Definitive Edition is Nintendo’s best remaster in years

Of the many remasters we’ve gotten on the Nintendo Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is arguably the best and most important.

It rescues Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles X from being stranded on the Wii U. It makes some smart and meaningful quality-of-life tweaks on top of solid visual upgrades and even adds new story content. And, most importantly, it gives this cult classic JRPG — one of the most ambitious and unique Nintendo games of the past decade — a long-overdue chance to reach a new audience.

Above all else, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a completely standalone entry in the acclaimed Xenoblade series, which makes it the perfect entry point if you don’t want to get into the (hundreds-upon-hundreds-of-hours-long) mainline trilogy. In X, you control a customizable avatar on the alien planet of Mira who must work with other crash-landed humans to survive. This self-contained story, while occasionally unevenly paced and heavy on exposition, eventually proves to be compelling in its own right, especially through optional quests that deeper explore themes like xenophobia.

But above all else, Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s narrative is less linear and more structurally loose to encourage player freedom in the jaw-droppingly huge Mira. Indeed, the game boasts such a sprawling open-world that it’s hard to believe this is running on the Switch, let alone that it originated on the nearly 15-year-old Wii U. The scope of Mira, which features everything from large cliffside mountains with flowing waterfalls and serene dandelion-filled forests to bizarre fungal forests and subterranean magma caves, is absolutely breathtaking. All the while, the remaster brings a welcome sheen to the already sharp visuals and grand world design while adding more natural colours to areas that were once awash in brown and grey hues.

The ‘Skell’ mech suits featured prominently in the X‘s cover art only further highlight the immense size and beauty of Mira. With these upgradable and transformable machines, you’ll be able to ascend high into the clouds and traverse bodies of water and even lava, strengthening the already strong sense of awe-inspiring adventure. You can also fight in the mechs with gunfire, melee attacks, missiles and more, and this includes aerial battles. The only downside, which might feel a little misleading given the cover, is that you don’t actually get a Skell until dozens of hours in. (That said, the game is about 70 hours long, so when you think about it, 30-ish hours to the Skell isn’t that bad?)

What you are able to get into right away, at least, are the thrilling normal battles. If you’ve never played a Xenoblade game, you might assume X is a turn-based game, but it’s actually focused around surprisingly robust real-time action. At first, your avatar will automatically perform standard attacks using a melee (e.g. a knife) or ranged (e.g. an assault rifle) weapon, and you’re encouraged to constantly swap between each depending on an enemy’s weakness.

On top of that, you have a slew of ‘Art’ abilities of various types, like the offensive ranged Flame Grenade and close-quarters Shadow Strike, as well as more defensive and support-oriented ones that can heal or provide buffs. While you only control your avatar, the ‘Soul Voice’ system creates a welcome level of synergy between the party, with allies calling out specific moves that can cause more damage if you perform them quickly enough. At the same time, each ability has a secondary, longer cool-down timer to trigger bonus effects when filled, creating a satisfying little “risk-reward” system of knowing when to balance using one Art versus conserving another.

It’s a dynamic battle system that comes to life with some truly gargantuan foes that add to the overall heightened sense of scale, like a sauropod-shaped scaly beast or kraken-like tentacled fiend. Being able to strafe around these massive alien creatures on the battlefield while you cycle commands and react in real-time to your allies’ rallying cries really immerses you in this grand intergalactic saga.

And really, that’s why I called this perhaps Nintendo’s most “important” re-release in quite some time. Metroid Remastered is certainly the most impressive remaster from a visual improvement perspective, but far more people already know about that game’s greatness compared to Xenoblade Chronicles X.

And while many of Nintendo’s games are charmingly cartoonish and family-friendly, Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s more anime-inspired sci-fi odyssey feels extremely refreshing by comparison. Tears of the Kingdom is really the only Nintendo game since to reach a similar sense of scale, but even then, it’s a different beast entirely thanks to its focus on sandbox building mechanics. Meanwhile, even the other Xenoblade games, which naturally have some thematic and aesthetic overlap, are more story- and character-driven, with X instead focusing on a staggeringly vast and dense world with deeper side content.

Really, no other Nintendo game lets you pilot an awesome mech and fly around fascinating alien locales to the tune of a catchy pop song, and that alone makes it fantastic. Throw in an overall exciting combat system and an engrossing sci-fi world fleshed out through meaningful side content and you have an all-around gem and a must-play Switch game.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch on March 20. Note that online co-op missions are also supported, although this functionality wasn’t available during the review period.

Image credit: Nintendo