Whether it’s your first or your fortieth time, booting up Xenoblade Chronicles X and exploring your immediate surroundings is nothing short of incredible. Mira’s huge, biodiverse landscape, populated by monsters both as small as a ball or as large as a four-storey building, with scraps of ruined ships and alien devices dotted around, is one of the most intimidating, beautiful, and exciting places to explore.
In the 10 years since its original release on the Wii U, open-world games have changed and grown dramatically, largely thanks to a certain blonde-haired, tunic-donning hero.
Open-world games were already prevalent in the years preceding Xenoblade X, but when Breath of the Wild launched in 2017, it felt like multiple rulebooks had been torn up and rewritten. We already have objectives and huge sprawling landscapes under our belts – why not have a bunch of tools that you can also exploit however you like?
Breath of the Wild is the game that made me get ‘open world’. Its lush, sprawling apocalypse, where Guardians lie in wait, attempting to shoot Link out of the sky, is like a never-ending candy shop full of the best kind of confections. I can solve shrine puzzles using ludicrous motion control mishaps or actually think of my feet for a second. Or I can run straight to the final boss after leaving the Great Plateau for the first time. Or maybe, just maybe, I could be a professional chef.
Breath of the Wild is just one giant playground – something that Tears of the Kingdom expands on even more with new tools, new layers, and new dangers. It also heavily influenced Elden Ring, which ups the danger levels tenfold and provides hundreds and hundreds of secrets and a magical horse that you can ride around on. There’s also a stupidly hard ‘miniboss’ close to the entrance of the Cave of Knowledge as you walk out into the golden plains of Limgrave for the first time. Don’t be stubborn and try to fight it right away. Trust me.
Hyrule and The Lands Between are gargantuan maps that make the most of their scale by filling them with little caves or interactable locations that you can manipulate with your skills. Finding makeshift weapons or taking on incredibly tough bosses is part of the magic in those games. I’ve put well over 100 hours into each one, and I love them dearly. I thought no open world would intimidate me as much as these did.
But coming back to Xenoblade X with the Definitive Edition, I was completely wrong. In fact, Mira is still the most intimidating and overwhelming open world I’ve ever explored.
One of the reasons is the sheer diversity of creatures roaming the planet. Since Mira is five extremely open areas all seamlessly connected (not segmented, no load screens, etc.), you can quite easily move from Primordia, the game’s first area, to Sylvalum, the fourth location, and accidentally stumble into a level 60 monster that is ready to kill on sight.
You can do this at any point, way before you get a Skell. My avatar’s tiny body and legs cannot outrun a giant floating alien mech-like thing as it’s trying to shoot me down with lasers. Stopping and fighting isn’t an option, because I’ll definitely get one-shotted. At least in Hyrule I can drop a bomb or rewind time if enemies start attacking me. Or in Elden Ring, I can call Torrent and gallop the hell out of a dangerous situation.
No, Mira is designed to make me feel small. The reason you don’t get a Skell earlier than Chapter 6 is so you can feel completely tiny and powerless, attempting to navigate your way around the twisting tree branches of Noctillum or sneak past the plant monsters buried in the ashen sands of Sylvalum without being mauled to death. If you’re really good and you get some practice with Overdrive, then you might make it past some big beasties that are 10 or 20 levels above you. But you’ll more likely be squashed like an ant.
The scope of every single segment of Mira is honestly staggering, even today. The way trees and mountains and unusual shapes tower over your party, and even New Los Angeles, invites feelings of terror and anticipation. Each area evokes real-world or fantasy tropes in completely alien ways. Oblivia is your typical desert region with pockets of oasis-like waters and a big waterfall, but the huge ring structure and the absolutely massive chasm at the centre of the map doesn’t make me feel at home at all.
Primordia may act as your introduction to Mira, and of all the places, the big, verdant plains are certainly the safest-looking. But then you head to the lake and see a gargantuan diplodocus-thing, or visit the beach and instead of sun, sea, and sand, have a massive angler fish eyeing you up for lunch. Blue and green-glowing plants and aurora-like skies all look beautiful, but they’re paint and make-up for a strange and terrifying world that is dangerous as hell.
I frequently look at FrontierNav to find probes to fill in or quests to unlock and attempt to track them, only to find out I need to do some complicated gymnastics routine that is impossible on foot. Just wait for a Skell, Alana, and stop trying to shimmy and leap your way up a polygonal column by hanging off some loose pixels.
Thank god there’s no fall damage. I have a Skell now, and it’s way faster, but if some huge creature spots my big pink mech, hits it, and destroys it, I don’t want to pay out for insurance. Even though I’m a multi-millionaire.
If I’m not scanning my map, I’m scrolling through my huge list of quests and story objectives, picking up new items, and finding people to rescue and bring back to New LA. There is so much going on at any one time in Xenoblade X that it puts almost every other world to shame. H.B. is doing push-ups outside the hangar, or Hope needs help gathering materials for a client. But then there’s a monster carrying materials I need for a brand new spear. It’s a procrastinator’s dream.
There is, of course, a lot to do and deal with in Zelda and Elden Ring, too. And events like the Blood Moon and areas such as the Depths and the Underground build up some stressful to-do lists and danger zones in many ways. If you’re like me and found Mohgwyn Palace a little early, and then proceeded to bash your head against the wall as you take on the Lord of Blood under-levelled (look, I did it – it took me a couple of hours, but I got there in the end), then starry skies might be a little more unsettling than they were before. But nothing in those games compares to suddenly being spotted by a giant level-80 dinosaur. Yes, even the Gloom Spawn. *shudders*
Essentially, nowhere is safe in Mira, except New Los Angeles, but then I have to deal with Tatsu or Maurice, both dangerous in very different ways. But that’s also a huge part of the joy. Both Zelda games have their moments of calm, and Elden Ring’s scale is tempered by the fact you’re dealing with some extremely challenging bosses for good chunks of time.
But all this really hammers home just how ahead of the curve Monolith Soft was back in 2015. Even as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3 returned to a more ‘open-zone’ format, you can see where the developers took inspiration from X, extracting and amplifying those more alien, uncanny elements. Eventually, I will reach ridiculously overpowered levels and be able to fly around in my Skell, but right now, the sheer terror of making my way through Mira and navigating its quirks and problems is all I need.
Right now, I wouldn’t have it any other way, even if I’m totally frazzled while doing it.
Whether it’s your first or your fortieth time, booting up Xenoblade Chronicles X and exploring your immediate surroundings is nothing short of incredible. Mira’s huge, biodiverse landscape, populated by monsters both as small as a ball or as large as a four-storey building, with scraps of ruined ships and alien devices dotted around, is one of the most intimidating, beautiful, and exciting places to explore.
In the 10 years since its original release on the Wii U, open-world games have changed and grown dramatically, largely thanks to a certain blonde-haired, tunic-donning hero.
Open-world games were already prevalent in the years preceding Xenoblade X, but when Breath of the Wild launched in 2017, it felt like multiple rulebooks had been torn up and rewritten. We already have objectives and huge sprawling landscapes under our belts – why not have a bunch of tools that you can also exploit however you like?
Breath of the Wild is the game that made me get 'open world'. Its lush, sprawling apocalypse, where Guardians lie in wait, attempting to shoot Link out of the sky, is like a never-ending candy shop full of the best kind of confections. I can solve shrine puzzles using ludicrous motion control mishaps or actually think of my feet for a second. Or I can run straight to the final boss after leaving the Great Plateau for the first time. Or maybe, just maybe, I could be a professional chef.
Breath of the Wild is just one giant playground – something that Tears of the Kingdom expands on even more with new tools, new layers, and new dangers. It also heavily influenced Elden Ring, which ups the danger levels tenfold and provides hundreds and hundreds of secrets and a magical horse that you can ride around on. There’s also a stupidly hard 'miniboss' close to the entrance of the Cave of Knowledge as you walk out into the golden plains of Limgrave for the first time. Don’t be stubborn and try to fight it right away. Trust me.
Hyrule and The Lands Between are gargantuan maps that make the most of their scale by filling them with little caves or interactable locations that you can manipulate with your skills. Finding makeshift weapons or taking on incredibly tough bosses is part of the magic in those games. I’ve put well over 100 hours into each one, and I love them dearly. I thought no open world would intimidate me as much as these did.
But coming back to Xenoblade X with the Definitive Edition, I was completely wrong. In fact, Mira is still the most intimidating and overwhelming open world I’ve ever explored.
One of the reasons is the sheer diversity of creatures roaming the planet. Since Mira is five extremely open areas all seamlessly connected (not segmented, no load screens, etc.), you can quite easily move from Primordia, the game’s first area, to Sylvalum, the fourth location, and accidentally stumble into a level 60 monster that is ready to kill on sight.
You can do this at any point, way before you get a Skell. My avatar’s tiny body and legs cannot outrun a giant floating alien mech-like thing as it’s trying to shoot me down with lasers. Stopping and fighting isn’t an option, because I’ll definitely get one-shotted. At least in Hyrule I can drop a bomb or rewind time if enemies start attacking me. Or in Elden Ring, I can call Torrent and gallop the hell out of a dangerous situation.
No, Mira is designed to make me feel small. The reason you don’t get a Skell earlier than Chapter 6 is so you can feel completely tiny and powerless, attempting to navigate your way around the twisting tree branches of Noctillum or sneak past the plant monsters buried in the ashen sands of Sylvalum without being mauled to death. If you’re really good and you get some practice with Overdrive, then you might make it past some big beasties that are 10 or 20 levels above you. But you’ll more likely be squashed like an ant.
The scope of every single segment of Mira is honestly staggering, even today. The way trees and mountains and unusual shapes tower over your party, and even New Los Angeles, invites feelings of terror and anticipation. Each area evokes real-world or fantasy tropes in completely alien ways. Oblivia is your typical desert region with pockets of oasis-like waters and a big waterfall, but the huge ring structure and the absolutely massive chasm at the centre of the map doesn’t make me feel at home at all.
Primordia may act as your introduction to Mira, and of all the places, the big, verdant plains are certainly the safest-looking. But then you head to the lake and see a gargantuan diplodocus-thing, or visit the beach and instead of sun, sea, and sand, have a massive angler fish eyeing you up for lunch. Blue and green-glowing plants and aurora-like skies all look beautiful, but they’re paint and make-up for a strange and terrifying world that is dangerous as hell.
I frequently look at FrontierNav to find probes to fill in or quests to unlock and attempt to track them, only to find out I need to do some complicated gymnastics routine that is impossible on foot. Just wait for a Skell, Alana, and stop trying to shimmy and leap your way up a polygonal column by hanging off some loose pixels.
Thank god there’s no fall damage. I have a Skell now, and it’s way faster, but if some huge creature spots my big pink mech, hits it, and destroys it, I don’t want to pay out for insurance. Even though I’m a multi-millionaire.
If I’m not scanning my map, I’m scrolling through my huge list of quests and story objectives, picking up new items, and finding people to rescue and bring back to New LA. There is so much going on at any one time in Xenoblade X that it puts almost every other world to shame. H.B. is doing push-ups outside the hangar, or Hope needs help gathering materials for a client. But then there’s a monster carrying materials I need for a brand new spear. It’s a procrastinator’s dream.
There is, of course, a lot to do and deal with in Zelda and Elden Ring, too. And events like the Blood Moon and areas such as the Depths and the Underground build up some stressful to-do lists and danger zones in many ways. If you’re like me and found Mohgwyn Palace a little early, and then proceeded to bash your head against the wall as you take on the Lord of Blood under-levelled (look, I did it – it took me a couple of hours, but I got there in the end), then starry skies might be a little more unsettling than they were before. But nothing in those games compares to suddenly being spotted by a giant level-80 dinosaur. Yes, even the Gloom Spawn. *shudders*
Essentially, nowhere is safe in Mira, except New Los Angeles, but then I have to deal with Tatsu or Maurice, both dangerous in very different ways. But that’s also a huge part of the joy. Both Zelda games have their moments of calm, and Elden Ring’s scale is tempered by the fact you’re dealing with some extremely challenging bosses for good chunks of time.
But all this really hammers home just how ahead of the curve Monolith Soft was back in 2015. Even as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3 returned to a more 'open-zone' format, you can see where the developers took inspiration from X, extracting and amplifying those more alien, uncanny elements. Eventually, I will reach ridiculously overpowered levels and be able to fly around in my Skell, but right now, the sheer terror of making my way through Mira and navigating its quirks and problems is all I need.
Right now, I wouldn’t have it any other way, even if I’m totally frazzled while doing it.
