Xenoblade Chronicles X Review

by Brandon Sultana

June 16, 2016

Wii U

 

If there is one thing everybody knows about Xenoblade Chronicles X, is that it is absolutely massive. I got this game pretty close to its launch in December 2015, and here I am, in June 2016, giving my thoughts on the game after finally beating it. After over 120 hours of play time, I think I’m finally ready to articulate my thoughts on this game. (Honestly though, if I put THAT much time into the game, chances are I really liked it.

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Presentation

Xenoblade X’s presentation is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The graphics are stunning, especially when considering how truly huge the game’s world is. With 5 sprawling continents, there is a lot to see. The most impressive thing is that there aren’t any load screens. The whole world is seamless allowing you to traverse the game’s entire world without a single interruption, apart from when entering buildings, which is really par for the course. No matter how far away an object may seem, the player can realistically reach it. Free downloadable packs exist on the eShop that make the game run better, but I only downloaded one out of four of them and the game still ran relatively well. There was the occasional enemy pop in or fps drop, but it wasn’t enough to realistically damper my experience.

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The other half of the presentation, the soundtrack, isn’t quite as much of a homerun though. As someone who considers himself a video game music fanatic, I was left wanting more with this soundtrack. I didn’t beat the original Xenoblade Chronicles, but I got pretty far and that game’s music was nothing short of extraordinary. This game’s soundtrack is far less memorable. The themes that play when exploring each of the continents are alright and convey the surrounding area pretty well, but still aren’t very memorable. There are other songs that are a bigger issue though. Many of the game’s songs feature vocals, and these tracks quickly grew tiresome after hearing them throughout my 120+ hour adventure, and honestly, some of them (like New LA’s theme), weren’t even good to begin with. Sometimes, these vocal tracks would even play during a cutscene where characters are talking with each other, which just broke the mood and at times made it hard to understand what characters were saying without subtitles. It’s by no means a deal breaker, but I can’t help but be a tad let down, especially considering the aforementioned amazing Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack.

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Story

The original Xenoblade Chronicles is probably best known for its massive, complex story. Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn’t really follow in these footsteps. The story here is pretty simple. Earth has been destroyed by aliens and the last remaining survivors crash on a new planet, Mira, and must survive. It’s pretty barebones and predictable, minus the occasional minor plot-twist here and there. It doesn’t help that there isn’t really a main character in the same vain as Shulk, as you just play as an avatar character that just grunts and nods during cutscenes. The supporting characters don’t really shine much during the main story either. However, they all have pretty interesting stories if you go out of your way to find them. If you complete the optional affinity missions for the characters, you learn a lot more about the backstories and motivations that surround each other the playable characters (of which there are a lot). These are probably where Xenoblade X’s story telling is at its best, but I still don’t think it reaches anywhere near the heights of its predecessor. I understand that these games go for two totally different angles, but with the games sharing the same name, comparisons are bound to be made.

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Gameplay

Xenoblade’s gameplay is almost endlessly deep. There are so many mechanics at play here, that it can feel overwhelming at times. Thankfully, an understanding of each and every mechanic isn’t a necessity for success. I typically don’t play many in depth JRPGs and I didn’t delve into the mechanics nearly as much as some people might, but I still had a lot of fun and was able to overcome the obstacles presented to me. I find it very impressive that players who just scrape the surface of the game’s mechanics, and those who learn the intricacies of battle, are both able to have successful playthroughs of the game. My only major complaint with the battle system, is that once you acquire the ability to use the giant mech suits known as “Skells”, they basically take over the whole game. At that point, there really is no reason to ever fight on foot, unless you are traveling in a location where you can’t use them, such as a very small cave. It’s a case of “Why should I fight this small enemy on foot for five minutes, when I can nuke it in 5 seconds with my Skell?” I would have liked some interesting switching between the two, rather feeling obligated to always use my Skell (which are totally awesome to use by the way).

One of my favorite things about this game is the actual exploration aspect. The game is incredibly non-linear, unlike the original Xenoblade. If you so desire, you can go anywhere immediately, all five continents can be accessed from the very beginning. The planet of Mira is yours to explore, and the GamePad shows a map of the planet which you gradually fill in as you do various tasks across the planet. These range from killing certain monsters, completing missions, discovering artifacts, and more. Whenever you do the proper task, that tile of the map fills in on your map. Quite frankly, this is kind of pointless, you don’t really get anything special from filling in your map. But I still kept coming back. Seeing the map gradually fill in, with the completion percent slowly climbing throughout the many, MANY hours of gameplay was addictive. It felt rewarding even when the actual rewards were fairly minimal (usually just experience). Seeing the map go from a totally blank slate, to being roughly 80% complete at the time of writing was enough of a reward by itself. This might not be enough of a reward for everyone, and if that’s the case, fine you can skip a lot of this. But I personally thought it was a very satisfying experience.

 

Conclusion

Xenoblade Chronicles X was a blast to play through. It kept the core battle mechanics from its predecessor, but then changed almost everything else. The focus very clearly shifted from story to exploration, and I think it worked out. The massive world presented to the player is staggering, but as I put in more time, I couldn’t stop filling in more and more pieces of my map. It really encapsulated the “just one more level” feeling that many other addictive games create. While I do think there are some issues with this game, I think the core focus of the game, the exploration, is incredible.

 

Great/10                                                         

+ Superb Graphics

+ Deep Gameplay

+ Satisfying Exploration

- Subpar Music

- Overdependence on Skells