XEL Critic Reviews

If 3D platforming, action-adventure, and puzzle games are your thing, XEL is going to fulfill your needs and then some. It comes with a compelling story, solid gameplay mechanics, and a beautiful world that is yours to explore freely. But until the bugs are solved, this incredible title is going to continue to be held back not by its design flaws, but by its mechanical ones.

The game XEL is quite unique and original but brings that classic 3D RPG action-packed game genre to the Nintendo Switch. It’s a very easy-to-play game that doesn’t require many control buttons to use or a long time to acknowledge what you must do next. Everything is easily explained and the major portion of the game is to explore the world while finding hidden objects and upgrades to help you along the way.

XEL takes many of its cues from the Zelda franchise, with combat and puzzles that keep things interesting throughout as well as a charming, fun cast of characters. However, technical glitches in the Switch version make it difficult to enjoy at launch. There is the potential for a great game in here, possibly after a hefty patch to fix some of the bugs, but despite its obvious promise it fails to live up to its potential in its current state.

Every time I found myself having a bit of fun with XEL, something would happen to ruin it. A weird bug here, a tiny hard-to-spot thing there, or just some vexing performance issues. Without those problems, I’d give the game a mild recommendation to action-adventure fans. With them, it’s hard to be very positive about it at all. There are so many great games of this sort on the Switch that it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for a merely decent one, let alone one that trips over its own feet so often.

XEL looks great on the surface, but unfortunately it has too many bugs and technical issues to warrant recommending it to anyone. The framerate drops and slow-loading zone transitions alone can cause some frustrations, but add in an uncontrollable camera that is overly distant from the action, difficult to detect enemies, and terrain that is easy to get stuck to - forcing you to reload from your last save point, and you have a game that is near unplayable in its current state. Patches may resolve these issues, but as of right now XEL is too frustrating to fully enjoy.

XEL has the potential to be a great game, but too many elements are left unpolished. Hopefully, a patch will be able to fix these issues, and then it may be a solid adventure game.

It doesn’t differentiate itself enough from the other indie Zelda-like games that are available on Switch from a gameplay perspective. Titles like Death’s Door, Cross Code, and Blossom Tales offer a much more refined and unique take on the ideas Zelda is known for and run fantastic on Switch. XEL has little character to enjoy, there’s no story to keep you fully engaged, and gameplay feels contrived and repetitive. And that’s before we get to the frankly abysmal state that this game was released in. I was holding off this review to see if the game would be updated before its release, but quite frankly it seems that updating and fine tuning XEL will be an effort that I personally don’t think is worth it.

I think there’s a solid game here under all the technical issues, but it’s hard to say. XEL’s combat and time-based puzzles are satisfying, the setting and narrative are engaging, and its aesthetically charming. But until those issues are addressed, XEL is largely unplayable. I’ve spent way more time dealing with those issues than I have playing the game. I’d like to revisit it in the future, assuming it gets fixed.

XEL isn’t a great game. It’s not even a mediocre game. It’s a half-finished mess that shouldn’t have been released in this state.