Despite being in an era of remakes and releases, there are titles that deserve the new lease on life that, for whatever reason, never quite make the cut. For the longest time, Nintendo fans thought Monolith Soft’s 2015 release of Xenoblade Chronicles X was one of those. Thankfully, we could not have been more wrong, with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (XCXDE) launching on the Switch on March 20.
So, now the question is: Does it hold up? I’m happy to say that, with the limited time I’ve had with the game, that the answer is an emphatic yes. I never completed the original. Hell, I’m further in the new version than I ever was in the original, but everything new I have seen has only increased my curiosity and pleasure with the breathtaking vistas brought back from the past.
The premise: In 2054, Earth is caught in the crossfire of two warring alien factions and destroyed. To stave off extinction, humanity created great spaceships, known as arks, to ferry its population off-world before the worst could happen. Most were destroyed, but the ark known as the White Whale managed to escape. After two years wandering the stars, the White Whale is attacked and, damaged, forced to crash-land on a nearby planet. Humanity now must find a way to settle this strange, alien world, contending with hostile megafauna and xenos villains coming to finish what they started on Earth.
