http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/xenoblade-chronicles-2-details-famitsu-interview-project-began-july-2014-120-music-tracks-rare-blades/
According to this article, Xenoblade 2 was in development alongside XBCX for about one year.
The team did not know the final specs of the Switch before they started development (should not be a surprise to anyone, but still worth bringing up).

It is nice to see that Nintendo has such a talented, swiftly working team to produce these large scale games in a timely manor.
I only wish I could see the proper time allocation for the project; what were they doing in 2014, how quickly did it take for them to go into full production.
I guess I will never know.

A potential look at Monolith Soft's next project:


https://gematsu.com/2017/08/monolith-soft-hiring-ambitious-new-project-different-brand-image

Huh... that explains why Xeno X took so long to come out aswell.

That turnaround time from X did seem awfully short.

I hope that it's the best selling Xenoblade yet, but that Monolith is allowed to take a break from the IP if it wants to and to work on another labor of love. Since Nintendo and Namco-Bandai have been such buddies lately, hopefully they've been talking about loosening up the reigns on a another Baten Kaitos, along with a guest appearance by Link, Saji and Lloyd Irving in the next Soul Calibur that is definitely coming to Switch.

Monolith Soft is a beast company. Worked on XBX, XB2 and BotW at the same time.

And who knows what else.
It is possible that they have been helping with general tools development for the rest of Nintendo too.

I feel like I heard the guy say he wants to continue #'rd games. You know like a Xenoblade 3 after this.

We did have that leak of a new IP (or a Xeno game in a Very different setting).
Monolith Soft clearly, can manage working on multiple projects at once.

Makes you wonder what other development studios were working on Switch titles during the Wii U era.

All hands on deck, trying to make Project Giant Robot a thing.
And getting used to PBR / HD workflows.

I remember that pic, but I've seen a thousand pics like that from RPG devs. The amount that actually come to fruition seem small. Irregardless, Xenblade chronicles 1, X and 2 all are fairly different in worlds. One is on two dead god bodies, one is on a completely new planet and another is on a multitude of giant animals bodies. Whatever 'setting' that pic takes place on could easily be in the chronicles universe.