenoblade Chronicles X is the second game in the series that began on the Wii. The IP is owned by Monolith Soft., which in turn is owned by Nintendo. And while the original Wii U game is a new iteration of the RPG franchise, it doesn't bring any familiarity with Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii). Quite the contrary, it goes in a completely opposite direction and presents a concept that would be of extreme importance for the existence of one of the Big N's most acclaimed games: The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild.

while the first Xenoblade presents a story with linear progression, based on the narrative and motivation of its characters, Xeno X presents the concept of an open world and offers a challenge: how to drive the story when the freedom of exploration is, literally, limitless?

The answer is even more satisfactory than what was presented in Breath of the Wild e Tears of the Kingdom, tying the development of the plot into missions that need to be discovered and completed by the player himself, in an environment that does not offer any kind of ties or barriers, especially from a certain point in the same story that you need to somehow progress. Sounds confusing? Then you are in the right place. Welcome to the world of Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Today, with 5 very different games, Xenoblade Chronicles is one of Nintendo's biggest IPs, and the biggest in Monolith. Version X runs outside the story of the other games, offering a fresh, new take on the JRPG formula that the other iterations end up getting stuck in, but without ever straying far enough away to not be recognized by its peers.

Of course the version Definitive on the Switch came with surprises that… well, this is already getting into the spoiler realm, but it's worth just saying that it's not just a copy/paste port of the original game and there's a new part of the world to be explored that promises to bring X closer and closer to his peers.

Being the second game in what ended up becoming a large and complex series, it is a kind of “ugly duckling” among its peers. It spent eleven years stuck on one of the platforms with the lowest sales and reach in the Nintendo, where it was worshipped by the few who had that opportunity. Today it resurfaces in all its grandeur, reaching the audience of what is close to becoming the largest installed base in the company's history and filling a gap that had been left when 3 games were original to the Nintendo Switch. The first game also received a remaster on the hybrid console.

History 6r4t5f

Complex plots and many twists and turns are trademarks of the series, but Xenoblade raises this to the thousandth power. Here, humanity faces an unprecedented challenge when two alien races decide to wage war in the atmosphere of our planet, leading to its complete destruction. With privileged information, humans manage to build gigantic arks that will roam through space to colonize other worlds, taking entire cities from different continents, thus preserving human life.

Unfortunately, many of them barely manage to take off during the attack and only one is saved, the White Whale, taking the city of New LA (New Los Angeles). Later, this city is also attacked during its journey and ends up falling on a planet called Mira.

Now, they must recover the lost pieces of the ship, which broke apart in the crash, and find the Lifehold, a gigantic unit that holds all the remaining humans on Planet Earth in cryogenics, before humanity is extinguished once and for all.

You are one of those rescued in the process and control an avatar, which can even be customized in a complex and satisfying way. This offers an impersonality compared to the protagonists full of life and personality in other games.

Your character disappears when placed next to the intrepid shulk, of the donkey, but ionate Rex, and of the determined Noah. But whatever charisma the character you control lacks, it makes up for in his three main companions: Elma, Linly and Tatsu. They will be your network to rescue the other humans who came from Earth and are now lost on the inhospitable planet.

Mira It is a fascinating and unprecedented planet. Wildlife spreads as far as the eye can see across five vast continents that are very different from each other, but that manage to create a cohesive world, full of life and color.

The gameplay is free and exploration seems to have no limits, especially after you unlock the license to pilot the Skells, the giant robots that fly and transform into vehicles. From that moment on, there are no more barriers in that world, everything that can be done, will be done. Everything that can be explored, will be explored. But patience is key, since you will need to go through several chapters of the story wearing out your soles until this license is granted.

Gameplay 106d5e

The battle system of Xenoblade is automatic. This is a constant in all games and it is no different in X. Characters attack automatically when they enter a confrontation, and your job is to activate special moves, called ARTS, to ensure victory. The difference here, to the other four games, is that the focus of Xeno X is greater in shooting weapons, as opposed to the swords that are emblematic in the numbered episodes. So you also need to choose between long-range attacks: shooting, and short-range attacks: swords.

Xeno X perhaps has the simplest system among all other games. Of course, there is a complexity that can be the difference between victory and defeat in more difficult battles, and this text could follow a very different path and be practically endless if I started talking about topple, buff, debuff, sleep and other strength and weakness techniques that can influence your choices in a battle. But these are that will you by until you are actually playing.

As much as everything seems very confusing and complex at the beginning of the game, while the tutorials are extensively played on the screen, the more enemies you encounter, the clearer things become and the battles become increasingly fun.

It is inherent in a game with an open world system to facilitate gameplay as much as possible, since the focus in this case is always on exploration, and battles need to take a back seat, but without ever being left aside. In this case, Monolith knew how to merge the system implemented in the first Xenoblade, with all the complexity of moves and resources, but in a simplified way, allowing the player to familiarize themselves much more quickly than any of the numbered games, and thus feel freer and safer for what really matters: exploring Mira.

To progress the story, you need to go to the command center of the BLADES (the game's heroes), and request the next main quest, which will unlock the next chapter. But each new chapter will require a specific level, often a specific affinity quest to be completed, and some other requirements, making your exploration, while free, also guided by the need to move the story forward.

Some issues were also ported directly from the Wii U, and the biggest one is perhaps the size of some texts, which are almost impossible to read in portable mode. There's a lot of information in tiny letters that could easily have been reworked to work better on the new system. Other small bugs, like the city cars that run through your character, weren't reviewed and/or fixed, but in this case, they're things that don't really hinder gameplay and/or compromise the experience.

For some reason the Switch version doesn't teach you something very important right at the beginning of the game, it should be the first line of text before anything else: there is a shortcut to the map on the Y button. The game has an entire internal system of installing probes and investigating specific locations that need the map to work, and on the Wii U it was there all the time GamePad, facilitating access to this information in real time. This button mapping is crucial to the success of some missions, without them becoming tiring and onerous.

Performance 58a2u

The Wii U has always been a powerhouse capable of producing beautiful games, and the Switch is no different. Nintendo does witchcraft with the cartridges and manages to deliver visual dazzlers from the beginning, like ARMS, Super Mario Odyssey, and expand that into more ambitious and fascinating things like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition maintains the beauty and performance of the original game, running even smoother on the Switch. The textures haven't necessarily been reworked, but everything has been slightly polished so as not to look bad on the handheld.

Some characters were completely redesigned, to follow the visual identity created in Xenoblade 2, which also served as the basis for the remaster of the first game on the Switch, and so the series became cohesive on Nintendo's hybrid. Cohesive and complete, because now we have Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition; Xenoblade Chronicles 2; Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Torna, the Golden Country; Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and finally, Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition on the same console.

But the credit for all the power of the game, its beauty and its grandeur, must be given to whom it truly belongs: to Wii U. Much more careful work could have been done in redeg all the characters so that they would stand out from the rest, being the latest release. Some games end up benefiting more than others from a less careful remaster, such as Super Mario Galaxy.

Others, when just ported from an HD version, like the new Xenoblade, at a time when Nintendo is releasing games from partner companies and covering space for the arrival of the Switch 2, they use their own beauty so that they don't need more careful work, and rely on their own already advanced techniques to offer material that, if no one knew, could easily for something made exclusively for this generation.

Price and availability 1s705x

Unfortunately, this is one of those games that Nintendo Brazil decided not to localize it. And this ends up making it not for everyone. Even though the gameplay is free in an open world, there is a story direction to be followed, especially in the first hours of the game, and a lot of text to be read to understand what needs to be done and, mainly, how it needs to be done.

Many subtitled conversations and a lot of text to be read with information that is crucial to moving forward and understanding how things work, especially the use of menus and submenus, which are very extensive and seem complex at first.

A minimum intermediate understanding of English is required for the player to be able to guide themselves through Mira and not get frustrated along the way. At this point, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom end up being freer and more accessible, for example. Xenoblade is still stuck in a formula that demands understanding and all of this is explained in extensive expository dialogues.

Furthermore, its price, as is usual for major game releases in the country, is a little steep. Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is available on the Brazilian e-Shop for R$299,00. Furthermore, the game is being sold on Amazon for R $ 389,99 or by R$ 306 in the Free Market.

Conclusion 60664y

Every game released today yearns to be open world, but it's not just a matter of wanting it. There is a context to be followed so that it works organically and doesn't feel empty and messy at the same time. In the series Xenoblade, the context is in the fact that the first game was already a succession of several open worlds, and the Monolith decided to take a risk by creating a unique environment to accommodate the second adventure. And it worked in an exemplary way.

Xeno X it's alive, it's rich in experiences, in biomes, it's a game that works within its own context and, as it's the second iteration of what was now becoming a series, it knows how to differentiate itself from the first adventure, which had already established itself as a milestone within its genre.

Bringing back the nostalgia of an adventure that is over 10 years old, with a new air of freshness with new content, it becomes an almost indispensable acquisition for nostalgic fans (the 6 Wii U owners) and for those who have just discovered the franchise on Switch. Or for those who simply don't know anything and want to try it for the first time, considering that X's battle format, combined with its open world, offers the most inviting experience and the best learning curve of the five games in the series.

And it is undeniable that we are living the best moment of Xenoblade in this generation, and the best moment of Monolith Soft. And that leaves a good taste in our mouths as we wait and look forward to what's to come on the next console. But while it doesn't arrive, we're more than well served in this one, and, without a doubt, we just received the main course on March 20th.

And you, are you playing? Xenoblade Chronicles X? tell us Comment What do you think of the game?

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review by Victor Pacheco in 04 / 04 / 2025.