Earlier in the year, Monolith Soft hinted that Xenoblade Chronicles X would have some sort of special mechanism in place that would allow the game to stream its world as seamlessly as possible, with minimal need for loading screens. This mechanism, the studio said, would be implemented specifically for the disc version of the game, since reading data off a disc is slower than a hard drive.
Now, we know just what this mechanism is. In Japan, Nintendo and Monolith are making four large data packs available for download that will allow more data to be read off the Wii U’s hard drive and will speed up loading. These packs are as follows:
Basic Data Pack (2 GB) – Effect: Large
A data pack containing terrain data that will allow faster loading while in the city and the game’s various fields. The Basic Data Pack is required for other Data Packs to work.
Enemy Data Pack (2.7 GB) – Effect: Medium
Installs enemy data to the HDD, and when combined with the Basic Data Pack further speeds up load times while out in the field.
Player Data Pack (3.6 GB) – Effect: Medium
Will install data pertaining to the armour and graphics of the player. When combined with the Basic Data Pack, it will speed up loading in the city and when equipping changes in the shops in New Los Angeles.
Doll Data Pack (1.7 GB) – Effect: Medium
Will install data pertaining to the Doll mechs. When combined with the Basic Data Pack, it will speed up read times when Dolls appear. This will lead to faster loading in the city and in the fields.
Monolith mention on the Xenoblade Chronicles X website that all of these data packs are already included with the download version of the game, so you will only need them if you own the disc version and want to further improve your experience. However, they are not required to play the game.
Xenoblade Chronicles X will be released in Japan on April 29th. A Western release is planned for sometime later this year.
