Becoming Whole | Xenogears Thematic Analysis (Ft. Patrick Holleman)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- Today I'm joined by Patrick Holleman of the Game Design Forum to look at the core theme of Xenogears, one of the most profound and moving stories ever told in video games.
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People are quick to dismiss Xenogears as merely being a story with a lot of angsty ideas thrown together, but it DOES have an underlying cohesive narrative as you guys demonstrated here. It's been my favorite game for some time now, and the story and its references are exactly why. Thanks for the in-depth look at this guys.
I played this game when I was 15. I know recently I had to go back to thoroughly understand this. It's quite complex for someone as young as I was when I played it in 1998.
I really love this game i played it around 15 as well and I started to delve into psychology and psychological theories thanks to it
Xenogears deserves a remake with a proper disc 2 retelling.
@@jego207 I completely agree with that. The problem is that the game is owned by Square. So the Creator at Monolith can't get the rights back. So I was reading anyway.
A remake of this game would be just as ambitious as remaking FFVII. The level of it would be amazing. Maybe one day it will happen.
same was over my head at the time but came back and what a gem
This is probably the biggest reason as to why everyone found this game so confusing, we all played it as 10-15 year olds and remember it that way, lol.
I think you should've brought up Krellian when talking about the one winged angels. Just a touch. But I think it is important that Krellian grows two wings before going to the above dimension to be "one with God", during the ending. Sure it means that he is whole, and in a way humans are incomplete, but it also portrays on how he could never be one of the angels that would lend a hand to another. He was obsessed with "becoming whole" like you say in this video, and he was the only one character who went into completion of that primordial impulse. He was unable to coexist with another human being and needed to complete himself by himself, but since that is not how an entity's placement in the universe works, the "other" for Krellian was the universe itself, peeking into that machinations that run it, in other words: God.
>Wife holding a big Mazinger Z figure
Best wife!
That said, Xenogears is still my favorite game period 20 years later, love it so much.
Then why do you have a Cloud profile pic?
Where's fei?
Great! For whatever reason I have been thinking a lot about XenoGears lately. I can’t even say how much of a travesty it is that we haven’t gotten a remake, with disc 2 done the way it was supposed to be done. Honestly, this may be my favorite story ever told in video games.
100% agree. Maybe SE will consider a remake after they finish ff7r in 2035.
@@Cleancutchaos I doubt it but I would be happy with a remake especially if they were allowed to expand and fix up the back half of the game
XenoGears is great~ i even mare elly in xenoblade X.
I would put up some capital for a crowdfunding effort, but quality games are so damn expensive these days I'm not sure if the cost could even be touched.
@@Cleancutchaos right I would to but games are just too damn expensive now at least the big AAA ones
The quality and research of this video was outstanding. Xenogears is one of my all time favorites rpg's. Even in its time i understood that the were some deeper underlying messages conveyed through the story and dialogs but never did i think it was at this level.
check out dark pixel gamings 3 part series about Xenogears
@@jonathandiosa5739 thank you i will do so.
Wow we're still discussing Xenogears in 2019.....timeless?
Of course we are, Takahashi keeps reusing these themes in Xenoblade.
How I wish they made a remake/remaster/direct sequel of sorts
They kinda did with Xenosaga. But its more of a spiritual prequel. Its the closest thing we'll get to it since the writer doesn't own the writes to Xenogears.
@@jeffhughes7104 Perhaps SE could offer a sum of money to the original writer to provide the synopsis of what the story would have been, and then have other talent come in and fill out the rest.
@@RetroFrito i´d trust monolith more with this task themselves than se ^^
@@diagtot8310 I would too, but SE has talent they just need to put it to use. Example: the folks behind FFXIV are doing an excellent job.
@@RetroFrito true (tho still prefer xi till this day, but they did a great job with xiv^^).. ff vii r seems to shape up pretty well too, cant do much wrong with an existing story... smh i´m still doubtful until i see the finished product xD imo monolith´s track record is better in the overall quality, in most cases i prefer the gameplay choices of se tho.. they should work together for this for the best of both worlds :F
Xenogears is essentially, to its core, a love story that spans over 10,000 years.
Frank herbert would be proud
I'm a simple man, I see Xeno, I like
Then you my friend are far simpler than Fei Fong Wong.
@@padraicburns9278 I don't know, Fei ends up being one of the more complicated and interesting characters in the game, but you tell me
When I played Xenogears I was 16 and going through some serious religious conflicts of my own having lost my grandfather 2 years and really struggling as I was really starting to lose my faith and because of that the story really resonated with back then. Years later I replayed it and I have a new level of respect further understanding the complexity of this story and really appreciating the psychological conflicts presented in this more than the religious ones. Such a complex story, the likes of no other RPG I've ever played.
If only every video on youtube had this much thought and effort put behind it. You guys did a fantastic job!
A game set apart from any other of its kind and for many others like myself, a life changing experience. At 13, I remember there being a shift in my life after playing through Xenogears, when all the sudden I was this new curious person existing as part of a much much bigger universe than the one I previously lived in. For me, Xenogears was a integral part of a maturation process as a kid and how I thought. It was a game that would give me a deep sense of wonder in my youth and that would set the bar and course of my journey in life, leading me to seeking out answers to deep questions like who and what are we, where did we come from and where are we headed… you know, all the existential stuff we ask ourselves some point in our lives. Xenogears almost didn’t happen but I’m damn sure grateful it did!! A lot of us probably would have been really different people had it not 🙂
I remember bringing the game to the church I grew up in to let my friends barrow it and all their worried moms would ask me before letting their kids bring it home… what is this “stand up tall and shake the heavens” stuff all about?!?! I’d say, oh nothing mam… it’s a life changing experience is all it means lol 😆
I absolutely love this game, it's also fascinating how much of this was brought back into Xenoblade Chronicles 2, though a lot of it was quashed by the English localization.
Takashi really has a story in his heart that he wants to tell, and those stories never fail to touch my heart
Xenoblade 2 is a good rpg but I think the plot written is so shallow compare to xenogears .
@@andytk2723 To be fair Takahashi wanted XC2 to feel more like the shonen anime he grew up on. And probably wanted to try a different type of story while still keeping the ideas of what makes a Xeno game. Seeing as he's said he gets tired of the last thing he works on and usually wants to do something new.
YES, Xenogears is forever be in my all time greatest RPG games list.
Xenogears is such a masterpiece. I really enjoyed listening to this entire video. Reminds me of how much I love this game
As a young person, Xenogears sparked my interests in archeology, technology, mythology, psychology, strategy, and caused what I suspect will be a lifelong addiction to understanding and connecting abstract concepts. My personal favorite game, and the ultimate young INTJ's wet dream as far as I can tell LOL. I might have (almost) all the knowledge in the world in my pocket at all times, but... I still go back to Xenogears from time to time for inspiration and satisfaction. Your video is the perfect introduction for those of us who can't help but dive deep into the lore of Xenogears, the minds of it's creators, and the theories that fluenced the story of Xenogears. Great job!
What a AWESOME video. Actually I just finished the game TODAY, after 15 years (the first time I played). Now that I’m old, I cloud clearly understand the true meaning of the drama. This is an absolute MASTERPIECE, and literally one of the best storytelling of all time. A story so rich that my mind froze watching the credits after the final animation. I know that the story tell us about “becoming whole” but, right now, I feel bad, empty haha because the game is over. I still have some hope about the Chapter VI (6). We deserve that. Thanks for the video, it’s very informative. Cheers!
Everyone's talking about symbolism and stuff, and I'm just thinking about Ramsus.
I would imagine he was supposed to have a larger role possibly as a party member... hmmm? He really takes an emotional beating in the game (not too different from most characters), however things were rushed and so forth, so it is, Xenogears remains perfectly imperfect.
In a weird way, you and Pat became whole to make the best video on the channel. The two of you should be very proud.
Dude, this is some seriously fantastic work. Xenogears is a hearty topic, it just covers soooooo many different things but you managed to make a video that beautifully elaborates on it.
I had such a massive crush on Elly when playing this game as a 13-year old.
Xenogears' still my favorite game.
This explained so many things I wanted to know about this game. Thank you
Xenogears is the most meaningful videogame ever made. I am so sad it doesn't have a true sequel. The main message of bringing together the shattered pieces has sequel potential. Since they have to rebuild a broken world. Maybe they can seek Lost Jerusalem in the sequel, like that they realize the world is not only the New Jerusalem of the story. Maybe "seeking contact" would be the valuable message to share there... That would bring meaning to some of the characters who don't get real background, Citan Uzuki and Emeralda would be great as playables.
Xenogears was a game when I played it back as my 13 year old self I struggled to get into it's story. However it is it's complexity of the many themes and deep plot and My drive to not only learn more of the story but analysis the plot and themes almost on a higher level of thinking. Takahashi and Saga are two of the best writters in the industry and despite it's many flaws Xenogears is a game that is truly magnificent.
Best game ever made.
Xenogears, flawed as it is, is one of the best classic JRPG's of all time and it's story is one of the best in all video games. It's a damned shame what happened with disc 2. Thank you for showing this old, somewhat forgotten game some love and attention. It's unlikely it will ever get a remake, but I will never give up that hope. And it's videos like this one and conversations about the best elements of the game (like the amazing music and plot) that keep that hope burning.
Excellent Video guys, Each time Mike talk about Xenogaers I learn new stuff. Also, great thanks to Ft. Patrick Holleman for all is insight.
Got this game for Christmas in 1998 at 14 and i play it at least once a year. 21 years later and i'm still learning about the game, that should tell you how deep and involved the story is. I sorta understood the concept of what was going on as a teenager but i didn't fully grasp the story as a whole until a few years ago.
One of the best videos of this channel. I would love to play a complete readapted version of Xenogears in the Nintendo Switch. One that includes all the content they could not include in the original version!
There is already a re-adaption of Xenogears on the Switch. It's called Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And no I'm not just saying that because they're both Xeno games. XC2 borrows a good number of themes Xenogears tackled but handles it in it's own way and easier to understand to the general audience. Serious after watching this video I realized that it's very similar to the relationship between drivers and blades.
@@FireFury190 There are some affinities but the stories and motivations are vastly different. XC2 does not qualify even as a spiritual succesor in my opinion. Even so, good observation.
@@zithfrg Fair enough. They share themes but have very different stories. Though while the Blade games do have their own style that's vastly different from Gears and Saga, they obviously still want to retain elements from those past games as to not lose their routes. And to me personally if they continue to do that then I see them as fine successors.
Of all the stories I've experienced through books, movies, series, and games, XENOGEARS stands high above everything else. Playing that game was a to get as close to the sublime as you can get.
I hope this game will get a PC release someday. Wouldn't even care if it's remake/remaster, just being able to play it again would be a godsent.
For the longest time I've wanted to get a tattoo of those one-winged angels cuz of this game.
I've been replaying Xenogears recently and I noticed a lot of these themes while playing it. It really is fantastic in the way it executes all of its themes. Great video!
Dont know who will see this, but Xenogears made me actually want to research more into a game simply because of how large the story was. Great analysis and I look forward to more of these from you!
I thought the shattering mirror was not only reminiscent of the main character's psychology but also on how the world of Xenogears lives separated from it's own history, every land and era is like a separate entity of it's own and it is only you as a player, through the recollection of the memories of Fei and Ellys' past lives, can put them together into a whole glass or mirror.
I wish they remade this game instead of ff7
Great analysis, played this during my teens i only managed to understand the basic concept of these theories. When you elaborated about this it revealed that xenogears is actually deeper than it seems beyond the surface. What made it even better was it took those concepts and made them easily understandable through storytelling without going too much into the details.
Videos like these are my favorite part of Resonant Arc. Unlike any other gaming channel out there. Excellent!
Beautiful video. It touches many subjects that all of us who have played Xenogears love and cherish, and does it in such a clean and direct way... Just beautiful.
I'm crying! We all just want to feel WHOLEEEE
Ghoopi Woldburger the whole 10,000 year story line in XG was just the dream of one boy, Abel, wanting to be whole with someone... 😢
Still my favorite game of all time. It's set the bar for story telling so high, it's hard to enjoy the stories of modern games.
This game shaped almost my all visions of reality nowadays. Such a powerfull and underated title
The idea of male and female as two halves of a whole is seen much earlier, see Plato's Symposium. Also, the name Sophia stems from the Greek word for love, like how philosophy is literally translatable as love of wisdom. Just thought you should know.
This video is great and deserves so many more views. Thumbs up!
Xenogears is to psychoanalysis what Final Fantasy Tactics is to politics.
This is an AMAZING video... thanks man... really great!!! Xenogears the best game of all time!!!
I could listen to ya'll talk about Xenogears pretty much non-stop, and I think there's enough material in the game to do so, great video
Incredible video. I played the game in 1998, and replayed the game in 2013-2014. This video still got me thinking of new things and themes.
This was fantastic, just wonderfully written and produced. Thank you for making it!
Great video! Great game!
Zenmenz! My man. I sent you a message on discord. If you have a second hit me up!
Wonderful analysis. I enjoy analytical videos of video games a lot and the way you guys analyze them makes this a great watch.
It's the greatest game of all time for a reason. No game has even come CLOSE to its ambitions, and there are a lot of edgier games today that would never get made if Xenogears didn't cannonball into that water.
Man I loved xenogears mature themes and aesthetics when it came out for PS1 but for some reason I could never get into the Xenosagas and Xenoblades as much as I did with xenogears because I felt they changed those mature themes and depth for anime tropes.
I remember picking the first Xenosaga up at random from a Blockbuster shelf ages ago and being sucked in. It hits some of the same notes even better than Xenogears, had a great cast and great themes but could be a slog to play through at times just to get to the next cutscene so you can find out what happens next. Never had the Nintendo consoles needed try the Xenoblades, not sure how those are.
Great video. Makes me want to see you guys tackle the themes of the Xenosaga and Xenoblade games. Especially since there are a number that carry over from Xenogears.
Your analysis is excellent, as usual.
Patrick is probably really focused on his writing but I would love to see more content on his channel.
Here's what I did to get(or try to get...) a better understanding of Xenogear's story: Played it once. Played it again. And again, and again... and again. I would be lying if I said I understood all of it, but it certainly helped me a lot even if by just a little. Every new playthrough, I found something new and used that new thing I discovered to connect to other elements of the story. Ofc I used the internet a lot, to research what every new concept or word I didn't know about was/meant. It's like a puzzle that can only be solved with perseverance and dedication. What helped me the most was how fun the combat system was in this game that I never really found stale or boring. That played a big part on my repetitive playthroughs of this fantastic game.
I cherish this game like no other and it's thanks to it that I was able to expand my knowledge on a lot of topics I was ignorant about. And then there's this platform called TH-cam where I saw a lot of videos with the ideas I already had formulated on my mind and also new ones that I never considered the possibility of being able to connect it to the story of Xenogears. And for that I thank you and all the people who gave their perspective on all of the themes this game has because I always learn something new.
Never in my life I would've thought that a video game would take me on this journey of craving for knowledge. It shows that video games can in FACT be a form of art just as much as books are. They are just told and presented differently. But both are still Art.
Special thanks to Tetsuya Takahashi, Hiromichi Tanaka, Kiyoshi Yoshii, Kunihiko Tanaka, Kaori Tanaka,Yasuyuki Honne, Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda for creating this masterpiece. I apologize if I missed someone but that's everyone I could find involved in this big project.
Also a special thanks to every youtuber and non-youtuber out there who took the challenge of analyzing the thematic scope of Xenogears.
Thank you.
I love every single video you guys make about this amazing game!Its soo sad we dont get games with this amount of depth anymore
Awesome video guys.
Good stuff, makes a nice companion piece to your review. I’ve not played it but Xenogears seems emblematic of the time Square took risks and experimented. Funnily enough, that thought came into my head after finishing Final Fantasy 8 for my Switch, because although flawed, it was a made with love, risk and vision.
Then a friend sent me a trailer for FF7 Remake, and I had the profound realisation we are never getting those days back from this studio.
Times change I guess. Remember the good times, learn and grow, then find something new
If you never played it then you at least owe it to yourself to listen to the soundtrack. Yasunori Mitsuda is a genius!
I know you used 3 for the sake of freud's idea, but fei had, actually, 4 personalities.
Citan explains it at shevat, this fourth personality is the one who is capable of joining all the other 3.
That was fantastic. Exactly the sort of content I come here for.
Top of the list of my favorite RPG if not of all games. I agree to what you say about the makers great topnotch ability of storytelling.
I played it back when I was in middle school and I only recognized the biblical references but I kinda get the messages conveyed. The plus point is it made me interested in other religious, scientific and phonological references put there.
Xenogears was truly an eye opener for me back then. It's still even now.
very nice video again! ty~
I always love the ways how you dive into these games.
...are you by any chance also interested in covering xenosaga in the future?
Xenogears is my all time top favorite game. I usually play all the way through it once a year. The music, the story, the game play everything is mostly perfect in my opinion. I wish they had more time to give us more of the story on the 2nd disk and let us explore a bit more. Tha k you for this video it was week done
amazing stuff
Beautiful video, love this history a game that truly deserves a remake!
Very interesting video.
love the story and the music of the game. i hope it gets a remaster someday..
Brilliant work
Xenogears has a few things over Final Fantasy Tactics. No really this is a great video that emphasises how important tying each character in a text back to its themes is.
I've never wanted a remake so bad. I loved playing this as a kid, I was confused as hell the first time I played it.
First saw the thumbnail, freaked thinking the game was remastered, good upload though.
great to see another Xenogears video from you guys it truly is a great game in terms of storytelling and the themes it wants to explore maybe someday we will get to Xenosaga as well? just a thought...
I remenber that line from the movie being parody in a episode of Jhonny Bravo that was also a parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, now i know from were that line comes from.
Well done breakdown. I enjoyed the video.
a truly great game , i love this video , looking forward to more about this game
Excellent video. Bravo sirs.
More Xenogears is always a good thing!
Amazing
Good job on the Psychology and Sociology parts, but the Mythology contains errors or misunderstandings.
All this talk of Anima and animus. Ho Boy I cant wait for you to return to Mistborn and the greater Cosmere. I am super excited about these reverse game designs I love to learn more about actual game design that works
I'm actually more than halfway through Well of Ascension right now! -Mike
@@ResonantArc would love to see your reactions again. I have read it many times but recently got the audible version of Mistborn and rewatching your review.
the game is masterpiece in term of story
okay stopping the video because I HAVE to play this game. AKIRA levels of mysticism
This better be good
Oooo a Xenogears video!
I'm a simple man. I see Xenogears and a reasonable watch time, I click.
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE
Soylent Green is spoiled without pity....😂 sorry for This classic.
After having played the game, seen the entire story, then watching this video... Finally... "Ohhhhh" I see.. lol
Soylent Green is...PEOPLE!!!
One of the greatest games of all time, Square needs to remaster it and redo the 2nd disc/half though
God, I love this game!
Ever thought about making a video about Odin Sphere? It has an amazing plot.
Haven't thought much about a video, but I did play the game and thought it was really great.
Deserves a proper remake for the 2nd half of Xenogears disc. I know there's Xenosaga but we need a Xenogears remake with the original director/writer. Maybe SE and Bandai Namco can work something out.
I think you mean SE and Nintendo. While they were originally part of Bandai Namco, Tetsuya Takahashi's company, Monolith Soft, eventually became a subsidiary of Nintendo. As Nintendo bought 80% of them from Bandai Namco back in 2007. And acquired Namco's remaining stake in Monolith in 2011.
This game is gosticism dressed in a storyline. The fact that you found Jung or the others there is because they were Gnostics.
Great video, more ad time than video time is pretty irritating though!
I want to watch the entire video, but I want to replay the game without the spoilers ♥
This is what I miss from Square Soft :(
Fantastic