The annual ''Let's talk about the Xeno series'' thread.

[tony123]

As far as Xenosaga goes does anybody know what the story and settings were supposed to be like? Was the Shion arc first only intended to be one game. Does anybody know what the other arcs were supposed to be? I thought I heard somewhere that there were initially supposed to be three arcs with three entirely different sets of characters.

[The Captain]

I remember stumbling across a copy of Xenogears quite by accident when I was in a local Gamestop with some friends I believe in 1999. We were all HYPED for Tony Hawk Pro Skater which was the hot new game as well as FFVIII and I bought Xenogears as an afterthought because it seemed interesting from the back cover, something about Shaking the Heavens or something like that piqued my interest. I probably didn't play it for a couple weeks as the other games were the ones my friend group were all into and we tended to play games as a group and compare notes in school. Ah, the good old pre-google days when someone would figure out a trick or new area, write it down and then tell everyone else the next day in class.

Finally, a few weeks go by and I popped Xenogears in. Boy, was I disoriented. The anime opening alone, which was one of my earliest exposures to the genre, I must have watched like 3 or 4 times before I actually started the game itself. It had an Alien meets Event Horizon vibe that just hooked me right away which is quite interesting since most of the first disc has very little of that going on.

The game started slow for me, especially since I didn't have a strategy guide at the time and limited resources existed online, so I think I probably spent at least 2 or 3 hours wandering around Lahan before I figured out where to go next. Then, once the big first fight happened, we were off and ready to go. The first disc of Xenoegears I still hold among my all-time favorite gaming experiences and it's one of the reasons why I still have my PS2 in working condition, on the off chance I ever want to experience any of it again.

As so many others have said, Disc 2 was such a shock and disappoint that I think I only beat the game once but I always held up a secret hope that maybe, MAYBE someday it would get a full re-master or re-make to complete the full story and not just the truncated version.

Several years later, I gave Xenosaga a shot but couldn't get into it. I think I have all three games somewhere but never got past the beginning of episode 2. The completely changed battle system was just too much of a headache to navigate and life got in the way.

I ended up playing Xenoblade during a long vacation and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I actually DID finish it, which is rare since sinking 100 hours into a game these days is tough. I think I've only done that twice in the last 10 years, for Witcher 3 and Persona 5 Royal. The music and ease of travel made the game fun, though yeah the side quests were a slog and the random item generator was THE WORST.

Overall, if I had to rate them in terms of games I've played:

Xenogears
Xenoblade 1
Xenosaga Ep1

Never finished or played the rest. I am certainly curious what they come up with next though I'll probably not be a day 1 or even year 1 player of it.

Take care all

[Del Murder]

I am 60 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and really enjoy it. The music and travel are on par with the first game. The quest slog is a lot better with several quests focused on specific characters (Blades) with actual character development, but you still get a few of those sloggy 'find x amount of y' fetch quests with pitiful rewards. The random item generation is also less annoying, still there but easy to ignore for the most part.

The combat system is a bit to get used to but once it opens up to allow 3 blades per character, it is a lot of fun to hit them combos. I'll say that this game has the most separate systems that I've ever seen in a game which can be overwhelming to keep track of, but then again a plus for someone who likes having a ton to do.

[Shadowdust]

Xeno is one of my favorite series of games ever. Probably even beating out my love of Final Fantasy now. At this point, it's difficult to pick a favorite but I think Xenogears is definitely holding the top spot. Even though I loved Xenosaga, I find Xenoblade to be a better developed series. I've completed all of them and still proudly hold a copy of every Xeno game.

At present, I'm still going back to Xenoblade 2 since I just finished Definitive Edition. I love how these games lead to so many intelligent theories. Definitely one of the funnest series to talk about even if our theories come out being dead wrong, lol.

[Del Murder]

Nice bump, Shadowdist, my Bay Area bud.

I am now 150 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and not even beat it yet. Granted some of that was me leaving the system running to finish Merc missions. I'm just having too much fun trying to get all the blades and finishing their unique quests. It's really cool that each rare blade has its own personality. They are characters in their own right. I compare this to a game like FFXIII where it develops the main 6 characters well enough but basically ignores everyone else.

My only gripe at this point is that during battles, everyone announcing their attacks all the time gets really garbled and annoying.

[Forsaken Lover]

As far as Xenosaga goes does anybody know what the story and settings were supposed to be like? Was the Shion arc first only intended to be one game. Does anybody know what the other arcs were supposed to be? I thought I heard somewhere that there were initially supposed to be three arcs with three entirely different sets of characters.

This rar contains a siterip of the best English language Xeno site ever. It includes a history of Xenogears' and Xenosaga's development, including everything we know about the "intended" Xenosaga.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6V...76ztNhDCmfYyBA