Information provided by job postings published on Monolith Soft’s website may provide us with more information regarding what to expect from their next project. The team behind Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Nintendo Switch are looking for a number of employees for different roles within the company. Thankfully, Reset Era member MoMo has searched through them and has provided some speculation with regards to what we can possibly expect. Here the users theories:
Battle system
While we learned earlier that they were looking for someone to develop an action battle system, we now know they’re going to incorporate some sort of character leveling/growth system.
World interaction
The game will have field and dungeon maps. Based on the fact that they’re looking for people with experience with Maya (a 3D animation and modeling software), we can assume that the world interaction will be 3D-based (3D Zelda, 3D Mario, Xenoblade, etc.) rather than the traditional top-down perspective or a side scroller platformer (2D Zelda, 2D Mario, etc.) There is a possibility that this will be an open-world because Monolith Soft is specifically looking to cater to western tastes.
Scenario
This game appears to cover the fantasy and medieval genres. It was mentioned that the game will have online functionalities, but it also sounds like it’ll be a single-player experience. They’re looking for someone who has experience with movies and dramas. They want someone who can create a fully-realized world with a variety of cultures, languages, and industries.
It’s interesting to note that they’re looking for a scenario planner even though Tetsuya Takahashi himself was the scenario planner for all three Xenoblade titles. We haven’t received confirmation from the man himself on whether he’s working on the project or not–in addition to that, he’s already thinking about the next Xenoblade title. My gut feeling is that they’re looking for some young blood as part of Nintendo’s initiative to create interesting new IPs.
The game will contain NPCs in towns along with side quests.
Characters
Monolith Soft is looking for someone who can create an appealing cast of main characters and oversee the art direction of the game. So…maybe no avatars or customizable characters? Another interesting thing to note is that they’re looking for people who can design mechas?
A new Monolith Soft game with mechas? I’m gonna be all over this like a landlord on rent day.
Interesting.
Hopefully with a better art style, character designs, bring back fashion armor, bring back mechs, make side quests and missions more interesting.
My only gripe with the Xenoblade games are the crappy side quests. Their boring and add nothing to the story or world. Coming off horizon and Witcher I’ve really upgraded my requirements for side quests in games. I feel I only enjoyed those two as much as I did because of the side quests adding to the lore and experience. I know not to expect the same level of quality from Xenoblade sidequests as the budget is probably lower but throw in a little bit of story into them to have me actually want to complete these sidequests.
All of this sounds like they’re working on a sequel to Xenoblade X, to me!
As long as they steer clear of the atrocious New L.A. rap music, I’d be all for that.