## 2025-03-20 I think **Xenoblade Chronicles X** is one of the best in the series, only really outdone by **Xenoblade Chronicles 3**. It is [[Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain|goopy]] as fuck. But when I say it's the best, I mean for me specifically. It's a game for a particular kind of weirdo - one that cared less about Nia as a character and more as a source of bubbles to pop so that 1 million points of damage appear on screen. So again, for me. **Definitive Edition** makes being a little dungeon-crawling gremlin a lot more friction-less though. There's so many improvements to the game's systems that it'd be more effort than it's worth to list them all. But the point is that if there's a thing you didn't like about **XCX**, then it's been fixed.[^1] It took a great game and made it even better. There's a plot in this game and I'm not interested in talking about it. Instead I just want to wax poetically about this game's open world. I am well known for hyperbole, but I mean it when I say that **X**[^2] has the most fascinating and impressive open world I've experienced in a game. It is massive in scope, but feels wonderful to explore. The scale doesn't feel overbearing to me because it's so natural to maneuver in. It feels like a truly lived in world. The way that you can run up a hill into a cave, pop out onto the other end, dive off a cliff and onto the beach below, and in that process find tons of loot and rewards is both addictive and also frightening (for being so addictive). I talked recently about [[Yakuza and the Joy of Gratification]], and **XCX** does a lot of the same things. Everything you do is beneficial, so it makes you want to do all of it. Planting nodes gives you money and resources and fast travel points. Fighting with different party members increases their affinity with you, unlocking cool and engaging new quests, etc. etc. The combat feels as MMO-like as usual, but a new system that lets you spend meter to fill up an ability's cooldown instantly helps a lot with the waiting around, which is pretty annoying in every **Xenoblade** game. Overall though, the combat feels active, which is nice, and it'll be fun to break it with some whacky builds in the future. I haven't gotten a Skell yet, and I don't plan to rush to get it. Half of the appeal of getting your giant mech is going through the pain of hoofing it on foot for the first 30 hours. It builds character. In fact, I don't plan to rush through this game at all. It's pretty funny how both this game and [[Assassins Creed - Shadows]] both came out on the same day, because I'm approaching them the same way - that is, nice and relaxed. There's no rush, and immersing myself in both Mira and Japan has been a nice way to help prevent the horrors from sinking in. Will probably be back with more thoughts later. ## 2025-03-22 Forgot to mention how satisfying the sprinting and jumping is in this game. If your game is going to have a lot of traveling around then it better feel good and **XCX** nails it in that department. You really book it when you run and it feels like you're crossing distances in no time, and the jump is this low-gravity, super-long leap that makes it easy to clear gaps, with no fall damage. Also love the auto-run feature. I finished a quest super quickly by jumping into the water and just turning on auto-run so my party could swim to Oblivia while I checked my emails LMAO. I don't normally use it that long, but it's just a nice feature in general that I think more games should have for accessibility. Let my poor little gamer fingies rest! Forgot how much I loathe the slow pacing of the cutscenes in this game, which is kind of shocking, given you can advance dialogue on your own to cut through the fluff in the other **Xenoblade** games. The cutscenes are just *so* boring with a lot of regurgitating the same info over and over again while someone makes a joke about eating Tatsu for the 800th time. I legit can't remember if it gets better later but I barely remember the plot of this game, which probably doesn't bode well. [^1]: Well, unless you didn't like the music, but if you're wrong about that anyways. [^2]: I can abbreviate this game's name so many ways! Neat!