Xenoblade Chronicles X director talks development on Twitter

The upcoming open-world action/adventure Wii U exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles X has recently received its own Twitter account, and the game’s Director has already hopped on. Executive Director at developer Monolith Soft Tetsuya Takahashi has recently started talking about Xenoblade Chronicles X’s development, in addition to mentioning he will regularly update fans “2 or 3 times a week.”

“Apologies for the wait,” Takahashi said on Twitter. “I’m thinking of rambling here 2 or 3 times a week from now on. This time, I’ll start by talking briefly about how the Xenoblade X project began. After the completion of the previous Xenoblade, when I told [Hitoshi] Yamagami-san’s team at Nintendo that I wanted to create something a little more sci-fi using Xenoblade as a base, they said it could be worth the challenge. So then, we began thinking about what updates would be possible with the Wii U (such as making the maps seamless, having the game connect online etc.) and started to research. When everything seemed feasible, that’s when actual development began.”

Xenoblade Chronicles X begins in the year 2054, as two alien races engage in battle near to the Earth, causing significant collateral damage to the planet. With the Earth quickly becoming uninhabitable, joint government launches the Earth species pan immigration program, and humanity is forced to evacuate the planet in enormous interstellar ark ships. From there, the story follows the passengers of the American evacuee ship, the White Whale, as they crash land upon the planet Mira and attempt to establish their new home while still being hunted by the alien race.

In a similar fashion to the original, Xenoblade Chronicles X plays as an open world role-playing game, with an emphasis on exploration. Travelling can take place on foot, or in large humanoid robots, approximately four times the height of the average playable character, called “Dolls.” The Dolls have the ability to fly, traverse water, and transform into vehicles such as motorcycles or tanks. Aerial battles will also take place in the game. Xenoblade Chronicles X is scheduled for a spring 2015 release in Japan, while North America and Europe will get it sometime down the line, during the same year.