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Xenoblade Chronicles X Director On The Concept Behind The Game’s Mechs

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Tetsuya Takahashi tweeted a few more tidbits about Xenoblade Chronicles X today, this time speaking a little more about Takayuki Yanase and Kouichi Mugitani, two of the art designers working on the game.

 

“Mr. Yanase is a well-known designer that has worked on Gundam 00 among other things,” Takahashi tweeted. “The concept for the Dolls in this project was that one single convertible frame be able to transform into several vehicles, so I asked for his help, knowing that he would be able to realize that [concept]. If I recall correctly, I asked for his help around the time that Kotobukiya announced its new plastic model ‘Frame Arms Series’.”

 

The bit about a single frame being able to transform into multiple vehicles is interesting. It would suggest that a single mech in Xenoblade X might be capable of transforming into more than one kind of vehicle, but so far this has not been confirmed, so don’t get overly excited just yet.

 

As an aside, the image you see to the right is one of the Frame Arms models designed by Yanase. You can check out Kotobukiya’s line-up of Frame Arms mech models at their online store.

 

Takahashi then moved on to discussing Kouichi Mugitani, an artist that has worked on previous Xeno titles as well. Takahashi stated that, the design line of a “certain power” within the game could only be realized by Mugitani, which is why Takahashi wanted his assistance by any means possible. By “certain power,” Takahashi presumably means one of the various factions in the game.

 

“I remember when the [Xenoblade Chronicles X] project was launched, the first meeting [with Mugitani] took place at a café in Tachikawa,” Takahashi said. “With each meeting, he would present extremely detailed designs, and was a great help. And as an important employee for sexy-type battle suits as well. (lol) Look forward to those, too!”

 

Xenoblade Chronicles X is in development for the Wii U, and is planned for release in Japan this Spring.

Ishaan Sahdev
About The Author
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.

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