Xenoblade Chronicles' series director is hiring for a new RPG, but Monolith Soft fans are wondering what happened to the studio's previously-announced action game.
As first reported by Gematsu, Tetsuya Takahashi, studio founder and executive director on the Xenoblade Chronicles series, posted on Monolith Soft's website to reveal he was on the hunt for staff to work on a new RPG. Takahashi couldn't go into much detail on the game itself, but stated that it would provide new challenges compared to past Monolith Soft games.
At the time of writing, Monolith Soft is on the hunt for a 2D staff designer, a 3D CG character designer, a 3D CD map designer, a development environment engineer, a field level designer, an assistant director, an in-game animator, and an effects designer. All of these new roles will work under Takahashi on the studio's forthcoming RPG.
You can probably imagine how Xenoblade fans will react to this news. Even if a new Xenoblade game hasn't been directly confirmed in the job listings, the role of 'field designer' in particular will likely give fans a lot of hope for a new entry in the Xenoblade series. Takahashi said in 2022 that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would be a "stopping point" for the series, but not the end.
However, this new announcement has some Monolith Soft fans wondering what happened to the studio's new IP, announced in 2017. As reported by Automaton Media, the new action game was announced in the tweet below, with concept art showing a female knight character, but we've heard nothing more of the game whatsoever since 2017, which was before Xenoblade Chronicles 2 even released.
新プロジェクト始動！アクションゲーム開発経験者募集中！モノリスソフトのブランドイメージとは異なる意欲的なプロジェクト。新たな環境でチャレンジしたい方、新規タイトルで才能を活かしたい方、ぜひご応募下さい。■モノリスソフト/中途採用https://t.co/fDrjG8mjXR pic.twitter.com/MTvf5qfCNPAugust 21, 2017
It's worth pointing out that the original recruitment pages for the action game have since been deleted from Monolith Soft's website. This doesn't mean the game has been canceled by any means, as the studio could've simply taken the pages down once the roles were filled, but it's still causing some to speculate about the fate of the game.
Just earlier this year, Takahashi said in a Monolith Soft company brochure that its "aim for higher quality will never change," despite the fact that the studio has already made some of the greatest RPGs ever. Whatever the developer's next game is, it's clearly still intent on pushing itself further after Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and its DLC marked a fantastic conclusion to the series.
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Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.
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