Xenoblade Chronicles 2's massive New Game Plus mode update is due next week

gilian white February 09, 2018

Nintendo has announced full details of its massive, free new update for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, due to arrive on Switch next week.

Update Ver. 1.3.0, as it's called, is primarily focussed on delivering a New Game Plus mode. However, according to Monolith Soft's Tetsuya Takahashi in the latest production notes, New Game Plus is "more than just a way for people who have cleared the game to play through it a second time" - it introduces a number of key new features too.

For instance (the lightest of spoilers ahead, incidentally), when you play Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in New Game Plus, the Blades encountered in the kingdom of Torna - namely, Obrona, Sever, Perdido, and Cressidus - will be to able to join your party as Blades. The same is true for their Drivers, Akhos, Patroka, and Mikhail.