At the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo and Monolith Soft finally dropped an announcement trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which will launch on Nintendo Switch a release date sometime in September 2022. The game seems to have a darker edge than previous games, as much of the announcement trailer is about friends arguing or physically fighting. But gameplay-wise, the environments are as vast and beautiful as ever, and there are tons of awesome dangerous robots. Character designsborrow familiar visual motifs from both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, confirming the report that this third title will be bringing together events from both of those games.
Here is how official PR describes Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ahead of its September 2022 release date:
A vast world awaits in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the next game in the acclaimed RPG series from developer MONOLITHSOFT. Players will step into the roles of protagonists Noah and Mio amid turmoil between the hostile nations of Keves and Agnus. Six characters hailing from those nations will take part in a grand tale with “life” as its central theme. Explore a new world that will connect the futures of both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, launching for Nintendo Switch in September 2022.
Additionally, Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi has offered some words about the development of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and the development team. Here’s one of the most interesting parts, discussing the striking final visual of the trailer:
The key visual features a broken great sword of Mechonis and the body of the Urayan Titan with a gaping wound. I imagine everyone who saw the trailer was quite surprised by the final scene. What is this visual hinting at? I can’t reveal that just yet. What I can tell you is that this visual was conceived quite some time ago. More precisely speaking, we came up with it sometime between the end of development of Xenoblade Chronicles and the beginning of development of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. So, it’s not something we recently added to the series.
Stay tuned for more amazing highlights from the February 2022 Nintendo Direct!
