Truth be told, I never fell in love with Xenoblade Chronicles. Sure, I liked it; I actually liked it a lot. I bought it day 1 on the Wii, and subsequently purchased it on the New 3DS as well. The combat was fresh and fluid and I loved how different it was from the traditional RPG’s I’d played over the years. Still though, something about the game just held me back from loving it. When Xenoblade Chronicles X was announced and showed off, I figured it would be a similar experience for me, but the allure of the “futuristic” environment made me think I could fall in love with the game. After trying to not watch too much preview footage of the game (since it has released in Japan already), I dove into the world of Xenoblade Chronicles X with high hopes: and every single one of them has been destroyed into little pieces.

Let me preface this preview by saying I’ve clocked in 12 hours of gameplay and have accomplished hardly anything. I’m on Chapter 3 in the main story of the game, and I’m just getting my feet wet. Why? Because the game is massive. This game is literally the largest game I have ever played, and I have played Fallout 3, Oblivion, and every GTA since the jump to 3D. Those games pale in comparison to the scope of Xenoblade Chronicles X. I am literally dumbfounded as to how in the hell they fit so much stuff on a Wii U disc, but they did. New Los Angeles is a huge place broken up into different districts to explore. Some offer shops, some are a residential area, and they are all filled to the brim with life. And that’s just the hub area: once you step outside the city you realize just how big this game is.

Remember how everyone was astonished when it was announced that in Zelda Wii U if you saw it you could go there? Well I think Xenoblade Chronicles X is going to steal some of that thunder, because you can do that in this game too. The landscape is massive, filled with hidden things to discover, items to collect, and of course, beasts ranging from the size of a beetle to a skyscraper. I’ve spent countless hours just running around Primadoria, and I’ve only “surveyed” 16.8% of the map.

Did I mention that Primadoria is just one of 5 areas to explore, and some are even bigger than this one? Yeah. It’s that big. The funny thing is, while I have access to the data packs to download to speed things up, I haven’t had any reason to use them. The game never presents any large loading times that I felt were bothersome, and the entire landscape never has to load. Ever. Even when you switch from one huge area to another, it’s entirely seamless. For our review, we will be using the data packs, but I felt this was some interesting information to share.

Finally, I’m going to end this preview with something that, while we might not admit it, we all care about: graphics. I’ll save the story and key gameplay elements for our full review, because honestly, I haven’t done enough to talk in-depth about them. In terms of the graphics in Xenoblade Chronicles X, they are the best on the Wii U console. Period. The landscape is beautiful, the creatures are detailed, there is no slowdown or framerate drops, it’s just a technical marvel. Sure, there is some pop up at times with grass and trees and what not, but that’s common in open-world games on the “next-gen” systems. This is the little old Wii U, and it’s packing a punch that is absolutely amazing.

I’m in a hurry to finish up this preview because honestly, I just want to get back to playing the game. Barring something incredible happening, I can see this easily being not only the best game on the Wii U, but an easy contender for Game of the Year. Or even more. I literally can’t get enough of this game, and I can’t wait to explore this gigantic world even more.