Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

ゼノブレイド
Zenobureido

Developer(s):	Monster Games Monolith Soft
Publisher(s):	Nintendo
Platform:	New Nintendo 3DS
Category:	Action role-playing
Players:	1
Predecessor:	N/A
Successor:	N/A

Release dates

N. America:	April 10, 2015
Japan:	April 2, 2015
Europe:	April 4, 2015
Australia:	April 4, 2015
S. Korea:	May 1, 2015

Ratings

ESRB:	T
CERO:	B
PEGI:	12
USK:	12
ACB:	12

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is a handheld port of the Wii title Xenoblade Chronicles, developed by Monster Games and released in 2015 exclusively for New Nintendo 3DS systems. The port was initially announced in 2014, alongside the announcement of the new hardware.

Later in 2015, a bundle was released exclusively in Europe which includes a set of interchangeable faceplates for standard New Nintendo 3DS hardware and a free download code for a Xenoblade Chronicles HOME Menu theme.

Blurb

Box

On the backs of two titans frozen in time, an epic story unfolds...
Set out for distant horizons as you uncover the lost secrets of a vast world.
Battle fearsome monsters in real time by unleashing the power of the Monado and your allies' special arts.
Wield the blade
Claim the Monado, an ancient weapon with the power to reveal the future, and lead the charge against a vicious army of mechanical invaders.
Collect Models and Songs!
Listen to music and view animated character models.

Nintendo website

Take up arms against an invading army in this remake of an acclaimed RPG, only on the New Nintendo 3DS™ XL system. Explore vast landscapes and beat down foes in battles that blend real time action with RPG strategy. Exclusive features make the Xenoblade Chronicles™ 3D game the ultimate way to learn the truth behind the mythical sword, the Monado.
Due to the processing power and additional buttons of the New Nintendo 3DS XL, you can experience this epic RPG portably. Command your party or quickly jump between locations by pressing the new ZL & ZR buttons and look all around the game’s beautiful environments using the C-Stick. These features perfectly round out an already outstanding adventure comprised of intense combat and intriguing storytelling. British voice actors and gorgeous art direction lend the story an authentic fantasy feel, while the customizable moves of your characters and chainable combos keep you on the edge of your seat.

Explore the classic Wii™ RPG game Xenoblade Chronicles portably—on the New Nintendo 3DS XL system

Take on the Mechon army and learn the truth behind the Monado blade

A robust action RPG battle system blending real-time combat and RPG strategy

Defeat enemies as Shulk or five other characters on your adventure

Using the new Model viewer, look over animated models of both enemies and allies.

Listen to the awesome riffs of the game’s soundtrack using the new Jukebox feature

Nintendo eShop

Take up arms against an invading army in this remake of an acclaimed RPG, only on the New Nintendo 3DS™ XL system. Explore vast landscapes and beat down foes in battles that blend real time action with RPG strategy. Exclusive features make the Xenoblade Chronicles™ 3D game the ultimate way to learn the truth behind the mythical sword, the Monado.
Due to the processing power and additional buttons of the New Nintendo 3DS XL, you can experience this epic RPG portably. Command your party or quickly jump between locations by pressing the new ZL & ZR buttons and look all around the game’s beautiful environments using the C-Stick.
These features perfectly round out an already outstanding adventure comprised of intense combat and intriguing storytelling. British voice actors and gorgeous art direction lend the story an authentic fantasy feel, while the customizable moves of your characters and chainable combos keep you on the edge of your seat.
Check out the theme inspired by this game in the Theme Shop. Just tap the icon in the upper left corner of your Nintendo 3DS HOME Menu to get started.
Earn in game tokens in Xenoblade Chronicles 3D by tapping a Shulk amiibo figure to the New Nintendo 3DS XL. Tokens can be used to unlock music and animated 3D models of various characters.

Gameplay

Much of the gameplay of the Wii version has been carried over to this version of the game, as the button layout of the New Nintendo 3DS is similar to that of the Classic Controller. Several HUD elements from the original version, such as the map and character stats, have been moved to the bottom screen to make room on the top screen, due to the smaller screen size of a Nintendo 3DS compared to a television.

This version of the game also has a new Collection Mode, in which players can view in-game models and listen to music tracks, which can all be purchased using tokens. The player can earn tokens via StreetPass, by using Play Coins, and by scanning the Shulk amiibo.

Development

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D was originally announced alongside the New Nintendo 3DS system during the Japanese Nintendo 3DS Direct on August 29, 2014.^[1]^[2] The game was later announced to be releasing worldwide alongside the announcement of the system internationally during the Nintendo Direct on January 14, 2015, where it was also announced that the game would release in April.^[3]

Development on the port began around the fall or winter of 2013.^[4] Nintendo chose to port the game to the New Nintendo 3DS rather than Wii U as it would provide both portability and the ability to view the game's environments in stereoscopic 3D.^[5] Because Monolith Soft were already busy working on Xenoblade Chronicles X, Nintendo asked Monster Games to port the game, following their work with Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.^[3]^[6] The developers originally planned to port the game to the original Nintendo 3DS systems, but found that the game was too large to run fast enough on the hardware.^[5]^[7] After hearing about the New Nintendo 3DS, however, the team decided to continue work for the newer hardware because of the upgraded hardware capabilities, as well as the additional buttons.^[5]^[7] Having learned from their work on their previous port, the developers converted the gameplay before fully converting the graphics and HUD to remove bugs and have the game running smoothly early on.^[5] Various technical tricks were utilized in order to display the game's large landscapes while maintaining a smooth performance, even with stereoscopic 3D visuals^[4]; for example, the staff had to create a new graphics engine so that the environments would display correctly, and had to rebuild the game's areas and graphics due to differences in hardware architecture.^[5]^[7]

Reception

Aggregate scores
Metacritic	86
GameRankings	86.13%
Reviews
IGN	8.7/10
GameSpot	8/10
Game Informer	9/10

Like the original release, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D received praise from critics upon release, though the game was generally given lower scores than the original. While the game was praised as a successful port of the game given its scale, and similar praise was again given to the story and gameplay, the game's lower resolution, minimal use of 3D, and graphical quality were criticized compared to the original, as well as the lack of new content and incentive to play the port over the original beyond portability.

Technical details

Technical details

Media:	Nintendo 3DS Game Card Digital download
Download size:	28,834 blocks
Supported features:	amiibo (read only), StreetPass
Input / compatible controllers:	Nintendo 3DS

Updates

Version Number	Date Released	Description
1.1	April 1/2, 2015 (JP/EU) April 10, 2015 (NA)	Fixes an audio glitch that causes music and certain sounds to play in mono rather than stereo regardless of sound settings.