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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Monolith Soft currently recruiting staff for an entry in The Legend of Zelda series

CaptainExplosion said:
Jumpin said:

What he means is Kyoto worked on Skyward Sword. While both Kyoto and about 60% of Tokyo worked on Breath of the Wild.
This article doesn't specify which studio location that the hiring is for; they have three studios in Tokyo (the main studio, where Xenoblade Chronicles is made, as well as the Nakameguro GS Studio and Iidabashi Studio, and one in Kyoto.

All I was saying is that Breath of The Wild was the better Zelda game overall, I didn't even think about that.

I dont see how that made any sense as a reply to my post. I mentioned that Monolith helped on both games and you replied with saying they proved themselves because BotW is better.



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Jumpin said:
S.Peelman said:

I don’t think that’s really because of Monolith though. They’re just doing some grunt work. Both games are all Aonuma, Fujibayashi and their lead designers.

The topographical map work done by Monolithsoft Tokyo was a key element in Breath of the Wild's success. The XCX team was uniquely talented at the vertical map design and development.

Sure, it was a team effort and they can both be proud of every second because it’s brilliant. Monolith was probably making assets and maps more up their alley than with Skyward Sword so they probably pitched an idea here and there. What I’m saying though is that it’s Nintendo that tells Monolith what to do and what not in the end. If Nintendo said the game’s going to be first-person and only take place in Ganon’s Castle, it would’ve been that and Monolith would’ve helped with that.



Mar1217 said:
Jumpin said:

The topographical map work done by Monolithsoft Tokyo was a key element in Breath of the Wild's success. The XCX team was uniquely talented at the vertical map design and development.

Is it too complicated to just say the " Xenoblade team " instead of always adding the X afterwards ?

I'm not really sure why you would want less accurate (and misleading) information instead? The team that did Xenoblade Chronicles 2 didn't work on Breath of the Wild, it is specifically a transfer of resources after the completion of XCX. Breath of the Wild's overall design is much more in line with XCX on the map front.



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Jumpin said:
S.Peelman said:

I don’t think that’s really because of Monolith though. They’re just doing some grunt work. Both games are all Aonuma, Fujibayashi and their lead designers.

The topographical map work done by Monolithsoft Tokyo was a key element in Breath of the Wild's success. The XCX team was uniquely talented at the vertical map design and development.

Key element but far from the only one as the are also things like NPC interactions, physics, structural design, A.I. interaction etc... Building a good map is one achievement but the is still a lot more required to make a great game world especially one on BOTW's level otherwise FFXV would be seen as a masterpiece as well.



S.Peelman said:
Jumpin said:

The topographical map work done by Monolithsoft Tokyo was a key element in Breath of the Wild's success. The XCX team was uniquely talented at the vertical map design and development.

Sure, it was a team effort and they can both be proud of every second because it’s brilliant. Monolith was probably making assets and maps more up their alley than with Skyward Sword so they probably pitched an idea here and there. What I’m saying though is that it’s Nintendo that tells Monolith what to do and what not in the end. If Nintendo said the game’s going to be first-person and only take place in Ganon’s Castle, it would’ve been that and Monolith would’ve helped with that.

It's not likely Monolithsoft would have helped with the development of Ganon's castle or any kind of first person stuff since they aren't unique experts on castle design or FPS.

I am not sure how you think the dev process works. Aonuma is the head designer, but he didn't do ALL of the design work, he assigned other designers to design various components while he and the production staff made sure the elements fit together. There were 24 designers in total, 12 of the designers were from Monolithsoft. The rest of the 100 or so devs from Monolithsoft were artists and engineers. The Tokyo XCX team was an indispensible part of the Breath of the Wild development - not because they are "grunts" but because they have unique skillsets in developing 400 square kilometer open world maps, with a lot of vertical elements, and where the player can go anywhere.

Additionally, Monolithsoft isn't a single studio and team; there are four studios in total, one of them worked on Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild (Kyoto) and the other worked on the map of Breath of the Wild (Tokyo, XCX team); around 100 people were brought on after XCX finished.

With this upcoming game, it is uncertain which portions of Monolithsoft will be hiring new staff and what they are doing it for.



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Do we know if the Xenoblade 2 team only became available after the completion of the Torna expansion, or was that only made by a subset of the team leaving a lot of them free to move onto new things after XB2 wrapped in late 2017?

Also, do we have any idea which teaming is making that Western-oriented action RPG they teased, is that the XCX team?



S.Peelman said:
CaptainExplosion said:

All I was saying is that Breath of The Wild was the better Zelda game overall, I didn't even think about that.

I don’t think that’s really because of Monolith though. They’re just doing some grunt work. Both games are all Aonuma, Fujibayashi and their lead designers.

Compare Xenoblade X open world design and BOTW one side by side, yes, Monolith did all of it. There is a reason why 60% people of the A team and Kyoto studio had to help them while only 40% people (B team) made Xenoblade 2

Last edited by HoangNhatAnh - on 02 April 2019

Wyrdness said:
Jumpin said:

The topographical map work done by Monolithsoft Tokyo was a key element in Breath of the Wild's success. The XCX team was uniquely talented at the vertical map design and development.

Key element but far from the only one as the are also things like NPC interactions, physics, structural design, A.I. interaction etc... Building a good map is one achievement but the is still a lot more required to make a great game world especially one on BOTW's level otherwise FFXV would be seen as a masterpiece as well.

Agree about those things, however, Monolith helped them a lot. 60% people of their main team and Kyoto studio were moved to BOTW. Meanwhile, only 40% people left (B team) made Xenoblade 2. Now compare Xenoblade X to BOTW open world design side by side, yeah, they are all Monolith Soft

Last edited by HoangNhatAnh - on 02 April 2019

Should be an amazing game as i am currently enjoying xenoblade chronicles on the switch!



HoangNhatAnh said:
Wyrdness said:

Key element but far from the only one as the are also things like NPC interactions, physics, structural design, A.I. interaction etc... Building a good map is one achievement but the is still a lot more required to make a great game world especially one on BOTW's level otherwise FFXV would be seen as a masterpiece as well.

Agree about those things, however, Monolith helped them a lot. 60% people of their main team and Kyoto studio were moved to BOTW. Meanwhile, only 40% people left (B team) made Xenoblade 2. Now compare Xenoblade X to BOTW open world design side by side, yeah, they are all Monolith Soft

The's more to a game then the map design that's the point 60% of Monolith is still not even one tenth the size of the EPD team as Monolith are only 200 people compared to EPD's 5000 in total it's very likely EPD just had them design the map and the Zelda team did everything else.