Spoiler Alert! This article contains spoilers from Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Xenoblade X came out on the ill-fated Wii-U back in 2015, and still holds up as the most ambitious game Monolith Soft has created. The game had limited success (largely, I’d wager, due to the failure of its home platform), but as the Xeno series enters a lull between sagas, it’s the perfect time to bring it back. A ‘Definitive Edition,’ brought to the infinitely more popular Switch, would rectify the oversight of the original game all those years ago.
The premise is simple: when a colossal battle erupts between two alien races over Earth, you’re aboard one of the few surviving human ships to escape the planet. When your ship crashes on the planet Mira, your character is awoken by a crewmate called Elma, who becomes your mentor of sorts, guiding you on your captivating journey through the alien realm.
A return to Xenoblade X would not only offer an opportunity to expand on the captivating sci-fi and mecha themes of the game, but also to address the game’s unresolved cliffhanger. One major thing that makes the ending so captivating is this crazy alien threat called the Ganglion. Turns out these guys aren’t just messing with Earth, they’re causing trouble on other planets like Mira too. The game ends before we find out how everything gets resolved or what happens to humanity on Mira.
And here’s the kicker: Mira is a total enigma. Nobody knows what it’s really about, or how it’s connected to Earth and this weird “Lifehold” thing (essentially pods from the White Whale ship that contain vital information about Earth and suspiciously look similar to Zohar of major significance in other Xeno series games). It’s all top-secret until the very end. A definitive edition can give some closure, and unravel all the other mind-boggling stuff that’s been left hanging.
Monolith Soft has good form for returning to and refining their existing games. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, for instance, gave the original game’s quest structures a makeover, introducing features like clear trails that guide players to their chosen side-quests. Each game in the series on the Switch also received a robust afterstory. Game 1 got Future Connected, Game 2 got Torna: The Golden Country, and Game 3 got Future Redeemed. These additional narratives also played a vital role in linking the stories across the entire series' worlds.
A definitive edition of Xenoblade X opens up the possibility ofestablishing canonical connectionsbetween the Xenosaga and Xenoblade series, which had already been hinted at in previous games. In the recently releasedXenoblade 3: Future Redeemed, for example, you stumble upon a mysterious radio signal that directly references events and characters from Xenosaga, suggesting an important role for them in the Xenoblade universe.
Currently, Xenoblade X is the outlier in the series. The lore provided by the radio doesn’t completely sync up the storyline of X with Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles' universes, but this can be easily rectified with a few story tweaks.One way to connect X’s narrative with the overarching metanarrative is by synchronizing the dates with the radio signal announcements discovered in Future Redeemed. Aligning the departure of the inhabitants from Earth in ‘X’ to the same date as the launch of the Exodus project would create another branching narrative within the Xeno universe, showcasing the journey outward from Earth.
A definitive edition could delve deeper into Elma’s role in X. In every installment of the series, there is always a mysterious character who serves as a savior or guardian to the world, such as Alvis from 1 and Pneuma from 2. Elma, in a sense, embodies this archetype, but due to X’s unresolved cliffhanger, she remains a bit of a mystery. Where did she come from and what as her ultimate goal for helping humanity advance their technology?. There are a lot of questions left to answer about this fascinating character.
And let’s not forget the setting. The vast open landscapes of Mira, and its meticulous attention to vertical exploration in mountains and skies created one of the series' most captivating environments. The planet’s alien wildlife, such the Levitath and Everlasting Milesaur, really tickled my imagination.
Xenoblade X beckoned us to boldly venture into every cave and peculiar sky-bound anomaly, skillfully introducing us to the vastness of Mira on foot, allowing us to leap off cliffs without concern for fall damage and swim in any body of water. If you could see it, you could go there.
Then, as you progressed through the game, a transformative moment occurred when you acquired a mech. This newfound mechanical companion completely alters your perspective and interaction with the world. Suddenly, the skies became just as alluring as the ground, presenting thrilling encounters with unique super bosses. You could take on Telethia, the Endbringer (who even has its own boss battle music), or Nardacyon the Shadowless for example.
Related:Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Every Chapter Ranked
A Switch release would allow Monolith Soft to address legitimate criticisms of the game. The UI in was widely criticized for being overly complex and challenging to navigate. The game featured numerous menus and submenus, making it difficult for players to find necessary information or perform specific actions. The lack of intuitive organization and clear labeling further compounded the issue, making it harder for players to understand the UI’s functions and features.
Little features we see in later Xenoblade games, like Show Quest Route - optional red line that leads you to the objective for your chosen quest - would be total game-changers. And for the love of everything, allow us to adjust the sound in the game. The music is great, but it overwhelms many talking scenes in the Wii-U version.
With a map covering nearly 155 square miles across five continents, Xenoblade X pushed the Wii U to its limits while showing Monolith Soft’s technical prowess. With its breathtaking landscapes ranging from the murky swamps of Noctilum to the arid plains Oblivia, and intricate biomes, Mira would thrive with the added horsepower of the Switch, which is still capable of surprising us with its capabilities.
‘X’ presents the perfect opportunity to complete the narrative cycle, and answer lingering questions about Elma and Mira. Let us delve even deeper into the captivating meta-narrative we’ve come to adore. And let us do it in a definitive edition.
