Topic: Place your bets. Xenoblade, the entire series on one cartridge, or milked?

@Magician Perhaps, but historical precedent would suggest that they'll likely eventually develop something else Xeno branded.

@JaxonH Nice. Are these sort of alterations detectable by Nintendo? I don't want to pirate either, but it sounds like it could be a nice go-to for Switch exclusives that are never patched to run better on Switch 2. That said, with any sort of online-enabled console with an account system, I worry about the possibility of banwaves on modded hardware.

@Ralizah
Not at all. Even overclocking on official system firmware no bans have ever been issued. But theoretically it could be detected. So. All you need to do in order to be 100% safe is create an emuNAND from Hekate. Everyone who has a modded system uses an emuNAND. At least, for games you won't be playing online. Because in the emuNAND, you run a HB tool that blocks all Nintendo servers for whatever wifi networks it detects. You can also blank your consoles serial number for emuNAND, but not blank it for system NAND (sysNAND). Then do all your overclocking from emuNAND, as I do. I've been doing this for years and never got a ban. I still boot the system up into official sysNAND, buy games on the eShop and download them, dump them and install on emuNAND. Then I archive the game on sysNAND since I don't need games installed on both emuNAND and sysNAND- only exception to that is Monster Hunter Rise, which I overclock on emuNAND to get supersampled 720p locked 30fps, or 610p 60fps, while keeping the game installed on official sysNAND for potential online play.

Basically, you use emuNAND as an emulated walled garden of the system OS that looks and feels identical, but is cut off from Nintendo's servers and can't be identified even if it wasn't. The only time you'll ever boot into the 3rd option of sysNAND but with HB running, is to dump games you've purchased or backup/restore save files. And thats perfectly safe. HATs pack comes with DBI which you can use to dump games you buy, then install them on the emuNAND.

I had a LOT of games though and didn't want to dump all of them and reinstall them on emuNAND. So what I did was- after creating my emuNAND in Hekate, I put the microSD in the PC and cut/pasted my Nintendo folder into the emummc folder (which is where the emuNAND is stored, so it has its own Nintendo folder identical to the one on the root of the micro SD), that way all the games moved from the official system firmware to the emulated environment. That got me 90% of the way there right off the bat. Saves a ton of trouble dumping, archiving, rebooting into emuNAND and installing.

Idiots who boot into sysNAND with custom firmware running (which should only be done to dump games/saves to then be used in emuNAND), then launch a game like Pokemon, enable cheats and go online in-game... ya. Those people catch the banhammer all day. Don't do that 😀

I don’t think a $250 cartridge would appeal to most people. Just ask the makers of Action 52.

What are you smoking? Links to your story here?

I can't see this happening. This is the same Nintendo who would remake a single SNES or GBA game and sell it at full price, right?

Also, even individually, the Xenoblade games are among the best value for money you're ever likely to get from Nintendo. You're looking at 40 hours or so just to get through the story of any of them and several hundred if you want to see everything that they've got to offer.

A reasonably priced compilation that'd take 200 hours to play end to end? Naah, I just can't see that.

I'd go a step further and say no Switch game would benefit more from a remaster, especially after the previous Xenoblade remasters.

I'm almost mad at myself for going back to this, because I've brought it up so much, but cutting out the many hours of tedious menu-centric nonsense and the like this game expects from you if you dive into its sidequests and adding better tutorials so you don't have to look online to understand that this one item in the first area makes the combat more fun would be a massive improvement to this game. They could save so many hours of people's lives and the game's combat and world and visuals and music deserve the best possible version of this game.

@Overzeal
iam8bit released an Annapurna Interactive Collection of 12 of their games on one cartridge for $199.99, limited to 2,500 units.
They sold through.
https://www.iam8bit.com/products/annapurna-interactive-deluxe...

I was incredulous about $250, but looking at the full game prices on the US eShop, the four base games are $60, and the two expansion passes are $30, so it's actually a higher figure.
I could see die-hard fans going for the all-in-one cartridge, I'd certainly love such an item but can't see it happening.
On the other hand, Nintendo would be missing a trick to not do special Switch 2 Edition compilation releases of many Switch 1 series, considering they can comfortably put multiple titles onto a single 64GB game card.

I genuinely don't understand why this topic is a thing. Why it's either "Nintendo needs to put it on one cart, or it's milked!"

For one- All the Xeno releases on switch will be compatible with the Switch 2 out of the box. Sure, they could and probably should make patches for the game that'll increase performance and visuals- but I don't exactly know if they'll be paid releases. If they are, it still won't be milking anything, given that the people who own the game will only have to pay around 10 dollars extra (given it probably won't have DLC sized content added to the games).

Also, doing one release doesn't make sense given that each of these games are their own standalone game/experience. If the topic were "will they pack in Future Redeemed with Xenoblade 3 for a Switch 2 edition?" I'd get it. However, they're not going to squeeze three 100 hour JRPGs onto one game card and charge 70-80 USD. They would charge the prices of these games individually if they were on one card, making the game around 210-240 USD.

This is untrue actually. They aren't done with mainline Xenoblade. Takahashi said that 3 is a stopping gap for the current saga- or narrative arc. Xenoblade X DE, Future Redeemed, and base game 3 along with the Aionios Moments artbook make mention of ideas that have no answer as of yet, or that Takahashi said he couldn't answer yet. It's very clear that whatever comes next is either going to be Xenoblade Chronicles 4, or Xenoblade Chronicles Y/X2.

Monolith Soft's next game is a new IP- the fantasy game they've been working on for years now. Unless they have a B team working on Xenoblade Chronicles X2, I'm expecting XC to be on ice for the next 5 years or so.

@JaxonH The fantasy IP isn't a game. It's pretty much just artwork that they created for their recruitment page. Monolith hired more people for mech designs, which implies whatever comes next will be Xeno-related. Nintendo also won't let Monolith do anything game-wise outside of Xenoblade and helping with developing Nintendo's in-house games.

The B team was working on XDE, while the main team was most likely working on XC4 or X-2 at this point, it'll be the same game regardless of what title they pick- given how DE ended.

@VoidofLight
I don't believe that. The notion Nintendo "wouldn't allow" them to make a different IP... based on what evidence? The sub 2 million sales of XC3?

Even if that was just an image, I think they're done with XC for the time being. Creators like to do different things. When you only make games for the same exact franchise over and over and over and over people get burnout. It's why Retro chose to make two DKC games after Metroid Prime 3. Didn't mean they were done with Metroid forever, but it did mean they wanted to diversify for a bit.

4 Xenoblade games in a row PLUS two remasters PLUS expansions for all 4... I guarantee they're ready for something different. Especially with XC3 tying a nice bow on the trilogy. Doesn't mean we'll never see XC4 (we will). Doesn't mean we won't see XCX2 (we might). But this is the company that made 2 Baten Kaitos games before Xenoblade. It's not the only series they're going to make the rest of their natural lives.

I just don't want them to make more Xenoblade. Maybe if I did love 2 and X as much as the original, I'd feel differently, but regardless of that, if they've wrapped things up, let things have been wrapped up. I don't like when devs are forced to make one series only, forever. I wanna see something new.

@JaxonH I'm not arguing that they won't make something else in the future, but XC4 or X2 is next. They hired a mech designer and keep hinting at the future of the series with every interview they do. The next game is the first game that Takahashi has helmed since Xenosaga- and 3 and X have been pointing the series into a direction similar to what Xenosaga was doing. Especially with the new threat they've set up.

I would like to see a new IP from Monolith at some point, but I doubt that the Medieval game actually exists- and I doubt that it'll be the next game they produce.

@kkslider5552000
I can't think of a single Nintendo studio where we have factually substantiated evidence they wanted to make a game in a different series and corporate told them no, they're confined to only making games in one franchise.

Intelligent Systems doesn't just make Fire Emblem. They also do Paper Mario and WarioWare. Retro doesn't just do Metroid Prime. They also do Donkey Kong Country and whatever that canceled game was. Tokyo EAD doesn't just make 3D Mario. They're about to release a new 3D Donkey Kong (at least, we assume it's Tokyo EAD). Sakurai doesn't just make Smash. He's about to drop Kirby Air Ride. The Animal Crossing team also does Splatoon.

Like, pick any studio and they've made games in more than one franchise. If Monolith Soft wants to make another Xenoblade next, then that's what we'll get. But I don't see it (save perhaps Xenoblade Chronicles X2).

@JaxonH X2 and XC4 are going to be the same game at this point. There's genuinely 0 getting around that.

I'd think that even if they did make a non-Xenoblade game it'd end up getting retconned into the rest of the series, going by what they've done with the definitive editions. Takahashi certainly likes to tie all of his narratives together at some point.

Anyway, I'm happy just to let them cook and see what they come up with.

@Matt_Barber Yeah. If they make a game that isn't Xenoblade, it'll probably be connected later either way. Especially since Xeno as a whole tends to play around with multi-universal concepts. Whatever they're making will probably focus on psychology at the very least.

I'm sure its happened, but its usually, probably a lot more complicated than "we wanted to make a game but were told no", especially since there are a lot of people who make these games, many of which do not have any notable, easily found, translated interviews or the like.

Regardless, let's say, I think it a shame when devs are stuck in one series. If someone or some dev never left their popular series, we wouldn't have Ghost Trick, Splatoon, arguably every Mistwalker game, the modern DKC games, The Evil Within, Drill Dozer, Arms, Metaphor ReFantazio and every game Naughty Dog made after the 90s, among countless others.

I sorta wish Splatoon never existed, given that we would've probably gotten a better Animal Crossing game instead of New Horizons- but eh.