I like to think of myself as an optimist. Especially when it comes to the capabilities of the Nintendo Switch. Yes, we’ve been playing with the system for over five years at this point, but looking at its output, it is still incredible that the core hardware has held up for as long as it has. Looking at ports like Ghostrunner, DOOM Eternal and especially Nintendo’s first party output on the system, the Switch is still more enticing to me than similar portable handheld devices. That being said, the cracks have become more apparent, especially for the last year or so. However, it is notable that XEL is absolutely one of the worst performing games I’ve seen on the Switch over the last five years. Releasing the game in this state, with quite a bit of marketing behind it, is a real shame and frankly should probably not have passed the quality assurance.

XEL opens quickly and sees the protagonist crash landing her spaceship on a mysterious planet. Unfortunately, the crash causes her to lose her memories of who she is and where she is, while also seemingly putting a rock in her forehead. Accompanied by a strange robot, she sets out to explore the planet and find out what XEL exactly is. From there on out, you find weird robots all over the place, and a colony of humans who are fighting against mysterious others. All the while you are searching for ways to repair your ship and save the colony. The game is presented as being clearly inspired by The Legend of Zelda games and is an action-adventure game.

I may be cutting this explanation short a bit, but that’s because I found the general conceit of XEL to be quite boring and lackluster. You have a sword and shield with which you can fight enemies. There are clearly marked dungeons that reward you with key items needed to progress, and there’s a roll button with a stamina meter. But whereas the landscapes and design of Hyrule evoke mystery and exploration, XEL sees you walking down a lot of linear hallways, beating up slow enemies, and having quite a bit of downtime during play. The exploration here rarely feels rewarding. From “hidden‘ audio logs to additional components used for improving gear and crafting items, I found myself quickly just passing all the additional stuff up to get the game done and over with. None of the characters feel engaging or well written enough to be fully invested in. And while a Zelda game also rarely has “well written characters,” XEL really wants you to connect with the mysteries and how these people are dealing with their life on this planet.

Unfortunately, most of what I can praise about the worldbuilding and the gameplay in XEL is that the general aesthetics of the game are pleasing. That’s about where this ends for me, because the Switch version is absolutely atrocious. Not only are we talking about horrendous frame-rates that I’d say drop below the double digits, but pop-in is a constant part of the journey. Oftentimes during play, edges of the world would simply vanish or pop-out or in without any sort of transition. In the colonized area of the world, the game would become nearly unplayable, with not only sluggish frame-rates and pop-in, but unresponsive controls as well. Going in for a quest and talking with villagers became a literal chore as the game was doing its hardest to keep up. Say what you will about other maligned Switch ports like the original release of Cloudpunk, as much as that game dropped on the visual aspect, it was at least performing semi-consistently. With XEL you run the risk of being unable to play it without any notice. All the while the game barely comes across as graphically demanding on the hardware. How can it be that other, high-effort indie games manage to run at a consistent 1080 and 30fps, but XEL is struggling to reach even half of those numbers?

And ultimately that’s where XEL fails hardest of all. 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.