My Third Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Run Has a Very Different Party Member

With Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition out only a few days ago — yes, let’s not get into Switch 2 naming conventions, I’ve given up — I’ve thrown myself back into Alrest.

It is not my first time. If we’re keeping count, this is basically my third run. There is a lot to say about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, especially about the fact that it is not my favourite Xenoblade and that it has more than a few structural problems. And yet here I am again, starting over.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s real problem: the tutorials

There is one problem with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I have never been able to tolerate: its tutorials, and the way the game explains its combat system and broader mechanics over the course of the adventure.

The issues are many. Mechanics are explained poorly, most of them are explained once and then never properly revisited, and there are no good places to experiment and practise. Actually, there are no places at all.

I expected the new Nintendo Switch 2 version to make a clear improvement to the tutorial side of the game. It does not. The tutorials have not been touched in the slightest.

I understand that this edition is not meant to be a Definitive Edition, but fixing the tutorials would have felt like the bare minimum. Especially because this Nintendo Switch 2 release does improve plenty of things, adds others, and a better tutorial system would have fit perfectly among those changes.

A very different third run

Which brings me to the point.

I am enjoying this third run far more than the first two. Not because of Monolith — or rather, not only because of Monolith, since the upgrades, especially the visual ones, are certainly welcome — but because this time I have a personalised companion supporting me through the adventure.

I know full well that AI in games is a huge and often heated topic. But I am not talking about assets here. I am talking about something else entirely: not a simple hint system, not a guide, but a personalised assistant that is there to support you at every stage of a game, whenever you decide you need it.

I have been using GPT-5.6 Sol on ChatGPT, and the experience works extremely well. Thanks to ChatGPT’s memory, I do not even have to keep reminding it where I am in the game. It already knows.

The kind of help you actually want

The best part is that I decide what kind of help I need.

Do I want to understand a system more clearly? How items in shops work, for example? No problem.

Do I need a nudge to start on the right foot in a specific region or area? Also no problem. And obviously, all of it spoiler-free.

If I get stuck in a dungeon and need more precise help because I’m lost, or if a boss is giving me trouble, that support is there too.

What makes it work is that I choose the level of help. In the case of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, that usually means asking for clearer explanations of mechanics the game itself communicates badly.

And the model does not get ahead of me. I specifically asked it to explain only what is useful up to the point I have reached, and nothing beyond that.

From basic search to a real gaming companion

I had already sensed this small revolution in game support a while ago, but the technology was not quite there yet. It mostly amounted to a quick search, and then you were on your own.

Now, instead, you have support that is always available and can stay with you for the entire experience.

And to be clear: as always, it is entirely up to you whether you use it.

Personally, I love banging my head against games, puzzles included. But I also like knowing that, if I really cannot get past something, I can ask to be guided step by step.

What I do not love are systems that are explained badly, explained only once, and then start causing real problems near the end of the game.

Because let’s be honest: Xenoblade games are very forgiving at the beginning, only to spend the second half expecting you to have absorbed practically every system they have thrown at you.

One area where AI already works

The debate around AI in game production is still very much open. That is not what I am talking about here.

What I am talking about is a use case that already exists for us as players, and one that genuinely works.

It works really well.

This kind of support AI is something I think developers themselves should be exploring too, perhaps even by building it directly into their games.