Xenoblade Chronicles was a spiritual successor of a spiritual successor. It all began with Xenogears back on the PS1, which moved into the Xenosaga trilogy on PS2. Finally, the name was rebranded once again on Wii, along with its Wii U, and Switch sequels, to the series fans know today. This game, in particular, is the third time it has been released outside of its 2010 debut in Japan and eventual English port in 2012.

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In 2015 they somehow got the game to run on the 3DS, which was fine, but not the best way to play. So, with a name like Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, is this, in fact, the definitive away to play this game in 2020? The short answer is yes, as they did fix some nagging issues from the original. However, it's also lacking in other areas as well.

10 Fixed: Adjustable Difficulty 

Xenoblade Chronicles was one of the hardest games on the Wii. Thankfully dying didn’t have a punishing effect on players as there was never any real Game Over screen.

That said, dying repeatedly on a boss, even without loss of progress, is never fun. That’s why adding in a Casual Mode players can turn on and off on the fly is appreciated. For those wishing for more of a challenge, that’s also an option with Expert Mode. 

9 Not Fixed: Movement Speed

In the original game, players could increase their movement speed by equipping Quick Step gems on armor. This did help, but not by much. Well, that’s sadly the only way in this version too.

A 2X, or even better, a 4X speed boost would have been appreciated, like how most of the Final Fantasy remasters have done it. 

8 Fixed: Character Models

While impressive for the Wii, the original release looks dated now. The worst version is on 3DS, which was also a miracle. The point is the HD smoothing on the backgrounds looks great, but the biggest improvement to the visuals falls on the character models.

Because they’re so bright and colorful, it can give the game a weird juxtaposition to the more realistic world, but overall they definitely look better.

7 Not Fixed: Dated Animations

While the HD makeup makes the game look more like a modern Switch game, there are some holdouts from the original programming that show its age.

For example, the lip-sync is off, which is not unheard of in 2020, but it should be. More so than that, the animations themselves look a bit stiff and awkward at times. 

6 Fixed: Theater Mode

As an 80+ hour game with lots of content, not being able to re-experience key moments in a timely fashion was not great. That said, in this remaster, they added a Theater Mode.

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Not only can cutscenes be rewatched at any time, but clothes can be changed along with lighting and weather effects. If only this game included a Photo Mode as well with these options. 

5 Not Fixed: Not Consolidating Treasure

Part of the reason this game is so long is the aforementioned running speed along with some clunky mechanics that also slow down progress. For example, when one vanquishes a group of enemies, their treasures are individually boxed instead of dropping in one big chest.

After a lively battle, opening them all individually, while not extremely time consuming, can feel tedious. 

4 Fixed: Menus

One of the aspects of the gameplay that was mixed is the menus. They are less cumbersome to flip through. This goes for the battle setup as well.

While mostly the same, it’s easier to get the hang of everything quicker. Not getting bogged down by menus, especially in an RPG, while small, is an appreciated detail. 

3 Not Fixed: Grouping Attacks

Another aspect of combat that can get monotonous is engagement. More often then not, players will target an enemy, defeat it, put away their weapons, target another, and the cycle repeats.

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Sometimes enemies will group up, but there is no way for the player to initiate combat with multiple enemies manually in order to save time. 

2 Fixed: Faster Loads

As if it needed to be said, this edition of the game is also faster. Even when one fast travels from one side of the world to the other, the load times are within reason.

It shouldn’t be that surprising, but some remastered, or modern games in general, still struggle with loads. 

1 Not Fixed: No Health Items

One of the biggest gripes RPG fans can have with the genre is when games limit healing. In this game, there are no items. Characters instead get healed outside of battle or through skills in combat. Said skills run on cooldowns, and not everyone has a healing art. That is to say, healing can get tricky.

At least there aren’t death penalties as it was previously mentioned, but some fix for this remaster in the healing department would have been great. The game, at least, with the new difficulty, helps somewhat. 

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