Since the beginning of time, humankind has longed to build a tower that touches the sun, and Monolith Soft is just as hungry as our obelisk-obsessed ancestors have ever been. Even their office building in Tokyo is shaped like a monolith, also depicted in the “I” in their company logo.
As it goes, Monolith Soft likes telling stories about giant constructs. The company was founded when Tetsuya Takahashi left Squaresoft, following the success of Xenogears and Chrono Cross. With newfound funding under the support of Namco, Monolith Soft was born, and Takahashi was free to work towards his vision of creating more titles under the Xeno prefix, which often featured giant mechas as a central element to the story.
One of the first titles they pumped out under new found freedom was RPG card battle simulator, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, a game with a 300+ hour 100% speedrun world record time. Thus Monolith Soft established itself as an organization of highly effective and persuasive time burglars.
Monolith Combine Mode, Take Form!
In a coincidental twist of fate, Namco merged with Bandai, a company whose holdings include one of if not the most recognizable flavor of gargantuan mechanoids in the world, Gundam. This could have meant electrifying breakthroughs for Mechas in the world of video games.
See, while mecha-inspired robots are often a staple of the Anime and Manga world, one could argue that a mech entry that stands out as the definitive staple giant robot delegate in the world of video games does not yet exist.
Although many video games have existed over the years prominently featuring mecha-inspired designs, including the vast repertoire of Super Robot Wars titles that feature designs from various established Anime and Manga franchises, none have gained widespread world popularity and recognition. Monolith Soft had taken a previous interest in giant robots, thus all the right players were assembled to orchestrate a perfect symphony.
And Monolith soft would have a chance to develop multiple entries of Super Robot Wars in a partnership with Banpresto, but not before Nintendo acquired the vast majority of shares in the company to become the exclusive platform for future Monolith Soft titles.
Some Nintendo DS and 3DS games would emerge in the next few years under Bandai Namco’s publishing, such a Dragon Ball Z game, and an ambitious crossover between Bandai Namco and Capcom, Project X Zone, but it was around this time that larger, more ambitious projects like Xenoblade Chronicles began to take center stage.
Into the Next Decade with an Old IP and a New IP
Following the success of Xenoblade Chronicles, Nintendo had plans for two new Xenoblade video games to emerge as stand-out games for their upcoming consoles: Xenoblade Chronicles X, for the Wii-U, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch.
With 2018 coming to a close, Monolith began recruiting for an unannounced, unnamed project, going into the next year, with recruitment notices on their company site taking applications for an “Action” game, teasing an obscured graphic for a New IP of some sort.
Additionally, recruitment for what looks like another Xenoblade Series game, as well as recruitment for a Legend of Zelda franchise project suggest that Monolith has their hands full with several ventures.
There is substantial Aesthetic overlap between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, so Monolith Soft seems like the perfect choice to expand on the world created in the most recent Zelda title, while possibly giving it a much more fleshed-out story – something the first game was lacking. Little information regarding any of these projects has been made public.
Will Monolith Soft’s New IP stand out and take center stage in the immediate future, or take a back seat to the juggernaut that is Zelda?