Yeah. I also think the way the story is told gives a lot more detail as to how the conflict is effecting everyone. It’s not a story about the main character so much as it’s a story about New LA, and the main character is the conduit by which the player both views and impacts the story. There is a bit of a personal journey too (the main character’s re-discovery of what everything is all about), but the overall story is a much wider focus than a traditional RPG plot line.

Also, Xenoblade Chronicles X does have a complete story. It asks new questions at the end, but these don’t mean the original plot is unresolved, they instead show that there is another story to be written. The game is begging for a sequel or expansion. But that certainly takes nothing away from the original story. The universe of X is much much bigger than games, even Xenosaga isn’t as huge and ripe for additional story telling.

I personally found Xenoblade Chronicles X to be more enjoyable overall. I always felt there was something I wanted to do, and I never felt stuck or dreading some step I had to take due to the time consumption... Although some things did take a long time, but I never felt forced into them. So X ended up being the most time I have ever spent in a single playthrough of a game outside of maybe Dragon Quest 9. Which had some similar elements, although it was more of a linear plot that morphed into an open-world in the post-game... though XCX is FAR heavier in the story department than DQ9’s Kingdom rebuilding.

Anyway, I would LOVE to see Xenoblade Chronicles X, it’s an experience I want to do again, and on Switch.

Just fix the blasted UI, and maybe add some XC2 style volume control options.

Hey, kinda OT, but with all XCX masters in this thread, I stopped playing XCX about halfway due to finding it difficult to maintain my skells. Was I doing something wrong, is there some "trick" to it or is it just how the game is?

I totally adore that world. Some of the grind maybe not so much.

I would say you got the story mixed up with it's driving force. The story unfolds in how everyone is dealing with being on Mira. Lao's arc (which provides the most revelations in the game) is the story of Xenoblade X contained in a bigger overall arcing story that has yet to be completed. The story is betrayal, sacrifice, and redemption.

Game spoilers ahead!!!! You have been warned.

I don't get how people have to change to be well developed. I disagree respectively. There are tons we wind up learning about Elma, and simply put she is very dynamic. She follows orders but only to the extent it fills her needs. She isn't above bold face lying to her friends, but it is to maintain order and peace. She wants to save humanity to the extent she was very willing to shoot two comrades in the face, one may have deserved it, the other one in no way did.

How about Lin, She in the beginning is only driven by her desire to fill her parents shoes. She loves to cook though (even though they don't need to eat), but it helps her comrades because it's an old familiar thing to do that helps everyones mental health. She is also a thorough believer that there are others that had survived and wants to find a way of contacting them as well as believing the Earth didn't die the day of Exodus, and she wants to one day "search for the planet we left behind". She also puts her own life at risk to save friend and foe alike. 

What about Irena and Gwen. Irena was once part of the Earth protection force with her brother originally attached with Elma. Her brother dies (Gwen's best friend) which makes Gwen join in hopes to protect Irena. The only problem is Gwen is nowhere NEAR as talented in combat as Irena, so he often finds himself in trouble. He is in love with her, while she sees him as a brother figure. Irena eventually gets promoted to lead her own task force due to the lack of crew on Mira (and she is single handedly the best member to have in your party), and becomes a strong, well respected leader. Even so, she and Gwen still holds Elma in far higher regard than themselves, commonly referring to her by title instead of name. *edit* You can often tell in the game that Irena is only barely hanging on to her sanity due to the hardships of war as well.

What about Celica and Rock?... Look I could go on and on and go through every character if that's what you need, they may not change but they are all very dynamic is the point. All very interesting to watch their personalities and goals play out before you.

You have all the character in your party equipped with the best skell? That's really not a thing. The Ares 90 is only the strongest in perspective of spending absolutely no time customizing. The only skell you can't make practically invincible is the Ares 90, I certainly wouldn't say it's the best. 

It simply is supposed to be hard to maintain. You eventually unlock higher level skells that have more fuel ect, oh and you unlock lvl 60 skells by maxing your arms manufacturers, but you have to be lvl 60 to pilot. It gets easier as you play. Also, do NOT neglect getting augments for your character. You will regret it. 

Well if they do go ahead with this, I hope that means we'll get XCX2. The world-building in X was fantastic, but the story feels incomplete as is.

I will double dip if that means we get XCX2.

You mentioned that the game was open ended, and that  it wasn't a bad thing. I agree, but there is a BIG difference between open ended and anti-climatic. The game ends with nothing further mentioned about why, how, who is keeping the mims operational. It just ends abruptly. Even leaving out the ending, the story is really bland to begin with, it is fundamentally flawed. Why? Because you find out pretty early that everyone is basically a remote controlled robot. It may not matter to you, but for me, the fact that i'm a robot basically makes me not care for the character I'm playing as. I can't empathize with my character because I'm a being of flesh and blood, not some silent automaton. The ending even supports the idea that humanity is dead and gone, and only robots remain. Well great. Anything between the beginning and the ending, or the second act to be exact, was just a rinse and repeat. It only picks up after Lao's betrayal. Can you, without googling, remember the bad guys' names? Their motivations? I sure can't.

On Elma: She is as bland as bland can be. She is the squad commander, but I was grinding my teeth each time she was bossing my character around. I felt like I could do a better commanding job than her, but somehow this person is a high ranking, well respected hero, of which we basically know nothing about (her heroics). We are just supposed to like her because... well.. all these people say so. I kept thinking that she was the one who was going to betray us, because she came off as cold sometimes. She wants to save humanity, but I kept think that it must have had something in it for her. That is even before it is revealed she is an alien. She is supposedly is remorseful that Earth got destroyed, but ultimately she only makes me think that her kind are responsible for it. The ending basically told me that humanity is gone and well, thanks for that Elma, our hero. She never, ever changes. Her tone and behavior stays the same. She hardly displays emotion. The final nail in the coffin for me was her almost shooting Lao. I wanted to slap the gun from her hand and tell her to back off.

Lin. Oh man. First of all, I don't have a problem with age and certain professions. But she made it very hard to believe that she is some engineering genius. She is a kid in every sense of the word. Her immature, quirky behavior just annoyed and she doesn't really have an arc. All we know is that she is grieving and she sees Lao as a father figure? What did the cooking really add. As a mechanic in the game? All I know is that every time the choice for what type of food I wanted her to cook was that it was time for another one of those unfunny jokes between Lin and Tatsu. It got old quick.

On Irina and Gwin (not Gwen): They really didn't matter to the story in the end. And even if you did all the quest surrounding these characters, it only confirms one thing: They are one dimensional. Irina is only there for hero worship of Elma and Gwin is only there for pursuit of Irina. Nothing else.

Celica and Rock: They are not part of the main story. You can skip them fully. I would have love it if they were part of the story from the beginning. They look interesting from a superficial standpoint, but they are just there.

Lao: The only character that was somewhat interesting. He is the traitor, but actually, I felt very sympathetic to why he did it. His motivations were clear and tragic. I displayed actual emotion too. During the confrontation I felt that Elma was right for the wrong reasons, and Lao was wrong for the right reasons. He should have been the figure of redemption, but he was done off in such a lame way in the ending.

I already explained what I think they should have done with the main character. But the question begs, was he/she really. I felt like I was there for Elma's ride the entire time. You aren't really special either, you're just a grunt with no backstory.

Also, I didn't say anything about the Ares. I said strongest Skell. Maybe I should have said Skells, plural, but I thought it was sufficient.

I want to reiterate. Despite my gripes with the story and the characters, I still love the game to death. The story concept, as a basis, isn't bad. It's Titan A.E, but it is interesting as a sci-fi story. I still listen to the soundtrack. I listen to By My Side and The Way at least once on my way from work. The world is so beautiful and the Skells are very cool. I can't tell you how many color variations I tried out and how much time I spent on Skell crafting. I would definitely replay it if it was ported to the Switch.

I found the story was essentially this in its most basic stripped down form (SPOILERS):

1. Introduction: Human City escapes the destruction of Earth, lands on an alien planet. Begins utilizing the alien planet for resources. Motivation is to thrive.
2. Central Conflict: They need to survive and thrive on this planet. The Ganglion wants desperately to exterminate humanity because they hold the key to their destruction.
3. Monkey Wrench: the discovery that everyone is an avatar streamed from the Lifehold. And if the Lifehold runs out of energy before they find it, they all die.
4. Escalating points: Humanity spreads out across Mira, sending agents to locate the Lifehold. There are various factions called Blades, which have different tasks to help them overcome all the obstacles, which includes the Ganglion.
5. Climax - Ganglion defeated, and as it turns out, the civilization is safe.
6. Aftermath - their original bodies are gone, but they have the "Kadamony" type device which can forge new human bodies. Their souls are somehow attached to the planet; given this is a Xeno-game, this could imply death and resurrection of characters.

The story is a much broader scope than just the characters within it. The plot points all deal with New LA and the settlement, and the main character is not at the center of the story. It's an open world approach, so there's a TON of different roles and plots that the main character explores leading up to each of the various plot points throughout the story. Different characters take the forefront at different times. They all have their things going on, so you still get character plots, but the main plot is not a character plot; it's about the birth of a civilization .

Personally speaking, it's one of my favourite stories ever in a game - I REALLY hope there are sequels. There's so much potential. It could take place 10,000 years in the future, and be a sort of re-imagined Xenogears, with lots of flashbacks from the time of NLA, through the civilizations that followed.

*Stares through binoculars*

Yessss. I love to watch nerds debate.

Xeno X had a great planet and monster design with a sense of scale and discovery (only rivaled by Botw), the rest was mediocre and convoluted.

I had given up on Wii U by the time this came out, so I would love to see it ported