UPDATE
What kind of musical style or feel do you want in a 4th game of the franchise should it be born? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
It may not seem like it, but it’s already been over a year since Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hit the Nintendo Switch. Monolith Soft put everything they had into this 4th entry into their series, which showed. Oh, and we didn’t make a type there. It is the fourth game despite the numbering, as the Wii U had the “X” title, remember? Anyway, the game was the franchise’s best-selling title and was nominated as Game of the Year at The Game Awards, which many felt was well deserved. But one of the things that people remember most about the game was the music.
Granted, the entire line has had an interesting choice of music from title to title, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 embraced various tones and instruments to take things in an even more unique direction. Key among them was using the flute, thanks to characters Noah and Mio. That soundtrack was on display during The Game Awards via their live orchestra, and a certain flute player was having a blast bringing the music to life.
Given the game’s success, many assume that Monolith Soft will get the green light for a 4th game, which obviously raises questions about the style of music we’ll have. In the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Limited Edition Soundtrack, we get comments from lead composer Tetsuya Takahashi. In his “notes,” as posted by Famiboards, he stated that if another game is to come, he’d want to lead the music into a new space:
“If there is another ‘Xenoblade’ in the future, it will be something significantly different from before. I would like to make the style and content something that can fully capture the imagination of the audience, which will be the next goal.”
That might sound bold, but in fact, it’s kind of a “mission statement” of the entire franchise. If you think about the four entries, none are exactly like the other. The adventures of Shulk, the people of New Los Angeles, Rex, and Noah/Mio’s teams are on different worlds, embracing different battle system styles, taking the plot in various directions, and more.
The sound of those worlds is influenced by everything that goes on there, for better and worse. So by that token, the music of the fourth game would need to be different than the music of the third simply because it’s not the same game and feel of the third title.
To be clear, that’s not confirmation of Xenoblade Chronicles 4, but it’s nice to have hope!
