Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series and the sixth main entry in the Xeno series, and was released on December 1. Plans for the game began shortly before the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2014. Key developers from previous games returned, including franchise creator Tetsuya Takahashi and directors Koh Kojima and Genki Yokota. The team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. The game was announced in 2017 and was released worldwide the same year. As with Xenoblade Chronicles, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has gameplay that is similar to previous entries, but with an added summoning mechanic. It features a different setting and characters than the first Xenoblade Chronicles and marks the series' return to being story-driven, unlike the previous installment Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was focused on gameplay and open world exploration. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes place in Alrest, a world covered in a sea of clouds where humans live atop and inside large living creatures known as Titans. Some people known as Drivers can summon powerful beings known as Blades from crystals. After he is hired for a salvaging mission, a young salvager named Rex meets a legendary Blade named Pyra, indirectly becoming her Driver, and promises to take her to a fabled paradise called Elysium. Throughout their journey, Rex and his party are pursued by Torna, an organization who seeks Pyra's power for their own means.

The game received generally positive reviews, being praised for its story, characters, themes, combat, music, environments, and scale but criticized for its gacha system, maps, tutorials, and technical issues. As of December 2020, it had sold over two million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling title in the Xeno series and Monolith Soft's most commercially successful game. Downloadable content was released throughout 2018, and a story-focused expansion was released in September of that year. This side story, Torna – The Golden Country, is set 500 years before the main game and features new gameplay mechanics. A sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, was released in July 2022.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an action role-playing game, and similar to previous games, the player controls a main character out of a party of three. The game is open world and has a day-and-night time cycle that affects in-game events, including quests, enemy strength, and item availability. Unlike the two previous titles, which consisted of a cohesive open world, the game takes place on several different Titans which the player travels between using fast travel.

Unlike previous entries, characters in the party also control additional beings known as Blades and can have three Blades active at a time, which determines their class. The game's Blades and skills are based on eight elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Electric, Earth, Light, and Dark. There are a total of 40 unique Rare Blades in the base game, with 11 being obtainable through downloadable content and New Game Plus. Most of the game's Blades are optional and not obtainable through the main story; among them are KOS-MOS and T-ELOS from the Xeno sub-series Xenosaga. The game's Challenge Mode, added through downloadable content, features Shulk and Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles and Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X as obtainable Blades.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has an action-based battle system, where the player controls the current lead character in real-time and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Each character has skills called "Arts" that can deal damage or inflict status effects. Both party members and enemies have a finite amount of health points, which is depleted by attacks. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but is lost if the player character loses all their HP and is unable to be revived. Health can be restored through using healing Arts in battle and regenerates automatically outside of battle. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which strengthens characters as they level up. They also earn Skill Points, which are used to upgrade their stats and skills, and Weapon Points, which are used to power up their Arts. Losing a battle respawns the party at the most recently visited Landmark. Using Arts repeatedly allows use of special moves called Blade Specials, which when used in order creates a Blade Combo that does large amounts of damage and seals one of the enemy's abilities. A Driver Combo requires the party to inflict four status conditions on an enemy in a specific order: Break, Topple, Launch, and Smash. Finishing a Driver Combo does massive damage and causes the enemy to drop items. Performing a Driver Combo and a Blade Combo simultaneously creates a Fusion Combo, which greatly increases damage dealt and the Blade Combo's effects.

A "Party Gauge" fills up as party members attack. When full, the player can perform a Chain Attack, where characters perform attacks in succession. The Chain Attack can be made more effective by destroying elemental Orbs created by previously used Blade Specials, which deals additional damage and gives one additional Chain Attack round. The three-tiered gauge gradually depletes outside of battle, and one tier is used to revive incapacitated characters. An "aggro ring" around a character denotes they have gained aggro from enemies by attacking, leading to a strategic aspect of luring and diverting attention of enemies.

The player directly controls one of the Drivers in the party, who wields one of their Blades' Blade Weapons to auto-attack and perform Arts. Pressing an Art's button as an auto-attack connects allows them to "cancel" the ending animation of the auto-attack and use the Art immediately. After a cooldown, the Driver can Blade Switch to change their active Blade. Each Blade gives their Driver a different set of Arts, which is determined by the Blade's weapon type and the specific Driver.