There is something fitting about returning to Alrest on Nintendo Switch 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was always an ambitious RPG, but its original hardware often struggled to show just how ambitious it really was. This time around, Rex, Pyra and the enormous Titans get the technical breathing room they deserve, while Monolith Soft and Logicalbeat have added enough new material to make this more than a simple resolution and framerate upgrade. The result is still very much the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 we remember, with all of its strengths and idiosyncrasies intact, but it is now considerably easier to appreciate what made the 2017 adventure so memorable in the first place.
Alrest remains one of the most imaginative settings in the Xenoblade series, with entire communities living on the backs of colossal Titans drifting through an endless sea of clouds. Rex’s journey from humble salvager to unlikely hero still works particularly well because the enormous stakes are balanced by a cast that gradually becomes the emotional centre of the adventure. His relationship with Pyra, the pursuit of Elysium and the threats surrounding the Aegis provide plenty of familiar JRPG ingredients, but the characters give the story its personality. The narrative can move from genuinely affecting moments to broad anime humor and awkward fan-service in surprisingly short order, and that tonal inconsistency will remain a sticking point for some players. The lengthy cinematics can also test our patience, particularly when the story pauses for extended exposition, but the character development and steadily escalating drama make the investment worthwhile.
The combat is where Xenoblade Chronicles 2 continues to justify its enormous runtime. What initially looks like an intimidating collection of Arts, Drivers, Blades and elemental systems gradually develops into a remarkably satisfying tactical playground. Auto-attacks build Arts, Arts feed into Specials, and combining different elements allows us to construct increasingly powerful Blade Combos and Chain Attacks. Managing a party of Drivers and switching between their Blades adds another layer of strategy, while the different offensive, defensive and healing roles encourage experimentation rather than locking us into a single approach. The system is not without its problems, though. The tutorials remain uneven at best, with some mechanics explained just well enough to get started before leaving us to figure out the deeper interactions ourselves. The randomised Blade acquisition system can also make collecting the companions we actually want frustrating, especially when the game asks us to engage with what is essentially a gacha mechanic. Once the combat finally clicks, however, it becomes difficult to deny how much depth Monolith Soft has packed into it
That depth is accompanied by a huge amount of supporting content, although this is also where the adventure can lose some momentum. Side quests, resource gathering, Field Skills and Merc Missions give us plenty of reasons to wander away from the main path, and the revised Field Skill system is particularly welcome because we no longer need to constantly rearrange our equipped Blades simply to satisfy environmental requirements. The Switch 2 Edition also introduces Merc Assault, which turns what was previously a mostly hands-off activity into a playable action mode. Being able to take direct control of up to six Blades and switch between them gives the roster another purpose and makes this feel like a meaningful addition rather than a token extra. MOMO, meanwhile, arrives as a new Rare Blade with her own questline, while additional quests and new Pyra and Mythra outfits round out the package. Not every returning player will consider this enough new material to justify another full-price purchase, but combined with the technical improvements, it gives the upgrade considerably more substance than we might have expected.
The biggest transformation is nevertheless visual. Alrest’s colorful anime-inspired character designs and enormous environments were always among Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s greatest assets, but the original Switch release could make them surprisingly difficult to appreciate, particularly in handheld mode. Switch 2’s sharper presentation and 60fps target make a dramatic difference, with distant scenery, character models and environmental detail looking considerably cleaner and movement feeling much more fluid. Exploration benefits just as much as combat because the improved image quality makes the Titans feel like places we actually want to stop and look at rather than simply traverse. The technical upgrade is not flawless, however. The image is reconstructed rather than consistently rendered at native 4K, and demanding encounters can produce an abrupt drop from 60fps to 30fps rather than a more gradual reduction. Handheld play is vastly improved over the original release, but some softness remains in distant objects. Even with those caveats, this is easily the best-looking and best-running version of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 we have played.
The presentation is helped enormously by a soundtrack that remains one of the game’s strongest elements. The music has the range required for such a sprawling adventure, moving comfortably between energetic battle themes, quieter exploration and more emotional story sequences. The audio presentation itself is somewhat less consistent, with the quality of the English voice acting varying from scene to scene and battle dialogue occasionally competing with the music. Those rough edges were already present in the original, and the Switch 2 Edition does not completely erase them. The same is true of some of the game’s older design decisions: the sometimes awkward tutorials, repetitive side activities, prolonged battles and divisive character designs have survived the transition largely intact. This is therefore not a reimagining that fixes everything that frustrated players in 2017. Instead, it is a version that makes the original’s best qualities much easier to experience while leaving its more questionable decisions to stand on their own.
For newcomers, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is easily the version we would recommend. The combination of a fascinating world, memorable characters, an unusually deep combat system and a staggering amount of content still makes this one of Monolith Soft’s more distinctive RPGs, even if its slower opening, uneven tutorials and gacha-driven Blade system can require some patience. For returning players, the proposition is more complicated, but the Switch 2 upgrade does enough to make another journey across Alrest genuinely appealing. Merc Assault, MOMO and the smaller quality-of-life improvements are welcome additions, while the leap in image quality and performance finally allows the original adventure to escape some of the technical limitations that held it back. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was never a perfect RPG, and this edition does not pretend otherwise. What it does accomplish is perhaps more valuable: it gives a flawed but wonderfully ambitious adventure the hardware it always deserved.
Score: 8.2/10