Xenoblade Chronicles 2 dev blog – Production Notes #17: Torna ~ The Golden Country released

The dev blog for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has once again been updated, and the latest feature takes a look at the launch of Torna ~ The Golden Country. Get a full rundown of the blog post below.

- while this DLC is a story expansion to the main game, it makes some big changes and offers a large amount of new features
- the game uses a new graphics engine
- the development team is currently in a transitional period, already looking ahead to their next game
- this means the engine does make some improvements, but not dramatic enhancements
- the DLC looks quite a bit “cleaner” than the main game, and the grass in particular is worth noticing
- various changes were also made regarding the UI, and tutorials
- in this story expansion, you can control up to 9 characters in battle
- selecting which one you’re controlling is now easier than ever
- you can switch characters and teams simply by pressing a button
- items found in the field are now grouped in categories
- a Tips section was added, allowing you to review tutorials after you’ve already seen them
- the battle system now features Team Battles
- each team has 3 members, and you can have up to 3 different teams
- you only get to control one directly, as the other two are managed by the AI
- you can switch which character is fighting at the front
- the character at the back also plays an important role by supporting their partner
- Switch Arts have Break, Topple, Launch, and Smash effects
- connecting Driver Combos with Switch Arts is a key element of the battle system
- the way you get quests, as well as the way you clear them has been changed
- the Community feature is roughly the same as the Affinity Chart in Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X
- on the Community screen, you can easily see characters who have quests for you thanks to icons displayed right next to them
- Community also allows you to see the relationship between the various characters in the story expansion
- camps bring together several that were separate in the main game: crafting, inkeepers, Heart to Hearts, and more
- regarding crafting, each character has their own specialty, and what they’re good at is directly related to their personality
- you can craft Pouch items that have effects on the field and in battles
- the story is about the events that took place 500 years before those of the main game
- the story is centered around two key characters: Jin and Lora
- in the initial draft, those events were to take place between Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 of the main story
- in order to be able to release the Story Expansion as a stand-alone game, they dded things such as quests
- the team also increased the scope of the whole thing
- players will be able to piece together the various fragments they could get in the main game, and get to see the whole picture
- no less than 11 new songs were composed, all produced by Yasunori Mitsuda, though he didn’t compose them all
- the composers went with a jazzy and acoustic direction
- new ending song by Jennifer Bird
- the music gives the Story Expansion a much more “grown-up” atmosphere than the main game
- Torna ~ The Golden Country is launching roughly 9 months after the main game
- Masatsugu Saito drew a special illustration to celebrate the release (seen above)
- in this illustration, all the characters that he designed himself appea