Xenosaga 6 parts?

[sir helix]

iv played and nearly completed
'Der Wille Zur Macht' and 'Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose' and im fighting the final boss on 'Also Sprach Zarathustra'.

And now im hearing that the series is six parts and not just three, can someone clear this up for me.

[Zeromus_X]

I believe it was planned to have six games, but only ended up being three (whether it was due to sales, creative disputes, or other reasons, I'm not really sure on the specifics).

Either way there are only three Xenosaga games out atm, I'm not sure if they're going to make another one. But if you wanted to play more Xeno games you could try Xenosaga (PS1) which is sort of a spiritual prequel.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I believe it was planned to have six games, but only ended up being three (whether it was due to sales, creative disputes, or other reasons, I'm not really sure on the specifics).

I'm sure they would have kept churning them out if they'd kept selling. But I believe Episode III was made under the impression that it was already too late, so they just wrapped things up as best they could there.

But if you wanted to play more Xeno games you could try Xenosaga (PS1) which is sort of a spiritual prequel.

You mean Xenogears, of course.

[sir helix]

i havn't played xenogears

[Elly]

Xenogears is technicaly part5...
now i heard the Xenosaga team were planning to make a Xenosaga parts4-6 using a different character arc, since Shion's story ends at part3, depending on the total sales of the first 3parts... sadly i have not seen that come to fruition so i guess the total worldwide sales were not enough to convince them to make the second trillogy, of course due to legal reasons parts4-6 were not gonna be the ID/Fei arc, but were rather gonna focus on a different set of characters in the Xenosaga universe...

[sir helix]

interesting

[NeoCracker]

With how 3 ended, I was expecting that Jr. At least would still be playing a Major Role, as well as Chaos.

I also was expecting the Return of Dmitri, but tis but an Idea that will never be explored.

[Wolf Kanno]

In the very beginning of the planning for Xenosaga it was suppose to be 6-parts with each game using a different cast and taking place at a different timeline much like the way Xenogears was supposedly set up to be like according to Perfect Works. Due to some difficulties, either from from financial or creative differences, the original Episode 1 was turned into the first three episodes of Saga instead.

The staff apparently had some serious problems in the making of the series and several key members left the project including Mitsuda (Music for Episode 1) and Soraya Saga (Writer) as well as a few other staff members.

Namco-Bandai did display interest in continuing the series but it was going to be based on how well Episode III did. There were two projects in the work Xenosaga Frontier and Exceed but both were apparently canceled. The series is in limbo for now and with Monolith Soft working for Nintendo its anyone's guess if we'll see another entry.

If you want a little more Xenosaga love, I advise you to play either Xenogears which is the original game Xenosaga is based off of and Xenosaga: Pied Piper which was a cell phone game exclusive to Japan that details the whole back-story to Ziggy and Voyager. Its very well written and was the last contribution Soraya Saga made for the Saga series. Of anything, just find a translation of the script and read it. There was also a short web series that was being released in Jpan before Episode III was released.

[Ouch!]

I'm not sure whether it's true that Xenogears is supposedly the "Episode 5" of the originally imagined six-part Xenosaga or not. I've never seen such a fact stated officially, and I've always imagined it to be one of those "facts" stated with enough frequency that everyone accepts it as true. I sincerely doubt the licensing issues surrounding the title would allow for the use of Xenogears as an entry in the Xenosaga series.

Around XS3's release, I remember them discussing the possibility of a release of a fourth game, but I think Kishi's assessment that they'd already given up is mostly accurate. The interviews I read hardly seemed optimistic. After XS2's rushed production (there was a lot that was apparently cut from XS2), I think XS3 was mostly an effort to tie off as many of the loose ends as they could. Rumor has it that XS3 was actually a combination of the latter half of what was originally planned for XS3 and the majority of XS4 as originally conceived under the six-game saga. Given that a year passes between XS2 and XS3 and we only receive an awkward summary as a bridge, this seems to me entirely likely.

[Wolf Kanno]

You're right Ouch! in that Xenogears was not Episode V for the Saga series though many people thought it might be since Saga begins at the starting time presented in the Perfect Works timeline for Gears. Gears was part five of whatever story was conceived at that time and what little we know of the other five parts was only mentioned in Perfect Works.

Here's the pages from Perfect Works
PW002.jpg PW003.jpg

Saga was suppose to have similar set up according to interviews with the Xeno Creator (by that, I mean each Episode was separated by thousands of years featuring a mostly new cast. Only KOS-MOS and chaos were apparently going to appear in all episodes). But due to some internal strife, we got the present version.

Also, to clarify what Ouch! was mentioning about the series being split storywise. The original trailer for Episode 1 featured scenes from Episode 2 in it. Mostly the talk Jin and chaos have at the Uzuki estate, Jin's battle with Margulis at Old Milita (the second one, not the flashback to the Miltian Conflict) as well as a scene with Nephilim on what appears to be the Elsa that never happens. All of this is done in the Episode 1 graphics.

Here's a link YouTube - Xenosaga: Episode I 2001 Trailer Its long by the way

After Episode 2 was released, Soraya Saga left the company and wrote in her blog about some of the strife going on in Monolith Soft and mentioned in rather good detail everything that was cut from Episode 2, mostly the plot that became Episode 3 such as Yuriev's rebellion, KOS-MOS learning her identity, Shion discovering the truth about the Miltain Conflict, and the confrontations with the Testaments. A few weeks later, her entry was removed and she apologized. But it seem to show that Episode 2 was gutted to make another entry...

Its unknown what Episode 4 and 5 were suppose to be but apparently they were in developmental around the time Episode 2 was finished. It is possible that some of their plots may have found their way into Episode 3.

[edczxcvbnm]

If every game was made like episode 3 then I would have been more than happy. I love Episode 1 but it was overly cinematic at the start and overly gameplay heavy at the end. Xenosaga Episode 2 was a pile of :bou::bou::bou::bou: in all ways. Sephex never even gave III a shot because 2 pissed him off so much.

I think the biggest problem with the games was that they took a development approach that was incorrect. They should have done like .hack and developed 1 game engine that they would use over the course of 3 games and put in lots of side quests and other things into each game. Give each game some new on screen action or new combat ability to make them seem not so carbon copyish.

As it turns out they wasted a ton of time and money with 3 sets of character models, art styles, gameplay engines and so on. If they used just 1 and the games were not overly high selling the lower developmental costs still might have made them a success. I think they should give it another go but use the same successful model that another game company does that Namco-Bandia produces and distributes.

Also in the original trailer for Xenosaga Episode 1 you see Jin fighting Margulis which takes place in episode 2. They cut a lot out of episode 1 and a lot from episode 2 and it most everything made its way into episode 3 as they were just cramming text into there instead of voice acting EVERYTHING! This isn't final fantasy or dragon quest with a massive budget.

Bah! I am done complaining. I am happy with how it all ended but I prefer to think that episode 2 never existed. What an annoying game.

[Slothy]

I think the biggest problem with the games was that they took a development approach that was incorrect. They should have done like .hack and developed 1 game engine that they would use over the course of 3 games and put in lots of side quests and other things into each game. Give each game some new on screen action or new combat ability to make them seem not so carbon copyish.

As it turns out they wasted a ton of time and money with 3 sets of character models, art styles, gameplay engines and so on. If they used just 1 and the games were not overly high selling the lower developmental costs still might have made them a success. I think they should give it another go but use the same successful model that another game company does that Namco-Bandia produces and distributes.

Unfortunately that's a problem for just about every Japanese developer. Most of them think a new game requires a new engine, even if they've already got several that could easily be adapted and improved in some areas. It's a lesson Square seems to have taken to heart in the last few years.

[Jiro]

Xenosaga Episode 2 was a pile of in all ways.

Oh. Dammit. I just bought it.

[Rodarian]

The two things which really annoyed about XS Ep2 was the Shions and KOSMOS voice acting and the battle system play. ESP the double attack... I randomly did it once and after that could never figure out how to do it after to this day...

XS 3 I was pretty happy with.


I do wish they would consider bringing the series title again....Ah well.....

[Shadowdust]

The two things which really annoyed about XS Ep2 was the Shions and KOSMOS voice acting and the battle system play. ESP the double attack... I randomly did it once and after that could never figure out how to do it after to this day...

XS 3 I was pretty happy with.


I do wish they would consider bringing the series title again....Ah well.....

Yeah, the voice acting for those two definitely annoyed me too. There was really nothing wrong with the original voice actors, something I'm glad they fixed in Episode 3.

I really enjoyed Episode 3, I was just disappointed by the ending. The overall game was excellent though and I still like to play through it from time to time.