Nintendo needs new games and they can’t rely on Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon forever. While their games may consistently be a cut above, they will struggle if they’re all we see. Nintendo needs a new pillar of support to stand beside Mario and Zelda, and I think they’ve found it in the Xenoblade franchise that Monolith Soft has brought to the table.
Monolith Soft was founded in 1999 by former Square employees Hirohide Sugiura and Tetsuya Takahashi. You may recognize some of the work Takahashi had done at Square: Final Fantasy VI (he designed Magitek armor), ChronoTrigger (graphics director), and Xenogears (writer and director). The studio’s flagship franchise was the three part Xenosaga series, spiritual successor to Xenogears. While not the greatest selling series, it was generally well received and developed a strong cult following to say the least.
In 2007, Nintendo purchased Monolith Soft and made them into a first party developer. They developed several Wii and DS games, and even aided in the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The most ambitious project from the studio had at least a four year development cycle and came in the form of yet another spiritual successor in the Xeno series: Xenoblade Chronicles.
Xenoblade Chronicles is often heralded as the greatest JRPG of the seventh generation. It was an absolutely massive game. In the minds of many it revolutionized the JRPG and injected some fresh ideas into the stale genre. Takahashi claimed he wanted to move away from the lengthy cut-scenes prevalent in its contemporaries and focus on freedom. He also claimed that Xenoblade Chronicles was so expansive that end to end the game’s world was as large as Japan.
Unfortunately, its long development time which began before the Wii even released, led to it being released during the system’s waning days. Even with universal acclaim, it couldn’t save it from obscurity. Compounding the problem, Nintendo completely botched the North American localization by waiting almost two years before bringing it over. By that point fans had had enough and took to pirating over a million copies of the game, crippling its sales potential. Things looked bleak for the franchise.
However, Nintendo‘s blunders carried over to the release of the Wii U, which struggles to this day. With third parties forsaking the system, Nintendo needs new games badly, and they need them to sell well. They need to create a new franchise that can stand with the classics. Not only that, but they need to cover more genres than platforming, kart racing, and adventure. Cue Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Xenoblade is a franchise owned by Nintendo that covers a popular genre they’re lacking in: JRPGs. It’s already part of an established series that has critical acclaim. According to Monolith Soft, Xenoblade Chronicles X will be five times larger than the original, capturing the spectacle the Wii U has been missing out on with “typical” Nintendo fare. Monolith Soft is aiming to create the largest open world experience possible, and want to prove they’re on par with Bethesda. A series like this covers a lot of weak points for Nintendo, and they know it.
Don’t expect Nintendo to botch the North American release as badly as they did for the original. They no longer have the leisure of picking and choosing what to port. They aren’t riding the money printing Wii or it’s portable brother the DS, they’re stuck with the struggling black sheep Wii U and 3DS this generation and absolutely must have new games. If Nintendo wants to maintain and build upon the recent upward trends of sales and profits, they cannot afford another four month drought of notable releases.
All signs point towards Nintendo trying to establish Xenoblade as a new pillar franchise, out of necessity if nothing else. They’ve already featured it heavily at E3 with trailers and extensive game play. The primary protagonist of the original Xenoblade Chronicles is being featured in the latest Super Smash Bros., the original title is receiving a New 3DS port, and if I may be so bold as to predict the future, Xenoblade Chronicles X will be featured in a future Nintendo Direct. These are all very powerful tools Nintendo uses to promote new releases. Given the Big N’s seeming aversion to large advertising campaigns, the only way Nintendo could push the franchise harder is if characters started appearing in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10,which is still a possibility but unlikely.
