Xenoblade Chronicles 2 announced for the Nintendo Switch; first trailer + screens
Edit: added some concept-art!
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During the Nintendo Switch Presentation, Nintendo revealed Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch. As the name implies, it’s a direct-sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, originally released on the Wii (then ported on the New Nintendo 3DS).
We know very little about the game, just that it will feature a brand new character exploring a brand new world, in search of Elysium. To the surprise of no one, the Executive Director is none other than Tetsuya Takahashi, who had the same role for Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
As for the music, the same team as the original Xenoblade Chronicles is back (with the exception of Yoko Shimomura):
- Yasunori Mitsuda
- ACE (Tomori Kudo, CHiCO)
- Kenji Hiramatsu
- Manami Kiyota
And for the chara-design, it’s Masatsugu Saito who’s in charge of it, “replacing” Kunihiko Tanaka (who worked on Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X). The change in art-style is really clear as day in the trailer below, and it’s not just the characters (or their faces).
Here’s the debut trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch:
This announcement certainly makes us wonder about Xenoblade Chronicles X and its ending. Does that mean Monolith Software is working on two Xenoblade Chronicles games at once?
As for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, did it start as a Wii U game, but was then moved to the Nintendo Switch? It’s certainly intriguing that the game is announced for 2017 (worldwide, not just in Japan), which is a much shorter announcement > release time lapse than with Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X (especially for localisation).
Finally, here’s some screenshots for the game:
