Ag🦹ree that the Switch holds back this franchise and other ambitious games and I am truly looking forward Nintendo moving one to the next more suitable hardware. That said, punishment should fall on the hardware, not on the games that tried to do the best with what they were given. Punishment should only fall on the games if what they do is below the hardware they are at ಞ(like Pokemon).

An observation though, across the board the reports are that XDE runs at what seems to be max resolution on both docked and undocked mod♐e, this mean it does not have this problem𓆏 the other blades have, and it runs at a higher res than even Zelda TOTK. The game feature per object motion blur, but that is a feature, not a problem resulting from resolution, they have nothing to do with each other.

"a lot of that space is rather empty and m🥃eaningless"

Last time I checked the original, each hexagon of the entire world has at minimum a task associated with it, which is a lot more than BOTW had. And🌱 I am pretty sure that remains the case in X definitive edition, probably ore now that you get more rewards from survey %.

While in BOTW you have to deal with the korok seeds to get 100% of the map, which is well, literal poop and♉ get stale afte🍬r a while, doing 100% survey on Mira is a lot more rewarding.

Also, the avatar in X is effectively the Point of View character, but not the main character of the story, that, is clearly Elma. And that is FINE. There is no hard rules that says that the PoV char also has to be the main character. And if you, for some reason, needs to feel like the main character of the story, simply put Elma as the leader in the menu and play as her, done, simple as that. The avatar has a lot of weight however on the sidequests (normal and a🍸ffinity missions), which is also story, regardless of not being mandatory, and are a big part of the experience.

On X being "too different" from the other Xenoblade, please𓂃, please be careful with hyperboles. While yes, it is different, it is not THAT different, we had entries in the Zelda series that are less alike between each other than that, and most of you don't make a big deal out of it. Not to say then of Final Fantasy where the games can vary widely. So again, not a huge deal.

A few heads up for reviewers with theꦑ upcomin🎃g release of Xenoblade X definitive edition.

Remember to update ✃the game, version 1.0.1 is already out, for instance.

The game is not ♌a spin-off, never was, never was called as such by the developers. Was never a black sheep either, its critical reception is higher than 2 and to🍌rna, and its user reception is as high as 1 definitive edition.

Also, careful with strong statements such as has no connection with the rest of the franchise. This does not match what said by developers in interviews around the ti൩me of 1 definitive edition. Instead, just say "you don't need to play other games to play and understand this one", which can also be said for each entry in the blade franchise, and is a more future proof statement.

On the game, p♈lease remember to check the options menu, there may be options there to customize the battle UI to make it even more clear. For instance, the Soul voice text bu🔯bbles.

For performance, remember that Zelda BOTW (which is also a Wii U game) and TOTK have several instances of noticeable frame drops, from kakariko, deku tree, launching enemies with two-hand sword, and going a bit over the top on crafting. If you guys mostly ignored these problems in Zelda, you won't mind any minor potential rare drops in XD🀅E, for  consistency, right, right?

And since I mentioned Zelda, letᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ's talk abo𒁃ut the silent avatar. Not all modern games put voices in the avatars, you guys are fine with Zelda and Baldur gates 3 doing silent avatar, so it comes to reason you should be fine with a silent avatar in XDE as well.

On Story and open world structure, remember that in Zelda TOTK, if you do tear of the dragon sidequest early you basically breaks the story, because then you are forced to watch characters making a bunch of dump questions or statements regarding Princess Zelda, and cannot do anything about because link, who is supposed to b🍸e you in the world, is not given an option to tell them what he/we already figured