Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country is available now!

The standalone prequel story Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country is out now on Nintendo Switch, either as part of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass or as a standalone version at retail or digitally on Nintendo eShop or Nintendo.com! In this new story mode, uncover the full history of Jin and the fall of his homeland that took place 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Director Tetsuya Takahashi prepared some production notes to tell us more about the release. Take it away, Mr Takahashi!

Hello everyone. This is Mr Takahashi at MONOLITHSOFT. The last part of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass, Torna – The Golden Country, is finally available. This title is set up as an additional scenario to the main game, and in fact, adds quite a few changes and renovations.

First, the technical aspects. There’s a new rendering engine in Torna – The Golden Country. This comes at a transitional period for MONOLITHSOFT, as we look ahead to future projects, so the results of the change are slight – but it does look a bit nicer than the main game.

The fields of Torna are an area where you can easily see the difference. Granted, this doesn’t have anything to do with how fun the game is, so it might not matter all that much…but take a look at the difference between the grass in Gormott versus Torna.

We also made some usability improvements to the UI and tutorials compared to the main game. One example is that the one-button controls to change characters and entire teams now work while out in the field. We wanted to make getting into battle feel more user-friendly, considering that you’ll have a team of nine characters you can swap in and out during battle.

We also split the items you can get in the field into categories, making them even easier to collect.

Plus, now there’s a Tips section that lets you review past tutorials.

Next, let’s talk about the battle system, which now uses battle teams. There are three members to a team, and a maximum of three teams, meaning that a total of nine characters can be used in battle.

(You only have direct control over one team during battle. The other teams are controlled by the CPU.)

You can switch who on the team is at the front (the Vanguard) or the rear line (the Rear Guard) in battle. Unlike the main game, those at the back participate directly in battle by supporting the frontline.

To make battles more strategic, effects like Break, Topple, Launch, and Smash, which were inflicted by certain Arts in the main game, can now be inflicted by Switch Arts, which activate when swapping between the Vanguard and Rear Guard.

The way that Blade Combos and Chain Attacks work have also been revamped, so I hope you’ll enjoy the different feel of these battles compared to the main game.

The conditions on accepting and clearing quests have been streamlined too, and we’ve implemented a new Community system. Community is a more straightforward version of the Affinity Chart in Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X, which helps you see who is involved in each quest. There’s an icon that shows who has a quest for you.

Compared to the main game, in Torna – The Golden Country there’s more of an emphasis on how each quest’s characters relate to the main characters. There are quite a few quests that delve into the relationships between these characters, so I hope you’ll be sure to play through them.

Camping is another new system we implemented for Torna – The Golden Country.

This is a unified system that combines the crafting, Inns, and Heart-to-Hearts from the main story in one place, so you can enjoy these elements in a more streamlined way. With crafting, each character has a field they specialize in, and they are able to generate Pouch Items that have effects in battle and on the field. You might also enjoy the fact that the items the characters make match their personalities.

Now, just a little about the story. The story of Torna – The Golden Country is centered around Jin and Lora, and follows the events from 500 years before the main story. The plan was to fit this story between chapters seven and eight in the original plot, but now that it’s its own additional scenario with more quests, we gave it a much larger scale. What was Jin thinking back then? And Lora? What about Mythra?

Their stories were touched on only in fragments in the main story, but will now come to light.

There are also 11 new songs, including some arrangements of existing music, that Mitsuda and others composed just for this game. They have a real jazzy and acoustic sound. You definitely have to hear the groove in the battle music, and the new ending sung by Jen.

Torna – The Golden Country feels so grown up! And it’s finally released, nine months after the main game came out.

Character designer Masatsugu Saito drew an illustration to commemorate the release of Torna – The Golden Country and the conclusion of the Expansion Pass. Every character that Mr Saito designed is in this illustration! I bet there’s a way to see this elaborately drawn image of everyone in all of its glory in-game…

Please enjoy Torna – The Golden Country, everyone!

Thank you, Mr Takahashi!

Want to know more? Check out our Twitter account for updates, or visit the Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country section of our Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gamepage! For more information about the original game, visit our Xenoblade Chronicles 2 website.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country is available now as part of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass and as a standalone version at retail.

For more information about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, visit the official site.

Game Rated:

Language
Suggestive Themes
Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
Violence

The Gardens Between is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of each island.

*Offer ends September 26 at 10AM Pacific Time

The day Lara Croft fans have been waiting for is finally upon us with the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The third and final game in Lara’s origin trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider finds our intrepid adventurer doing her darnedest to stop a world-ending cataclysm at the hands of the nefarious Trinity. Shadow of the Tomb Raider shares plenty of elements with its predecessors, but there are a few new things to keep in mind as you play through the game. We are happy to share some of these tips here to help you make the most of your time in the jungles of Central and South America. Happy hunting!

Craft and Use Herbal Mixtures

As you explore the jungles, you’ll find yourself coming across plenty of wild herbs that you can pick. Once you have the corresponding ability, you can use these herbs to craft mixtures that will give you an advantage in exploration or combat. You’ll earn the ability to create Health and Perception (which makes it easier to spot prey and enemies in the environment) mixtures as you play, but you’ll need to unlock Endurance and Focus mixtures by upgrading your way through the skill tree. These both come in extremely handy during combat, as Focus allows you to slow down time when aiming and Endurance greatly reduces the damage you’ll take from enemies. The jungle herbs are nothing if not plentiful, so it pays to pop mixtures as often as possible, especially before and during combat.

Talk to Everyone You Meet

You’ll spend a lot of time in Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s two major hub areas, Kuwaq Yaku and Paititi. As you run around the areas and explore, you’ll come across a number of characters that you can talk to. Although some of these characters just want to make small talk, some of the other ones have more to offer. By talking to the people you meet, in some cases while wearing a particular outfit, you can learn about local areas of interest and secrets that you would not ordinarily be able to find. It’s a nice, organic way to open up the map for exploration, and it’s definitely necessary to chat up the locals if you want to achieve 100% completion.

Do the Side Missions

At first glance, it might not seem like the side missions in Shadow of the Tomb Raider are worth the effort. In the first couple of side missions, you’ll get a few rewards like weapons and non-essential gear, but that changes later in the game. In areas like Paititi and San Juan Mission, side missions will serve as a means to an end, allowing Laura to access Challenge Tombs and Crypts that she would not otherwise be able to find. Not only that, the side missions are quite good in many cases, offering up some compelling narratives and flushing out the world you spend so much time exploring.

Learn Your Languages

While you’re playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider you’ll notice that you’ll come across Murals and items, including some documents and Relics, that will raise your ability to decipher the monoliths you find scattered around the world. There are three languages (Mam, Quechua, and Yucatc) to learn in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and they’re definitely worth learning since the rewards for deciphering the monoliths are pretty solid. One thing to note is that there are no monoliths that require you to complete the language, as even the toughest ones for each language are only level two (Fluent). You don’t need to find everything in order to complete them all, though there is an achievement for completing at least one language.

Spend Money to Make Money

Throughout most of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, you’ll earn whatever items you need to progress as you play. However, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule if you want to try tackling secret areas like Challenge Tombs and Crypts.  In order to have unfettered access to whatever areas you’d like to explore, you’ll need to plunk down some coin at the merchants you come across. The lockpick will allow you to open Conquistador treasure chests, while the Rope Ascender will allow you to yank down rope doors that you don’t have the strength to pull down.

Want to start playing the Xbox One X Enhanced Shadow of the Tomb Raider today? Grab the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Croft Edition to jump right into the action with early access. If you’re patient, you can nab the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Digital Deluxe Edition or the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Standard Edition to start playing this Friday, September 14.

We imagine Retro Studios is one company that needs absolutely no introduction on these pages, but we’re about to provide one anyway as the developer is today celebrating 20 years in the world of gaming.

Yes, back in 1998, Retro Studios was born as a game development studio with Nintendo acting as a parent company. Its initial aim was to create games which would appeal to an older demographic for the GameCube (which, at the time, was still a few years away from release). Eventually, all efforts were focused on a new project called Metroid Prime – a new entry to the series which would use 3D graphics for the first time. The rest, as they say, is history.

After the success of Metroid Prime – which went on to sell 250,000 copies in its opening week – Retro moved onto the sequels Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, released for the GameCube and Wii respectively. From there, we’ve now also seen Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii (after Retro was specifically recommended for the project by Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe), Mario Kart 7, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Wii U (which has recently been ported to Nintendo Switch).

Since Tropical Freeze’s launch, Retro’s actions have been largely shrouded in mystery. Metroid Prime 4 has been announced, but we know that Retro isn’t involved, and rumours began to circulate earlier this year suggesting that a new title called Star Fox: Grand Prix was on the way – a racing game which supposedly combines elements of Diddy Kong Racing and F-Zero.

In reality, of course, we just don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. What we do know is that we can’t wait to find out.

The Gardens Between is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of each island.

*Offer ends September 26 at 10AM Pacific Time