Questions about the Xenosaga series

Well, to start off with, I've just finished Xenosaga 1... and I loved and still love that game more than I love FFIX, hentai and milkshake. The ending was the kind of ending that made you want to play the next Xenosaga game at once, so I did. The same day I finished Xenosaga 1 (which was yesterday), I started to play Xenosaga 2. I already knew about the changed character design, which was a bit dissapointing but... hey, no big deal. However... I soon noticed that the voices for most of the characters where completely different as well... which was a much bigger dissapointment than the character designs. Now, neither the new designs or the new voices are bad. No, that's not the problem. The problem is that I've got used to the old voices and character designs in Xenosaga 1... and now all those lovely characters that I've become familar with seems so different. It almost feels like there's a whole new set of characters in Xenosaga 2. Maybe I'll get used to it after a while, but still...

Now, although I was feeling a bit dissapointed about the voice actors, overall character design and even the battle system (everything seems to be so far away and I really don't like the command menu)... I still think it's an overall good game so far and the cutscenes are awesome. So... even though I got a pretty dissapointing first impression of the game, nothing's stopping me from keep playing it.

But then... the next scary suprise! I found out what everyone else found out like... a year ago or something like that. Yeah, that's right... I'm talking about the seemingly well-known fact that the key writer got fired. Who could possibly do something as stupid as fireing the key writer of such a great and famous RPG? Geez...

So... if I've understood everything correctly, the story of Ep3 and even some parts of Ep2 will be completely different from what it was orginally meant to be while the orginal story idea for Ep2 and Ep3 is lost forever. If this is the case, I'll probably always feel like the Xenosaga series wasn't finished the way is was supposed to be.

And then, of course, the fact that episode 3 will be the last game in the series is the deadly finishing blow that tears my soul appart. :(


So... HERE'S MY DESPERATE QUESTIONS:

1) Does anyone know if the voice actors in Ep3 will be the same as in Ep1 or Ep2 or once again some completely new ones?

2) WHY was the "key writer" (No, I don't know his/her name) fired?

3) Do you think the chanse that the key writer ever will get back even exists?

4) Does the key writer have ANYTHING to do with the story of Ep3?

5) Has it been confirmed that Ep3 will be the last one, no matter what happens?

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Oh yeah, and... KOS-MOS IS FREAKING HAWT!!! <3

Episode 1 isnt being released on PAL :mad:

I saw Episode 2 for sale though..its damn stupid, are they on drugs?

Ok, I'll take a shot at this.

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1) Does anyone know if the voice actors in Ep3 will be the same as in Ep1 or Ep2 or once again some completely new ones?

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As far as the english versions concerned not many people know. Its unlikely that theyll be the same as episode I. The changes made were mainly to suit the new staff and there was a lot of new staff after episode I. The voice actors in japan for characters like Kos-Mos stayed the same.

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2) WHY was the "key writer" (No, I don't know his/her name) fired?

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Alot of episode I/Xenogears staff were fired or resigned from the game after episode I and 2. The map designer for Xenogears and Episode I was made the project supervisor or director or something important and when episode II wasnt a sucess he fired the script writer. Thats how I understand it anyway.

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3) Do you think the chanse that the key writer ever will get back even exists?

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It doesnt really matter. Episode III will be based around his story as episode II and I was but like episode II it will be highly edited by this new team.

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4) Does the key writer have ANYTHING to do with the story of Ep3?

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Yes its largely based around his script but edited so it has more "explosions" and "easier to understand story" as Im pretty sure Kou-Arai (the new guy I've been bitching about) said himself.

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5) Has it been confirmed that Ep3 will be the last one, no matter what happens?

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I dont think so. Its very likely that it will be the last one but some people believe that its only the end of shions story.

Someone may correct or totally disagree with the information I've picked up but thats the understanding I've gotten from the Xenogears god and mind forum. Those people freaking hate episode II but they dont have any big fights to pick with Yuki Kajiura (episode II movie scene composer) so theyre cool.

To tell you the truth the project was doomed from the very beginning. It was doomed when they decided to split the storyline into six different games all being made probably 2/3 years apart. You can not expect people to stay together for that long of a time without leaving and you can not expect a large enough fan base to maintain an interest in the story for that long of time to make the series successful.

If they wanted to make it into a video game (which they really should not have done either) what they really should have done is make a little less of a technologically advanced game with all the highly detailed cutscenes and voice acting. And instead make a game with about the graphics and what not that xenogears had and get the whole darn thing done in one single game.

And really the xeno series does not have a real large following. The people who do follow it are hard core about it but they do not count for a real large group of people. And you cannot expect Monolith to invest so much money into a series that they don't really even know is going to reap them the cash flow in return.

Monolith never should have agreed to this project in the first place. The guy who initially created it never should have tried to bring this story to the video game world. He instead should have tried to write out his story in book format so people could read it as a novel.

That is what should have happened. When it was decided to bring the story of xenosaga to the video game world and try to make it as high tech as they tried to make it it was doomed from that very point to fail.

I knew it was a lost cause the moment Yasunori Mitsuda "moved on." *sigh*

Hope is not all lost, I'm sure. If EPIII manages to do well, they'll likely do a spinoff series to make up for the other three games. They've been trying their darnedest to make Xenosaga a huge franchise, so I doubt we've seen the last of it. However, I agree with darkchrono: it should have been a book.

Ok, thanks Destai. Good to know that the story just is being edited, not completely remade. :greenie: I'm looking forward to Ep3. Oh, and I really hope atleast KOS-MOS will have the same voice as in Ep1.


Andreil Reborn... There's something called "mod-chips". ;)


darkchrono, I personally think the Xenosaga series had and maybe even still have great potentionals. It might have been good as a book, but I still like it more as one of my all time fav RPG games. :cool:

So will it be alright If I get Episode 2? Im no missing TOO much am I?

And the PS3, hearing "Backwards compatible" and "no region coding" together, maybe you can play any PS game from anywhere...

If so i'll be importing it along with a "few" others ;)

The thing is with this whole thing is that although the guy who thought up the idea of the xeno series had a very good and intelligent story to tell. At the same time however he had an absolutely horrbile sense of business.

He should have known that the only way he could have ever brought his idea of the xenosaga series to completion is if he funded the whole thing entirely on his own. That is the only way he ever could have done it his way without somebody else butting in and changing things.

Now if xenosaga was a proven big time franchise that would without a doubt make bundles and bundles of money then it would be ok for him to do it entirely his own way under another person or companies name. But alas xenosaga is not a big time franchise that will without a doubt make bundles of bundles of money and so what happened happened to it.

The guy who created this whole story had about the business sense of a sixteen year old.