The ULTIMATE Recap of Xenogears (RECAPitation)

[@RexBuyeo]

I can't believe my parents bought me this. This story just flew right by my kid brain. The whole time I was like "THAT'S AN EVEN COOLER ROBOT THAN THE LAST ONE!"

[@enshk79]

HAHAHAHA

[@GeorgeZimmermen]

Sheeet, I played this in 2011 when I was 22 and it still flew over my head

[@hundun5604]

Yep, this is a good game to replay when older.

[@SeanUCF]

For reals. I don't think I grasped even 5% of the story as a young teenager but I just kept playing for the next awesome mech and combat abilities. Definitely need to replay with my adult brain now.

[@RexBuyeo]

Me at the end: "Why is everyone naked?"

[@TheCrazyCanuck420]

The story compressed into 54 minutes makes it even more batshit crazy :)

[@capthawkeye8010]

It's not really. It's fundamentally a story about the importance of maintaining trust and love in the people you know as opposed to trusting institutions and systems who's only purpose is to use, consume, and expend human life endlessly for the sake of simply maintaining that cycle. Don't look to nationalism, religion, or leaders to validate your existence because they don't care about you. Instead, keep your loved ones close and trust them. So like yeah I guess white people don't get it.

[@moenibus]

even worse, he doesn't even mention Perfect Works (the book), this is a very linear and shallow review. makes the game looks very disjointed and mediocre.

[@PurpleLightning6was9]

@@moenibus Why the fuck would he mention an outside source for a game review? If you need outside sources to make your game good, then it isn't a good game. And this is coming from someone who likes Xenogears.

[@Sharkeisha1]

I recommend everybody look up Alex jones explains xenogears if u can find it

[@vashtanerada100]

Man, the second disk of jumps right off the rails straight into crazy town.

[@crozraven]

When I was a kid, the early hours of this game made realize this game isn't for kids. The complexity & the maturity of the overall story really a mind blown to me at that time as this game is basically the first JRPG I played along with Legend of Dragoon.

[@HendriS_1707]

luckily for me, this game came out when I was in middle school, so I understand half the content of the game and as I replayed it over and over (I counted 38 times until my PS1 burnt down literally) I keep finding new information every time. Yes, this game is so complex...

[@dacracking5768]

Legend of dragoon is another little masterpiece

[@JM-bl3ih]

the story isnt actually all that mature in terms of good story telling. the amount of twists and new story elements that are tossed in even late into the game, make the whole story rather incoherent. its still a fun game, but the story needed to be tightened up a bit

[@mrbubbles6468]

The story is not so much complicated as it is convoluted

[@hardserpent4672]

Brooooo same here, xenogears, deonr mission 3, and final fantasy 7 were the big 3 for me then onto xenosaga, front mission 4 and final fantasy 10, im actually alternating between xenosaga, front mission 3 and legend of dragoon right now still have all 3 and playing on my playstation 2 haha

[@arpeeph]

Damn.... How fun would it be to get an HD remake of this game and extend the DISC 2 to be more complete with dungeons and other story arcs to be playabe... WEW... I can only dream :D

[@uptown710]

Arpeeph This game is begging for 1) High res sprite work. The animation quality is all around excellent. But the low resolution kinda hurts it. If we could get at least 720p assets, this would be awesome. 2) The game needs a script rewrite. Not taking away from the original, but it can be done a lot better. 3) Monster redesign. Lots of enemies (especially when riding your gear) felt really hokey and out of place. 4) And of course, someone needs to redo the event planning for the 2nd half of the game. The massive info dump needs to go.

[@gogauze]

I basically agree on all counts. A full HD remaster of the game and constructing disc 2 into fully playable content, with a massive script edit (and maybe some bonus content). No need to completely redo it from scratch, assuming they still have all of the engine and build assets to work from. Just realize the full potential of the game, from the original tools, on modern hardware would be enough for me. Though, I sincerely doubt that will ever happen. Tetsuya Takahashi, the lead developer, left square to found Monolith Soft (and make his other Xeno games). So I doubt that Takahashi and the brass at Square would engage in a revival project that's only bound to benefit Square financially. Plus, while it was one of the best RPGs ever developed, it was a niche hit instead of a runaway genre busting game like FF7; the game that brought JRPGs into the mainstream. So I doubt there's enough interest to bank on a remake any better than a hasty port. And no thank you to that idea.

[@firetarrasque4667]

It probably won't happen, but the current Xenos are on Nintendo platforms, and Nintendo has a better relationship with Square now than for a while so... One in a million, not a trillion?

[@gogauze]

3.14 Dragon I can only wish. Can you even imagine higher poly redesigns of the gears? Barring that they heavily inspired designs in Xenosaga.

[@firetarrasque4667]

Sad face.

[@mojo7798]

OH MAN!!! This is the BEST RECAP EVER!!! I was really sick and tired of all the youtubers that said: "I'm going to "tell you" the whole story, but not give you spoilers", so in the end they didn't said anything at all, just giving me a hard time and made me waste my time. Thank you so much for finally telling the whole story. I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!

[@blackheartro4769]

I love this comment

[@tinyjester27]

What is Xenogears? Only one masterpiece of a game that got little praise in wake of FF7. Honestly one of if not the best RPG I ever played. People think Xenosaga is based before this, but creators said there are similarities shared, but two totally different stories. I hope with all my heart they remake Xenogears at some point. Reason being? They didn't get to fully finish the game hence why the last CD seemed very rushed.

[@Keshin4539]

tinyjester27 Along with FF8, Xenogears is one of the most Unfinished games of Square back in the day. Xenoblade Chronicles is awesome, but I wanna see a true ReMake of Xenogears that does it the Justice it deserves. Especially in this Day n Age where things are constantly ReMade for the better.

[@AnimeMiner57]

I feel like a remake would be good considering the popularity of XenoBlade just to show people where it all started

[@pforgottonsoul]

i'd like remakes of both xenogears and xenosaga, i love the xenoblade games and want to get into the previous two but i feel they might feel a bit dated at this point so a remake would be great.

[@FluffyWuffy17]

patrick watkins I'd love it too, but with Gears onwed by Sqaure, Saga by Namco, and Monolith by Nintendo it probably won't happen. I wish those Xenosaga remaster rumors were real.

[@johnnyscifi]

tinyjester27 Its a spiritual successor only...

[@TyTang24]

I played this so long ago and wanted to remember what happened. I have so much regret. This game seemed so much simpler when I was 10 years old and just thought "mechs saving the world!"

[@blackheartro4769]

word

[@randymorris3417]

Same

[@OniBlackMage]

Thanks for everyone's patience and sorry for the impromptu hiatus! The next RECAP will be Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls!

[@DrMedicsGameSurgery]

Any idea on how long before UDG comes out?

[@OniBlackMage]

Going to TRY to get back to my old pseudo-schedule, which was about 2 videos a month (roughly every 2-3 weeks). For UDG, I'm aiming for the end of the month, but it will be asap so it may be sooner.

[@OniBlackMage]

Thanks for watching, I'm glad it helped. I'm watching the new anime too so it's pressure to get it out fast.

[@DrMedicsGameSurgery]

***** No worries, quality over quantity, thats what i like, dont rush if you dont have to

[@aneonfoxtribute]

Sweet. I can finally use that so someone else can watch DR3

[@XDantevsVergilX]

WE ARE MEN OF THE SEA!!

[@Gotz_the_iron_hand]

I would say this in unison with you if only I didn't have this injury.

[@p0613v]

Both Bart and the Captain in unison

[@Kibira87]

Captain of THAMES!

[@peger]

:D

[@Kibira87]

Tom Fluxus dropping a warship on me is cheating....here...take it back..

[@benjamindonahue9434]

Thank you so much for making this. Xenogears may actually be my favorite game ever. I've played through it at least 5 times but to this day never fully understood it. For the first time I think I do now. Hope you'll tackle the hard part and move on to all of the Xenosagas.

[@randymorris3417]

I would pay good money for a good designer to remake this game on a modern game engine

[@rwaaarrrrr]

One of the most complex games ive ever played in my life.

[@Keshin4539]

Brandon Canady agreed. I played this as a 11 year old and couldn’t fathom it all. Still, it left a HUGE impact on me and helped form the gamer I am today. So much so, my daughter’s middle name is “Elly”. This game is amazing and I want a ReMake of it as much as I want a ReMake of MS Saga.

[@Dumpstermuffin1]

11:24 "dropping a war ship on me is cheating! Take it back!" -Id

[@richardsonrichly8456]

28:53 the save point is not only a physical thing in the game but its also canon !? Now thats fucking awesome

[@TheMixedPlateFrequency]

I love the music and the scenes you did. you Put them in order along with your recap, that is very awesome! =D

[@LAVATORR]

35:10 "Oh good, that little interlude with the wall of text and the chair was a neat little break, but I'm glad it's over. Can't wait to get back to playing more Xenogears on Disc 2!"

[@xx_pit_xx8492]

I was at the end of first disc and leave it at that like one year or so, thank God I find some good summary at last for remembering the little details. So thanks for making this video even if you don't read this

[@Taikaru]

What a breathtaking game. All these years later and still learning details of how everything fits together. Not sure I've encountered another story of its scope - it practically defines the (now overused) term "epic." And am I the only one who feels like Abel & Elly is one of the most moving romances ever? A love that always finds its way again and again through even the darkest of hardships and 10,000 years of reincarnations. I just really love this game apparently... and still yearn for a day when all chapters of this vast vision could be properly funded and realized.

[@СергейСтаровойтов-д4с]

Elly and Fei is the best romance story in video games.

[@samreddig8819]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't original Ellie kinda original Fei's mom?

[@Rob-tq7xq]

It was a little bit normal, then graf flat out told fei he was supposed to kill god

[@leeman27534]

and every time that asshole showed up to power up the boss, it was just to provide fei an even bigger challenge, to sort of polish his little god slayer's potential even more.

[@ulengrau6357]

Yep... a misreading on Nietzsche's "God is dead." by young, enthusiastic Japanese developers.

[@dacracking5768]

As you casually do in any given conversation

[@Matteo_11]

Just want to say I find this, and all your "story" videos amazing. I would really like to see the story of XenoSAGA presented this way.

[@scottn322]

As an aside, I think the two portions of this game that I loved the most were when you went to Bledevik (sp), and the prison sequence. With the city portion, I loved how detailed that city was, and how easy it was to get distracted by everything as you explored, hunting for secrets. The story there was also very fun. The prison sequence was kind of irrelevant to the overall plot, but there was just something about it that I loved. Again, it was incredibly detailed, and I found myself getting lost in it. The story there was also a lot of fun, and while it wasn't necessarily my most favorite thing in the game, I did enjoy the Gear battles.

[@wrath2501]

Some missed point here. 1. After leaving old man Bal Fei and Citan fight a weird gear named Calamity. It's huge and powerful and it's design becomes important later. 2. During the tournament in Kislev Fei and Rico fight a creature killing people in the sewers. The creature and what happens there becomes important later. 3. Didn't even mention ft. Jasper till you use the gun to destroy the gate. 4. Miang and Elly were one person who split and she transfers her mind to another woman when she dies. When Ramsus killed Miang she entered Elly becoming one being again. 5. Fei recombined his personalities when he remembered that his mother overpowered the will of Miang and save him from being killed by the backlash of his own power.

[@SagaFraga]

Great eyes. I get it all except for the calamity thing. Who’s gear is that and what purpose does it serve

[@jjhh320]

Fei and Bart fight Calamity, and he did mention something about it being a prototype for Siebzhen.

[@jjhh320]

@@SagaFraga Calamity belongs to old man Bal, and I think maybe he was actually trying to kill Fei because when Bal repaired Weltall, he came back horrified and saying that it was a machine to kill the gods or something iirc

[@franciscojavierdelacruzcac5116]

this story is really confusing. You did a great job there.

[@johnsnow9210]

Wtf did i just listen to. Awesome confusion!

[@ranjayd]

Not as complex as kingdom hearts like idk what's going on in there...

[@xKillZone99]

I heard this game went through hell during production, honestly if they remastered it and made the story and game more polished it would stand up there some of the best RPGs of all time.

[@dudebro5527]

Not really

[@joshuataylor7443]

@@ranjayd I find this as complex.

[@MikeBNumba6]

Was waiting for you to do this game. This is by far the most confusing game I ever played. Lol

[@edeonsaint9938]

It's soooooooooo dense.

[@neokitty488]

and for some reason I understand this game more than Chrono cross lol

[@RadicalDreamer17]

Well, Chrono Cross wasn't written by the same guy. Kato worked on Xenogears (and parts of FF7) but Chrono Cross was like... his own personal take at a complex story (and sequel to Trigger). I agree with you though... I think Xenogears' story simply works better than Chrono Cross'. But I think a lot may have to do with the fact that Xenogears was its own thing... while Chrono Cross tried to be a sequel to Trigger (and a remake of Radical Dreamers)... and there are frustrations about that.

[@RymeEchizen]

why confuse? i played and beat this game when i was 12.

[@MikeBNumba6]

@rhyme confusing as in story line. if you understood the storyline at age twelve then you must be a genius. This shit made no sense. I only played it when I was about twelve because the robots looked like Gundams. But I never understood the game. I tried playing it last year using an emulator on my phone, but the game froze. So I stopped

[@cheshire_skatkat9093]

This was such an awesome game. Loved the key command inputs for attacks!

[@jmarra07]

I love this series. You take everything step by step and it's easy to follow along. Some games I've played I get to reminisce about and some games I've never played I get to learn about. Keep up the good work!

[@ontos8534]

the xeno series never gets enough attention

[@ProtoPropski]

Yeah, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is by far the most known of the whole Xeno Universe of games, but even still its considered a niche game

[@Saitsu11]

I can understand. Xenosaga 1 and 2 ( the games that came after Xenogears) are bland and unnapealing. I stopped to follow Xenogears after them but i understand.

[@Mr3DLC]

Shulk slash!

[@bond232518]

I normally dont comment at all on youtube videos but thanks for coming back and making another video, I havent had a TV in about 12 years and dont have time for games but loved my FF8, FF7, vagrant story etc type of games. Loved them for their plot, something you cant really get from a tv show or movie. Thats why I like watching your videos and am glad to see you're still making more

[@charleschoo9398]

The time is come for us to make petition and send to Square Enix. That outside of japan was really want a remaster of this game, be it on pc,ps4,and xbox.

[@blackheartro4769]

@@charleschoo9398 yasss

[@MatchaOppa]

This game was such a master piece. I played it when I was a teenager and my English wasn't very good. The story and overall atmosphere of this game is just epic. Thank you for this. I gotta play this game again sometime. They don't make them like this anymore.

[@jurrasic]

Best JRPG I've ever played. Excellent job recapping the story! That's one hell of a long reading session, I hope you had a big-ass mug of water handy. (or you did a good job splicing multiple recording segments together!)

[@scottn322]

God, I adore this game. Next to Suikoden II and Chrono Trigger, it's probably one of my all-time favorite JRPG out there. The story is kind of heavy, sometimes a bit odd, but definitely a thinker, and the combat system was glorious. It was a shame about disc 2, I remember being pretty disappointed because unlike so many other games, moving on to the next disc didn't make the game more expansive, but less. Still, regardless, it's a gem. Coincidentally, I only just found your channel so I'm still looking through your videos, but if you haven't, Suikoden I, II, and III are all great and I highly recommend them for possible videos! The second one was probably the best of the bunch, and IV wasn't really all that great. V was a return to form, but they missed the mark in some ways, and it never quite got up to the level of the second one. 3 was just very different, but I still loved it.

[@jojonta2119]

funny you say that cause my 3 favorite games are Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and then Suikoden 2 lol

[@Terrakinetic]

This is definitely the most difficult RPG narrative-wise to slog through as a 10 year old. I played this at the same time as Lunar Silver Star Story and Final Fantasy 7. To this day I still have a friend who from 4th grade to this day says, "Lacan is Grahf, Grahf is Khan, but Fei is Lacan. So WTF!?" The idea of the contact with the wave-existence splitting what are essentially souls from the body is pretty obtuse to people of any age.

[@GTSN38]

The xenogears story was so confusing, but I couldn't quit playing it till the end. Maybe that's why they made it confusing. 🤔

[@Somes1337]

best soundtrack ever

[@FallicIdol]

Somes1337 it may not be mine, but it’s hard to disagree with you. The music here gets at your gut

[@jiryensaber6090]

This was such an awesome game - not only from a Mech and RPG style game but the story. Very similar in some ways with the beats, philosophy, and mythology also used the Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion and the later XenoSaga games using many overtones from in-depth studies of Judeo-Christian texts. Did ya know Squaresoft was even going to use this plot for FF7 at one time? (True story!) but went with what we have today. Although we do still have some similarities like Sephiroth... just coincidence that 'Sefiroth' means 'path to the light' in Kabbalah/Tree of Life. Kinda interesting how these things get connected with these particular giant mecha stories. Even the entire sub-plot of Krelian trying to bring back together the lost piecess of Deus/"god" to become whole again to prevent the suffering of individuality. Sound familiar to the End of Evangelion at all? The Hedgehog paradox? An interesting side note is that both Xenogears and Evangelion came out right around the same time - give or take a couple years - and give or take the hell the translation team had to go through to get this baby into English! I mean... can you imagine?? It's some deep philosophical stuff and this was one of those games where (at the time) you could talk with your friends all night long on a road trip for hours on end about not only the game but life in general and how and what each character was trying to accomplish in their own ways... whether misguided or not. You could almost see them as sympathetic antagonists when you saw the overall arc of the story and these fragments of RPG/Mech action were really just frosting on a otherwise masterpiece formula. Sure, you could play thru it and just button mash for the martial art segments and upgrade your gears without caring much about any of the story... but it grabbed you hook, line, and sinker. And it wouldn't let you go. When I saw those first anime sequences and Graph standing tall above me proclaiming he was going to be the "Slayer of god!" I knew... THIS was a game that was going to change things! The fabric of its story cut right to the core of human's souls! How could you NOT turn away?? Yes, I believe this game was swept over somewhat with the crazy tidal current from FF7 at the time. As confusing as FF7's plot could be - you were invested in the characters and especially Aerith and Cloud. Driving a sword through your girlfriend as you watched helplessly... the emotional appeal was there and FF7 sailed onward to gaming legend! That's what made people want to dig through every area of that game and find answers. And it was a masterpiece in its own right... but Xenogears truly was something different. I can see how a lot of people thinking it was going to be this action/badass RPG Mech game got a little turned away by the heavy plot. Not enough action and a hell of a lot of story. But I rememembered and still enjoyed every bit of it. Like I said, Xenogears got me invested, because at least with FF7 I knew I was playing a game. One hell of a great game but still a game. Xenogears wasn't afraid to shake the heavens itself and I believe the box art on the back said something like that. How could this game about a guy that practiced martial arts and did some painting in a small town in the middle of nowhere... turn into a epic sci-fi adventure that - let's face it - this could have been another Star Wars. Yes the plot was difficult but if you put the time in to figure it out... you werer rewarded! And let's not forget that this was just EPISODE V. I really got engrossed in all the story material and had to make a FAQ/Guide as a totally separate book just to try and connect all the dots and keep things straight. I think it's still somewhere out there in cyberspace. I know it was like 100+ pages long and detailed the few things I was able to assemble from the game to put together a pretty good outline for Episodes 1-4. If anyone finds it, let me know okay?? I think it's like 20 years old now. There was no Wikipedia or anything so I just hosted it on an old server where I had lots of other projects. It's probably floating around out there. I know lots of people think XenoSaga was Episodes 1-3 but it's not the case and if you do enough study like I had to... you find out. There's a guy (TeraCorrupt) who did an excellent job on it. He missed a few things but covers the basics: and I'd suggest checking it out. (Link Below) I don't know him, but I respect anyone who has the guts to dive in to the abyss that this game can be because it's pretty insane. There are two parts to it and here's the first. He's one of the few out there who is able to comprehend the complexity of this game. Here's the link for the first part: kzbin.info/www/bejne/epLHcpimjJl_epo Another one who does a great job on covering not just Xenogears but Xenosaga and Xenoblades is Milks. Again, I don't know him but he does a very good and very detailed job on this. kzbin.info/door/GFScRzLX-XVbVSCHuc9DRA There was a book called "Xenogears: Perfect Collection" or something like that. which also had an art book and explained more the backstory since this is just EPISODE V. The one I had never got an English release to my knowledge. So my friend Kai and I translated the entire damn thing! I tried to show the few graphs and charts using numbers/symbols/letters and found a free-flowing way to translate pieces Kai did for me into English a normal reader would understand. Even translated, not all of it made sense and so I had to use some more background from Judeo-Christian texts that I could get ahold of and finding those that were in English. Regardless, we did it. In fact, I was able to confirm my theories and research data by using that book long after I published it. Thankfully I was right for the vast majority of things. After finishing something so massive... I really was mentally and physically spent. It took your mind to so many places. But really... its too bad the perfect collection wasn't translated as you needed that just to keep up with what was going on. I think it would have done better if they had but that's just IMHO. Sorry this was so long but I'm pretty passioante about it and sadly I don't have my friend Kai to talk with anymore. Also, my personal respect to Monolith soft and Soraya Saga. Doubt they'll ever see this but I love what you have done and your work. I wish Xenogears could have been that massive 6-episode masterpiece.

[@coldnightmare199]

Holy fuck man take a breath

[@Thunder55Turbo]

David Saber Got a TLDR for that?

[@tyrekerobinson2394]

Nice essay

[@karatepanda1796]

Dang, don't know why these other commenters are complaining about a fucking youtube comment 😂. Thanks for posting, it was an interesting read and I think it's really cool that you and your friend kai were able to translate that into english. Have a great day/night!

[@karatepanda1796]

Btw I just noticed how old your comment was, so sorry if it's weird seeing a response so far into the future lol. I just thought it was weird your comment got so buried since its pretty interesting reading your history with the game and must've taken some effort to write

[@WingSlash]

Thank you for doing this. To this day, this remains one of my favorite games of all time, with one of my personal favorite stories ever told; video game or otherwise.

[@gearhead417]

I was worried you had stopped making videos but I'm glad to see you back at it. These videos can't be easy to make but they awesome

[@G0NZ0STaR]

This game deserves a completed version! According to WatchMojo, Xenogears ranks 2nd among PS1 RPGs, only beaten by FFVII. For an incomplete game to rank 2nd is a testament to how great it is.

[@Harkz0r]

Were it not for the nostalgia factor in so many peoples' minds, Xenogears would obliterate FFVII. Incomplete or not, I have yet to encounter any game as ambitious as Xenogears/Xenosaga. FFVII was my first RPG and yes, I will always hold a special soft spot for it, but it's not my favourite. Takahashi's games probably have my favourite storylines out of any RPGs I've ever played.

[@abrahamdelgado5682]

its not incomplete... I finished it and I saw the ending.

[@TheAndrassa]

While that may be true never trust WatchMojo. They are notorious for jot getting their facts corrects and taking non-legit sources as truth.

[@Druggedupsun]

@@Harkz0r But FFVII gameplay, and overall cohesion, just obliterates Xenogears.

[@maximos905]

Ff7 is my favorite game however i think if they put in the same time and money into xeno as they did ff7 then theyd be tied

[@optimuscries9869]

I swear this channel is an underrated gold mine for fans of RPGs and JRPGs.

[@Gudamangipo]

Man I remember bringing this home when it first came out and playing it for two months. My mind was blown by the story.

[@sebastiangr9088]

I didn't have the chance of enjoying this game when I was younger, and now I have just tons of stories I want to know about. This is exactly what I was looking for. It was really nice, thank you.

[@monetgity3422]

Damn It has enough content to be separated into several novels, or several games nowadays. I love the fact that this game, which has incomplete 2nd disk is one of the longest explanation videos.

[@TheColdBore]

One of my favorite games as a kid, but you hit that point of escalation and most of this went way over my head. Didn't recall much of it, definitely enjoyed listening to the recap in detail. Thank you.

[@TheNin-Jedi]

I wish more games were made like this. With todays graphics enhancements it would be beautiful with this style. So much drugs had to have been taken for this plot.

[@daoyang6055]

no, they would spend too much time on combat and graphics, we'd miss out on the great story.

[@airiakizuki5592]

I would suggest combat and story, I have little to no use for graphics. If it looks okay then it passes. All I need in a game is an opening and c,losing cutscene everything else I skip. The story should be told in game too not through cutscenes.

[@fumomofumosarum5893]

don't promote drugs...

[@andytk2723]

Just imagine Xenogears remake as the graphic they did in Xenoblade X

[@Bjorick]

actually, this is a work of an intelligent mind who wasn't able to fully realize a vision, if he was taking drugs, it would have been much more random and fucked up, and wouldn't have been the awesome game that it is

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Very VERY late to this but only halfway thru & this is WILD. I played FF + Shadow Hearts but Xenogears is another level of wild. I'm thrilled this video exists, 7 years later, for me to start my day with. Thank you & wherever you are, I hope you're thriving.

[@TonyDaExpert]

Still waiting for a modern game to have a nice dark complex story like this...

[@firetarrasque4667]

Like Mario?

[@erikeide5407]

I actually spit out my drink, thanks a lot.

[@sephbox]

you clearly need to play Nier:Automata :D

[@soarel325]

Try any Taroverse games, or Blazblue

[@jego207]

Nier: Automata is masterfully written like Xenogears and will leave you thinking about your existence weeks after you finish the game. I just want to point out out that another game of this calibre took about 18 years.

[@UndeadxSanta]

Thank you for compressing the story the best you could, I was looking for a video exactly like this.

[@1beatcher]

what is Xenogears... a story that confuses the shit out of me until I found out that this game is the 5th story out of 6

[@treeburst]

Thank you so much for this recap. It helped me get caught back up right where I left off and still give me space to explore the rest of the story myself. This video was perfectly done, and I'm looking forward to coming back to it after I beat the game!

[@kingcrowbro2486]

Oh thank god that you made a video again. It feels like you haven't uploaded since before the summer started.

[@someguy4405]

The Star Wars and Soylent Green references are pretty funny.

[@ginton8968]

Yeah you pronounced Deus correctly. For some reason alot of people pronounce it as "duece", like a pair of duece. A little pet peeve of mine bc Deus is latin for god. How you pronounced it in this vid is correct.

[@CodyWalsh87]

Now if only someone could pronounce Aveh correctly. I've watched three videos on Xenogears now and nobody pronounces it right. This guy's pronunciation is the worst, though. "Awv".

[@gerald216]

Cody Walsh Isn't pronounced Ah-Vey? Oh is that wrong to?

[@CodyWalsh87]

Jerry Bradick Yup! You've got it right.

[@gerald216]

Cody Walsh Alright thought so lol.

[@namingisdifficult408]

Cody Walsh yep

[@kxrosene9459]

Thanks to this video I can sleep again, thank you for being my go-to bedtime storyteller oni

[@OniBlackMage]

Good night, sleep well 👍

[@jonahsahn]

I'm so glad that you made this. It's just as complicated as I remember it. Even with your excellent explanation, I'm still quite lost. And how was Xenosaga supposed to eventually fit into this?

[@RadicalDreamer17]

Xenosaga was first supposed to be Xenogears Episode 1 (which is a space opera, dealing with galactic war and stuff... all the things that led to Deus existence). Square said no to the prequel because Xenogears (which is Episode 5 in the 6 Episode chronology) didn't sell a million. Takahashi left. Created Monolith Soft. Reworked Xenogears Episode 1 into Xenosaga because he couldn't fully use the Xenogears IP. So he envisionned Xenosaga to have 6 episodes itself. The series went through development issues (and Namco didn't help) and got cut to 3 episodes. Takahashi stopped caring after the debacle that was Episode 2. He supervised Episode 3 (which is, honestly, amazing... but not many played it) but was already thinking about developing a new and different (more popular/gamer friendly... hence the big exploration focus and gazillions MMORPG quests and shorter/less labyrinthic plot) kind of jRPG : Xenoblade. Along the way, Monolith Soft was bought by Nintendo and released Soma Bringer (a jRPG on DS that feels like a prototype to Xenoblade in some ways... honestly, I disliked Soma Bringer... Xenoblade was more enjoyable).

[@jonahsahn]

thanks :D

[@vepaot]

Radical is incorrect. While Xenosaga has obvious throwbacks to its predecessor, they're completely different stories. Work on Xenosaga didn't start until Takahashi left Square to create Monolith Soft. Takahashi had very little involvement with Xenosaga Episode 2, there is nothing anywhere that says he "stopped caring". He was brought back onboard with Episode 3 to finish the series after the four part saga got cut to three...yes, four part. It was only referred to as a six episode game series early in its inception but by the time of the first game's release, it had already been cut back to four because the the first episode was only 22% or so of the first arch of the story Takahashi wanted to tell...when it should have been closer to 50%. If you really like reading, there is a ridiculously long write-up by Yuriev of GameFAQS, that was reuploaded by VLADO on his own site: betweenlifeandgames.com/analyses/history-xenogears-xenosaga-part-1-xenogears/

[@jonahsahn]

thanks! will read.

[@RadicalDreamer17]

+Blackstar I don't see how I'm incorrect. Shion and Ziggy for example were Xenogears Episode 1 characters at first (there are visual proof of this, like conceptual artworks). There is a reason why Takahashi left Squaresoft and it's tied to Square refusing to greenlight the space opera (Xenogears Episode 1 is a space opera) prequel Takahashi was already planning to make. So of course, he left, created Monolith Soft and what was supposed to be Xenogears Episode 1 turned into Xenosaga. So, yeah, *in the end*, Xenogears and Xenosaga aren't directly connected... but that's only because Squaresoft refused to greenlight Xenogears Episode 1 in the first place, so Takahashi lost the rights to Xenogears. As for Takahashi who stopped caring about Xenosaga... it's kind of true. His mind was already on building Xenoblade when he was working on Xenosaga 3. You need to remember how difficult and frustrating the development of Xenosaga used to be for him, his wife and his team in general (reminder here that Episode 2 was taken away from Takahashi and his wife by Namco... so many things Takahashi and his wife wanted for Xenosaga and that they never could make a reality... it was crushing for them as well as for fans). In a recent interview about Xenoblade, he talked about his work on Xenosaga and what he has to say about it is really sad (basically, he took the Xenosaga hate to heart and is embarassed about Xenosaga... saying they were too inexperienced back then... and how Xenoblade was meant to be a masterpiece... yeah, this interview isn't so nice to read if you still have great affection for Gears and Saga and don't adore Xenoblade... which is more or less the case for me). Also, I find it funny you're linking the Yuriev writings here... because the guy wrote exactly what I just said (well, not exactly but close enough...). I did read his essays too in the past... part of it is why I think Xenosaga was first supposed to be Xenogears' prequel and why I believe Takahashi stopped caring about Xenosaga before it ended. At least, this is what I understood from his very long and detailed essay/study. Here's a bit from his essays (which is a quote from an interview with Takahashi) : *Unfortunately, while it had been decided that a sequel to Xenogears would be made if it sold 1 million copies, in the end it only reached just shy of 900,000, so the executives at Square resisted the idea of making the prequel. "The reason I quit Square was that I wanted to make a series like Xenosaga and the executives claimed they didn’t have enough money to realize my ideas”, explains Tetsuya Takahashi to Super PLAY in the 2002 issue.* He wanted to make a series 'like Xenosaga" while still at Squaresoft... and some of Xenosaga 1's events are identical to what is described about Xenogears Episode 1 in the book Perfect Works. This is proof that originally, Xenosaga was supposed to be Xenogears Episode 1 (and maybe Takahashi wanted this specific episode to be a multi part thing from the start, I guess... I wouldn't be surprised... considering he was such an ambitious creator). Squaresoft's refusal to fund their "prequel" led Takahashi to leave and... there you go, Xenosaga became what it is : a Xenogears reboot (with the space opera setting of Xenogears Episode 1... with Zohar, religious space organizations, etc...). And here's another bit from Yuriev's essay, talking about Takahashi taking his distance with the series (what I meant when I said Takahashi "stopped caring") : *For those who might wonder why Takahashi didn’t direct Episode III himself: my best guess is that Takahashi had resigned himself from being too involved with the series. Everything points to this, especially the 2010 Xenoblade Chronicles interviews. As will be examined, Tetsuya Takahashi was already moving on from Xenosaga before Episode III was even out in stores. He must’ve simply been too tired of the Xenosaga project since he didn’t even bother with the novel or to write I-II by himself.*

[@RoderickPenTheThird]

Out of all the RPG's this one has always been my favorite thanks for letting me relive one of my favorite moments in life.

[@rickster008]

The story is so deep, i wish this game would come to the switch

[@akhil_person]

Deep? Oh, you're 14.

[@FeiTheVillain]

Why only the Switch?

[@MiBrCo4177]

That sadly will never happen.

[@Bornagainvillain]

Buy a vita, play it on there.

[@jaidens.g.1920]

@@FeiTheVillain Probably because most people interested in playing Xenogears nowadays came from playing the Xenoblade Chronicles games first, which are Nintendo exclusive

[@latinoheat612]

This has to be the GOAT of all rpgs, i never played on the ps1, instead i played on emulator just a few months ago and i am getting to the final parts. Too bad no one makes games like this anymore

[@Kintsugi23]

IMO the 90s and early 2000s were the Golden Age for RPGs. There are definitely still some good games but they just aren't the same. The Xeno games, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean...

[@courtneyvaldez7903]

Despite production problems and plot holes left and right, this game still sticks with me all these years later. Storywise, it attempted things other games even today are hesitant to try.

[@FoxyPercival714]

Please do something on the star ocean series. Would love for you to talk about 3 and 4.

[@sonickchri]

YES!! was waiting for you to do Xenogears!! thanks

[@Torin2015]

Weird how I randomly decided to look up Xenogears on TVTropes earlier, and then you upload this. Nice coincidence to help understand this crazy game

[@joshclaridy6592]

I remember playing this game for hours on end. Enjoying the storyline, by the way spot on break down, and the music. It was one of those games that became a hidden gem because of coming out between FF7 and FF8. I never heard anything about it but it was a square soft title and I loved almost everything they released so I bought it on impulse. Was not disappointed, beat this game 12 different times to better understand the masterpiece my fingers just played. To the team that created this game, bravo and do an HD remake and maybe a movie like advent children

[@OnyxSkiesXIX]

I really enjoyed this! Thank you for all your recapitations; they're always enjoyable and I always learn something new about games I love. For what it's worth, I vote for you to tackle the Xenosaga series at some point for recapitation!

[@Phyllo9]

Had to pause and appreciate the scene between the 21 minute and 22 minute mark. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" >Proceeds to transform into a gun When ya put it that way...

[@XenoDrake]

Do remember that at that time, they believed the bullet the gun fired was the pilot...

[@Phyllo9]

@@XenoDrake That definitely amplifies the logic.

[@JatibonicuTaino]

Thank you so much for this dude! This is one of the first games I had played on PS1. Its nice to have someone summarize the whole story since I was way too young to understand what the hell was going on.

[@mikeg5039]

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!! Lol

[@Gundamvid]

Oh yeah. I was close to vomiting after seeing that scene.

[@jasonmalice]

made me realise how much of a dick Citan is.

[@レッド-h1i]

Love that movie

[@samjt2036]

One of the most memorable moments of the game.

[@Joshua.670]

Mmmmnn humans

[@zacharyhutchens]

i love new vids on this channel! my fav way to recap some classics. Thanks a lot for all your effort you put in.

[@sethcarnius3548]

I just love the story of xenogears. It has Nietzsche written all over it.

[@BlackerMan]

Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon and Chrono Cross...3 underrated JRPGs that shaped my taste in RPGs in general

[@AncestorEmpire1]

*Being carried away* "You gotta tell them, SOYLET MEAT IS PEOPLE!"

[@CaptainCafe]

Thank you for making these I love watching these for old RPGs I no longer have time to play again. You rock keep up the good work.

[@Johnamekin]

Me:Hey Xenogears writers, how much DMT did you guys smoke while writing this? Xenogears writers: Yes

[@ButtaMilkBiscuitsGaming]

Man when Fei wanted to die after the Lahan accident... that scene brought me to tears back in the day. Especially after seeing him just collapse and just hurdle in the cradle position.. it was just a sad scene.

[@honorlost84]

there hasn't been a single final fantasy with such a great story. love xenogears. in my opinion it's the best RPG of all time it would be awesome to see it remastered

[@richardkidarsa3799]

Wow! finally it's done! thank you so much for this! really brings back memories. Really appreciate your effort on this, I imagine it must've taken a lot of time to do this, but great job!

[@loszhor]

I think it sucks that the second disk got the wall of text treatment. I REALLY wanted to see that action but I ended up not reading most of it because I just started powering through the text out of boredom.

[@DragonaxFilms]

5 minutes in and someone is already planning to kill a deity. I love JRPGs xD

[@borischan5252]

1.5 mil is not nearly enough for its greatness. They need to make it into an actual anime

[@Arcanua]

Saga got one and was a huge flop...the same fate is likely to befall this if it was made into an anime even if the plot is as good as it is.

[@DarkMuu666]

They'd have to not cut didly. It could be done, but damn it'd be pricey.

[@perseverancification]

@netflix is the key

[@damienjohn]

Good to have you back OBM. Would love to see you cover Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana in US). The 3rd game is also great and one of my favorite action RPG's ever but it was only ever released in Japanese.

[@lostn65]

Man what I would give for a remake or remaster. This is one of my fondest JRPG plots. But it is a pixellated mess.

[@jjcoola998]

MUH GRAFFIKS

[@LunatiqHigh]

use an emulator that can add modern filters , AA etc.

[@alucarderipmavtube]

I don't mind it, personally. What I hated was the storytelling direction on disc 2.

[@ribertfranhanreagen9821]

Be a billionaire than, next buy the franchise from square and monolith.

[@lostn65]

@@ribertfranhanreagen9821 buying the franchise won't get you a remake. It only gives you the rights to create one yourself. If you can't find anyone interested in doing it, it's a non-starter.

[@ThatDangDaddy]

As a fan of the old school RPG era of great games on the PlayStation, this game has to be my all time favorite. I never fully grasped the mag of the story but I always knew it was deep. That is was unlike any other RPG I had played. I don’t know if we need a remake or a graphic overhaul because the game was perfect! It also had one of the best soundtracks too. Excellent character development and many memorable moments.

[@matthewdaniel5264]

These videos are strangely addicting

[@lipstickGeneration]

Glad you did this and glad to have you back. Keep up the good work!

[@Hyperion_Dark]

Best RPG of all time

[@comfyweightloss]

That outro music gave me the shivers, the good nostalgic kind. :) Thanks man.

[@ArtsyFoxo]

That being said, isn't the *Wave Existence* basically just God? In a sense? It's so confusing to me. *The Wave* is literally just like "Yo fam, you guys tapped into my unlimited energy, and forced me to do all of this crazy junk in this creepy-ass Mega-machine of creation. Get me outta here! "

[@OniBlackMage]

In a sense, yeah... one of the recurring themes in the game is 'God is what you make of it (including nothing)"

[@edeonsaint9938]

The wave actually said that, something like "God, some people call me like that".

[@Rogun987]

Its been called a "Diving Being" from another dimension. It was trapped inside the Zohar to give Deus basically unlimited power.

[@jonathandiosa5739]

+Rogun987 You are all right. It awakens the 'contact' or all of Feis incartions.

[@actionjackson6943]

This was really helpful in understanding the story in that game, it was complex even for JRPG standards. I hope you will do Xenosaga and Xenoblade as well.

[@Bolomoto]

i hope you can do a recap the zero escape series

[@OniBlackMage]

It may not be soon, but I do plan on it.

[@shiftythrow]

One of my favorite games ever. I was very happy and surprised to have this come up in my feed. Thanks for all of these videos. Extremely well done. Brings back a ton of memories. I feel like I can watch your videos in lieu of putting another 60 hours into each of these games.

[@turntapeover5749]

This game is what happens when the scenario writer goes into an acid binge midway through writing a plot.

[@maphestotv]

Thanks you for making this! This is my all time favorite story ever! Subscribed + Thumbs up!

[@powergi3996]

Mom: "You should be reading books. Games are stupid with kid's little boring stories. "

[@Mr_Persona83]

Thanks So Much for this RECAPitation. Til this day Xenogears is my favorite video game of all time. Watching your video was Uber-Nostalgic

[@darkencypher]

I love reminiscing about this game.

[@EmptyDomoKanti99]

pretty depressing that the second disc got cut a bunch, but it is what it is

[@InTheMindOfDavid]

God I love this game. It’s ridiculous how “up-my-alley” this games story is. Psychology, Theology, Mythology, DNA manipulation, Killing gods. Perfect 👌

[@Tomashiwa]

Always been liking ur RECAPitation videos ! Please do more of them

[@Beastkingzetta]

53:30 EPISODE 5 ???

[@edeonsaint9938]

Yeah, Xenogears metaverse is soo huge and this is just the end of the whole story.

[@Beastkingzetta]

How are Xenosaga connection with Xenogear ?

[@OnyxSkiesXIX]

Officially, they're not since Xenogears was Square and Xenosaga was Namco. However, you can think of Xenosaga as a sort of spiritual prequel. There are a lot of interesting parallels between to two though. web.archive.org/web/20130408061948/xenoverse.xenotensei.com/articles/mirroring_analysis.htm Interesting comparison and full of tons of spoilers obviously.

[@Zarggg]

The original idea for what became Xenogears was for a six-part sci-fi saga, of which Xenogears would be the second-to-last chronologically. Unfortunately, Xenogears didn't get enough traction for the other games to be made. Later on, the Xenogears development team got back together to form Monolith Software and with backing from Namco, created the Xenosaga series loosely based on what would have been the beginning of the "Xenogears" saga.

[@seraphin01]

honestly this game is the most under rated game of the PSX by far. it's a master piece just undermined by it's second disc (but if you made it to second disc you probably don't care much at this point since you're so into it). The musics were amazing, the script was great, no kiddy anime fan service or something.. It's such a shame square just letting this license to rot for over 2 decades now.. Xenogears aren't bad games, though not even close to good like Xenogears is, but we just need a remaster of this game at least.. if they can add some extras to replace the text of cd2 into some actual gameplay we're golden

[@AozoraOrigami]

DO XENOSAGA

[@slusheewolf2143]

I clicked on this video because I left off where you control Citan and have to leave the ship in order to go to these caves where you control Fei have to start doing platforming. That part of the game was really difficult and really confusing, and when I went to go back to it last time, the save was erased. After discovering what Solaris is from this video, and the whole purpose of Deus and all of that, I am flabbergasted lol I have not written a short story in a long time, but this makes me really want to start writing again. That's the greatest plot twist I've heard in a long time.