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Throughout the various promotional materials and trailers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Nintendo and Monolith Soft have put a big spotlight on the flutes that two of the main characters play. This is because the flutes signify a lot of elements woven throughout the story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and you’ll no doubt see and hear them a lot on your journey. Turns out the versions you’ll hear are exactly the same as the in-game flutes.

In an interview with Nintendo, Monolith Soft producer and director Koh Kojima spoke at length about the decision to create real-life versions of the flutes featured in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. These flutes weren’t just for reference or show, but were actually played on the game’s soundtrack for multiple flute scenes and tunes!

Before Mitsuda-san started writing the music, he said, “Let’s make flutes.” I wondered why we should be making them, but Mitsuda-san said, “By making the flutes from scratch, you can create a sound that hasn’t been heard before.” Since we had told Mitsuda-san in advance that Takahashi-san wanted to interweave the two melodies of Noah and Mio into a single piece of music, Mitsuda-san seemed to have thought that creating the flutes from scratch would enable him to choose a scale freely and express himself more easily. Above all, he said to me that the fact that the same flutes used in the game exist in real life would be compelling and unique. It sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.

…We designed them at MONOLITHSOFT with the intention of actually using them for recording. Then, we had a shinobue flute craftsman make them based on our design and had a Japanese urushi lacquer craftsman decorate them.

As in the previous titles, I wanted to respect the world Takahashi-san was creating, and Mitsuda-san was eager to develop new sounds in order to create this world. To create music that matches the feel of this game, I thought it would be better to make new flutes from scratch rather than using existing instruments. Also, since I believe that people who have played the previous titles in the series also look forward to the music, I appreciated having this kind of initiative that would lead players to immerse themselves in the game.

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Comments (1)

sligeach_eire

1+ y ago

Attention to detail can help elevate a good game to great.