Developer Monolith Soft has shared a message with Japanese players about the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 whilst teasing the future of the Japanese RPG (JRPG) franchise.
After the third entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise came to Nintendo Switch in July, a newly translated email penned by Xenoblade Chronicles 3 senior director Tetsuya Takahashi thanked players for their support and teased what they can expect going forward (via Nintendo Everything).
“Thanks to your support, we’ve released the third Xenoblade title, twelve years after the original Xenoblade was released for the Wii in 2010. Xenoblade 3 has been called the culmination of the whole series up until now, and it truly is the culmination. We at Monolith have put everything we have cultivated over the past twelve years into it,” wrote Takahashi.
“It is also a stopping point to me. This title depicts the conclusion of the Xenoblade story that began with Klaus’s experiment.”
Takahashi then goes on to explain how despite the third entry being a sort of “conclusion,” it isn’t the end of the franchise overall.
“While it is a conclusion, that does not mean it is the end of the Xenoblade series. It is just a stopping point in my mind. I think that everyone who played this title and the additional stories in the Expansion Pass can imagine what lies in the future for Xenoblade.”
The expansion pass for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is set to include a large amount of new story content, which Takahashi may be referring to in his previous quote. So here’s the release dates and currently planned content for the upcoming “waves” of downloadable content.
- Wave 2 (releasing by December 31 this year): a challenge battle mode, new hero and quests, new outfits
- Wave 3 (releasing by April 30, 2023): new challenges, a new hero and accompanying quests, and outfits
- Wave 4 (releasing by December 31, 2023): a “new original story scenario” in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Monolith Soft is also a Nintendo co-developer, on top of releasing its own games. The studio helped with the level design and topography of the open-world Hyrule in The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. Monolith is also assisting with that game’s sequel, which was recently delayed into early 2023.
In other news, As Dusk Falls developer Interior/Night has explained how it wants to keep creating narrative games that “attract more people” into the medium.
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