[BreakABone]

So looks like Xenoblade has been announced for a June release in Japan.

- Monolithsoft estimates the game to be 70-80 hours long, over 100 hours if you decide to enjoy all the optional content

- The entire world in Xenoblade is "seamless" and all areas flow naturally and continuously. But there are loading breaks when you travel between major areas. Major areas are defined as different body parts of the two gods. So travelling from the region of the lower leg up to the knee area, there will be loading.

- The battles are all in realtime and seamless as well. No transitions or break, and you can see enemies roaming on the fields. When you attack enemies normally, you use auto-attack which makes the character automatically attack the targeted enemy continuously with regular attacks. If you manage to move behind an enemy or to the enemy's sides, you can trigger special attacks called Arts.

- Xenoblade's soundtrack is composed by Yoko Shimomura, and she's the only one mentioned in relation to the pre-order "special soundtrack" bonus. If there are other composers involved, they haven't been mentioned, but it's clear she's the main composer.

And some new artwork from The Last Story

Main characters

The director (still unidentified) confirms that the characters depicted in the illustration are the main character and heroine.

"There is a wall between the two," he writes. Based off the director's comments, it seems that there's something keeping the two apart and unable to live their dreams together.

The director also writes that in The Last Story, there will be a number of other stories besides the story of these two characters. He mentions:

* The fear of speaking your true feelings
* The mystery of the father who went missing on boat
* The difficulty a leader has in making decisions
* The close accomplice who's turned to evil
* The foolish archaeologist's prison break

Concludes the director, "It's very important to merge battles and gameplay with story. Neither can stand on its own. Once both are connected together, the characters will rise up as "human" within the container of a game."

The game's producer (also unidentified) states, "The characters who appear in The Last Story all walk their own paths and have their own stories." He likens this to the real world, where no one has lived their lives following the same path as you.

The main part of The Last Story's story will focus on the main character, says the producer. However, he believes players will also have a chance to be touched by the stories other characters as well. "Once you've been touched by that, it's likely that you'll be able to feel their [the characters outside of the main character] true feelings, which you did not see before."

That's fine and all, but what's with the tiger?

and it will follow the jRPG handbook.