Tetsuya Takahashi, CEO of Monolith Soft, believes that the video game was a before and after in the studio.
A decade has passed since Xenoblade Chronicles hit the market on the Nintendo Wii. After its passage through Nintendo 3DS, the title has returned with a Definitive Edition, now on Nintendo Switch, the current platform of those in Kyoto. In an interview with US Gamer, the developers have explained how the process of transferring this title to the Nintendo hybrid console has been, especially when the original project was so important to their studio, Monolith Soft.
This is stated by Tetsuya Takahashi, executive director of the company. “Xenoblade Chronicles was a turning point for Monolith Soft, so I have very strong feelings for the video game,” he says. “Working on it taught me the essentials of creating a Japanese RPG. After a decade, the experience gained with that game is still alive in me and in Monolith Soft until today ”.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.
How the port was made to Nintendo Switch
Producer Shigekazu Yamada gives a good account of the development process. I was very clear about how the graphics would be improved, as they had the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 graphics engine. “We were able to immediately start creating new resources. Existing data was converted to high definition using a semi-automatic conversion process. The artists then entered their personal touch to complete the update.
There was, however, a counterpart. And is that the code had to be rewritten. “The vast number of Xenoblade Chronicles features made this job especially challenging,” says Yamada. “At the end of the development phase, we still found features in the source code that even the original members of the study either didn’t know about or had forgotten about.”
What lessons did they learn? Mainly working for a platform that can be enjoyed on television or in its portable mode, so the interface design had to be adapted accordingly. According to director Yuki Sakamoto, some changes may be difficult to appreciate, but they “make a difference” when the player enjoys the video game. “Someone familiar with the original version may notice that grass and rocks have been placed in unexpected places.” The epilogue is the greatest novelty at the content level. The new location began as a test to test “various movements and the sensation of jumping and falling,” reveals Takahashi.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition was released on May 29 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
