When it came to surprise announcements, yesterday’s Nintendo Direct certainly didn’t disappoint. From Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC to a new Mario Strikers game, long awaited SNES localisations to Kirby eating cars, the video was one long string of insane reveals after another. It was absolutely crazy, and made every trailer a shock to those viewing.
Yet even despite that, the last reveal was something else. Something so exciting that we’d never have imagined it’d happen so soon.
Namely, Xenoblade Chronicles 3! Yep, just a few years after the original got both a Switch port and followup, Monolith Soft have announced a brand new game in the series for the console! Here’s the trailer if you somehow haven’t seen it already:
As you can see, it looks like an incredible game overall. The visuals are spectacular, the world looks as interesting as any of the past games’ ones, and the music and characters seem exciting too. It’s everything Xenoblade fans could possibly want in a followup.
Yet what’s more interesting isn’t that.
No, it’s the role the game will play in the canon. Why? Because apparently, 3 actually deals with the futures shown in two of the past Xenoblade games; Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2.
Yeah, it’s a parallel world/future type deal. It’s a bit too complex to go into here, but basically, something in the backstory split the world and one of its main characters into multiple parts scattered across different universes, and the two previous games deal with the different futures (worlds/universes/stories) caused by that. You can probably look up a plot summary for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 if you don’t mind more spoilers, or play the games yourself if you’d rather experience them first hand.
Regardless, 3 apparently ties up both games’ stories in a cohesive narrative. Kinda like if Nintendo announced the next Zelda game would resolve the timeline split and give everything a definitive ending.
Again it’s exciting stuff, especially for those who’ve played the earlier titles.
And it’s all coming surprisingly soon too, since the game’s got a September 2022 release date! So check out the trailer above if you want to know more about the game, replay the older ones if you need to catch up with the story…
Then tell us your thoughts on the game in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!
Source:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch (YouTube)