Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is not the last one – will go on ‘as long as possible’

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 screenshot — Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – not the last one (pic: Nintendo)

The new game isn’t even out yet and already Monolith Soft has confirmed the series will continue, whether it be as Xenoblade Chronicles 4 or not.

Before its release, series co-director Genki Yokota described it as ‘the culmination of the series’ and yet now, just days before the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, he’s saying that’s not the case at all.

To be fair, he was either caught out by the unexpectedly high critical acclaim for the third game or he merely meant that it’s the culmination of that particular trilogy.

The connections between the Xenoblade Chronicles games are all pretty loose and there’s no good reason why 2015 title Xenoblade Chronicles X is relegated to the status of spin-off – and keeps getting ignored when Nintendo does Wii U remasters.

Whether Yokota is planning a Xenoblade Chronicles 4 or not we’ll probably not find out for a while yet but his comment about the franchise in general was unusually unambiguous.

Asked in an interview, conducted by Nintendo themselves, whether the series would go on, he answered: ‘Yes, it will still go on!’

‘I want to keep it going as long as possible!’ he added, suggesting that he may already be thinking of multiple new titles.

Major DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has already been announced, so clearly nobody on the team is short on ideas, even as Monolith Soft is drafted in to help with Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2.

Xenoblade Chronicles is part of a wider meta-series that started with Xenogears on the original PlayStation, although the connections with those games are more on thematic level.

It’s not impossible that they could be brought more into the fold though, as original creator Tetsuya Takahashi is still president of Monolith Soft, but that’s about the only guess that can be made at this stage.