Heya. I'm really glad you brought up the Sugiura interview from Weekly Famitsu in 2020. I broke that article and translated Sugiura's comments in May 2020, so I wanted to clarify that it was Sugiura who specifically said "Xenogears 2" in his words. It doesn't necessarily mean it would've been a sequel or whatnot-just the next entry in Xenogears. Thanks!
Even if you’re significantly less familiar with xenoblade, I’d love to see more xeno series content on your channel that includes blade! I think you have a really unique style that could go over themes present in the overall series. This might be one of my favorite videos of yours, right up with some of the gainax and other xeno videos!
The Xeno series (Xenogears especially) is my favorite gaming franchise of all times. It's like the ultimate amalgamation of Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Five Star Stories, Dune, and Childhood's End all in one amazing sci-fi epic.
@@TJTheEmperor The fact that we ain't got no Five Star Stories anime series still kills me to this very day. At least we still got Heavy Metal L-Gaim, which is about the closest we'll ever get to a Five Star Stories anime.
Really liked this video. I think that in a lot of ways xenoblade has always been a spiritual successor to Xenosaga since the beginning, at the very least made from the scraps left behind from what would have been xs4. Xc1 had a lot of things that really feel similar to what would have been an ep4 like the game’s use of Saturn imagery which the ending of xs3 implied would be relevant, the way Shulk and fiora match with the colours of anima and animus also shown in the ending of xs3, and the way Takahashi described the world as a “sealed space” much like what lost Jerusalem was. I think that the way xc3 ended is similarly meant to call back to the way xenogears ended, both ending with the possibility that humans may exist outside of the planet in space, so it could be that this is meant to lead up to finally reaching an episode 6 story. A few other possible discrepancies between xs and xc is how the Salvatore’s in Xenoblade are also spelt differently in Japanese, it could be that the name change in en was meant to replicate this spelling change. There’s also the case of the souls that were sent to LJ, from how perfect guide talks about it these souls were supposed to reincarnate into people and thus episode 4 would occur which would basically be a xenogears remake, but here the XG remake has already happened without the involvement of the souls sent to LJ, it’s possible for plans to change but worth mentioning. You also talk about how it seems that xc may integrate the canon of xs and it does seem they’re already doing that in some ways, such as how the collective unconscious returned in xc3. Sort of on the side but I disagree on the differences between the conduit and the Zohar. I would say the way the conduit works in the story is basically the same as in XG where it drives the story from the background. The use of the two objects is basically the same between games when you consider the aegis is basically a direct link to the conduit (the artbook describes the aegis power in nearly the exact same way as the Zohar’s power is descibed). So instead of say Abel making contact with the Zohar directly it would be Rex making contact with the conduit through the aegis. Basically the aegis is a substitute for the Zohar and the way they are treated is basically the same way the zohar is treated through the story, with conflicts created over their power and etc. anyways I talk too much lol
Finished Xenosaga 3 last week and was sobbing despite not understanding close to half of what actually "happened" during the final hours. That's something that only the Nier games have been able to replicate and I hope the Xeno series never loses that indescribable spirit.
@@nickyrod22 I still cry for like the last hour of that game despite having played it more times than I can count. Trust me when I say that it just gets sadder the more you understand about what’s going on
A few notes and opinions on the lore and how the games fit together (spoilers of all games): - I always thought of Gears as a previous iteration of the eternal recurrence introduced in Saga. My reasoning is that U-DO/Wave Existence presents itself to humans as Abel from Gears, which could easily be explained as it taking the shape of someone he contacted in a previous iteration of the universe (remember also that the Zarathustra restart doesn't affect U-DO so he wouldn't forget about it). Thinking this way, most of the shared elements and references to Gears in later games (besides Abel) can be thought of as a byproduct of the recurring nature of the universe. -Yuriev is shown to be able to use clones to transmigrate from body to body (as he does with Nigredo). I don't think it ever is explicitly said in the games that he did it more than once, but it could easily explain his presence in Blade's Lost Jerusalem. He using the Salvatore faction/Saviorite rebels at that time to seize the Zohar would also make a lot of sense give his actions in the Saga games. -The most reasonable and obvious way to fit Saga and Blade together, despite requiring a bit of minor retcon here and there, is that the Blade trilogy is what's happening to Lost Jerusalem between its disappearance from the Saga Universe due to a phase shift, most likely caused by the Zohar (some retcon or new lore would be requiered to fit Klaus and Grimoire Verum actions), and its reappearance at the end of Saga (which could fit the Blade 3 ending). This would make a perfect setup for a game that is both a sequel to Saga 3 and Blade 3 simultaneously, as the Blade World/Lost Jerusalem is back in the Saga plane of existence. I doubt we'll see that unless we get a Saga trilogy remake (it wouldn't make sense to make a main game as a sequel to such an old and niche trilogy), but Monolith has been expressing a lot of interest in Saga and the revival of their older games lately, so it would be quite reasonable to think that it is what they want to do (and hopefully what they are able to do). -Blade X cannot fit the Saga nor the Blade Trilogy lore in any way due to a lot of inconsistencies (the presence of alien species besides humans, the destruction of Earth, etc). My educated guess is that it could be just another iteration in the eternal recurrence or directly another universe (those also exist in the Saga lore even if not featured in the games). I think the best way to manage it considering that would be to make it its own separated series of games, not necessarily connecting it directly to the trilogies despite the references. Hopefully the definite edition will give us some answers...
Beating the Xenosaga games cemented the Xeno franchise as one of my favorite franchises of all time. Whatever the next Xeno game is I’m gonna play it day one. I need to finish Xenoblade 2 so I can get around to Future Redeemed.
27:28 - NO TJ I will HAPPILY listen to this shit about the Xeno series' even though I DOUBT I'll ever get around to them but I'm GLAD that my BOI can talk about it for DAYS.
I'm so mad. There are too many fantastic things for me to experience in this world. Not just games. I'm so mad. I need an extra one-- no, two hundred years.
You're not wrong. While Xenoblade X's plot may not be as much of a focus or as rich as the others, that ending reveal is too much of an opening to future potential for them not to follow up on it and I think the remaster is proof they intend to continue that.
@@certainlycity4906Right? Having direct references to X in the ending of your latest game and then your next announced game being a X remaster with additional story content? X should be a bigger part of the conversation
Yep I agree, it's tiresome that most fans thing only of xenosaga while X a kind of reboot of perfect works ep 1 has super nice lore and world to build up to also having elements of gears and saga obviously.
What does this have to do with Shulk? Nothing, X is it’s own thing. Perfectly standalone with new things and few callbacks. Where Xenoblade is post-post-apocalypse semi-fantasy sci-fi, X is full blown sci-fi with everything that comes with it. This is how I explain it.
It may be the more safe and easy answer but I think it’s gonna be a more xenogears to xenosaga type of spiritual follow up and not a literal one. I think this is probably for the best, as asking xenoblade fans to play a trilogy that never left the ps2 is a bit unreasonable. Xenoblade 3 in general has many elements of gears and saga present and I feel that the game can be interpreted as Takahasi and co taking on the xeno series legacy in general, and deciding to move forward, possibly reflecting a new set xeno games to come, taking the ideas of the past games and using them in a new way.
The only "evidence" that Dmitri Yuriev from Xenosaga is not Dimitri Yuriev from Xenoblade is that if he was actually alive for thousands of years "someone [chaos or Wilhelm] would have said something"? That's hardly refuting anything. chaos was probably not aware of anything. It's a giant universe with millions of civilisations and he was spending his time trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his power. Wilhelm was probably aware of this anomaly, but only watched him as pastime and occasionally used him for hiw own ambitions. But the existence of chaos and/or Wilhelm is no contradiction to Dmitri living not only hundreds years already as we know from Pied Piper, but actually thousands of years. You also need to imagine that he hasn't straight up lived for all these thousands of years. He is only active for a couple years in one host until the host dies and he enters an inactive state for several more years. And the inactive hibernation state might actually be much longer than the active state where he leads his secret underground party. I've had the theory that Dmitri Yuriev could actually be an antagonist behind the scenes in Xenoblade since Xenoblade 2. So I've been thinking and studying this theory for years. And the first game to suggest how long Dmitri actually existed was Xenosaga episode III. I specifically looked for clues there when replaying it again and again after Xenoblade 2. And the evidence is atually there that Yuriev was in fact much older than anyone initially anticipated. It is in the way he speaks of Abel or uses antiquated terms like the U.M.N. space pilot experiments. But the most striking thing hinting at a date of Yuriev's origin comes from Sellers who describes how Yuriev was originally created as a designer child for experiments conducted with the Zohar back in the early days of the U.M.N.. When hearing "designer child", many people think that that proves, Yuriev was created only after 4590, because that's where the Life Recycling Act came to be and the Federation's Designer children are part of that. But that act only legitimized more designer children. It did not invent the term designer child. There have been designer children before it. Like Yuriev, who was in fact created thousands of years earlier for experiments on the Zohar back in the Lost Jerusalem era. So back the the quote from Sellers. The itneresting part of it is the "early days of the U.M.N."-part. The Zohar experiments, which Yuriev was created for, (and of which he was the only survivor receiving his deep fear and Grahf-like body hopping power) were conducted at a very similar time as when Vector also created the U.M.N.. And this early time of it, or the start of it is a very interesting era. And there are two things that point to the Lost Jerusalem era as that time because the U.M.N. must have already existed at that time in an early stage at least: Grimoire Verum and the Space Colonization project. Or Project Exodus as its called in Xenoblade. In Xenosaga, interstellar space travel is possible because of the U.M.N., not vise versa. If humanity didn't already start colonizing other planets or having the means to reach other planets when Earth became Lust Jerusalem, humanity would have been doomed. From Xenoblade we now know what caused the phase shift phenomenon to get out of control, but it was already clear from Xenosaga's lore that it was probably not something they had a lot of time to prepare for. So one way or another they had to leave early relatively spontaneously. But with no preparation, no food, no energy, no air, it's not possible to simply fly to another planet with normal flight only. That would take things like a generation ship or something. But if the U.M.N. was already an early thing at that time, it would have been possible. The other proof is Grimoire Verum who was trying to use the Zohar and this ancient script Lemegeton to rescue his daughter and failed. We know from A Missing Year, that after that he followed his daughter and is trapped in the U.M.N. since then. That too can only be true if the U.M.N. existed since the Lost Jerusalem era. And since I saw these hints, the whole lore of Xenosaga, too, made more sense and the Saviorites in Xenoblade 2 made sense too. But then Future Redeemed came and simply confirmed it all. The moment the name "Dimitri Yuriev" was dropped was hard confirmation for me for all these theories that were planted not only in Xenoblade 2, but all the way in Xenosaga episode III and a Missing Year already. So I can't understand the people claiming it can't be the same and whatnot given not only all the overwhelming, but even using the same names. (one even with the same first- and lastname) Xeno-games are never what they seem to be at first sight. Xenosaga was marketed as a prequel to Xenogears like episode I in Perfect Works, when it was actually an Eternal Recurrence created to save the universe from the destruction of episode VI in Perfect Works. So it was actually a sequel, not a prequel. And now Xenoblade was disguised as a completely new fantasy world with nothing to do with the rest of the Xeno-games, when it was actually the story of what happened to Lost Jerusalem, during the events of Xenosaga. Finally giving the answers to a riddle we've had since Perfect Works as well.
Loved this video. The lyrics of Future Awaits seem to be an invitation to the player from the devs to be ready to reexamine at least some parts of Xenosaga, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the future.
Klaus' time period seems to line up reasonably well, again in broad strokes, with the Zeboim era of Xenogears - particularly the focus on nanotechnology, and the use of it to create artificial life. We even get to pass through part of a city from Klaus' time in Xenoblade II, and it matches up fairly well with the tech level Zeboim was said to have. Admittedly, far different results for that iteration of the "Contact", but the broad themes fit. Given Yuriev's connection to the UMN (and through that the underlying collective unconscious) it's possible that he's able to retain some continuity through Wilhelm's Eternal Recurrence. I don't believe Xenosaga mentions how many times Wilhelm has performed the reset, but IIRC it's implied to be several times. This could explain Yuriev "surviving" for thousands of years (at least, from an outside perspective).
Great video, but I have just one little thing. Not even a disagreement really. 25:38 While I do agree it’s weird that Yuriev wasn’t called out by Willhelm or Chaos, I do think it’s at least possible that he could’ve lived that long. Klaus lived that long thanks to the conduit, so it’s possible, right? Anyway, just wanted to bring that up. Great vid. I especially loved hearing your history with the collective franchise.
what a wild ride being a Xeno fan has been. I started with Xenoblade 1 when it came out on the wii, played the other's backwards and have been up to date with every entry released thusly. The series has been my biggest creative inspiration. Considering how much I enjoyed the structure and how well researched your Xenosaga videos were I'd be so glad to see you do some videos on Xenoblade if it ever interested you enough. While it's true there's a good many Xenoblade specific channels it'd be nice to hear from someone who's been around since the old days and is intricately familiar with the originals.
Minor details be damned, I have ALWAYS had the headcanon that all xeno series games are somehow in the same canon. Like, we see in Xenoblade multiple universes which can split and merge. So even if it's not a nice clean timeline, I think it confirms they may as well be in the same universe.
@ I need my space lesbians back… if they actually revive the Xenosaga series/storyline I am gonna lose my mind. I just moved my old PS2 games from my parents house to mine, and I may have to dust them off and pray they’re still working.
For Dimitry can live that long, I believe that Takahashi will retcon that and how we don't know. Just like Alvis in XBC 1 necklace from keys and then change it to core crystal in XBC DE. edit : Oh yeah, the Siren model kit of XBC there is some note that the conduit is founded in the lake in Africa, so yeah 😆
My working theory is that the different series act as different points in a cycle of evolving timelines. Continuity isn't always 1-to-1 because the universe resets, and the concurrent series' universe grows at an accelerated rate due to remnants of previous universes, resulting in similar events and people but the circumstances become warped. I seem to be the minority on this. I thought it was fairly commonly theorized in the 2000s, and now it seems nobody really agrees with me, but I think there's much more evidence now than there was then.
There's a good video by Cinnacal called "Xenoblade 3 is not what everyone thinks," and if the assertions in that video hold true about the intended message of Xenoblade 3, I would find it difficult to believe Xenosaga (or Gears) is directly related to Blade. And to tell the truth, I don't necessarily want that to happen. Xenosaga lore is messy enough as is without needing to retcon a bunch of details to fit in the Blade universe, and Blade works perfectly fine on its own without any of that added baggage. Even Xenoblade 3 stands fairly apart from 1 and 2 when it comes to the story, only using those previous titles as a starting point for the world, but not continuing those stories, since those stories were already complete. This was still a good breakdown of the different feelings and observations that the Xeno community at large have been experiencing, and I appreciate that you included some of your own history with the series.
Honestly, i believe we’ll get a Xenosaga port/remaster to switch plus other consoles. Tho monolith have linked both series together and will continue it with their future games.
The narrative and aesthetic values of "Xeno" pre-2010 vs. post-2010 are so drastically opposed that it's surprising to me that anyone who likes the first two series likes the third, or vice versa. That's why I find it weird that it's even regarded as a franchise, when everything after Saga is so different in style and substance as to be unrelated except for the name -- which Takahashi didn't even originally intend to use. I hope in Monolith's future we'll see another character as well-written as Cherenkov, some casual Jung quote drops, or at very least a kung-fu painter beating up a bald child
You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. It's worth putting up with the animu-isms to get to the Takahashi plot. As per normal, Takahashi is using subterfuge to pull teenagers and young adults of the modern era into a trap. He uses the fan service and animuisms as a way to lure in that crowd, then blow their minds wide open with philosophical ideas and deep thought. This is and has always been Takahashi's modus operandi, and he's said as much in many interviews. Blade and Gears were both filled to the brim with similar fan service congruent with the generation of games they are part of, you're just more attuned to those eras. Tora/Poppy is still a nightmare hellscape, though. I'll give you that.
I will be back to finish this one day soon just gotta finish Gears and Saga which I’m trying to do before X Definitive Edition 🫡 (I may reply to this with updates on where I am and thoughts and feelings)
Heya. I'm really glad you brought up the Sugiura interview from Weekly Famitsu in 2020.
I broke that article and translated Sugiura's comments in May 2020, so I wanted to clarify that it was Sugiura who specifically said "Xenogears 2" in his words. It doesn't necessarily mean it would've been a sequel or whatnot-just the next entry in Xenogears.
Thanks!
@@Oni_Dino Thank you for breaking that article! That was a huge boon to us English speaking fans
Even if you’re significantly less familiar with xenoblade, I’d love to see more xeno series content on your channel that includes blade! I think you have a really unique style that could go over themes present in the overall series. This might be one of my favorite videos of yours, right up with some of the gainax and other xeno videos!
The Xeno series (Xenogears especially) is my favorite gaming franchise of all times. It's like the ultimate amalgamation of Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Five Star Stories, Dune, and Childhood's End all in one amazing sci-fi epic.
@@mattmaddogwheaton4724 The fact that you’re a fan of Five Star Stories tells me you have good taste
@@TJTheEmperor The fact that we ain't got no Five Star Stories anime series still kills me to this very day. At least we still got Heavy Metal L-Gaim, which is about the closest we'll ever get to a Five Star Stories anime.
I feel like you would enjoy Xenoblade X.
@@16ktsgamma Dude, Xenoblade X is my most anticipated game of 2025.
@ I’m excited I’ll finally be able to pick it up for my Switch next year!
Honestly been waiting for a Xenoblade video on this channel,
Really liked this video.
I think that in a lot of ways xenoblade has always been a spiritual successor to Xenosaga since the beginning, at the very least made from the scraps left behind from what would have been xs4. Xc1 had a lot of things that really feel similar to what would have been an ep4 like the game’s use of Saturn imagery which the ending of xs3 implied would be relevant, the way Shulk and fiora match with the colours of anima and animus also shown in the ending of xs3, and the way Takahashi described the world as a “sealed space” much like what lost Jerusalem was.
I think that the way xc3 ended is similarly meant to call back to the way xenogears ended, both ending with the possibility that humans may exist outside of the planet in space, so it could be that this is meant to lead up to finally reaching an episode 6 story.
A few other possible discrepancies between xs and xc is how the Salvatore’s in Xenoblade are also spelt differently in Japanese, it could be that the name change in en was meant to replicate this spelling change. There’s also the case of the souls that were sent to LJ, from how perfect guide talks about it these souls were supposed to reincarnate into people and thus episode 4 would occur which would basically be a xenogears remake, but here the XG remake has already happened without the involvement of the souls sent to LJ, it’s possible for plans to change but worth mentioning.
You also talk about how it seems that xc may integrate the canon of xs and it does seem they’re already doing that in some ways, such as how the collective unconscious returned in xc3.
Sort of on the side but I disagree on the differences between the conduit and the Zohar. I would say the way the conduit works in the story is basically the same as in XG where it drives the story from the background. The use of the two objects is basically the same between games when you consider the aegis is basically a direct link to the conduit (the artbook describes the aegis power in nearly the exact same way as the Zohar’s power is descibed). So instead of say Abel making contact with the Zohar directly it would be Rex making contact with the conduit through the aegis. Basically the aegis is a substitute for the Zohar and the way they are treated is basically the same way the zohar is treated through the story, with conflicts created over their power and etc. anyways I talk too much lol
Finished Xenosaga 3 last week and was sobbing despite not understanding close to half of what actually "happened" during the final hours. That's something that only the Nier games have been able to replicate and I hope the Xeno series never loses that indescribable spirit.
@@nickyrod22 I still cry for like the last hour of that game despite having played it more times than I can count. Trust me when I say that it just gets sadder the more you understand about what’s going on
A few notes and opinions on the lore and how the games fit together (spoilers of all games):
- I always thought of Gears as a previous iteration of the eternal recurrence introduced in Saga. My reasoning is that U-DO/Wave Existence presents itself to humans as Abel from Gears, which could easily be explained as it taking the shape of someone he contacted in a previous iteration of the universe (remember also that the Zarathustra restart doesn't affect U-DO so he wouldn't forget about it). Thinking this way, most of the shared elements and references to Gears in later games (besides Abel) can be thought of as a byproduct of the recurring nature of the universe.
-Yuriev is shown to be able to use clones to transmigrate from body to body (as he does with Nigredo). I don't think it ever is explicitly said in the games that he did it more than once, but it could easily explain his presence in Blade's Lost Jerusalem. He using the Salvatore faction/Saviorite rebels at that time to seize the Zohar would also make a lot of sense give his actions in the Saga games.
-The most reasonable and obvious way to fit Saga and Blade together, despite requiring a bit of minor retcon here and there, is that the Blade trilogy is what's happening to Lost Jerusalem between its disappearance from the Saga Universe due to a phase shift, most likely caused by the Zohar (some retcon or new lore would be requiered to fit Klaus and Grimoire Verum actions), and its reappearance at the end of Saga (which could fit the Blade 3 ending). This would make a perfect setup for a game that is both a sequel to Saga 3 and Blade 3 simultaneously, as the Blade World/Lost Jerusalem is back in the Saga plane of existence. I doubt we'll see that unless we get a Saga trilogy remake (it wouldn't make sense to make a main game as a sequel to such an old and niche trilogy), but Monolith has been expressing a lot of interest in Saga and the revival of their older games lately, so it would be quite reasonable to think that it is what they want to do (and hopefully what they are able to do).
-Blade X cannot fit the Saga nor the Blade Trilogy lore in any way due to a lot of inconsistencies (the presence of alien species besides humans, the destruction of Earth, etc). My educated guess is that it could be just another iteration in the eternal recurrence or directly another universe (those also exist in the Saga lore even if not featured in the games). I think the best way to manage it considering that would be to make it its own separated series of games, not necessarily connecting it directly to the trilogies despite the references. Hopefully the definite edition will give us some answers...
Beating the Xenosaga games cemented the Xeno franchise as one of my favorite franchises of all time. Whatever the next Xeno game is I’m gonna play it day one. I need to finish Xenoblade 2 so I can get around to Future Redeemed.
...guess it's time for me to finally play Xenoblade, huh?
Yeah
27:28 - NO TJ I will HAPPILY listen to this shit about the Xeno series' even though I DOUBT I'll ever get around to them but I'm GLAD that my BOI can talk about it for DAYS.
@@chimeradivine THANX FRIEND
27:26 we love this stuff too lol. Great video
I'm so mad. There are too many fantastic things for me to experience in this world. Not just games. I'm so mad. I need an extra one-- no, two hundred years.
Talking about the future of the Xeno franchise while not having an understanding of X is a pitfall many Xeno fans have fallen into recently.
You're not wrong. While Xenoblade X's plot may not be as much of a focus or as rich as the others, that ending reveal is too much of an opening to future potential for them not to follow up on it and I think the remaster is proof they intend to continue that.
@@certainlycity4906Right? Having direct references to X in the ending of your latest game and then your next announced game being a X remaster with additional story content? X should be a bigger part of the conversation
Yep I agree, it's tiresome that most fans thing only of xenosaga while X a kind of reboot of perfect works ep 1 has super nice lore and world to build up to also having elements of gears and saga obviously.
What does this have to do with Shulk?
Nothing, X is it’s own thing. Perfectly standalone with new things and few callbacks. Where Xenoblade is post-post-apocalypse semi-fantasy sci-fi, X is full blown sci-fi with everything that comes with it.
This is how I explain it.
It may be the more safe and easy answer but I think it’s gonna be a more xenogears to xenosaga type of spiritual follow up and not a literal one.
I think this is probably for the best, as asking xenoblade fans to play a trilogy that never left the ps2 is a bit unreasonable.
Xenoblade 3 in general has many elements of gears and saga present and I feel that the game can be interpreted as Takahasi and co taking on the xeno series legacy in general, and deciding to move forward, possibly reflecting a new set xeno games to come, taking the ideas of the past games and using them in a new way.
The only "evidence" that Dmitri Yuriev from Xenosaga is not Dimitri Yuriev from Xenoblade is that if he was actually alive for thousands of years "someone [chaos or Wilhelm] would have said something"? That's hardly refuting anything. chaos was probably not aware of anything. It's a giant universe with millions of civilisations and he was spending his time trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his power. Wilhelm was probably aware of this anomaly, but only watched him as pastime and occasionally used him for hiw own ambitions. But the existence of chaos and/or Wilhelm is no contradiction to Dmitri living not only hundreds years already as we know from Pied Piper, but actually thousands of years. You also need to imagine that he hasn't straight up lived for all these thousands of years. He is only active for a couple years in one host until the host dies and he enters an inactive state for several more years. And the inactive hibernation state might actually be much longer than the active state where he leads his secret underground party.
I've had the theory that Dmitri Yuriev could actually be an antagonist behind the scenes in Xenoblade since Xenoblade 2. So I've been thinking and studying this theory for years. And the first game to suggest how long Dmitri actually existed was Xenosaga episode III. I specifically looked for clues there when replaying it again and again after Xenoblade 2. And the evidence is atually there that Yuriev was in fact much older than anyone initially anticipated. It is in the way he speaks of Abel or uses antiquated terms like the U.M.N. space pilot experiments. But the most striking thing hinting at a date of Yuriev's origin comes from Sellers who describes how Yuriev was originally created as a designer child for experiments conducted with the Zohar back in the early days of the U.M.N.. When hearing "designer child", many people think that that proves, Yuriev was created only after 4590, because that's where the Life Recycling Act came to be and the Federation's Designer children are part of that. But that act only legitimized more designer children. It did not invent the term designer child. There have been designer children before it. Like Yuriev, who was in fact created thousands of years earlier for experiments on the Zohar back in the Lost Jerusalem era. So back the the quote from Sellers. The itneresting part of it is the "early days of the U.M.N."-part. The Zohar experiments, which Yuriev was created for, (and of which he was the only survivor receiving his deep fear and Grahf-like body hopping power) were conducted at a very similar time as when Vector also created the U.M.N.. And this early time of it, or the start of it is a very interesting era. And there are two things that point to the Lost Jerusalem era as that time because the U.M.N. must have already existed at that time in an early stage at least: Grimoire Verum and the Space Colonization project. Or Project Exodus as its called in Xenoblade. In Xenosaga, interstellar space travel is possible because of the U.M.N., not vise versa. If humanity didn't already start colonizing other planets or having the means to reach other planets when Earth became Lust Jerusalem, humanity would have been doomed. From Xenoblade we now know what caused the phase shift phenomenon to get out of control, but it was already clear from Xenosaga's lore that it was probably not something they had a lot of time to prepare for. So one way or another they had to leave early relatively spontaneously. But with no preparation, no food, no energy, no air, it's not possible to simply fly to another planet with normal flight only. That would take things like a generation ship or something. But if the U.M.N. was already an early thing at that time, it would have been possible.
The other proof is Grimoire Verum who was trying to use the Zohar and this ancient script Lemegeton to rescue his daughter and failed. We know from A Missing Year, that after that he followed his daughter and is trapped in the U.M.N. since then. That too can only be true if the U.M.N. existed since the Lost Jerusalem era.
And since I saw these hints, the whole lore of Xenosaga, too, made more sense and the Saviorites in Xenoblade 2 made sense too. But then Future Redeemed came and simply confirmed it all. The moment the name "Dimitri Yuriev" was dropped was hard confirmation for me for all these theories that were planted not only in Xenoblade 2, but all the way in Xenosaga episode III and a Missing Year already. So I can't understand the people claiming it can't be the same and whatnot given not only all the overwhelming, but even using the same names. (one even with the same first- and lastname)
Xeno-games are never what they seem to be at first sight. Xenosaga was marketed as a prequel to Xenogears like episode I in Perfect Works, when it was actually an Eternal Recurrence created to save the universe from the destruction of episode VI in Perfect Works. So it was actually a sequel, not a prequel. And now Xenoblade was disguised as a completely new fantasy world with nothing to do with the rest of the Xeno-games, when it was actually the story of what happened to Lost Jerusalem, during the events of Xenosaga. Finally giving the answers to a riddle we've had since Perfect Works as well.
Loved this video. The lyrics of Future Awaits seem to be an invitation to the player from the devs to be ready to reexamine at least some parts of Xenosaga, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the future.
@@aidanuzuki3449 Whatever happens, at this point I’ll play anything Takahashi is involved with
Klaus' time period seems to line up reasonably well, again in broad strokes, with the Zeboim era of Xenogears - particularly the focus on nanotechnology, and the use of it to create artificial life. We even get to pass through part of a city from Klaus' time in Xenoblade II, and it matches up fairly well with the tech level Zeboim was said to have. Admittedly, far different results for that iteration of the "Contact", but the broad themes fit.
Given Yuriev's connection to the UMN (and through that the underlying collective unconscious) it's possible that he's able to retain some continuity through Wilhelm's Eternal Recurrence. I don't believe Xenosaga mentions how many times Wilhelm has performed the reset, but IIRC it's implied to be several times. This could explain Yuriev "surviving" for thousands of years (at least, from an outside perspective).
Awesome. Gonna enjoy watching this video
I feel like we are heading towards a story about a prime timeline and finding solutions to problems in a multiverse. XD
Great video, but I have just one little thing. Not even a disagreement really.
25:38 While I do agree it’s weird that Yuriev wasn’t called out by Willhelm or Chaos, I do think it’s at least possible that he could’ve lived that long. Klaus lived that long thanks to the conduit, so it’s possible, right?
Anyway, just wanted to bring that up. Great vid. I especially loved hearing your history with the collective franchise.
what a wild ride being a Xeno fan has been. I started with Xenoblade 1 when it came out on the wii, played the other's backwards and have been up to date with every entry released thusly. The series has been my biggest creative inspiration.
Considering how much I enjoyed the structure and how well researched your Xenosaga videos were I'd be so glad to see you do some videos on Xenoblade if it ever interested you enough. While it's true there's a good many Xenoblade specific channels it'd be nice to hear from someone who's been around since the old days and is intricately familiar with the originals.
Minor details be damned, I have ALWAYS had the headcanon that all xeno series games are somehow in the same canon. Like, we see in Xenoblade multiple universes which can split and merge. So even if it's not a nice clean timeline, I think it confirms they may as well be in the same universe.
Have you played Baten Kaitos 1&2 HD yet?
Interesting stuff going on there...
Nobody's talking about the connection to Grand theft auto San Andreas.
That's clearly grove street at the end.
@@reyntime1950 There may be something to this - I mean, have you ever seen CJ Johnson and Dmitri Yuriev in the same place at the same time?
@@TJTheEmperorLucky 7? 2 numba 9s?
Wake up sheeple.
Oh noooo, I'm... I'm gonna have to play Xenoblade now, aren't I?
Xenosaga, my beloved... could it really be you?
@@world.singer YES YOU ARE
@ I need my space lesbians back… if they actually revive the Xenosaga series/storyline I am gonna lose my mind. I just moved my old PS2 games from my parents house to mine, and I may have to dust them off and pray they’re still working.
Dammit I really want to watch this video but I’ve at least 2 games left to finish 😅. I’m saving this for later
For Dimitry can live that long, I believe that Takahashi will retcon that and how we don't know. Just like Alvis in XBC 1 necklace from keys and then change it to core crystal in XBC DE.
edit : Oh yeah, the Siren model kit of XBC there is some note that the conduit is founded in the lake in Africa, so yeah 😆
Wasn't Fei referred to as "Conduit" ?
It was “contact”
My working theory is that the different series act as different points in a cycle of evolving timelines. Continuity isn't always 1-to-1 because the universe resets, and the concurrent series' universe grows at an accelerated rate due to remnants of previous universes, resulting in similar events and people but the circumstances become warped.
I seem to be the minority on this. I thought it was fairly commonly theorized in the 2000s, and now it seems nobody really agrees with me, but I think there's much more evidence now than there was then.
There's a good video by Cinnacal called "Xenoblade 3 is not what everyone thinks," and if the assertions in that video hold true about the intended message of Xenoblade 3, I would find it difficult to believe Xenosaga (or Gears) is directly related to Blade. And to tell the truth, I don't necessarily want that to happen. Xenosaga lore is messy enough as is without needing to retcon a bunch of details to fit in the Blade universe, and Blade works perfectly fine on its own without any of that added baggage. Even Xenoblade 3 stands fairly apart from 1 and 2 when it comes to the story, only using those previous titles as a starting point for the world, but not continuing those stories, since those stories were already complete.
This was still a good breakdown of the different feelings and observations that the Xeno community at large have been experiencing, and I appreciate that you included some of your own history with the series.
Honestly, i believe we’ll get a Xenosaga port/remaster to switch plus other consoles. Tho monolith have linked both series together and will continue it with their future games.
The narrative and aesthetic values of "Xeno" pre-2010 vs. post-2010 are so drastically opposed that it's surprising to me that anyone who likes the first two series likes the third, or vice versa. That's why I find it weird that it's even regarded as a franchise, when everything after Saga is so different in style and substance as to be unrelated except for the name -- which Takahashi didn't even originally intend to use. I hope in Monolith's future we'll see another character as well-written as Cherenkov, some casual Jung quote drops, or at very least a kung-fu painter beating up a bald child
It's a shame that Xenoblade never appealed to me, I loved Xenogears and Xenosaga.
Please no more brat mc for the next Xenoblade
I cant get into xenoblade be it just makes mecwish i was playing xenosaga remakes and dont get me started on the fan service in 2
You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. It's worth putting up with the animu-isms to get to the Takahashi plot. As per normal, Takahashi is using subterfuge to pull teenagers and young adults of the modern era into a trap. He uses the fan service and animuisms as a way to lure in that crowd, then blow their minds wide open with philosophical ideas and deep thought.
This is and has always been Takahashi's modus operandi, and he's said as much in many interviews. Blade and Gears were both filled to the brim with similar fan service congruent with the generation of games they are part of, you're just more attuned to those eras.
Tora/Poppy is still a nightmare hellscape, though. I'll give you that.
I will be back to finish this one day soon just gotta finish Gears and Saga which I’m trying to do before X Definitive Edition 🫡
(I may reply to this with updates on where I am and thoughts and feelings)