Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Release Date	Gameplay & Story	Pre-Order & DLC	Review

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Gameplay

Quests Upon Quests Upon Quests Upon Quests

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is Monolith Soft’s once-stranded Wii U sci-fi action RPG. Initially, your customized avatar begins with a limited skill set. However, as you explore Mira’s five continents, you’ll eventually team up with eight other party members, each bringing unique abilities to battles and exploration. The combat and class system may seem slow at first, as, similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, players must progress through the story first to unlock the game's full deeper features. However, remember: Patience is a virtue, one that is highly rewarded in Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Quests come in all shapes and sizes, from main story quests that advance the plot to affinity quests that deepen friendships with comrades, to a whole range of side missions that reward players with in-game currency and items.

A Combat System that Evolves with the Game

⚫︎ Gameplay From Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U

Gameplay is all about roles and responsibilities. The player’s avatar joins BLADE, a specialized task force that takes on different roles to keep humanity thriving on Mira. Whether it’s scouting out uncharted territory as a Pathfinder, seeking out towering Tyrants as a Harrier, or collecting rare resources as a Prospector, players can adopt a variety of paths that each bring their own unique rewards.

Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles X is a dynamic, real-time system where you must seamlessly use both melee and ranged weapons. Melee weapons rapidly build Tension Points (TP), essential for powerful abilities, reviving allies, and activating Overdrive. However, they draw significant enemy aggro. Conversely, ranged weapons minimize aggro and allow for you to position yourself away from enemies, but build TP at a slower pace. Once you’ve built enough TP, you can now access the Overdrive mode. This amplifies attacks and shortens cooldowns, turning players into high-powered juggernauts in combat. In the heat of intense late-game battles, players will constantly find themselves switching between weapons to maximize damage output and exploit enemy weaknesses.

You’ll also have to skillfully time your "Arts"—powerful abilities with a cooldown system that adds extra potency if you’re willing to wait just a bit longer to strike. Unique to the game’s combat system is the Soul Voice mechanic, where quick-time events (QTE) appear during battles. Successfully timing these QTEs can trigger powerful effects like increased damage, healing, or status effects for your party. There are even late-game builds that exploit this mechanic to the point where players can forgo a dedicated healer, focusing solely on damage while relying on the Soul Voice mechanic to sustain the team.

Conquer Tyrants with Skell Mechs

As you progress, you'll unlock Skells—massive, customizable mechs that enable faster travel and more combat options. Each Skell has its own fuel gauge, so you'll need to strategically manage its power for battles or long-distance travel. With these in hand, however, you can now take on Mira’s enormous Tyrants—colossal enemies scattered across the planet that possess significantly enhanced stats, akin to the minibosses or superbosses found in other RPGs.

Skell combat is a spectacle in itself, as it gives players new abilities to defend themselves and support non-Skell allies. Losing a Skell, however, doesn’t necessarily mean game over; players have a chance to salvage it in a QTE, or otherwise, it’s a trip back to NLA for repairs.

Team Up and Take on Mira

Xenoblade Chronicles X is the only game in the series with a multiplayer feature. According to the game's eShop page, you can team up with up to 31 other players online, sharing avatars and forming squads to tackle Mira's most challenging monsters. Similar to the Wii U version, you won't directly interact with squad members while exploring the world. You'll only be able to see their avatars in various areas, ready to be recruited or called for combat support. However, you can interact with other players in real-time during online missions.

32-player squads can collaborate on Tasks, earning Reward Tickets and BLADE Medals to purchase monster parts for augments or Skell parts. Squads can also gather resources and face down massive Global Nemeses that require insane teamwork to defeat.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition New Features

As the definitive return of a decade-old gem, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition brings a host of enhancements that refine and expand the player experience. From improved visuals and quality-of-life updates to new gameplay features and reworked systems, this version aims to make Mira more immersive than ever.

Transitioning from the Wii U to the Switch

The transition to the Nintendo Switch brought a complete UI overhaul. In the original game, some players felt that the interface was overly cluttered, with an overwhelming amount of information displayed on the screen simultaneously. The Definitive Edition appears to address this by streamlining its presentation. Text and skill icons are now significantly easier to read, especially in handheld mode. Menu text and field notifications have also been sharpened.

Furthermore, leveraging the Nintendo Switch's significantly more powerful hardware compared to the Wii U, the Definitive Edition addresses and eliminates numerous performance limitations that plagued the original. Notably, issues such as inconsistent collision detection between characters, vehicles, and Skells—which often resulted in jarring clipping and immersion-breaking moments—have been resolved.

FrontierNav and Menus

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition also makes a significant adjustment in how it handles the game’s map and navigation system, given the absence of the Wii U GamePad. In the original release, FrontierNav was entirely controlled through the second screen. The GamePad was essential for managing this, as it served as a dedicated hub for map navigation, waypoint setting, mission tracking, and fast travel. Even players using a Pro Controller were subjected to the whims of menu navigation and had to rely on the GamePad for this functionality.

Now, with the transition to the Nintendo Switch, all of these elements have been reworked to function on a single screen, similar to how the game is played by using only the Wii U GamePad. Without a dedicated second screen, accessing FrontierNav and other navigation features will likely involve more menu interactions, but the game has been adapted accordingly. The fast-travel system, which previously benefited from the GamePad’s seamless touch-based interface, now functions entirely within the main display.

While some fans may miss the convenience of the original setup, this change was inevitable for a system without a secondary display. It’s a necessary adjustment—one that streamlines the experience to fit modern hardware, for better or worse.

Easier Way to Change Party Members and Time

In Xenoblade Chronicles X, the player can recruit nearly 20 characters to their party, a contrast to the smaller party sizes seen in other entries in the series. Originally, adding members required seeking them out at specific locations within New Los Angeles, with no option to swap characters on the fly in the field. This was a rather tedious process then. The Wii U Gamepad's attempt to assist with checkmarks was ultimately unhelpful, as these markers implied generic points of interest, rather than reliably pinpointing the locations of recruitable characters.

Changing the in-game time was equally inconvenient. Players were forced to journey to designated base camps throughout the world to manually adjust the clock. This process was far from seamless, given that many quests, collectibles, and enemy spawns were strictly tied to specific times of day.

The Definitive Edition significantly streamlines these cumbersome processes. Party management is now effortless; players can swap characters in and out of their active party at any time, from anywhere, directly through the Active Members menu, eliminating the need to return to New Los Angeles.

Similarly, while base camps for adjusting time remain, players can now conveniently change the time of day through the System Menu. This mirrors the features found in other Xenoblade Chronicles titles, such as Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Furthermore, the game alleviates the frustration of under-leveled companions. A crucial quality-of-life improvement ensures that inactive party members gain experience and maintain a level roughly equivalent to your main character. This eliminates the need to grind or babysit neglected characters and ensures that any party member can be brought into the fold without being deadweight to the party.

Keen-eyed fans will also notice that the Definitive Edition’s Active Member menu added more character slots for three new playable characters.

Follow Ball

The Follow Ball in the Definitive Edition has received a significant upgrade, making it much more useful for finding quest objectives. Originally designed in Xenoblade Chronicles X to guide players along traversable paths to destinations on the Segment Map, the Follow Ball now projects a bright red line that leads directly to mission-critical items. This new functionality greatly simplifies item-based quests.

Quick Recast

A notable addition to the Definitive Edition’s combat system is the Quick Recast mechanic. This feature allows players to reduce cooldown timers for Arts, thereby increasing the pace of combat. Activation of Quick Recast is facilitated by pressing the Y button, and its use is regulated by a gauge that replenishes through auto-attacks and resets after battle.

The Quick Cooldown meter depletes proportionally to the Art's original cooldown time when used for instant activation. To increase the maximum capacity of this meter, players can collect Energy Disks, obtained through exploration and surveying activities on Mira.

No More BLADE Levels or Division Points

Xenoblade Chronicles X’s progression system relied on BLADE Levels and Division Points, both of which have been entirely removed in the Definitive Edition. Previously, player progress was tied to their chosen BLADE Division, with Division Points awarded for completing tasks aligned with their role. For example, defeating Tyrants as part of the Harrier Division earned points, while Pathfinders gained points for discovering new locations or planting data probes. These points would increase a player’s BLADE Level, thereby unlocking higher-tier missions and enhancing field skills used for gathering resources in Mira.

With the removal of these systems, field skills are now mostly absent. Rather than needing specific field skill levels to access higher-tier treasure, most of Mira’s treasures can be obtained from the start. A few exceptions remain, which require completing late-game quests to unlock.

Moreover, the availability of basic missions is now primarily driven by story progression. Additionally, the reward ticket cap has been eliminated; players can now hold the maximum amount from the beginning.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Story Plot

After Earth becomes collateral damage in an interstellar war, the remnants of humanity flee in massive spacecraft, hoping to find refuge somewhere in the stars. However, the White Whale, one of the last arks carrying human survivors, is attacked and crash-lands on Mira.

The story begins as the player-created protagonist is awoken from stasis by Elma, a commander from the organization BLADE, and is recruited to aid in humanity’s survival and the recovery of Lifeholds, scattered life-pods that contain the genetic essence of humanity. Their journey will take them through Mira’s breathtaking ecosystems and into conflict with the Ganglion, an alien coalition determined to eradicate all human beings.

At various points in the game, players will be given opportunities to make choices that will affect how scenes play out. Although these choices may not substantially alter the main plot, they can significantly impact how the player is viewed by the people in Mira, including their relationships with party members and NPCs.

Post-Game Content

For the Definitive Edition, Monolith Soft has added new story elements that could likely take place after the game’s main story. Following the established pattern from the first game's remaster, the developers are not only introducing new story content that appears to be set after the main storyline's conclusion, but also teasing potential additions like enhanced affinity quests and side missions.

The new story elements revolve around a series of unsettling events that occur after the main game. A mysterious phenomenon begins to plague Mira, consuming everything in its path and leaving behind a void devoid of even light. Adding to the escalating crisis, a new enemy known as Ghost emerges from these voids, launching relentless attacks against everything in its path.

Amidst this chaos, a familiar ally returns. Just as the protagonists find themselves in dire straits, the Ares Skell descends from the sky. It was previously believed to be lost along with its pilot after the White Whale’s crash landing, but it now rejoins the fight against the new threat.

The post-game content significantly expands the world of Mira by introducing the Floating Continent, a new explorable area that appears concurrently with the said phenomenon. Additionally, players encounter Neilnail, a new character whose connection to two accompanying Skells remains to be seen.

The expansion also unveils the Hraesvelg, a new Skell equipped with a large katana and a unique flight form. She is piloted by Liesel, a former fighter pilot who wears a quirky helmet and is said to have a rugged personality.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Setting

New Los Angeles

New Los Angeles (NLA) is a strikingly ambitious city on the alien planet Mira, built from the remnants of humanity’s crashed starship, the White Whale. This colony is divided into different districts, including commercial, residential, and military areas, each reflecting the efforts of its inhabitants to establish a sense of normalcy amidst constant alien threats.

NLA serves as a central hub where players return periodically to restock supplies and get side missions. You'll also find the eight playable characters frequently going about their daily routines in the city.

Mira

Divided into five sprawling continents—Primordia, Noctilum, Oblivia, Sylvalum, and Cauldros—Mira presents an exotic environment where alien ecosystems flourish alongside daunting terrain. Primordia, for instance, greets players with lush plains, while Noctilum has a dense, bioluminescent forest that feels mystical. Sylvalum’s stark white plains feel almost otherworldly to the volcanic terrain of Cauldros. Each region is as visually entrancing as it is dangerous.

But how does one navigate such a vast world? Mira's terrain is too treacherous for foot travel, so BLADEs are equipped with powerful Skell mechs that allow players to soar through the sky and explore Mira’s most remote corners. However, caution is advised, as fearsome creatures prowl at night, especially during rain.

The Floating Continent

The Floating Continent is a brand-new area introduced in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, serving as a post-game story expansion. This landmass drifts high above Mira and is characterized by the floating islands of varying sizes connected by natural bridges and pathways.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Characters

Player Character

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s player character is a customizable avatar who embodies the player’s choices and actions within the game. Often referred to as "Rook"—short for "Rookie"— by other characters, they are a survivor of the White Whale crash on the alien planet Mira. With no recollection of their past life on Earth, they join the organization BLADE to protect humanity’s future on the hostile new world.

Elma

Elma is the cool-headed and fiercely capable leader of the Reclaimers Division. Previously known for leading the "Skelleton Crew" in training Earth’s heaviest combat units, Elma is every bit the disciplined powerhouse: she’s a Full Metal Jaguar, deftly dual-wielding swords and guns with unyielding precision. And while she’s all business on the surface, Elma’s steel-willed commitment to humanity’s survival might just make her one of the most layered characters in the game.

Lin Lee Koo

Lin Lee Koo packs an impressive punch despite her age. As the resident engineer of BLADE’s Outfitters Division, Lin is all about creating and upgrading Skells. She joins up with Elma and the player character early on and quickly proved her mettle with both her Shield Trooper class combat skills and her knack for tech. She often finds herself at odds with Tatsu, a supporting Nopon character who assists the main cast on their journey.

Lao Huang

Lao Huang is the kind of battle-scarred soldier who’s seen it all yet still charges forward with conviction. Once a comrade-in-arms with Doug—another playable character—back in their U.S. Army days, Lao is now the leader of the Pathfinder Team Belisarda. Wielding both a javelin and sniper rifle as a Partisan Eagle, Lao strikes from afar and closes in for the kill with precision. His bond with Lin goes deeper than most, born from shared traumas and unspoken understandings.

Lao is poised to have a more significant role in the new story content of the game.

Neilnail

Neilnail is a Qlurian archaeologist from Mira who researches ancient civilizations. This time around, she is particularly interested in studying the Earth’s people and their culture. In promotional trailers, she appears alongside two Skells bearing her name, Neilnail Albus and Neilnail Furvus. These Skells were encountered as mission bosses in the original game, but her relationship with them is currently unclear.

Her concept art was previously included in the art book Xenoblade X - The Secret File: Art of Mira, released back in 2015.

Is Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Multiplayer?

Yes, for up to 32 people online.

According to the game’s Nintendo eShop page, cooperative online play is supported for up to 32 players. Players can form Squads to undertake challenging missions and Tasks.

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