Xenoblade Chronicles X comes to Switch with improved graphics 🚀🎮
Does this story sound familiar? A Wii U classic is coming to Switch with improved characters, more polished graphics, and much more. However, this could be the end of an era, as *Xenoblade Chronicles X* looks to be one of the last Wii U titles to get a Switch port. It's a bittersweet moment, but *Xenoblade X* is a great game to say goodbye to, being one of the most visually stunning titles on the Wii U and a technical marvel of its time. How is it doing on Switch? 🎮✨
Xenoblade Chronicles X on Switch is actually pretty straightforward. There have been tweaks and changes to the experience, but the most notable improvements come from technical changes. On Wii U, the game ran at 1280x720 with a (mostly) stable 30fps, utilizing post-process anti-aliasing and other effects, including per-pixel motion blur that's still relevant today. In fact, this version was almost competitive with open-world games on PS4 and Xbox One, though it also has some limitations. 🕹️
Con el salto a Switch, el juego utiliza escalado dinámico de resolución y alcanza hasta 1080p nativos, lo que lo hace notablemente más nítido que el juego original. En modo portátil, la resolución coincide mayormente con la pantalla incorporada de Switch, llegando hasta 720p. Contrario a algunos trailers iniciales, los desarrolladores de Monolith Soft también mantuvieron paridad en términos de efectos visuales y características. Elementos como el desenfoque de movimiento, que es razonablemente sutil, siguen presentes, y el juego se ve genial en movimiento. 🚀
Comparing the Switch remaster to the Wii U original, the Switch version has significantly more environmental detail, improving shadows, textures, and polygonal complexity. Along with more vibrant lighting, improvements in distant detail, and an increase in overall image quality, the result is a noticeable improvement. 🌟
The character models have also been updated from the somewhat clunky originals, with changes to eye size, color, and position, improved skin shading, and more attractive facial shapes. It feels faithful to the original, but with an improved overall design, mirroring similar changes in the sequels to the original game. 🎨
Monolith Soft has also improved the game's UI and tweaked other battle-related elements. I didn't get a chance to play enough of the game compared to the original to see it through long-term, but it does feel more intuitive and easier to navigate. However, you'll notice there's no attempt to add collision detection to moving vehicles or anything like that. You can still just drive right through them, just like in the original Wii U version. It's so cute, in fact, that part of me is happy they kept it. 😆
So, is there anything that hasn't improved? Well, thankfully, the game has been improved almost universally, but I do have one minor complaint: pre-rendered cutscenes exhibit elevated black levels and therefore look washed out on Switch, something that wasn't an issue on Wii U. It's not a major issue due to the relative scarcity of cutscenes, but perhaps something that could be addressed in a future patch. 🎥
Performance hasn't changed much on the new platform either. The game runs at a fairly stable 30 fps, but it's certainly not locked. A 60 fps flag has been found in the game's code, so there's perhaps a chance we'll see a 60 fps version on Switch 2. We may revisit this game later if that's the case. 👀
Beyond the relatively simple technical upgrades, I wanted to talk about the quality of the graphics themselves. Even today, this is a surprisingly good-looking game, and what Monolith accomplished on Wii U feels like a miracle. Delivering a game that managed to look better than most PS3 and 360 open-world titles—and even come close to some PS4 and Xbox One titles!—on a less powerful system is quite an achievement for a 2012 release. 🌌
Looking at it with fresh eyes, there are a few very important things that make the game stand out. First, the relationship between micro and macro: clearly, a lot of effort has gone into blending near- and far-field elements into something very cohesive. It's not that more detail is drawn at long distances compared to other games, but what is drawn at that distance looks attractive even in its less detailed state. 🌄
I remember looking at *Halo Infinite*, released on much more powerful hardware, and finding that *Xenoblade X* handles distant areas more pleasingly, with fewer obvious tiles and distant shadows. Essentially, Monolith does a great job of breaking down sightlines and creating these beautiful silhouettes that stretch out before the player, minimizing visual anomalies. Coupled with good use of fog and a beautiful sky system, it manages to hold up well. It's not that it's more detailed than Halo from a distance, but your eye almost perceives it that way, which demonstrates clever art design. 🎨✨
Limitations are still very much present, of course. While the world is huge and open, it's also fairly static: foliage doesn't move or react to players, water is simple, and shadows are fixed in place—you don't get the dynamic world simulation that has become more common over the past decade. These are sensible development decisions, and they paid off here. 🌍
Rewatching this a decade later, I personally can't wait to see what the development team has been working on for Switch 2 – I hope to be amazed by what they've been cooking up! 🌟👾
It's also worth mentioning that since the game comes on cartridge or flash drive, there's no need for an additional installer pack. If you recall, the original game offered an optional download for disc owners to improve streaming performance—but if you didn't download it when the Wii U store was live, that pack is no longer available. It's nice not to have to worry about that detail now, as it loads faster than the Wii U right out of the box. 🚀💨
Another thing I wanted to point out is that *Xenoblade X* offers surround sound support – this is something that didn’t become as common as I would have liked on Switch, but the team is delivering it here. The rear channels are fully active. The soundtrack is also still excellent – it sounds very different from other games in the series, but it works wonderfully for this game and is a real highlight for me. 🎶
I haven't had much time to play around with *Chronicles X*, but I'm looking forward to getting back into the game since it's been almost a decade since I last played it. We've mostly focused on the visuals here in this video, but it looks like there have been a lot of gameplay improvements too that I can't wait to check out. For now, this new version of *Xenoblade* is a real improvement all around and really lives up to the *Definitive Edition* name. If you missed it on Wii U, it's worth diving into! 🌊🎮
