Monolith Soft just updated their site a few days ago. The company now has 171 employees as of July 2018, up from 168 in May. In addition to that, they're now recruiting business assistant staff at the mid-career level for the Tokyo studio.
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Monolith Soft expands yet again. Still recruiting for Tokyo studio (Creators of new IP/Xenoblade)
- Thread starter Momo
- Start date
OP
OP
I don't get what this is to supposed to mean, but I love it anyways lol
damn, monolith soft becoming huge. nintendo is probably super pleased with them, both because of their help on botw and for making xenoblade a million selling series, and wants them to get bigger so they can help EPD on their games while working on their own stuff.
Is this also the same studio that does a lot of support on Zelda games? Maybe they're ramping up for their next game and for the next Zelda.
Like clockwork. :lol
The game has been patched plenty of time already yet it never was optimized, not to say that it's possible that they did the best they could with the engine and new effects they bringed for XC2. I wouldn't expect that any time soon, unfortunately.
Zelda team had better keep their grubby mitts off Monolith Soft next time.
Edit: Spicy takes are here. See ya.
Edit: Spicy takes are here. See ya.
OP
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Not sure about Zelda games. All we know is that half of the Tokyo studio worked on Breath of the Wild while the other half made Xenoblade 2.
Xenoblade Chronicles X was the garbage game though.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a mastapiece. Also 1000000x better music than the trash in X. Ban Sawano from making weird video game music pls.
they've been helping on nintendo's other games for years. because of botw's importance nintendo used them too much maybe, but them getting bigger is good news since they can have more people working on their own games while having enough people to help nintendo as well
they've also helped on skyward sword and link between worlds. them helping nintendo is nothing new, they've been doing is since they became a nintendo studio. they've helped with these games:
super smash bros brawl
zelda skyward sword
animal crossing new leaf
pikmin 3
zelda link between worlds
splatoon
animal crossing happy home designer
zelda breath of the wild
splatoon 2
The Tokyo team helped to co-develop on Skyward Sword and BotW, while the Kyoto team worked on ALBW. It's likely that they'll help out again on the next big Zelda, but I imagine that a lot of the recent hirings and the recent opening of the the third studio in the Iidabashi district is at least in part an effort to cause less of a talent split whenever Aonuma comes a-callin'.
I think they were only at about 130 employees a year ago. The 168 was recently reported (July) and they have expanded further since then, including opening a new studio in Lidabshi.
Rita Repulsa giving power to Monolith so grow XD (power rangers reference)
OP
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We're talking about the Tokyo team. The Kyoto studio is the one that has contributed to past Zelda games. Breath of the Wild marks the first time the Tokyo studio was credited.
Second time. The first was Skyward Sword, prior to the creation of the Kyoto studio
i see.
is the kyoto team just a nintendo support team and doesn't work on monolith soft's own games?
Honne also mentioned a while ago that he would like to make his own games once again so hopefully Nintendo will let the Kyoto studio do something else as well.
One hell of a hot take.
One hell of a hot take.
I really think this can be positive for Monolith (Assuming continued expansion), XB2 was a good but not great game (of course that's just in my opinion) that had a series of irritating flaws and a few characters throughout that had me rolling my eyes. All-in-all the game was ambitious overall and it was relatively good fun exploring the open world, the story was also solid. For me the thing I want most from the next Monolith game is polish. Yes, it's impressive the turn around they make on games (and that prolific output is a huge part of their success and relevancy) but XB2 lacked polish in important areas and had a series of usability issues. I don't necessarily need a 'bigger' game from Monolith so much as one that has the budget and time to allow them to really polish their game both technically and in design and usability.
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This is exactly what I thought. It's a weird thing to get excited about.
Good. Keep making more and more Xeno games. Not shocked at the drive by Xenoblade 2 hate posts. Many call Xenoblade 2 a polarizing game. I just call it the best jrpg this generation.
"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
this news alone probably wouldn't be very exciting but this comes after a lot of hiring and expansion (and opening a new studio) after they released xeno 2, shows they're serious about becoming a bigger and more prolific studio
In the end I'd like to see 2-3 full teams making games at Monolith at a time. The Kyoto team needs to make games.
They worked on Skyward Sword along with BotW (and A Link Between Worlds too apparently?), so I guess it's not an inaccurate thing to say.
Even though I didn't like Xenoblade 2, acquiring and growing Monolith Soft is the best decision Nintendo has made in forever.
shame they couldn't do the same to retro, they should have invested in their expansion and turned them into a multi team studio as well, would have been great for them to have a big western studio.
I don't know, Nintendo has such a good track record with fostering talent that I almost think it has to have something to do with Retro themselves. They still get great games out of them when they release, at the very least.
I wonder how much Monolith Soft is earning from the success of Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2.
It's possible that from now on they will work on every new Zelda game, i wouldn't be surprised if they are now working on Animal Crossing Switch.
LMAO.
I think other studios like Bethesda or Guerrilla Games could learn a lot from Monolith Soft on how to make an open world interesting.
XC2 is a great game that just needed 1-2 months more of development to polish few things:
- Affinity charts: once you unlock a new ability, the blade should have it automatically and not that you have literally to go to the menu to see it.
- Field Skills, great additition but you shouldn't have to equip each blade every single time.
- Visuals in handheld mode, and maybe framerate in certain areas
- English Voice Acting: out of sync, too quiet sometimes compared to the japanese VA that is just perfect.
- You should be able to rewatch the tutorial or release a manual like it was in Xeno 1 and X.
Apart from those things, the game is absolutely great: chara design is vastly improved, soo many things to do on that game (the amount of content is very important for me in a big game), titans are much more diverse than the Bionis and Mechonis in Xeno 1, the OST was absolutely the best in 2017, the fact that it didn't receive one single nomination even at DICE is really a shame.
It's possible that from now on they will work on every new Zelda game, i wouldn't be surprised if they are now working on Animal Crossing Switch.
LMAO.
I think other studios like Bethesda or Guerrilla Games could learn a lot from Monolith Soft on how to make an open world interesting.
XC2 is a great game that just needed 1-2 months more of development to polish few things:
- Affinity charts: once you unlock a new ability, the blade should have it automatically and not that you have literally to go to the menu to see it.
- Field Skills, great additition but you shouldn't have to equip each blade every single time.
- Visuals in handheld mode, and maybe framerate in certain areas
- English Voice Acting: out of sync, too quiet sometimes compared to the japanese VA that is just perfect.
- You should be able to rewatch the tutorial or release a manual like it was in Xeno 1 and X.
Apart from those things, the game is absolutely great: chara design is vastly improved, soo many things to do on that game (the amount of content is very important for me in a big game), titans are much more diverse than the Bionis and Mechonis in Xeno 1, the OST was absolutely the best in 2017, the fact that it didn't receive one single nomination even at DICE is really a shame.
Eh, I'm certain their next project will both look and run better. Especially with how they're expanding and all, gotta mean higher budgets too. I love that Nintendo acquired them so much and it's super exciting to see them expand.
Your points are all things I believe are intentional or they don't see it being worth the time. I say that because most of what you've said could have been addressed in the monthly patches (e.g., map system improvements, core crystal animation removed). So this leads me to believe things like affinity charts and field skills are intentional, visual improvements would take a heap of time and thus not worth the time it would take to improve, and perhaps they're just not aware of the english voice acting.