This article was originally published in Italian on GeekGamer.it in 2015.
While I appreciate what Tetsuya Takahashi has accomplished in his tumultuous professional career, my first impression upon diving into the lavish content feast that is Xenoblade Chronicles X was one of profound rejection. It’s not that the opening minutes of the game aren’t particularly exciting—quite the opposite, I dare say—yet in the eyes of the colossal beasts that inhabit the lush landscapes of the planet Mira, I didn’t see what this game designer, known for his strongly story-driven works, had accustomed me to. That the focus of Monolith Soft’s productions had shifted to exploration was already evident in Xenoblade Chronicles, a true masterclass in level design that managed to achieve excellence on a technically deficient console like the Nintendo Wii. Until now, Monolith Soft’s miracle was held up as the virtuous example against which every Japanese production had to measure itself to aspire to the throne of standard-setter in J-RPG level design. But with the release of this new installment, it’s safe to say: the cards on the table have changed.
The opening practically sums up everything you need to know about the plot for the first dozens of hours of gameplay: following the apocalyptic destruction of Earth, the few surviving humans were forced to venture into open space in search of a new habitable planet to colonize. However, the trials humanity must endure have only just begun, as the survivors’ ship of hope is abruptly interrupted by a sudden attack from an alien species determined to drive humans and their civilization to extinction. In the blink of an eye, you find yourself hurled onto the small planet Mira with no memory of your past, but fortunately guided by the wise advice of Elma, a warrior belonging to BLADE, a military organization whose sole purpose is to ensure the survival of the human race. The atmosphere immediately evokes the sci-fi vibes of the Xenosaga series—created by Takahashi under the Bandai Namco label—blended with the pristine landscapes seen in Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii. Let me clarify a fundamental concept that, once internalized and digested, allows for a more objective evaluation of this title: Xenoblade Chronicles X (the “X” to be read as “cross”) is not a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles and has nothing to do with the story-driven philosophy of Monolith Soft’s 128-bit era titles. If the prequel had clumsily attempted to echo the tones of an epic and gripping narrative reminiscent of the glory days of Xenogears—a PS One title created by Takahashi under Square Enix—the Wii U title prefers to follow a gameplay philosophy heavily skewed toward raw, unadulterated gameplay, boasting—to this day—an explorable universe that, in terms of scale, quality, and morphological variety, has no worthy rival in the history of video games. And believe me, as I write these words, I struggle to believe it myself, especially when open-world titles are a dime a dozen in the current generation, and platforms with significantly superior technical capabilities to the much-maligned Nintendo home console are on the market. A world that, moreover, is not just a simple 720p postcard but embraces and embodies gameplay explicitly dedicated to exploration. But I’ll talk more about that later.
The construction of the main characters is based on lengthy sequences of rather bland dialogue, generally leaning toward a slice-of-life setting that feels somewhat unconvincing, with properly directed cutscenes that can be counted on one hand. The essence of the story is summarized in just over a dozen missions that stage the main events of the game, but much like in BioWare’s space-themed RPG Mass Effect, you can—and sometimes must—dive into missions explicitly dedicated to character development. The pity is that none of the 18 recruitable heroes are in any way memorable, and the game insists on presenting Elma and Lin as the only two true companions of the adventure, which—I almost forgot to mention—is experienced through the deeds of a custom avatar created in a rather barebones but functional character editor. The issue is that Xenoblade Chronicles X lingers far too often on mechanics that seem designed to emphasize the relationship with these plasticky-looking little figures, to the point where many actions, such as assists during battles or the resolution of side quests, actively impact an affinity scale that places the player at the center of a vast network of increasingly deep contacts and relationships. Paradoxically, this aspect has no bearing on the story, which remains fundamentally linear and anchored to rather generic sci-fi tropes, far removed from the sophistication of the works previously curated by Tetsuya Takahashi and his partner, Soraya Saga.
The context in which the heroes live comes to life through the considerable number of text-based dialogues entrusted to NPCs scattered throughout the city and the vast landscapes that make up Mira, but the lack of interest the cast sparked in me led me, in most cases, to skip practically every narrative pretense without feeling particularly guilty. The true stars of this impressively large stage are, in fact, the level design, exploration, social features, and combat system—elements that alone justify purchasing Monolith Soft’s product at full price. And perhaps even more. Because if there’s one thing to acknowledge about this development team, it’s clearly the passion with which these artists work, constantly raising the bar for artistic and technological standards in a Japanese landscape where J-RPGs have been reduced to static screens, verbose scripts, and low-poly environments graced only by the clarity of high resolution.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: the landscapes of Mira are so vast and well-crafted that it seems absurd to believe every single nook and cranny was personally curated by a member of the staff, especially given the scale of the context. Yet, the attention to the vertical evolution of environments, the presence of hidden caves and passages, the ability to launch into dizzying climbs thanks to the absence of fall damage and lunar gravity jumps, all denote a level of refinement unmatched in the contemporary Japanese gaming industry. And the beauty of it is that, for once, we’re not talking about mere aesthetic embellishments but new ways to reward the most attentive and passionate players. The macro-zones that make up Mira are divided into hexagons that, once traversed and planted with probes, allow for fast travel from one point to another using the Wii U GamePad as a reliable and highly useful navigator. Exploration is always rewarded with collectibles in the form of glowing orbs, mostly useful for resolving fetch quests, and it’s not uncommon to find points of interest accessible only after raising your skills in fields like mechanics, biology, or archaeology. I’m not someone who particularly enjoys getting lost in the exploration of virtual worlds, but while playing Xenoblade Chronicles X, I genuinely felt the lack of a VR headset to fully immerse myself in the spectacle crafted by the Nintendo/Monolith Soft duo. The credibility of the landscapes is further enhanced by an insane field of view, where even weather phenomena play a role that isn’t merely aesthetic, influencing battles and exploration. For example, if you find yourself in an area affected by magnetic storms, it’s up to the player to find shelter before succumbing to the damage caused by thunder and electric discharges, while keeping well away from incandescent or poisonous materials. A light mist can obscure the warriors’ vision, while hunting specific enemies at a certain time of day might yield better results than at another. Native creatures often move in packs, arranged heterogeneously, regardless of their level. Wandering through the first explorable area teaches you right away that there is no “safe zone” outside the main city, and that next to a low-level adversary, a gigantic, hungry alien perfectly camouflaged with the local vegetation might be lurking.
Combat is handled similarly to what was seen in the prequel, configured as MMO-style turn-based battles where the position of characters relative to the enemy plays a crucial role, even allowing for attacks to be targeted at specific body parts of enemies to gain an advantage. With the ability to move using the left analog stick, these skirmishes might resemble real-time combat systems, but Xenoblade Chronicles X simply masks the classic J-RPG mechanics, much like Final Fantasy XII did in its time on the PS2, and MMORPGs did years before. You can expect a truly surprising number of equipment and abilities to choose from, with the option to hybridize character classes if you want to enjoy the highest number of passive abilities. Every new path trodden with the soles of your cybernetic boots is rewarded with experience points and battle points that can be used to enhance combat techniques and speed up their use during skirmishes. Curiously, there’s no mention of character classes dedicated to healing, and it’s here that a strange mechanic based on shouted requests from companions during battles comes into play, which, if heeded, allow for the recovery of precious health points. Not the most intuitive when you’re at a disadvantage, but certainly effective once mastered. The combat and growth systems are incredibly deep, even beyond the rosiest expectations. Unsurprisingly, when the hour count rises and you finally gain access to the Skells—the giant mechs that adorn Xenoblade Chronicles X’s promotional material—the situation becomes even more complicated, adding turbo mode and battles aboard cybernetic vehicles to the mix, a dream come true for those who grew up on Gundam or simply understand what I’m referring to when I mention the Weltall.
Unfortunately, these vehicles are only available after at least twenty hours of gameplay, following long sessions spent exploring, farming items for quests, and wondering why the title seems to struggle to take off despite the care put into every aspect of its content. The truth is that while this slow pace represents a significant flaw on paper, it’s a necessary choice if you want to effectively highlight the power of the mechs while immersing the player in the game’s universe. It’s tough, but believe me, it’s worth it. Especially if you take the time to engage with the game’s social features. The city is always connected to a sort of asynchronous multiplayer where other players’ avatars appear as members of the BLADE army. If you wish, you can also hire these characters for a limited time, much like in Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma, another excellent example of how to contextualize a multiplayer game mechanic without undermining the narrative context. There are other less impactful online mechanics, such as factions, group objectives, and timed events that can be completed in actual online multiplayer with up to four players, but these aspects are almost negligible, and I sincerely hope they are developed further in future sequels, because what Xenoblade Chronicles X demonstrates is that Takahashi and company are ready to create what could effectively be the true MMO-style sequel to the legendary Phantasy Star Online that kept us glued to our Dreamcasts and GameCubes years and years ago. And if I’m completely ignoring the existence of Phantasy Star Universe, there’s a reason for that.
Of course, there are some genuinely negative points that could use refinement or revision, such as the excessive use of fetch quests to keep players anchored to Mira for as long as possible. The lack of clues to guide players toward the areas where they can find the required items is a significant drawback, especially when missions demand specific items from a zone that, on foot, could take several hours to explore. I find it a merit that the title didn’t resort to truly annoying solutions, like the indicators in Bethesda’s open-world games, which are practically an insult to the player’s intelligence, but at least some form of assistance in finding certain items was frankly necessary, to the point that copies reserved for the press in the U.S. came with some tips on how to complete certain mandatory collection missions for the progression of the adventure. Another rather serious issue is the lack of any kind of tutorial that effectively explains all the game’s mechanics, from those operating in the background while exploring and fighting, to the mechanics that make up the seemingly arcane multiplayer component. Most of the knowledge is only hinted at, with the bulk of it having to be personally tracked down in the digital manual, fortunately accessible from the in-game menu. I imagine the developers, realizing the sheer number of gameplay layers the product boasted once completed, decided to go down this route, but in practice, it’s not an idea tailored to the average player.
To conclude, a few words on the technical and artistic aspects of Nintendo’s latest offering. When Xenoblade Chronicles X was announced, among the first names on the development staff to be made public was Hiroyuki Sawano, the composer of the game and the soundtracks for some rather well-known Japanese animation titles, such as Attack on Titan, Kill La Kill, and Aldnoah Zero. For my part, after seeing respected artists like Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears), Yuki Kajiura (.Hack//SIGN, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sword Art Online), and Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XV) gathered under Monolith Soft’s wing, I couldn’t keep my expectations low, imagining myself soaring through the skies of Mira accompanied by an electronic soundtrack with epic tones. In reality, Sawano’s final work proved to be uneven, with energetic vocal tracks during battles that weren’t particularly effective and instrumental background tracks for exploration that were much more successful. One thing that rather annoyed me was that many cutscenes, especially in the first twenty to thirty hours of gameplay, are silent, likely to avoid overshadowing the (extremely boring) character dialogues, effectively diminishing Sawano’s presence and his typical soundscapes within the game. I also believe that some of the absolute worst tracks in the soundtrack were paradoxically reserved for the two activities you spend the most time on: battles and city exploration, a trip of Americana that poorly matches the “manga-esque” character design of Kunihiko Tanaka. It’s also a real shame that following the localization by Nintendo of America, the series lost the dual audio provided by the prequel, which was brought to the West by Nintendo of Europe at the time.
The developers have managed to produce a mammoth (J)RPG, impressive even when compared to PS4 and Xbox One titles, despite relying on hardware that, technically, belongs to a past generation. This was made possible through careful compromises on the graphical front, which, at the cost of some shadows, shaky anti-aliasing, a resolution of “only” 720p, and several pop-up issues (partly mitigated by data packs and partly by the fact that polygonal appearances are “blurred,” making them less noticeable), gave birth to the best overworld ever seen in a Japanese product. Honestly, I doubt even Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV can rival Xenoblade Chronicles X in terms of visual impact, but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong in the coming months of 2016. The problem is that, much like when I played The Last of Us on PS3, the feeling I had while treading the damp soil of Noctilum was that the developers’ talent was somehow compromised by the bottleneck represented by the hardware limitations of the gaming platform, and once again, I want to make a plea: please, bring Xenoblade Chronicles X to the next Nintendo console. The excellent artistic direction, with its chromatic choices and careful environmental modeling, manages to mask all the purely technical issues of the title, much like Xenoblade Chronicles did on the Wii, but I’m of the opinion that Monolith Soft’s staff should be allowed to work without fear of compromise. Because the reality is that where the developer’s skill shines, the limitations of the Wii U quickly become apparent and diminish a work that, if not for the hardware it runs on, would have TRULY been the first competitor to Final Fantasy XV. And when from Japan—and, unexpectedly, from Nintendo—comes a sci-fi title capable of rivaling without much difficulty thematically similar Western productions praised by the specialized press, like Mass Effect, Halo, or Destiny, perhaps it’s time to say: give these people carte blanche!
And, if I may, give some to Tetsuya Takahashi too, so he can remember how to write a screenplay.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is not the great J-RPG Nintendo has been talking about for months, but it’s certainly an excellent example of how a part of this now somewhat stale genre can move toward an MMO hybrid while keeping its feet firmly planted in the offline experience. This title will undoubtedly go down in history as the new standard-setter in the Japanese (and not only) landscape when it comes to level design and the scenic rendering of the narrative universe, having surpassed its spiritual predecessor in both quality and quantity. However, if you’re looking for a more traditionally story-driven experience, with charismatic characters and gripping narratives, perhaps it’s time to turn your gaze toward different products or, and this is the legacy I’d like to leave to anyone who has made it to this last line, consider revisiting what Tetsuya Takahashi created before this shift toward the much-sought-after “commercially successful product.
