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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

According to Monolith Soft co-founder and Xenoblade executive director Tetsuya Takahashi, the company wants to focus more on expressions in the future.

With each Xenoblade game, Monolith Soft seems to improve upon things like cutscene direction, character models, and more. Characters were the most expressive they’ve ever been in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but it sounds like Takahashi and the rest of the team isn’t satisfied just yet.

Here’s an interesting excerpt we’ve translated from the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 art book that recently came out in Japan:

“When we say we value expressions, we’ve always considered them to be important, and would like to treat them even more importantly in the future. That is to say, we touched upon video game grammar earlier, but there are scenes with mundane conversations, right? If it was a three-minute conversation, one would get fed up with it if it was written in video game grammar. You might mash the button, hoping you’d get to progress. However, when watching a live action movie, even if a scene is about five minutes long, as long as the actors’ performances and chemistry work, even if there is no music or special effects, one would end up watching it all the same. The difference there might be the choice of words, or the power of the lines, but the most important part is the expressions. A lot of actors can speak using their eyes alone, and those things can fill a gap and prevent people from getting bored in live action media, but for games, we can’t reach that level of expressiveness yet. That’s why we want to focus on this more in the future.

As an extreme example, if we were to make a ten-minute long scene, we’d want to make something that can stand on just the verbal exchanges without music or effects, and that’s the goal we’re thinking to aim for. This is just an example though, of course. We aren’t trying to make an actual 10-minute long scene, so don’t misunderstand (laughs).

Getting back on topic, but when just looking at the cutscenes for a game, many have plenty of action scenes and flashy scenes, and there are many titles that I think would make great reference material for future generations. But when it comes to people and people’s exchange of words and emotions, there is a tendency towards their actions, while the showcasing of the silent parts are still mostly stuck in the realm of video game grammar, so I would like it if Monolith Soft could reach that first.”

Source - Nintendo Everything

 

[Danjin44]

I can't wait for their next game, I absolutely LOOOVE the games they make.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I can’t wait to see what they do with Nintendo’s next console.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Regular expressions ?

I'm sorry.
It's a lie, I'm not

 

[NanaMiku]

I really love the expression when Mio is angry

 

[Danjin44]

I really love the expression when Mio is angry

Monolith Soft really improved character expression with Xenoblade 3.

Even some subtle expression is really well done..

I also thanks to Saito's artstyle for character having much better expression.

 

[Astral Dog]

One thing Monolith has always struggled is character models, they looked hideous and wonky until they started to change the Art direction to a more cartoony style.its one studios that has potential to improve tremendously in future hardware generations, as their team gets bigger

 

[NanaMiku]

One thing Monolith has always struggled is character models, they looked hideous and wonky until they started to change the Art direction to a more cartoony style.its one studios that has potential to improve tremendously in future hardware generations, as their team gets bigger

I think Disaster Day of Crisis has pretty decent models:

 

[Danjin44]

I think Disaster Day of Crisis has pretty decent models:

That game didn't have same scale as Xenoblade games which had huge map you could explore. Downside was the character models suffered.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

What Monolith... The FEAR and shadow of mordor games or the Nintendo Monolith?

 

[Danjin44]

What Monolith... The FEAR and shadow of mordor games or the Nintendo Monolith?

Devs who made Xenoblade series.

 

[NanaMiku]

What Monolith... The FEAR and shadow of mordor games or the Nintendo Monolith?

Monolith Soft = Nintendo
Monolith Productions = Shadow of Mordor

 

[IAmRei]

the only game who can make me weep. i weep at the point of human cycle revelation, the main characters are showing their confused expression, and it's bug me so much as if it real story in the far future scenario if we are tinkering with human life cycle. the story is among the best sci-fi - fantasy story i ever see. and the expression of the characters support every bits of it. 13/10 stars game

 

[Hudo]

Can't fucking wait to see what they come up with for Switch 2.

Also: Please release a physical version of Future Redeemed

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I really love the expression when Mio is angry

Or when she's sad. Imo they did a very good job with the character expressions in XC3, so I'm even more excited to see what they'll deliver with their next game whenever it will launch on Nintendo's next console.

Oh and dunno why but this reminds me that XC3 was robbed at TGA 2022 in the music category... Just look at the flute guy giving it all here during the GOTY nominations.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I can’t wait to see what they do with Nintendo’s next console.

The same 21fps, sub native res JRPGs with lots of muddy textures they've always done. 95% metacritic because.

 

[Fart Knight]

 

[Drell]

The same 21fps, sub native res JRPGs with lots of muddy textures they've always done. 95% metacritic because.

Well if you want your technically perfect games, you can always go to Sony and enjoy all the DEI that comes with it.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

The same 21fps, sub native res JRPGs with lots of muddy textures they've always done. 95% metacritic because.

Because they‘re good games, yeah.

I don’t know, I think they’ve been good at it for a while.

Even the original Xenoblade managed a lot with facial expressions, and that was on the Wii. I wish they hadn’t changed the style so much in the remaster.

 

[sigmaZ]

Or when she's sad. Imo they did a very good job with the character expressions in XC3, so I'm even more excited to see what they'll deliver with their next game whenever it will launch on Nintendo's next console.

Oh and dunno why but this reminds me that XC3 was robbed at TGA 2022 in the music category... Just look at the flute guy giving it all here during the GOTY nominations.

MF is sending off the souls of the dead.

Despite the game's shortcomings, the games soundtrack was outright fire. Even the menu song was amazing.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Well if you want your technically perfect games, you can always go to Sony and enjoy all the DEI that comes with it.

Good point, but I'd rather play 480p 21fps Nintendo stuff than that. PC is where it's at. Some people might even emulate Xenoblade for acceptable performance.

 

[Drell]

Good point, but I'd rather play 480p 21fps Nintendo stuff than that. PC is where it's at. Some people might even emulate Xenoblade for acceptable performance.

PC would be tve greatest gaming plateform for me if it wasn't owned by Microsoft.

 

[UltimaKilo]

The same 21fps, sub native res JRPGs with lots of muddy textures they've always done. 95% metacritic because.

91% meta critic because Mitsuda is still at the top of his game, Takahashi is literally the GOAT and Takeda is a beast.

MonolithSoft is literally a super team from the greatest RPGs of all time.

Edit: Nintendo should buy Mistwalker so that Sakaguchi can join the team and Uematsu can be a subcontractor. That would complete the super-team.

 

[BlackTron]

<redacted>

Username checks out

 

[Hudo]

Edit: Nintendo should buy Mistwalker so that Sakaguchi can join the team and Uematsu can be a subcontractor. That would complete the super-team.

I'd love for Nintendo to get Yasumi Matsuno to work with Monolith on a project. I wonder what he would come up with.

 

[NanaMiku]

Edit: Nintendo should buy Mistwalker so that Sakaguchi can join the team and Uematsu can be a subcontractor. That would complete the super-team.

They need to remake this

 

[Shut0wen]

Love monolith but yeah id rather you concentrate on more characters then expression, literally 90% of the main cast in xenoblade 3 are fucking dog shit compared to 1 and 2

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

I think their best work by far was XCX so I can’t say in a fan of this.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

They need to remake this

This game has nothing to do with Monolith Soft.

 

[Hero_Select]

no. she killed the game with her mind.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I think their best work by far was XCX so I can’t say in a fan of this.

Working on expressions for a better character creator for XCX2 would be cool though

 

[Variahunter]

The acting is always ridiculously overdone in those JRPG.

Only guys that are good at it in Japan are Capcom.
Kojima Prod is also on a whole other level than Capcom I'd say, he's that good (only talking about cutscene direction and acting... not scenario).

In Xenoblade, I can't take seriously the scenarios, cliched characters and anime acting. Those are all laughable. There I said it.
Xenoblade 2 was so bad in this regard it's not even funny. To think that I've managed to play that turd for more than 15 hours only because I wanted to obtain Perceval... Of course I stopped right after.
It's a shame because their world feels good to explore (I loved Xenoblade X), but the rest is really subpar.

To the point that I didn't even bother with Xenoblade 3 after playing for 3-4 hours. Same overdone shit as before.
Typical anime non sense and acting targeted at teenagers with limited experience on other medias like movies.

It seems those games will keep being made, despite not breaking any record sales wise. Some people will be happy I guess, all game are not for everyone.

But to think that they keep producing those (and Fire Emblem that suffer from the same anime problem now...) while Earthbound, a much more unique series stays dead.

Nintendo has always been kid friendly, but there were some games that felt targeted to a more mature audience, wether in its graphic depicture of gruesome pixelart (for the time...) like Super Metroid (Crocomire acid kill, Motherbrain... all the bosses in fact are seriously disgusting) and its sounds and music, or in Earthbound with its profound themes that are conveyed in a subtle way.

Rare were of course also trying hard to reach a different audience, but it was not at all subtle : Killer Instinct, Conker, Goldeneye and PD, Jet Force Gemini. Great games but the target was teenagers, with all the "in your face" gore and teenagers jokes, let's admit it.

Today Nintendo has tone down those aspects in Metroid, they're not very graphic anymore, since Metroid Prime. Fusion retained that style a bit but Zero Mission dropped the ball.

And Earthbound is dead lol.

Well that's pretty much the rant of an old timer yelling at clouds, I know, but that's how I feel. Still like them for their gameplay that try to pushes the boundaries of what we can expect in videogames, despite the technical limitations...

But I bet Metroid Prime 4 won't be scary or even spooky at all, I don't expect to be feeling the Alien movie vibe I once felt when playing Super. They just lost it.
It will be targeted at teenagers, just like Xenoblade and all of their games are. I miss the diversity.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I'd love for Nintendo to get Yasumi Matsuno to work with Monolith on a project. I wonder what he would come up with.

Is he a subcontractor, or does he work directly for Square?

 

[cireza]

Because they‘re good games, yeah.

For sure, but a 60fps remaster of something would be welcomed. I think Switch 2 offers a good opportunity to remaster a few open games at 60 fps honestly, would make Xeno and Zelda much more enjoyable and I would gladly buy them if this happens. But for now, I have given up on these games as my eyesight/brain isn't good enough anymore to handle the blur.

 

[Hudo]

Is he a subcontractor, or does he work directly for Square?

Afaik, he's a freelancer. So Square can hire him on a per-project basis. Like they did for Tactics Ogre Reborn or that Final Fantasy 14 Ivalice raid.
Nintendo and Monolith could also hire him for a project (if he wants to do it, that is).

 

[UltimaKilo]

Afaik, he's a freelancer. So Square can hire him on a per-project basis. Like they did for Tactics Ogre Reborn or that Final Fantasy 14 Ivalice raid.
Nintendo and Monolith could also hire him for a project (if he wants to do it, that is).

Talk about a way to finish off the competition in Japan!

 

[Thief1987]

I can’t wait to see what they do with Nintendo’s next console.

480p game instead of 360p?

 

[March Climber]

The acting is always ridiculously overdone in those JRPG.

Only guys that are good at it in Japan are Capcom.
Kojima Prod is also on a whole other level than Capcom I'd say, he's that good (only talking about cutscene direction and acting... not scenario).

In Xenoblade, I can't take seriously the scenarios, cliched characters and anime acting. Those are all laughable. There I said it.
Xenoblade 2 was so bad in this regard it's not even funny. To think that I've managed to play that turd for more than 15 hours only because I wanted to obtain Perceval... Of course I stopped right after.
It's a shame because their world feels good to explore (I loved Xenoblade X), but the rest is really subpar.

To the point that I didn't even bother with Xenoblade 3 after playing for 3-4 hours. Same overdone shit as before.
Typical anime non sense and acting targeted at teenagers with limited experience on other medias like movies.

It seems those games will keep being made, despite not breaking any record sales wise. Some people will be happy I guess, all game are not for everyone.

But to think that they keep producing those (and Fire Emblem that suffer from the same anime problem now...) while Earthbound, a much more unique series stays dead.

Nintendo has always been kid friendly, but there were some games that felt targeted to a more mature audience, wether in its graphic depicture of gruesome pixelart (for the time...) like Super Metroid (Crocomire acid kill, Motherbrain... all the bosses in fact are seriously disgusting) and its sounds and music, or in Earthbound with its profound themes that are conveyed in a subtle way.

Rare were of course also trying hard to reach a different audience, but it was not at all subtle : Killer Instinct, Conker, Goldeneye and PD, Jet Force Gemini. Great games but the target was teenagers, with all the "in your face" gore and teenagers jokes, let's admit it.

Today Nintendo has tone down those aspects in Metroid, they're not very graphic anymore, since Metroid Prime. Fusion retained that style a bit but Zero Mission dropped the ball.

And Earthbound is dead lol.

Well that's pretty much the rant of an old timer yelling at clouds, I know, but that's how I feel. Still like them for their gameplay that try to pushes the boundaries of what we can expect in videogames, despite the technical limitations...

But I bet Metroid Prime 4 won't be scary or even spooky at all, I don't expect to be feeling the Alien movie vibe I once felt when playing Super. They just lost it.
It will be targeted at teenagers, just like Xenoblade and all of their games are. I miss the diversity.

The problem isn't young adult writing or PG writing. There have been writers in the past who have made great PG-rated works. The problem is ingrained within what Japan considers as good acting in J-dramas and anime, which most audiences would look at as dramatical overacting.

Even though Kojima has Japanese elements in his games, he has always been more into western media, and it shows with how he approaches his cinematography and acting. Capcom also does a decent job at mixing eastern and western sensibilities, and lately with shows like Shogun and Tokyo Vice, I'm starting to feel that a mixture of two together works much better and produces better results.

As you can see with the gifs above, the animators are doing their part making subtle emotions convey with anime-esque faces on screen. The issue with Xenoblade(an issue that also existed in Xenosaga) is the fact that the voice acting for both english and JP is too overdone to the point of being cheesy.

I think if Monolith soft is going to keep going when it comes to facial animations, they will have to make a hard choice to move on from anime-style acting to something more live action-style. That doesn't necessarily mean Kojima-style, but at least something similar to what Capcom does or what Sega does with Lost Judgment.

 

[Kataploom]

The acting is always ridiculously overdone in those JRPG.

Only guys that are good at it in Japan are Capcom.
Kojima Prod is also on a whole other level than Capcom I'd say, he's that good (only talking about cutscene direction and acting... not scenario).

In Xenoblade, I can't take seriously the scenarios, cliched characters and anime acting. Those are all laughable. There I said it.
Xenoblade 2 was so bad in this regard it's not even funny. To think that I've managed to play that turd for more than 15 hours only because I wanted to obtain Perceval... Of course I stopped right after.
It's a shame because their world feels good to explore (I loved Xenoblade X), but the rest is really subpar.

To the point that I didn't even bother with Xenoblade 3 after playing for 3-4 hours. Same overdone shit as before.
Typical anime non sense and acting targeted at teenagers with limited experience on other medias like movies.

It seems those games will keep being made, despite not breaking any record sales wise. Some people will be happy I guess, all game are not for everyone.

But to think that they keep producing those (and Fire Emblem that suffer from the same anime problem now...) while Earthbound, a much more unique series stays dead.

Nintendo has always been kid friendly, but there were some games that felt targeted to a more mature audience, wether in its graphic depicture of gruesome pixelart (for the time...) like Super Metroid (Crocomire acid kill, Motherbrain... all the bosses in fact are seriously disgusting) and its sounds and music, or in Earthbound with its profound themes that are conveyed in a subtle way.

Rare were of course also trying hard to reach a different audience, but it was not at all subtle : Killer Instinct, Conker, Goldeneye and PD, Jet Force Gemini. Great games but the target was teenagers, with all the "in your face" gore and teenagers jokes, let's admit it.

Today Nintendo has tone down those aspects in Metroid, they're not very graphic anymore, since Metroid Prime. Fusion retained that style a bit but Zero Mission dropped the ball.

And Earthbound is dead lol.

Well that's pretty much the rant of an old timer yelling at clouds, I know, but that's how I feel. Still like them for their gameplay that try to pushes the boundaries of what we can expect in videogames, despite the technical limitations...

But I bet Metroid Prime 4 won't be scary or even spooky at all, I don't expect to be feeling the Alien movie vibe I once felt when playing Super. They just lost it.
It will be targeted at teenagers, just like Xenoblade and all of their games are. I miss the diversity.

Everything you pointed as a problem is actually what appeals anime fans, as you said not every game is for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's badly done.

For, me, for example, Xenoblade games have way waaaaay better graphics than something like RDR2, HFW, AC:O, etc. Because those games look too realistic to the point of boring be by just looking at them, and will never look as realistic as real life so they're stuck in a weird uncanny valley to me. I'd literally play Xenoblade for its graphics, story, acting, character design, etc. Than play a more "western" game for the same reason.

Capcom is great at doing realistic graphics and animations (better than any western devs imo), but that doesn't mean the rest are "bad", it just means it appeals more to you and typical western normie, but that's it.

 

[Kataploom]

480p game instead of 360p?

Actually Xenoblade 3 is 1080p with way better performance than previous Switch entries

 

[Variahunter]

Everything you pointed as a problem is actually what appeals anime fans, as you said not every game is for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's badly done.

For, me, for example, Xenoblade games have way waaaaay better graphics than something like RDR2, HFW, AC:O, etc. Because those games look too realistic to the point of boring be by just looking at them, and will never look as realistic as real life so they're stuck in a weird uncanny valley to me. I'd literally play Xenoblade for its graphics, story, acting, character design, etc. Than play a more "western" game for the same reason.

Capcom is great at doing realistic graphics and animations (better than any western devs imo), but that doesn't mean the rest are "bad", it just means it appeals more to you and typical western normie, but that's it.

I didn’t say Xenoblade problem were graphics.
It isn’t, even if I find the character designs really basic and cringe honestly. The environments are great.

The problem is the acting, the cutscenes and the dialogues, they’re targeted at teenagers and it shows. Can’t take it seriously.

 

[Variahunter]

The problem isn't young adult writing or PG writing. There have been writers in the past who have made great PG-rated works. The problem is ingrained within what Japan considers as good acting in J-dramas and anime, which most audiences would look at as dramatical overacting.

Even though Kojima has Japanese elements in his games, he has always been more into western media, and it shows with how he approaches his cinematography and acting. Capcom also does a decent job at mixing eastern and western sensibilities, and lately with shows like Shogun and Tokyo Vice, I'm starting to feel that a mixture of two together works much better and produces better results.

As you can see with the gifs above, the animators are doing their part making subtle emotions convey with anime-esque faces on screen. The issue with Xenoblade(an issue that also existed in Xenosaga) is the fact that the voice acting for both english and JP is too overdone to the point of being cheesy.

I think if Monolith soft is going to keep going when it comes to facial animations, they will have to make a hard choice to move on from anime-style acting to something more live action-style. That doesn't necessarily mean Kojima-style, but at least something similar to what Capcom does or what Sega does with Lost Judgment.

This. Yes it’s exactly this.

 

[Kataploom]

I didn’t say Xenoblade problem were graphics.
It isn’t, even if I find the character designs really basic and cringe honestly. The environments are great.

The problem is the acting, the cutscenes and the dialogues, they’re targeted at teenagers and it shows. Can’t take it seriously.

Well, it's a T game, but even then doing more realistic acting like in RE games or any AAA western game would break it for the fans, it doesn't mean the performance is bad, it just has a specific style.

Have to played it in Japanese? Anime stuff in English sounds way worse than it should, like it doesn't match at all, never felt this not to be the case. Anime changes completely from Japanese to English, something that doesn't happen in Spanish at least...

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Xenoblade series is in my top 5 JRPGs of all time, but I'd be down with a new Xeno series now. Something similar in terms of large and interesting worlds, but also something fresh and distinct.