There is a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in Xenoblade Chronicles X. A weird statement to make considering the Monolith Soft RPG launched two years before Link’s new adventure. But in many ways it was establishing the blueprint of this glorious return to Hyrule and the sense of scale it would eventually exude. A vast world where you could go anywhere and do anything, and there was little the game could do to get in your way.
Breath of the Wild took the open world formula pioneered by Ubisoft for an entire generation and completely subverted it, showing how powerful the genre can be if you put powers right into the hands of players and allow them to roam true and solve each combat encounter and puzzle using all the tools at their disposal. So long as you reached the solution, eventually it was valid, and this flexibility is what made Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom so masterful. But without the help of Monolith Soft to flesh out its world, they may have seldom reached such heights.
Monolith Soft Was Instrumental In Bringing Breath Of The Wild To Life
The majority of Zelda games throughout history have allowed the player to explore Hyrule in their own way, but there are often obstacles preventing you from progressing or temples that must be sequentially tackled in order to see the narrative through to its end. After finishing Breath of the Wild’s tutorial, you can waltz right up to Hyrule Castle and take on Calamity Ganon. You aren’t anywhere near powerful enough and will likely get utterly trounced, but with the right amount of patience and skill, it is possible to master Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in minutes.
Chances are this wouldn’t have been the case if its open world wasn’t geared so heavily towards player experimentation. You are given a handful of staple mechanics which can be used in the majority of situations, while combat and exploration rely just enough on skill that, with the right management, you can emerge victorious in most circumstances. It’s a magical way of doing things, and with Breath and Tears now in the rearview mirror, I cannot wait to see how the series evolves from here. But let’s jump back a little bit and look at what role Monolith Soft played in their development.
In an interview with GameKult back in 2017, series producer Eiji Aonuma said the following about Monolith Soft’s involvement with Breath of the Wild:
“On Skyward Sword, Monolith had mainly helped us on graphics design and other artistic elements. Even though we could have asked them for help on the technical side, we realized their way of making games was completely different from ours and we didn’t have much to learn from them on this installment, since we were almost doing two different jobs. On the other hand, for Breath of the Wild, we’ve been assisted by level designers used to large game areas, in order to make topographic arrangements.”
This makes total sense and aligns with the parts of Monolith Soft’s DNA that so obviously bled into Breath of the Wild. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a gargantuan game – its landmass ten times the size of Skyrim if you lay everything out – and requires the player to walk, run, and fly over massive distances in order to reach their final destination. It feels like you are moving heaven and earth to complete your quest, and the world’s sheer size does a terrific job of accommodating that feeling. It feels grandiose and significant, like we are nothing but an ant in the grand scheme of things who must earn our place.
Xenoblade Chronicles X Was Ahead Of Its Time
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of that space is rather empty and meaningless, but through killer sightlines and interesting things to discover around most corners, Xenoblade Chronicles X can hold your attention and ignite your imagination again and again. Its topography is hard to predict as you ascend to the sky, delve deep underground, and remain safe on solid ground consistently, forcing players to consider what their perspective is at every turn. While Breath of the Wild scales things back a little bit, it still feels like you can spend days walking around Hyrule and be met with surprises almost constantly.
A decade has passed since its release, which makes going back into Xenoblade Chronicles X all the more fascinating, and how we forgot all the innovative ideas it brought forward because of the platform it originally called home. Nintendo looked at how Monolith Soft crafted vast open worlds and saw the future of Zelda in its design philosophy. The key to subverting the series’ identity was to offer an experience that was bitingly traditional while also willing to change what it meant to play Link at every turn.
Xenoblade Chronicles X might have a massive open world, but it otherwise aims to be a fairly traditional JRPG where combat and exploration are once again at the forefront. Breath of the Wild took its approach to world design and imagined how it could be perceived by players in a fundamentally different adventure. Now, ten years have passed, I’m curious to see how the baton is passed once again, and how Monolith Soft builds on its own formula and makes use of the valuable experience it gained, bringing two seminal masterpieces to life. It walked, ran, and pretty soon it’ll be getting ready to fly.
- Released
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March 3, 2017
- ESRB
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E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes