Tetsuya Takahashi Xenoblade DE Interview Full Translation

TheGreatLugia · May 21, 2020

Lugalbanda and Nintendo Life have both provided translations of Tetsuya Takahashi's recent famitsu interview about Xenoblade Definitive Edition. The full translations are available in the links below. All of the quotes included in this post are from Lugalbanda's translation.

Famitsu June 4th Edition Takahashi Q&A

There was a Takahashi Q&A in the latest edition of Famitsu, in the run-up to the release of Xenoblade: Definitive Edition. I was originally not going to translate this because I thought I had n…

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Monolith Soft's Takahashi Tetsuya Talks Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition In This Translated Famitsu Interview

Casual mode, 20 hour epilogue and more!

www.nintendolife.com

Q1: When did this (XBDE) project conceptualize?

Takahashi: The project itself started around the end of 2017 if I recall. At the time, we were developing Torna, The Golden Country, and so we were multitasking. We presented the outline of the new project we are working on within Division 1 in conjunction with the outline for DE around May of 2018, and we should have started after we formally finished Torna, in August. It wasn't for that long, but you could say we were simultaneously working on 3 projects at once. For Division 1, we organized staff that works on the new game, DE, and those who work on both.

Q3: When it was decided on to remaster the game, what was the first thing that came to your mind (to touch up on)?

Takahashi: As far as the content of the game itself goes, I thought it was satisfactory even by today's standard, so I focused on making it easier to play, more clearly understandable to play, and look fancy.

In regards to this first part, making it easier to play, we made it so if you're stuck on a boss, whether it be by losing over and over or taking a lot of time on it, a popup comes up that gives relevant tips for the boss at hand. When you go back to the game, you also get your party gauge up full, too.

To the second part, making it more clear and understandable, we worked on UI. We relooked all the things that display and how they transition to make it very easy to understand what was going on and what needed to be done.

As far as making things look fancy, this is all about improving character graphics, something I thought was regrettable from the original. Because of the limitations of the hardware we were working with, the resource tradeoff meant that the characters got the short end of the stick. In DE, even though we do have the limitations of deadlines and budget, we went as far as we could within those limitations and upgrade them.

In general, this was a direction the producer, Yamada Shigekazu, and the director, Inaba Michihiko, opted to take. They set a very clear line in the sand about what should and shouldn't be changed and didn't bring their own agenda into it. I recall them being very careful about deciding on specifics like that.

Q4: The original was on the Wii in standard definition. For this remaster, were the assets all redone in HD?

Takahashi: This is stating the obvious, but we have a budget and a deadline, so we can't remake everything from scratch. So, we decided where to draw the line on what to redo and what not to. Specifically, weapons and gear, enemies, and map models, we just upconverted and added shading textures. For the faces and hands of playable characters and important characters, new gear in DE and the Monado, and the facial animations for cutscenes and scripted events, we worked from scratch.

We decided on this as such, but by the time we knew it, individual staff members were adding stuff in that felt was needed, and so some mob enemies and map models have been reworked a little too. They're not as big as the things we newly created, but it would be nice for people to spot those differences.

Q7: In regards to the main game, it's probably the case that the Wii version was largely ported to make this, but tell us if anything besides the graphics, UI, or music have been changed.

Takahashi: We thought it was important not to change the story or combat, but we did add features. Casual mode and autosave, stocking up on quest and landmark EXP, leveling down options for experts, time attack and theatre mode, and fashion gear are all new features we added.

Q8: Tell us how Future Connected came about, and what kind of concepts you started with.

Takahashi: Because people were saying "poor Melia…" I'm half joking. We wanted to clearly appeal to existing customers, plus make something that connects to the "future" of Xenoblade. In addition to those two and a half reasons, we just so happened to have the Bionis shoulder map that was near-done from the original and a good place for the new story to take place.

Q9: Did you work on Future Connected?

Takahashi: After people involved talked about what direction the plot was going to take, our very own event leader Ōta Mamoru finished it up. For quest related plot (Ponspectors), as always our very own Iwamoto Masataku and his quests team worked on that.

Q10: How much content does Future Connected have?

Takahashi: About ten to twelve hours from my own experience. For those playing their first time it might take a bit longer. Including all the side content, it'll probably take give or take twenty hours. If we had taken the stance of making it DLC, we could have sized up the game a bit, but we didn't think it was appropriate to ask for that much money for a remaster, and if we spend too much time and effort on Future Connected it could have a big impact on our new title, so we tried to strike a good balance.

Q13: Please send a message to the Xenoblade fans of old as well as those who are going to get their first experience soon.

Takahashi: Xenoblade is a title that changed the course of Monolith Soft and became the building blocks for our growth. We made this game with the determination, passion, and love that was poured into the original game by its staff, resonating with the staff we have today. At the same time, it suggests the silhouette and shape of what our future projects will take in the future. I hope veteran fans get a feel for this transition, and I hope new fans can get a taste of the future that resulted from our history.

Nayishiki · May 21, 2020

Great interview, now only 8 days till DE.

moustascheman · May 21, 2020

Q8: Tell us how Future Connected came about, and what kind of concepts you started with.

Takahashi: Because people were saying "poor Melia…" I'm half joking.

lmao. I guess even Takahashi realizes how badly he screwed her over in the original game.

Menx64 · May 21, 2020

Looking forward to playing it again! One of the best RPGs ever made.

FiXalaS · May 21, 2020

Bless him and may he continues to bless us with his games, Xenoblade or other.

I love all of them, and appreciate the effort put in DE plenty. Can't wait for it and can't wait for their new game.

BZL8 · May 21, 2020

Takahashi: Because people were saying "poor Melia…" I'm half joking.

Anacaona · May 21, 2020

Nayishiki said:
Great interview, now only 8 days till DE.

Shit, I thought it was going to be released on the 26th

Derkon · May 21, 2020

Love how they put exp stocking and leveling down features from XC2. It was pretty easy to get over leveled if you did all the quests in the original game.

criteriondog · May 21, 2020

Q8: Tell us how Future Connected came about, and what kind of concepts you started with.

Takahashi: Because people were saying "poor Melia…" I'm half joking.

Lol, I am excited to experience this for the first time and find out how/why Melia got screwed so hard in the game. Glad to hear the new epilogue seems to let her shine even more.

Oregano · May 21, 2020

You missed the Big Dick Energy quote from Takahashi

Takahashi: As I said previously, I feel that Xenoblade still lives up to standards, even comparing it to modern games in 2020. How did we make such a game ten years ago?

Yuntu · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

Shit this is hilarious.

gunlovefiction · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

lmfao

Dark Cloud · May 21, 2020

Budget and time constraints.

Hikari · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

oh..... I laughed damn it

MegaXZero · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

Amazing video.

Imitatio · May 21, 2020

Oregano said:
You missed the Big Dick Energy quote from Takahashi

He's right.

Prof Bathtub · May 21, 2020

Looking at both translations, I think it was a bit premature to definitely say that the FC bits will hint at upcoming Xenoblade titles. It might be the case, but you can also interpret the quote as meaning that the whole project is an encapsulation of the past and future of Monolith and their efforts on the series.

mrmickfran · May 21, 2020

He's totally going to double down on fucking over Melia

Oregano · May 21, 2020

Imitatio said:
He's right.

Definitely true. Just finished the Trials of Mana remake and the prevalence of invisible walls was infuriating.

Deleted member 31092 · May 21, 2020

Oregano said:
You missed the Big Dick Energy quote from Takahashi

This has pretty strong Hideaki Anno vibes

Hideaki Anno in 2006 said:
Many times we wondered, "[Evangelion] is a title that's more than 10 years old. Why now?"
"Eva is too old", we felt.
However, over the past 12 years, there has been no anime newer than Eva.

Also this is indirect confirmation that Xenoblade is indeed anime

Oregano · May 21, 2020

Joseki said:
This has pretty strong Hideaki Anno vibes

EVA still so relevant that Nintendo + Platinum copied the plot wholesale last year.🤭

Leo-Tyrant · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

This was great

Tora · May 21, 2020

I still cannot believe that this is getting the remaster treatment.

So excited to play it!

Hikari · May 21, 2020

I'm so curious about Future connected but I want to play the game all over again first ;_;

Herb Alpert · May 21, 2020

Great interview
Can't wait to play xenoblade again (with non shitty faces)

Mory Dunz · May 21, 2020

Oregano said:
Definitely true. Just finished the Trials of Mana remake and the prevalence of invisible walls was infuriating.

yup, and ff7.
I've enjoyed both but yeah, the level design in JRPGS hasn't imrpoved mcuh.
other games I've beaten recently that can be lumped into poor level design, Pokemon and KH3.

dang, of my recent jrpgs Trials and Astral might actually be at the top in level design...

foxuzamaki · May 21, 2020

Oregano said:
You missed the Big Dick Energy quote from Takahashi

It's just the truth

JershJopstin · May 21, 2020

We asked for Nintendo's help to come up with the title. The content of the game is largely the same while having some upgrades in certain areas, so rather than implying that there was a lot of additional content in the game, like "deluxe edition," we went with "definitive edition," because we respect the original material.

Nevermind the entire additional epilogue lol.

Oregano · May 21, 2020

Mory Dunz said:
yup, and ff7.
I've enjoyed both but yeah, the level design in JRPGS hasn't imrpoved mcuh.
other games I've beaten recently that can be lumped into poor level design, Pokemon and KH3.

dang, of my recent jrpgs Trials and Astral might actually be at the top in level design...

Yup, not to mention the QoL stuff that Xenoblade does like no game overs on death that makes it more enjoyable to explore.

foxuzamaki said:
It's just the truth

Indeed.

JershJopstin · May 21, 2020

So we decided on priorities, like high priority field and battle music, and live recorded with an orchestra for those; we had to think about time and budget even for the ones we did record. For tracks we couldn't live record, like other field and battle music, we did some arrangements and used new soundfonts to improve the quality.

I don't recall seeing anyone talk about this. Not every remastered track is a live recording, and it still seems not every track was redone.

Mr.Fletcher · May 21, 2020

It sounds like they were working within strict limitations, financially... and you'd presume, with other projects on the go, time wise too.

tryagainlater · May 21, 2020

BZL8 said:

Holy shit, lol

NioA · May 21, 2020

Oregano said:
You missed the Big Dick Energy quote from Takahashi

He said nothing wrong, Xenoblade 1 was really ahead of his time.

PancakeBurglar · May 21, 2020

Xenoblade still blows so many other rpgs away with its world design. Monolith Soft is in a league of their own, can't wait to revisit this game. All the features and updated visuals look great.

hsojlightfoot · May 21, 2020

15 - 20 hours for future connected? Longer than I thought honestly. Plus its free and easily could have charged more for that as DLC. The main game is long. At least 100 hours and more if you want to do everything. Glad the new stuff isn't really long.

Atheerios · May 21, 2020

We wanted to clearly appeal to existing customers, plus make something that connects to the "future" of Xenoblade.

Interesting... So Future Connected may have references to the new title they are working on.

SiG · May 21, 2020

Joseki said:
This has pretty strong Hideaki Anno vibes

Also this is indirect confirmation that Xenoblade is indeed anime

Xenoblade is indeed Evangelion. Xenoblade DE is Rebuild of Evangelion. I even noticed the similarities between XC2's Brigid and Eva 3:33's Misato...

mordecaii83 · May 21, 2020

Great interview! I'm really happy they took this on as a project, it was really a shame the original had a limited initial release and was stuck on the Wii.

On an unrelated note, do we know if certain characters that come in later will still have trouble with earning skill points like in the base game? Him talking about stocking up on XP made me wonder if any other changes were made to help with issues like SP farming in the base game.

Champion · May 21, 2020

Q3: When it was decided on to remaster the game, what was the first thing that came to your mind (to touch up on)?
Takahashi: As far as the content of the game itself goes, I thought it was satisfactory even by today's standard.

King Kingo · May 21, 2020

TheGreatLugia said:
Q4: The original was on the Wii in standard definition. For this remaster, were the assets all redone in HD?

Takahashi: This is stating the obvious, but we have a budget and a deadline, so we can't remake everything from scratch. So, we decided where to draw the line on what to redo and what not to. Specifically, weapons and gear, enemies, and map models, we just upconverted and added shading textures. For the faces and hands of playable characters and important characters, new gear in DE and the Monado, and the facial animations for cutscenes and scripted events, we worked from scratch.

We decided on this as such, but by the time we knew it, individual staff members were adding stuff in that felt was needed, and so some mob enemies and map models have been reworked a little too. They're not as big as the things we newly created, but it would be nice for people to spot those differences.

Looks like this game is a mashup of remastering and remaking.

I'm glad that they kept the best assets from the original game and recreated the worst assets.

Madao · May 21, 2020

the way i see it, it's a bundle of a $40 remaster + $20 new content.
they could even get away with selling FC on it's own for people who just want that part in the future.

Apopheniac · May 21, 2020

Q7: In regards to the main game, it's probably the case that the Wii version was largely ported to make this, but tell us if anything besides the graphics, UI, or music have been changed.

Takahashi: We thought it was important not to change the story or combat, but we did add features. Casual mode and autosave, stocking up on quest and landmark EXP, leveling down options for experts, time attack and theatre mode, and fashion gear are all new features we added.

It really is a lot when he lays it out like that.

"Stocking up on quest and landmark EXP and leveling down options for experts" sounds like they've basically ported XC2's Exp. storage systems into this game, which is nice.

garion333 · May 21, 2020

Amazing, best thing I've read in a while. He was dropping tiny hints about the next game. Woot! Hopefully it's fairly soon. I'd kill for 2021.

That said, some nice QoL changes, especially the casual mode. It'll help me plow through the game again. Or maybe I'll do hard. We'll see!

garion333 · May 21, 2020

Alpha Baymax said:
Looks like this game is a mashup of remastering and remaking.

I'm glad that they kept the best assets from the original game and recreated the worst assets.

Just like the pacing in the original XC.

Ishaan · May 21, 2020

I would recommend that the interview in the OP be replaced with the Nintendo Life version, which is both better translated and easier to read.

TheGreatLugia · May 21, 2020

Ishaan said:
I would recommend that the interview in the OP be replaced with the Nintendo Life version, which is both better translated and easier to read.

I went with Lugal's post since he's done a lot of Xeno related translations in general and the Nintendo Life article seems to be missing a question from the interview. I can add the Nintendo Life article to the OP, but I'm not really up for redoing the entire OP.

Lilo_D · May 21, 2020

Q3: When it was decided on to remaster the game, what was the first thing that came to your mind (to touch up on)?
Takahashi: As far as the content of the game itself goes, I thought it was satisfactory even by today's standard.

By today's standard, original XB is even better...(not saying todays JRPG is bad)

Łazy · May 21, 2020

Champion said:
Q3: When it was decided on to remaster the game, what was the first thing that came to your mind (to touch up on)?
Takahashi: As far as the content of the game itself goes, I thought it was satisfactory even by today's standard.

And yet we get a freaking Time Attack mode, easy, expert, QoL added...
That's when you see the real Monolithsoft power go into a project.

DangerMouse · May 21, 2020

Mr.Fletcher said:
It sounds like they were working within strict limitations, financially... and you'd presume, with other projects on the go, time wise too.

Yeah, he referenced development time and balancing it in relation to making the new content of Future Connected when they've also got their new project to work on too, so it makes sense.

Can't wait to replay this!

NSESN · May 21, 2020

Weird that outside other games Monolith Soft worked on, like Xeno 2 and BotW, we haven't see many games be influenced by Xenoblade. I think the entire jrpg industry would benefit if they took notes

Tetsuya Takahashi Xenoblade DE Interview Full Translation

One Winged Slayer

I like the chili style

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Prophet of Regret

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One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

User requested account closure

One Winged Slayer

The Enlightened Wise Ones

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One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

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