The Supreme Court's Final Verdict On Xenosaga II | Xenosaga Ep.II Analysis (Finale)

Today, we're bringing on an amazing panel of guests, including TJTheEmperor, Keith Comito, and David Garcia Abril, to discuss the execution of Xenosaga II's story and gameplay, what it was like playing this game for European audiences, how changes to voice direction made a big impact, and the philosophy of life extension.
**We’re Now On Spotify**: open.spotify.com/show/4gIzzvT...
**Listen On Soundcloud**: / resonantarc
**Listen On iTunes**: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
**Listen On Pocket Cast**: pca.st/NJsJ
Join Our Discord Server: / discord
Patreon Page: / resonantarc

[@ResonantArc]

We had some sound issues when recording this episode. It was tough to manage it all in editing, so there is a place or two where you will notice audio cuts out. I'll do better in the future to make sure everything is on point when doing guest panels like this. -Mike

[@silenthillfreak156]

Stuff happens man. Still a great episode. But, I'd like to think that Casen has now added telepathic speaking as a new language he's learned. It's canon.

[@Retromancers]

Thank you for having me (Keith) on again to discuss Xenosaga and all the interesting concepts within it; including life extension. I hope the audience enjoyed our contributions to this episode, and I'm always happy to join again to have such conversations in the future if everyone would like that. Thanks again!

[@jacobmonks3722]

You are always fascinating to listen to and learn from. While I am personally on the side of "death is a necessary part of life," I hope you never stop doing what you love doing. I look forward to the next time you're on the podcast!

[@Retromancers]

@@jacobmonks3722 Thank you for the kind words, and I'm happy we get to have conversations like this which bring many different perspectives to the table constructively. I hope we do it again sometime!

[@michs7451]

Thank you for your very well-informed and thought-provoking contribution! It certainly gave me (and others) a lot of food for thought.

[@Retromancers]

@@michs7451 Thanks; I'm glad you found it helpful! There is still so much left unsaid on this topic, so I'm sure there will be a great deal more discuss to whenever the time is right.

[@LPN00b]

​@@jacobmonks3722Hi Jacob, while i agree with your statement abou death, I also think that since we're not giving birth to new humans, life extention might be a necessery field, to keep the candle burning. Also, I just want to say countries should look up their first time of starting to give pe sions to retirees and check the average lifespan, and then have the difference of retirement index with life expectqncy from that point. So probably working until mid 70s should be normalized.

[@TheMilhouseExperience]

The last 2 hours are exactly why I tell people there is nothing else like State of the Arc podcast.

[@DavidGAbril]

It was a pleasure to be part of this. I hope people will find my contributions about how we experienced this series in Europe insightful. This is a series that is very close to my heart, so it's a privilege to help spreading awareness about it, especially in a podcast as great as this one. I can't wait to see your take on Episode III as well. Also an honor to have shared the panel with these two excellent guest speakers. Particularly TJ, whose "Xenosaga" videos are among my favorites ever made in this platform about this series. :) Keith's debate was also fascinating, and definitely worth keeping an eye on in this coming years. If you decide to have another panel, and you want me there again, I'll do my best to be present. :) See you soon! PS: I noticed that I was kind of talking over other people in a few places... Sorry about that. Looks like I had a bit of lag in the voice chat, so sometimes it was difficult to see if it was a good time to speak or not. Also... I really have to practice public speech more! Man, I trip over my words a lot! lol

[@FlugeTryne]

Thank you for confirming my assumption for why most jrpgs never came to europe+all the other insights you had during the podcast:) Im from norway and soon 41 years old and i remember the 90's pain of reading all the gaming magazines seeing games that would never release :( Thankfully around 1997 i discoverd emulation on pc + and in1998 had a mod chip installed in my PS1 and there was a couple of import shops that did mail order here, had my PS2 modded so i could play xenosaga 1 and other games around 2004-2005. Cant imagine how it was for all the other eu countrys that didnt learn english until much later than us (we start at around age 9-10) or have everything dubbed so there is little chance to to play complex story driven english game. Glad the world have moved forward and things are much more streamlined than it used to be :D

[@trexalfa]

Tremenda sorpresa ver a un compatriota discutiendo juegos como estos. Termina sacandome una sonrisa siempre el descubrir que, incluso aquí (sin traducciones o lanzamientos oficiales), algo de impacto tuvieron. Aportaciones excelentes aparte, por supuesto. ¡Enhorabuena!

[@mitchdouglas9844]

Kinda hoped at the very end of the podcast Casen just pointed and shouted "Wait a minute, you're wearing goggles!" just before the outro.

[@bigbabbyjaime]

Commit to the bit. Well done boyz.

[@silenthillfreak156]

The last conversation about death was really great to listen to. More importantly, I can completely sympathize with Mike about being tired of life. No, I'm not wanting it to end, but I'm just exhausted, and I'm only 35. I also find it hard to find joy in things like I used to when I was younger. However, I can feel this happiness when I see my children experience happiness. I think the constant stress of work, family, money, etc, are all huge contributors. I hope that when I'm older, most of these will not be so much of an issue and I can truly enjoy just living and doing things I want to do rather than need to do.

[@MikeELtheGamerLPShow]

Mike's story about Hawaii reminded me of the fact that I'm a middle-aged, married man who served in the military, traveled the world and have grown bored with what many people would consider an "adventure." Yet... the other day, I experienced a surge of excitement when my 2-year old grandson pointed to the Triforce on my replica Hylian Shield and shouted, "TRIANGLE!!!" For something so simple, I experienced the joy of a new experience, albeit vicariously, through a younger generation.

[@zanzaxenoblade4582]

Unrelated to the story but it’s kind of funny gameplay quirk I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else online, So might as well post here. When you beat phase one of the Patriarch fight and the game gives you the fake out victory screen the victory screen is not of your party but a dev screenshot of a lv 99 KOS-MOS, Shion, and MOMO victory screen from a way earlier battle where they earned like 100 exp and won in 13 seconds. My guess is they couldn’t program a fake victory screen so they just included the victory screen as part of the attack animation and just took a screenshot for it and hoped it would be on screen so briefly no one would notice. Hopefully someone enjoyed that fact.

[@markasscop]

is mike going for the sellers look this time around?

[@andreiulyanov9241]

Glad to see TJ return!

[@LifespanIO]

Thank you for once again having our president Keith on for this fascinating discussion, including the important topics of extending health and life. Thought-provoking media like the Xenosaga series creates a perfect setting for such deep exchanges of ideas.

[@OmegaLogos]

I was the person that you refer to about the “back pats” comment. To be clear, that was not meant for you in particular, Mike, but rather all of us, humanity collectively. To paraphrase, I think that we have and continue to, give ourselves the “it probably wouldn’t be that good anyway” back-pats when it comes to immortality because we have to at a base level contend with death and there are no alternatives. You, Keith and Casen went on to address this throughout this episode and then directly after mentioning what I said. Keith encapsulated it much more poignantly when earlier in the episode he mentioned terror management theory in relation to things like “the epic of Gilgamesh” and the dejection of humanity when faced with the failure of that lofty goal. I probably have a lot of the same feelings and thoughts that you have about world-weariness. Your story about going to Hawaii and not feeling very impressed immediately reminded me of something similar that happened to me in Cancun, Mexico, but we came away with different outcomes…probably because of a particular happenstance. I was swimming in the bay, doing one of the typical tourist-y snorkeling tours of the reef. I swam around, doing some laps there and thought “This is beautiful, and it’s nice that I’m here, but it’s no more and no less than exactly as I imagined it. I could have read about this and seen some photographs and I would feel just as satisfied as I am now.” I didn’t appreciate the moment, not truly. Then something magnificent happened. All around me there were these tall pillars of coral reef, so tall they almost broke the surface of the water. Considering their size and that I’m a capable swimmer (specially with flippers on) I had been avoiding them without issue, but as I turned to pass one of these pillars, there, about 10 meters beneath me I saw this muscular, rippling black mass of a creature. It was coiled at the bottom of the sea floor, I couldn’t even identify a head. I turned to move away from that area and my right knee crashed into one of the tips of a coral pillar. And all I could think (at the time I thought, absurdly) is “I’m alive.” “I’m here, in a bay, 2,000 miles from home, surrounded by colorful pillars in an underwater forest and that thing (which was probably a Morae Eel) I just encountered might as well have been a dragon.” Despite the pain in my knee, I swam up to the surface, ripped the snorkel out and started laughing. The gulf between the thoughts I had just had struck me so profoundly. The ocean and life had almost literally reached out to hit me and say “stop that, you’re not just a mind occupying a meat vessel, you’re alive! You’re a part of this. Look, really LOOK and feel the for the life and world around you.” My perspective was why I was weary. I had stopped being able to appreciate these things because I was so insistent on valuing my knowledge, my own capacity, my educated dignity, my own coveted “wisdom” of reliably predicting outcomes. I came away from that experience with a new philosophy. “If it’s all too rote and mundane, you simply aren’t paying enough attention.” Mike, I don’t know if you can relate to that, but I think that in part, you probably feel something similar. Moreover, your description of the fulfillment that comes with ego death is probably the other half. It makes me think about the writings of Marcus Aurelius. Behaving “as if you are already dead and thus living properly”. I think that I understand that as well, I am prepared to be dead. I’ve been thinking about mortality and making peace with it since I was 20 years old and my father was murdered. I share Keith’s perspective holistically, he almost verbatim brought up all the things I was talking about in the comment I made in the previous video and summarized it succinctly. I’m not religious, I see death as the end of possibility, and every time a person dies, a library burns. It touched me when Keith was saying that he doesn’t want *you* to die…because essentially when I hear you speak about probably not opting in for life extension my sensibilities revolt at the thought of the “Mike library” burning. I’m just some guy on the internet, so of course it would be presumptuous and weird to think anything like that would move you, but I have a measure of affection for you and Casen (I was laughing during the episode thinking: If I’m part of any tribe, whatever these five guys together is, that’s it) and so it’s easy to bet my neck that there are many lucky people that have you in their life, as a son, a friend, a brother, husband…the value of these roles never has an expiration date! Indeed, they only take on value with time. Despite your choice (and by the way, you and I are in violent agreement, I would support anyone that has measured and sensible reasons for wanting to end their life as well as prolong it) to forego life extension if it became possible, I implore you to reconsider (which admittedly, and to no surprise, is something you seem to be doing anyway) because the emotional and evidential arguments for continuing life outweigh any to the contrary. Thank you, Casen and Mike for making this episode and to your guests as well! David actually gave me hope for something deeply personal! I’m planning to move to Japan as well and had been vacillating a lot about the decision. This episode feels like Destiny speaking directly to me. Keith is a kindred spirit, I’m so happy that life extension has such and enthusiastic and intelligent advocate! TJ brought a grounded and thorough perspective when it came to technical and artistic analysis of XSE2! Fantastic episode. Talk more about that world weariness, Mike. I know that you can make the process of dissecting that interesting…I think there’s an epiphany in that. I’ll end this overlong comment by saying: remember, that although you may not dance at the thought of something like a Lord of the Rings movie coming out, even old Gandalf didn’t get enough of life and came back for more.

[@michaelcoraybrown]

I just want to say I appreciate you so much for taking the time to say this. It did, indeed, move me, and there is more to the story of the Hawaii trip (a second trip I took last year) that I hope to touch on more in the future. I actually did a lot of snorkeling while I was there, and of all my experiences on that vacation, that was actually the part that called to me the most. I fell in love with swimming in the ocean--it felt almost like entering a temple in a way, very spiritual. I mentioned here in the video that while things that used to excite me about life probably no longer hold the excitement I was craving in my life, if there is anything I could at this moment decide to pivot to that would give me that level of wonder and excitement again it would be snorkeling, scubadiving, and underwater wildlife cinematography. That is the kind of career I could pivot into today and feel a whole new lease on life. Of course, that would invariably after many, many years no longer be the case, and I'd have to pivot again. I think the question now shifts to whether there is truly no end to that process or whether the general weariness that has been accumulating in me would eventually, at some point, win over. That is the part I'd love to discuss more in future episodes.

[@Retromancers]

I also want to say thank you for writing this comment, as it moved me as well. As discussed: sometimes it can require great effort to see the beauty in life when suffering the oft relentless slings and arrows of existence, and reading thoughts such as yours are immensely vitalizing - reminding me why I continue doing what I do, and giving me strength to keep moving forward. And yes: I think of things very much the same way you do in terms of libraries and microcosmic worlds, and I for one would also very much like to see Mike's world continue to strengthen our macrocosmic universe. I hope you do go to Japan if that is what you wish, and then do report back on the experience! I've always wanted to go there myself, and hope to do so sometime soon as well.

[@OmegaLogos]

You’re both very welcome, though I think I should be the one to feel grateful. I suspect there is no end to that process, Mike. Moreover, I think that you in particular will find it difficult to escape the feelings of mundanity and weariness for 2 reasons. They’re just my very uninformed observations, but you strike me as someone both very empathetic and possessing an accurate and specific memory. This means other people’s feelings and experiences are going to be exhausting. You’re very apt to imagine their experience, project yourself into it, carefully think about the consequences of living through them and then mirror their emotions. Couple that with a sharp memory and you have someone who accumulates kharma quickly, experiences it in detail and remembers it vividly. That makes getting to know other people interesting, but sometimes, terrifying and very commonly, exhausting. It also makes learning about the world, a new profession or field of knowledge exciting at first…but you’ll quickly and voraciously consume all the knowledge that you can about the thing, dissect it thoroughly, and then remove the romantic “mystery” from it. For example, in the same way that some filmmakers no longer feel the “magic” of films while watching them. They get too concerned with the shot composition, why a certain piece of music was selected, a cut done to a certain scene, etc. My humble advice (because I don’t truly know you, so all of this is presumptuous) is keep creating. That’s, at core, who you are and what will keep the weariness away. That’s your nature, act out that nature and everything will fall into place. That’s also the most elegant solution to the problem of craving mystery and adventure in a world that seems “solved”. Make your own mysteries, create worlds, characters, stories and surprise yourself. Delve deeply into the subjects that you love and flesh out the mechanisms of how they work as much as you can. You have a work ethic and drive that I admire, so I know you’ll be able to do this. Ultimately, I also don’t want you to think that I’m giving this advice as if I think you’re some dejected person. Ironically, I think this is all advice for a hypothetical Mike that may, possibly, be considering life-extension some day. Keith, I think you’ll be gratified to know that as naive and unrealistic as it is and as inept and powerless as I am, the reason I want to go to Japan is to help those declining birthrates. I’m pro-life extension and pro-natalist. I like humans and want more of them! I feel a special indebtedness to the Japanese and their culture. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the exportation of their culture has greatly influenced, and at times, even saved my life. I can’t stand the thought of Japanese people (or any culture really) disappearing. So, I’m going there to attempt to do activism to bring more attention to the public about the declining birth rate and motivate the young people there to become interested in influencing their government. I visited a year ago and came away very concerned about how passive the youth are about the future of the country, on an individual level and societally. I also believe that we need to approach treating the issues that Japan faces with a many pronged approach. Life extension (specially health-span) are crucial for the survival and betterment of Japan (and soon for all countries that face this birthrate issue). I’m gratified to know that hearing of my experience invigorates you to keep educating the public about life extension. It’s a lonely perspective and position to take… some people can’t bring themselves to even entertain our ambition or shoulder the weight of that hope. It’s a hope that can crush any meager will. It takes a certain level of thankless altruism, too. We may never see the benefits of the life-extension treatments we hope becomes a reality. Meanwhile, some people resent us for even mentioning this possibility and having them shoulder that same hope. This is specially difficult for me when thinking of my mother. I feel anxiety thinking she may not reach longevity escape velocity. However, I think that ultimately this is the path forward and as you pointed out, the evidence is on our side. It’s funny to me that people don’t consider things like medical treatment or hygienic maintenance (brushing teeth) as “unnatural life extension”. All the treatment that we advocate for, ultimately are the same thing, just specifically addressing the entropy caused by senescence. Keep fighting the good fight, Keith. Your allies are only growing by the day.

[@tomc3824]

@@OmegaLogos Just wanted to say thank you very much for your comments here, they really affected me. I've worked full-time since I graduated from college. I've been writing fantasy stories on the side for years and have been unable to get published. Have written almost four novels by now, sent out hundreds of queries, etc. Life sometimes feels like a struggle to recognize goodness amid my dull routine, while also summoning the energy and willpower to work on my passion projects so that I might someday do something I like for a living. Thanks a million for sharing your perspective. :)

[@michs7451]

Great conversation! I really liked Keith’s input in helping me think a bit differently about life and death. I’m sure you’ll find that Xenosaga III will be a fitting commentary on this topic on “compromise with death.”

[@cursedcancersurvivor]

Happy to see TJ and Keith again. 56:54 Possible spoiler?... It is revealed in the DS version of parts I and II that Sakura sacrifices herself to save Albedo.

[@Paul-to1nb]

Whoa that's huge info! Can't believe they left that out of the PS2 version!

[@dalebob9364]

Thank you for covering the original Xenogears with such Grace and understanding. Unfortunately, after seeing what they did to ff7 in the remake, I do not want any modern gaming studio to touch Xenogears with a 10-foot Pole. It would be cool in The octopath traveler engine!

[@quiddity131]

Square touching Xenogears again for anything other than a remaster (ex. what was done with Star Ocean 2) where the graphics are fixed up and some quality of life matters are addressed would be a nightmare for the simple reason that Tetsuya Takahashi and Saora Saga wouldn't be involved. And yeah, given certain narrative decisions with FF7 including in my eyes them wrecking some of the best stuff from the original game I just can't trust that studio anyway. Even if Rebirth is a lot of fun to play. Monolith Soft getting the rights would be a totally different story. But its been 25 years, if that ever was going to happen it would have already.

[@Scimarad]

Got to say, this was an absolutely epic discussion and I really enjoyed it.

[@CrowsofAcheron]

I played Xenosaga ep 2 without knowing anything about Pied Piper. To me, the part where Ziggy yells "VOYAGER" is one of the coolest moments I remember from that game. Because Ziggy is always cool and collected. He told Junior not to lose his cool when confronting Albedo. But now, facing what I assumed was a demon from his past, Ziggy feels the urge to kill him on sight. Then we see the difference power when he gets absolutely owned. I instantly wanted to know more about Ziggy's backstory. He ummediately became one of my favorite characters in the series. So yeah, I actually really liked Ziggy's encounter with Voyager, even without knowing the "full context".

[@CielBlanche]

The XS2 combat system is pretty fascinating, and if you dive into the mechanics the battles take much less time. The JRPG audience has been really conditioned into not having to deal with mechanics because the games are so easy that their mechanics can be ignored, or else they allow you to grind stats until the mechanics become ignorable. Xenosaga 2 won't let you ignore the mechanics, it will kill you if you don't respect the game. It expects you to know how to pursue every advantage to survive encounters or even achieve a proper damage output. The only issue is that the multiplicative nature of combos means that you really do need a lot of stocks to play effectively, so there should have been more means of generating stock than simply burning a turn to gain each one. There is one ability that will build a stock on a critical hit, but it's too situational or low chance to have much impact. While some encounters can be very lethal if played incorrectly, more of them should have outright killed players who didn't make use of the mechanics, sending a clearer signal that they needed to adjust their tactics rather than chipping away at enemies without leveraging combos properly. It was an interesting idea for a battle system and much more enjoyable than typical RPGs despite its execution flaws. That said, the XS1 battle system wins out over XS2's because the event slot system and encounter designs make for a compelling and tactical experience that demands forethought and improvisation. It's been extremely disheartening to see XS3's combat praised as the best of the three when it's a boring, stripped down, largely thoughtless, stereotypical battle system with none of the qualities that made Xenosaga interesting to begin with. Monolith caved in and gave up on demanding anything of its players, and predictably, the players loved it. I've heard disparaging comments over the years directed towards all the most interesting combat systems that dare to demand real engagement, rather than mashing attack or your strongest spell over and over. "Chrono Cross is so stupid, you need a Ph.D to play it!" -- it's a sad, sorry state the genre is in. All the interesting design possibilities were denigrated or ignored, and now we're in a deeply ironic place where turn-based combat is often dismissed outright as being "too boring". Well, it's no wonder.

[@snakeman1853]

I had to scroll down to finally found someone that points out how boring is XS3 battle system. I get that episode 3 fixes a lot of things in the series, but the battle is definitely not one of them. I also agree with your point that XS2 forced the player to engage and utilize its mechanics. Maybe too much ask for all players when some people just want to get in on the story bits.

[@hectorayarza1283]

My favorite podcast so far i ve been listening to you guys since the Xenogears analysis and it made me appreciate and understand games with different perspective and i thank you guys for that.

[@swallowtail1741]

This might be my favorite episode of the entire podcast I don’t remember having so much guests on at once

[@sparkleofroses]

Holy moly guys, the quality of guests and this conversation is insane. There really isn't a podcast like this on the internet. I also really love what Casen said at the end. I'm a new mom and was terrified to become one because of my own parents. But there is joy in watching my son discover the world.

[@LuxoXeno]

Love this series! Fine gentlemen discussing fine stories.

[@nether3428]

I really appreciate y'alls attempt to understand the different experiences one might have while playing the games y'all cover. It keeps these discussions endlessly entertaining and really re-watchable due to my personal changes and coming back to hear the thoughts and opinions of not only Mike and Cassen, but also every guest y'all bring on is one of my favorite things to do on KZbin. Much love and keep up the good work

[@Xenosantia]

I love this podcast. As a Game Designer myself, I just wanted to mention that there is a reason for normal attacks are balanced to not be very effective. During playtesting many people find that if you make readily available combat options efficient, players will normally not engage with the battle system at all. Which makes combat feel button mashy. This is an oversimplification of why normal attacks usually suck, just food for thought.

[@violetsky22]

i love when Casen does Jr.'s voice 😂😂😂

[@valdegard]

Just wanna say I'm a huge SaGa fan and I loved the shoutout and fairness to the series guys, mad props. You rarely hear rational discourse around the series for the very issues Mike mentioned, so I'm genuinely thrilled he used SaGa as a positive example of RPG systems deviating from the norm and that being okay. Couple small plugs for SaGa; the Romancing SaGa 2 remake coming out this year I suspect will be quite the breakout hit even for SaGa newbies, and if and when SaGa Frontier 2 is remastered, there's a legitimate case for its appropriateness for this channel in its themes and storytelling, or at least I'll recommend it for anyone curious.

[@snakeman1853]

A fellow SaGa fan! We must support each other in these things haha. I would love for Mike to get to play some of the games in the franchise to experience some uniqueness in jRPG design (especially considering how he has nailed how tropey they can get). However, I do understand that this channel being heavy into story and character development would find little to dig on that front in SaGa games. Maybe something that they could experiment with in their own time.

[@thegobbojones]

Saga is dope.

[@OmegaLogos]

I’m almost 2 hours in and I wish I could hit the “like” button more than 200 times.

[@travelsizedlions]

Guys, I don't think I ever noticed how handsome Mike was until this episode.

[@jacobmonks3722]

He does have some dreamy eyes.

[@Omnicloudx13]

Wonderful analysis and discussion as always, even though I am a bit dour on Xenosaga 2 I still love the series overall very much and I can't wait for the eventual Episode 3 series of videos.

[@IanBoyte]

omg this title 😭😭

[@kendric_BUF]

WOOO! Glad to see TJ again

[@andrusman100]

As always just want to extend my thanks appreciation for giving me and my group of loved ones new talking points. This was by far one of my favorite episodes you guys have done.

[@EvilCronos13]

As someone who has played all the games in the series, hearing the idea of reading the next game in the light of how much people hold onto things in the game, it's going to make for an interesting approach. I look forward to you guys bringing up readings that I wasn't able to see in any of my playthroughs. Great conversations!

[@hikupptheoverthinker]

As someone who is working on writing a story with the base theme being living life & this conflict between good, evil, and the in between, this podcast has given me so much to consider and look into further in order to improve the message I'm trying to convey. Hearing about all this really helps me out into perspective everything I've thought about life. One that especially helped is that idea you guys talking about most opposites being the same just on different ends and it's all about that motion in between (sorry, I can't quite remember the specifics of what was said) Thanks for all your work guys, on everything you do.

[@johnbrown5898]

I would actually like a Casen parenting podcast. Honestly I struggle with some of the things he brings up such as technology and have the same worries and views that all I want to do is ensure I die before they do and when I'm gone they have everything they need and are greater than me.

[@Sacrengard]

2:16:42 I love Keith's perspective on that. I am in my late 30s and I feel, not boredom or weariness as one may call it, but lack amusement, like nothing gets you as excited as when you were a kid or a teenager. The smells are dull, the colors are drowned, and you feel like the story of life is spoiled and you already know what is going to happen or why it happens. The bliss of ignorance is gone, and the age of innocence is forgotten. But as age comes, we have to adapt to the new things that come with it. Like the mother and grandmother being entertained for the kid's amusement, or the nostalgia of remembering one's dear friends long gone. These are new feelings we have to embrace to replace those that we can no longer have. My cousin had a new baby, she is almost 2 by now, and she has changed our family completely, it all centers around her and the feeling I get from watching her do things and talk and laugh is something I could only imagine a parent can feel. Specially being the daughter of my cousin who is like a sister to me, and we grew up together. Is like watching her as a little kid again.

[@jedfactor7093]

Very good discussion, really thought provoking , exited for with Episode 3's content as you can explore these themes even further.

[@cloudkitt]

Episode II not havign a voice director makes SO much sense. Because even though I don't like the new voices, even some of the returning characters had some bad line reads. Thank goodness for Wendee Lee in III as well as the returns of Lia Sargent (Shion) and Bridget Hoffman (KOS-MOS) from Episode I. Not to ignore the rest of the very engaging philosophical discussion. Thanks as usual, guys.

[@JediMimic]

All five of you bring such interesting perspectives and thoughts to the table. It is fascinating to listen to this and there's much to think about.

[@pelgervampireduck]

after watching this and the episode 1 videos again, I feel an empty void like "what do I do with my life now?" hahaha. It's like the sensation when you finish a book and your mind is pulled back from that universe to this one and you feel like "now what?". maybe I should go watch again the Xenogears videos while we wait for the next episodes about Xenosaga.

[@JEANS__]

amazing episode. maybe the best ever. so interesting. can’t wait for more :)

[@GRAG3R]

Mike be wearin the Luffy Bout-to-Ruin-Lucci's-day Gear 5 goggles

[@MagnoDragon8]

This was amazing!

[@nessless5]

Absolutely amazing podcast episode! Wow

[@MrDragoncow]

I think one of the biggest counter arguments to indefinite life extension based on the concept of relationships is that not all death is caused by aging. At some point in time, all of my loved ones may have died due to car accidents or gun violence or other anomalous cases. While rare, over thousands of years, it isn’t impossible and at that time, I can’t foresee myself wanting to live any further

[@lrodrigues7488]

Coming in hot here boys 😂😂😂

[@xKayges]

This was an incredible episode. I am constantly praising Xenosaga for being such a thought-provoking piece of media - and this is why I call it my favorite game series of all time. On the topic of mortality, I'm grateful for Keith's perspective, because I personally align most with Mike's feelings on the matter. For quite a long time I have told others "The sooner you come to terms with death, the better your life will be." As was said in the discussion - perhaps one day we can extend our lives beyond measure, but accidents can and will happen every day. It's difficult to know how we'll feel in the future, but in the present any moment spent on self-reflection is time well spent. As a side note, I'd hate to leave this unsaid regardless of how unlikely it is to happen, but if you all could experience the story of Final Fantasy XIV (especially Shadowbringers and Endwalker storyline), I think you would have a field day with the material that's explored. It's stories like these that help shape and define what I love about life.

[@thosediamonddreams]

I'm not too interested in Xenosaga Ep 2 but I saw this vid's thumbnail on my feed, was mesmerized by Mike's amazing eyewear, clicked it and scrubbed the entire vid front to back to see if he kept them on for the whole podcast and was truly delighted to see he does. What a true baller 👏I was planning on complaining in the comments if I saw that he took them off after the first 10 minutes or something lol. Love you guys and what you do! Been a fan since the Nier Replicant 1.whatever analysis in April 2021!

[@EdreesesPieces]

Keith seems like such a genuinely great human being. Also, special thanks to TJ for standing in as our champion of those who have strong criticisms of how XS2 handled certain things. I think it's a "good game too" but it's a shame because it had easy potential to be the best of the trilogy. I will say I'm usually a person who LOVES different battle systems (I liked FF2, I love games like Valkyrie Profile 2 and Eternal Sonata, with unorthodox systems) but I just thought XS2 battles drag on way too long. The idea is nice but I'm with Mike that for a battle system like that, each battle should have some scripted elements (like albedo regeerating limbs), dungeons should be shorter and have way less enemies. The battle system is just the worst possible one chosen for a game with long dungeons like this. Bad combo. Anyway, such good discussion in the immortality and longer life discussions from everyone. I learned a lot from this and it certainly educated me, just what I look for in an episode of Resonant Arc Podcast. Can't wait for XS3!

[@Tigerbro6]

what the heck is mike wearing hahaahha

[@kendric_BUF]

I love how its not being acknowledged at all 😂

[@JCDadalus]

Reminds me of the Jacob's Ladder movie review and deep dive from you guys. Good video as always.

[@kevinstreetgaming]

What an excellent discussion!

[@pepinchaotique3126]

The topic of sakura's death is very interesting to me because even though it is never shown in the main games it has also been told differently in multiple forms of media. Like it was mentionned during this podcast, it was directly shown in the DS version (in which she apparently sacrifices herself to save albedo from u-do's waves inside her subconscious). A more basic explaination of her death is also present in episode 3's database. Most interestingly, it is explained in a completely different way in the Xenosaga Episode 1 Official Desing Material (Xenosaga 1 ODM for short), a book that was released before episode 2's release and containing very interesting details about the world of xenosaga, its culture and its characters, one of which being juli mizrahi. In the short analysis of her character it is said that sakura actually commited suicide in front of her! This topic probably won't come up in future episodes but i still wanted to point it out just in case you were interested

[@KelfeinX]

Godlike episode, godlike channel.

[@disturbedrebirth]

The good place anwers the imortality question in the final season beautifully.

[@ValentinRobert]

How did they get Raz from Psychonauts to host this one!? Looking doubly fine!

[@coolrocksounds]

The combat in X2 felt TEDIOUS, because there’s so many combinations to break the enemy, it takes forever to actually start dealing damage. I think Persona does it better, between 2-3 spells you will find what’s effective and what’s not.

[@thegmanofEAP]

You guys are insane for this headline 🤣

[@tonigrondahl4465]

I love you guys and I loved the guests

[@dudemcguy1227]

RA podcast, July 2023: "FF16 is a good game, but some aspects of the story felt lacking or unsatisfactory." Square Enix fanbase: "Boo! Booooo!!! You just don't get!" *Screams into the sun* RA podcast, July 2024: "Despite it's reputation, Xenosaga episode II is actually a good game overall, but there are some significant issues with presentation at times." Xeno Fanbase: "Fair points good sirs! The critique is welcome. Thank you for discussing this series!" *Tips fedora*

[@Paul-to1nb]

A year later, it's still mindboggling to me how people praise FF16's story. I firmly stand by Mike's criticisms.

[@michs7451]

I absolutely love your characterization of the fandoms.

[@CielBlanche]

Well, the thing about ejecting all the principled creative figures so you can spend 20+ years releasing trash is that over time you'll inevitably cultivate a very uncritical audience. It's no surprise modern Square Enix devotees tend to effusively celebrate whatever is put in front of them. It's every corporation's dream!

[@SlitheringStevePhilips]

The bubbles we all live in can be interesting like that, everywhere I went on the internet people would lash out at anyone that said anything positive about 16 The important thing is recognizing those bubbles and not treating the opinions of people in your bubble as the way everybody feels or acts

[@AnalystAdam]

Since you guys bring up the benefits of playing Pied Piper before 2, I wonder how you guys will handle Xenoblade 2 now whenever you eventually get to it. Will you play Torna first, or play it after the base game? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[@HunchbackOfNotreJon]

I don't know how well it would work before, but the intended place is a very good spot, and I think it works better there than after.

[@AnalystAdam]

​​@@HunchbackOfNotreJonYou're probably right on that, but I wonder how it would feel for them to jump into a new battle system at that point, and then go back to base game battle system after. Not just that, but I wonder if it'd feel a like a bit too much just because it would take place during what I consider a big in between moment where things really start to get stirring in the base game.

[@mdude62]

I found this a really good video, gave me a lot to think about that I'd never considered before. I am very interested in how this mortality discussion would tie in to the concept of eternal recurrence, which is touched upon in Xenosaga episode III, like would any of you guy's opinions/views on mortality change if it turned out eternal recurrence was real?

[@jacobmonks3722]

I lol'd at that title. This'll age well, I'm sure.

[@quiddity131]

Thanks for another great episode! I may have said this last time, but your coverage has totally turned me around on the order of how to play things and I'm totally with you now on Pied Piper before II being the best way to go about it even though that's never been the order I did it in during my prior replays. Re: the combat system, I think it works really well for bosses and makes the battles more interesting. For random encounters it really drags things out too much. This is compounded by the small supply of items and the fact that the game doesn't have any shops. Also the character progression system is exactly the same for each character which is incredibly frustrating. There are some slight differences in combat itself (ex. only KOS-MOS and Jin can knock characters into the air) but for the most part it comes off as just copy and paste. Re: FF7 Remake combat I feel so differently, at least for most of the first game, I feel the combat system made it hardly playable at all and made for an incredibly frustrating gameplay experience. Once you hit a point where you have 3 party members though it was better for me the rest of the way and I liked it a lot better in Rebirth.

[@Dianor_]

For Casen when speaking about localisation and North America. In Canada, as a French Canadians in Quebec, most of us are billingual. We speak both language and we simply had the same English release as everyone else. I've played English games since I was a child. It's a lot better for me to play the english version for NA than the French one from France when it's available. We're simply closer and I can relate a lot more to NA tbh.

[@SchwingyPOV]

True, but did you not get to experience the glorious french translation of mass effect as a kid? I will always remember "Commandehr Shepparde!". The best buy was out of english copies...

[@zaperart7827]

I actually think xenosaga 2 is the soul of the trilogy and it has the best aesthetics, including the characters. It also delves deeply into themes that other xeno games only hint at superficially. im glad you guys put a spotlight on it

[@disturbedrebirth]

We do live in moments. That's episodic memory.

[@cazao24]

I was about to fire up Romacing SaGa 1 when Mike began talking about it. Can you say "synchronicity"?😬😛

[@Xenobears]

I said it before and I’ll say it again: If we ever do get a Xenogears remake, I want Crispin Freeman to voice Fei… and the other character attached to Fei. It’s never going to happen, but if I had a genie lamp, that’s the kind of dumb thing I might wish for.

[@GamingWithSpoons]

Im with Mike im burnt out. The notion i have to work at a dead end job because i feel i have no choice has really set in. I could go somewhere else but ive done that and realized its the same no matter where you go.

[@leif54]

Goggles. Genius! 😂 deadpan gallore!

[@Sacrengard]

It's true what David says, just until a few years ago we only got Spanish dub in videogames, but now we're slowly being able to see some games implement Latin American translations. As a native spanish speaker from latin america I appreciate that. I never selected the spanish translations in videogames, I rather watch them in english or their original language. Now with this new option I am intrigued to see how good the latin translations are. For example, Final Fantasy XVI has a latin american dub, and for the most part its pretty good, but I still prefer the english one.

[@Rubidius]

Doing something different from the norm and calling it innovation doesn't mean it's better. Triangle shaped wheels might break from the norm but it doesn't make a car move faster.

[@thefunnyultra7guy237]

Since it seems like an answer hasn't been given yet, I'll give 2 theories for why Mike has those glasses on. First going off of the title of the video and the supereme court, Mike is making a silent statement that wearing these glasses is an "official act" as reviewer of Xenosaga II and therefore he is "immune" from any (in this case) criticism. The other possibility is he' has often given context to that interview he's shown from that other channel(I don't remember the name) with the English voice for Vanille in FF13 and he told us outside viewers that those guys like to dress up and act weird sometimes so just try to ignore that and focus on what they're actually saying and he wanted to have his own moment like that for once.

[@El-Duderino-His-Dudeness]

I'm just so glad you guys actually covered this one. I remember back during episode 1, the possibility of skipping it was briefly mentioned (unless I'm misremembering). Mike's always had a similar take on JRPGs as me. Granted, him and Casen gave Ep 1 way more leeway than I would. I personally found Ep 1 to be dull in every way. The environments, the music (lack of), the battle system was torture. The pace was like the worst parts of Xenogears but some how even slower. I haven't played these games in 10+ years, but my recollection is that Ep 2 was a breath of fresh air and addressed all those issues. Cut scenes were directed with style, there were better and more interesting characters (I can't stand Shion) brought on, like Jin or Canan. Everyone that got an eye size reduction, GOOD, because that made me cringe too. The music isn't Yasunori Mitsuda, but then it was barely him in Ep 1 because they blew all the budget on cutscene music, and none of that was even remotely memorable, with the exception maybe of the finale. Ep 2 had more music, and sure, some of it was a bit hokey, but I'll take that over nothing on boring gray hallways Ep 1. The gameplay was so much better because it was streamlined. Shared boost system made the boost system not a pain in the ass to use. Launching enemies in the air was cool. Mechs didn't feel like a complete waste of time when they were in fights. It just flowed better. I hope you guys deep dive the Xenoblade games after Xenosaga.

[@jacobmonks3722]

I think the shared boost system actually made combat more frustrating for 2 reasons: 1. The number of boosts you can do is smaller. You could argue that it makes the game more balanced and challenging, but it isn't because of Reason 2. 2. The enemies also have a shared boost meter, and there are often more of them than you, so they will fill theirs up faster as they get more hits. They can also boost over your boost, leading you into situations that you can't reasonably prepare for, sometimes knocking down an entire party member's HP bar before you get a chance to respond at all. This system gives the enemies a greater advantage than you.

[@LuxoXeno]

I actually agree overall with your sentiments about preferring XS2 > XS1. Faster gameplay and some actual background music. However imo the story kind of focused on the wrong plotlines within the context that they only had one more game left. Obviously, it wasn’t their fault as they were still under the impression of making 6, but idk. XS1 also had some better dialogue heavy cutscenes and had more of that iconic Takahashi flair. Tldr: XS2 is a better game to play, but XS1 is a better “world” to immerse yourself in

[@quiddity131]

@@LuxoXeno They never intended to make 6 games all focused on the central cast we got here, it would have been 3 core storylines each with two games. Which went sideways when Episode I didn't cover everything it was supposed to cover. So when 2 was made they knew there would be only one more to go, at least for these characters. Their issue was out of control ambition; what was supposed to be Episode I ended up being Episode I and II and even with that they also needed to rely upon Pied Piper and A Missing Year to supplement things to enable them to end the storyline with the third episode.

[@LuxoXeno]

@@quiddity131 Oh, okay. I appreciate the clarification

[@spencerrenwick5131]

Can't wait to watch these when I eventually play the games, considering they're some of the most painfully inaccessible RPGs EVER 😅 Odds are I'll emulate them at some point. Maybe I'll do it soon?

[@disturbedrebirth]

I think what I didnt like about Xenosaga 2 back in the day was the graphics and the combat compared to 1.

[@trexalfa]

Great video, as always. Just wanted to say... I don't really think this series shifts from Xenogears' Gnostic lenses that much, if at all? Again, this might be better understood thanks to Episode III, but the apparently "Christian" inspired concepts could only be interpreted as fully Catholic executions of them if analyzed superficially. My own experience has taught me that they are basically still Gnostic concepts (mainly from Valentinian Gnosticism, with even some docetism if you care to look for it, which is as far from an orthodox Christian view as you can get), often filtered through Jungian lenses, if that's useful (I'd say Xenogears and Xenosaga are, mainly, Jungian inspired, and their Gnostic stuff is mostly filtered through Jung). You don't see anything too overt like a Demiurge alusion but... Let's just say Xenosaga was probably cut short before that could show up :). And even in Gears, the Demiurge analogue was originally named "Yahweh". I doubt that would have detracted from the Gnostic influence at all. Not seeing any differences in between the portrayal of the Church in Xenogears and Ormus in Xenosaga, for the matter, except for perhaps Ormus' integration of the Nietzschean "people have become weaklings" outlook that both Margulis and the Pope express. In Xenogears, the Church (or the Ethos, if you go by the US translation) was still very much analogous to the Catholic Church, given their hierarchy, much like Ormus', contains Popes, bishops and even Inquisitor like figures, in spite of the lack of a explicit Messiah figure or teaching the theory of evolution. And this is without getting into further Ormus related spoilers. In short, IMO the argument that Xenosaga does a 180 from Gnosticism into more "orthodox" Christian views doesn't really have that much ground to stand on.

[@andreiulyanov9241]

On the topic of music, the second composer Shinji Hosoe can really write great stuff, I was really surprised how good the Labyrinthos theme was: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIayn4FuZqdpsK8si=fw1hbeo4IkMVqTO0

[@v.m.a.d.l.e.6972]

I dont think people are afraid of death itself, but more afraid of suffering, our own and the people who are close to us. This is why when young the thought rarely ever pops because we see it as something that is way too far from happening. But when you get older you start to see it ponder, like the not too far death of your grandparents/parents and what would happen if you died yourself, specially if you have children.

[@XenosbioZ]

Podcast was really inspiring… to make me buy a lottery ticket, let’s go 10 billion!!! 😂 Jk great stuff, sniff, I remember watching my little 7 year old cousin play super Mario kart on my snes classic and he was just like “oooo… yeahhh!!! Oooooo… yeahhhh!!!” The entire time. I’m so sad I can’t experience what he’s experiencing but it was such a nice “other feeling” to have to see what my little cousin was experiencing… kinda like looking at feelings as “two different daughters” like a MOMO and Sakura I guess 😂

[@disturbedrebirth]

Have you guys seen Altered Carbon? You can see there how imortality would play out for the poor.

[@ResonantArc]

I've heard some good things about Altered Carbon. I'd like to check it out!

[@NameNotAChannel]

On the game side of things (now that I got the whole longevity post out of the way)... I think I'm "meh" about the game overall... but the thing I remember most about the game, despite all the story... was the leveling system. Since the stat increases on level-up were based on whoever had the highest stat at the time, you'd only gain a stat-cap-raise if you matched the highest stats at the time of your level-up. AND your off-field team kept gaining experience too, so you had to cycle through your teams to make sure everyone was getting all the AP they needed to increase their stats. Now making that worse was that horrible wheel of effects... you HAD to land the killing blow on double AP. For people just casually playing through, they probably didn't even give this a second thought. However, I remember playing Xenogears, and the fact that you could ONLY get Accuracy and Evasion from level-ups, and apart from ether strength (which you could boost with shop-bought boosters), those were the only stats carried over to pilots in Gears... I say this, because in my first playthrough, I had HORRIBLE Acc and Eva... so much so, that battles in the last dungeon were miss after miss after miss after miss after miss, while taking a beating from those enemies... I was determined not to have such a horrible time at the end of this game, so I power leveled near save points until I had enough of a gap each time to continue on with a dungeon without leveling up. If I messed up a battle and didn't end on AP-UP, I'd reset. Yes, that may not be a direct problem with the game, and more my goals within the game... but they made that system, so I blame them. :)

[@Sacrengard]

1:54:26 I don't remember if it was discussed in one of your podcasts or if I heard it somewhere else, but the issue with less birth rates mean less chance of a faster evolution. In fact, people who get life extension from the beginning will be biologically so different than future generations that in thousands or millions of years they will be a completely different species.

[@memaimu]

Would love to translate the Xenosaga DS game. I could provide the translations, but I cannot hack.

[@MiBrCo4177]

Currently listen/watching and I feel Casan should of wore some goggles too lol.

[@disturbedrebirth]

I also learned english with FF7. I remember I had to restart it because I could'nt figure out where the keystone was.

[@joshuahelmeke]

LMAO! Gawd damn, I love that title. There’s definitely a bottleneck around the combat in this one, but having learned its design limits, I’ve come to really enjoy it. Although, the battle system on its face is far too dense for most (including myself) to pick up as a stand alone battle system. That, combined with a pour dub, makes the episode a slog. I still stand behind my enjoy of this game. It’s a personal favorite, because it focuses on Rubido/Jr. and I identify with his character the most. I also like the hidden bosses and a lot of clear data gameplay. There a ton a “game” in game. I’m FUMING mad that the NDS game has yet to be translated! 🤯

[@AWFarmer]

I recall the music typically reminding me of "Flight" by how much it contradicted the scene.

[@gabrielhammond523]

For me the translation fiasco I missed out on was a front mission 5 English release. I even tried to mod it on a Japanese ps2 with the fan translation but the kanji they used in programming the game was massive and I didn’t have a strong enough computer to successfully mod it.

[@branniganslaw6661]

The position the leader of Ormus has (Patriarch) actually comes from Eastern Orthodox Church. I wonder if Ormus was also partly inspired by that branch of Christianity as well.

[@trexalfa]

Patriarch is just a result of the English translation. The original Japanese says Kyoko, which literally just means "Pope"

[@YouTubdotCub]

TJ's recent 5+ part ongoing series of Xenogears videos has been fantastic, highly recommend anyone who likes Resonant Arc content go check them out if they haven't!

[@pelgervampireduck]

I'm scrolling through the comments to see if they reply to any comment about the weird goggles thing Mike is wearing, and I can't find anything. I feel it's a joke I'm not getting or some reference. I think I've watched all their videos and I can't think of anything related to it. It's driving me crazy not knowing what those things are!.

[@AnalystAdam]

Mike is clearly embracing the Sellers look in preparation for Episode III. In all honesty though, I wonder if it has to do with the latest video on NieR Automata; with Mike stating in that video, he is learning to not take himself so seriously all the time.

[@pelgervampireduck]

@@AnalystAdam may be it should be a tradition, from time to time he should wear something random, no matter the subject of the episode.

[@XenosbioZ]

He’s hiding manly tears... also he can see the physical manifestation of the collective unconscious with it!

[@questioningespecialy9107]

of all the titles

[@pelgervampireduck]

If you extend life to 130 on the next day a law will be approved to change retirement age to 125.

[@fattmusiek5452]

w00t ❤

[@gabrielhammond523]

Do you guys think that Albedo inadvertently played a part in Sakuras death. I always felt like they were hinting at something bigger there.

[@trexalfa]

This is a cut part of the storyline that was restored in the DS remake: Sakura died sacrificing herself to save Albedo. Takahashi himself stated, through interview, that such an event should be taken into account when interpreting Albedo's actions so as to see them in a new light.

[@FinneousPJ1]

Beast in black shirt 🤘🤘🤘 Everyone check out this band if you haven't already

[@v.m.a.d.l.e.6972]

Pink eye edition.

[@Shanmania]

wahoo