Xenoblade Chronicles X

The third and final Xenoblade Chronicles X Japanese Direct hit this morning which focuses on the Dolls and the network features. As I did for the Exploration and Battle Directs, I’m going to walk you through all of the information we learned from watching the presentation. So let’s get started!

The opening of this direct evoked the E3 trailer with the player character walking through the hanger to board his personal robot. It also shows various clips of the Dolls in action, including a battle scene in space, which is pretty cool. After a brief scene with Doug crashing one of the Dolls, the explanations for how the Dolls work in Xenoblade Chronicles X began.

Lyn and Doug are the main characters presenting the information this time. They start by explaining there are three different types of Dolls: the Light Type, the Middle Type, and the Heavy Type. There are multiple dolls within each category that each have different stats and also transform into different vehicles. One of the Light Type Dolls for example transformed into a motorcycle and could drift around corners when turning. With the heavier dolls you can actually deal a lot of damage by running over enemies.

Dolls are understandably very expensive to purchase. Each Doll comes equipped with different weapons to start with and can be assigned to yourself or one of your party members like Lyn or Elma. Once you have a flight pack, Flight Form is enabled for the Dolls. You need to watch your fuel gauge however otherwise your doll will be forced to walk around.

Lyn and Doug went into great detail about how Dolls work in combat and the different types of equipment available. When it comes to combat, Dolls control almost identically to being on the ground as you still auto attack and select the different arts you use. The Dolls gain different functions depending on the equipment you bring into battle. While hand weapons define your auto attack, arm, spare, back, and shoulder weapons all contribute to the different arts you can use. For all five equipment types, you can actually equip different weapons on the left and right sides of your doll for even more flexibility.

There is a daunting amount of options for each type. Hand weapons for example include: swords, knifes, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns. For the other four types there is everything from beam sabers, laser cannons, and missiles to more exotic weapons like rail guns, buster swords, knuckles and needle guns. Two weapons of special note are the arm weapons shields and beam shields since they provide buffs for your Dolls. Lyn teased that there are actually special super weapons you can develop for your Dolls including the devastating six cannons that obliterate everything and the bomb flail that you can slam into enemies.

Beyond customizing your Doll with weapons you can also change the color of each part of the paint and even give it a name to really make it your own. You don’t have to worry if your doll is damaged like when an arm falls off or if it is destroyed entirely since Doll Insurance allows you to revive all of your Dolls. 

Another aspect of managing your Dolls is keeping track of its fuel. Not only does fuel determine if your doll can fly, it also governs art use. Thankfully by leaving your doll and proceeding on foot, your fuel regenerates and alternately you can purchase more fuel at your home base.

A few more significant details were covered in the Doll section. By catching enemies with your dolls you can boost the damage dealt by all of your allies which is also possible by using Overclocking Gear just as you would on foot. Additionally just by having a doll in your party the defense of your characters on foot also increases. The final two features of note for dolls is that you can survey the battle from the cockpit and customize the Doll Suit you wear while inside.

Following a cool story scene around the 20 minute mark, Elma appears to talk about the network features. When you play Xenoblade Chronicles X you become part of a squad of 32 random people. When online, other players can hire an AI version of your player character as a mercenary to help with quests. You also can exchange information to people in your squad by sending messages to the group that show where quests and items are and also put up items on sale for people in your squad to purchase.

Five random quests, called Squad Missions, can be tackled by the squad at large such as collectively killing X amount of a certain monster. When any of those Squad Missions are completed everyone is allowed to participate in Squad Quests which gathers groups of four players together to battle difficult monsters. By working together with others, you can complete more of the game and unlock World Enemies which are the ultimate challenges.

Finally there are tons of leaderboards to participate in and eight unions to join beyond Blade. By helping out a union and completing union activities you can raise the reputation of that union which are all in competition with one another.

After one last story scene the final Japanese Xenoblade Chronicles X Direct concludes. Xenoblade Chronicles X comes out on April 29 in Japan and later this year in America.