Nintendo Demos Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Challenge Mode, Torna ~ The Golden Country

Nintendo devoted two sections of its Treehouse Live coverage at E3 to upcoming additions to Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The first footage was devoted to the newly announced Challenge Mode, which also features Shulk and Fiora from the first Xenoblade Chronicles, starting at around the one-hour mark of the first video below and runs for around twenty-five minutes.

The new mode provides players with some minor story content, loot, outfits, and tests of their skills as they fight off waves of enemies in order to complete the challenges. In addition, it lets players use Shulk and Fiora as rare Blades, with Nintendo later confirming that the two characters can be brought into the main game by following certain steps. The Challenge Mode is available today for all owners of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass.

The second section — which starts around the thirty-five-minute mark on the Day 3 video below — focuses on the upcoming prequel expansion announced during Nintendo’s E3 Direct, Torna ~ The Golden Country. The expansion takes place 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and follows Lora, a character who previously appeared in the main game through flashbacks, while delving into the history of various key characters.

Torna ~ The Golden Country adds a brand new Titan for players to explore, the titular Torna. Players can also visit certain other Titans, such as Gormott, in their state 500 years ago. The expansion features some adjustments to the gameplay of the original title, letting players directly control and quickly switch between either the Blade or Driver as well as giving characters new Talent Arts. There is also a new camp feature where characters can rest, craft items, or have brief conversations based on the current party members.

The expansion will be released digitally for Expansion Pass owners on September 14, 2018, with a standalone retail version (which also includes a download code for the rest of the Expansion Pass content, but requires a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to redeem) to be released on September 21, 2018.