The Xenoblade Chronicles Developer Monolith Soft Now Has 243 Employees

I want these people to team up with Game Freak. A Pokemon Open world done by Monolith Soft would be utterly amazing.

Also let's get Xenoblade X after Xenoblade 1 comes to Switch. At this point, after the 3 Xenoblade games and the other stuff I've played that they helped with, I'll buy anything these people make!

Yeah baby, I'm starting to feel it.

Awesome. They are some insanely talented guys and gals — so happy to see them prospering!

I hope a Xenoblade 3 is somewhere in the kitchen over there, and wouldn’t mind a Xenoblade X port/definitive edition either.

@Heavyarms55 personally i don't think open-world is really the right direction for pokémon (also xbx is the only one i'd really even call open-world aside from botw) but they could still benefit immensely from monolith's world design and their ability to craft them with incredible restrictions on both staff and budget
game freak needs to outsource more of their development if the pokémon company is gonna keep asking for yearly releases.

Definitely have more than just ports and helping out with Zelda going on over there.

@Heavyarms55 To be honest Xenoblade X wouldn't be the hardest game to port to Switch. They could just transfer FrontierNav to the - button, which I don't remember having any function. The menu could just open like the Breath of the Wild map, and if they decide to keep squad missions those can be in another menu.

@theJGG I agree. All they'd have to do is rework some of the UI stuff and that would be that. Only other thing I might ask is that they rework some of the text fonts and make them a tad larger or maybe add a little more contrast. Sometimes it was a little cluttered and hard to read. But that would probably not be too hard to fix either.

@Braok Maybe not, but I personally think a Pokemon game where you could challenge the gyms in any order, with their teams and levels adjusting based on how many badges you already have, would be really cool. It could be a pseudo/hybrid open world.

As to your yearly release thing, I think it's all but confirmed they aren't doing that anymore. We're getting a DLC update this year instead. And I could see them switching to that format from now on, game on year A, DLC on year B.

Either way, I would love a Pokemon game with Monolith Soft helping with the world design and building.

I hope they will bring something entirely new, so we can get several awesome IPs in the future, just like Platinum did with Astral Chain! With this team size they should be able to handle to full projects which can benefit from each other (e.g. engine).

One of the best developers out there. I want X-2....

X was such an amazing game even if the story was a bit lacking compared to Xenoblade 1.... but to be honest, that game was the RPG of the decade.

@theJGG Fast Travel with the gamepad was so smooth in Xenoblade X.. That and other aspects will be quite clunky in a Switch port... I’d like to see the game on the Switch but it’ll probably easily be the inferior version.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - Definitive Edition
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Baten Kaitos 3 (or remasters)

I'm always surprised by the fact that Nintendo has so many powerful companies by their side.

Monolith Soft
Platinum Games
Retro Studio
Intelligent Systems
HAL
etc

Oh, boy

@fafonio I think the story was great but it wasnt a story-driven game so there were no fancy cutscenes, big dialogues and things like that XCHX was an amazing experience! One of its kind No handholding, open world for your own exploration, huge RPG elements, MECHAs!

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
(AMAZING game, that took inspiration from traditional Western RPGs, basically the closest thing the Wii U had to an Elder Scrolls/Fallout-style experience, along with Breath Of The Wild)

Xenoblade Chronicles X-2

Xenosaga HD Trilogy

Xenogears Switch port

Make it happen!!

Can't wait to see what they bring to BOTW 2. (which is probably where most of their manpower is focused at this time)

They're great developers who deeply care about their products; Torna has shown the potential that DLC has, it expanded on the already substantial story in meaningful ways. I wish them all the succes!

If online retailers are listing XC: DE as having a late May placeholder until an official announcement, one can assume that we're getting closer and closer to a Nintendo Direct, am I right?

I’m so happy Nintendo have this partnership.

Having these exclusive JRPGs on the Switch is awesome and I can’t wait to see what other great games they produce.

Looking forward to the release date! I am very curious what Monolith Soft's next game will be, I am hoping for a Xenogears HD port, or Xenoblade Chronicles X-2!

Reading about the growth of a quality studio is always a good sign. Like others here, I'd like to see Xenoblade Chronicles X ported to the Switch; it's an excellent game that deserves more of an audience! I haven't played the other two titles yet (three if Torna counts), but I do intend to.

Xenoblade Chronicles X-2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 inbound!

so we really aren't getting a direct SMH i understand the delay but damn

That's 243 people who potentially know when this is out. Names please

@HeavyArms55 In BotW, there was a special Rex costume you could get, which I guess was a nod to how Monolith helped on that game's development. If Monolith was charged with helping with overworld design of a Pokemon game, I fully expect Shulk to be a gym leader.

Let's get that Xenoblade X port cooking, baby!

Where's my direct, Nintendo ? Tomorrow, right ?

That's what we agreed, right ?

This will be the third time I buy this game and I'm not regretting a single thing. Please Nintendo give us The Last Story HD remastered as well.

I would love to see a Project X Zone sequel, a Super Robot Taisen OG Saga remake of sequel, and the obvious XCX remake. Any of all of these would be awesome.

I for one am extremely excited to finally see the new Fantasy IP Monolith Soft is working on, and I desperately hope it will be revealed sometime this year. Personally I hope it uses a different art style than Xenoblade to differentiate it.

@Heavyarms55
I would love Monolith Soft to contribute to the next generation's world design for Pokemon! Even without an open world, Game Freak desperately needs help with 3D environments. With the expansion trailer, I can't help but balk at how plain the environments still look. The cities and villages in Sword/Shield actually look pretty good, aside from the emptiness; you can tell village design is where Game Freak is very capable. It's just their landscape and environment design that really suffers. They also desperately need an optimization overhaul.

@Braok
In a way, Pokemon could actually feel right at home with an open world. Prior to the hand-holding of the newer generations, OG Pokemon was pretty open-ended, requiring you to explore odd nooks and crannies for HM's and key interactions, all without much input on where to go next.

In fact, Pokemon's greatest strength as a franchise is its slice-of-life, Animal Crossing-esque lifestyle aesthetic. This is part of why the merchandise sales are so huge. A more toned-down storyline, completely devoid of any Chosen One/catastrophe-preventing tropes, would fit perfectly with an open-ended, open world Pokemon experience. In my opinion of course. Again, this harkens back to the first two generations of Pokemon, where the storylines were simpler and didn't hinge upon preventing a world ending disaster every time, and the whole experience was more focused on embarking upon your first adventure all by yourself.

@ToonStuff Yeah, I remember that - they released it after I had finished the game however, so I grabbed it but never used it.

Good, so about Xenoblade Chronicles X remastered...

That's a good update! They'll need a great team for their next big project

with that many employees maybe a Xenosaga remaster would be possible