Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Developer(s)	Monolith Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release Date(s)
Nintendo Switch	WW: March 20, 2025
Nintendo Switch	WW: March 20, 2025
Platform(s)
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Rating(s)
ESRB	05
PEGI	03
CERO	03
ACB	03
USK	03
SMECCV	03
GRAC	01
CID	03
GSRR	03
RARS	03

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is an action JRPG game, and a remaster of the 2015 Wii U game Xenoblade Chronicles X. The game was released in March 20, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch.

Gameplay

Like the original game, players explore the open world planet Mira, completing a variety of quests and unlocking new regions to explore and gather resources from across its five continents. The story follows a surviving human ship after escaping an alien battle which destroys Earth, with the player character joining the BLADE unit to defend the human survivors and uncover Mira's secrets.

The Definitive Edition improves the graphics of the original game with visually enhanced graphics and updated character models. It is based on the English release of the Wii U version. Because of this, features only included in the Japanese release of the original game, such as certain character outfits and customization options for Cross, are removed. The content that appeared as paid DLC in the original game is included from the start.

The game also include new story elements, likely including a continuation of what happened to Lao Huang after the events of the main story.

Plot

The plot remains the same as the original game with new story elements.

In the Definitive Edition story, Mira starts being consumed by a spreading phenomenon accompanied by Ghosts, the alien beings who fought the Ganglion and destroyed Earth and Elma's homeworld. Two key figures surrounding the White Whale's escape also reappear; Alois "Al" Bernholt, presumed-dead pilot of the alien Skell unit Ares and Elma's former partner; and Void, creator and leader of the Ganglion. As surviving Ganglion join Void, Elma and Alois gradually reveal the full truth. Elma was from another dimension, and her people's Samaarian heritage prompted Void's attack, triggering the Ghosts to appear and destroy first her dimension, then the dimension of Earth; Mira exists in a further dimension. Alois survived in the Ares by entering an interdimensional realm, seeing glimpses of other universes and communicating with Lao's spirit before he passed on. He believes humanity can jump into a new universe to escape the Ghosts and Ganglion. Alois further believes that a "universal mechanism" tied to the interdimensional realm preserved humanity in their Mimeosome forms.

A new ship dubbed White Wale 2 is created so humanity, allied aliens, and Mira's genetic data can escape. During their missions, Void steals the Ares's cores, which are needed together with Aloi's still-organic body to power the dimensional jump. A team led by the avatar and including Elma, Lin and Alois go to retrieve the Ares cores from his continent base Volitaris. Upon confronting Void, Alois is briefly absorbed into him, learning that he is a former Samaarian scientist who used an ancient artifact dubbed the Conduit to create the Ares, which caused the Ghosts to manifest; he was imprisoned within Volitaris, eventually becoming disillusioned with existence and longing to experience death using the Ganglion, triggering the prolonged war with the Ghosts. The avatar retrieves the Ares cores, using them to tap into the wills of the dead from all dimensions, and destroys Void. White Whale 2 successfully jumps to a new dimension, and the game ends as it approaches a new world.

Changes from the original

Additional content

• A new Skell known as the Hraesvelg is introduced. This Skell has the ability to turn into a jet.
• Along with this Skell comes a new pilot character named Liesel. This pilot wears a large helmet with glowing golden eyes and a jagged mouth.
• A cutscene shows the Neilnail Skells, previously exclusive to Twin Dolls of Mystery and The Unknown Threat, launching during a cutscene. Their appearance and the appearance of a girl named "Neilnail" appear related in some way.
• New story content and music are shown.
• A new floating continent is made available.
• New player characters are available.
• New Battle Arts are made available.
• Three save files are available, plus an auto-save file.
• Filling in FrontierNav will now grant items to the player, as shown in the Survey Rewards.

Aesthetics

• All playable characters have higher-resolution models.
• The UI has been slimmed down and the text has been made larger.
• The buff and debuff icons have all changed.
• Cross has new hair styles to choose from.
• The battle UI has largely changed, taking large inspirations from Xenoblade Chronicles 3's battle UI.
  • Battle Arts now have a slash going through them to indicate they use the melee weapon, and a reticle through them if they use the ranged weapon.
  • Buffs on players only show one at a time.
• FrontierNav's map, segment recon, and Data Probe sections have their own menu section. X and Y coordinates are shown on this map screen to indicate the locations of objects.
  • The icons indicating FrontierNav requirements have changed.

Battle

• There now exists a light-green "Quick Cooldown" gauge underneath the right side of the Arts palette. Pressing Y allows an Art to be used even if it is cooling down. This gauge restores at the end of battle.
• The level cap has been increased; the original game had it capped at 60.
• An Overdrive icon now exists for fighters in Overdrive.
• When targeting an enemy, the UI now indicates the name of the appendage that is targeted.
  • Once an appendage is targeted, it is now possible to press a button to change which appendage is targeted.
• The Art the enemy is using now has its name shown under the enemy's health bar, instead of being tied to the area that's targeted.
• Arts now have an "!" mark when the player can activate the Art's conditional extra effect.
• If the player is not in range, Arts will have an icon indicating they need to get in range in order to use it.
• If the player does not have enough TP, the Art's "TP" text will turn red to indicate they need more.
• When an enemy is Staggered, a circular indicator shows when the effect expires.
• When a player activates Cockpit Time, text indicating the mode shift is shown on screen.

Quality-of-life improvements

• Skells are now able to jump without activating the Flight Module once it is unlocked.
• The map now shows the locations of Collectible required for missions.
• It is now possible to pick up collectibles while in battle.
• Follow Ball:
  • The Follow Ball now leaves a trail indicating where to go.
  • It can now track the locations of collectibles.
• When a Soul Challenge is completed, the effects to TP and the Soul Voice activation rate are displayed.
• The Soul Challenge indicator now changes color to indicate what it's for: orange for Soul Voices, purple for Binds.
• When info is collected about a FrontierNav segment, highlighting the segment on the map will now show the info dialogue in addition to the segment info.
• Time can now be changed using the in-game menu.
• The player can now add up to 200 markers on the map in four types: red circle, blue triangle, green diamond, and orange square.
• All available party members now show up in the "Reserve Members" section. There appear to be 22 playable characters in the game, and it is possible to add party members without talking to them personally.
• Division Points and the BLADE Level system have been removed.
  • This means that field skills required to open Treasure Boxes no longer exist. However, certain treasures will still require a special skill to open.
  • This also means that the player can hold 9999 Reward Tickets, called Material Tickets in this version of the game.
• Overdrive:
  • The Overdrive counter now adds the word "Hits" to indicate that it isn't the timer.
  • A numerical timer appears underneath to better count the time remaining.
  • Blue, purple, and green Arts now have a mark on their bottom left indicating their extra effect during Overdrive.
  • An Overdrive counter guidance and color combo guidance section is added to the top-right of the screen, as well as a guide showing the last four Overdrive effects activated.
  • The Overdrive "Party Total" now shows which party members participated in the Overdrive.

Release

The game was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2025.

Hiroyuki Sawano returned to co-compose new music with anime composer Misaki Umase.

Reception

Like the original game, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition saw generally positive reviews, earning an aggregated review score of 88/100 at Metacritic. PJ O'Reilly of Nintendo Life−giving the game a perfect score−lauded the changes as improving and enhancing already-great gameplay and world design, and reccomended it to both new and returning players. In an online Famitsu review, writer Nishikawa praised the gameplay additions and graphical upgrades, saying it was a perfect starting point for the Xenoblade series, but found the story dull. IGN's George Yang felt that the Definitive Edition enhancements increased the overall quality of the game, cutting down on the original release's tedious elements. Catherine Castle of Eurogamer described the game as a solid experience on its own, with the gameplay and technical enhancements improving it further for new players despite the weakness of its story. Chris Schillon, writing for Video Game Chronicle, was unimpressed by most of the graphical and story additions, but felt the gameplay was solid and enjoyable enough to reccomend it to new players. Opinions on the new story content were mixed; O'Reilly and Yang were generally positive about it, while Nishikawa, Castle and Schillon felt it overlenthened the game or did not add anything new.

Gallery

Main article: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition/gallery

Trivia

• With the release of X: Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch, the entire Xenoblade Chronicles series is now on one platform.
• It was the last Wii U-ported game that saw a release on the Switch, before the Nintendo Switch 2. The last Nintendo-published Wii U game which saw a Switch release was Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury in 2021.

Cast changes

• Due to Keiji Fujiwara (Lao Huang)'s death in 2020, Takanori Hoshino took over the role of Lao in Definitive Edition content.
• Ami Matsushima replaces Nao Takamori as Irina Akulov.
• While Erin Fitzgerald's original dialogue is still intact, new dialogue for the "Soldier" option for Cross in Definitive Edition is performed by Cat Protano (Heiðrún of Fire Emblem Heroes and Ohara of Pokémon Paldean Winds), likely due to Fitzgerald no longer voicing non-union roles.
• Jack Vandham’s original English voice actor, Darin De Paul, does not return for the game. Instead, Gavin Hammon took over the character.
• Luxaar and the "Soldier" option for Cross's dialogue were kept in Japanese due to their voice actors, Unsho Ishizuka and Atsuko Tanaka had died last 2018 and 2024, respectively.