'Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition' hits the Switch on May 29th

A spruced up version of Xenoblade Chronicles will soon be available on the Switch. We already knew that the Monolith-developed JRPG, which was originally released for the Wii in 2010, was coming to Nintendo's portable-console hybrid this year. In today's surprise Nintendo Direct Mini, though, we got a firm release date for the port: May 29th. The publisher has promised updated graphics, an improved menu system and battle interface, and more than 90 remastered tunes from the soundtrack. If you've played the game before, Nintendo hopes a new epilogue called Future Connected will tempt you to run through the main story once more.

Xenoblade Chronicles, if you need a refresher, is a continuation of the 'Xeno' series that started with Xenogears back in 1998. If you haven't played those games before, though, fear not: Chronicles is a fresh starting point (you can think of it as a spiritual successor, rather than a true sequel to Xenogears and Xenosaga) that's perfect for newcomers. The game was praised back in 2010 for its beautiful world -- which is located on the remains of two giant robots -- rewarding battle system and litany of side quests and collectibles. It was enough to spawn a 3DS port and a Wii U sequel called Xenoblade Chronicles X (which was also very good) in 2015. A numbered sequel was then released for the Switch in December 2017.