Okay, so. I know my analysis of Future Redeemed and XCX Definitive Edition are way overdue, but I thought I'd loop back to this thread in order to touch upon some things I'm hoping Genesis does.
Okay. So.
I have been kinda down on Monolith Soft for a bit, and while my love of Xenoblade Chronicles X slightly sated my growing unrest for Xenoblade as a series, the additional chapter did not instill a great deal of hope in me from a narrative perspective. Rather, it sort of undercut my entire takeaway from the original version of the game as a rumination on transhumanism and culture and became more… Xeno-y, which I guess is to be expected for a series with Xeno in the title, but I can’t help but feel that in trying not to lose the plot and making everything interconnected, well… this series has kinda lost the plot.
For someone with an affection for Monolith’s world design and character progression over its narratives and combat structure, here’s what I’m looking for in the next round of news regarding Xenoblade Genesis. In other words,
“what might a sicko want from the next Monolith Soft game?”
Well.
The perfect Monolith Soft RPG already exists, and it’s Xenoblade Chronicles X (
Non-definitive). So obviously, I’d want a game that echoes its particular style. It may be wishful thinking, but I have an inkling that Xenoblade Genesis might align with its design philosophy.
The world seems to be a Bernal Sphere (some argue it’s an O’Neill Cylinder based on some shots it’s hard to parse distance and also I don’t like cylinders) with some exceptional draw distance, as some images have already circulated showing that the “skybox” is really just a “seabox” dotted with some islands of… particular structure. Many of these environments are “critical-path” structures not unlike the spaces previously designed by Monolith, and while the spherical open world might allow for some sequence-breaking exploratory shenanigans, we can also see that these islands have a lot of water in-between them. The elements that have been added into the Definitive Editions and Nintendo Switch 2 Editions for previous Xenoblade titles seem to imply that fast and maybe even omni-directional movement/travel are experiments for future application, working fine in the games in which they have been added but not really complimenting the world design.
Now, an open world of this scope, considering draw distance and the like, might be a pretty huge undertaking for Monolith, who have doubtless been involved in working on other large-scale games after having released Xenoblade 3 in 2022. However, I have a particular hunch about some specific aspects of XC3’s world design as a stepping stone towards this spherical world that we are witnessing and are doubtless going to explore.
The Erythia Sea portion of Aionious was, in my opinion, its most ambitious biome in terms of scale and execution, which was bolstered by a neat fast travel function for the sea (that sadly did a pretty poor job of filling in the explorable space). What this region offered was a means of exploring various islands with limited access points in a contingent zone, a concept that saw modest exploration in XCX. Eryth Sea, Erythia Sea, and the open sea of Mira are proof that Monolith is willing to have relatively sparse open waters peppered with land masses, but Skells and the Erythia Sea boat are marked steps towards solving the expanse nature of these bodies of water. Likewise, the explicit focus on mounted exploration in the Genesis reveal trailer and Xenokart’s inclusion in Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch 2 Edition imply that faster means of traversing the world are a consideration for this new installment.
I will clarify that this is wishful thinking on my part and that this world’s scope is vast enough that we could simply be getting cheated by Monolith’s long-standing tradition of “awe-inspiring scale-focused views,” particularly in the case of having a sky/seabox that rotates as the player travels the world. I also think that would be an awful lot of work to design as an illusory cheat in comparison with achieving the genuine article, especially with draw distances allowing for extremely simplified or completely absent assets that would pop-in with tighter proximity. Something else that lends credence to this sky/seabox being a seamless open world is the, uh… unflattering detail that exists in its draw distance.
While land masses that are closer topographically appear to have much sharper details, places that are very far away have little to no recognizable detail save for major landmarks, which still lack a great deal of textural detail. If this were a genuine sky/seabox, I would assume that Monolith would put maybe a bit more effort into retaining some of the textural detail of these distant islands, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case. I would refer back to my comments on the structures of these islands, as well: much like XCX, they do have breadth, but also tend to have some explicit critical path design.
I am of the opinion that Monolith hasn’t really wowed with actual depiction of space since Xenoblade X, which was no doubt a result of the Switch hardware being what it was, so while I’d love to believe that this world’s scope is authentic, I reserve judgment until later confirmation. Regardless of whether this scale is authentic or not, the illusion of its perceived design is impressive in its own right and worth celebrating. Considering the “Xenoblade Trilogy” was heavily reliant on forced-perspective views of distant, eventually-explorable superstructures, The idea of being able to perceive much of the explorable terrain simply by viewing the sky/seabox is a novel twist that aligns with the ethos of the series while taking it in a bold direction.
…Obviously, I care a lot about world design. But what about narrative and mechanical design…?
The Xenoblade games are some of the only titles out there doggedly sticking to the tradition of “cooldown-oriented combat,” and while the stance combo system (break-topple-launch-smash/daze-burst) is a decent wrinkle, it feels somewhat inconsequential for even casual engagement in the game’s systems and offers modest depth. While the innovation of XC3 seemed to be player control of party members and active party members on the field… it was a bit of a mess and I don’t think that seven party members on the field makes for a particularly fair or empowering fight.
While I doubt we’ll see a marked departure from Monolith’s previous combat systems, I am hoping the Genesis is more nuanced in terms of enemy engagement. It would be nice if stance status wasn’t the only thing that made combat feel like it had tangible ebb and flow. XCX’s high/low ground mechanic is something I’d like to see return, and though I doubt the mounts shown in the trailer have combat application, they could be an easy diegetic introduction to the idea of combat at height. Xenoblade games have always had positioning as an element, but the tank class in XC3 was especially miserable due to its limited AoE effectiveness. Perhaps tank AoE could have a reduction percentage buff on having to properly counter specific stance statuses. Maybe tank AoE could be an element that players could actively draw enemies out of, which would add further nuance to differences between fauna and intelligent race battles. Maybe we could have something with a bit more feedback than auto attacks.
I personally feel that the cancel system is Monolith’s greatest asset- that’s the action command fella in me. While I haven’t played Clair Obscur just yet, I think there’s some merit in action commands for dodging and parrying in specific conditions- the Monado is essentially a “FTE” or “frozen time event,” but Monolith has experimented with QTE’s previously that could be implemented for elements other than tension.
Either way, I don’t think its likely that Monolith will depart from its current status quo in terms of combat systems, but I pray that chain attacks are significantly altered or done away with entirely. They became incredibly bloated in XC3 despite their flashiness, with the animations becoming tedious far too quickly. Same with Ouroboros, which frankly felt much less impactful and more disempowering as a mechanic than anything else. An element like Overdrive not only enhances the pacing of the battle but further adds pressure to inputs and timing, making for a much more active game. If folks would prefer a more passive game, I kindly ask them to consider the removal of quickstep and position-enhanced attacks. The in-between is frankly boring.
And speaking of combat, let’s talk about Classes. Listen: XC3's class system sucked. Instead of giving people diverse animations and personalities, it stripped away uniqueness of specific characters- Talent Arts belonged to everyone, weapon animations were uniform across playable party. Only potential growth made characters diverse from one another- aside from Ouroboros, but those
also sucked. The Rare Blade system, atop giving playable characters unique animations, additionally offered something quite novel: subsets of weapon classes that offered tangible benefits for specific types of builds. Sure, summoning locked the Rare Blades to specific characters whose core potential might not have worked well with the random assortment that was offered, but that also made it feel like party members were gaining access to new traits that made one want to use them more.
Classes in XCX were… fine, but the Rare Blade system teased at potential for characters to take on roles within the world that weren’t centered on combat. As I grow weary of ceaseless conflict, I ask myself more and more if we can’t diversify party roles more. The guild system of XCX, as much of a commitment as it was, offered a kernel of potential for the ways that players could potentially diversify the way they approached exploration… even if those objectives didn’t mean all that much. Oh, and as an aside- field skills are good. Not the XC2 version, at least in the non-Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. XC3 field skills: wirewalking, dune-sprinting, and... vine climbing? Eh, that one was kinda pushing it. But giving people to return to areas with expanded traversal options is great! And no, I don't need Zelda-style "you can climb anywhere," I mean XCX vaulting, Skell-jumps, heck, maybe even flight.
Sorry, there I go, talking about world design. Oh hey, speaking of which...
Monolith has been dragging their feet on improving their “communal areas,” and though the number of “colonies” in XC3 were a modest and thematically appropriate choice to mitigate this, the overall lack of city structures and the composition of cities in Xenoblade games on the whole feels like their greatest weakness (they’re not alone, the two open-world Zeldas similarly suffered… and Monolith worked on them, too). It feels clear that Monolith is more comfortable and interested in creating interesting wild areas to explore while asking players to extend their disbelief in terms of livable spaces. Going into houses would be boring, apparently, so we’ll create a
facade and leave it at that. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that creating interiors is an effort and that few games attempt to earnestly develop realistic town or city spaces. Based on what we’ve seen of Leukos, the academy in which the protagonist learns their trade as a Vesselai in Genesis, I have no doubt it will be a richly-detailed space… but I have little hope for the other settlements.
Long have I bemoaned the unintentionality in some of Monolith’s game design, feeling at times that they shoehorn their core mechanics into the story they want to tell. If you don’t want to put effort into having an established world, you don’t have to make me explore your half-baked towns. I’d rather see one well-realized, detailed community space like NLA than be offered a glimpse at a community structure only to realize I can’t interact with it.
If the ambition is being directed towards the novel environmental design of the (potentially) open world? Fine, let me make camps and show me how disparate this world is by not having much civilization. But don’t show me civilization super structures and expect me to not want to interact with them.
Okay, I’m getting nitpicky now so I’ll pivot.
NLA made sense as an open-world hub because it made sense to want to protect and serve a specific community by exploring the world. In opposition, Leukos seems to be an academy of lesser size, so I would hope that the surrounding areas (or the areas to which we as Vesselai explore) will be similarly rich in personality. What I'm saying is, there's a great opportunity for the game's structure to be "learn to be a Vesselai, be assigned to locations, and learn about a greater geopolitical threat" rather than "hey, you're a part of a religious order that's actually kinda shady so you eventually decide to rebel." The latter is pretty standard JRPG fare and to be honest, leaning on tropes is all well and good, but it does nothing to help Xenoblade stand out from its contemporaries. In all honesty, I'd prefer Xenoblade not-be like other JRPGs, and there's certainly a reason XCX stands out as my preferred Xenoblade title in comparison with the trilogy.
Reactions to the reveal trailer have been mixed: some bemoan the fantasy aesthetics, some feel the game looks too similar to Fire Emblem, and some faithful devotees believe that we'll get a sci-fi twist halfway (maybe even 70-90% way) through the narrative. I... have some degree of belief that the last of those is likely the case, but I think Xenoblade has become a bit too insular as a series and I hope that Genesis takes some marked steps away from side-quel, interconnected narratives.
To review, a sicko wants:
- An open world
- Revised, more active combat mechanics
- Class or even Character diversity
- A unique narrative that moves away from, or adds stronger nuance to the "revolutionary societal upheaval" tropes
...Is that too much to ask...? Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Topic: Monolith Makes Worlds: An Analysis of the Xenoblade Series (Read 420170 times)
