[Guide] The Chronological Order in which to Play Xenoblade Chronicles

At last, it has finally happened. Tetsuya Takahashi’s dreams of creating a six-episode long story has finally come true thanks to the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed and if you haven’t started playing this fantastical RPG series yet, then it is high time you should as all six parts of this epic saga are playable on the Nintendo Switch.

Collectively and including both Expansion passes New Game+ playthroughs, you’re looking at least 700 hours of marvelous gameplay to sink your teeth into, but don’t let that put you off. These games are well worth experiencing and should you ever find yourself wishing to play the games in their chronological order, we’ve got you covered.

Since Xenoblade Chronicles X, pronounced “Cross” is considered as being a spiritual successor to 2010’s Xenoblade Chronicle and only available release, it will not be included on our list. Having said that, should you ever get the chance to check it out, you totally should as it is a great game that we would love to see come to Switch or even get a sequel. What’s more, since Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is the HD version of the original game on Wii and the 3DS version, we will only be listing the Switch release as it is the different version.

Lastly, just before we do share our chronological order in which to play the Xenoblade Chronicles games, our final thing to point out is that the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, actually occur at a similar time in parallel of each other, as such we will be listing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 above Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, especially since Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a prequel story, which takes placer 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Thus, making Torna the first on our list that you need to play chronologically speaking.

Now with all of that out of the way, here is our definitive list:

The Chronological Order in which to Play the Entire Xenoblade Chronicles Series:

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

And now for some added trivia on each game listed above:

Xenoblade Chronicles Trivia:

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country was released both digitally and physically on different dates. Torna was added to the expansion pass digitally on September 14, 2018, whereas its standalone phsyical release was on September 21, 2018.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country is a prequel story, set 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
• The events of Xenoblade Chronicles and  Xenoblade Chronicles 2 happen around the same time.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected is an epilogue story set around 100 years after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected does not have its own standalone physical release. The only way to play it is to own Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.
• It is not required to beat Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition in order to play Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected.
• It is unknown how many years have passed between the events of Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected and Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed is a prequel story to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, based on the Founders of the city.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the final instalment in the Klaus saga. It is unknown how many years seperate Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is the only Xenoblade game on the Nintendo Switch, which didn’t get an expansion pass.
• Shulk makes five playable appearances in the entire Klaus saga:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 | Shulk can be unlocked but you will need to own the Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Expansion Pass.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Shulk can be unlocked but you will need to own the Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass, beat Future Redeemed and complete a specific Time Attack challenge in the main game.
• Shulk is also a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, available as part of the base game roster. Pyra & Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, were added as part of the second Fighters Pass.
• Rex has three playable appearances in the entire Klaus Saga:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Shulk can be unlocked but you will need to own the Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass, beat Future Redeemed and complete a specific Time Attack challenge in the main game.
• Although not a fighter, Rex also appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Melia has three playable appearances in the entire Klaus Saga:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Mythra has two playable appearances in the entire Klaus Saga:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2
• Nia has two playable appearances in the entire Klaus Saga:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country is the only game that doesn’t feature Shulk in any capacity.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country was a made with a different engine to the one Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was made to run on.
• Elma, the protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles X, also made a playable appearance in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as part of the game’s expansion pass, where she is an unlockable blade.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the first game in the series where the protagonists from different games finally meet each other, but the expansion pass is required for such a meeting to occur.

We hope you have found all of the information and trivia in this guide helpful, but should you wish to know more about this series we love so much, we leave you with this:

The History of a Series: (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Xenoblade Chronicles as we know it, is the creation of Tetsuya Takahashi. During his time as an employee at Square (now known as Square Enix,) he was involved in multiple Final Fantasy games, starting with Final Fantasy III to creating concept art for Final Fantasy VII and it is because of Final Fantasy VII that all things Xeno started in the first place.

Before we got the Final Fantasy VII that we know now, one of the pitches for the game was refused by Square as it was “too mature.” Instead of doing away with the idea altogether, Tetsuya Takahashi began to rework it into a possible sequel to Chrono Trigger, only to adapt it once more and it became a little game called, “Xenogears.” Xenogears was meant to be part of a much larger story, stretched out across six episodes, but this would never come to be.

Xenogears was released in 1998 and while there were plans for a second instalment, Square made it clear that the company would focus more on Final Fantasy instead. In his own right, Tetsuya Takahashi did not agree with this and in October 1999, he would Square and founded Monolith Soft. He didn’t go alone either, as he was joined by twenty other Square employees, who had worked on Xenogears with him, including his wife, whom he had married in 1995.

With a new company, employees raring to go and funding from Namco (now known as Bandai Namco,) Tetsuya Takahashi now had another chance to create his six-episode long story and work began on Xenosaga. The first episode in the series would be released in 2002, but due to development difficulties and the game performing poorly, drastic changes were made. There was a drastic change within the development team and the six-part series would be reduced to three-parts instead.

As it was deemed Xenosaga focused too much on story, Xenosaga Episode II focused more on gameplay, which didn’t go down too well, so further changes were made to try and find a balance for when Xenosaga Episode III was released in 2007. In the face of disappointment and morale issues, things would once again change for the company as 2007 was also the year that Monolith Soft became a subsidiary of Nintendo, who had brought out the majority shares.

Despite everything that had gone on with Xenogears, the developers over at Monolith Soft were able to work on many different projects and games, most of which were published by Namco, Namco Bandai Games and later Bandai Namco Entertainment, but there were a few Nintendo titles in there as well, such as 2006’s Disaster: Day of Crisis. It was while working on Disaster that Takahashi’s thoughts would drift to the idea of a world that takes place on “the bodies of two frozen gods.”

This idea would result in the development of Monado: The Beginning of the World, except no such game with that name would be released due to a certain Nintendo CEO. The very late and great, Satoru Iwata prompted Takahashi to change the game’s title to better reflect Monolith Soft’s hard work with the Xenosaga series and just like that, Xenoblade Chronicles was born.

The game would first release in Japan in 2010 and became a commercial success. Five years later, a port of the hit Xenoblade Chronicles would be released on the Nintendo 3DS and a spiritual successor was released on the Nintendo Wii U. Pronounced “Cross”, Xenoblade Chronicles X would mark the first HD game in all Xeno history and unlike the narrative driven Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X would focus on gameplay instead.

This change of direction, as brilliant as it was, would go on to inspire the gameplay we got in 2017’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch, but served up along-side another narrative driven RPG adventure, which would continue the story in 2010’s Xenoblade Chronicles. Of course, this is then when things would start to become even more interesting. The success of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 resulted in the team being able to revisit another idea they had for the game’s possible story and made it into its own game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country and received a physical release in 2018.

Fast forward to May 2020, Xenoblade Chronicles was released anew, now a HD game in its own right and using the new engine that Monolith Soft created when developing Torna, but there was more to the release than just a HD upgrade. Much like how Torna was a prequel story to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition came packed with an epilogue story, Future Connected.

All of a sudden, it’s still 2020 and we’re now at four stories, all within the main Xenoblade Chronicles series (Xenoblade Chronicles X/Cross is credited as being a spiritual successor, separate of the established Klaus saga). Is it finally time for Takahashi’s six-episode story to come to fruition? The short answer, yes, for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would be released in 2022 and the prequel story that is Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. Released in April 2023, Future Connected is the final story to tell in the Klaus saga and what a final it makes.