That, however, no longer seems to be the case. Spotted by Automaton Media, an update to Monolith Soft’s website now confirms that 100 percent of the studio’s shares are now owned by Nintendo. Of course, functionally, this won’t make much difference, since Nintendo already had full control over the studio anyway, though on paper, Monolith Soft is now entirely in Nintendo’s ownership.

The studio’s next release is Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, which is due out for the Nintendo Switch in March. What Monolith Soft’s next big game will be is currently unknown, though with Nintendo’s next-gen console presumably launching in 2025, one would hope that the studio’s next title will be unveiled for it in the not-too-distant future.

Outlined in its Q2 fiscal year 2025 financial results and corporate management policy briefing, president Shuntaro Furukawa discussed how the series performed on the Nintendo Switch compared to the Wii U and 3DS. Alongside Xenoblade Chronicles, franchises like Pikmin, Kirby and Metroid have seen “dramatic sales growth.”

Granted, only Xenoblade Chronicles 1 is available on the Nintendo 3DS, and we don’t know how each title has performed individually. As of December 2022, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition sold 1.88 million, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sales totalled 2.7 million (not including the DLC, Torna – The Golden Country). Xenoblade Chronicles 3, meanwhile, sold 1.86 million as of March 2023.

The series should see another significant bump on the Switch, with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition launching on March 20th, 2025. Stay tuned for more details on its improvements and new content in the coming months.

MASS EFFECT 2

The Mass Effect series has been criticized at times for not making good on its lofty promises of proper choice and consequence mechanics, but in Mass Effect 2, BioWare delivered on those promises in astounding fashion. There’s so many different ways a playthrough of the game can go, with multiple characters of varying important living or dying based on the decisions you make, not to mention the wider, more large-scale impact your choices might have. No matter how many times you make it through the Suicide Mission, you can’t help but jump back into a different playthrough where you make different decisions and see how they play out.

That post-launch support will be arriving across four waves, and while the first three will bring new quests, hero characters, cosmetics, and more, the fourth wave will bring with it a large-scale story expansion. What exactly can we expect from it in terms of size and scale though.

There’s still a ways to go before it’s time for Nintendo and Monolith Soft to begin talking about the expansion in earnest (the base game isn’t even out yet), but during a recent interview published by Nintendo, producer Genki Yokota said that Monolith Soft intends to make Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s expansion similar in scope to the expansion that was released for its predecessor- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country.

“This is something to consider after you have played this game, but we are offering an additional Expansion Pass,” Yokota said. “We will be adding a new story at the end of the Expansion Pass, and we are thinking of making its volume of content as large as Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country. We hope that those who enjoyed that content, as well as newcomers, will pick it up. It will be quite a high volume of content that will not let you down.”

Torna – The Golden Country was a meaty piece of content, and could take about 20 hours to finish. Depending on how much you engaged with exploration and side quests, that could also stretch to 25-30 hours, while completionists could easily spend 35-40 hours with it. If the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 expansion is similar in size, fans would be happy with that.

Of course, it’ll be a while before we know more for sure. Nintendo has said that the expansion will launch by the end of 2023, which is a large window, so we might be waiting a while.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 itself, meanwhile, launches tomorrow, July 29, for the Nintendo Switch. And it apparently won’t be the last game in the series- read more on that through here.

Let’s take a look at 10 games which are amazing and fun to play but still have their share of such flaws. Story spoilers for certain games follow so be warned.

Genshin Impact – Time-Limited Story Content

For all of its annoying gacha elements, Genshin Impact is still a pretty good game. The story takes some time to get going and having to grind out Adventure Ranks to access main quests can be a chore at first. However, you’re quickly swept up into a magical world of Archons, mythical beings, assassins, and regions rich in culture. New updates provide additional content and event quests, and they can be pretty good in expanding the overall story.

However, some are also time-limited, just like the events themselves. Not being able to revisit them is annoying enough for any player but new players are just straight out of luck. Big moments like the introduction of Scaramouche and Teyvat’s false sky in Unreconciled Stars are unplayable now. It’s done in the name of FOMO and whatnot – various other gacha titles are the same – but it’s just that much more annoying to become invested in the lore at your own pace.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, optimization and development has faced some issues. It could be announced before 2021 is over and possibly release in the first half of 2022. As for gameplay details, very little is known aside from the goal of having more characters on screen at once (both among the playable characters and various enemies fought).

Story-wise, the sequel will mark the end of the trilogy and take place in the “far-flung future” where some characters  from both previous games who have “long-outlived their human counterparts” will appear. One of those is Melia, who Coleman voices, which is why she would be aware of a sequel (though the extent of her part is yet to be confirmed). At this point, the sequel is nearing its “final stages of development.”

It should be interesting to see how Xenoblade Chronicles 3, if that’s what it ends up being called, unfolds. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 took a decidedly different approach from the original and while some fans were less than kind, it still received a strong amount of critical acclaim. It’s currently available for the Nintendo Switch along with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai showcased the next Challenger Pack, Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Along with providing details on each fighter’s characteristics, he also announced a release date. Pyra/Mythra will be available later today, both standalone and as part of Fighters Pass Vol. 2.

The main appeal of Pyra/Mythra is being able to switch between them during combat. You can also choose who to start with by pressing Y at the character select screen. Mythra is about speed, able to move faster and attack faster, but Pyra has power and more range. So while Mythra might be good at edge-guarding and generally confusing the opponent (while also having Foresight to dodge and counter-attack), Pyra has powerful Smash attacks.

Each has their own Specials which makes for a total of six along with 16 costumes (which are provided in pairs so no mixing and matching). In terms of other content, Challenger Pack 9 includes the Cloud Sea of Alrest stage and 16 songs from the Xenoblade Chronicles series. It also adds a Special Spirit Board with some new Spirits to challenge.

For more details, check out the latest “Mr Sakurai Presents” below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players have been wondering when the game would get some representation from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, one of the last left recent successful Switch games without a character in the Smash roster. Well, it seems that wait has now come to an end.

To kick off the newest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be the next DLC fighter(s) in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second fighters pass. Players can switch between the two forms of the Aegis at any time, both coming with their own unique powers. Though Rex isn’t a fighter, he will show up for the Final Smash. Meanwhile, players can also expect a Xenoblade Chronicles 2-themed stage and music additions to the game.

Pyra and Mythra will be joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster some time in March, so there isn’t long left before we get to play as the newest addition to the fighter. More details will follow soon, so stay tuned.

As the Xenoblade Chronicles series celebrates its 10th anniversary, it’s an interesting franchise to reflect back upon. There’s now been three different games and one major standalone expansion encompassing it, and all three are very distinct in their look and tone. If you want to even get deeper in the weeds, the sames are also part of a spiritual lineage to Xenogears and the Xenosaga franchise, where they share a variety of themes and imagery. What connects them all? Well, it seems it’s less about the story and more about the world you are in.

In an interview with VG24/7, Writer and Director Tetsuya Takahashi was asked what it was that made a “Xeno” game. There he said that while there are some familiar story beats and characters, for him the true connection is the immersive worlds the game encompasses and how it aims to suck players in. He acknowledges there is some more direct connection (those who have played through Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 are aware of that), but it seems for him the focus is more of a spiritual connection of shared ideas and those direct story connections can be changed.

“The stories and characters that appear in the Xenoblade Chronicles series vary with each entry, but the same concept is shared among them all; it is players immersing themselves in the game world, and freely walking around and adventuring in it. Maybe it would be better to rephrase and say that the concept is to get players to want to remain in the game world. We’ve kept this concept unchanged since Xenogears, although the Xenosaga series might be the only one of these series that doesn’t follow that concept.

“From the beginning, each entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series has depicted a single episode within the flow of a larger time and space. So they are, at their roots, closely connected with each other, but we’re flexible with changing the means and ways in which we depict this in each entry.

“Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are like two sides of the same coin which might be why it feels like the connection between them seems to be particularly standing out.”

The latest entry in the series, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is available now for Nintendo Switch. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and its expansion are also on the Switch, with Xenoblade Chronicles X still only currently on the Wii U.

It’s funny to think how life can go sometimes. Take the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, for instance. At one point in time, the original game released on the Wii and was never meant to leave Japan. After much fan petitioning, it finally did come westward in a very limited fashion, but has since grown to the point that developer Monolith Soft now is posed to focus on expanding the now successful RPG brand. It’s a Nintendo franchise that almost wasn’t, and today we got a treat to celebrate that.

The official Japanese Twitter posted a celebration tweet to commemorate the series’ 10th anniversary. In it came a new piece of art that shows the main characters of Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles X together. You can check that out below.

Both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are available currently on the Switch (with the first game just having a Definitive Edition release last month). Xenoblade Chronicles X is currently only available on the Wii U, though I imagine that will probably change sooner rather than later.

『ゼノブレイド』がWiiで発売されてから、今日でちょうど10年が経つんですも！
これからも「ゼノブレイド」シリーズを、どうぞよろしくお願いしますも！#ゼノブレイド #ゼノブレイドクロス #ゼノブレイド2 pic.twitter.com/4JjL0tgpf4

— ゼノブレイド総合 (@XenobladeJP) June 10, 2020