Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Production Notes #1 by director Tetsuya Takahashi

Looks like there's going to be a series of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 dev blogs, entitled Production Notes. In the first installment, we hear from general director Tetsuya Takahashi.

- in ancient times, Blades were not born with weapons, and so their relationships with Drivers were not really deep
- Blades could use Arts, but their power was limited, and so they were not of much use to Drivers
- their use on the battlefield was pretty limited, and Blades played nothing but a support role
- eventually, the relationship between Driver and Blade underwent a radical change
- a limited number of Blades were born with a weapon
- people quickly found out that the power of Arts could be magnified by having the Driver use the Blade’s weapon
- a part of the Aether energy is purified, compressed, and then sent back to the weapon every time the Driver uses an Art
- this results in attacks that are much more powerful than “regular” Arts, called Specials
- Drivers using weapons provided by Blades enjoy secondary effects, such as increased strength, agility, and enduranc
- the relationship between Blades and Drivers came to be much deeper than ever before
- a certain pair of Driver and Blade from the lost realm of Torna was the first to establish Driver-Blade battle tactics
- the change in the relationship between Blades and Drivers lead to the creation of Driver-Blade battle tactics
- this change also lead to the gradual disappearance of Blades born without a weapon
- in today's time, Blades are generally summoned with their specific weapons
- the principal of “survival of the fittest” also applies to Blades