Takahashi on why players aren’t given access to Xenoblade Chronicles X’s Skells right away
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Xenoblade Chronicles X features something known as “Skells”. These mechs allow players to take to the sky and fly across the vast world. You won’t have access to Skells right away, however. They are made available later in the game after players receiving a license.
This month’s issue of Game Informer has a few comments from Monolith Soft executive director Tetsuya Takahashi. Takahashi told the magazine why Skells aren’t handed out at the start, explaining:
“The main reason we didn’t want players to have the Skell from the beginning of the game is that we wanted them to have the opportunity to fully explore the world on foot first. The world starts to feel quiet a bit different once you have the Skell, especially once you experience different layers of the world vertically.”
Xenoblade Chronicles X still has a few months to go before it reaches the west. The overseas release is scheduled for December 4.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director wants to focus more on story for his next title
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 23 Comments
In a guidebook for Xenoblade Chronicles X, fans left various feedback about the Wii U RPG. Players noted that they wanted a more passionate/rich story, the UI was a little difficult to use, and the battle system had a bit too much going in.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director responded to all of the feedback, and thanked fans for everything they had to say. He also said he agrees with most of what was mentioned.
Other feedback left by fans:
– Letters are too small
– Inviting other party members was tedious
– It would be cool to be able to go into out-space
– Fans more lively online features in Monolith Soft’s next title
Takahashi concluded his thoughts with the following:
“Being several years behind others in the development of an HD title and taking into account Monolith Soft’s company size, there are just some thing that we could not achieve, which couldn’t be helped, but in order to move on towards the next step, there was no avoiding this. And that is the truth.”
Monolith Soft on Xenoblade Chronicles X, sharing dev insight and open to helping other Nintendo teams
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 5 Comments
Nintendo interviews haven’t stopped pouring in from E3 2015. The latest one comes from Game Informer, who chatted with Xenoblade Chronicles X director Tetsuya Takahashi and Nintendo’s Genki Yokota.
Topics include:
– Why Los Angeles was chosen as the main city for Xenoblade Chronicles X (New York was considered)
– HD development
– Working on first-party Nintendo games and being open to helping out with Zelda Wii U
It’s a pretty massive interview, so we’ve only posted a few excerpts below. You can read the full discussion here.
Nintendo and Monolith Soft on their relationship, JRPG term, state of the Japanese market, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
During E3 last week, GameSpot conducted an interview with some developers from Nintendo and Monolith Soft. Those staffers are as follows:
Hitoshi Yamagami – Producer, Nintendo
Genki Yakota – Director, Nintendo
Tetsuya Takahashi – Executive Director, Monolith Soft
Koh Kojima – Director, Monolith Soft
Shingo Kawabata – Producer, Monolith Soft
In the interview, GameSpot asked all of these developers about the relationship between Nintendo and Monolith, the “JRPG” term, how the Japanese market is at present, and more. Head past the break for their comments. You can also access GameSpot’s original article here.
Takahashi on Xenoblade X, next game in development, wants Monolith Soft to grow, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 36 Comments
GamesBeat has published a fairly lengthy interview with Monolith Soft’s Tetsuya Takahashi. Takahashi talked about Xenoblade Chronicles X in-depth, confirmed that his next title is in the works, expressed interest in expanding Monolith Soft, and more.
We have a good chuck of the interview rounded up below. The full discussion can be read here.
On being anxious about getting Xenoblade Chronicles X out in North America…
Takahashi: Yeah, although there’s still quite a lot left for us to do. We’ve announced a release date and everything, but all we can see is a looming deadline.
On how Xenoblade Chronicles X is a deliberate successor, and if Takahashi wanted to make the story more closely grounded to reality…
Takahashi: The simplest answer, probably, is that I felt like, after working on a fantasy setting, it might be nice to try something new. Science fiction is a great change of pace. It’s a really interesting flavor.
On the challenge in bringing an RPG franchise to HD for the first time…
Takahashi: Probably the biggest challenge for us comes in the planning stage, where we have to think about how we’re going to use these limited resources — I’m talking mostly about time on the schedule — to create all the assets in such a huge world. What order do we need to take tasks in to accomplish them all in the most efficient way? There’s a lot of tech that goes into expressing the open world concept as well, making sure that it’s a seamless experience from one end to the other. That’s probably the biggest challenge.
Takahashi says it takes about 30 hours to get a Skell in Xenoblade Chronicles X
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 11 Comments
Xenoblade Chronicles X has a feature that allows players to obtain and fly various mechs known as “Skells”. Just don’t count on gaining access to a Skell right away. Speaking with IGN, senior director and chief creative officer Tetsuya Takahashi said that it takes about 30 hours before mechs become accessible.
He said:
“The reason we decided to do that was because the scale of the game changes once you get a Skell. We wanted to make sure that the initial difficulties you might have had maneuvering across terrain or trying to figure out how to reach a certain spot would be something you had a full sense of before you got the Skell.”
“We didn’t want people from the very beginning being able to be to zip towards the exact opposite end of the continent. We wanted people them to have the experience of knowing that distance first hand by running it. Once you do have the opportunity to control a Skell, it really does change the feel of the game. And we feel like these are gradual steps that ease you into that process.”
“When people hear 30 hours of gameplay, they might be reacting to that number a little bit. But I think that something that’s going to be familiar to MMO players is the idea that 30 hours is not necessarily a really long time if you think about the total gameplay time that might pick up. Now, certainly in traditional JRPG terms that may feel like that’s quite a ways out, but I think that we’ve designed the content in such a way that it feels fast as you’re going through it.”
Xenoblade Chronicles X launches in North America and Europe in December.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director on the game’s Skells
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
The most recent issue of Famitsu has an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi, the executive director for Xenoblade Chronicles X. One of the topics the magazine touched on regularly was the Skells – otherwise known as Dolls.
Regarding what Monolith Soft ordered from Skell designer Takayuki Yanase, Takahashi said: “We ordered frame structures that are easy to design, easy for us to create and easy to turn into 3D.”
Nintendo assisted with Xenoblade Chronicles X’s online functionality
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Xenoblade Chronicles X was a huge undertaking for Monolith Soft. Not only is the game quite a bit bigger than the original title on Wii, but this was also the studio’s first time working with HD development.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director Tetsuya Takahashi spoke about some of the challenges in making the project in this week’s issue of Famitsu. On the topic of having trouble creating a map five times the size of the original Xenoblade Chronicles in addition to numerous quests and equipment, Takahashi said:
As the volume was large, the most troublesome thing was debugging (laughs). As this was our first HD title, it was decided from the start that we won’t use cutting edge technology. When I considered what is the strength of Monolith Soft, I came to the conclusion it’s the ability to neatly put together huge volume.
Takahashi on how Monolith Soft’s approach to development has changed since Xenogears
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
Nintendo put up a one-question interview with Monolith Soft’s Tetsuya Takahashi over on its Twitter account. It asks: “How has making games in the ‘Xeno’ series changed since the team first worked on Xenogears?” Take a look at the image above from Takahashi’s full response!
More: interview, Monolith Soft, Tetsuya Takahashi
Iwata Asks: Xenoblade Chronicles X now live
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 14 Comments
A new Iwata Asks has gone live. Following the Xenoblade Chronicles 3D discussion last month, Nintendo’s latest discussion focuses on the spiritual sequel Xenoblade Chronicles X. Read it here.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata sits down with Genki Yokota, Koh Kojima, Kazuho Hyodo, Yuichiro Takeda, and Tetsuya Takahashi to talk all about the Wii U RPG. It’s a lengthy read, but it should be well worth checking out if you have interest in Xenoblade Chronicles X!
