Prerelease:Xenoblade Chronicles X

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Xenoblade Chronicles X.

To do: Track down Nintendo Treehouse footage. There's some differences from the final localized versions, such as Phog being labelled with his full name. Comparison screenshots, it's important to get the Arts comparison matched as best as possible to the pre-release one. Check out the Xenoblade X: The Secret File scans.

Xenoblade Chronicles X's existence was first hinted to in an interview posted to Monolith Soft's site sometime in 2012 that stated the company was working on a "challenging, flashy, and addictive game" with multiplayer functionality. The first trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X, at the time known simply as X, was shown off during a Nintendo Direct presentation on 23rd January 2013.

(Source: Siliconera, Official Nintendo Magazine)

Gameplay

General

The HUD is vastly different.

The arts icons were square in earlier footage.

The pop-ups for wreckage are green, this was likely changed due to the fact they blend in rather easily in environments with a lot of greenery such as Primordia, which would render their purpose of pointing out wreckage for the player virtually useless.

Characters

Main Character

Early on, Xenoblade Chronicles X was going to have a fixed main character. However, to accommodate the online play aspect of the game, this fixed main character was cut in favor of a fully customizable avatar character.

(Source: Iwata Asks)

Elma

Before Monolith Soft settled on a design reminiscent of KOS-MOS, Elma's true form went through several design iterations, most of these have a predominant color scheme of either blue or yellow. Two proposed designs (pictured above) bear a heavy resemblance to Fiora and Meyneth from the previous game.

Concept artwork shows several alternate colors for the outfit Elma wears in her true form, while most of these ended up as alternate colours for the True Elma set, one of them shows a whitish/silver variant which appears to have been replaced by the gold "True" variant seen in-game.

In the Nintendo Direct trailer, Elma can be seen using a Gatling Gun and Shield instead of the Dual Guns and Dual Swords she uses in the final.

L

There is concept art for L of a design which never appears in the final labelled as his Origin Form. Because of the vague nature of the page, such as how L's name is obscured, it is unknown whether or not this design will be used for a future Xenoblade game.

Celica

Celica's design has, for the most part, stayed relatively the same for most of the design phase. One design is close to how she appears in the final, but her ears are humanoid and she wears a red bodysuit that lacks the lacy bustle worn by her final incarnation.

Antagonists

An alternate design for Goetia shows that she was going to be a Definian at one point.

Headwear concepts and alternate designs for Ryyz.

Unused Characters

A concept sketch for a character named Reina Sakuraba. The art book Xenoblade X: The Secret File - Art of Mira implies that she may have been intended as the protagonist before the idea of having a fully customizable playable character was conceived. Found in the same art book is a sketch of a man labelled Hero, who is stated to be 20 years old, and a nameless old man.

Two characters who never show up in the final game, Neilnail and Emily.

Neilnail's Description

Japanese	Translated
"あるクエストに登場する謎ドール「ニールネール」と同じ名を持つ異星人キャラクターだ。 説明文には「クリュー」とあるので、セリカと同じクリュー人のようだが？"	"A character shrouded in mystery who shares her name with the mysterious Neilnail Skells which appear in one of the quests. She appears to be a Qlurian, but what exactly is their relation to fellow Qlurian Celica?"

Emily's Description

Japanese	Translated
"アメリカ大統領令嬢という女性キャラクターのデザイン画。大統領といえばモーリス行政長官か元大統領補佐官だが、彼との関係は？"	"Designs for a female character that would be the American president's daughter. Speaking of the president, what would be her relationship with Maurice as a director general or a former aide to the president?"

(Source: Iggy (Neilnail translation), Divingkataetheweirdo‎ (Emily translation))

Armor

Several unused design concepts for armors intended to have been sold by Sakuraba Industries. There are cat ears in the final game, but they're more realistic than the ones depicted in the concept art and aren't attached to a maid headband.

(Source: Xenoblade X: The Secret File - Art of Mira, Xenoblade Wiki (scans))

Enemies

Unused Enemies

Cross faces off against a Mira Sleipnir in Noctilum. No Progen sharing this name appears in the final game.

An unused Simius enemy named Iron Fist Bruno appears in the Nintendo Direct trailer. While it is likely this enemy was intended to have been a Tyrant, it lacks any sort of indication it is one. It's possible that the distinction between normal enemies and Tyrants didn't exist yet at this stage of development.

(Source: Xenoblade Wiki (Mira Sleipnir image))

Other

Millesaurs were originally named after the sauropod genus Amphicoelias, which can be seen in the Nintendo Direct trailer. In addition, Progen were originally named Sleipnirs in the Japanese version as opposed to the final's Equus.

During two points of the Nintendo Direct preview, Cross is shown fighting Vasara at a Ganglion base in Oblivia. Vasara can only be fought in Sylvalum in the final game, and the location in Sylvalum in which he's fought is nowhere near a Ganglion base.

A Filiavent can clearly be seen in Oblivia at 1:01 in one trailer. No Filiavents appear in this area in the final. At 1:03, Cross can be seen running along the paths connecting the floating islands in Cauldros with several Ceto and Scintimure flying around, which were later replaced by various types of Seidr and Qmoevae. It is likely the Ceto and Scintimures were acting as placeholder enemies. A later part of the trailer showing a skell flying around the skies of Cauldros shows there are no Xern in the area either.

Locations

The city that the humans inhabit was originally meant to be Tokyo instead of Los Angeles. New LA was also meant to drastically change visually over the course of the game, but this was cut due to budget concerns.

(Source: proallnews, Fan of Xenoblade X)