‘Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’ Preview — It’s All About the New Additions

Xenoblade Chronicles X was notable for its impressive worldbuilding, multiple big-swing plot twists, and those sweet transformable mechs (AKA Skells). Its original 2015 Wii U release, however, was also marred by a number of unfortunate complications.
Specifically, the lush open world of Mira and the cohesive design of the game’s future tech contrasted starkly against the relatively rudimentary look of its human protagonists. Moreover, its deep combat system and various other nuanced game mechanics could easily become overwhelming across an overly cluttered HUD.
Arriving on March 20, 2025, Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for the Nintendo Switch promises to face these issues head-on. Most of the attention in the trailer is, understandably, devoted to the improved visuals and narrative elements, but the real hero here is the game’s various quality-of-life enhancements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah9JgFGdqWU
An Earth refugee who escaped on a massive interstellar ship called the White Whale, your player character is tasked with helping the vessel’s surviving habitat module, now dubbed New Los Angeles, flourish on a hostile planet. You’ll search for scattered Lifehold units (where other surviving citizens wait in stasis), installing data probes to help map the surrounding terrain and facing off against hostile organisms along the way.
As a member of an elite force called BLADE, you’ll take on epic story missions, more focused side quests, and everything in between with the help of a party of up to three squad mates. With a sizable cast of characters to choose from, this Definitive Edition makes it a snap to switch up your party members on the fly via an Active Members menu option from the pop-up HUD (activated by pressing the + button).
Also available from the HUD is the game’s updated map system. No longer relegated to the Wii U’s Gamepad, this map — -complete with both scouted and unrevealed segments and any connected FrontierNav nodes — -makes it easier to get your bearings across the enormous open world. You can even see (and quickly track) available missions right from the map interface, which helps you to prioritize quests by proximity. All this is thanks to a more streamlined, much more readable interface that works wonderfully even in handheld mode.
Since Xenoblade Chronicles X is all about combat, though, likely its most welcomed QOL enhancement is the new quick cooldown function. The battle system consists of an interesting blend of automatic basic attacks (via ranged and melee weapons), timed button presses, and special moves called Arts. Available Arts can be added to the player’s Arts Palette, and are then selected during combat to deliver buffs, status effects, and increased damage.

This look is giving Genesis Climber MOSPEADA! image: NOA
Traditionally, these are greyed out during a cooldown period, making them unselectable for a time. The new quick cooldown bar, however, lets you press the Y button to reenergize an Art immediately. This can let you spam your favorite moves… to an extent. Once you’ve exhausted the quick cooldown bar, you’ll need to wait for that to gradually refill over time, but the extent to which this feature speeds up the formally glacial pace of combat should be noticeable to anyone who played the original title.
Obviously, there are more bells and whistles, but I’ll be saving those (as well as my overall impression of the game) until next month’s full review. In the meantime, just know that there are substantive changes evident in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition that help put it more in line with what one would expect from a modern RPG.
Review and promotional materials provided by Nintendo of America.