Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Nintendo Switch 2 players discover that one of the game’s biggest issues has now been fixed
Posted on July 29, 2026 by Brian(@NE_Brian)
in News, Switch 2
One of the biggest issues players had with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has now been fixed in the new Nintendo Switch 2 Edition – which are the Field Skills.
When we touched on what we would want out of a hypothetical Definitive Edition of the game last year, we brought up Field Skills. There were a lot of annoyances involving menus and organizing Blades to progress.
If you’re wondering what the big deal is, here’s what we previously said about why it was a problem:
Field Skills, which are one of the most unpopular mechanics in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Certain parts of world navigation require elemental mastery. Certain Blades have different Field Skills – for example, Pyra’s Field Skills are Fire Mastery Lv. 3, Focus Lv. 3, and Cooking Lv. 3. There are field checks for Dark Mastery, Earth Mastery, Electric Mastery, Fire Mastery, Light Mastery, Ice Mastery, Water Mastery, Wind Mastery, Ancient Wisdom, Focus, Fortitude, Girls’ Talk, Keen Eye, Leaping, Lockpicking, Nopon Wisdom, and Superstrength.
While you’re traversing Alrest, you might find a high-level Leaping barrier that lets you jump to a higher area if enough of your equipped Blades have the Leaping skill. That means you need to go through Xenoblade 2’s convoluted menus and organize your equipped Blades and party members until your Blades have a combined Leaping level high enough to pass the barrier. And there are checks like these all over the game – it’s particularly brutal after Torna kidnaps Pyra and Mythra, which leaves you without their Level 3 Focus Field Skill. And the Spirit Crucible Elpys has a huge Field Skill check that sometimes necessitates hours of grinding. Needless to say, this whole system needs a rework – at the very least, maybe allow all of your Blades to contribute to Field Skill checks, not just the three that each of your party members has equipped.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition has started to launch and players in Australia and New Zealand now have access. Thanks to that, fans have learned that Field Skills have been addressed. Interestingly, this was not mentioned by Nintendo previously.
The change in the new release is small but important. In the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, Field Skills now count for every Blade you have. Players no longer need to sift through menus to equip a combination of Blades that have the correct lineup of skills.
The one thing we’re waiting on is more clarity on how the new system works. Right now, for instance, it’s unclear if you have 20 Blades with a single point in a skill you can pass a 20 point check, or if the game simply figures out the combination that best fits the situation. Right now fans are assuming the game goes through your Blades in order and uses them all, but we don’t have confirmation. Regardless, this is a big improvement over the original system.
We’ll also mention one other small note. In the original Nintendo Switch release, it wasn’t possible to record gameplay with the console’s built-in functionality. This is now available in the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Nintendo Switch 2 launches everywhere tomorrow, July 30. You can get a good look at the game here.
More: Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade Chronicles 2
