This morning’s surprise announcement of a Switch port for Xenoblade Chronicles X has puzzled many Nintendo fans. With the Nintendo Switch 2 surely coming next year, why was a random Tuesday in October the day that Nintendo decided to reveal it was porting its Wii U mega-RPG to its current platform? At any rate, we’re all happy that another game is free from the shackles of the Wii U, but it also begs the question: How does the Definitive Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles X compare to the original?
Surprisingly, there are very few like-for-like screenshots available at the moment. We dug through all of Nintendo’s official screenshots and trailers and were only able to come up with four screencaps that directly relate to one another. When the game is finally out, there will obviously be more in-depth videos comparing specific sequences, but for now, this is the best we’ve got.
As should be evident from the screenshots, not a whole lot has changed visually. The Wii U was Nintendo’s first HD console, after all, so developer Monolith Soft already created all of the assets in HD. The clearest change is that the art direction has taken a shift. The original Xenoblade Chronicles X had a more realistic look, for lack of a better term, whereas Definitive Edition leans more into the anime aesthetic the series has now. Even the Switch port of the first Xenoblade Chronicles did this, changing the subtler look of the Wii original into more anime-focused designs.
The only other change I can spot is a gamma shift. Probably because of the Wii U’s output levels, the colors are richer on Switch. There are also some texture differences and the resolution is a bit higher, but this isn’t a dramatic redo. This is still mostly the same Xenoblade Chronicles X that fans fell in love with nine years ago, just with a bit more polish.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition will be launching on March 20th, 2025, almost 10 years after the Wii U original. This may be the swansong for the Switch.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
