Last Thursday, Nintendo Showed us the project Monolith Soft have been working on which turned out to be Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Needless to say, as a big long-time Xeno-fan, I am beyond excited for it. In case you missed it, or want it for reference here it is below:
Now that we have all seen it, let’s talk about it. The first thing I want to bring up is the graphical style. It appears to go for a more cartoon-ey or rather more “Anime” look especially with the eyes invoking memories of the very first Xenosaga game on PS2. It almost seems as if they are doing the reverse of what Xenosaga did as far as the progression in art style. Below are some images to compare the protagonists’ look from both series assuming the young boy we see in the trailer is the main character for Xenoblade 2.
Xenosaga:(This picture was found in a thread from NeoGaf)
Xenoblade:
Of course in the grand scheme of things, this probably won’t matter much but was something I found interesting. Now the game being called Xenoblade 2 raises one big question: Which continuity will this game follow? Will it pick up after X‘s abrupt cliffhanger? Will this take place following the events of the original Xenoblade or will it tie all the games together? As much as I would like to think it will continue the story, we can’t rule out the possibility that the game will only be related in name alone. After all, Satoru Iwata had once said the name change to Xenoblade from Monado: Beginning of the World was done simply to honor executive director Tetsuya Takahashi’s previous works. That is not to say his games don’t have any links or parallels to each other. In fact there is a recurring object or even concept throughout the Xeno-series(except the original Xenoblade) and it is even present in this new trailer. If you are well familiar with Takahashi’s previous work, you may already know what I am referring to. Look at the following screenshot:
That is the shape of the Zohar as it is called in Xenosaga, a monolithic entity that serves as a massive source of energy. This “Thing” would become a major plot device in both Xenogears, Xenosaga and there is even a big homage to it in X. That green-ish color could also imply relations to ether, yet another recurring theme in these games but its presence here further links it to the Bionis world of the first Xenosaga. Ether is the blood of the Bionis and the human-like species that inhabits it – the Homs. Without ether, they simply would not be able to live and their world would die. In the Xenoblade 2 trailer we see a massive being moving which seems to imply that once again, we are living on a giant colossal living mass except this time it is actually moving and living in real time as opposed to being frozen in place.
From a gameplay perspective, Xenoblade 2 looks to continue the series tradition of world building and exploration. We were given a taste of how massive the land is and even got a brief look at a village in the air perhaps implying we will be able to fly to these villages! Skell flying in X while amusing, happened very late in the game for you to really take advantage of it story wise and a s a result didn’t feel as satisfying as it could have been. I am hoping that this game expands on flight and lets us take full advantage of it earlier on in the story. It also seems like we will be able to interact with animals as a character is seen riding one of the creatures. This makes me wonder if the combat will now incorporate an additional feature to let you talk to or befriend some of the wildlife you encounter allowing you to settle these “conflicts” in a more peaceful way. The last thing I want to point out is the trailer lists Masunori Mitsuda and ACE as composers among others. This makes me incredibly excited as their works have been among my favorite musical compositions in well anything and this hopefully means that the music in Xenoblade 2 will be in line with the original game! If anyone can make a memorable OST it will be these people, though New Los Angeles’ night theme from X has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me over time.
Those are just a couple of interesting things I noticed in the Xenoblade 2 trailer. Did any of you find anything interesting in the trailer you feel is worth discussing? Let us know in the comments. Xenoblade 2 is currently in development for the Nintendo Switch and is said to be released in 2017. We do not have a specific release date yet so for now all we can do is speculate and hope that this game delivers an incredible experience like its predecessors.
