The big finale from this week’s Nintendo Direct was the reveal of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a title that’s been anticipated for some time. The early look seemed rather positive, too – story segments suggest a more grounded and serious tone compared to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and gameplay clips suggest that MonolithSoft has been able to optimise and improve its engine on Switch.
Due out in September, the coming months will no doubt bring us a lot of build-up and details for the RPG, and Nintendo has already shared an introductory message from Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi, which you can see below.
Just over four years since the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and one and a half years since the release of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, we now bring to you news regarding the latest game from MONOLITHSOFT: Xenoblade Chronicles 3. As the name indicates, it’s the third instalment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. We are currently making the final adjustments to ensure we make it the best game possible based on everything we’ve learned from the past games from the series.
The key visual features a broken great sword of Mechonis and the body of the Urayan Titan with a big gaping hole. I imagine everyone who saw the trailer was quite surprised by the final scene. What is this visual hinting at? I can’t reveal that yet. What I can tell you is that this visual was conceived quite some time ago. More precisely speaking, we came up with it sometime between the end of development of Xenoblade Chronicles and the beginning of development of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
So, it’s not something we recently added to the series. We believe the game will be enjoyable for both those who’ve played Xenoblade Chronicles and/or Xenoblade Chronicles 2, as well as those who will be playing a Xenoblade Chronicles game for the first time.
The characters were designed by Masatsugu Saito, who also designed the characters for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While we can’t show them to you at this time, Koichi Mugitani created some of the key artworks. As you can see, familiar staff members to the Xenoblade Chronicles series have once again come together to create this game.
The game music was also handled by artists who’ve contributed to the series in the past. The music for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, Manami Kiyota, ACE (TOMOri Kudo, CHiCO), Kenji Hiramatsu and Mariam Abounnasr.
The music in this game maintains the unique Xenoblade Chronicles touch while also taking on a new challenge, namely that of integrating as its motif – a flute-based melody. The flute is actually one of the key themes in this game. A variety of other elements and themes are hidden in the trailer. We’ll be revealing the details bit by bit going forward.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a brand new adventure bringing together the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to take the players into the future. While there is still some time left before the release of the game, please look forward to it.
There are some interesting details there in terms of the game’s themes, and highlighting that the concept for this title has been in plans for a number of years. In addition there are plenty of returning staff, which is definitely a positive.
As for ‘elements and themes’ that are ‘hidden in the trailer’, we can all have a bit of fun digging for hints there.
Are you excited about the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in September?
