Xenoblade Chronicles X

 Wii U
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 1801 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,604 out of 1801
  2. Mixed: 84 out of 1801
  3. Negative: 113 out of 1801
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  1. Nomekop
    Nov 23, 2019
    4
    Xenoblade Chronicles X seems to have an identity crisis.
    It doesn't know if it wants to be an open-world game based on adventure, or a JRPG akin to the other games in the Xeno series, and ends up being some sort of strange and unique experiment that lies somewhere in the middle.
    The games open-world has an incredible amount of secrets, enemies and items, and it will take hundreds of    Xenoblade Chronicles X seems to have an identity crisis.
    It doesn't know if it wants to be an open-world game based on adventure, or a JRPG akin to the other games in the Xeno series, and ends up being some sort of strange and unique experiment that lies somewhere in the middle.

    The games open-world has an incredible amount of secrets, enemies and items, and it will take hundreds of hours to explore every part of this insanely large world. However, is it fun to explore? That is a more difficult question. If a game is trying to encourage you to explore, it's expected that the movement is tight and you have the sufficient tools available to you so you can explore the world, but this is where Xenoblade Chronicles X fails. The movement in the game is clunky and loose. It feels like the exact same controls from the original Xenoblade Chronicles, but it does not work in an exploration focussed game. Even though you can explore everywhere on paper, most areas are blocked off by high-level enemies or difficult to navigate landscapes, and since you are not given the tools to sneak past them or overcome the harsh landscapes, like you should be, you must simply accept that you have to stay away until you've grinded enough fetch quests.

    But, nevermind that. Let's talk about the other side of the coin, how about the usual JRPG/Xenoblade gameplay many fans have come to love? Well, much like how the open-world was hurt by the JRPG side, the JRPG side is hurt by the open-world side. Between every chapter, you MUST do some of the previously mentioned clunky exploration and sidequests before you can go into the next chapter. This hurts the pacing of the already subpar and uninteresting story. This game's story does not fit in at all when compared to Monolith's other works.

    The last flaw i would like to touch on is the unintuitive and confusing UI, which you will end up having to spend a lot of time in. The text is far too small, and there is absolutely no other way to navigate this menu. I could see any part of the UI and wouldn't be able to tell you what it's purpose is, because everything looks the same. This may not be a huge problem if this wasn't a JRPG, which are very menu heavy games. It's alarmingly difficult to get to important screens and settings, that need frequent attention or you'll be completely left behind by the game. On top of this, it's too much of a hassle to frequently change equipment or check side quests. Having to open the menus in this game is the same feeling as having to swallow while you have a terribly sore throat.

    If you compare this game to the other flagship open-world game on the Wii U, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you can really start to see the enormous flaws this game suffers. In Breath of the Wild, the snappy and simplistic UI helps you understand exactly what you need and what you can do with every item you receive. This gives players the motivation to explore with their empowering climbing and gliding abilities and applicable real-world knowledge. Meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles X FORCES you to explore, and without any of the fantastic mechanics or liberating movement that BotW offers.

    Xenoblade Chronicles X does do a lot right, such as it's fairly accessible but rather deep combat, its beautiful views and its catchy soundtrack, but the very core of the game is so average that I can't justify giving this game anything higher than a 4/10.    … Expand
  2. WeTechThat
    Feb 24, 2016
    2
    I really want to love this game. I can't stress that enough. However, I can't bring myself to like a game this flawed.

    Let's start with the good things, at least. This game is good-looking and the world is huge. There's a lot of places to explore and I like that. Unfortunately, graphics don't make a game. And what "game" XCX has, is done completely wrong. If you are a fan of XC,    I really want to love this game. I can't stress that enough. However, I can't bring myself to like a game this flawed.

    Let's start with the good things, at least. This game is good-looking and the world is huge. There's a lot of places to explore and I like that.

    Unfortunately, graphics don't make a game. And what "game" XCX has, is done completely wrong. If you are a fan of XC, chances are you will dislike the new battle system. The team gauge has little to no uses now, chain attacks are gone, and there's a new TP system that just gets in your way. You have to spend TP to do certain arts and it costs 1000 (about 1/3 of your TP) to revive an ally. The level cap is 60 in this game, even though enemies can be lv 99 or higher. This forces you to use skells, which are nice, but eventually battles become "I hope a randomly generated overdrive kicks in before I lose my skell and have to grind several million dollars to get a new one since I'm out of insurance".

    Grinding. That's the problem with XCX. The whole game is grinding, wandering, and fetch quests. They don't even have the time-saving mechanic from XC where quests complete automatically on the field so you don't have to go back and report to someone! I've gotten no satisfaction from the grinding and the quests, and finding new areas gets boring after awhile. The probing mechanic isn't that fun, either.

    The plot and characters in the game are just ok. They're not great, but they're not bad. There's some fun characters in the bunch and a lot of one-sided, uninspired "trope" characters. Tatsu and Elma are the first two "trope" characters to come to mind. Tatsu being the most generic comedy relief character possible and Elma being the "I've seen **** I'm a strong and silent type" trope.

    There are a lot of things to learn about when trying to get good at XCX. That's fine, if the game would explain what everything means and does. What little the game tells you makes no sense, so you'll have to spend a few hours and take notes on classes, divisions, weapons, armor, elements, arts, the TP system, skell management, and what little online interactions this game has. That's not even everything, just what I remember having to learn myself because the game did no such effort to tell me about them.

    The game advertises skells heavily, but be prepared to spend more than 15 hours before you finally get one. That seems kind of unfair. That's like if Super Smash Bros. Melee advertised being able to play as Mewtwo, and then you'd have to play for 20 hours before you could finally get what you paid money for. It makes me mad that they're not available sooner so I could start having at least a shred of fun with this waste of time.

    I don't get the appeal of a game where you spend more than 100+ hours on it but only have "fun" once every hour or more. This game puts on a appealing face with its expansive world but saps away 100+ hours of your time without any reward. This game is confusing, irritating, and boring. There's so many fetch quests it makes me sick. There's way too much grinding. I thought people hated fetch quests and grinding. I just can't relate to why this game is considered good. I can't wait for monolith to ditch all the mistakes they've done here and make a good game like Xenoblade Chronicles again.    … Expand
  3. cpu00
    May 24, 2016
    2
    The world exploration is fun, the graphics and music are nice, and the story is intriguing. Well, there's everything positive out of the way, let's talk negative!
    The worst thing in the game is the combat system, or at least the pathetic excuse for one. Its true nature is unfair, boring, chance-based malarkey. You just lock on to an enemy, press the attack button, put the controller down,    The world exploration is fun, the graphics and music are nice, and the story is intriguing. Well, there's everything positive out of the way, let's talk negative!
    The worst thing in the game is the combat system, or at least the pathetic excuse for one. Its true nature is unfair, boring, chance-based malarkey. You just lock on to an enemy, press the attack button, put the controller down, and pray that all of those stupid chance-based upgrades you got for your armor and weapons pull through. You don't actually control your attacks; once you press the attack button once, the game autoattacks for you. You can do callouts. . . that don't do anything. There are also no hitboxes. You could be standing 50 ft. BEHIND an enemy, it does a short range forward swipe completely on the opposite side, and you'll STILL take damage. Because chance. Or you could have the opposite where you're standing right next to the enemy, the game will swing your sword for you (because apparently, the ability to do it yourself is just too much to ask for), and you'll MISS! BECAUSE CHANCE!
    There is a level system in the game. It doesn't mean anything. The first problem with level systems is it means there will inevitably be grinding, and with the combat system I just described to you, grinding is a tedious nightmare. And all grinding REALLY does in this game is increase your CHANCE of victory. My entire crew, which are all currently over level 40, have easily bested enemies ranging into the 50's, but can't beat one that is level 35. There are missions you'll only be able to go on after reaching a certain level, which WOULD be fine if some of the locations that you must travel to on these missions require you to traverse a narrow passage that is unavoidably blocked by a level 60 enemy.
    There are an innumerable number of fetch-quests. And 99% of these missions (some of which are mandatory for progression) aren't simply go to this place and collect a specific thing. Most missions tell you to collect a certain number of things without telling you where to find them, and you NEED to know where to find them because they only appear in certain locations. The only way to able to find out where an item is is to look it up on Google. Once you get to that location, your troubles are FAR from over. In most game that require you to collect items, each item has a distinct appearance, but in THIS game, all items take the form of nondescript floating gems that give no indication of what it is until after you collect it. So you'll end up running around like an idiot in a fairly large area for twenty minutes until you, by CHANCE, come across the items you need. On the few missions where they DO give a location, it STILL isn't helpful because a lot of the locations are in caves. On the map, it will show the location directly above your objective, but to be able to actually get to that objective, you'd have to find the cave entrance which can be up to a mile away in an unknown direction.
    One of the most hyped features of the game is the ability to pilot a giant mechsuit. All of that hype was for naught. The ground controls are unplayably clunky and you can't fly until WAY later in the game. Unless you spend hundreds of thousands of ingame dollars to upgrade the weapons, the mechs are actually WEAKER than regular weapons. And here's the worst part: when you inevitably die while piloting a mech, you respawn, but your mech doesn't. You have to go back to the base and spend hundreds of thousands of ingame dollars to buy a new one. Money isn't super easy to come by in this game.
    Lastly, the button mapping is weird, and you can't customize it. Not much detail to go into there.
    The worst part about all of this is that someone made the conscious decision to add these features instead of anything fun or logical. Considering everything I just explained, I can't understand why this game has such positive reviews. I can't imagine Nintendo paying off THAT many people.
    My recommendation: DON'T BUY IT.    … Expand
  4. Okuyasu
    Apr 11, 2016
    2
    So much grinding I thought I was playing "Tony Hawk Pro-Skater: Space Edition". Fetch quests galore, kill this kill that quests, and you know those giant robots that everyone talked about that look so damn cool? Hope you're ready to grind for 30+ hours to get one. The multiplayer was over hyped much like the rest of the game. Overall very unsatisfied with my experience.
  5. stocko2016
    May 23, 2016
    2
    Storyline was boring, characters were bland and side-missions didn't feel remotely interesting. One plus for the game was the world though, it was vast and interesting and definitely gave this almost completely disappointing game something to show off.
  6. MisterMansfield
    Jan 13, 2016
    3
    Xenoblade is the worst. WoW style combat that is somehow less fluid, a camera control that makes you feel drunk, and 96% of the first two chapters is boring cutscenes followed by this horrible combat. Just standing here watching my guy attack. Where FFXIV was cool to where you were constantly involved due to fast cool downs and avoiding enemy attacks so you can stay in the fight. ThisXenoblade is the worst. WoW style combat that is somehow less fluid, a camera control that makes you feel drunk, and 96% of the first two chapters is boring cutscenes followed by this horrible combat. Just standing here watching my guy attack. Where FFXIV was cool to where you were constantly involved due to fast cool downs and avoiding enemy attacks so you can stay in the fight. This one goes total WoW where you get hit just because you're fighting doesn't matter what you are doing. Only positive. The game looks nice for a WiiU game. Negatives EVERYTHING ELSE!… Expand
  7. SnazzyDinoMo
    May 14, 2016
    2
    In Xenoblade Chronicles X, you play as the most bland character ever with the most bland and boring main characters I have ever seen in a game.
    The characters match the **** battle system where you can't dodge attacks you just have to tank them or have your tank character do it but, then you have no control over them so you know you just hope they use the skills which gives them the    In Xenoblade Chronicles X, you play as the most bland character ever with the most bland and boring main characters I have ever seen in a game.
    The characters match the **** battle system where you can't dodge attacks you just have to tank them or have your tank character do it but, then you have no control over them so you know you just hope they use the skills which gives them the aggro, but once they do they have no way to heal so they just die anyway. There is a way around this and it involves you grinding through the boring, unintuitive combat system where you spend most of the battle waiting for your cooldowns and for your abilities to charge up so they actually do damage.
    The quests are also the worse thing ever, if they are the new explorers of this planet shouldn't they be taking notes of where the creatures are and the items they are finding, but no they just write down their name down and the area of the GIANT landmass cause why would we need to find that enemy. The worst quests are the ones you have to pick up items, which in this game is completely randomly as it's just magical floating crystals, which you just have to run through and you can pick up the engine of a random mech but who the hell knows cause you have no idea where the item crystals which contains the item you need.
    Let us compare this game to another RPG I have recently been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, in DA: Inquisition the combat feels smooth and not a pile of wank, also you have the ability to heal in battle without the need for the grinding of several classes which will take you approximately 20 years in Xenoblade. Also in DA: Inquisition the codex is actually helpful as it tells you what enemies are weak to, where you can find items, is generally a lot more helpful also the text isn't for **** ants.

    Though the music is good, and the scenery is good if you know I could explore without being attacked by 300 enemies per step all of who are level 60 (the max level)

    I look forward to trading this game in and getting a good one in return.    … Expand
  8. i_illusion
    Dec 9, 2015
    0
    Things I hated about this game:
    - Not having to use Elma and Lin all the damn time (But holy **** this
    is probably one of the biggest reasons why this game pisses me off. Your stuck having to use the same characters and their classes and almost no other character, fights become super repetitive and boring, and you can't even branch off to other characters because quests mandate their    Things I hated about this game:
    - Not having to use Elma and Lin all the damn time (But holy **** this
    is probably one of the biggest reasons why this game pisses me off. Your
    stuck having to use the same characters and their classes and almost no
    other character, fights become super repetitive and boring, and you
    can't even branch off to other characters because quests mandate their
    use. And by time you finish the main quest, the rest of the characters
    are under-leveled beyond belief. The only huge change up character is your own, but what if you don't want to play a different class and wanted someone else be a certain class? Sucks deal with it.)
    - EXP for members not on your team (Pull a Final Fantasy 13 or Pokemon, keep underplayed characters equally leveled via exp share. If the game is so hell bent on having you keep Elma and in as your main team. At least allow my other characters to be properly leveled for when I do actually get to use one of them.)
    - Skippable dialogue without skipping the entire spoken scene
    - Reserve Members / Swap Interface (There's a stinking slot for it and it's only used when forcibly adding characters to your party during quests, how about actually letting me not be forced to find my party members scattered around the city, or to save a friend's characters I'm paying for a set amount of time in the slot?)
    - Remove/Reduce Affinity requirements. (Or just remove Affinity in general, or better yet make it more like Persona's Social Link and actually have you talk and bond with your characters without any requirements to do so beforehand.)
    - No way to edit Sound/Music via Settings (Obnoxiously loud song being played during a cutscene? How about trying to actually hear a song during a fight but your character's screams are too loud to hear the actual song.)
    - Skells come in too late when you need better transportation early on (By time you have a Skell, about 3/4's of every region you've been at has been discovered. The time wasted traveling the world is huge, about hours worth of time. There can still be a skell's vehicle form available, just keep it in vehicle form only until chapter 6 when you get an actual Skell that does battle.)
    - Ditch the License Quests for the Skell in general ("IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE." Yeah, why can't it be for game purposes? You make me go through stupid quests that have nothing do with owning a Skell. None of them are fun, meaningful, or have a point, they're just another chore to do. Or at least just offer, you know, an actual exam that teaches you how to use a Skell and save me the 2 hours of pointless questing.)
    - Survey Rates aren't tied to your Division (Actually give them a reason to exist. Do I want to explore unexplored areas and plant drones instead of fighting Tyrants? Give me the damm option, don't force me to do everything, I completely understand now why there was only offered 1 save file in other regions, when it's a requirement to have your survey rate up at least let me focus on a set of tasks I want to do and not force me to do everything..)
    - Rewards for quests suck (Seriously, there is practically no rewards or exp at all for most quests, why should I bother doing any of them?)
    - No profit for selling items (Almost all the monster drops sell for little then 100 credits, take note that most similar weapons/armor in the store sell for 100 times that. It's not even worth the time to clean out your inventory with all the weapons and armor you picked up.)
    - No option to speed up fights (A lot of RPG games offer this feature, it's no Auto attack button, but I feel like half the time I'm waiting for my skills to charge up so I can do any damage whatsoever. Allow me to press a button to increase the speed of the fight by twice, but able to toggle it on and off in battle.)
    - Co-Op Play (The game could at least allowed you to play the game with one other person. The loose online capabilities in this game don't make the game anymore fun, I'd love to actually interact and have fun playing this game with friends instead. This game is practically a MMO in everyway anyways.)
    - No way to Buy Probes (There such an important part of the game in order to complete tasks, get the most important resource in the game, and a lot of quests revolve around needs certain ones. To get them now is to hope to get them through RNG, their needs to be a better way to attain these, even offering only lvl 1 probes helps.)
    - Monsters being too overpowered and killing you in what is supposed to be very weak areas. ( Okay, I hear the same thing just go in a different part of the day. Cool. But by time you travel to a nearby location to change time and fast travel back/walk there it's the same time of day when the monster is there or there is another strong monster to take it's place. It's cool to have strong monsters mixed in the bunch, but when almost all of them are hostile and you need to get to a specific location for a    … Expand
  9. Shuvlarse
    Dec 10, 2015
    0
    A hollow JRPG with an identity crisis. Not quite a single player story spectacular like the first and not quite the MMO it tries so desperately to be.

    Chronicles 1 is driven by the main cast's desire for revenge. X is driven by accepting "Story Missions" from a computer terminal whenever you get bored so long as you meet the requirements. Each story segment lasts about an hour up to    A hollow JRPG with an identity crisis. Not quite a single player story spectacular like the first and not quite the MMO it tries so desperately to be.

    Chronicles 1 is driven by the main cast's desire for revenge. X is driven by accepting "Story Missions" from a computer terminal whenever you get bored so long as you meet the requirements. Each story segment lasts about an hour up to the end of Chapter 9 (Of 12) where the difficulty suddenly spikes prolonging the game's climax through a series of battles for battles sake.

    The online doesn't put you in direct competition with any other players nor does it allow you to experience the world of Xenoblade with them. You can recruit higher level players through the online portal to join your team and have them kill whatever it is you need to kill to progress or alternatively have them farm monsters for you to raise your own level which essentially breaks the game.

    Your party is made up of your customisable character avatar which can be voiced by about 10 different people, top quality VAs, but the dialogue is limited to battle only and your character spectates the story and is mute throughout.

    You are forced to use the same characters on repeat for all story missions. In between each story mission there is usually an affinity mission which simply serves as a sort of hurdle prior to the next chapter beginning. The affinity quests give you no insight into anything that's going on and simply serve as filler.

    Normal side questing is as vague as "Gather 10 of [Item] from [Continent]". The game does not give you any map markers and nor does it tell you that each continent is divided up into regions, the likelihood of finding the item in each region or what time of day the item has a greater chance of spawning. The only way to complete these quests, IMO, is to buy the guide.

    The shop interface and anything relating to your equipment/buying selling of anything is all pooled together and is not automatically filtered by your characters class. For each of the 4 active party members you have to manually filter the contents of each shop for each bit of equipment to save you trawling through about 300 items, 250 of which you can't get/equip.

    The Wii U struggles and consistently reads from the disk which is very loud. The enemies and textures noticeably pop in, sometimes resulting in your party's death because a higher level mob will suddenly appear and aggro you.

    The flying mechs are a nice addition but this isn't available until chapter 9 at which point you've seen/done just about everything you need to. The introduction of the flying mech does not tie in with any story progression nor does it really open up any additional areas worth seeing.

    I could go on but realistically if you were to compare this to the first it just falls short on every front. I was really looking forward to it, and maybe that's why I've had such a disappointing experience in that my expectation was too high, but, I see this reviews in green below and think that they must be playing a completely different game.    … Expand
  10. bladex
    Dec 9, 2015
    3
    i was looking so forward to this game when i say the videos for it but it's full of too many flaws the gorgeous graphics and open world don't make up for all it's other terrible designs.

    MUSIC: absolutely terrible hip hop does not belong in an RPG the song that plays in the city is ear shattering awful. and the worst part is there is no way to mute the music in this they couldn't be    i was looking so forward to this game when i say the videos for it but it's full of too many flaws the gorgeous graphics and open world don't make up for all it's other terrible designs.

    MUSIC: absolutely terrible hip hop does not belong in an RPG the song that plays in the city is ear shattering awful. and the worst part is there is no way to mute the music in this they couldn't be bothered to include music and sound sliders so you have loud terrible music playing while your trying to hear the characters talk there is no way to make it so speech is louder than everything else you will be needing sub titles on the whole game.

    COMBAT: combat is a pain in the *** 1st there is NO lock on you can lock onto the monster but the cam will not follow it around meaning you have to constantly keep adjusting the cam while moving. You might think this isn't a big deal but it is when the prompt to heal (push B within the circle) comes up. You have literally one second to respond to this. Oh big deal i can do that you say? Yes but your either too busy fiddling with the cam or doing an action by the time it appears you will miss successfully doing it A LOT so expect to see that red FAIL text very often. What else is bad about combat is the AI is as dumb as a rock most of the time you just stand behind it and spam special skills and it's finished most of the time it won't even pay any mind to you or attack! The only time mobs start becoming dangerous is when your fighting a lot of them at once and that's very rarely.

    THE OPEN WORLD: oh ahh big fancy gfx and the world looks gorgeous yes this is true and probably why all the other reviews give it high scores or are just wiiu fanboys. The world is big YES but it's also empty I mean there are a lot of mobs out there and I'll get to that in a minute but the world itself...is empty. You will get tired of seeing the same rock formations or mountain ranges which all use the same textures but that's not the worst part. On the map it will say an area is safe and will have low level mobs...well guess what it's lying! There are literally dozens of super high level monsters in these areas that will 1 shot kill you on sight. So just when you thought you have found a nice safe spot to grind BOOM put of nowhere a lvl 90 monster will swoop in and 1 shot you. This will happen A LOT no area is safe you will spend most of the game running for your life!

    INTERFACE: I swear whoever designed this must have been taking drugs it is absolutely terrible you will spend hours flicking backwards and forwards from category inside category again and again while forced to listen to that terrible music. The devs actually thought it was a good idea to put categories inside more categories will guess what they are wrong! Is it better in the shop menus? Oh no it's worse you can only sell one item at a time the same goes with buying what brain dead moron thought of this we are not living in the 80's anymore rpg have involved! but not in this game!

    EQUIPMENT: I just found a cool weapon in the field and it does way more dmg that my current one I am the right level to use it too awesome...than why can't I equip it? OH it turns out you can't equip everything in this you have to equip OLD weapons and lvl them up so you can use the more powerful ones later! That means swapping out weapons back and forth again and again so you can use the weapons from that company. Yes there are several companies in this and you can't use their weapons unless you raise their skills in using their weapons so forget about equipping that awesome sword you just found you have to go put your sh**ty sword that does sh***y dmg back in and lvl that up instead or go do mindless quests with crappy weapons to lvl the skills THAN you can equip your NEW sword!

    NO HELP: Usually in modern rpg they walk you through the features it has but no not this game your just thrown right into the fold and have to guess (or read the manual) on how to do nearly everything. Do you want to read manuals? NO of course you don't they died out in the 90's!!

    SHUT UP FFS!: Did i mention there are no music sliders? Well there are NO battle voice sliders either so you will constantly hear your companions talk constantly the WHOLE battle about how to attack, what skills they are using or other mindless chatter!

    after i write this i will be selling the game back on ebay and I am now done with the xenoblade franchise.    … Expand
  11. xenogamer21
    Jan 6, 2016
    3
    Honestly, when i first saw the trailer for this game i was excited. When i played it though and got into the chapters of the story, i wanted to break it. Don't get me wrong, i LOVE the open world environment and sci-fi aspect of it. Problem i have is the gameplay mechanics, mission prerequisites, and skells.

    First: The Gameplay: The gameplay mechanics suck. Auto attacking is when the    Honestly, when i first saw the trailer for this game i was excited. When i played it though and got into the chapters of the story, i wanted to break it. Don't get me wrong, i LOVE the open world environment and sci-fi aspect of it. Problem i have is the gameplay mechanics, mission prerequisites, and skells.

    First: The Gameplay:

    The gameplay mechanics suck. Auto attacking is when the character automatically attacks the enemy. At first i didn't think much of it, but now i can honestly say i don't like it. For me and others like me, we aren't the type of gamers that rely on computers to attack for us. A.I.'s don't improvise well because you can't program a fear of death in them. The only person you can rely on is yourself in game fighting. The same goes for even other genres. The reason developers have you mashing buttons to do attacks is because they want you to feel like you're inside the virtual world doing these things. And half the time when i'm in battle, i can't even look at the screen. I have to look at my health gauge to make sure i don't die, because i can't even tell when i'm being attack or not. Even when i' running around an enemy or boss.

    Second: The Missions

    The missions are a pain in my ass. Why do we have to do certain things in order to get farther in the story? Most of the time those affinity missions don't have ANYTHING to do with the story. Sure i get that they want us to explore and discover more but that doesn't make it right to interfere with the plot. Exploration and open world is one thing, but when you make it so complex and take away the flow of the game that's a different story.

    Lastly: The Skells

    Are you **** kidding me? I understand the whole wait till a certain point in the game to get the skell, but you mean to tell me that i can't fly the damn robot until chapter 9? THEN WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING IT?! Like, there are so many high places that i would want to reach in order to expand the map on the pad, but i can't do that because the stupid robot can't even fly. I mean i'm nowhere near to getting a skell anytime soon. Here the developers go passing off this game where you can do all this amazing stuff with the robot, but when you get the robot you can't even do the one thing that all robots in mecha animes can do. FLY IT!!!

    And when i do get to the chapter that i get the robot, i have to do 8 stupid exams to get the license. 8 exams that DO NOT PERTAIN TO THE SKELL IN ANYWAY POSSIBLE!!!

    In short, this game's only thing that makes it unique and good is it's open world and sci-fi aspect. Everything else about it sucks, and i'm disappointed! It went down the same road Sonic 06 did....-_-    … Expand
  12. chontler
    Dec 8, 2015
    1
    I want to like it, but the music is so abysmally terrible I can't stand to endure it for long. And it's too loud. No audio options either so all dialogue and ambient sound is ruined. I'm deliberately low balling this score in the hope that monolith might just get curious and actually do something about it. I doubt there is time however, and I'm sure they're just singing "I can't hearI want to like it, but the music is so abysmally terrible I can't stand to endure it for long. And it's too loud. No audio options either so all dialogue and ambient sound is ruined. I'm deliberately low balling this score in the hope that monolith might just get curious and actually do something about it. I doubt there is time however, and I'm sure they're just singing "I can't hear you, I can't see you" all day to themselves anyway.
    I know some people will argue that they like the soundtrack, but that's not the point. These long playing games need the option to turn it off.    … Expand
  13. LalsakWolas
    Aug 5, 2017
    0
    Dude, this game is bad as hell. Controls are horrible, cutscenes aren't even good and the voice acting is just awful. Can't believe I spent 20.000 pesos in this ****
  14. m00nsen
    Dec 13, 2015
    1
    Great ideas, lots of them, but extremely bad execution....

    This game does so much wrong while having the best ideas at heart that it really makes me sad and pissed of at the same time. The Setting Humans stranded on a planet, facing wildlife and xenos and trying to survive. That is a great setting. But why do we only exploit the planet for resources and scout it? Why not build new    Great ideas, lots of them, but extremely bad execution....

    This game does so much wrong while having the best ideas at heart that it really makes me sad and pissed of at the same time.

    The Setting
    Humans stranded on a planet, facing wildlife and xenos and trying to survive. That is a great setting. But why do we only exploit the planet for resources and scout it? Why not build new Settlements so that the player does not have to spend all his time in the same city? Build Settlements, expand them by scouting out the areas around it. Soo many possibilities....

    The Player
    Granted I am only at Chapter 9 at the moment but so far the actual character you play made NO DIFFERENCE to the story. It would have gone that way even if your character never existed. And we getting monologues from Elma that she has in her head?! Why do we have a muted idiotic puppet that does nothing? I would rather play Elma who actually does make a difference in the story. Yeah I know some people like making their own characters. But it is not worth it if the character ends up being mute and does NOTHING!

    Party Lineup
    Horrible!! You almost always have to take Lin and Elma. Why even give you other characters? Even on side missions they are very often mandatory! So while this happens the game throws 10 or 15 other characters at you that you could take with you but never get the chance to. Se even if they had a great story and wear great characters, which most of them are not, they remain a mistery because you can never do anything with them! Also whats the point in making you run around and recruit people once you convinced them to work together?! Why not have them in the reserves list all the time?! Do less other playable characters and make them more recognizable more special.

    The Sound.
    Horrible, just horrible. This would be enough to say about it, but here is why: Loud music with lyrics plays while people are talking. The soundtracks themselves are repetitive and horrible! You almost don'T want to engage in combat because you are afraid that you ears might start to puke. And why give an alien species a voice that hurts your ears?    … Expand
  15. dmarxs
    Dec 8, 2015
    4
    After many hours of playing Xenoblade Chronicles X I can't help but feel a bit let down, it's a great RPG that is marred by many issues.

    The game is huge with a ton of stuff to do although some may find it repetitive. The monsters are interesting and it looks great. Their is a real RPG element to the game and not the dumbed down excuses for RPG coming from AAAs of late which I find    After many hours of playing Xenoblade Chronicles X I can't help but feel a bit let down, it's a great RPG that is marred by many issues.

    The game is huge with a ton of stuff to do although some may find it repetitive. The monsters are interesting and it looks great. Their is a real RPG element to the game and not the dumbed down excuses for RPG coming from AAAs of late which I find refreshing. The story is interesting if a little formulaic.

    While he game has great graphics NPC pop-in is very bad at times, sometimes popping when they are right in front of you. A little more explanation on some elements would of been nice, if your new to Xenoblade word some of it may have you reaching for a guide on the net.

    Two major issues are marring my game time however: music and overall translation.

    I HATE the combat music to a point I take my earphones off or mute the game, which is the only way to do it as their is not way to turn off the music which just seems bizarre. What person had the idea to put load annoying lyrics over combat dialogue, but give no means to turn it off.

    The translation port is terrible. At first I though it was just one outfit and a few terms had been changed so I did not think much of it, buy no. Many words and meaning have been changed and now some no longer make sense. Forced memes inserted into dialogue in an effort to look clever when it just looks dumb. Many outfits have been changed for no reason that I can see other than some offendotron on the translation team that seems to have gone through all the dialogue and graphics going, "This is problematic, that's problematic. Oww that very problematic, well that has to go." One of the outfits seem to have been changed into something that look like Mormons underwear... I'll take note to avoid this translation publisher in the future.

    If you really like RPGs and are hungry for something other than current AAAs you will have fun here, just know that you are getting an inferior experience than the Japanese version.    … Expand
  16. fireLight111
    Dec 4, 2015
    0
    Very unpolished game. And even if you go past that it is very shallow. The story falls far short of its predessor, while it retains the archaic combat. Every thing feels sluggish and random instead of polish and clean.
  17. Leonexus1
    Jan 3, 2016
    2
    This game has an awesome look and amazing story-line but what killed me (literally screwed me over) was the no auto-save option. To summarize my rage, I was playing about 6 hours of unblocking stuff and doing side missions, lvl up to lvl 29, unlocking big chunks of the map and to top it off finally getting my skell, all this to lose it to a stupid glitch in the affinity option screen.This game has an awesome look and amazing story-line but what killed me (literally screwed me over) was the no auto-save option. To summarize my rage, I was playing about 6 hours of unblocking stuff and doing side missions, lvl up to lvl 29, unlocking big chunks of the map and to top it off finally getting my skell, all this to lose it to a stupid glitch in the affinity option screen. Never ever playing this game again. You are just so involve with the game that you literally forget to save, specially when your already wired to auto-save games. What really makes no sense is that even if your online and picking up rewards from the online game-play it still looses all. Hello I just picked up some online credits it should be saving at least that.. It's a major disappointment, Sorry but I rage quit this game until they fix this problem and if you forgetful game saver, you better not even play the game.… Expand
  18. Starhowl_
    Jul 30, 2017
    0
    Sexisitc, faschistic pile of digital garbage without music or story.

    A psychological bootcamp for which the consumer is supposed to play, so *they* get what they want - one-sided trade without delivering anything for the money - effectively shameless theft with lower motives of psychologically conditioning the player according to the after work is /at/ work agenda.
  19. Nyarulathotep
    Aug 14, 2016
    1
    I could go on and on about all the reasons why this game is NOT a good example of a JRPG, but honestly I'm so **** disappointed that I can't even bear to write about my awful experience.

    The plot is godawful, as if it was written by a preteen. The devs themselves said that the this time a good plot wouldnt be the focus but goddamn it's like they did not even try! Shame on you, Monolith    I could go on and on about all the reasons why this game is NOT a good example of a JRPG, but honestly I'm so **** disappointed that I can't even bear to write about my awful experience.

    The plot is godawful, as if it was written by a preteen. The devs themselves said that the this time a good plot wouldnt be the focus but goddamn it's like they did not even try! Shame on you, Monolith Soft.

    Characters are bland. There's not a single one that I cared about, and I usually tend to feel something about them after playing a game for so long. The least worst one is Lao, who actually has a very interesting personality. That's it. Everyone else is a cliche with legs.

    Combat is not so bad but has a **** of useless systems. I literally finished the game with zero problems and there's still battle elements I have no idea how they work. Even when you finally get your Skells (big mechas) they don't really make battles that more fun.
    By the way, there's a online multiplayer in this game. But guess what? It's abysmal and NO ONE PLAYS IT.

    OST is pretty average. What makes it bad is that horrible rap lyrics is extremely overused in the songs. I can think of a single song without some guy rapping for no reason. It's like they put it everywhere because they think it's "cool". It's really not. Please don't ever do that in a jrpg again.

    The graphics are bad. No, being a Nintendo game is not a excuse. Don't play it on an HDTV, seriously. IT LOOKS HORRIBLE. IT LOOKS SO BAD IT HURTS MY EYES! (I wish I was joking...)

    And finally the world map. Ooooh the world map! How massive it is! How much I was hyped to finally explore it. Guess what? It sucks. 90% of the world map has NOTHING to find. It's all there in plain sight.
    Oh you wanted to explore and find secret caves? Too bad, heres empty fields to just pass by and fight a couple monsters on the way.
    Okay, there are some caves and places to find here and there, but sadly it's not worth looking for them. I explored and explored and explored and explored, but in the end I'm sad to say that what I found was a HUGE waste of time.

    I gave this game a score of 1/10 because that's how I feel after playing it but in reality it would technically be a 5/10, but just because I play games for 25 years now and I know there are worse games out there.
    Still I'm extremely disappointed with Monolith Soft, especially after Xenoblade Chronicles was such an amazing jrpg.
    They made me confused. I don't know what to expect of them anymore. I thought they were one of the few good jrpg developers still alive, but now I'm not so sure.
    Anyway, in the end I ranted way more than this game deserved. If you reading this review is a true rpg fan like me, I hope that you believe in me when I say that you should not spend money in this game. I know I did and I regret every second of it.
    If you still wanna give it a try, get it for free. Rent it, have a friend lend it to you, whatever. Just don't pay full price for it because it does not deserve your hard earned money.    … Expand
  20. zephir93
    Sep 15, 2017
    1
    Storyline was boring, characters were bland and side-missions didn't feel remotely interesting. One plus for the game was the world though, it was vast and interesting and definitely gave this almost completely disappointing game something to show off.

    this is an **** mmo, not a great jrpg. shame it was called "Xenoblade"... stay away
  21. Habar
    Apr 3, 2019
    2
    Firstly, I admire you for choosing to read the negative reviews of an overwhelmingly-positive reviewed title. You are an independent thinker and feels there's something wrong with the popular opinion. Quantity is not always quality. It's easy to love a game, but one must learn to accept and love what is horrible about it before committing a lot of time to it. (much like in relationships)Firstly, I admire you for choosing to read the negative reviews of an overwhelmingly-positive reviewed title. You are an independent thinker and feels there's something wrong with the popular opinion. Quantity is not always quality. It's easy to love a game, but one must learn to accept and love what is horrible about it before committing a lot of time to it. (much like in relationships)

    PROS:
    Expansive game world exploration
    Avatar outfit customization for head, body, left & right arm, feet
    Good mecha design and flawless mecha 3D rendering
    Mecha animation is decent and feels made of heavy metal components

    CONS:
    Weird BGM choice (upbeat) during sad, supposedly emotional scenes
    Confused mixed-genre music
    -- Hiroyuki Sawano's XCX BGM only impresses little kids who haven't heard better music and
    adult fans of anime try to convince themselves into liking this game's BGM because it reminds them of
    anime.
    -- Most mecha fans aren't hip-hop music fans
    -- The player is forced to "get used to" an unholy mix of hip-hop with vocals, metal, rock,
    pop, tribal, Arabian music because there are no audio volume control options.

    You, the player are Xenoblade Chronicles X world's Mr. Nice Guy and B14tch -- because you better volunteer to help the NPCs with their problems because even if you decline to help, they'll still oblige you to collect X number of this and kill X number of that.

    You are given choices but your choices aren't allowed or accepted -- Early example is Nagi (the boss) asks whether you want to join the BLADE. You can refuse all you want but he'll just keep asking the same question over and over, so you'll just have to join to move on. I found that scene actually funny because my avatar is dead poker-faced refusing Nagi while the NPCs in the room are morally shaming you for not joining. Why bother to ask the player and offer choices if there is really no alternative?

    The game text is super small and hard to read, you'll think your eyes need treatment.

    Low quality and skip-worthy cutscenes -- Staring at the feet of characters for more than 2 secs while they're walking is not fun. The supposed cut scenes are similar to watching your grade-school classmates performing their costumed fairy tale presentation, including the stiff and tense body movements.

    Planet exploration is fun and challenging until you get access to the mecha which spoils and makes too easy the exploring.

    Your carefully customized avatar is mute with limited body language and facial expression but in battle, your avatar is just too noisy shouting repetitive lines and doing evil laughs "HAHAHAHA--HAH!" (think Joker in Batman) whenever Skell-equip gatling guns are used. I get the "silent protagonist" gimmick but hearing my demure avatar might be a psycho is surprising. - It's the female Independent voice (Kira Buckland)

    Equipment management does not auto-filter out unequippable equipment so it's up to you to do the filtering, Mr/Ms. 'Player'

    You receive loots, "Busted" equipment that are Lv1, have junk stats, has a salable value of 1. If you don't diligently nit-pick the loot you receive after every battle, expect to clean your equipment inventory of these busted junks at the shop.

    Changing targets is very hard to do properly. Often times you mistakenly select and aggro high-level targets when you just want to cycle through the little grunts infront of you. The mini-map or radar does not indicate which red enemy blip or dot is the one you're targeting.

    Quest rewards are mostly not rewarding to have -- You gain more money from the FrontierNav revenue every 30 mins so why bother with quests other than learning other character's exclusive Signature Arts

    Skells are very hard to steer in land vehicle mode. Oversteering is the norm so you'll prefer the mech to just walk slowly and bump floating diamonds that contain random items like *vegetables in the middle of a lake*.

    Monsters instantly spawn near you especially during day and night transitions which is a big scary surprise when you're busy farming Suids (boars) then a Lvl60 giant suddenly spawns and goes aggro behind you.

    There are many more CONS and horrible things in this game but I'll not spend more precious time writing them all out. No reason either to please everyone to like this review because brainwashed, zealot fanatics are still going to unlike this because they refuse the fact they've become unthinking Xenoblade X zombies who've committed 100-300 hours on it and reject the idea they could have done something else to be proud of that's also 100-300 hours long.    … Expand
  22. jyphel
    Aug 21, 2022
    1
    Seriously i dont understand how people can put a 10 on this scam of jrpg, even for the time is was created; the maps are unreadable and need to be reajusted, thanks to the zoom and unreadable; fast travel demands going back map area by map area,area and town are too large only for the sake of making you walking around , big empty space, with unreadable maps, great...

    No basics control    Seriously i dont understand how people can put a 10 on this scam of jrpg, even for the time is was created; the maps are unreadable and need to be reajusted, thanks to the zoom and unreadable; fast travel demands going back map area by map area,area and town are too large only for the sake of making you walking around , big empty space, with unreadable maps, great...

    No basics control other your 2 allies who are dums most of the time. Seriously for me is one of the worst J-rpg i ve played. Game design and map design 2/10.    … Expand
  23. oodlesoflego
    Apr 18, 2021
    4
    An incoherent, overwhelming mess of gameplay systems and menus that gets far too caught up in itself to hold any value as a video game. Story is meaningless and goes nowhere.
  24. Siggy88
    Mar 1, 2018
    4
    +0- Little brother to Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii), but not directly related in story and universe -0+

    A totally different approach and style, you will either like XC or XCX, probably not both. I personally think they made a lot of beginner's mistake in this game, which is surprising coming from the superb XC. The game in general tries to push some very good ideas, but fails to    +0- Little brother to Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii), but not directly related in story and universe -0+

    A totally different approach and style, you will either like XC or XCX, probably not both. I personally think they made a lot of beginner's mistake in this game, which is surprising coming from the superb XC.

    The game in general tries to push some very good ideas, but fails to develop them. As often, it is sad to see a game defended by unreasonable fanboys. But as a fan of its predecessor, I will try to give it a fair review.

    +++ Good +++

    + good fighting system, although a bit more confusing than in XC due to the over use of graphical effects all over the screen
    + beautiful exotic environments
    + possibility to sprint, jump from high places... very nice addition for exploration of those large areas
    + you will later unlock flying mechs that can be heavily customized and used in battle
    + story has some interesting and original ideas
    + failing repeatedly the same boss battle allows you to lower the level of that boss for the next attempt
    + good map system and interesting way to exploit it

    000 Meh... 000

    0 Ok VA, except maybe for Lin and her sassy attitude
    0 the music, you will like it, or you will hate it. The repetitive lyrics and aggressive style are definitely a turn off for me.
    0 Lin is a skinny 14 year old who happens to be the cook of the group, but also the tank and the chief engineer! I mean, come on, game...
    0 not the best use of the Wii U GamePad
    0 the world feels less coherent and less alive than in XC, you don't really feel attached to it

    --- Bad ---

    - sometimes feels like a weird mix of science-fiction and fantasy that does not really work well
    - very LOUD background music, to the point of making the VA unintelligible in many cutscenes
    - grinding and mandatory levels for several chapters, a real pain
    - only one real city and it has the worst BGM of the game, is hard to navigate, serves little real purpose although you will still have to go back there all the time
    - beginning is a cutscene-hell
    - no real main character, your avatar is just a shallow dummy who shakes his head from time to time instead of talking
    - Tatsu will follow you around everywhere and serves no purpose other than being a pain. He is basically just a waste of polygons. It is said that he was added to the game very late in dev', and it shows.
    - very repetitive jokes about Lin wanting to eat Tatsu, this obnoxious running gag is everywhere!
    - no atmosphere: humanity is on the edge of extermination, but NPCs in town will just nap all day next to the swimming pool or go to the mall (WTF?)
    - story is moronic at times: there is what is basically a countdown to the moment when everyone will die, so of course this is a secret (to avoid panic). But the countdown is shown on a gigantic LCD on the front on the highest building in town (WTF?)
    - poor performance, models often load way too late, fast travel is slow
    - sudden difficulty spikes
    - it is way to easy to aggro very high level enemies (there is a lv95 boss in the beginner zone, for example) and they are everywhere. XC did that too, but you usually had more room to maneuver around bosses
    - many alien species are introduced, but most of them are humanoids, too similar and totally forgettable. Why are there so many of them if they are not even used properly by the plot?
    - menus are a real jungle
    - very small font for the text all around the game (menus, subs, GUI...)
    - 4 character slots: one taken by your avatar, two taken by Elma and Lin (they are mandatory for story progression, so you can't let them fall behind on XP). That only leaves one slot.
    - confusing class names. What's a "partisan eagle"? Well, that's how the game calls snipers. Fancy. But confusing.
    - you cannot change the time of day however you want like in XC. You have to sit on a bench at a specific location which is a ridiculous restriction    … Expand
  25. hirschlord
    Mar 16, 2019
    3
    only for xenoblade fans ... the text is smaller and graphics better but seems to be same endless work

Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Best Wii U Game of 2015
2
#2 Most Discussed Wii U Game of 2015
1
#1 Most Shared Wii U Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 77 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 87
  3. Negative: 0 out of 87
  1. IGN Denmark
    Apr 6, 2016
    70
    The fun in Xenoblade is seemingly never-ending, thanks to an amazing combat system and lots of things to do.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 4, 2016
    80
    We got used to developers promising huge worlds to explore, but there’s no other game where the world is so overwhelmingly vast. I honestly don’t know how much time you have to invest in Xenoblade Chronicles X to see everything this game has to offer. [02/2016, p.60]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 3, 2016
    87
    Xenoblade Chronicles is otherwise great, but the thin main plot and sheer repetition drop the score. [Jan 2016]
See all critic reviews »