Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Revealed

February 09, 2022

Nintendo has officially announced the newest iteration of its landmark Japanese role-playing game, Xenoblade Chronicles with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (or Xenoblade 3 in Japan). The landmark JRPG franchise got its start on the Nintendo Wii and found its footing with the incredible Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Nintendo unveiled Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on February 9, 2022, as the last big announcement during the Nintendo direct.

We do not know anything about the game and speculating from a 2.5-minute trailer and a bunch of screenshots is a fool’s errand, so here is what Nintendo said about the game.

A vast world awaits in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the next game in the acclaimed RPG series from developer MONOLITHSOFT. Players will step into the roles of protagonists Noah and Mio amid turmoil between the hostile nations of Keves and Agnus. Six characters hailing from those nations will take part in a grand tale with “life” as its central theme. Explore a new world that will connect the futures of both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, launching for Nintendo Switch in September 2022.

Here is a message from the executive director of the game and head of Monolithsoft, Tetsuya Takahashi from Nintendo

Hi everyone, this is Tetsuya Takahashi from MONOLITHSOFT. 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 installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series.

We are currently making final adjustments to ensure we create the best game possible based on everything we’ve learned from the past entries in the series. The key visual features a broken great sword of Mechonis and the body of the Urayan Titan with a gaping wound. 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 just 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 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 reveal them at this time, Koichi Mugitani created some of the game’s key artwork. As you can see, familiar staff members with 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 a flute-based melody as its motif. The flute is actually one of the key themes in this game. A variety of other elements and themes are hidden in the trailer andwe’ll be revealing the details a bit at a time going forward.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a new adventure bringing together the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to take players into the future. While there is still some time left before the release of the game, I hope you’ll look forward to it.