What Nintendo’s most important developer is doing next is vital for the Switch 2

For as powerful as the Switch 2 is, none of Nintendo’s new games seem to do much with it, but that should change with Monolith Soft’s next game.

Last week, completely out of the blue, Nintendo shadow-dropped a Switch 2 edition for Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition; one that costs £4.19 and bumps the frame rate up to 60fps and supports enhanced resolutions upwards of 4K.

We will not be reviewing it in the normal fashion, as in terms of content it’s exactly the same game as the Switch 1 version, with only the technical improvements to distinguish it. Apart from anything, the game is over 60 hours long, so it’s not something that can be done quickly.

Having still spent a number of hours with it, though, what we can say is that it’s further proof that Monolith Soft is one of Nintendo’s most important developers – perhaps *the* most important one outside of Nintendo EPD – and we really want to know what they’re working on next.

Is Xenoblade Chronicles X worth it on Switch 2?

You may have heard that Xenoblade Chronicles X’s Switch 2 version has had complaints over its poor draw distance and flawed upscaling, that makes textures look smeared and not as good as the original.

Some fans claim to have received refunds over this (which suggests Nintendo will issue an update to address the complaints) and Digital Foundry has gone so far as to say this is the worst Switch 2 edition so far.

Frankly, we never noticed these issues during our time with the game and were plenty enamoured with the frame rate boost. Plus, this doesn’t change the fact that, on a technical level, Xenoblade Chronicles X remains a very impressive game.

This was the case for even its original Wii U version, where you could feasibly walk or fly from one end of its ginormous map to the other without encountering a single loading screen. And now it all runs at 60fps – the first in the Xenoblade series to do so – which hopefully means the rest of the series will follow suit.

What is Monolith Soft?

Monolith Soft has always been a technically accomplished studio. Even as far back as the first Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, the studio demonstrated it could make massive, yet densely detailed, open worlds without the need for top-of-the-line hardware.

Monolith Soft used to be part of Bandai Namco but was acquired by Nintendo in 2007 and it’s safe to say that was money well spent. Although Monolith Soft does make its own games – primarily the Xenoblade series at the moment – Nintendo quickly put them to work as a support studio for other games.

This has included groundbreaking work on The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and its sequel, as well as Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. It also routinely assists with other key Nintendo franchises, particuarly Animal Crossing and Splatoon.

Just last month, Zelda series general manager Daiki Iwamoto described the studio as a ‘strong partner’ and expressed a desire for Monolith Soft to remain involved with the series going forward, possibly even hinting at the studio helming its own Zelda game.

It’s just a shame they don’t also help out with Pokémon as well, as the stark difference in technical quality between the games Monolith Soft work on and something like Pokémon Scarlet & Violet almost makes them seem like they’re running on different hardware.

Is Nintendo underselling the Switch 2’s power?

Given how many people have complained that the Switch 2 is too similar to the original console it’s strange that Nintendo has done almost nothing to talk up the new console’s power. There’s not been so much as a tech demo and all the most technically impressive titles are by third parties.

You can point to Mario Kart World and Donkey Bananza as demonstrations of the hardware, but while certainly very pretty games, they were both originally made with the Switch 1 in mind, and you can tell. Even the more showy technical achievements, like Bananza’s destruction effects, are difficult to appreciate without actually playing the game.

Instead, it’s fallen to third party developers to highlight how powerful the Switch 2 can be and not even with wholly new games but with ports. Cyberpunk 2077 was a very impressive Switch 2 port at launch and since then, the likes of Star Wars Outlaws and Final Fantasy 7 Remake have consistently been praised for how they look and run, even if they can’t quite manage a smooth 60fps.

We’ve recently been playing Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2 and while it too is capped at 30fps, it looks amazing on Nintendo’s console, which is extra impressive when it was made with the PlayStation 5 in mind.

‘The Nintendo Switch 2 system has improved graphical specs, so we wondered if Requiem could run on it – and it did, with ease. When we, the development team, first saw it in our hands, we were sceptical too, so we had to do a triple take. … It all worked so smoothly that we decided to just go ahead with the game as-is and make it for the system. With specs like these in handheld mode, it looks great,’ Requiem said director Koshi Nakanishi.

Nintendo making strange decisions comes with the territory but they’ve never been quite this backwards in coming forward about a console’s capabilities and nor have they have ever been quite this secretive about their upcoming slate, especially at a time when they seem to have little reason to be coy.

One of the few games we do know about is Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and you can guarantee that’s not going to be a graphical powerhouse. It’s also unlikely to be something Monolith Soft is helping out with, although they be involved in Splatoon Raiders – whatever that actually turns out to be.

Looking at its release history, Monolith Soft tends to have a game out every two or three years. So, with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition dropping last year, we could potentially see Monolith Soft’s next game as early as 2027.

What that may be is impossible to guess at but they’re almost certainly involved with the new Zelda and probably the new Animal Crossing too. They’ve never previously worked on a 3D Mario game, but with that team only just having finished Bananza, this could be the time to change that.

Whatever their next big project is though that’s the one to watch, not only because they tend to be put on the most important games but also the most technically advanced. If Nintendo has seemed slow to take advantage of the Switch 2’s power that should finally change with Monolith Soft’s next game.

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