Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition › Previews

Here's what's new in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (So Far)

by Adam Vitale and Cullen Black on 19 February, 2025

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition launches about one month from today, on March 20. A lot has happened in the ten years since the game's original release, including two numbered Xenoblade sequels, a remaster of the original Xenoblade, and new expansion content for each of those entries.

It makes sense that the non-numbered spinoff entry would be next to see the remaster treatment. As may be expected for a remaster, it comes with many changes and additions from the original version of the game. Whether or not you've played the Wii U release of Xenoblade Chronicles X, you're probably interested in seeing what some of those changes are. That's where this page comes in.

We at RPG Site have started playing through the Definitive Edition, and here are some of the biggest changes you'll find. At this point ahead of launch, we cannot divulge everything new in the Switch version, but here's what we can say. This page will be updated as the game launches.

One final note: Xenoblade Chronicles X is a dense game with many varying systems and mechanics. There are very likely to be other additions beyond what we've listed here. And without further ado..

Improved Visuals and Cleaner User Interface

In addition to having some slightly improved character models, the resolution of Xenoblade Chronicles X has been improved. While we’re unsure of the exact pixel count, this Definitive Edition has cleaned up the presentation so much that this has some of the cleanest presentation of all the Xenoblade games currently on Switch. To us, this looks pretty close to native resolution in both handheld and docked play, with a 30 FPS target it hits far more often than not. Monolith is known for pushing Nintendo’s portable hardware to its limits, and this is no exception. 

You Can Change Your Party Any Time 

This is the screen where you can change your party. How many slots are there?

Unlike numbered Xenoblade titles, which have a more-typical RPG party size, Xenoblade Chronicles X around nearly twenty characters that you could add to your party. In the original version of the game, you had to talk to your recruited characters in their dedicated spots in New Los Angeles in order to add them to your party. You could not add at will, and you could not change party members out on the field - you had to return to the city of NLA to adjust. Also, party members weren't clearly marked on the map either, so if you didn't remember where they hung out, you'd have to scour the city for them.

In the Definitive Edition, you can simply change characters in or out of your party line up at any time from the “Active Members” menu. You can even change party members no matter where you are on Mira. Amazing! 

Change The Time Whenever You Want

Like other Xenoblade titles, this entry has a 24-hour time system that affects things like quests, collectibles, and enemy spawns. In the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, you could not change time at will; you could only manually change the game time from red benches around New LA, or at base camps dotted throughout the world.

While Benches and similar structures to adjust the time of day in the world of Mira still exist in the Definitive Edition, players can now navigate to the System Menu and manually change this themselves whenever they want. If you’re out in the field and waiting for a time-sensitive monster to spawn for a quest, this allows you to do that in a flash. 

Quick Cooldown

Did I make the red arrow big enough?

New to the Xenoblade series is the Quick Cooldown bar, showing up alongside the battle UI. As long as you have any of this meter remaining, you can ignore the Art cooldown time to cast any art you want with the tap of the Y Button. You'll activate the Art at the cost of some of your Quick Cooldown meter, instead of waiting for the Art to cooldown naturally. The only caveat is that Arts that require a TP cost still need the required TP.

This Quick Cooldown gauge is fully restored at the end of every battle, and can be restored gradually as you do auto-attacks. You can increase your Quick Cooldown pool by collecting Energy Disks as a reward for surveying Mira (another addition to the Definitive Edition), meaning the more you explore Mira, the more you can use Quick Cooldown in a battle.

This may have some significant implications on combat balance deep into the game (being able to spam 8 Back Slashes in a row is pretty busted), but this does a lot to speed up combat in its early hours as new players learn the ropes.

New Characters

If you've played the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, and you watched the previous trailer for the Definitive Edition, you saw some faces you did not recognize. Also, if you counted the number of character slots in the new aforementioned party menu, you'll see that there are indeed new playable characters in the Definitive Edition. However, that's all we can say for now.

New Story Content

Once again, veterans of Xenoblade Chronicles X saw some never-before-seen footage in the newest trailer for the Definitive Edition. This hints at new story content that might shed light on the original game's loose ends.

Of course, we can't talk about this content yet, but what we can say is that it is not accessed through a separate menu or launcher as you might have seen with other Xenoblade titles.

No BLADE Levels or Division Points

This one is a bit more mechanical, so bear with us.

In the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, there was a mechanic called BLADE Level, which affected a handful of things. It determined which Basic Missions you had access to, it increased your maximum number of Reward Tickets (used for acquiring materials), and it allowed you to improve your Field Skills used to collect treasure. Your BLADE Level was improved with Division Points earned by completing quests, defeating enemies, and performing tasks suited to your Division chosen early in the game.

Well, long story short, BLADE Level doesn't exist anymore - same with Division Points alongside it.

This, of course, has some repercussions on the game. BLADE Levels originally allowed you to power up your Field Skills to acquire loot from higher-level treasure spots. If you only had your Biological Field Skill at Level 1, you could not acquire loot from Level 2 Biological treasure spots until you upgraded. Now that BLADE Levels are gone, that means Field Skill levels are also gone ... almost. There are still a few locked treasure items that require you to complete some later-game quests to gain an unlock skill, but there's no such thing as "Archaeological Field Skill Level 4" anymore. That means *most* (not all) treasures on Mira can be obtained right away.

Your Basic Missions available to you simply seem dictated by Story Mission progress this time around. Also, you can simply hold 9999 Reward Tickets from the get-go, although it'll be quite some time before you actually get close to that limit.

FrontierNav is now accessed via Menu

This is a bit of an obvious change. For the original game, the entirety of FrontierNav was controlled through the Wii U gamepad. Even if you had a pro controller and wanted to play the game on a single screen, you still had to use the gamepad for this fundamental feature. Now with Xenoblade X Definitive Edition, everything has been reworked to work all on one screen. It is what it is.

Other Additions

These last few additions don't get their own section of this listicle page, but that doesn't mean they aren't big additions. In fact, some of these change the complexion of the game significantly.

  • Affinity Levels with Party Members Fill More Quickly. This allows you to access Affinity Missions more easily.
  • Party Members not in the active party will still gain EXP and remain roughly around your main character's level. In the original version, you had to level up each party member separately (and there are a lot of them).
  • You now gain rewards for completing your survey of Mira, based on the percentages tracked through your map menus. Rewards usually come in the form of money, Rewards Tickets, or Energy Clips (which increase the Quick Cooldown meter, allowing you to use it more often per battle.)
  • More Defined Quest Tracking: Xenoblade X’s side quests often require a lot of scrounging for resources, and to match the standards of modern games quest tracking on the map has been updated.
Note: There are some other additions that have been made to the Definitive Edtion that we aren't allowed to talk about yet. Also, Online Features for the Definitive Edition have yet to be activated, so we cannot see how these compare to the original implementation. However, it is worth noting that these require a paid Nintendo Online account, while paid accounts were not an option for the Wii U version.