Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Shines On Switch 2 In This Side-By-Side Comparison

Having played this game for a decade now, seeing it at 60fps is freaky, and so crisp too.

Shiny.

Waiting patiently for an update on 2 as well.

Me watching this through my phone

They’re the same picture.

I just turned it on for a little during work in handheld and damn... that higher framerate be lookin' good I tell ya what and I'm in the forest area.

How hard it is to learn the mechanics in these games?
I've always been curious about this series but whenever I see gameplay of them they just seem so overwhelming, but I still want to at least try one of them out so I want to know if the games just throw most of the mechanics at you at once and you just have to figure it out yourself and read tutorials online? Or are there some in-game tutorials that teach you all that stuff?

Ready to do another playthrough of this game with these specs.

@LazyDaisy yeah to me it looks the same just presented in 4k. The initial switch update looked better compared to the Wii U version than this. It’s fine. 60fps is the star of the show.

This is a much needed improvement. Some of the opening sequence elements appeared to be running at sub30 in the original (Switch) version while the new 60fps version seemed to be consistently 60fps. There were also some other visual improvements beyond fps that I noticed, which is a huge plus.

@Sylamp
A beginner can probably button mash their way through most of the early game. I haven’t played the second half of the game yet, so I can’t comment on that.
But there’s also plenty of room to take advantage of the game’s systems that are harder to master.
Perhaps someone with more experience can offer additional insight.

@Sylamp I'd say start with X then go to 3 if you like it and beat it. Those 2 work similarly to the old FF/DQ class systems and X has a great series of systems to support you while playing. There is a tutorial and the overall combat is smooth, once you note when to use your player class' design (attack, defense, support, debuffs) it makes the combat simpler.

@Sylamp The series is complicated, but does a wonderful job easing you into it. They introduce new mechanics slowly enough not to overwhelm you. Even though I played XBC1 and XBX when they first came out, I was still hesitant to play XBC2 and XBC3 because they looked overly confusing. Thankfully I gave them a chance last year, and was pleased by the well paced in-game tutorials, etc. Now, XBC2 can be very obtuse in places, but the entire series is a joy to play, and you get a serious bang for your buck.

The resolution bump isn't always super noticeable in all games, but it really makes Xenoblade Chronicles X - which I already thought looked great on Wii U - so much crisper; and the 60 fps on Switch 2 makes it look almost like a whole new game.

So if the $4.99 Switch 2 upgrade is 4k was the old Switch version 3.8k or 3.9k b/c I can barely tell the difference. And I did try.

To be fair I always thought a lot of those PS4 to PS5 upgrades always looked really similar as well, so maybe it's just my old eyes. Or my 10" iPad screen which I'm guessing is maybe 1080p? I really don't know.🤷‍♂️

Bonus points though for the middle of the video having an ad for the Figma AI make your own game creator. Just perfect.🤣

It looks considerably worse in handheld. Lazy work by Monolithsoft sure it looks great docked but why do we have to pay for a worse portable experience?

@KimBread @betterthanvegas @breach187 ok that's my question answered, thanks everyone, I'll give this game a go sometime soon

@Rice why does it look worse? Surely 1080p and 60fps in handheld was all it needed right?

To this day I can hardly ever tell a difference in these side-by-side video comparisons. Watching on my laptop at 2160/60fps. I am sure it's better, and 60fps is great for any game, but man, jealous of those who can see it easily. I will just trust other commenters.

Can't believe they didn't fix the pop-in in town.

@SplatRay001 a lot of jarring artfiacts from the upscaler in handheld. It made the experience far worse for me. Ai will smith eating noodles type stuff

@Rice Damn I wish I had eyes like you. I can't see sh*t. You must be a PC player, huh.

@N8tiveT3ch Why? Our peasant eyes allows us to be oblivious and enjoy things more. Hehe Switch 2 upgrade go brrr!

@Rice that really sucks, handheld was the main thing I was gonna buy the upgrade for

@N8tiveT3ch I def play on pc a lot. I noticed this in like the first few minutes. It is a curse I haven't played yet on docked. Hoping that 4k is as nice as it sounds

The upscaling gives everything a bit of a shimmer. The game looks pretty good in docked mode but in handheld that shimmer becomes a lot more distracting. I really hope they fix that

Not seeing any noticeable difference.

Since this is Monolith Soft we are talking about, I honestly expected them to make bigger changes, like they did with the Switch Zelda games. Things like texture resolution and alpha effects/textures are just more exposed in higher resolution... but hey, this is still something good!
But for the rest of the trilogy, I wouldn't mind more visual upgrades, even if that means asking $70 for every one of them. Maybe they realized this game would need a Naughty Dog-level remaster to look much better, and that would've been off the $5 upgrade budget. Anyway, this is just the beginning of the Xenoblade franchise on the new console..