[Feature] The History of a Series: (Xenoblade Chronicles)

With the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed earlier this week, we had the opportunity to play through this incredible DLC and spoke very highly of it in our definitive review that covered every aspect of the game, including the history of a series and Torna comparisons. When covering the Xenoblade Chronicles origins, there was so much more we could have included, as there’s enough to be said that it could fill a magazine or small novella. Still, we’re proud of what we created and you can see it here::

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 leave 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 and 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 alongside 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.