Debo626

Excellent article @alanahagues. The world may have largely moved on to getting hyped for Switch 2, but I am still very much stuck in to Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition, and hope we hear about paid or free performance updates for it on S2 soon. This game is a master class in open world design, and I vehemently disagree with the points of view of other commenters who feel that this world is empty. Perhaps this type of gameplay is not to their liking, because this world is anything but empty.
Also, as a huge fan of the Xenoblade series, I don't want MonolithSoft going anywhere near a Pokémon game. MonolithSoft excels at what they do, and Pokémon games are more popular and sell better than Xenoblade. Putting two and two together, I don't want them to make a wildly successful Pokemon game, and then never be allowed to make a Xenoblade game again. GameFreak needs to carry themselves.

@Konsori "Banana for scale" 😂

Yeah I never buying one of these. My days as a gamer might be coming to an end, at least for new games, if physical goes away. I don't consent to the full all-digital future.

@Overzeal Excellent question, I too would like to know when/if XCX will receive a $10 performance upgrade on S2. That'll be my main game for the next year probably, or until a new 3D Zelda or new Xenoblade releases. I want S2 asap and want to enjoy one of my favorite games on it the best way possible.
Also, if XCX comes up, thank Nintendo for finally releasing it please? They didn't have to port it, especially as well as they did and with so much new content. So thanks Nintendo.

@tobsesta99 You're not wrong. The only counterpoint I would make is that it's because we're adults with responsibilities now that gaming needs more than ever to remain escapism. The news is so sad and terrible everywhere one looks lately. This hobby and this site were some of the last bastions of escapism we had. Now even that's been invaded and corrupted. It just makes a person sad.

@ThisisJosh I couldn't agree more with your description of this administration.

It's a little wierd to charge for it, but it does honestly look fun and interesting, so for ten bucks I'll probably get it. 🤷

Really tired of seeing politicians' names (you all know who I mean) in the gaming news, but here we are. Gaming should be escapism, and our government is intruding into it with real life. It's very frustrating. Thanks for reporting NL and Alana. I hope the "powers that be" work this out soon.

Value is subjective. No one here can definitively say a game is not "worth it" full stop because your idea of "worth it" will differ from mine and ten other people. Buy it if you think it's "worth it" and don't if you don't. Getting all twisted and angry on the internet isn't going to change anything, least of all Nintendo's mind. Yeah, they don't drop the price of their games. BotW still cost what it did to develop and it's still an amazing game 8 year slater, so honestly why should they drop the price? No other industry faces such entitlement from their target audience as gaming. Tama doesn't get angry tweets directed at them screaming drop the price of high-end maple drums - those things just cost a lot to development and create. Things cost money, these are for-profit companies, not charities, and the consumer can choose to vote with their wallet; that's how the free market works. Honestly for me the most annoying thing about all this is seeing the names of divisive politicians in my gaming news sites; this is supposed to be my escape from that tomfoolery.

Wow, Mother 3 again?

At this point for me it's MKW and XCX still, hoping for an S2 upgrade option to utilize the extra horsepower of the new system. But other than that, it'll be mainly XCX, Mario Kart, Rocket League (S2 edition maybe?), and maybe the odd other game here and there until either the next 3D Zelda or Xenoblade 4/XCX2.

@AlanaHagues Hey I hear you on having quirks lol there isn't a "quirk-less" one among us on this site. I think it's definitely a "what one is used to" thing, as with phones. As tech consumes more and more power for every little thing it does, these kinds of concerns are bound to crop up. It feels to me, as far as phones go anyway, that charging opportunities are generally more readily available now than when smartphones were new. At the same time, batteries are somewhat more efficient now than when Switch 1 was new. Hopefully part of the process of redesigning the joy-con from the ground up included taking advantage of the latest battery technology.

I never turn off Rumble in my controllers and have never had a problem with battery life. I genuinely don't understand where this concern is coming from, but this is the second time I've seen you write about this, @alanahagues. Maybe I'm just lucky, but this is literally never been an issue for me. Nice to see that Switch 2 will have even better rumble.

I'm not happy whenever I read news that isn't about gaming or music anymore. Switch 2 was supposed to be a dose of blessed escapism and distraction from how terrible the rest of the world seems right now. Yet our government, preoccupied with being nothing more than divisive and rage-inducing, is making everything worse and their tomfoolery is now affecting my gaming escapism. Sad days. Switch 2 is still going to be awesome when I can get one, but this does dampen things.

Has anyone heard of Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition will be getting the "Switch 2 Edition" treatment? That game is absolutely worth the extra $10, $15, or $20 to play at higher res and fps.

I don't think analog triggers are going to happen on a Nintendo console again. Everyone wishing for them is setting themselves up for disappointment. I'd say if analog triggers are a must-have or deal-breaker, you should consider another console manufacturer.

So far it's as awesome as I remember from 900+ hours on Wii U and then some. I'm loving all the changes they've made so far. I've been wishing for this to be on Switch for years and honestly couldn't be happier. Ports are definitely not always this well done. MonolithSoft are one of the best studios in gaming, full stop.

X will be my main game until the next Xenoblade or Zelda come out, and unless it's A Link Between Worlds or A Link to the Past, remakes/ports won't tear me away. XCX is a straight-up masterpiece and technical wonder, and I've been waiting to be able to play it on Switch for 7 years now. What a great generation to be a Xenoblade fan.
Afterthought: MK9 might tear me away a little too when it comes out, but not much. It'll still be a side game like Rocket League.

Slow news day? 😂

@Samalik Disagree. Have you played Xenoblade 2? The character designs are much more revealing and the overly jiggly female body parts are overkill for a video game not rated M. Look I know XC2 fans are pretty adamantly defensive about this aspect of their favorite game, but in my opinion, and that of a not insignificant portion of the Xenoblade series, the outfits are two revealing. I'm an adult and feel awkward with half naked overly jiggly anime-girl characters on my 55" TV which faces the street. If that's your thing then I guess cool for you, but please don't act like I have no legitimate issue to stand on here. This has been well discussed numerous times here and elsewhere.

@IceEarthGuard I was referring to XC2 but point taken. My point in hoping they refrain from revisiting the designs from XC2 is about the overly revealing character outfits in the designs. I forgot XCX was rated T, though I still feel games with that rating should feature outfits more modest than XC2.

@HugoGED Agreed, the character designs in X are awesome now. At the very least, if they could refrain from revisiting the character designs from 2; these are supposed to be kids' games after all.
Can't wait for tomorrow!

@harrystein With that mindset, it's obvious that this type of game is never going to be your thing. So why come on here and make disparaging comments toward people who do enjoy this type of game? My life is full and wonderful, with family and creative projects and a good job and everything, and yet I still played XCX on Wii U for over 900 hours, and am looking forward to at least that over again on Switch. Enjoyment is subjective. Let people like things. If you don't like something, it costs you nothing to keep that information to yourself.
Have a nice day m8.

Can't wait, Thursday is coming, let's go!
Great review PJ, thanks as always for an insightful take.

@Jiggies As many other have already told you, inflation. Also, not one single currency on this planet has as much purchasing power as it did in 2017. Zero of them. It is completely unreasonable to expect newer, more powerful and capable tech to cost the same as the previous generation did 8 years ago. That's such an outrageous statement I wonder if your original comment was meant sarcastically as a troll. Add unnecessary trade wars into the mix and yeah $299 is never going to happen. Tbh I'd rather have a Switch 2 at $399 or higher and know I'm getting something amazing than spend even more money on a less useful competitor console with fewer compelling games.

So hyped for this, I've been wanting XCX on Switch since XC2 hit me as "meh" in 2017. 3.20 can't get here fast enough.
Also, as a general rule, we don't pronounce "X" as "cross" in English, though there are exceptions. No one ever went in for a "cross-ray" at the doctor, for example, to get an internal picture, so I'm not fussed that they're calling it "Xenoblade Chronicles X" as that's all I've ever called it. 🤷
Anyway, so psyched to finally be getting this on Switch, it's going to be amazing all over again.

I've been wanting this since 2017; so excited and can't wait for 3.20!

@Uncle_Franklin Agreed. Hopefully it doesn't happen.

@AlexanderDaniels Thanks for the suggestion, and you're not wrong. But there are a few reasons why that still doesn't appeal to me as much as owning physically.
-preference of having only my player profile on my Switch, so I don't have to select one (additional button click) when starting a gamei suspect I'm not alone on this;
-ease of handing someone a cart far exceeds that of all the time and clicks to set up and confirm another players profile.
-points about trading in or selling remain.
Cool if thay works for you, not knocking it at all. I just still prefer a physical thing I own that they can't shut how one day to save server space or whatever. 😎

Wow, the MonolithSoft team never fails to impress. Rescuing the file size further?! That's insane! They really are masters of their craft, and we're all lucky to live at the same time that Nintendo owns MonolithSoft.
That said, there's no incentive they could offer me that would make me buy digital. I want to own my games, and be able to loan them to friends and family, and trade or resell if I wish. My daughter is having to borrow my wife's Switch right now to play Goat Simulator because we don't have it physically (if it even exists physically) so she can't just let her borrow the game. Nope, physical is its own bonus, and digital will never match it.

@Scarmucci I'm with you; it's hard not to feel like we're being punished for having hobbies involving products made abroad. Sorry but no one in the US makes this product.

@UltimateOtaku91 Lots of people have been looking forward to XCX for years now. I don't think it's the typical "old port" situation with that particular game.

"In-game purchases" has me intrigued. The Wii U original didn't have them, as I recall. Can anyone corroborate?
This was one of my favorite games and I'm wicked psyched it's finally being ported over. Got it pre-ordered from best buy for the cool key art metal plate thing.

I'll be ordering mine soon. I love the Satisfye grips and cases and have had several for my Switch, plus my wife and kids each have one with a cae for their own Switches. Satisfye is the clear easy choice for me grip wise.

Why can't you embed the images instead of forcing us to go to twitter again? Doesn't make sense..

@Lizuka Big letdown and missed opportunity if true. I sincerely hope this information is incorrect. Why go backward? We have an Oled screen now; makes no sense to offer a lesser product as a successor. 🤷‍♂️

@Agenerationofgens How did BotW kill Zelda for you if you were a fan of the first game? I get missing the ALttP "formula" (though I don't agree - it was stale and time for a change) but Zelda 1 was entirely devoid of any "formula" like the later games in the series, so it's curious to me that what's essentially a 3D open-world remaining of Zelda 1 would be so unpleasant for you. That sucks; I hope the next 3D Zelda is more to your liking. 😊

@sanderev I'm familiar with the concept, I just don't buy it or believe it makes any sense. Tiem travel makes the difference of whether there is a timeline split at a final boss fight? That makes no sense. Adult timeline, child timeline I can maybe kind of see as yes there is time travel between those two points in time. But why would adult Link fighting Ganondorf/Ganon = a split? He wins or he loses... Doesn't that same logic apply to literally every other final fight in the series? If not, why not? Seems arbitrary and selective to me. As others have said, Nintendo doesn't really care about the timeline, obviously, so why should we? Especially when their "Official" explanation (a) makes no sense and (b) keeps changing. It'd be funny if Nintendo finally came out and said "you know what? J/K the timeline doesn't matter, none of it works that way or any way, the games are all their own standalone things except direct sequels, and that's that, deal with it." would be hilarious and such an epic troll.

@Scarmucci The "Hero is Defeated" split never made any sense to me. Why doesn't every game split the timeline in the same way then? Link equally has a chance to be defeated every game.

@Twilite9 I'd love to reply and discuss, but the censor-bots are apparently out in force on this article. I wonder why... 🤔

I'm so torn between wanting XC4 and XCX2... It's tough to choose which I want "more" as I want them both equally lol.

Day one; I've been wanting this since Xenoblade 2 was a huge disappointment compared to 1 in 2017. X is up there with BotW and XC1 as my favorite fame of all time. All on one cartridge for a hybrid console? This game always belonged on Switch and the only disappointment about its release is how long it took. Don't sleep on XCX; it may not have as strong of a story as 1, 2, or 3, but the gameplay is amazing and the open world is one of the biggest and best on any console video game outside of MMORPGs.

About time Nintendo! Let's go!

Mostly Echoes of Wisdom, but might also mix in a little MK8D with the family or Rocket League Snow Day & Heatseeker. Have a nice weekend everyone!

@-wc- I actually think Echoes is going to be great. But that reinforces my point, in my opinion. Nintendo focused on great gameplay first, and didn't set a prerequisite of "this game must have a female protagonist." There's a huge difference. I love new ideas in games and other creative media. I don't like when that creativity it stifled by anyone's agenda or ulterior motives.

@-wc- I think my comment still stands. I want a good Zelda game more than I want people who want to play as Zelda to get their wish. 🤷