Yes, you read that right. It’s the kind of harebrained idea only Monolith Soft would come up with, and it’s a sign that they’re effectively back in business, doing what people loved them for in the first place.
In a recent interview with Famitsu magazine, Xenoblade director and creative director at Monolith, Tetsuya Takahashi expounded on the game world. Xenoblade takes place on the corpses of two Gods that were locked in battle, according to a translation by IGN. One is inhabited by humans, while the other is inhabited by mechanical creatures. The two races don’t get along, and the story revolves around the fight by humans against an imminent "mechanical threat."
The actual game system itself sounds very interesting, and rather like that of Final Fantasy XII. There are no random battles, and you fight enemies directly on the map. Takahashi went on to mention that you’re even awarded with experience points simply for discovering new areas of the game world, which is supposedly the size of Japan. It sounds like a great incentive to encourage exploration, and it’s nice to see that someone’s trying to make an RPG based around the idea of constant reward.
He was also keen to point out that grinding, backtracking and cut scenes won’t be the focus of the game, which is supposedly 50-60 hours long. On the downside, it doesn’t seem like Xenoblade will be connected to Soma Bringer or the Xeno universe at all. *sad panda*