Nintendo and Monolith Soft have revealed the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 release date. The game was originally slated to launch in September this year, but it looks like the release date has been brought forward, as the RPG is now coming in July.
When is the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 release date?
When Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was originally announced back in February, it was given a release window of September 2022. Now, however, it looks like that date has been brought forward. The new Xenoblade Chronicles release date is July 29th, according to a brand new trailer released by Nintendo and Monolith Soft earlier today. You can check out the trailer, which also contains a sneak peek at some of Xenoblade Chronicles 3's gameplay, right here.
The trailer shows off a little of Xenoblade Chronicles 3's combat, as well as the new forms your party will be able to transform into. It looks like you'll now be able to go into battle with a party of six, which means you'll be hearing even more earnest anime folk shouting out the names of their skills as they fight. As you battle, you'll gain the ability to change into oversized mech-style Ouroboros forms, which also form the basis of the story; protagonist Noah and his friends are being persecuted as "monsters" by two large nations, and you'll have to get to the bottom of why that's happening and what you can do about it.
What is Xenoblade Chronicles 3?
Counterintuitively, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the fourth installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. The first game launched back in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii and was subsequently ported to both the 3DS and the Switch, while the sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, was released exclusively for Switch in 2017. Between the two, there was a Wii U spinoff by the name of Xenoblade Chronicles X. All of the games share gameplay elements and also take place in the same universe; Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be set in the future, after the events of the first two Chronicles games. It'll revolve around the nations of Keves and Agnus, which are warring with one another. Marketing materials have also prominently featured the broken sword of the Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Titan of Uraya. It'll be intriguing to see how these elements tie into Chronicles 3's narrative.
The Xenoblade Chronicles games enjoy pretty consistent popularity. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 managed to sell more than 1.7 million copies worldwide, leading to a major character from the game being included as part of Super Smash Bros Ultimate's DLC roster. Several major staffers from the previous games, including composers Yasunori Mitsuda and Kenji Hiramatsu and artists Masatsugu Saito and Koichi Mugitani, are returning to work on the third game, too. All signs point to this being another essential entry in the Xenoblade franchise if you're into this sort of thing. We'll bring you more on this as soon as we get it.
