Gaming Xenogears

[Guest Zeh]

[COLOR=003399]Alright, who here's played this awesome game? If you love deep stories, and haven't played it yet, you're really missing out on a great game. It has to be my favorite RPG.[/COLOR]

[conpiracymonki]

[b][size=1]
I haven't played it, but I hear they're working on Xenosaga I and II right now.
And I hear they're even planning a Xenosaga III -.-'[/b]

They take place before Xenogears, so [strike]basically[/strike], they're prequels[/size]

[Semjaza]

I had a decent time playing the game. I liked how the fights were done, although people seem to bash that a lot. I also wish more RPGs had mech fights incorporated into them. It's also one of the first RPGs I remember playing where cities seemed like actual cities, and were large and had a lot to them... Not like it was in 8/16-bit days when there were maybe a few houses in each town.

I'm not a very religious person, but I know a decent amount about religions... There are a LOT of references to things from older aspects of a few major religions, as well as religions that are basically dead now. The thing is that the aspects and ideas are used completely wrong and thrown around so much that the whole story just comes of pretentious.

It really comes off like it was written by a kid who hates religion for some selfish reason, who tried to write a story about it while trying to stuff in anime characters. It also takes itself just far too seriously, and seems to assume that if you know nothing about what the things it is referring to it actually are, you'll just go along with it and assume it's genius writing.

Seriously, how many of you even know what Zeboim even is? Sure, it didn't have a huge role in the story... But that's just one example (I'm surprised they didn't use Sodom, but maybe that would have been too obvious). It's like every last small thing in the Bible was applied to something that happened in this game. It reminds me of a comic I was working on when I was 13.

As for the story itself... I thought it was really all over the place. In the end it really is the characters fighting against their "god," although that god is not what most people would expect. It certainly isn't traditional lol.

Oh well, that's my thoughts on it. I don't hate the game. Infact, I used to think it was the greatest thing. By comparison to other games, and knowing what I know now about the subject matter... I basically changed my opinion of it.

I do plan on playing Xenosaga eventually as well. It's being done by Monolith, which is made up of some of the Xenogears team. The games aren't officially related though. They have simliar themes and character designs... but apparently Xenogears was part 5 of it's own series and Xenosaga is part 1 of it's own. They aren't directly related.

[GinnyLyn]

[color=royal blue]Huh, interesting. I do remember a few years back, one of my friends told me about how there was a part about a priest that was sexually abusing his acolytes, or something like that, in this game. Most likely I'll stay away from Xenogears itself, then; Xenosaga I might try for.

The whole "fighing against our god" is nothing new in Japanese stories. FFX has the crew doing that, so to speak ("Shin" means "God" in Japanese, I do believe; "Shin" was changed to "Sin", for obvious--and somewhat ironic--reasons). Right now in Digimon Frontier, the good guys are going up against the Digital World's god (or one of them). I'm not saying the stories are written the same way, but the storyline doesn't surprise me that much.[/color]

[Semjaza]

Well I didn't mean fighting against a higher power itself was original and had never been done... I meant the thing that was their "god" wasn't a god in a traditional sense. It's kind of hard to explain without ruining most of what the story is trying to get across. Most of the story revolves around what their god actually is in the first place, and whether or not it really exists.

Xenosaga is just as relgion-centric as Xenogears was. I don't know if it attacks it as much as Xenogears did, but it's still based on the idea. There was actually a sexual molestation scene removed from the US version of Xenosaga, which I won't get into here unless someone is interested.

I'm not sure if you'd want to bother with Saga either heh.

[SephirothNIN]

I'm pretty sure kami means god, as in dragonball z or a bajillion anime songs, shin means something along the lines of very powerful I think, it's all over street fighter. As for xenogears/saga, I'm pretty sure they're part of the same series. For over a year (maybe even a few) they've been saying (they being square, and then when the team moved to monolith, them) that Xenogears was part 5 of a 6-part series, and Xenosaga would be part 1. Xenosaga's supposed to take place 10,000 years before Xenogears I think I heard, but it's still very coincidental that the main character of XS, has the same last name as Citan from XG, Uzuki, maybe they tie in somehow in part 2, 3, or 4. Also I don't think parts 2-4 will all be "Xenosaga part 2" or anything, considering XG had a different name they'll all probably have a different title, like xenomania (or something that actually makes sense). As for the molestion part of XG, the only thing I can think of that comes close is when you first meet Billy and he's so pressed for money that he was on the verge of whoring himself out.

[Semjaza]

No one directly involved ever said they were really completely related though. I'm not arguing that they aren't very similiar, because they obviously are. The teams involved in both have denied up and down that they are of the same exact series, and like I said they are both their own little thing according to the developers.

The only reason people think they are the same series is because of the people involved. It's more or less the same team of people, the same ideas, simliar names... IGN and such are the ones that jumped to the conclusion (which I did too), but according to Monolith, Namco and Square this isn't the case.

Square was never even involved with Xenosaga itself, so they have no real say on what story effects what. Technically, Square owns the Xenogears name and I don't know how Monolith and Capcom would be allowed to connect them without Square's intervention of some sort.

[JCBaggee]

[color=red]I got it for Christmas, and I'm [i]still[/i] working on Disc 1. God, this is a long game...

--Chris[/color]

[Corey]

I played through it once, a while ago...

What urked me the most is how much [spoiler]Z-Chargers[/spoiler] cost

Sorry I don't have more to contribute... I don't remember a lot.

[SephirothNIN]

Do you mean monolith and Namco? Anyway I read that when the team left Squaresoft to join Monolith (or create it, same thing) that they kept the creative rights to Xenogears or somthing along those lines. Maybe it wasn't "creative rights" but it was some technical mumbo-jumbo like that.

[Semjaza]

From IGN:
[quote]Is Xenogears and Xenosaga related storywise offically?

I wonder how can it be because they are published by different publishers. I think that square owns the rights to Xenogears and its characters, etc. What I mean is, I'm wondering if the developers confirmned that indeed these two games are part of the same series, and when we get episode 5 it will just be a remake of Xenogears. I wonder if it just something like that, or if it is just that they are both in the same series, "in spirit."

Jeremy Responds:
Officially, they aren't releated (it's what we call legalities!). Play them both and look at the characters, battle systems, and the like, however, and it becomes readily apparent that these games are related. As for the rest of your question -- only time can tell. [/quote]

This is what I was referring to and IGN has said it in different ways before. They are related as the teams are basically the same. However, unless something strange happens they can never be considered totally in the same series (even if they really are, it's kind of complicated due to all the legal crap).

Do what you like with that heh.