Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition planning started at the end of 2017, was in the works alongside Torna and new project

Monolith Soft tends to have a lot of work on its hands. Of course, the studio is well-known for its Xenoblade series. It also goes out of its way to help Nintendo on certain projects like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Monolith Soft definitely knows how to balance different games, and that experience certainly played a role over the past few years. Most recently, the developer completed Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, which launches on May 29. Director Tetsuya Takahashi revealed in this week’s issue of Famitsu that planning started at the end of 2017. Further, since the studio was also making the Torna expansion for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in addition to a new project, they were at one point “working on three different projects simultaneously and had to organize our 1st Production members between the three titles.”

Here’s the full excerpt from Famitsu, as translated by Nintendo Everything’s Oni_Dino:

When did the plans come about for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition?

Takahashi: “Planning began sometime at the end of 2017; I recall it being pretty much right after the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. That’s when Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country was in development, so we worked on both at the same time. We put together the proposal for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition along with the new game that our 1st Production Team is currently working on and presented them sometime in May of 2018. We formally began work in August after post-production on Torna wrapped up. That means, for a brief period of time, we were actually working on three different projects simultaneously and had to organize our 1st Production members between the three titles.

Stay tuned for additional translations from Takahashi’s interview going forward.