‘Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’ Review: They’re Dolls, Not Skells

It’s taken a decade, but the overlooked and underappreciated Wii U game Xenoblade Chronicles X has finally been given its chance to shine on the Switch.

Unlike the other releases in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, such as Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2, and 3. Xenoblade Chronicles X has more in common with the likes of Xenogears, as well as being more of its own beast.

The Xenogears connection is obvious; like Xenogears, mecha play a huge part in Xenoblade Chronicles X. Not least because the world of the game, called Mira, is absolutely enormous.

You start out on foot, and the scale of the undertaking ahead of you is both daunting and massive. Huge creatures roam the planet, and the geological structures that define it are awe-inspiring.

Combat is technically handled in a turn-based way, but it’s so frenetic and with a lot of overlap that it feels like an action game. In that, you have ranged and melee attacks that you can switch between. The base attacks for each equipped weapon will occur on a loop, dealing damage as they do so.

What speeds all this up are the Auras (shown below), which are individual attacks that each have a cooldown. Using Auras at the right time, based on what the other characters say, can replenish your team’s health, as well as stagger the enemy you are attacking among other things.

All of this is happening in real time, and if you are not careful, other nearby enemies can be called into the fray. So what starts as a simple group attack against one animal can feel like you’re stuck in a stampede with multiple alien monsters getting rather irate.

Backing up a little bit, the whole premise has the last vestiges of humanity crash on Mira after Earth was blown up. You are found in the wilderness and brought back to the base to try and find the other colonists.

This is where the scale of the game does feel overwhelming, not only in a literal size of the world sense (shown below) but also in all the backend management. There’s a lot of inventory work and equipment to take care of, as well as exploring Mira. It’s a lot, but this is meant to be a big game, so this isn’t really a criticism, just an observation.

However, the main issue for me is still the same as back when it was originally released in 2015. Unlike Xenogears, the mecha in this game means the whole setting is set across two scales: human and mecha, with the former becoming fairly irrelevant once you get the latter.

To be fair, this can often be an issue with mecha games that allow you to walk around on foot as a pilot. The issue here is that Xenoblade Chronicles X is effectively a massive open-world role-playing game, so the scale difference is ever-present and cannot really be hidden away, like in games such as Titanfall.

This scale difference also feeds into the initial combat, as to get leveled up enough does feel overly arduous, whereas the mecha feel more suited for going out and beefing yourself and your party up in terms of stats.

The other thing with the mecha in this game is that they have an entirely weird name in the English localization. It bugged me back in 2015, and it bugs me now. Specifically, in the Japanese version of the game, the mecha are called Dolls, but in English, they are referred to as Skells.

I don’t get why this change was made. It’s always felt akin to having the mobile suits in Gundam called “mega bots” or something else equally awful.

The localization is also similar to the original release, not bad but not great either. Apart from the mecha mis-naming, it’s a serviceable translation and won’t interfere with your playthrough.

Talking of the mecha, the mecha design team behind the Dolls in this game is quite impressive. Firstly, you have Takayuki Yanase, who has made his name across multiple Gundam anime over the years and even had his designs featured as recently as Armored Core VI.

Secondly, there’s Choco, an elusive figure but one that created the adorable mecha in Senko no Ronde. Finally, there’s Yasushi Suzuki, who comes from a solid background at Treasure, having worked on Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, and Sin & Punishment, among others.

The overall result is a really interesting mix of very accomplished mecha design styles and approaches, all of which add to the game’s sense of having a really thought-out game world.

While I do miss the elegant mecha designs of Junya Ishigaki from Xenogears, the Dolls in Xenoblade Chronicles X have to fit into their own setting, and the mecha design team has really nailed that.

Regarding the visuals, this game does look amazing on the Switch. Considering that we were told that a port of this game to the Switch was nigh-on impossible, the team at Monolith Soft has done an excellent job here.

In addition to the visuals, the music by veteran composer Hiroyuki Sawano is amazing. With all his work across various Gundam anime, such as Unicorn, Narrative, and Hathaway, he really knows how to score mecha action, and it really comes through here.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive role-playing game that is more scaled towards the mecha than the on-foot component. The initial on-foot sections take a while, but once you get your Doll license, the world of Mira literally opens up. So stick with this one; it’s a long road but still one worth the effort of traveling.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Developer: Monolith Soft

Publisher: Nintendo

Released: 20th March 2025

Price: $59.99

Score: 8/10

Disclosure: Nintendo sent me a copy of the game for the purposes of this review.

Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.