Xenoblade Chronicles X Review: Is This the Ultimate Wii U Adventure

Rating: 0
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · Published December 20, 2015 · Updated April 1, 2025

Xenoblade Chronicles X redefines what players expect from a Wii U game, offering an unparalleled combination of stunning visuals, expansive worlds, and an epic JRPG experience that keeps you hooked from start to finish. Dive into a journey that challenges the boundaries of exploration, gameplay mechanics, and storytelling, while uncovering every secret this immersive universe has to offer. If you’re ready to discover why this game is a true standout, read on to explore what makes Xenoblade Chronicles X a must-play adventure.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Review Pros:

Graphics are the best you will probably ever see on the Wii U From stunning vistas to jaw-dropping locations. The game looks simply amazing in every way. You will need to look at your Wii U game pad periodically, just to reassure yourself that you are still playing on the Wii U.
Controls are all done with the gamepad. The game does support a Pro controller, but for the true experience, you need to play it with the gamepad. The controls themselves are surprisingly simple.
Opening the tutorial area with ongoing support as new mechanics and features become available.
Achievements: The game has a huge list of its own in-game achievements.
Music: Top-notch soundtrack that just screams JRPG in every way, from the orchestral heavy ballads to the booming, almost techno bass drop. Add in the beautiful singing tunes, and you have yourself a masterpiece of music.
An in-depth character creation tool in order to create your perfect character.
The game can be played exclusively on the Wii U gamepad without the need for the TV. The one major downside to this is how awkward it is to jump between the game screen and the maps.
Story: The story is that of a blockbuster. It starts off slow, but you soon find yourself engrossed in the turmoil, Plot twists coming in thick and fast, and some of the best action that even Michael Bay would run scared. You can play the story whenever you meet the requirements to unlock the next chapter.
Side missions are plentiful and varied. You can pick up bounties, gathering, and social requests from the jobs board. Another way to get them is to speak to members of the team and publicize in the game world.
Affinity missions are seperate from the story and side missions, but are still just as important. You do them for specific characters, and finishing them increases your bond with them. This rewards you with better missions and more rewards, like gear and weapons.
Online board: Here, you can do online squad missions, which grant rarer rewards. You can play with up to 4 players, and it is basically an arena boss fight with certain conditions. You get 3 retries between you and a time limit.
Nemesis: Another special online-only mode. Here you can team up or go in with your AI team and take on a HUGE boss in an arena. The rewards are far greater than anywhere else, but the fight is a tough top-tier affair.
Game rooms: Every time you boot the game up, you have a choice of 3 “rooms” to join. Solo is self-explanatory, as is friends only. The last option is the one you pick if you want to focus on doing more team-based activities and nemesis fights.
Miiverse integration. You can see and send Miiverse posts to the game, which will pop up in the bottom corner. This can be turned off, and individual posts can be blocked and favourited quickly.
Auto saves regularly and will always save after mission complete screens and changing inventory.
Once in-game, there are no additional loading screens except when entering buildings or cutscenes.
Items are diamond-shaped items scattered absolutely everywhere. They respawn quickly as well. NRG is a huge deal with these, but it does make item/resource collecting a bit easier.
Planet nodes: Once activated, it becomes a fast travel location. Another and more crucial element of these nodes is the fact that you can turn them into different node types. Whatever node you choose, you can actually create an income from it. Tether them together to boost their performance. It is almost like a mini-game in itself. All of it can be done from the game pad and whenever you like.
The world you explore is absolutely huge! I mean, it makes Skyrim look like a car park in comparison. Split into five areas, each area brings different environments and enemies to the mix.
Fast travel: The only way to travel. You can fast travel to any activated node or any other sub-level access points in particular places of interest.
Combat is tough to learn at first. You have a bar and can pick and use any ability on it, Each one has a cooldown. It is not turn-based, and you are free to move around as you please. Add in your skills and soul voices, and you have a huge arsenal of attacks to use. The trick is to learn combos. You can command your AI teammates to do particular actions.
Scouting: You can find other players’ NPC form in your game world in random locations. Scouting them actually allows them to temporarily join your squad. If they are on your friend list, then they will always spawn in the same place outside the Blade HQ. In-game NPCs will stay with you until you dismiss them.
Boss fights are frequent and every bit as epic as you would expect.
If you keep dying on a boss or set of enemies in the store, the game will actually allow you to lower the difficulty level. You do not get penalized, and it is only a temporary buff.
Armour Alley is a place you can visit to buy/sell gear and items. You can put money into manufacturers to develop new gear, and even just using their weapons will level them up.
Skells: Your mech that can transform from a steroid-ridden Gundam robot into a vehicle. You have to take a series of tests before you are allowed one. Once unlocked you can fully customise it from the colour to the loadout, You can choose between three Skell types: Light, Medium and heavy duty bad ass boss type. If you destroy your Skell or it gets blown up, you can get a new one via insurance or pay a repair bill.
The world is home to many secret areas, shortcuts, and so much more. It really rewards you for exploring and going off the beaten path.
In-game text speak via the gamepad.
Mini map is powerful, showing enemies nearby and treasure. If a mission allows it, an arrow will show you where to go, with a yellow area becoming visible as you get closer to the objective.
Treasure: You can find random treasure drops all over the lands. They could be plants, Boxes, or even destroyed ships and mechs. Depending on your level depends if you can scan the treasure. Scanning is done via a quick button-mashing sequence.
Blade level: This goes up with general play and doing nodes. Once leveled up, you can choose to upgrade your stats in regards to treasure and node activations/scans.
Easy mission management screen. You can have up to 20 missions stacked in your menu screen and can easily flip between them.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of play time are contained in this epic game. The main story is only a small part of the game.
Classes: These distinguish which weapon types you can use and also give you a pool of abilities and arts for that particular class. You can go tanky, Long range, or a bit of both. You have sub-levels of each class, and using them levels them up and unlocks the higher tier. You can swap out classes at any point and play around with them.
Equipping gear is made somewhat easier with an “equip strongest gear” option. This, of course, leaves you open to having new weapons you may not be used to, but it is a good, quick tool nonetheless.
UI is very well laid out and labelled for the most part.
Daily login bonuses.
Blade HQ is your home, and you can customise it by changing colours. You unlock new options by upgrading your Blade level.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Review Cons:

Storytelling/Cut scenes feel really slow in places and kind of drag on.
Slow starter.
The game is completely overwhelming, especially at the begininng. You get minimal help and guidance. In fact a lot of the game’s best parts are not even explained, and you can stumble across them.
You feel helpless a lot, and it is common when starting out or when fighting bosses.
Item management is a bit clunky as you have to go through this menu to get to this menu to do this, then go back to do that.
HUD gets very busy.
Some cutscene animations look ugly and robotic.
Online is confusing, and you never feel confident that you know how to join a game and what is expected of you.
Mission requirements to unlock the ability to play the next chapter are not marked on the map or even marked themselves when you have finished one of them.
Difficulty spikes happen a lot and the biggest one I encountered was actually Chapter 9.
Combat still feels alien despite racking up 70-plus hours. I always end up just mashing buttons and abilities. Never really get any indication or guidance on what I need to learn to improve.

Xenoblade Chronicles X:

Official website.

Developer: Monolith Soft

Publisher: Nintendo

Store Links –

Nintendo