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Hey, how's it poppin'?

Xenoblade. Good ol' Xenoblade. A saga of games whose main virtue lies in its deep and rich main story, with charismatic characters and breathtaking landscapes. And here, Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn't fit.

For me, it's not a Xenoblade that fits what we've seen in the main trilogy and its respective DLC. Yes, it has a mysterious and interesting main story, and of course, Elma, Lin and Tatsu are charismatic. But I don't find the richness of this game in this, but in its biodiversity.

The biodiversity that NLA reaches is overwhelming. And not only that, but they EVOLVE throughout the multiple side quests there are. While it is true that the side quests are usually basic at its best, it is the small drops of lore, deepening of a race or a group of characters, which has kept me doing them practically from minute 1.

For once, even though the story revolves around humans, they take a rather secondary role when it comes to exploring Mira and getting into everything Xenoblade Chronicles X has to offer in terms of lore, the day to day life in New LA and the problems that can arise from an almost forced coexistence.

For example, seeing how the ma-non's love of pizza stems from a suggestion from you (albeit scripted, of course) and spins off into some complicated choices that put NLA's economy at stake is the kind of side-quest I like. This continuity is present in practically 80-90% of the side quests you encounter, and it's beautiful.

Despite this, the nexus that ties it all together is the main story, and while comparisons are odious, this one suffers from serious pacing issues, even in this revised edition.

Haste makes waste

Despite not having been influenced by having played it back in the day on the Wii U, I'm seeing more and more why people are complaining about the original, as here they don't seem to have fixed the pacing issue I'm seeing practically since chapter 5-6.

Those first few chapters happened very fast, with low level required or, since Mira is practically unexplored at the beginning, multiple sources of experience to reach them. And, due to the plot of the game, this makes no sense since it is from these chapters that the plot incites alacrity, to kick us in the ass go. I really think this should have been the other way around; a slower first levels, that the story encourages you to explore every corner of Mira and then dive into the final chapters. But it's not being like that. Which, seeing the plot of the game, doesn't make sense. The less battery life the life hold has, the more time passes between chapters.

I finally solved this by breaking the game, and it's a shame. Taking a skell, boosted to eliminate certain types of enemies (insectoids in this case) and going to farm level 60 enemies has ended up being a much more effective method than simply doing side quests that give me little experience or hitting enemies of my level.

Fortunately, the new content does not depend on the original game/script and you can tell that the years have passed and Monolith Soft's storytelling has been upgraded. Although it is only one chapter divided into three parts, its duration is 20 minutes. More focused chapters, with a higher level of cinematics and juice of what is really happening, as well as a proper explanation of why everything happened in the game. The only thing that annoyed me was that the story makes you do fetching quests to try to get you into the pain of changing your home forever. But it lasts a short time.

A Mira-culous adventure

Beyond the story, Mira feels like a very vibrant world, and the FrontierNav makes you want to explore every nook and cranny to complete the hexagons and receive the rewards for % exploration. Spectacular scenery, hidden nooks and crannies almost everywhere and, in short, a whole planet to discover that calls out to you and feeds the explorer's flame that will awaken within you.

This exploration is VERY marked in two phases: pre and post skell. The exploration on foot has been what has kept me most interested in the vastness of the planet. The fact that there is no fall damage and Mira's gravity is lower and therefore the jumps are more powerful, makes me want to search every nook and cranny to find the perfect drop point and SCALP. This has led me to reminisce about Skyrim, where I was looking for THE PIXEL where the character could lean on to explore places you're not supposed to get to. Here we lose detail but gain in scale, as Mira is HUGE and has plenty of holes to poke around in.

Skell exploration makes everything I already loved about exploring on foot grow EXPONENTIALLY. Increased agility, ability to quickly run away from any encounter you don't want to have, and even though you can't fly at first, that extra boost and jumping power means you can explore new areas that wasn't accessible before.

What continues to impress me, not only of Xenoblade X, but of all the work of Monolith Soft on Switch has been the vast optimization capacity they have when it comes to fit their games on a console 8 years old and in a meager 20GB approx. Okay, it is true that the game does not have a stable frame rate, but personally it has not been a disastrous or annoying experience. Having all Mira accessible without loading screens on a console of this level is a milestone, and that must be recognized. A true Miracle.

Fighting for the humankind

Since this game came after Xenoblade Chronicles 1, the combat system comes to be a vitaminized version of it.

Despite the number of classes and, subsequently, combinations of weapon types, I felt very comfortable with my main choice: Full Metal Jaguar. I don't know if it's just that I hit the mark with my initial choice, but I felt it was a very complete class, with many damage paths, effective support skills and a BRUTAL combo with the Long Sword techniques.

I also think the Overdrive is a very good “last resort” mechanism even though I have the constant feeling that I have not fully exploited it until I have not reached a fairly high level. I understand that this very abrupt progression is made to not abuse it too much in the beginning, but I think it should have been boosted more when you get a Skell, as these break the game and there's little reason to go on your feet.

However, all of this is wrapped up in a certain simplicity when it comes to combat. We certainly don't have a system that pushes you to make combinations of attacks or that actually have a real impact on the combat; this is no Devil May Cry, certainly not a Devil May Cry.

Xenoblade's Future

All in all, despite not being one of the Xenoblades that has had the biggest impact on me, I think its strength lies somewhere else than its saga mates and I had a good time playing, exploring and getting my giant robots. What more can a kid ask for.

Now that all of Xenoblades is available on Switch, I'm curious as to what direction Monolith Soft will take heading into the Switch 2. Whatever it is, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they'll be up to going forward!