Monolith Soft Director Would "Love" Xenoblade Chronicles X On Switch, Money Stands In The Way

...guess now we know where the first slice of my €uromillions prize money will go.

Great game just reading this makes me take out my Wii U from the closet just to do another run.

Still expect it to be ported in the future

The tragedy of XCX continue

The Technical challenges, a game too big, too ambitious. We can see a lot of what was plan for the game through side content and concept arts, which explain why in the end so much of its world and story was left unexplored. Only for it to sell poorly on a dying console. Even its OST is criminally underrated. So many uniques and awesome tracks are buried and overshadowed by lesser one that are much more prominent.

If one game deserves a "complet editions" or a sequel which continue where the first left off it is this one.

I'd much prefer a sequel. X is one of my favourite games of all time. It has its issues, but I can overlook them.

I still need to finish X, if they would port it and give an option to transfer the save I'd be very pleased.

Not sure what he's talking about tbh. Re-creating everything? We're talking about a port here. The primary thing that would seem difficult to me is optimization. XCX seemed like it was highly optimized for Wii U, and they cut a lot of corners in a smart way.

Anyway, I own all original versions, but I would probably buy a version of any XC game for Switch, just because I usually enjoy longer JRPGs on a portable platform.

I'd happily buy it again. Don't care about it being a port. Bring this, Mario Maker and Pikmin over from Wii U and then I can all but box the Wii U up and free up an HDMI port on my TV.

I wish they'd finally decide wheter to port it or not.

I have the Limited edition lying around, but didn't get to play it yet. I don't wanna start playing XCX and have another Hyrule Warriors situation where hundreds of hours of playtime gotta be revised because they decided to release a complete edition ^^,

Guess I'll be playing TMS #FE then. Haven't completed that either and I doubt this one's getting a port soon.

I never got to play it. It’s one port I was hoping they’d bring to Switch. Hopefully it’ll show up anyway.

@Wouwter Aw yeah, that would be grand. I doubt though it will happen. Not sure if save file from U and switch are even compatible.

@Retron Can I join in on that dream?

Despite owning the Wii U version, I would gladly pay to play it again on the Switch.

I really enjoyed what I played of XCX. I still need to finish it - more a comment on my own limited time and attention span... I think it deserves a remake.

I keep throwing money on the screen but nothing's happening!

@Spectra I'm with you on all of that. I absolutely loved the original and if not for X, the Switch sequel would have been as much of a day one as day one's get. But X did happen and I did not like it at all. I actually gave up before I got a Skell,I'm sure things would have got much better from that point but I just couldn't be bothered playing it anymore as I wasn't enjoying myself. Which is a shame as it was enough to put me off XC2,a game I'd perhaps love like I did the original.

Count me as one of those that missed out on the Wii U era. This game, Super Mario 3D World, and Pikmin 3 are the three games I'm still holding out hope for Switch ports.

@Spectra
"They did a TERRIBLE job with the music in this game."

Having missed the first game (now too expensive) and X, and after not buying 2 in order to focus on BOTW and Skyrim, I think the Xenoblades boat has already sailed for me.

Even if the first two got re-released on Switch, which would be the best for me (for my pocket at least, and the ability to play them on the go, which is the way I play 90% of the time), they're too big for me to play before I die. I like to switch games, not playing one until 100% completion and then change.

Just think, they could add an option to turn off the music, or at least that damn song playing in the main hub area...

One of my favorite games ever.when it came out i did not leave my house for 4 days.port this please

@TheGameSquid I too gave up on that game. Played about 10-15 hours and was then like 'you know what? I'm not actually enjoying this' and stopped.

Would possibly give the game a second chance on Switch though.

@shaneoh

The OST is fabulous, from my perspective it's the best ever made in a MonolithSoft game. BUT, the mixing between the tracks and the audio(SFX and dialogues) IS NOT GOOD AT ALL. The problem is that there is no settings for the sound, which is a shame !

Still my favorite Xenoblade by far ! It's the most complex, the biggest, the fullest and clearly design for more adult people...
9.5/10

I have plenty of money to throw around.

None of that is going to Monolith though. Unless they at some point manage to actually make ONE, not many just ONE adequate side quest in their games.

One would be enough.

XCX Is one of the overhyped and overliked games in the history of gaming and XC2 suffered from pretty much every same problem. Pacing, side quests, grinding... urgh. Battle system was great, there were some good enemies and characters, but way too many game breaking flaws in both games. One of the worst things was too large empty worlds.

I eventually just ran through XC2 because I had invested too much time into it.

Panic Button

It'll be better if they put all efforts into the sequel - XCX2. Also Wii U is much better for this game due to a second screen on GamePad, where you can easily manage all those tricky probes.

Plz

@oji Having played a lot of the game on the wii U gamepad only, it's not that bad of an experience.

@Moroboshi876 I think you can still purchase the first game on Wii U for $20. But I understand, I paid $80+ for it before it came out on the Wii U eShop.

I like Xenoblade Chronicles X (and I am replaying it again), but the story suffered by their chasing an overly vast world. Too much of it depends on you completing side quest missions or character missions, and if you don't complete them at the right points in the story it is still very disjointed.

But it was/is a game I've put over 300 hours into, only Breath of the Wild has gotten more of my time on the Wii U.

My favourite Wii U game and probably my favourite RPG (easily my favourite Xenoblade too)! I'd love to get it on Switch, even if I won't be able to carry over my 100+ hours save file. Still, what I'd like even better is a sequel.

Still my favourite game ever.

So a port is welcomed

@Darknyht Yeah, but I'm not sure if the system is something I like anyway.

The main problem is, though, that I can't put that kind of time into any game. I'm going towards the end of BOTW (for me that means all missions and the DLC, not 900 seeds collecting) and it'll be less than 200 hours, yet it will be the game I will have put more hours into.

So, hundreds of hours for X and for 2 is too much. And taking XC1 into account (I'm sorry, I need to play complete series if possible)... it's too much.

I spent the last three weeks playing XCX and just texted a buddy that it needed a Switch port last night. Such a massive game, it's terrific! I struggled to find meaningful stuff to do after the credits rolled on XC2, but I have more hours of post game on XCX than I had on the story itself.

As far as recreating the world, it'd obviously need a lot of work. The textures are questionable even by last gen standards, and there are spots where the long draw distance is only made possible by using mega simple geometry. These all look fine at 720p and lend to some of the charm of the game, but considering how much heat XC2 got over its graphical issues, an upscaled port wouldn't fly. You'd also lose the GamePad functionality, which I'd argue is the best that the Wii U saw. The pad became a tool to help you navigate the world rather than a distraction.

This game needs to be kept alive, though. It's too big and too beautiful to let it fade into obscurity on a platform that's going to become rare in a few years. I've been surprised by how active the online community still is; I've seen more invitations for raid missions in the last three weeks than I did during the initial release.

We need this, Monolith. Take my money.

I would love it if they ported this over to Switch though. I don't have a Wii U, never owned one, and at this point, it seems very unlikely that I'll get one seeing that almost everything that I wanted to play on Wii U has already or will be ported over to Switch in the future. I don't want to go out and buy a whole console just for Xenoblade Chronicles X.

@Spectra Nooooo!i actually liked some of thier songs!

Black tar was like, cringy but hype at the same time and the overdrive music was dope. It's a shame you didn't enjoy it.

@LunarLunatone I bought a Wii U just for Earthbound a few years ago, but fast forward to today and it's basically a XCX machine. It's set up next to my Switch strictly for this game.

No regrets.

@BenAV it's funny that you say that, me personally i consider X to be the best game in the series

They could hand over both the original Xenoblade, and X to some of the specialized studios that would reverse engineer them and create a port from the compiled assets.

BUT.
That's not free either, and results can be questionable.

@Moroboshi876 Each title is stand alone, with some tie ins. Did you play every zelda game before playing BOTW?

I really hope this gets ported.

@Spectra said "They did a TERRIBLE job with the music in this game."

PUT A HEADSET RIGHT NOW ! BEST TRACK EVER !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFwBUS7aWfg

Ya shouldn't have removed that Boob Slider.

@Trajan No, I didn't (it's my 3rd Zelda actually). But I want to. I know they're not much connected, but it's something I like to do as it was intended.

Thought this was a given port, hopefully still happens. This and Devil's Third are the two games that make me wish I still had a Wii U. And that one Namco F2P treasure hunting game.

I had to wear reading glasses to read that small text. I do not even need reading glasses. They would need to fix that.

@River3636 This is a fair point. I have a special chair I sit in that puts me way too close to the TV when I have to do a bunch of menu work.

@Spectra Really? The "We're stuck on a different plaaaaneeet?" didn't stick with you? 🙄

Too bad, my wife would have loved having this on the Switch. Oh well, can't get everything you want.

@BenAV Agreed. No need for a port of this one, just a continuation of the series with XC3.

I would only double dip with XCX if they extend the story, give us some answer with an XC-worthy ending that ends with a bang and remove the obligatory online that disconnects every few hours.

The game was beautiful but felt more like an MMO than a proper RPG with a lot of RNG and uncertain loots. Also the skells were so powerful, I felt insanely weak without it.

@Octorok385 It was so frustrating. Imagine playing 150 hours of gameplay and squinting half the time. I looked like my Grandpa Saddler.

Create a Wii U emulator that would emulate the game on the Switch

@Moroboshi876 But then because of that mentality it prevents you from playing any of them. That's silly. I played 1 after 2. No issues.

I remember playing this game and thinking it was a shame that more people wouldn't experience due to the Wii U not being very popular. It deserves to be on the Switch! And I agree with comments above saying a "complete" or "revised" edition with additional content and some rebalancing would be fantastic. Maybe tweak the Skell combat to be a little more involved. Also they should redo all the faces to the XC2 style.

@Trajan Sure, and I do a lot of silly things regarding video games, but I wouldn't have any issue with playing 1 after 2. The problem is... Xenoblade Chronicles is too expensive as it is, I mean if they don't do a port for Switch at some point.

@Moroboshi876
XC1 is $20 on the WiiU and $40 on the =NEW= 3DS XL & =NEW= 2DS XL

@Rhaoulos The ending drive me nuts. I want answers but we will never get them

@Gold_Ranger Digital in a later console is something I don't usually do. But in Wii's case even less. I like motion controls. I don't have any of the NEWS, I own a lovely OLD 3DS. XCX would have to be on Wii U, that I admit it's not that difficult today. The problem is the first one in Wii version.

But well, they may announce a remaster/remake of any of them at some point, and I prefer playing on Switch if I have to do it now. (I think this isn't a contradiction to what I said about not being much into backwards compatibility).

@Moroboshi876 Several copies of the Wii version on eBay are $30 buy it now.

I would gladly buy and play this game again on the Switch. X had a special feel to it that put it above the other Xeno games in my personal opinion. While it may not feel complete, it was my favorite Xenoblade game by far. I loved that game!

@Moroboshi876
As I said. It is $20 on the WiiU.
It plays in WiiMode so you have to use the WiiRemote and Nunchuk or WiiRemote and WiiClassic Controller.

I haven’t played it, but love the other games, so would love to see a port.

@Trajan I'm in Europe, here it's more than twice that price. And used!

@Gold_Ranger Good to know, maybe I'll wait for a discount. It happened once, but I missed it. But do you have to play it on the little screen?

Alright, any secret billionaires in this chat that wanna take one for the team and help fund this for them? 😉

@Moroboshi876
Not sure if it'll get a discount other than MyNintendoRewards. As if $20 isn't already cheap enough. O_o
And you play on either the game pad or the TV.
I played X first. I started XC2. I had XC1 for years and only just finished it for the first time the other day.

As much as I loved this game not too stoked about a Switch port as I’m never gonna devote another 250+ hrs to play through it again.

But if a game needs a sequel its this one. Just put a bit more emphasis on story and drop the create-a-character. My blue hared mute really broke the immersion during the conversations and cutscenes.

@Gold_Ranger Well, it's a matter of personal taste. As I prefer physical games and in the original system, 20 for a digital version in a newer system via backwards compatibility is a little expensive for me, for the conditions in which I would be getting the game. I don't know if anyone can relate. But it's what I feel. Anyway I already said it's good to know there is this option. Thanks.

GoFundMe?

Would love to play it since I missed the whole Wii U console

Please, please, please bring this to the Switch with 1080p and better draw distance!! This is my most favorite jrpg!!!

Bring it to switch!!!!!

Well, if they remake it, they'd have to finish it...the game had a lot of loose ends and really felt like there was meant to be DLC or something.

@BenAV Different strokes for different folks, but XCX is not a terrible game. It has it's flaws, but it's one of the smartest designs in open-world gaming and JRPGs.

It's counter-intuitive in that the critical path lacks urgency and is locked by seemingly arbitrary side content criteria, but it's actually an inversion of open world narrative design that elegantly solves a lot of problems, mainly that putting false urgency in the critical path for the sake of motivation (as if players need to be convinced to play the game) makes exploration and "side content" feel meaningless.
Why am I collecting flora samples for Goodguy X when Badguy Y is about to hatch thier evil plan?
This kind of psuedo-urgency bogs down every open world design I've ever seen' and makes the most fun part of the games - exploring the open world - feel like faffing about.

Exploration is your prime directive, and everything is done to feed back into it narratively and systematically. Urgency is put into the side missions, or purposefully quarantined in the story chapters.

I hate to tell anyone they are playing it wrong, but if you are racing towards getting your Skell license, you are doing it wrong, and you are going to have a bad time.
If you play the game properly - exploring Mira to the limits (as directed by your C.O.) and breaking systems open to do so, many of the seemingly baffling design choices fall into place (you should never have to farm or grind until the post-game), and you will find one of the grandest and most rewarding games ever made.

I would probably play it, but with the volume off. Xenoblade Chronicles had obnoxious noises from characters who are constantly shouting the same lines and a great soundtrack you can't hear under all the shouting. X has that and a soundtrack that is 90 percent obnoxious and 10 percent amazing. It's like they played Sonic Adventure 2 and thought its soundtrack was actually cool. Or that they thought the soundtrack should be people constantly talking too since you can't hear it under the constant talking anyways.

But the gameplay and story are cool in both. Xenoblade games, that is. Not Sonic Adventure. That has the Chao garden and a few fun Sonic levels. I do love a good Xenoblade boss fight.

If money is lacking, I'm sure crowdfunding will resolve it!
I'll be the one to participate first!!

He’s talking about a port as if it’s a remake, and as if the Xenoblade series isn’t as profitable as ever; am I missing something?

I do expect it will happen at some point regardless but this confirms I should focus my hopes and dreams on Tokyo Mirage Sessions instead.

I absolutely loved XCX when I played it late last winter/early spring. The game is by no means perfect and has some plot issues as well as nested menus and miniscule text, but the soundtrack, combat, exploration, creatures, and some side quests more than make up for this. I doubt I would be as interested in DXM if I didn't enjoy Skell combat in this game so much.

More people deserve to experience this game.

@YorumiTheUnemply I thought they shut the servers down for Lost Reavers. I gave up a while ago when the game seemed to crash every time I attempted to play it due to network errors.

I loved XBX. The game felt unfinished as the ending did not resolve the plot. I went insane from the music to the point of modding the game and replacing with the colony 9 day and night themes from XBC. Much better.

Would I play it again? No. Too many hours invested.

@BensonUii I did the same - around 70 hours before I got in a Skell. I liked the literal layer it added to exploration, but the combat was so much better on foot.

@BenAV I get you don't like it, but you still have some explaining to do before you get to 'terrible'. I'm still not sure if I think XC2 is a terrible game or I just didn't like it. It was, demonstrably a step backwards in quest design and rewarding exploration, and had more baffling QoL design decisions consider the previous entries made such progress for the genre as a whole - it was obviously apolgetic and dumbed down from XCX, but I still wouldn't say it was terrible on account of how many people love it, amd I won't spend any more time to properly criticize it.

@Bensei Capcom has made it possible to transfer a save from 3DS to Switch (but Monster Hunter may be quite a different case).

KICKSTARTER PROJECT!

@OorWullie As someone who never got into X and is close to beating 2, give 2 a shot. It feels a lot more like XC1 and as someone who loved 1, I think its just as good if not better.

I don't see why money would be an issue. The game would sell just fine. The language seems to indicate they would do the port job themselves...which makes no sense. Work on your secret new game, and contract out the port to someone else. I see no reason this game wouldn't be a good selling game. Sales on their games will be good now that people actually know who monolift are considering they have a character in smash bros. Though if for ANY reason it meant slower development of new game I'd be fine holding off.

I'm very disappointed in this news.

Re-creating everything? You don't need to recreate everything, it's mainly a job of porting the game and optimizing the game on the new hardware.

From what I see, Nintendo doesn't see profit in the X subseries. And with all the money they made from Xenoblade 2, they are finding it a better option to jettison the black sheep of the franchise. No port of XCX to switch and no sequel to Xenoblade X imo. Sword waifus from XC2 are here to stay.

I'm sad now. It's going to get left with the cliffhanger like Dark Dawn was ages ago.

I'm one of the few who liked X more than the main series games, but I guess to Nintendo the X fans are expendable.

That is ok. Rather they use that money and make a new game. That is what the Switch needs.

Goes to show that even if you're a fully-owned studio by a big company like Nintendo, funding just won't magically appear. Monolith, as a separate entity still, still needs a level of independence. Goes for any company for that matter. That's usually what's confusing a lot of people.

Add 4 player online Co-op and it’ll be gold

I adore XCX (one of my favorite RPG's of all time) but I would happily go for a full blown sequel (Xenoblade Chronicles X2) before waiting for another port. The original was built around the Wii U hardware and did a great job of integrating the Gamepad and I don't need them to try and jam it's functionality onto the Switch. On the other hand, I would lose my s#!t for a full sequel built around the Switch hardware. XC2 and Torna floored me with how much I loved those games and the thought of something the scale of XCX built around the hardware makes me soo excited. Honestly, if they revealed a XCX2, it would likely get me more excited than even Metroid Prime 4 right now. If there was a single request I could make of Monolith Soft, if would be for BOTH offline and online multiplayer as I would love to hang out with some buddies and explore either a new portion of Mira or a whole new planet.

In other words buy a wiiu.

It would be a very awkward port, anyway, considering how fundumental the second screen map is to the gameplay. In some sections, you'd have to be nearly constantly switching back and forth between the map and the main gameplay on just a single screen, which would then be even more awkward in console mode without any touchscreen controls available to effeciently mark the map.

So Monolith doesn't have the money to port it, and this game is already one that's best played on the Wii U, anyway. If you really want to play it, go buy a Wii U.

@Spiders True, XCX is based foremost on exploration, but it would work a lot better if exploring Mira wasn't such a pain in the butt before you get a Skell. There's no system included to mark where you've already been, you have to constantly revise your paths to avoid unscalable mountains and plateaus that aren't clearly marked on the map, other areas with seemingly random groups of high level enemies also need to be avoided, and even some safe terrian is so uneven and/or overly dense that it's frustrating to move through it on foot.

XCX is still a very good game, but it has some notable flaws such as a weak story, an overly complicated menu system with overly small text, and a frustrating exploration system that doesn't fully open up until you can get a flying Skell.

@Moroboshi876 if you have any interest in the games whatsoever then just play XC2. The stories stand on their own, with recurring themes just like the final fantasy games.

Port, Or Sequel. I'd buy both. That's how good a game it is.

They need money! Because the game is massive - not just in world size but also in file size.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is 23GB and that means it would need to be on a 32GB cartridge for it to have the same audiovisual quality as the Wii U version. The next smaller cartridge is 16GB and Xeno X wouldn't fit on that.

It would suck to have it looking worse than the Wii U version by compressing it into a 16GB cartridge, so I can see why they need money. Those 32GB cartridges are very expensive and even after 1 and a half years only Square Enix has bought them, for a single game (the Japanese-only Dragon Quest Heroes I & II).

Money for re-creating the game? They also need money to make a new game, what a pointless answer.

I got Xenoblade Chronicles X for Wii U but I still haven't played it and I just recently beat Xenoblade Chronicles after seven years. Ha!

@SKTTR He did not say that but you probably revealed what he thinks. That's one thing I hate about Switch. The overpriced proprietary cartridges managed by Nintendo are making games extremely compressed (textures, audio or both) unless they are tiny already or the developer deals with the extra costs of a high-capacity cartridge somehow like Square Enix with Dragon Quest Heroes I & II.

I didn't care for it. It was bloated with too many ideas.

XCX was impressive in a lot of ways and I tried so hard to get into it. But after honestly enjoying exploring the world for a while, actually making any progress just felt like work. For those of you who sat out the Wii U, I really don't think this game should be at the top of your wish list.

As much as I sunk over 200+ hours into XCX, i'd rather they just focus on continuing it...and fix its glaring issues. The main story, if you could even call it one, was basically nothing. The side quests is basically the story. The overdrive system was completely busted. The online co op was completely pointless. It just made farming handed to you on a silver platter.

Things need better reasons for doing. I don't want to see every character be capable of soloing any enemy in the game. If there is gonna be online co op, make us HAVE to work with each other like in X1 an X2. Kinda defeats the purpose otherwise.

@BulbasaurusRex I mean, all those points are part of the appeal of the exploration for me - it's challenging. Breath of the Wild is the obvious counter-point, and, as wonderful as it is, has zero challenge in exploring anywhere outside stamina and weather.

As far as the map not telling you were you've been - I don't understand because it does? It's not as granular as Hero's Path, but you literally map the continent section by section.

Everything else you pointed out however, is a fair criticism, and I think we both agree it is far from a terrible game, as @BenAV asserted.

@Spiders There's a big difference between enjoyable challenge and frustrating challenge, and XCX's pre-Skell exploration definitely falls in the latter category.

The only way you can mark the map is by placing the probes. That does not allow you to determine exactly where you have and haven't been, even within the sectors where the probes are located. There are also plenty of times when I go explore, yet I die or am otherwise unable to reach the nearest probe point. Is there another way that I'm overlooking? The game really needs an automatic fog of war like the first game has, although either semi-transparant or toggleable in this game's case. It could also use a better terrain indicator, as even the first game's map used solid lines to indicate unpassable terrain.

@DaruniaJones88 I actually like that XCX leaves you completely in the dark. The main narrative is this bizarre arc where you always think you're close to closure even as more wacky stuff happens, so it's sort of cool that the only closure the devs gave was that Mira makes zero sense. I'm afraid that a sequel, or even a brand new game set in the same universe, would wreck the mystery.

Don’t! My U needs something unique to feel special these days, and this the last ‘exclusive’ (I own) left!

pound sign Remember Mii Remembering U

That's ok. I missed out on the game, but after playing the other two Xenoblade Chronicles games, I want to play this one now. Would probably get it used, because I think it's really cheap.

@FaroreAbhorsen Ah, that's the difference between you and most other players. You enjoy "working" for the exploration, whereas most of us find it to be a frustrating chore. Sure, more of the terrain is passable than it looks (while some of it is still completely impassable without a Skell) but only from certain sides, while it's so difficult to traverse that we really don't like having to do it while also having to deal with enemies and having no way to specifically mark where we've already been. For us, the Skells make the exploration finally be enjoyable, not too easy.

I sure as hell hope for a XC-X sequel.
For me personally it was the most immersive title ever.
I tried getting info XC afterwards, but that didn't grip me. And because of that I havent touches XC2. I just want to continue playing on Mira because of that massive cliffhanger.

I hope, that Nintendo will make this port. Pretty sure, that sales will be higher, than Wii U version.

@FaroreAbhorsen I know this is a late reply but the only Flying only skill being locked is on the flying island in the beginning area, the other 2 parts can be reached via parkour on the Skell without flying. Like reaching the peak of that mountain.

I would love to play this game again! XC never really grabbed me; I tried to play it but it just didn't click. But this game.. Oh man. I got back into it after not having played it for about a year and everything came back. Maybe it's partly nostalgia, but something about the world just makes sense. Maybe I'm just more of a sci-fi fan, but I love getting lost in this world and the music for the overworld is amazing.

@Kokusho

To be fair to its OST, it was released on a USD hard drive with the special edition box set of the game, one that can only be extracted on a windows computer by installing software and downloading the music from it.

It's gorgeous music but I STILL haven't been able to extract the files to my Macbook Pro.