Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U Review)

Xenoblade Chronicles X
Released on the Wii U, December 4, 2015, by Nintendo, and developed by Monolith Soft
Retail: $59.99
Wii U Game Reviews Score: 8.5/10



Uh...so...it's 2019. I've had a Switch for nearly two years, and outside of last month, I haven't touched the Wii U in that span of time. I share the Wii U with my son, and for some reason, the Switch didn't strike his fancy. He's been content to stick with the Wii U...until last month, when Smash Brothers Ultimate was released. Now he cares...and thanks to Christmas, he's got Super Mario Party, and Mario Tennis Aces, too. Thankfully, someone gifted us a second Switch, and as of now, I'm back in the Switch business. However, something happened to me in December of 2018. I fell in love with the Wii U again. My first thought upon booting it up again was, "What Wii U games did I begin and never finish?" The first to come to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I first purchased Xenoblade Chronicles X several years ago, after hearing and enjoying some of its music on Youtube. Almost immediately, I found the game to be completely overwhelming. Unfathomably huge world, complex systems, and a seemingly unlimited time commitment? I blinked out before I was even a third of the way through.
However, over the last three years, the better parts of Xenoblade Chronicles X's soundtrack kept popping up in my Youtube feed. If I was going to complete an unfinished Wii U game (I've got a few to choose from), it had to be this one. 
Even better: I get to resurrect this review site!

Wait...have you guys been standing around waiting for a new review since April of 2017? Er...my bad.

Nice! Are you going to keep up the thing where a theoretical person asks you questions about the game?
Yeah, that was always pretty fun. Let's do that again. Especially since it seems like so many people are playing the new Xenoblade game for the Switch, without having any experience with this one. There are probably a lot of misconceptions.
Cool, because the thing I hear the most about this game is that it has the worst story of any RPG game ever, to the point that playing the game will literally kill you. Is this true?
Despite the reputation, Xenoblade Chronicles X's story is not that bad. It's simply that it does more to create the game's unique setting and vibe than it does to allow for unique, character-driven drama. The story here is that the Earth has been destroyed by a hostile alien race, and that the few remaining humans have landed on the remote planet, Mira, and are struggling for survival in a makeshift city made of the remains of their enormous escape ship. To make matters more dire, the planet is populated by aggressive, sometimes enormous indigenous animals. Also, it turns out that the humans...aren't even human--they're in synthesized bodies, being controlled from a remote location called the Lifehold. However, it seems the Lifehold has crashed in an unknown location in Mira...and its power is running out. Once the power is gone, the humans inside will die. It's now a race against the clock to save the human...race.

Hurry up, dude!

The player gets to create their own silent protagonist (the customization options are insanely detailed...my resemblance to my character is uncanny!), and the supporting characters, with the exception of the tragic Lao, are pretty much ciphers. They all just want to make sure the human race survives, and that's about it. The story itself, driven by the Lifehold search and defense against attacks by mankind's enemies, takes so many twists and turns that it seems to completely negate itself by the end. There are certainly great science fiction ideas held within, they just never come together to form a satisfying story. However, there are some extremely satisfying moments, including a surprise rescue I won't spoil, and an absolutely epic "protect the city!" battle involving seemingly thousands of combatants and mechs--it's like a mech'd out Two Towers.
Did you say mechs?

Yep...and you can customize them!

Yes, in case you didn't catch it in the caption, I said mechs. But I'll get to that in a second. While I'm bagging on the story, let me get all of the game's flaws out of the way, so I can end the review with an avalanche of praise.
First of all, Xenoblade Chronicles X basically takes the casual gamer, bashes their head against the rocks, and tells them not to come back, and it commits this shockingly violent metaphorical act within its first hour. Mira's five continents make for one of the largest overworlds ever put to disc, the game's battle system is complex, there are a million things to factor into ever moment of gameplay, a million items to collect, and seemingly a million side missions to undertake. As the game is open world, the player can immediately encounter beasts that can kill them in under a second...and that they won't even have a shot against until they've played the game longer than the amount of time it takes to watch every season of Friends. Xenoblade Chronicles X demands commitment. A hundred-plus hour game that requires my full attention is pretty much my gaming nightmare, when there are so many more awesome games to play. It says something that Xenoblade Chronicles X held my attention through to the end, even if I took a two-year break from it. But that's a compliment. Let me get back to the negatives.

For instance, this lake environment is too beautiful.

If a consistent tone is important to you, X is infuriating. The game's stakes are as high as possible: you must prevent the extinction of the human race. Xenoblade Chronicles X, a game where you must prevent the death of every human in existence, includes hours of cutscenes involving a goofy, talking potato and a 13-year old child prodigy who continuously jokingly threatens to eat that goofy, talking potato. The game includes some of the most epic overworld music ever heard in a videogame (check out "Sylvalum Night!"), along with cheesy rap tracks with lines like "this world sucks" and techno love songs with broken English including lines like "over the rainbow" and "you said you loved me many days ago"...played while you are flying your badass mech through the sky.

Er...maybe I'll just keep it on the ground.

The game might feature an enormous, beautiful world, but it also includes a lot of enemies and characters who don't pop-up on your screen until you're five feet away from them. You can also run through them as if they aren't even there. There's a certain unfinished feeling to the game every time that happens, especially in the middle of fights.
Okay, have you gotten all the negativity out of the way?
You bet I have! I just played this game for 100+ hours, so I'd hope I have some positive things to say about it. The first might be cliche, but it's true: the true character, story, and plot of this game is Mira itself. X rewards exploration, not only with hidden treasure that benefits the player, but with one graphical marvel after another. Monolith Soft has designed a beauty here, visual material to fuel the imagination for a lifetime. Mira's beasts are not only organic to their environments, but look both marvelous in design and execution, with some of them staggering in size. As for the environments themselves: Giant rocky outcrops dart miles into the sky over grassy plains. Unfathomably large stone discs rise above the desert floor. An icy continent, centered around a manufactured, towering dome, full of jutting stone monoliths, comes alive at night with phosphorescence. Perhaps the story is left vague, and so much of Mira is left unexplained, so that the player can fill in the history and true nature of the massive, mysterious world, with their own imagination. I'm honestly not sure if a more beautiful and imaginative world has ever been presented in a video game. All that, and there's a high framerate and no overworld loading as the player either high-tails it across Mira by foot, or soars above it by mech.

Hey, I can see my wrecked spacecraft house from here!

Considering you have not mentioned combat yet, I'll assume it's a positive?
Combat is extremely fun, though it takes a while to master. The player has eight move slots that can be filled with a mix of special melee and ranged attacks, as well as buffs like shields and health restorers. It's up to the player to strategize which moves they will bring into battle, and they get to pick the moves for their party members (parties max-out at four members (there are eight to choose from outside of the player's character), as well. Each move has a cool-down period before it can be used again, and fights essentially occur in realtime, with the player having full control of their movements...you can even run far, far away. The three other party members can be given numerous commands, like whether to focus on melee (up-close) or ranged attacks, or to concentrate their fire on a particular enemy when numerous enemies are being fought. The player will also swing or shoot their weapon automatically when a special attack isn't being used. This builds up TP, which can then be used to pull off even more powerful moves. Once this is all grasped, you'll not only fight better, but know which enemies would be better to pick a fight with (enemies' levels are listed over their heads).
As the player wins fights, levels up, gains more money, and funds the game's multiple arms companies to do more research, better weapons and armor can be equipped. Like most RPG's, defeating enemies allows the player to level up, earning more hitpoints and stronger attack power, among other things.

Hope you like my sword in your ear.

Wait, did you just say "fund arms companies?"
That's right. As the game goes on, numerous arms companies are started by newly found characters. Give them enough dough, or use enough of a particular weapon or armor set in battle, and they'll make technological breakthroughs, which allow new weapons to be purchased in the game's armory. This is where the amount of detail in the game hits insane levels, can overwhelm the casual gamer, or can overjoy the meticulous one. As the player traverses Mira, and opens up more of the game's map, they'll come across mining sites. Place a probe there, and that section of the world fills in on your map. But there's more strategy involved here. Are there precious metals in the region? Better plant a mining probe (probes are earned in missions). Is the area ripe for scientific research? Better put a research probe down. You're going to want to make as much money as possible. Mechs don't come cheap.

But they do look sweet.

Sweet, are you finally going to talk about the mechs now?
Oh, yeah. This game has mechs, and they are awesome. There's a reason there's one on the box cover. Mech's are one of Xenoblade Chronicles X's main selling points. True to the game, the player can't get one until about 50-hours in, but X does an excellent job of making this feel like an incredible accomplishment. I almost felt as good as I did the day I got my first car in real life.
Mechs here are called Skells. You start (again, 50-hours in) with a comparatively weak one, though it nevertheless makes the world much more easily traversable. I should also note, when you've been to particular regions, you can generally fast-travel there with a click on the Wii U gamepad's map (the Wii U additional gamepad screen is missed on the Switch!). However, nothing beats mech travel. Suddenly, the player can bound across hills like they're pebbles, and glide across the ocean's surface. A little further in, the mechs are upgraded to fly. Then, nothing in Mira is off-limits. This gives the player an even greater sense of accomplishment, and encourages yet even more exploration. It's awesome.
Skells can still be smashed in battle (and are expensive to repair!), but they beat going at it on foot, and can be equipped with up to eight different purchasable weapons (and there are a billion to choose from and purchase), much like the on-foot move-set. Nothing beats saving up for an ultra-powerful arm-cannon, then blowing a heretofore insurmountable foe away with one shot. It's even better when you get enough cash to dole out Skells to the rest of your party members, who can be commanded while they are in their Skells, as well.

Hey, guys, I command that we all go to Denny's. 

In the interest of keeping this review from becoming a novel, I won't go into all of the game's minutae, including all the different skill points (needed to buy new moves), and classes (which determine which moves can be used, and which weapons can be equipped), and groups the player has to earn and join, or even attempt to describe X's character affinity-system, the latter of which, frankly, I ignored. They're just a part of the game. I will, however, mention that virtually every musical track in Xenoblade Chronicles X that doesn't feature lyrics is an epic all-timer, particularly the themes for each individual continent, which change out night, as each second of gameplay essentially corresponds to a minute of Mira time passed. Sure, I mentioned earlier before that there are some musical stinkers, but the standouts are so incredibly strong, the weaker songs' stench is nearly negated. I will also mention that the player's headquarters, the Barracks, can be upgraded and more customized the deeper into the game the player gets. You can even gets pets. It's all very comforting to the point that I actually started to enjoy the silly in-between-mission cooking cutscenes involving the 13-year-old wunderkind and the potato thing.

That's cool, potato thing.

Mira is also populated with some skyscraper-sized creatures that don't have to be defeated...and can only be defeated when the player has reached an incredibly high level. These are a fun challenge, but also a challenge that will occupy considerable amounts of time...including hundreds of hours spent grinding Not as much time as it will take to complete the game's myriad optional side-quests, though. There's content here for a waking month.

Who needs to sleep?

If you want to spend more time with your Wii U, I highly recommend Xenoblade Chronicles X. Sure, it has some very deep flaws, but its strengths are as gargantuan as the mysterious landforms and wreckage rising over Mira's surface. The sense of scale in this game is simply incredible, the battle system and sense of exploration is a blast. The graphics, excepting some pop-up, and the soundtrack, excepting some stinkers, are excellent. If you don't mind the major time investment, Xenoblade Chronicles X, indigenous zits and all, is a game for the ages.

9.5

Graphics

There's some pop-up, and some overlay...but holy wow, this game looks beautiful, with a high frame-rate to boot. The world looks like incredible sci-fi paintings come to life. Monster and alien designs are great, as well.

8.0

Music and Sound

Some rap and techno duds are thankfully overcome by some incredible orchestral triumphs.

8.5

Gameplay

Realtime RPG-gameplay, whose initially overwhelming nature rewards patience and dedication.

9.0

Lasting Value

If you stick with it, you'll spend 100+ hours playing through the main quest. If you love it, you'll spend another 200 hours finishing all the side missions, leveling up to the max, and taking on the game's most powerful enemies.

8.5FINAL SCORE