In today's Nintendo Direct, the characters in Xenoblade Chronicles X gave more information regarding the battle system of the upcoming RPG.

Superficially, the game uses both sword and gun weapons for simple attacks. Once you go deeper into the battle system, however, comes Arts, which are categorized in fighting, shooting, support and weakening arts. There are time limits, and you can use the Soul Voice feature found within the game to to plan out strategies and assign arts ahead of battle. Combos will increase this damage, so be sure to learn more arts in order to generate combos, because doing these will enable 1.5x the damage.

Another feature introduced is the Overclock Gear, which reduces waiting times. Using the same arts consecutively will up the damage, and if tripled, damage will go up even higher. Enemy icons seen on the field will display level and other information. An eye means that that they are conducting a visual search, a bolt will mean seismic activity. Enemies with a circle around the eye will hunt in packs, and will call others for air. Video footage was shown of one of the characters trying to avoid a rock thrown by one enemy, only to get hit and lose all HP.

The Direct also featured information regarding weapons and armor. Weapons come in both melee and shooting varieties. Armor will include leg, arm, and body armor. New equipment products will be available to you the more you use the weapons you have. Equipment slots are also provided to customize weapons and armor with stat-modifying items.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is set for release in Japan on April 29. A US and European release date has not been announced.