Tomorrow marks the release of one of the biggest RPG releases of 2022,Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The third main entry in Monolith Soft’s long-running JRPG series,Xenoblade Chronicles 3is the culmination of everything the studio has learned on its past title and marks its second major outing on Nintendo Switch. The game will be supported with post-launch DLC content until the end of 2023, including a major story expansion which its developers are now claiming could be as big as the massiveXenoblade Chronicles 2DLC,Torna - The Golden Country.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3was first announced during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct event, where the game closed the presentation with the announcement of a September 2022 release window. The sequel toXenoblade Chronicles 2had leaked last year, however, fans were not expecting the title to release so soon after its announcement. Fans were once again shockedwhen Nintendo moved the game’s release up, bringing it from September to July 29th, 2022, while bumping another exclusive title,Splatoon 3, back to the game’s original September release window.
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Now, almost five years after the release ofXenoblade Chronicles 2and over two years since the release ofXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, the third entry is finally set to arrive on July 29. In an interview with Nintendo, Monolith Soft’s CCO Tetsuya Takahashi and producer/director Koh Kojima were interviewed alongside Nintendo EPD2 team leader Genki Yokota. The three were asked various questions about Monolith Soft’s past, present, and future as a studio, and various questions on the development ofXenoblade Chronicles 3.
During the interview with Nintendo, the three commented on the game’s Expansion Pass, which launches alongside it.The Expansion Pass will include a story expansionthat is planned to release by August 08, 2025. Speaking on this, Yokota claimed that the team is planning on making the expansion “as large asXenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country.” Kojima revealed that he has not had the opportunity to work on the game’s DLC.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Countrylaunched on September 14th, 2018, just over nine months after the release ofXenoblade Chronicles 2. The game featured a 17-20 hour storyline that could take upwards of 40 hours to fully complete, and introduced a new battle system, new environments, and new playable characters to the point that it was sold physically as a standalone game upon its release. IfMonolith Soft is planning the same forXenoblade Chronicles 3’s DLC, it could mean that Xenoblade fans are in for another standalone adventure that draws heavily intoXenoblade Chronicles 3’s narrative releasing at some point before the end of next year.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3releases on July 29, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
