| Xenoblade Chronicles 2 | |
|---|---|
 Icon artwork, featuring the protagonists Rex (left) and Pyra (right) looking at the Urayan Titan | |
| Developer(s) | Monolith Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) |
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| Producer(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Koji Hayashi |
| Programmer(s) | Toshiaki Yajima |
| Artist(s) |
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| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) |
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| Series | Xenoblade Chronicles |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch |
| Release | December 1, 2017 |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Xenoblade Chronicles 2[b] is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series and the sixth main entry in the Xeno series, and was released on December 1. Plans for the game began shortly before the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2014. Key developers from previous games returned, including franchise creator Tetsuya Takahashi and directors Koh Kojima and Genki Yokota. The team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. The game was announced in 2017 and was released worldwide the same year. As with Xenoblade Chronicles, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has gameplay that is similar to previous entries, but with an added summoning mechanic. It features a different setting and characters than the first Xenoblade Chronicles and marks the series' return to being story-driven, unlike the previous installment Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was focused on gameplay and open world exploration. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes place in Alrest, a world covered in a sea of clouds where humans live atop and inside large living creatures known as Titans. Some people known as Drivers can summon powerful beings known as Blades from crystals. After he is hired for a salvaging mission, a young salvager named Rex meets a legendary Blade named Pyra, indirectly becoming her Driver, and promises to take her to a fabled paradise called Elysium. Throughout their journey, Rex and his party are pursued by Torna, an organization who seeks Pyra's power for their own means.
The game received generally positive reviews, but it was not as well-received as the original Xenoblade Chronicles. It was praised for its story, characters, themes, combat, music, environments, and scale but criticized for its gacha system, maps, tutorials, and technical issues. As of December 2020, it had sold over two million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling title in the Xeno series and Monolith Soft's most commercially successful game.[1] Downloadable content was released throughout 2018, and a story-focused expansion was released in September of that year. This side story, Torna – The Golden Country, is set 500 years before the main game and features new gameplay mechanics. A sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, was released in July 2022.
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- ^ 2021CESAゲーム白書 (2021 CESA Games White Papers). Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association. 2021. ISBN 978-4-902346-43-5.