This week’s Famitsu focused largely on Xenoblade Chronicles 2, dropping this Friday for the Switch. In anticipation, the magazine interviewed two of the biggest names involved with the project, General Director Tetsuya Takahashi and Main Composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Their interview was illuminating in several aspects of production, so give the points a read:
- Production on the game began in July 2014, while work on Xenoblade Chronicles X was still going on. At the time, the team didn’t know what Switch specs would be, so they used a rough idea of what the console would be like to waffle a proposal (which Hitoshi Yamaguchi accepted enthusiastically).
- Many fans were upset with XCX for being different and more focused on gameplay and openworld, which upset the developers somewhat. Takahashi assured that XC2 is a more proper and orthodox sequel to XC1, though obviously still with large areas.
- After complaints of being unable to move and select Arts at the same time, the team switched up the control scheme to correspond to the directional buttons and ABXY, hopefully eliminating the issue.
- Takahashi describes Mitsuda as “a mothership-like being” to him, and desired to work with him again after a long absence.
- The game has about 120 tracks, with 25 being composed by Mitsuda and the rest handled by ACE, Kenji Hiramatsu and Minami Kiyota.
- Mitsuda would love to perform the game’s soundtrack live with an orchestra, which (speaking personally) sounds like a fantastic idea.
- All of the various Rare Blades were designed by character designers out of house — because Monolith Soft doesn’t have any character designers.
- The designers were given elements to work with (weapons, elements, materials, etc.) and otherwise given free reign to design as they please. As a result, there ended up being a disproportionate amount of female Rare Blade designs, even though Monolith didn’t ask as such.
- Some Rare Blades are… well, really rare. Takahashi hopes that players can have unique experiences and stories with the particular Rare Blades that they acquire.
- Finally, while the game’s character models (particularly the faces) have improved greatly compared to the previous installments, it turns out the staff working on them is the exact same as before. Never underestimate improved tech and experience!
This was only a snippet of the interview, so more might be translated this week. We’ll be on the lookout as we wait for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to launch this Friday.
Source: Famitsu | Via: Perfectly Nintendo
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
