They'd botch the remake like they are botching the FFVII remake with 1000000 little and massive changes here and there. 20 years ago, Xenogears was a controversial game due to the religious and sort of terrorist acts within the game by radicals. People love drawing parallels between what should fantasy worlds and fantasy characters to real life. Xenogears would lose a lot of what makes it special if they were to ever remake it. I think the original should stay and a big NO to any remake for Xenogears. Square Enix has proven they cannot be trusted to remain faithful to the source material with the FFVII remake coming.
@@asmodeus58XXWhy blame Sony? Square Enix owns FFVII and is doing the remake. The combat system is going to feel weird I think. I think it will resemble the Final Fantasy Zero system mixed with Lightening Returns System. I just think a Xenogears remake would lose a lot of what is in the original if the current Square Enix were to ever remake it.
@@jackmyowl It’s not blasphemy. FF7 is one of the most overrated games of all time. For the most part Xenogears is pretty much superior to FF7 in every sense of the word!
@@Aurumk1 Saga has nothing to do with Gears, it's a completely separate story leaning heavily on Gears nostalgia, packing in ridiculous amounts of references.
I also strongly suspect Xenogears was influenced by Neon Genesis Evangelion, too. Well, I love them both. I played Xenogears first, shortly after it came out.
Interestingly, additional official books in Japan for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 seem to imply that Xenogears and Xenosaga are in a multiverse with Xenoblade 1 & 2. Also, Square did put Xenogears references in World of Final Fantasy, so it's not totally forgotten
@@Ozzhiroth not that, I've seen that (and thought it was awesome and encouraging to see Square hasnt fully forgotten Xenogears!), I was referring to the Xenoblade, Xenosaga, and Xenogears being in the same multiverse
@@alexandrefurneribeiro3265 well. They clearly are. Just look at all the very clear referencing going on. Playing xeno 2 on switch I saw how the conduit "came from another dimension" LOL. That's clearly the zohar
A great video for a flawed masterpiece! Fun fact : Xenosaga was originally supposed to be SIX games, and when you look at the very first 8 minutes trailer for the first game, you can see scenes that are at the end of Xenosaga II. We had a great trilogy (well, mostly 1 and 3, anyway), but I am sure that original vision would have been massive!
I was disappointed when I find out they were cutting it down to 3 games. Maybe we can do a gofundme to buy the rights to Xenogears and have it remade with everything they had to cut out due to time.
The fun thing though is that there were 2 Xenogears events in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which I think it's really awesome. At least I could see why it was never included in the PS Classic
A consise rundown of Xenogears Erick. I remember when the game first came out in 1998 and you could rent it from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video here in the US. The animated cutscenes were so captivating to watch. The plot was all over the place in a roundabout way, but made you appreciate Fei's story in the end.
Makes me happy to see more and more videos showing appreciation for this gem. When I first played this game, I'd had strong religious beliefs, some of which I began to see differently because I realized how much I was like Billy; I was ashamed of my father and I turned to religion and denounced him. My father didn't like that and sometimes he would make fun of my faith, which further fueled my disrespect for him. I tried to change him till I learned to open my mind to new ideas, which made me open my heart to him. I was fortunate enough that I became close to him before he died. That's why Xenogears is that much of a big deal to me. Thanks for the video.
Xenogears is the game that completely changed how I experience games. The story and gameplay influences how I play every single game to this day, and to be honest even completely ruined a lot of games for me, I've been forever waiting for a game that can give me a similar feeling.
My favorite game of all time. This video didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but very good for people unfamiliar with the history of the game. Very well done video man, good job.
Great video, Erick. Xenogears is my all-time favorite game. I’ve been gaming since 1988 so I’ve played some games lol and Xenogears is my favorite. Don’t get me wrong I know there are other GREAT games out there like the Legend of Heroes series, DQ, FF, Tales of, etc... but Xenogears is just special TO ME and I wish we could have gotten more since Xenogears was supposedly episode V. I’m grateful and loved Xenosaga and Xenoblade (even Xenoblade X and I wish they complete that story) but would have loved to see more Xenogears. For now I hope we get an upgraded remake of the Xenosaga trilogy since that seems more likely to happen than an upgraded Xenogears. However, a PS4 or PS5 version of Xenogears would be VERY MUCH appreciated if ever they decide to do it. Please, Square lol
Dude, I love xenosaga growing up. I picked up all three out of curiosity at a local store called bookmans. Loved the story and gameplay. Love your shirt btw.
I may be in the minority here... but IMO neither Xenosaga nor Xenoblade can even scratch the level of greatness that is Xenogears, even in its incomplete state. I'd buy THE HELL out of a remake and/or remaster (redrawn sprites and textures, leave everything else as it is)
SE actually recently said that they're aiming to re-release their whole library. It's probably just going to take some time to do a remaster, since Xenogears comes from around the PS1 era, where bigger productions take took up more space would have a lot of assets and the source code scrapped and lost due to limited storage. It means they'll have to be redoing a bunch of work in the same vein as what FFVII (the port, not the remake), IX, X, KH1, and the upcoming VIII remastered ports all needed to go through in the process of remastering them. The question is now more of a matter of when rather than if.
Masterpiece is the perfect word to describe this game. They got a combination where all elements were great. Sound, gameplay, graphics (to the system it was released at least), plot...it was the best Squaresoft work of all time in my opinion.
I remember when Xenogears was released it blown people's minds because it was the first Jrpg that allowed the camera to be moved in different angles back than Jrpgs had static frames and you had no control over the camera it was truly ahead of its time.
Well there is even more to this story. Story of Chrono Trigger is also based on proto-Xenogears script. When Sakaguchi got green light to make a Enix-Square co-production he had very little time. You see both Square and Enix employes had a some free time, after both team finished or were finishing thier 6th entry in series (FF for Square and DQ for Enix). It was the only reason why managment of both compaines agreed to make something together. But there was no script for that game. T2 (Tetsuaya Takahashi) for some time already wanted to make his own game, Xenogears story was developed by him for some time already, but noone in Square except Sakaguchi belived that game can be made. Also T2 never wanted to go 'half-way' and cut some of the things from the script. He belived this story need to be told the way he imagined it. Nevetheless people from Square knew that many ideas in proto-Xenogears script were great and wanted to use them in their games. That is how story for CT was created, Square dev decided to use some ideas from T2 script for Xenogears since they had little to none time to make their own. That is also why Deus and Lavos are so similar, same as Zeal and Solaris. Ideas of reincarnation and story taking placy across hundreds of years was changed to time travel. Ofc T2 was never too happy about that, he wanted to make his own game, while his ideas were used by others on theirs games. But this happend one more time, durring development of FF7. This time tho Sakaguchi was able to make a deal with T2, he asked him to lend some ideas from proto-Xenogears script once more for exchange to allow him to finally make him his own game in FF7 will be a scuccess. Again Square had little time to make FF7 and they were under high pressure. Leaving Nintendo and joining Sony was a HUGE risk, but the money that Sony offerend could make future of Square way brighter. FF7 is a miracle game that somewhow was able to mix story from many sources, including T2 script. You can even find a 'hidden' mesage from T2 in FF7 when you talk to Cloud on weelchair few times, he will say few lines from a song made for Xenogears (that development just started at the time). Sakaguchi was right, and FF7 was a huge success. But even Sony's money and success of FF7 were not enought to make Xenogears. Takahashi's dream was not possible to make, not then, and maybe not now. That is why CD2 of Xenogears is so rushed. Despite T2 beeing a great scripwritter, he head great ideas, he was too unexperienced to make his game. We can blame Square that they 'didnt gave him more money', but the truth is T2 just was not good enought of a director. That was his 1st game he directed and he already wanted to make his dream game. We know how that ended, still at least he made it and we can enjoy Xenogears, even if it is halfbaked.
Great video. I am currently playing Xenogears for the first time in almost 20 years. I love your The Cure Shirt By the way. I see you also have a great taste in music not just video games
Well, Disc 2 solves a problem that I have with many RPG: the tedious road to the end after dozens of hours playing the same game. I have also loved the artistic way in which the story is told in this disc.
I am still hoping against hope, for Square Enix to relinquish or sell the IP back to Monolith. Seeing how they've worked the Xeno brand, now as their own company and proper funding they may be able to give this gem the treatment it deserves.
Played a demo of this game that I believe was part of ff7 as a bonus demo disk with a bunch of other demos on it too. You played up until when FEI gets into welltall for the first time. Elly and Bart join you on your trip to Citans and I think you had a lot of skills already. You were also treated to a great AMV compilation of all the cutscenes from the game after the playable part ended. Played this and I was rabid to play the actual game. Once I got it, it's one of my favorites of all time. ❤
Xenogears is a masterpiece. There hasn’t been a novel, movie, or game that has compared to the experience of playing this game. It may not be perfect but it is a lot more memorable than other “complete” games.
i don't think that xenogears is controversial, i think they were worried it would be. I'm a christian, and xenogears is in my top 5 games of all time, likely my top 3. I picked up PE back in the day and there was a demo for xenogears, i played that as i wasn't digging PE1 (loved PE2 though), and went back to find out when xenogears would be released. Bought it asap :P
I know Takahashi left Square on somewhat bad terms, but the company has changed quite a bit since, and Nomura even made some character designs for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. SE has also been looking more into its portfolio of older titles, and all these factors make me believe that there's a chance for a Xenogears remake, however, I'd want Takahashi and Saga to be at least consulted over the development of a hypothetical remake so their original vision is truly realized. Pyra/Mythra in Smash have also not only brought attention to Xenoblade but Xenosaga and possibly Xenogears as well. Recently, an "HD-2D" remake of Dragon Quest 3 was announced, which also makes me wonder if a Xenogears remake will look like Xenoblade Chronicles DE (if you compare the character models of XBCDE to Xenogears art you'll notice that it's straight up Kunihiko Tanaka's art, especially if you compare Fiora to Elly) or be in the HD-2D style somewhat started by Octopath Traveler. However, this all also depends on whether Takahashi would want to go back to his old passion project. As much as I'd want Xenogears to be remade, I also want to respect his wishes. However, with Nomura designing some characters for XBC2 and Takahashi constantly putting references to not just Xenosaga but also Xenogears into Xenoblade I find that a bit unlikely. I also wonder, since it's been 30 years since the remake and society has changed in those years, what would be changed or outright removed in a Xenogears remake? Since if it would get remade it would definitely be released worldwide this time around. I think the religious overtones would remain somewhat untouched since questioning religions isn't as controversial today as it was years ago but something like the portrayal/mentions of DID and... incest would probably be changed. We've come to understand mental disorders more since the late 90s, I think maybe DID wouldn't be namedropped like it is in the original game, although people would probably still assume it's DID (I don't want to go into details bc it's a huge spoiler lol). As for the incest, well, I've no idea how that would be changed. It's there due to a monarchy though and to me it doesn't feel like it's romanticized but it's rather just... there. It's been a few years since I played the game though so I might be wrong. A lot of people know incest wasn't uncommon in monarchies so it's possible it might not be that controversial, as long as it's made abundantly clear (which to Xenogear's credit, it does make it clear that the two are related and in a monarchy). The thing I worry the most about when thinking about a Xenogears remake however is the 2D animated cutscenes. I really love the look of 90s anime and the 2D animated cutscenes look so nice. If those cutscenes get remade my fear is that they won't have the same spirit as the original late 90s ones, since I'm not as fond of the look of 2000s anime. The use of colors makes everything look so... plastic to me. Didn't mean to turn this into a wall of text but when considering Xenogears remake there's so much that needs to be accounted for, and due to all of these factors it's possible that SE might also just settle for a simple rerelease on modern platforms for the time being if they wanted to bring the game back in any shape or form.
It's my favorite jrpg of all time for me is the best script ever made for any game of any genre, if they had the budge and time to make disc the way takahashi wanted without rushing everything this game would be considered for much more people the best jrpg ever made
When people say Xenogears copied Evangelion and yet Rebuilds and Eva 3.0 still following Xenogears plot points. (not the same story but play XenoGears and suddenly Eva makes a lot more sense in what's happening, never mind the identical scenes)
its been forever since its been out and i still play this to satisfy my nostalgia of the good ol times... its an undying masterpiece that will never fail to engulf you in its story cheers
just started playing this again 2 weeks ago since it's release. at the last boss now, doing battle arena before the last fight. man I freaking love this game just as much as I did as a kid.
I played nothing but platformers until I found Xenogears. Been hoooked on rpg’s ever since. But after almost 20 years of gaming since then, this game is still my top pick. Needs a remake.
I thought Bandai Namco bought the rights to Xenogears from Square Enix which resuled the birth of Xenosaga Trilogy. Xenosaga's story is (almost) so close to Xenogears' story. It is like before Xenogears' timeline.
Thats cause it is. Look up xenogears perfect works. Its a sort of ff ultimania type artbook and concept book on what there was supposed to be. Xenogears is ch5 of the overarching story. Xenosaga was supposed to be the 1 to 4 chapters. There is a 6th chapter also mentioned in it... Which would line up with the 2 xenoblade games for Wii and switch (spoiler. They take place at EXACTLY the same time. And are tied into xenogears via the conduit which is the zohar. They even mention in xenoblade 2 that it came from another dimension. 😜)
The whole Xeno series has quickly become one of my absolute favorite JRPG series of all time. Xenogears was a fucking masterpiece. I've never played Xenosaga, but I've just recently finished playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles series, and I am absolutely in love with the franchise. The first Xenoblade was great, though I think it's a bit overrated. But Xenoblade 2, this has to be one of my top 5 favorite videogames of all time, and I'm not exaggerating one bit. I'll definately be revisiting the game over and over again in the future. Anyway, I'm kinda ranting all over the place here, but I'm mainly just saying I love Xenogears, and especially the Xenoblade series that came after it.
this and "vagrant story" are the titles i would have loved to see a sequel, a prequel or a remastered version. i love how the story and the battle system of these games were made. its a classic no doubt.
Square was going to let Takahashi make a sequel (prequel?) to Xenogears (which evetually becomes Xenosage at Namco) if it sold 1 million copies in Japan. Xenogears sold 900,000. It already had public and critical acclaim. Yet Square did not allow the sequel. That was the direct reason Takahashi left. And I absolutely agree with you that Square went on a sharp down trend to oblivion right from that point.
Dont know about Trigger but ff7 is by far inferior to Xenogears imo. The lore in Xenogears far eclipses ff7's. I'd say FF7 is to jrpgs as Dragon Ball Z is to anime. It set a bar and it's characters are iconic classics but it's plot was over all, simplistic.
By plot and story, Not sure why FF7 is mentioned here but ff7’s story is no where near close gears. I’d put ff6 or ff10 better in story than 7. Gears imo had a great story to tell but if I were to choose between the xeno series, plot wise I’d go with saga. Gears had better storytelling that was more organized than saga despite disc 2’s shortcomings. Saga had an ambitious plot that’s better than gears with poor writing and story telling
Dao Yang yes and it was declined because of its dark themes.. everyone knows that but still incomparable since it has a bigger lore than what FF7 went with.
Y'know, maybe I should be proud of the fact that this is the only Playstation game I own on original disc. Fun fact, I actually bought it despite not owning a Playstation, with intent to emulate. The fact Playstation discs can be read by any stock PC CD-ROM drive is a handy thing.
Just finished this game the other day... a flawed and fractured masterpiece to say the least. But man the story is unrivaled. The soundtrack just keeps spinning in my head and I keep thinking about the plot and characters as I go about my day in a haze. Immediately upon completion yesterday I dived into researching the plot and the writer's influences and I'm fascinated. I'm also checking out the Perfect Works supplemental and I'm just sad we won't ever see the full tale through the 6 episodes, nor will we even see a remake of Xenogears in its most true form. The game will likely be long forgotten once our generation passes and that is very heartbreaking. (I'm 26 btw, I would have been just a little too young to grasp this game at the time of its release although I was an avid squaresoft and final fantasy fan). I would pay top dollar to see this game revived somehow. That is, if the magic of the original game could even be replicated or preserved. Regardless I am glad I got to experience the incredible journey of Xenogears. I feel oddly changed in a way and I can say I love this game. Also, check out r/Xenogears. Awesome community of people who appreciate this game and wanna keep it alive. Have a good day everyone!
Miss this title so much. Way better than FFVII final script, yet the title was cramped, together with FVIII and Chrono Cross due to schedules and deadlines. I Started redrawing Xenogears characters for a personal challenge. Finished only Ramsus and shared on DeviantArt. Yet I love Xenogears and can't stand the path Xenosaga and Xenoblade took over the years.
I vaguely remember playing Xenogears when it originally came out. I was in middle school, and I somehow understood what was going on with it's heavy text dialogue. Not saying I caught onto the philosophical references, but understood very well what was going on and how it was heavy on religion. Very deep and made you open minded about humanity, the identify of a person, and so much more. I didnt catch on until years later when I watched a retrospect review that talked about the game, and the trouble it had with the second disc. I never realized when I first played it, how rush it was.
Oddly enough they did at least add cameos appearance of xenogears in both world of final fantasy with a optional boss and did a limited time event in brave exvius where u can get characters from xeno. Not forgotten by SE just no major plans with it. A pity
Xenogears it's not really a STAND ALONE game, it's an EPISODE within the world of XENO universe. Xenosaga and Xenoblade are other episodes that are loosely connected however they all share the same Zohar.
Well, Xenogears the gear does show up as a superboss in World of Final Fantasy (called XG). Has the old moves too tho when you fight it, the main characters tell you (or almost) that its from the wrong franchise, kinda funny considering.
I will not be buying the FF7 remake. It looks like highly polished trash. I've been saying it for years, both Square and Enix lost their heart and soul when they merged.
Xenogears is my favorite game but even I admit that it's sad that the game was never finished due to development, management, and budget issues. Despite this though, I am actually fine and satisfied with the original as it is and am praying that it is never remade because turning a game like Xenogears into a modern RPG would forever ruin the legacy of such a special and unique piece of gaming history. Square Enix already ruined the legacy of one of my favorite games of all time with the Trials of Mana remake being turned into a modern RPG due to pressure from the modern gaming community, I just hope this will never happen to Xenogears as well it deserves better than that.
I still play I today, best game ever. In retrospect it may acually be the story of us....still mind bending to this day. I also enjoy xenosaga and my new favorite my 500 plus hors on xenoblade c2.
Good video, Erick. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of Xenogears. I tried to get into it but I couldn't. However, it does have an interesting backstory and I can respect how influential it was.
The story of Xenogears was very unique. I would not mind a hd remake someday.
They'd botch the remake like they are botching the FFVII remake with 1000000 little and massive changes here and there.
20 years ago, Xenogears was a controversial game due to the religious and sort of terrorist acts within the game by radicals.
People love drawing parallels between what should fantasy worlds and fantasy characters to real life.
Xenogears would lose a lot of what makes it special if they were to ever remake it. I think the original should stay and a big NO to any remake for Xenogears.
Square Enix has proven they cannot be trusted to remain faithful to the source material with the FFVII remake coming.
@@Luckiecchi You should blame Sony for the changes, unless you mean the action combat.
@@asmodeus58XXWhy blame Sony? Square Enix owns FFVII and is doing the remake.
The combat system is going to feel weird I think. I think it will resemble the Final Fantasy Zero system mixed with Lightening Returns System.
I just think a Xenogears remake would lose a lot of what is in the original if the current Square Enix were to ever remake it.
@@Luckiecchi although I love the game, current situation of politics would ruin xenogears remake
@@khmergodhobbiesI agree!
I said it over 20 years ago and I say it still: greatest RPG of all time IMHO.
I sooooo much agree with this. What a genre defining rpg. I adore that game!
Same here. There hasnt been another rpg that I havr played and loved more then any other game out there.
Along with that, it has some of the best tracks I've ever heard. June mermaid is still one of my fave songs.
@@whydoyoukeeptalking absolutely, along with the one who is torn apart
i totally agree!! hope they would remake this!! i can dream can i?
A remake completing the second part of the rushed story would be fantastic.
it was originally going to be a 5 part series!
So much was cutted and chopped.
@@vollkerball1 6 and that was just from the book, especially since XG was right at the end of the timeline.
I'd be okay with an AI graphical increase with a better fleshed out second disk. Asking for everything they initially wanted may be too much.
Xenogears is my most favorite JRPG ever!
What I'm about to say maybe considered blasphemy, but....
"I would have taken a
Xenogears Remake
Over a -Final Fantasy VII- Remake"
@@jackmyowl It’s not blasphemy. FF7 is one of the most overrated games of all time. For the most part Xenogears is pretty much superior to FF7 in every sense of the word!
@@jackmyowl FF7R is overrated.
@@dansmith1661 I agree
For me, the best game and the best story ever made.
Even with its flaws, even with its problems, Xenogears is simply on another level
it's the same with dark souls 1, it's buggy and not perfect, but it's the best of the trilogy, imo.
While it inspired spinoffs or spiritual sequels, it's a shame this didn't spawn a TRUE long running franchise.
xenosaga was the prequel to it, xenoblade was the spiritual successor. All the xenoblades were amazing games.
@@Aurumk1 Saga has nothing to do with Gears, it's a completely separate story leaning heavily on Gears nostalgia, packing in ridiculous amounts of references.
@@TheKain202 were the Saga series not loosely based on the perfect works book that spanned a chunk of the timeline that was in Xenogears?
@@daoyang223 No, it wasn't. It was just packed with references and Easter eggs.
@@daoyang223 just think of it as an alternate universe if you will
I also strongly suspect Xenogears was influenced by Neon Genesis Evangelion, too. Well, I love them both. I played Xenogears first, shortly after it came out.
Xenogears is brilliant. It cast such a huge shadow over almost everything that I played afterwards.
Interestingly, additional official books in Japan for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 seem to imply that Xenogears and Xenosaga are in a multiverse with Xenoblade 1 & 2.
Also, Square did put Xenogears references in World of Final Fantasy, so it's not totally forgotten
Really? Wow, can you please provide a link?
@@alexandrefurneribeiro3265 just look up xenogears secret boss in world of ff. You fight the xenogears and make it your summon.
@@Ozzhiroth not that, I've seen that (and thought it was awesome and encouraging to see Square hasnt fully forgotten Xenogears!), I was referring to the Xenoblade, Xenosaga, and Xenogears being in the same multiverse
@@alexandrefurneribeiro3265 well. They clearly are. Just look at all the very clear referencing going on. Playing xeno 2 on switch I saw how the conduit "came from another dimension" LOL. That's clearly the zohar
I like how Lucca is In Xenogears right in the Beginning village of Lahan!
A great video for a flawed masterpiece!
Fun fact : Xenosaga was originally supposed to be SIX games, and when you look at the very first 8 minutes trailer for the first game, you can see scenes that are at the end of Xenosaga II. We had a great trilogy (well, mostly 1 and 3, anyway), but I am sure that original vision would have been massive!
I was disappointed when I find out they were cutting it down to 3 games. Maybe we can do a gofundme to buy the rights to Xenogears and have it remade with everything they had to cut out due to time.
I LOVE this game. The story, the characters, gameplay and mecha. Too bad they rushed the completion
me too. i was lucky to find it, i bought it on a guess. probably my favorite for playstation (or maybe all time)
The fact you just casually put Elly's crucifixion scene in without a spoiler warning is absolutely mind-blowing
Then again this was 4 years ago
The fun thing though is that there were 2 Xenogears events in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which I think it's really awesome. At least I could see why it was never included in the PS Classic
and the actual gear Xenogears that Fei had in the end, was a boss in World of Final Fantasy using the name "XG".
A consise rundown of Xenogears Erick. I remember when the game first came out in 1998 and you could rent it from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video here in the US. The animated cutscenes were so captivating to watch. The plot was all over the place in a roundabout way, but made you appreciate Fei's story in the end.
Makes me happy to see more and more videos showing appreciation for this gem.
When I first played this game, I'd had strong religious beliefs, some of which I began to see differently because I realized how much I was like Billy; I was ashamed of my father and I turned to religion and denounced him. My father didn't like that and sometimes he would make fun of my faith, which further fueled my disrespect for him. I tried to change him till I learned to open my mind to new ideas, which made me open my heart to him. I was fortunate enough that I became close to him before he died.
That's why Xenogears is that much of a big deal to me.
Thanks for the video.
Xenogears with alil the fails it has is one of the best stories ever tell in a game ever.
Top 3.
Too strong, too fast, too good.
Xenogears is the game that completely changed how I experience games. The story and gameplay influences how I play every single game to this day, and to be honest even completely ruined a lot of games for me, I've been forever waiting for a game that can give me a similar feeling.
The image of Elly in the thumbnail resembles kosmos from xenosaga if you change the hair color. Good vid.
Same character designer.
My favorite game of all time. This video didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but very good for people unfamiliar with the history of the game. Very well done video man, good job.
Great video, Erick. Xenogears is my all-time favorite game. I’ve been gaming since 1988 so I’ve played some games lol and Xenogears is my favorite. Don’t get me wrong I know there are other GREAT games out there like the Legend of Heroes series, DQ, FF, Tales of, etc... but Xenogears is just special TO ME and I wish we could have gotten more since Xenogears was supposedly episode V. I’m grateful and loved Xenosaga and Xenoblade (even Xenoblade X and I wish they complete that story) but would have loved to see more Xenogears. For now I hope we get an upgraded remake of the Xenosaga trilogy since that seems more likely to happen than an upgraded Xenogears. However, a PS4 or PS5 version of Xenogears would be VERY MUCH appreciated if ever they decide to do it. Please, Square lol
Where the hell is my Xenosaga HD Trilogy Namco??
I am a simple man, I see xenogears and I click.
Script by perfect works.
Dude, I love xenosaga growing up. I picked up all three out of curiosity at a local store called bookmans. Loved the story and gameplay. Love your shirt btw.
I may be in the minority here... but IMO neither Xenosaga nor Xenoblade can even scratch the level of greatness that is Xenogears, even in its incomplete state. I'd buy THE HELL out of a remake and/or remaster (redrawn sprites and textures, leave everything else as it is)
This game would be perfect on Switch
agreed i want it now
This game would do an amazing remake, fixing the disc 2 rushed script and adding free camera and keeping the music and visual style.
Yes, we will likely never get a Remake (or even a remastered port) of Xenogears, we can only hope for a Xenosaga re-release. That would be great
SE actually recently said that they're aiming to re-release their whole library.
It's probably just going to take some time to do a remaster, since Xenogears comes from around the PS1 era, where bigger productions take took up more space would have a lot of assets and the source code scrapped and lost due to limited storage. It means they'll have to be redoing a bunch of work in the same vein as what FFVII (the port, not the remake), IX, X, KH1, and the upcoming VIII remastered ports all needed to go through in the process of remastering them.
The question is now more of a matter of when rather than if.
Masterpiece is the perfect word to describe this game. They got a combination where all elements were great. Sound, gameplay, graphics (to the system it was released at least), plot...it was the best Squaresoft work of all time in my opinion.
I miss playing Xenogears, it’s such an unforgettable game!
Favorite RPG of all time. Still waiting for remasters and a proper continuation to plunk down some cash for.
I remember when Xenogears was released it blown people's minds because it was the first Jrpg that allowed the camera to be moved in different angles back than Jrpgs had static frames and you had no control over the camera it was truly ahead of its time.
No, Breath of Fire III and IV had that down first.
I really want this game to be fully remade. I hope Monolith Soft gets a hold of this license.
Of all of Squaresoft games i think this one is the one that NEEDS a remake.
I eagerly hope SquareEnix allows Monolith remake Xenogears on Switch
No comment XD
This game is in the contender spot for my fsveroit jrpg against Suikoden 2. I absolutely love this game.
Well there is even more to this story.
Story of Chrono Trigger is also based on proto-Xenogears script.
When Sakaguchi got green light to make a Enix-Square co-production he had very little time.
You see both Square and Enix employes had a some free time, after both team finished or were finishing thier 6th entry in series (FF for Square and DQ for Enix). It was the only reason why managment of both compaines agreed to make something together.
But there was no script for that game. T2 (Tetsuaya Takahashi) for some time already wanted to make his own game, Xenogears story was developed by him for some time already, but noone in Square except Sakaguchi belived that game can be made. Also T2 never wanted to go 'half-way' and cut some of the things from the script. He belived this story need to be told the way he imagined it. Nevetheless people from Square knew that many ideas in proto-Xenogears script were great and wanted to use them in their games.
That is how story for CT was created, Square dev decided to use some ideas from T2 script for Xenogears since they had little to none time to make their own.
That is also why Deus and Lavos are so similar, same as Zeal and Solaris.
Ideas of reincarnation and story taking placy across hundreds of years was changed to time travel.
Ofc T2 was never too happy about that, he wanted to make his own game, while his ideas were used by others on theirs games.
But this happend one more time, durring development of FF7.
This time tho Sakaguchi was able to make a deal with T2, he asked him to lend some ideas from proto-Xenogears script once more for exchange to allow him to finally make him his own game in FF7 will be a scuccess.
Again Square had little time to make FF7 and they were under high pressure. Leaving Nintendo and joining Sony was a HUGE risk, but the money that Sony offerend could make future of Square way brighter.
FF7 is a miracle game that somewhow was able to mix story from many sources, including T2 script. You can even find a 'hidden' mesage from T2 in FF7 when you talk to Cloud on weelchair few times, he will say few lines from a song made for Xenogears (that development just started at the time). Sakaguchi was right, and FF7 was a huge success.
But even Sony's money and success of FF7 were not enought to make Xenogears.
Takahashi's dream was not possible to make, not then, and maybe not now.
That is why CD2 of Xenogears is so rushed. Despite T2 beeing a great scripwritter, he head great ideas, he was too unexperienced to make his game. We can blame Square that they 'didnt gave him more money', but the truth is T2 just was not good enought of a director. That was his 1st game he directed and he already wanted to make his dream game.
We know how that ended, still at least he made it and we can enjoy Xenogears, even if it is halfbaked.
Of course. This is just a subjective video with a little background. I'm not the RPG historian, you know?
22 years and I still listen to xenogears OST.
Great video. I am currently playing Xenogears for the first time in almost 20 years. I love your The Cure Shirt By the way. I see you also have a great taste in music not just video games
Man you don't know how long i've been waiting on you to cover this game, thank you. Already sharing the vid to rpg friends.
One of my favourite JRPG’s, such a shame that we’ll probably never see a remaster or remake of it 😭😰
This is still my all time favorite rpg. I have a physical copy as well as digital.
Definitely my favorite game of all time. It's fine just being itself without an update, though it would be interesting.
Well, Disc 2 solves a problem that I have with many RPG: the tedious road to the end after dozens of hours playing the same game. I have also loved the artistic way in which the story is told in this disc.
Kei Onda? thats why i cant stand persona 4. GET TO THE POINT ALREADY ITS BEEN 70 HOURS
I am still hoping against hope, for Square Enix to relinquish or sell the IP back to Monolith. Seeing how they've worked the Xeno brand, now as their own company and proper funding they may be able to give this gem the treatment it deserves.
Yeah I don't understand the logic of them keeping it but I am also not a lawyer
one of the best RPG need a remake of xenogears!!!
Played a demo of this game that I believe was part of ff7 as a bonus demo disk with a bunch of other demos on it too. You played up until when FEI gets into welltall for the first time. Elly and Bart join you on your trip to Citans and I think you had a lot of skills already. You were also treated to a great AMV compilation of all the cutscenes from the game after the playable part ended. Played this and I was rabid to play the actual game. Once I got it, it's one of my favorites of all time. ❤
Oops the demo disk with Xenogears came with Parasite Eve, not ff7.
I see this in my youtube recomendations and now i found a new great channel. Good job man!.
Thanks, glad to know you found me that way.
Met one of my best friends in 7th grade. Dude introduced me to Xenogears.. so many memories.
Squaresoft > square-enix
Xenogears is a masterpiece. There hasn’t been a novel, movie, or game that has compared to the experience of playing this game. It may not be perfect but it is a lot more memorable than other “complete” games.
i don't think that xenogears is controversial, i think they were worried it would be. I'm a christian, and xenogears is in my top 5 games of all time, likely my top 3. I picked up PE back in the day and there was a demo for xenogears, i played that as i wasn't digging PE1 (loved PE2 though), and went back to find out when xenogears would be released. Bought it asap :P
MY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS GAMING 1999-2000-2001
I've never heard of this until now because it was never EVER released in Europe!? I have to download this and play it for the first time now.
I know Takahashi left Square on somewhat bad terms, but the company has changed quite a bit since, and Nomura even made some character designs for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. SE has also been looking more into its portfolio of older titles, and all these factors make me believe that there's a chance for a Xenogears remake, however, I'd want Takahashi and Saga to be at least consulted over the development of a hypothetical remake so their original vision is truly realized. Pyra/Mythra in Smash have also not only brought attention to Xenoblade but Xenosaga and possibly Xenogears as well. Recently, an "HD-2D" remake of Dragon Quest 3 was announced, which also makes me wonder if a Xenogears remake will look like Xenoblade Chronicles DE (if you compare the character models of XBCDE to Xenogears art you'll notice that it's straight up Kunihiko Tanaka's art, especially if you compare Fiora to Elly) or be in the HD-2D style somewhat started by Octopath Traveler.
However, this all also depends on whether Takahashi would want to go back to his old passion project. As much as I'd want Xenogears to be remade, I also want to respect his wishes. However, with Nomura designing some characters for XBC2 and Takahashi constantly putting references to not just Xenosaga but also Xenogears into Xenoblade I find that a bit unlikely.
I also wonder, since it's been 30 years since the remake and society has changed in those years, what would be changed or outright removed in a Xenogears remake? Since if it would get remade it would definitely be released worldwide this time around. I think the religious overtones would remain somewhat untouched since questioning religions isn't as controversial today as it was years ago but something like the portrayal/mentions of DID and... incest would probably be changed. We've come to understand mental disorders more since the late 90s, I think maybe DID wouldn't be namedropped like it is in the original game, although people would probably still assume it's DID (I don't want to go into details bc it's a huge spoiler lol). As for the incest, well, I've no idea how that would be changed. It's there due to a monarchy though and to me it doesn't feel like it's romanticized but it's rather just... there. It's been a few years since I played the game though so I might be wrong. A lot of people know incest wasn't uncommon in monarchies so it's possible it might not be that controversial, as long as it's made abundantly clear (which to Xenogear's credit, it does make it clear that the two are related and in a monarchy).
The thing I worry the most about when thinking about a Xenogears remake however is the 2D animated cutscenes. I really love the look of 90s anime and the 2D animated cutscenes look so nice. If those cutscenes get remade my fear is that they won't have the same spirit as the original late 90s ones, since I'm not as fond of the look of 2000s anime. The use of colors makes everything look so... plastic to me.
Didn't mean to turn this into a wall of text but when considering Xenogears remake there's so much that needs to be accounted for, and due to all of these factors it's possible that SE might also just settle for a simple rerelease on modern platforms for the time being if they wanted to bring the game back in any shape or form.
It's my favorite jrpg of all time for me is the best script ever made for any game of any genre, if they had the budge and time to make disc the way takahashi wanted without rushing everything this game would be considered for much more people the best jrpg ever made
When people say Xenogears copied Evangelion and yet Rebuilds and Eva 3.0 still following Xenogears plot points.
(not the same story but play XenoGears and suddenly Eva makes a lot more sense in what's happening, never mind the identical scenes)
its been forever since its been out and i still play this to satisfy my nostalgia of the good ol times... its an undying masterpiece that will never fail to engulf you in its story cheers
Basically square ran out of funds the 2nd disc was rushed and a sequel wasn’t allowed so Monolith split and made two Xeno franchises Saga&Blade
Didnt mention that Xenogears was episode 5 of 6, so there could have been a sequel damn it!
just started playing this again 2 weeks ago since it's release. at the last boss now, doing battle arena before the last fight.
man I freaking love this game just as much as I did as a kid.
I think monolithsoft is behind the Project X Zone games and Robot Taisen on the DS, they got some bangers under their belt!
Yep, amazing games.
Replayed the game after so many years. Now wanting to play it again.
I played nothing but platformers until I found Xenogears. Been hoooked on rpg’s ever since. But after almost 20 years of gaming since then, this game is still my top pick. Needs a remake.
This ff7 and fft will always be my favorite rpgs
I thought Bandai Namco bought the rights to Xenogears from Square Enix which resuled the birth of Xenosaga Trilogy.
Xenosaga's story is (almost) so close to Xenogears' story. It is like before Xenogears' timeline.
Thats cause it is. Look up xenogears perfect works. Its a sort of ff ultimania type artbook and concept book on what there was supposed to be. Xenogears is ch5 of the overarching story. Xenosaga was supposed to be the 1 to 4 chapters.
There is a 6th chapter also mentioned in it... Which would line up with the 2 xenoblade games for Wii and switch (spoiler. They take place at EXACTLY the same time. And are tied into xenogears via the conduit which is the zohar. They even mention in xenoblade 2 that it came from another dimension. 😜)
@@Ozzhiroth Xenosaga has nothing to do with Gears, the stories are completely incompatible, it just leans heavily on Gears nostalgia and references.
Squaresoft happened. Then Square Enix happened.
At least KOS MOS still appears once in a while and the Xeno series lives on in Xenoblade.
The whole Xeno series has quickly become one of my absolute favorite JRPG series of all time. Xenogears was a fucking masterpiece. I've never played Xenosaga, but I've just recently finished playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles series, and I am absolutely in love with the franchise. The first Xenoblade was great, though I think it's a bit overrated. But Xenoblade 2, this has to be one of my top 5 favorite videogames of all time, and I'm not exaggerating one bit. I'll definately be revisiting the game over and over again in the future. Anyway, I'm kinda ranting all over the place here, but I'm mainly just saying I love Xenogears, and especially the Xenoblade series that came after it.
It is so good seen people who likes Xenoblade 2 too
I think it has more deep themes than Xenoblade 1 that aren't valued by everyone
this and "vagrant story" are the titles i would have loved to see a sequel, a prequel or a remastered version. i love how the story and the battle system of these games were made. its a classic no doubt.
Square was going to let Takahashi make a sequel (prequel?) to Xenogears (which evetually becomes Xenosage at Namco) if it sold 1 million copies in Japan. Xenogears sold 900,000. It already had public and critical acclaim. Yet Square did not allow the sequel. That was the direct reason Takahashi left. And I absolutely agree with you that Square went on a sharp down trend to oblivion right from that point.
Xenosaga and Xenoblade can not even "touch" Xenogears. Only Chrono Trigger and FF7 are on the same level, maybe Mass Effect trilogy is there...
Dont know about Trigger but ff7 is by far inferior to Xenogears imo. The lore in Xenogears far eclipses ff7's.
I'd say FF7 is to jrpgs as Dragon Ball Z is to anime. It set a bar and it's characters are iconic classics but it's plot was over all, simplistic.
Chrono is good. Xenogears spawned a ton of other xeno games that are good imo. Games like saga and blade are awesome.
By plot and story, Not sure why FF7 is mentioned here but ff7’s story is no where near close gears. I’d put ff6 or ff10 better in story than 7. Gears imo had a great story to tell but if I were to choose between the xeno series, plot wise I’d go with saga. Gears had better storytelling that was more organized than saga despite disc 2’s shortcomings. Saga had an ambitious plot that’s better than gears with poor writing and story telling
@@pallafox people like to compare the two since ffvii was supposed to be gears
Dao Yang yes and it was declined because of its dark themes.. everyone knows that but still incomparable since it has a bigger lore than what FF7 went with.
Art and literature. I love this game forever! Vagrant Story had the same issue.
Y'know, maybe I should be proud of the fact that this is the only Playstation game I own on original disc. Fun fact, I actually bought it despite not owning a Playstation, with intent to emulate. The fact Playstation discs can be read by any stock PC CD-ROM drive is a handy thing.
I dont need a complete remake of this game.
Just give us a disc2 remake and that will absolutely be more than enough.
One of the greatest RPGs of all time. Thank you Erick for this!
One of those games that deserve all the time and money in the world to reach its full potential, really wanted all the planned episodes.
The picture you showed is not Kaori Tanaka but Yoko Kanno.
Xenogears and the original Star Wars Knight of the old Republic...
these 2 titles need a HD remake with completed "missing" parts.
If they came out with this game again but actually finished the true story with same graphics I bet it would break all records
i love your vids bro, keep it up!
Seeing how much I love Xenoblade Chronicles, I might try this out if they ever remake it.
I still have my copy of xenogears I’m soo blessed
Just finished this game the other day... a flawed and fractured masterpiece to say the least. But man the story is unrivaled. The soundtrack just keeps spinning in my head and I keep thinking about the plot and characters as I go about my day in a haze. Immediately upon completion yesterday I dived into researching the plot and the writer's influences and I'm fascinated. I'm also checking out the Perfect Works supplemental and I'm just sad we won't ever see the full tale through the 6 episodes, nor will we even see a remake of Xenogears in its most true form. The game will likely be long forgotten once our generation passes and that is very heartbreaking. (I'm 26 btw, I would have been just a little too young to grasp this game at the time of its release although I was an avid squaresoft and final fantasy fan). I would pay top dollar to see this game revived somehow. That is, if the magic of the original game could even be replicated or preserved.
Regardless I am glad I got to experience the incredible journey of Xenogears. I feel oddly changed in a way and I can say I love this game.
Also, check out r/Xenogears. Awesome community of people who appreciate this game and wanna keep it alive. Have a good day everyone!
Miss this title so much.
Way better than FFVII final script, yet the title was cramped, together with FVIII and Chrono Cross due to schedules and deadlines. I Started redrawing Xenogears characters for a personal challenge. Finished only Ramsus and shared on DeviantArt. Yet I love Xenogears and can't stand the path Xenosaga and Xenoblade took over the years.
I vaguely remember playing Xenogears when it originally came out. I was in middle school, and I somehow understood what was going on with it's heavy text dialogue. Not saying I caught onto the philosophical references, but understood very well what was going on and how it was heavy on religion. Very deep and made you open minded about humanity, the identify of a person, and so much more. I didnt catch on until years later when I watched a retrospect review that talked about the game, and the trouble it had with the second disc. I never realized when I first played it, how rush it was.
Square hasn't forgot about the game. World of Final Fantasy had Xenogears as a hidden boss. But I believe there are some licensing issues now.
I still haven't played a better story. Nothing matched it to this day in my experience, and I play a lot of games.
When not being able to continue with a project for whatever reason leads to just as successful if not more successful projects.
I just bought this on PSN on my Vita, and it's awesome being able to play it anywhere.
Oddly enough they did at least add cameos appearance of xenogears in both world of final fantasy with a optional boss and did a limited time event in brave exvius where u can get characters from xeno.
Not forgotten by SE just no major plans with it. A pity
Xenogears it's not really a STAND ALONE game, it's an EPISODE within the world of XENO universe.
Xenosaga and Xenoblade are other episodes that are loosely connected however they all share the same Zohar.
Xenosaga should get remaster mainly at least part 1 and 3
And the Characters itself Was Firion(Fei) Lenneth(Elly) doflamingo(Citan) Fate Gilgamesh(Bartholomew) (JP Voice Actor JK)
We need a Switch HD update. I wouldn't mind a Xenosaga compilation also.
The way every time a FF and KH comes out I have to rampage about how SE just left Xenogears in a corner to rot
Well, Xenogears the gear does show up as a superboss in World of Final Fantasy (called XG). Has the old moves too tho when you fight it, the main characters tell you (or almost) that its from the wrong franchise, kinda funny considering.
I don't trust squeenix to remake this game...they could butcher this masterpiece=/
I will not be buying the FF7 remake. It looks like highly polished trash. I've been saying it for years, both Square and Enix lost their heart and soul when they merged.
Xenogears is my favorite game but even I admit that it's sad that the game was never finished due to development, management, and budget issues. Despite this though, I am actually fine and satisfied with the original as it is and am praying that it is never remade because turning a game like Xenogears into a modern RPG would forever ruin the legacy of such a special and unique piece of gaming history. Square Enix already ruined the legacy of one of my favorite games of all time with the Trials of Mana remake being turned into a modern RPG due to pressure from the modern gaming community, I just hope this will never happen to Xenogears as well it deserves better than that.
I still play I today, best game ever. In retrospect it may acually be the story of us....still mind bending to this day. I also enjoy xenosaga and my new favorite my 500 plus hors on xenoblade c2.
This game... This game changed my psyche.. This game changed who I became.
I wish they released Xenosaga 1 and 3 in EU!😞
Good video, Erick. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of Xenogears. I tried to get into it but I couldn't. However, it does have an interesting backstory and I can respect how influential it was.