This game cemented Allen as one of my favorite characters in a Monolithsoft game. He's so pure and genuine and kind, it's difficult to not be rooting for him.
@@Fleshlight_Reviewer For me both Allen and Miyuki deserved better treatment. Miyuki is underappreciated joyful ditsy genius which shion always talks down. Allen genuinely cares of Shion, but all she's see is Kevin and playing victim. As much as I love this game to this day I can't stand Shion apperacite her character development but gosh sometimes I wish she could just shut up In episode I Shion was my fav cause she has this border between headstrong persona with touch of irony. But in III they just crossed this boundary for me
That final scene with KOS-MOS floating toward Lost Jerusalem as that melancholy piano plays, it makes me tear up every time. Such a fantastic story with amazing characters. I’m sad that we likely won’t get the true story, but I’m happy we got what we did.
Hey stories change course. Sometimes the unexpected can lead to amazing results. We now have tangible evidence the story will continue. Yea its not the original xenogears perfect works but the spirit lives on going close to the real conclusion.
Have you played Xenoblade 3s latest expansion future redeemed? It literally ends with the confirmation that Xenosaga and Xenoblade exist in the same universe (via referencing Dmitri Yuriev by name) and literally shows a blue light headed towards a planet which many assume to be Lost Jerusalem with the blue light almost certainly intended to be KOS-MOS. Takahashi has said that fans will be able to predict where the franchise is headed next via Future Connected, strongly implying the story Xenosaga started will be completed
It's so funny- this series has stuck with me from adolescence to adulthood. I lost my first love by suicide and I always felt a connection to Shion because I remember when Kevin came back as the Red Testament. I always wanted that too- I knew why that was such a struggle for Shion to make a choice because I felt it too- I remember finishing Episode III shortly after he died and being profoundly affected by the entire theme of accepting grief.
Who knows, that story might yet one day be told. Takahashi oncs lamented that it would take too long. But in the intervening time, a miracle has no doubt played out right before our eyes with whats happened in xenoblade.
What can I say outside of a HUGE thank you for this. So many years later and fans still love this game series and flock to the videos. It is just a testament of not only how good the series was, but how good it could have been. The fans of the game are so wonderful as well. I miss the boards, the chat rooms, diving deep into the games, and watching the fans reactions as they played this game in particular. Thank you so much for doing this and for bringing me to tears again. Yes I had to watch the last part of the game and cry again at Jin's death scene of course uncensored. (and no I still don't have his EP2 swimsuit to my dismay).
The industry deserves this trilogy to not only be ported but the originally planned series finished. Same with Xenogears. KOS-MOS (also Fei and Grahf) in Smash Bros would solidify that.
Your summation of Shion and Kevin's relationship was so on point. I was 14 when I first played this, and at the time it seemed like such a lame and cheap plot twist for her to join Kevin, but as I've gotten older and come to understand how trauma and abuse affects people , it makes total sense.
Ill be honest, as a teen I never knew there was trauma and abuse from Kevin. I thought they had a great relationship until others started talking about his abuse towards her
TJ, you’ve honestly released the best series of retrospectives we’ve seen for these games in a video format. But not only that, you might be the first person to so elegantly and reasonably examine MSI, Takahashi, and of course Tanka’s journey to create these games. As a fellow super fan Xenosaga, I can’t begin to tell you how happy it makes me to see that their still people that love these games. That understand they weren’t just games, but truly had a message to share with the world. Takahashi and Tanka were brave enough to take the chance of sharing their visions of the human condition with us all. Even if it came crumbling down, I feel as if I still understood everything they wanted to tell us in the end.
Xenoblade: is what happened when Lost Jerusalem disappeared concurrently happening while Xenosaga: took place in the original universe where the colony ships embarked to distant planets starting the galaxy federation and sabarite/Ormus conflicts(remember both spanning thousands of years). Xenoblade DLC sees Earth return(Lost Jerusalem) all while Xenosaga concludes and also sees Earth back. Therefore, Xeno 4(Xenosaga 4 Xenoblade 4..coincidence?) will all come together and we will finally find out why its so important to go back to earth. Its a logical direction due to IP and testing of sales and management refinement to get back to the original story after proving Takashi can do it now with blade while still telling a big mystery about what happened to earth in the Xenoverse. Could some how tie into a gears intro years down the line retconned slightly. I still have a lot of questions about the Zohars place and if its possibly perceived in every dimension concurrently and X/Kosmos(iteration/ time frame if even possible. Meh just a theory. The thing that saves these types of stories similar to Star Wars is that there are plenty of years going by to tie things together and make it make sense.
I just finished Xeno 3 today. I played the first two originally as a kid and now for the first time finished 3 after about 16 years. Xeno three went in directions I never would have imagined and I can't believe the ending somehow managed to be satisfying after xeno 2 let down and the decision to shorten the series from 6 to 3. I came here right after finishing. It's well put that this series is both a mixture of feeling "what could be" as well as "what is". I have to agree with that. I don't think we'll see anything like Xenosaga ever again, and those who missed this series as a whole really did miss out on something special.
The quality of these 3 videos is baffling. It's rare to find a content creator so blatantly talented that is this under-appreciated. These videos were incredible, and I can't wait to share them with some friends who I know would appreciate them just as much.
I was sent here by the Residents Arc podcast upon starting their podcast, stopping that to come intake all 3 of your videos on Xenosaga. Great work, and thank you.
Thank you so much for making this wonderful series on Xenosaga. The story in the Xenosaga Series has always been one of my favourites and I replay the series often. Every time I get to the end of Xenosaga III, I think "Again! Again!" I too have created my own ending as to what happens next, hope is the key to the everything.
UGH I love Xenosaga so much. I’ve never been able to actually play but I’ve seen all the cutscenes multiple times. I hope so much that Nintendo will buy the rights back from Namco and remaster them (keeping the changes made to 1&2 in the DS version)
Good call because I have heard the DS changes are a superior version of the story and that makes me glad because the PS2 trilogy was only supposed to be two games (one-third of the overall six originally planned). With the popularity of the Xenoblades and the two Baten Kaitos being ported to Switch, it’s only a matter of time until we get the trilogy ported, maybe even a continuation of the series if Bamco sells the rights to Nintendo so Monolith Soft can continue their baby. Same with Xenogears.
This third game was an incredible turnaround. I remember absolutely losing it at the end knowing it was the last time I would probably get anything more with Shion, Kos-mos, and the rest of this great cast. I really hope some day they rerelease this game on Switch. I miss these games and stories and want remasters so bad but know it'll probably never happen. Thank you for helping us revisit these great stories.
I love EP3 SO MUCH. It's also one of the few games to make me cry at the end, even with the editing to remove blood like in other scenes. And game play wise is great too. The corners that had to be filed to get the story told (the voiced text boxes in particular) does really hurt but I'm still glad we got what we did. I love Kevin, he's such a dick. His grooming of Shion is most disturbing especially when you piece that she initially got on the project at 18, and likely entered in a relationship with Kevin soon after, which given his being six years older then her... And I do get Shion much better then I did now. She's a mess of trauma and repression, and the events of Missing Year started cracking the box she had all that locked in and forced her to start facing it and she did not want to. Man this series has such fantastic characters.
If they do a remake of this series, then I hope they add the blood back in. It doesn't matter in most cases, but when little Shion wants to "Put it back." It makes no sense for hands to be completely clean and empty. Jin's final battle doesn't look right either when he gets repeatedly stabbed pulls a sword out of his chest and no blood. I think they even left the sound effects for the blood in.
Oh I completely agree. The "put it back" scene is one of the most heart-wrenching in the entire series, and the censorship completely ruins it to the point that it's impossible to even know what's supposed to be happening. It's such a shame.
@TJTheEmperor What would be even more messed up is an 8-year-old Shion is trying to put back in the literal guts of her mother in vain which really does hammer in home just how fucked her childhood is and that is without a 12-year-old Kevin grooming her.
@@ZX-Gear Is Kevin only supposed to be 12 at that time? I assumed he was at least early 20s. If he's supposed to be 12 then their relationship is a little less creepy.
@@xenosaga8436 True. The only reason why Kevin was there cause friend of family it seems and Kevin felt like the older brother/babysitter forced to look after a younger sister.
Thank you so much for this retrospective on the Xenosaga games! I'm so happy to know there are other fans out there of this series -- flaws and all. Can't wait to hear what you think about that ending to Xenoblade. Cheers and keep up the amazing work! 🎉
this was an incredible retrospective series, i would love to see your thoughts on the other Xeno games as well. i find the Xenoblade games to be just as good as the Xenosaga games are.
Lost Jerusalem is the key to solving everything because that's the place where humanity was born, from where humanity departed, and most importantly, where a large part of humanity got stuck in an endless now universe, and managed to break the cycle coherently through Origin. Of course a year ago you couldn't have this answer, but now we know KOS-MOS gets back to THAT particular Earth that was reborn from the Klaus universes merging, we know that is the only answer. The question now remains: will Shion and Co. also make it there somehow without the UMN? My only guess is this will also have to connect to Mira and how Elma teaches humanity from the new Earth how to achieve both interstellar travel, but also the mimeosome system.
Man that song at the end makes me cry every freakin time. Just the nostalgia and remembering kosmos floating thru space and it ending there just left me in tears even after all these years later ugh
So happy to have stumbled upon these retrospective videos thanks to you collborating with the Resonant Arc boys for their Xeonsaga videos. I just binged yours over the last couple of days, great work! These games don't get enough love. Now that I'm all refreshed (haven't touched these games since their original releases) time to head back over to Resonant Arc. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in an even more deep dive style over there! 😃
Came from Resonant Arc and very pleased to watch this series! I was hyped about Xenosaga as a big fan of Xenogears and was disappointed the full vision was never achieved. This was so interesting and informative.
Wow and Wow and Wow! Thank you so much, these 3 Videos are really the best at it's genre. Thank for the hundreds of hours you invested in that project and the 10.000s of words you wrote to keep the vision clear for everyone! Wow, Wow and Wow!
Oh man, I was waiting on this vid, and then today I discovered it came out a month ago, lol. Fun fact about Margulis. The first scene in Ep 1 where you see him, he is doing the exact same thing to an underling that Heinlein does to him near the end of this game-basically telling him his mission is done and to pull out, despite it being a betrayal of what he was led to believe the goal was.
Oh god, you're absolutely right, and I never realized it until reading your comment. I've always liked Margulis' story arc throughout the series but reading this makes me appreciate it that much more.
I watched this awhile ago but upon rewatching, i can reallt appreciate the effort you put into this. It took me watching another video on this series to really begin to understand the plot of this game. It really is fascinating how deep the story went and i wish i appreciated it (or understood it) more with what U-Do is, what gnosis are, etc etc. All that to say, thanks for putting this together! I would watch a whole other video of you just explaining the plot lol
Man watching this retrospective reminded me of why I love xenosaga as a series so much. It’s criminal that there isn’t a remaster available for people to play this series it’s unlikely but I hope Namco Bandai changes their mind to bring it to current platforms. Your analysis of this series was spot on and I’m glad I listened to Mike from ResonantArc to check your channel out because words cannot express how well and composed your content is. Great work dude👍🏽
the ending describes how i feel too. kosmos said they will meet again. they all have hope by the end, even after everything. so i have hope too, even if we will never get to see it. thank you for reminding me why i love this game
The ending theme to this game messes me up every time. The soundtrack to this game is stellar, but that last theme tears my guts out every time I hear it.
On the note of Pied Piper, there's a reupload of the playthrough on TH-cam (the same one you used in footage) that has translated captions! It's a really enjoyable way to experience that game's plot.
Dude, excellent video. Seriously, you did a fantastic job. I only played these games for the first time a couple years ago, and as each day goes by, my feelings for them grow ever more positive. It's quite possibly one of the greatest examples for me of a story that sticks with you. It truly has and I really appreciate it more and more as time goes on. It's absolutely flawed, but it's almost partially because of those flaws that this series bares so much significance for me now. Shion is one of my favorite characters of all time, and this whole cast is among the most memorable for me. Also, thank you for putting some respect on Allen's name. I see so much hate or disrespect thrown his way and I just don't understand how. His whole character is centered around his normalcyi. In fact, quite possibly the funniest aspect about him, is that what makes him the most different character in the cast is that he's the only normal one. And I love his arc. I don't think you would ever guess from Episode I that Allen would be a relevant character at all, and that's what makes his moment so powerful. It's such a brilliantly paced arc. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Great job, man. Really well done.
I still can't believe that there is an hour long and this in depth Xenosaga III analysis on the internet,i really would love to see a Xenogears video from you
Damn, I didn't expect to start tearing up just from being caught off guard by the piano version of Hepatica at the beginning of the video. Episode 3's ending must have left a bigger emotional impact on me than I thought.
It's crazy how after just finishing your video on 2 I was about to put in any plans to play these games in the trash......and then I saw the title of this video
When I first saw Richard and Herman in xenosaga, my first thought was that they were expies of Krelian’s gear-bonded minions from Xenogears. So, I didn’t think that they would get much focus at all.
Also, you wouldn’t think that Allen would have the mass or strength to knock over a big gnosis like he did at the end, but what most don’t realize is that he grew some dwarf stars for balls when he confronted Kevin. The sheer mass of them was enough to crush the poor thing.
Interesting that I havent played this game since it came out, loved it, and immediately remembered the mines when you mentioned it as the one blemish of the game. It reminds of of the getting the flower for the girl quest in Star Ocean 3, unneeded side tangent.
Of all my playstation 2 rpgs I have played: breath of fire, dot hack, dragon quest 7, etc; I have to admit that Xenosaga is still the one I hold up as a gold standard. I might not have gotten to play the second or third game, but I 100% love the story, aesthetic, world, lore, and so forth. It sits up there with the greatest rpgs of my life and one day i will complete it all.
It is underrated. I remember that really cool boss battle against that one chick with beam swords or something, on some tower in some big open area that is also inside a big building. And of course that boss fight against that cathedral; it was casting spells and doing attacks with names like “Roar of Lucifer” and I forget what else but I remember it being metal as absolute fuck.
Just watched your retrospective on the series, you really did a great job. I was wonderring, have you ever watched the xenosaga outer file ? It is what originally introduced richard and hermann. You can find animations of the first 2 discs on youtube and the last part of the 2nd disc has a link to the translation of the third disc
@@ZX-Gear Bridget Hoffman is my favorite voice actress despite being underrated but she's versatile like robots, secretaries, sisters, etc Recently she's did Kanae Kocho from Demon Slayer
Thanks for this series, extremely well done and enjoyable to watch. Nice to find someone who is not only as big a fan of the games as I am, but who basically shares my same opinion on each part of it XD Bravo. I feel like falling back to the Fight/Magic/Item battle system was an overcorrection from II's needlessly complex one. I would have preferred a return to the system from Episode I. But as you say, it was still a well done version of the basic style.
So you’re saying Jesus saves everything even failing trilogies? Amazing three videos. You nailed it. Can’t wait to see what else you make of this is the quality we can expect.
I played through these with my friend over the last few months, and while Xsaga didn't strike me quite on the same level as gears and blade games, it was still amazing time. We also ended the playthrough with the anime and I must say, it amazes me how poorly people think of it. Concise version of the story was great imo, I especially loved having more Virgil and Kirsch added some emotional value the first game lacked In any case, there's videos were great, thank you!
reminds me of the last star wars mainline movie... and how it was supposed to make up for how the episode before it dunked everything... I haven't seen the last one, but thinking about it, Xenosaga 3 does a much better job of salvaging things with it's 3rd outing than The Rise of Skywalker. at least based on what I've heard about that movie. still... always sucks when a set series has to course correct from a bad sequel... reminds me of Devil May Cry 2 to 3... BUT in it's case it's lucky it could just tell a prequel story and not have to immediately follow up the last game's story.
Xenosaga is an intriguing series, I have often considered KOS-MOS as a female Megaman X. It was a shame how the second game ended up being the disappointing black sheep in the trilogy, before the third game came out with a bang, reviving the popularity of the series and bringing it to a new level. It suffered the same fate as the Devil May Cry PS2 Trilogy, it is worth noting that both third games of their respective series introduced a rival to the protagonists KOS-MOS and Dante, T-elos and Vergil respectively.
About the reasons for the universe's collapse, do look for the Xenosaga III Perfect Guide. The ending to Episode III did a shitty job at clarifying things and made people think chaos was the cause all along (while the power of Anima can destroy the universe, it's just a Failsafe to prevent a greater threat, the true source of the collapse phenomenon, from spreading to the entire sort of "multiverse" the series features in the background). But it's because of the collapse of the Collective Unconscious due to the wills of mankind rejecting unity with each other, the Gnosis are just the sympthom of this collapse. The Guide clarifies lots of stuff, including stuff dealing with the future story arcs which will likely never see the light of day. EDIT: an easy way to find these guides is to look for the files of the defunct Xenotensei website, which used to host the Study Guide you consulted as help for these videos.
Beautiful conclusion. The Xenosaga series really solidified my love for JRPGs. The ambitious story telling and themes across xenosaga and xenogears is unmatched. To be honest, xenoblade is a bit of a dissapointment as a series because the story is so watered down.
Your ending dialogue has me in tears. I love these games. They shaped who I am as an adult. I have 2 nephews now (I can't have kids), and even though 1 was only born a week ago, and 1 is only 1 year and 10 months old (my brother had them back to back) - I long for when they're old enough to play these games. And thinking about it now, even if that means they're 13 - I'll be 50 years old exactly. It doesn't feel like that should be true in my head, but I know it is. I just pray I'm still alive then, and that these games have the same impact on them that they did on me. Thank you for this. I found your channel by chance, and was hesitant to watch another "bad interpretation of this game." But I did, and I'm so happy I did. Thank you, with all my heart :).
Great job on the video. It's pretty ballsy to do such a long and elaborate video on such a niche game, but Xenosaga Episode III absolutely deserves it. It was indeed a miracle that the game turned out as good as it did. It's just too bad how inaccessible it is to most people, not only because it'll probably always be stuck on the PS2 and many people can't be bothered to emulate, but also because the previous two episodes don't play nearly as well and you have to go through them first to follow Episode III's story. The combat is way slower and clunkier in both I & II IMO, while III has incredibly smooth and satisfying battles with very little downtime (even the loadings are insanely quick, it's amazing). In fact, whenever I replay the series these days, I tend to just rewatch the cutscenes for I and II and then replay III (which I always have a blast with). If they could remake the entire trilogy in Episode III's style, it would be absolutely amazing, but sadly that's obviously never gonna happen.
I felt Shion's arc was heartbreaking and understand she was making irrational decisions when life was stepping on her. My only nitpick is that she didn't hook up with KOS-MOS, she had more chemistry with her than Allen.
This is a very good retrospective for this series. It's a shame it didn't turn out like they wanted, but even with all its faults this series is one of my favorite RPG stories to date with one of my favorite casts of characters, heck my favorite cast of villains of the Xeno series too if you exclude the bad ones from episode 2. Here's hoping for a remaster collection for these games at some point, so newer fans of the series can experience them faults and triumphs all. I'm hoping Bandai Namco becomes a bit more open to Remastering their older games. Even their flagship Tales series has rarely gotten remasters especially on modern systems. I think we'll kind of get an answer to this soon since the .hack series is celebrating it's 20th anniversary. While G.U. Last Recode did get ported to Switch earlier this year Bandai Namco also trademarked "Last Recollection" which might be the name for the original 4 games' remaster. If this happens that's just one more good sign on top of Xenoblade doing really good these days that Xenosaga's remaster might see the light of day eventually. I don't think it'll remotely happen this year since Xenoblade 3 is coming out soon, but if there's a gap that Nintendo wants to fill with a Xeno release I wouldn't be surprised if they push Bandai Namco to do it since they've got a pretty good relationship with each other. I also think Square Enix will remaster Xenogears eventually since they've been remastering a lot of their classic PS1 games, I'm also hoping for Parasite Eve as well.
Great video. But I can't agree to the last statement. Yes, Xenosaga doesn't have to be the greatest series of games, because what we got is good enough. That's true. However, in a way Xenosaga Episode III IS the greatest game of all time. I don't care what meta critics think or people who don't care for great characters, music, storytelling or turn based JRPGs. Or even myself when I'm in the mood to like Bloodborne, Nier Replicant, Genso Suikoden II or any of my other favorite games of all times over Xenosaga. Because the me that's here right now, who knows what it was like waiting for the release of episode III back in 2006, replaying episode II and really disliking the long loading times between every battle and the synthesized BGMs between these great cinematic tracks by Yuki Kajiura, the me who couldn't wait to play the end of this epic story, he's been playing for years until that point and still didn't know what a great finale he was in for, for that me there was never a more prefect, refined, polished game with such a great story before and ever after. You can claim that other games have better combat, better content, better writing, or even better graphics (which will always be not true on PS2). But This is a masterpiece, way more than the sum of it's parts. By the way, this might seem unimportant, but is actually really major: KOS-MOS ver.4 is the best character design in any medium, period. The design is beautiful and perfect and the ingame model is actually a really good implementation of it. I wish there was a standalone game like Nier: Automata where you instead of 2B control an almost silent KOS-MOS running around some post-apocalyptic world, transferring her weapons and equipment through the UMN. It could also be a souls-like. I would really love that. I love her character design so much that I actually spent well over a thousand dollar on the KOS-MOS dollfie dream (which a photo of has also been my profil pic on any platforms for years and will always be). If you google for that, images of my KOS-MOS doll will likely be in the first few search results.
I know what is was like to go into Bestbuy and buy a Lenticular copy right off the shelf. I've debated for a long time for doing videos because I am tired of ppl comparing this older game to newer games like Trails. Ppl today don't seem to convey what it was to play these games back then and I feel for a long time I felt It didn't matter if I should tell the story or not. As for biggest fans I literally own the largest Xenosaga figure collection in the world and so much more. I just think the mindset of today's games and their players can't be in the mindset of what it was like back then.
I haven’t played these games since they were relatively new I still own all 3 copies and looking back I am glad I still have them. I do disagree with some parts of part two of the retrospective but this is mainly from memory. I do hope they are rereleased though in an hd version so new fans can play them legitimately.
18:50 "I hesistate to call this a problem , since im sure it wasnt what the developers wanted" - you are talking there about the cutscenes being changed to the ingame models with textboxes .... that wording is very weird , whatever the reasons have been to make that change , it surely was a wanted change otherwise they wouldnt have made it and it defo was a conscious and wise desision. Because looking at the Xenoblade games ... a much more refined version of this way of presentation became the standard way of presentation going alongside with conventional cutscenes. So it was a wanted and a good decision , what sucks is just how it was implementet and the execution in Xenosaga 3 , but at least they learned from it and made it better in future titles.
This game was Amazing and i felt so sad when beating the final game just knowing the journey was over.. The first and third game never made it to EU for some reason, You basicly had to pirate your ps2 to be able to play it but it was so worth it! This and Baldurs gate 2 are my favorite RPGs of all time.
lol, I dunno why I felt compelled to say _"I like Xenosaga, but only as a friend"_ during your closing 🤣 But yeah, I don't consider myself a big fan despite owning the trilogy, a postcard booklet and watching the entire anime (which tbh, disappointed me), I did appreciate the whole experience and don't regret playing these games. I'm on the Shion hate bandwagon tho, I feel she checks a lot of the Mary Sue symptoms (i.e. tragic past, little to no people hate her, has unexplained and powerful abilities, no one really understand her, is incredibly smart but at the same time naive, she's also beautiful, etc), and tbh she lost what little respect I had for her when she joined Kevin, and Allen beating the gnosis made me burst in laughter. Jin's demise did break my heart tho. Another funny thing that I enjoyed was when KOS-MOS merged with T-elos and she now felt so concerned for her teammates, her victory line _"is everyone okay?"_ at the end of every battle made me giggle, yes, the same KOS-MOS who'd shoot through you if you were irrelevant enough was now racing to kiss your boo-boos and ouchies, glad she reverted back at the end 🤣 Anyway, great video series, I'll check if you've made one of Xenoblade series, which I know nothing about, a friend once asked me why I wouldn't play them if I was a fan of Xenosaga and I told him something like _"why? So my heart gets broken again by an unfinished series?"_ lol
Have you played Xenoblade Chronicles 3's DLC? If yes, there is hope for some sort of conclusion to Saga, the ending has a radio made by Vector talking about Dmtri Yuriev and some other stuff and the final scene mirrors the ending of XS3 with the united world of XC2 and XC1 united(people theorize that now it is Lost Jerusalem) and with a blue dot falling into earth which could be KOS MOS or the Elsa Takahashi further hinted at this by saying that the ending was a hint about what was to come and this same blue dot is in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Soundtrack Album art cover.
I absolutely love this game. Even with somewhat rushed end. Thinking about it while watching these videos I think Takahashi would have been better suited to writing novels, or light novels for his grander stories. I think video games are an excellent medium for telling stories on the whole. But the scope of the stories of Xenosaga were just to much to be contained in a video game, even a series. While I think there would be a better chance of pulling it off with a top class team plus current technology, I still think the best medium for stories of such scope and depth are the written ones. He is an excellent manager, for games, and excellent creative, and an amazing story teller. In the current role he plays in game development he brings an amazing amount of depth and complexity to games as is shown but Xenoblade Chronicles as well as Xenosaga Episode III. In the first of these videos I commented that I would love to see the story he meant to tell in a more complete fashion. And I meant that in terms of a video games. For the Xenosaga we did get I still stand by that. A version of Episode II that was up to what Takahashi and Tanaka were trying to tell and a version of episode III that was less rushed, to give the characters and story more room to breath. But for the original, complete story they wanted to tell, I retract that statement. I would instead love to see a written version of the complete story. Because there they can truly go into the depth they wished to. And I am sure it would be amazing.
18:43 that's actually untrue. The game has a built-in auto scroll for the text. If you hit the Select button on your ps2 controller, it will show a message that will either say Auto or Normal. You can only switch between the two. Excellent review otherwise. Thanks for making this.
i feel like in retrospect the biggest failing of two was never bringing up kevin at all. by the time you get to the point where kevin becomes this big character in episode 3 i barely even remember that kevin existed and his screen time is negligible, most of it is the weird flashback/alternate reality stuff where he's mostly just depicted as an asshole. you just don't get any sense of why shion would care at all about this dude.
Standing ovation AWESOME video 👏👏👏👏👏! I would call 3 my favorite, and while I do love the series I do unfortunately consider it a failure. Espescially given it didn't even get out half of the story it wanted to. It'd be great if the ever did try to keep going but I won't hold my breath for it.
2 was totally forgettable except for that one particular scene , it was just horrifying to experience . 3 is by far the best in the series and i even bought the japanese game because the cover is so awesome . and also because so i could emulate it lol . i wish namco would stop printing trash sword art online games and remake at least xenosaga episode 3. also, after all these years, i still think episode 3 Shion is super super HOT . in episode 2 oh lord wth were they doing there , they ruined shion there and she has a man's body1!!
Yuki Kajiura is such a genius. Her score to Xenosaga 3 can still make me cry after almost two decades of listening
This game cemented Allen as one of my favorite characters in a Monolithsoft game. He's so pure and genuine and kind, it's difficult to not be rooting for him.
On another note, I am eagerly waiting for you to get together with Resonant Arc again when they cover Xenosaga 2 and 3.
He deserves better
@@Fleshlight_Reviewer For me both Allen and Miyuki deserved better treatment. Miyuki is underappreciated joyful ditsy genius which shion always talks down. Allen genuinely cares of Shion, but all she's see is Kevin and playing victim. As much as I love this game to this day I can't stand Shion apperacite her character development but gosh sometimes I wish she could just shut up
In episode I Shion was my fav cause she has this border between headstrong persona with touch of irony. But in III they just crossed this boundary for me
18:36 Xenosaga episode 3 does have auto scrolling text. The select button activates it. This is on page 4 of the instruction manual.
That final scene with KOS-MOS floating toward Lost Jerusalem as that melancholy piano plays, it makes me tear up every time. Such a fantastic story with amazing characters.
I’m sad that we likely won’t get the true story, but I’m happy we got what we did.
Hey stories change course. Sometimes the unexpected can lead to amazing results. We now have tangible evidence the story will continue. Yea its not the original xenogears perfect works but the spirit lives on going close to the real conclusion.
Have you played Xenoblade 3s latest expansion future redeemed? It literally ends with the confirmation that Xenosaga and Xenoblade exist in the same universe (via referencing Dmitri Yuriev by name) and literally shows a blue light headed towards a planet which many assume to be Lost Jerusalem with the blue light almost certainly intended to be KOS-MOS. Takahashi has said that fans will be able to predict where the franchise is headed next via Future Connected, strongly implying the story Xenosaga started will be completed
It's so funny- this series has stuck with me from adolescence to adulthood.
I lost my first love by suicide and I always felt a connection to Shion because I remember when Kevin came back as the Red Testament. I always wanted that too- I knew why that was such a struggle for Shion to make a choice because I felt it too-
I remember finishing Episode III shortly after he died and being profoundly affected by the entire theme of accepting grief.
Who knows, that story might yet one day be told. Takahashi oncs lamented that it would take too long. But in the intervening time, a miracle has no doubt played out right before our eyes with whats happened in xenoblade.
Given the recent developments in the Xenoblade series, the whole Xeno franchise is going to get very interesting
Ok the introduction you had with episode III with the "and yet..." BAM!
That was legit incredible and VERY Xenosaga.
Pro Tip: pressing SELECT during the cutscenes enables AUTO MODE which will automatically scroll through the spoken text. NO MORE BUTTON MASHING!!
What can I say outside of a HUGE thank you for this. So many years later and fans still love this game series and flock to the videos. It is just a testament of not only how good the series was, but how good it could have been. The fans of the game are so wonderful as well. I miss the boards, the chat rooms, diving deep into the games, and watching the fans reactions as they played this game in particular.
Thank you so much for doing this and for bringing me to tears again. Yes I had to watch the last part of the game and cry again at Jin's death scene of course uncensored. (and no I still don't have his EP2 swimsuit to my dismay).
The industry deserves this trilogy to not only be ported but the originally planned series finished. Same with Xenogears.
KOS-MOS (also Fei and Grahf) in Smash Bros would solidify that.
Your summation of Shion and Kevin's relationship was so on point. I was 14 when I first played this, and at the time it seemed like such a lame and cheap plot twist for her to join Kevin, but as I've gotten older and come to understand how trauma and abuse affects people , it makes total sense.
Ill be honest, as a teen I never knew there was trauma and abuse from Kevin. I thought they had a great relationship until others started talking about his abuse towards her
TJ, you’ve honestly released the best series of retrospectives we’ve seen for these games in a video format. But not only that, you might be the first person to so elegantly and reasonably examine MSI, Takahashi, and of course Tanka’s journey to create these games.
As a fellow super fan Xenosaga, I can’t begin to tell you how happy it makes me to see that their still people that love these games. That understand they weren’t just games, but truly had a message to share with the world. Takahashi and Tanka were brave enough to take the chance of sharing their visions of the human condition with us all. Even if it came crumbling down, I feel as if I still understood everything they wanted to tell us in the end.
Xenoblade: is what happened when Lost Jerusalem disappeared concurrently happening while Xenosaga: took place in the original universe where the colony ships embarked to distant planets starting the galaxy federation and sabarite/Ormus conflicts(remember both spanning thousands of years). Xenoblade DLC sees Earth return(Lost Jerusalem) all while Xenosaga concludes and also sees Earth back. Therefore, Xeno 4(Xenosaga 4 Xenoblade 4..coincidence?) will all come together and we will finally find out why its so important to go back to earth. Its a logical direction due to IP and testing of sales and management refinement to get back to the original story after proving Takashi can do it now with blade while still telling a big mystery about what happened to earth in the Xenoverse. Could some how tie into a gears intro years down the line retconned slightly. I still have a lot of questions about the Zohars place and if its possibly perceived in every dimension concurrently and X/Kosmos(iteration/ time frame if even possible. Meh just a theory. The thing that saves these types of stories similar to Star Wars is that there are plenty of years going by to tie things together and make it make sense.
I just finished Xeno 3 today. I played the first two originally as a kid and now for the first time finished 3 after about 16 years. Xeno three went in directions I never would have imagined and I can't believe the ending somehow managed to be satisfying after xeno 2 let down and the decision to shorten the series from 6 to 3. I came here right after finishing. It's well put that this series is both a mixture of feeling "what could be" as well as "what is". I have to agree with that. I don't think we'll see anything like Xenosaga ever again, and those who missed this series as a whole really did miss out on something special.
It will probably get a remake. I would put money on it.
The quality of these 3 videos is baffling. It's rare to find a content creator so blatantly talented that is this under-appreciated. These videos were incredible, and I can't wait to share them with some friends who I know would appreciate them just as much.
I was sent here by the Residents Arc podcast upon starting their podcast, stopping that to come intake all 3 of your videos on Xenosaga. Great work, and thank you.
Thank you so much for making this wonderful series on Xenosaga. The story in the Xenosaga Series has always been one of my favourites and I replay the series often. Every time I get to the end of Xenosaga III, I think "Again! Again!" I too have created my own ending as to what happens next, hope is the key to the everything.
UGH I love Xenosaga so much. I’ve never been able to actually play but I’ve seen all the cutscenes multiple times. I hope so much that Nintendo will buy the rights back from Namco and remaster them (keeping the changes made to 1&2 in the DS version)
Good call because I have heard the DS changes are a superior version of the story and that makes me glad because the PS2 trilogy was only supposed to be two games (one-third of the overall six originally planned).
With the popularity of the Xenoblades and the two Baten Kaitos being ported to Switch, it’s only a matter of time until we get the trilogy ported, maybe even a continuation of the series if Bamco sells the rights to Nintendo so Monolith Soft can continue their baby. Same with Xenogears.
This third game was an incredible turnaround. I remember absolutely losing it at the end knowing it was the last time I would probably get anything more with Shion, Kos-mos, and the rest of this great cast. I really hope some day they rerelease this game on Switch. I miss these games and stories and want remasters so bad but know it'll probably never happen. Thank you for helping us revisit these great stories.
I love EP3 SO MUCH. It's also one of the few games to make me cry at the end, even with the editing to remove blood like in other scenes. And game play wise is great too. The corners that had to be filed to get the story told (the voiced text boxes in particular) does really hurt but I'm still glad we got what we did.
I love Kevin, he's such a dick. His grooming of Shion is most disturbing especially when you piece that she initially got on the project at 18, and likely entered in a relationship with Kevin soon after, which given his being six years older then her... And I do get Shion much better then I did now. She's a mess of trauma and repression, and the events of Missing Year started cracking the box she had all that locked in and forced her to start facing it and she did not want to.
Man this series has such fantastic characters.
If they do a remake of this series, then I hope they add the blood back in. It doesn't matter in most cases, but when little Shion wants to "Put it back." It makes no sense for hands to be completely clean and empty. Jin's final battle doesn't look right either when he gets repeatedly stabbed pulls a sword out of his chest and no blood. I think they even left the sound effects for the blood in.
Oh I completely agree. The "put it back" scene is one of the most heart-wrenching in the entire series, and the censorship completely ruins it to the point that it's impossible to even know what's supposed to be happening. It's such a shame.
@TJTheEmperor What would be even more messed up is an 8-year-old Shion is trying to put back in the literal guts of her mother in vain which really does hammer in home just how fucked her childhood is and that is without a 12-year-old Kevin grooming her.
@@ZX-Gear Is Kevin only supposed to be 12 at that time? I assumed he was at least early 20s. If he's supposed to be 12 then their relationship is a little less creepy.
@@xenosaga8436 True. The only reason why Kevin was there cause friend of family it seems and Kevin felt like the older brother/babysitter forced to look after a younger sister.
Thank you so much for this retrospective on the Xenosaga games! I'm so happy to know there are other fans out there of this series -- flaws and all. Can't wait to hear what you think about that ending to Xenoblade. Cheers and keep up the amazing work! 🎉
Just completed Xenosaga 3. Man, words can't express how satisfying this journey was. Thanks for these videos TJ!
Oh shit, here we fucking gooooooo 🔥
this was an incredible retrospective series, i would love to see your thoughts on the other Xeno games as well. i find the Xenoblade games to be just as good as the Xenosaga games are.
Lost Jerusalem is the key to solving everything because that's the place where humanity was born, from where humanity departed, and most importantly, where a large part of humanity got stuck in an endless now universe, and managed to break the cycle coherently through Origin. Of course a year ago you couldn't have this answer, but now we know KOS-MOS gets back to THAT particular Earth that was reborn from the Klaus universes merging, we know that is the only answer. The question now remains: will Shion and Co. also make it there somehow without the UMN? My only guess is this will also have to connect to Mira and how Elma teaches humanity from the new Earth how to achieve both interstellar travel, but also the mimeosome system.
Maybe Tomorrow hits unimaginably hard
Man that song at the end makes me cry every freakin time. Just the nostalgia and remembering kosmos floating thru space and it ending there just left me in tears even after all these years later ugh
So happy to have stumbled upon these retrospective videos thanks to you collborating with the Resonant Arc boys for their Xeonsaga videos. I just binged yours over the last couple of days, great work! These games don't get enough love.
Now that I'm all refreshed (haven't touched these games since their original releases) time to head back over to Resonant Arc. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in an even more deep dive style over there! 😃
Came from Resonant Arc and very pleased to watch this series! I was hyped about Xenosaga as a big fan of Xenogears and was disappointed the full vision was never achieved. This was so interesting and informative.
End of Xenosaga III, I cry everytiem.
I cried playing the game, I cried listening to this retrospective. Thank you for making this video!
Awesome analysis of the three episodes. This channel is criminally small for such quality, hope you get to grow more.
Wow and Wow and Wow! Thank you so much, these 3 Videos are really the best at it's genre. Thank for the hundreds of hours you invested in that project and the 10.000s of words you wrote to keep the vision clear for everyone! Wow, Wow and Wow!
Oh man, I was waiting on this vid, and then today I discovered it came out a month ago, lol.
Fun fact about Margulis. The first scene in Ep 1 where you see him, he is doing the exact same thing to an underling that Heinlein does to him near the end of this game-basically telling him his mission is done and to pull out, despite it being a betrayal of what he was led to believe the goal was.
Oh god, you're absolutely right, and I never realized it until reading your comment. I've always liked Margulis' story arc throughout the series but reading this makes me appreciate it that much more.
I watched this awhile ago but upon rewatching, i can reallt appreciate the effort you put into this.
It took me watching another video on this series to really begin to understand the plot of this game.
It really is fascinating how deep the story went and i wish i appreciated it (or understood it) more with what U-Do is, what gnosis are, etc etc.
All that to say, thanks for putting this together! I would watch a whole other video of you just explaining the plot lol
Man watching this retrospective reminded me of why I love xenosaga as a series so much. It’s criminal that there isn’t a remaster available for people to play this series it’s unlikely but I hope Namco Bandai changes their mind to bring it to current platforms. Your analysis of this series was spot on and I’m glad I listened to Mike from ResonantArc to check your channel out because words cannot express how well and composed your content is. Great work dude👍🏽
...and then the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed happened....
the ending describes how i feel too. kosmos said they will meet again. they all have hope by the end, even after everything. so i have hope too, even if we will never get to see it. thank you for reminding me why i love this game
The ending theme to this game messes me up every time. The soundtrack to this game is stellar, but that last theme tears my guts out every time I hear it.
On the note of Pied Piper, there's a reupload of the playthrough on TH-cam (the same one you used in footage) that has translated captions! It's a really enjoyable way to experience that game's plot.
Dude, excellent video. Seriously, you did a fantastic job. I only played these games for the first time a couple years ago, and as each day goes by, my feelings for them grow ever more positive. It's quite possibly one of the greatest examples for me of a story that sticks with you. It truly has and I really appreciate it more and more as time goes on. It's absolutely flawed, but it's almost partially because of those flaws that this series bares so much significance for me now. Shion is one of my favorite characters of all time, and this whole cast is among the most memorable for me.
Also, thank you for putting some respect on Allen's name. I see so much hate or disrespect thrown his way and I just don't understand how. His whole character is centered around his normalcyi. In fact, quite possibly the funniest aspect about him, is that what makes him the most different character in the cast is that he's the only normal one. And I love his arc. I don't think you would ever guess from Episode I that Allen would be a relevant character at all, and that's what makes his moment so powerful. It's such a brilliantly paced arc.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Great job, man. Really well done.
I still can't believe that there is an hour long and this in depth Xenosaga III analysis on the internet,i really would love to see a Xenogears video from you
this is a very well made xenosaga video, thank you so muchh. brings me so much nostalgia
Allen proved himself to be the ultimate Chad
He literally told Kevin "I didn't hear no bell!!!"
Damn, I didn't expect to start tearing up just from being caught off guard by the piano version of Hepatica at the beginning of the video. Episode 3's ending must have left a bigger emotional impact on me than I thought.
yeah, Absolutely love this game. Always onward, towards Lost Jerusalem.
It's crazy how after just finishing your video on 2 I was about to put in any plans to play these games in the trash......and then I saw the title of this video
Thanks for doing these videos fella, it was nice to revisit these three games after such a long time.
Absolute BANGER video. I perdonally always loved the ambigous, depressing but hopeful ending.
God this is the only ending that actually still get's me emotional
When I first saw Richard and Herman in xenosaga, my first thought was that they were expies of Krelian’s gear-bonded minions from Xenogears.
So, I didn’t think that they would get much focus at all.
Also, you wouldn’t think that Allen would have the mass or strength to knock over a big gnosis like he did at the end, but what most don’t realize is that he grew some dwarf stars for balls when he confronted Kevin.
The sheer mass of them was enough to crush the poor thing.
Space Jesus, we gotta go to space Jerusalem!
Also the Miltian conflict
Interesting that I havent played this game since it came out, loved it, and immediately remembered the mines when you mentioned it as the one blemish of the game. It reminds of of the getting the flower for the girl quest in Star Ocean 3, unneeded side tangent.
If anyone is interested, there's a playlist on my channel called All of my Xenosaga tributes
Of all my playstation 2 rpgs I have played: breath of fire, dot hack, dragon quest 7, etc; I have to admit that Xenosaga is still the one I hold up as a gold standard. I might not have gotten to play the second or third game, but I 100% love the story, aesthetic, world, lore, and so forth. It sits up there with the greatest rpgs of my life and one day i will complete it all.
I want these games on Switch, PS4, and PS5. The second game gets too much hate, IMO.
It is underrated. I remember that really cool boss battle against that one chick with beam swords or something, on some tower in some big open area that is also inside a big building.
And of course that boss fight against that cathedral; it was casting spells and doing attacks with names like “Roar of Lucifer” and I forget what else but I remember it being metal as absolute fuck.
Just watched your retrospective on the series, you really did a great job. I was wonderring, have you ever watched the xenosaga outer file ? It is what originally introduced richard and hermann. You can find animations of the first 2 discs on youtube and the last part of the 2nd disc has a link to the translation of the third disc
Xenosaga 3 does have an autoscroll function if you press the select button during the textbox cutscenes.
Bridget Hoffman did a fantastic job as KOS-MOS and T-elos
She is irreplaceable and hearing she is replaced again in XBC2 due to either scheduling conflicts or retirement really hurts.
@@ZX-Gear Bridget Hoffman is my favorite voice actress despite being underrated but she's versatile like robots, secretaries, sisters, etc
Recently she's did Kanae Kocho from Demon Slayer
Thanks for this series, extremely well done and enjoyable to watch. Nice to find someone who is not only as big a fan of the games as I am, but who basically shares my same opinion on each part of it XD Bravo.
I feel like falling back to the Fight/Magic/Item battle system was an overcorrection from II's needlessly complex one. I would have preferred a return to the system from Episode I. But as you say, it was still a well done version of the basic style.
So you’re saying Jesus saves everything even failing trilogies?
Amazing three videos. You nailed it. Can’t wait to see what else you make of this is the quality we can expect.
The ending of 3 is the only ending that I bawled my eyes out. It truly was a beautiful ending and maybe one day we will get to see more
I played through these with my friend over the last few months, and while Xsaga didn't strike me quite on the same level as gears and blade games, it was still amazing time.
We also ended the playthrough with the anime and I must say, it amazes me how poorly people think of it. Concise version of the story was great imo, I especially loved having more Virgil and Kirsch added some emotional value the first game lacked
In any case, there's videos were great, thank you!
18:39 I got through 7 chapters patiently pressing O until I accidentally pressed “select”
About the cutscenes not having an auto scroll feature, yes they do. It's just off by default. Press square to toggle this function.
No one needs to button mash for eight hours of dialogue. 😅
On second thought, might've been the select button. Haven't played in a few years, but I always toggle to auto at games start.
Amazing work on this video. I thank you.
reminds me of the last star wars mainline movie... and how it was supposed to make up for how the episode before it dunked everything... I haven't seen the last one, but thinking about it, Xenosaga 3 does a much better job of salvaging things with it's 3rd outing than The Rise of Skywalker. at least based on what I've heard about that movie. still... always sucks when a set series has to course correct from a bad sequel... reminds me of Devil May Cry 2 to 3... BUT in it's case it's lucky it could just tell a prequel story and not have to immediately follow up the last game's story.
It really is my favorite JRPG on the PS2.
Xenosaga is an intriguing series, I have often considered KOS-MOS as a female Megaman X. It was a shame how the second game ended up being the disappointing black sheep in the trilogy, before the third game came out with a bang, reviving the popularity of the series and bringing it to a new level. It suffered the same fate as the Devil May Cry PS2 Trilogy, it is worth noting that both third games of their respective series introduced a rival to the protagonists KOS-MOS and Dante, T-elos and Vergil respectively.
One day all four (T-elos will be an echo for KOS-MOS) will be in Smash Bros.
@@felldoh9271 I will give it to you, that would be cool to see.
Fei and Grahf from Xenogears too.
About the reasons for the universe's collapse, do look for the Xenosaga III Perfect Guide. The ending to Episode III did a shitty job at clarifying things and made people think chaos was the cause all along (while the power of Anima can destroy the universe, it's just a Failsafe to prevent a greater threat, the true source of the collapse phenomenon, from spreading to the entire sort of "multiverse" the series features in the background). But it's because of the collapse of the Collective Unconscious due to the wills of mankind rejecting unity with each other, the Gnosis are just the sympthom of this collapse. The Guide clarifies lots of stuff, including stuff dealing with the future story arcs which will likely never see the light of day.
EDIT: an easy way to find these guides is to look for the files of the defunct Xenotensei website, which used to host the Study Guide you consulted as help for these videos.
Beautiful conclusion. The Xenosaga series really solidified my love for JRPGs. The ambitious story telling and themes across xenosaga and xenogears is unmatched.
To be honest, xenoblade is a bit of a dissapointment as a series because the story is so watered down.
Your ending dialogue has me in tears. I love these games. They shaped who I am as an adult. I have 2 nephews now (I can't have kids), and even though 1 was only born a week ago, and 1 is only 1 year and 10 months old (my brother had them back to back) - I long for when they're old enough to play these games. And thinking about it now, even if that means they're 13 - I'll be 50 years old exactly. It doesn't feel like that should be true in my head, but I know it is. I just pray I'm still alive then, and that these games have the same impact on them that they did on me. Thank you for this. I found your channel by chance, and was hesitant to watch another "bad interpretation of this game." But I did, and I'm so happy I did. Thank you, with all my heart :).
Great job on the video. It's pretty ballsy to do such a long and elaborate video on such a niche game, but Xenosaga Episode III absolutely deserves it. It was indeed a miracle that the game turned out as good as it did. It's just too bad how inaccessible it is to most people, not only because it'll probably always be stuck on the PS2 and many people can't be bothered to emulate, but also because the previous two episodes don't play nearly as well and you have to go through them first to follow Episode III's story. The combat is way slower and clunkier in both I & II IMO, while III has incredibly smooth and satisfying battles with very little downtime (even the loadings are insanely quick, it's amazing). In fact, whenever I replay the series these days, I tend to just rewatch the cutscenes for I and II and then replay III (which I always have a blast with). If they could remake the entire trilogy in Episode III's style, it would be absolutely amazing, but sadly that's obviously never gonna happen.
Christmas came early this year 😭
the xenosaga series is one of those things that's more beautiful because it's imperfect.
I felt Shion's arc was heartbreaking and understand she was making irrational decisions when life was stepping on her. My only nitpick is that she didn't hook up with KOS-MOS, she had more chemistry with her than Allen.
Nice video!
This is a very good retrospective for this series. It's a shame it didn't turn out like they wanted, but even with all its faults this series is one of my favorite RPG stories to date with one of my favorite casts of characters, heck my favorite cast of villains of the Xeno series too if you exclude the bad ones from episode 2. Here's hoping for a remaster collection for these games at some point, so newer fans of the series can experience them faults and triumphs all.
I'm hoping Bandai Namco becomes a bit more open to Remastering their older games. Even their flagship Tales series has rarely gotten remasters especially on modern systems. I think we'll kind of get an answer to this soon since the .hack series is celebrating it's 20th anniversary. While G.U. Last Recode did get ported to Switch earlier this year Bandai Namco also trademarked "Last Recollection" which might be the name for the original 4 games' remaster.
If this happens that's just one more good sign on top of Xenoblade doing really good these days that Xenosaga's remaster might see the light of day eventually. I don't think it'll remotely happen this year since Xenoblade 3 is coming out soon, but if there's a gap that Nintendo wants to fill with a Xeno release I wouldn't be surprised if they push Bandai Namco to do it since they've got a pretty good relationship with each other.
I also think Square Enix will remaster Xenogears eventually since they've been remastering a lot of their classic PS1 games, I'm also hoping for Parasite Eve as well.
After watching your analysis videos on these games, I'm probably going to re play the games one day. :3
Dialogue cutscenes in 3 do have autoscroll. You activate it with the Select button. I don't think it's mentioned anywhere, though.
Great video. But I can't agree to the last statement. Yes, Xenosaga doesn't have to be the greatest series of games, because what we got is good enough. That's true. However, in a way Xenosaga Episode III IS the greatest game of all time. I don't care what meta critics think or people who don't care for great characters, music, storytelling or turn based JRPGs. Or even myself when I'm in the mood to like Bloodborne, Nier Replicant, Genso Suikoden II or any of my other favorite games of all times over Xenosaga.
Because the me that's here right now, who knows what it was like waiting for the release of episode III back in 2006, replaying episode II and really disliking the long loading times between every battle and the synthesized BGMs between these great cinematic tracks by Yuki Kajiura, the me who couldn't wait to play the end of this epic story, he's been playing for years until that point and still didn't know what a great finale he was in for, for that me there was never a more prefect, refined, polished game with such a great story before and ever after. You can claim that other games have better combat, better content, better writing, or even better graphics (which will always be not true on PS2). But This is a masterpiece, way more than the sum of it's parts.
By the way, this might seem unimportant, but is actually really major: KOS-MOS ver.4 is the best character design in any medium, period. The design is beautiful and perfect and the ingame model is actually a really good implementation of it. I wish there was a standalone game like Nier: Automata where you instead of 2B control an almost silent KOS-MOS running around some post-apocalyptic world, transferring her weapons and equipment through the UMN. It could also be a souls-like. I would really love that. I love her character design so much that I actually spent well over a thousand dollar on the KOS-MOS dollfie dream (which a photo of has also been my profil pic on any platforms for years and will always be). If you google for that, images of my KOS-MOS doll will likely be in the first few search results.
I know what is was like to go into Bestbuy and buy a Lenticular copy right off the shelf. I've debated for a long time for doing videos because I am tired of ppl comparing this older game to newer games like Trails. Ppl today don't seem to convey what it was to play these games back then and I feel for a long time I felt It didn't matter if I should tell the story or not. As for biggest fans I literally own the largest Xenosaga figure collection in the world and so much more. I just think the mindset of today's games and their players can't be in the mindset of what it was like back then.
@@WatteTv Hi. I just saw your channel. :D Thank you for uploading all these interesting Xenosaga archive videos! That's so awesome.
So much better than Kbash's review, I am grateful this reviews's exists, for me, Allen's the anti Kefka existence in jrpg
I haven’t played these games since they were relatively new I still own all 3 copies and looking back I am glad I still have them. I do disagree with some parts of part two of the retrospective but this is mainly from memory. I do hope they are rereleased though in an hd version so new fans can play them legitimately.
42:00 and that was some foreshadowing... LOL
I could've sworn Xenosaga 3 had an auto play feature for dialogue
After the recent Xenoblade 3 DLC, I have hope that this will finally get at least ported to the switch maybe even an entire remake.
18:50 "I hesistate to call this a problem , since im sure it wasnt what the developers wanted"
- you are talking there about the cutscenes being changed to the ingame models with textboxes ....
that wording is very weird , whatever the reasons have been to make that change , it surely was a wanted change otherwise they wouldnt have made it and it defo was a conscious and wise desision.
Because looking at the Xenoblade games ... a much more refined version of this way of presentation became the standard way of presentation going alongside with conventional cutscenes.
So it was a wanted and a good decision , what sucks is just how it was implementet and the execution in Xenosaga 3 , but at least they learned from it and made it better in future titles.
Whats the name of the track that plays during the ”money, shop” section?
3 is my favorite simply for the QoL improvements and the overall art direction, as well as having an amazing and moving soundtrack!
What was the song you used for 1:10?
This game was Amazing and i felt so sad when beating the final game just knowing the journey was over.. The first and third game never made it to EU for some reason, You basicly had to pirate your ps2 to be able to play it but it was so worth it! This and Baldurs gate 2 are my favorite RPGs of all time.
Oh man, I know you guys in Europe really got fucked over with Xenosaga. But it's great that you were able to find a way to play it in the end
lol, I dunno why I felt compelled to say _"I like Xenosaga, but only as a friend"_ during your closing 🤣
But yeah, I don't consider myself a big fan despite owning the trilogy, a postcard booklet and watching the entire anime (which tbh, disappointed me), I did appreciate the whole experience and don't regret playing these games.
I'm on the Shion hate bandwagon tho, I feel she checks a lot of the Mary Sue symptoms (i.e. tragic past, little to no people hate her, has unexplained and powerful abilities, no one really understand her, is incredibly smart but at the same time naive, she's also beautiful, etc), and tbh she lost what little respect I had for her when she joined Kevin, and Allen beating the gnosis made me burst in laughter.
Jin's demise did break my heart tho.
Another funny thing that I enjoyed was when KOS-MOS merged with T-elos and she now felt so concerned for her teammates, her victory line _"is everyone okay?"_ at the end of every battle made me giggle, yes, the same KOS-MOS who'd shoot through you if you were irrelevant enough was now racing to kiss your boo-boos and ouchies, glad she reverted back at the end 🤣
Anyway, great video series, I'll check if you've made one of Xenoblade series, which I know nothing about, a friend once asked me why I wouldn't play them if I was a fan of Xenosaga and I told him something like _"why? So my heart gets broken again by an unfinished series?"_ lol
Have you played Xenoblade Chronicles 3's DLC? If yes, there is hope for some sort of conclusion to Saga, the ending has a radio made by Vector talking about Dmtri Yuriev and some other stuff and the final scene mirrors the ending of XS3 with the united world of XC2 and XC1 united(people theorize that now it is Lost Jerusalem) and with a blue dot falling into earth which could be KOS MOS or the Elsa
Takahashi further hinted at this by saying that the ending was a hint about what was to come and this same blue dot is in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Soundtrack Album art cover.
@@renren47618 I’ve played it, and I’m planning on making a video talking about it soon.
I absolutely love this game. Even with somewhat rushed end.
Thinking about it while watching these videos I think Takahashi would have been better suited to writing novels, or light novels for his grander stories. I think video games are an excellent medium for telling stories on the whole. But the scope of the stories of Xenosaga were just to much to be contained in a video game, even a series. While I think there would be a better chance of pulling it off with a top class team plus current technology, I still think the best medium for stories of such scope and depth are the written ones.
He is an excellent manager, for games, and excellent creative, and an amazing story teller. In the current role he plays in game development he brings an amazing amount of depth and complexity to games as is shown but Xenoblade Chronicles as well as Xenosaga Episode III.
In the first of these videos I commented that I would love to see the story he meant to tell in a more complete fashion. And I meant that in terms of a video games. For the Xenosaga we did get I still stand by that. A version of Episode II that was up to what Takahashi and Tanaka were trying to tell and a version of episode III that was less rushed, to give the characters and story more room to breath. But for the original, complete story they wanted to tell, I retract that statement. I would instead love to see a written version of the complete story. Because there they can truly go into the depth they wished to. And I am sure it would be amazing.
18:43 that's actually untrue. The game has a built-in auto scroll for the text. If you hit the Select button on your ps2 controller, it will show a message that will either say Auto or Normal. You can only switch between the two.
Excellent review otherwise. Thanks for making this.
i feel like in retrospect the biggest failing of two was never bringing up kevin at all. by the time you get to the point where kevin becomes this big character in episode 3 i barely even remember that kevin existed and his screen time is negligible, most of it is the weird flashback/alternate reality stuff where he's mostly just depicted as an asshole. you just don't get any sense of why shion would care at all about this dude.
Kevin was in XS2 what are you talking about? There’s an entire flashback scene of Shion and Kevin talking about Kos-mos
Standing ovation AWESOME video 👏👏👏👏👏! I would call 3 my favorite, and while I do love the series I do unfortunately consider it a failure. Espescially given it didn't even get out half of the story it wanted to. It'd be great if the ever did try to keep going but I won't hold my breath for it.
XS3 actually does have text auto-advance, you hit the select button I think.
2 was totally forgettable except for that one particular scene , it was just horrifying to experience . 3 is by far the best in the series and i even bought the japanese game because the cover is so awesome . and also because so i could emulate it lol . i wish namco would stop printing trash sword art online games and remake at least xenosaga episode 3. also, after all these years, i still think episode 3 Shion is super super HOT . in episode 2 oh lord wth were they doing there , they ruined shion there and she has a man's body1!!