Wii U

You first started working on the open-world concept, which is a large pillar of this game, and it led you to also include an online component. Takahashi-san, are there any other pillars that supported the concept of this game?

Yes. Early in the project, I was discussing with Kojima-san that it's about time to be able to fight in robots.

That's right.

For the last game, I remember some people asking, "It's a game created by Takahashi-san, so why aren't there any robots to ride?" (laughs).

That's true. (laughs) So this time, we created two major pillars, open world and robots, and built various content based on these concepts. The open-world concept was a high hurdle to overcome, but I believe figuring out how to make both human characters and robots coexist and function in this world was another hard challenge we faced.

These robots are called Skells. Once you obtain one, you can freely go to any location in this world, and it feels great.

The extremely large field really contributed to the great feeling you get when you ride one.

Ah, I see. So in this way, the open-world concept and Skells go hand-in-hand.

That's right.

That means balancing this in the game must've been a pretty important factor, wasn't it?

Actually, I wasn't that concerned about balancing much at all.

(laughs)

Personally, I wanted the players to experience a great feeling playing with one of these once they obtain one. For example, I wanted to make the difference so drastic that those enemies that took a while to defeat as humans could be defeated with one blow riding a Skell.

So you can experience that great feeling of being super powerful once you obtain a Skell.

But in return, we've set the bar a little high for obtaining one. It's pretty expensive.

Why did you make it expensive?

We discussed that we would like players to experience a feeling similar to buying a new car in real life when they buy their Skell.

So players will have to save up a lot to buy a Skell.

Yes. Although Skells are quite expensive, they can be destroyed in one blow if they face off against a very strong enemy. In that case, players may have to buy a new one.

Isn't that pretty tough for the players?

So, we created "Skell insurance"! (laughs) Even if your Skell is destroyed, it will be fixed for free up to three times.

Wow, that sounds pretty realistic! (laughs)

However, the insurance won't be valid after it breaks for the fourth time, so you'll have to pay an expensive fee to get it fixed. I honestly wanted the Skells to be broken for good once they were destroyed. So once it's destroyed, it's gone for good.

You wanted players to take care of their Skell as if it was their car in real life?

Yes, but the staff voiced their opinion that it's too harsh to make the players buy a new one when it breaks...

From there, the "Skell insurance" idea was created, and there's also an "insurance on insurance" system, too.

An "insurance on insurance" system?

This system is that if you push the button at the right time to abort when the Skell's HP becomes zero and is destroyed, the Skell will be fixed without having to use insurance.

So that's why it's an "insurance on insurance"! (laughs)

Yes. (Makoto) Shimamoto-san¹⁴ in our staff is the lead battle designer, and he's a very kind man, unlike me. 14. Makoto Shimamoto: A member of Monolith Soft's development team. When he was working at Square (currently Square Enix), he worked as a battle planner for games like Chrono Trigger (1995) and Xenogears (1998). After he transferred to Monolith Soft, he worked as the director of battle planning of Xenosaga I & II (2006), and worked as the lead battle designer of Xenoblade Chronicles X and the previous title, Xenoblade Chronicles.

I see. (laughs)

And I strictly told him to just let the Skell break when it was destroyed...but he added the "insurance on insurance" function without my consent.

(laughs)

I'm not a skilled player, so for me someone like him is worthy of worship! (laughs)

Just remember that this feature came solely from his kindness.

Sure! (laughs)

You mentioned earlier that you've made the robots another pillar of this game, but it really sounds like a lot of thought went into creating them.

Yes, I've always wanted to create a game where robots and humans can fight on the same field. In the past, I'd played Takahashi-san's work called Xenogears¹⁵ as an individual consumer. In that game, there was a map specifically for robots, so humans couldn't play on the same field. 15. Xenogears: An RPG released by Square (currently Square Enix) in 1998.

It must've been impossible to put robots and humans on the same field with the hardware back then. The scales needed to be completely different.

Yes, but when I played it, I felt that I really wanted to put humans and robots on the same field someday.

And your wish came true in this game.

Yes, it did. Something I wished to do in the 20th century took shape more than a decade later as Skells in Xenoblade Chronicles X.