The Xeno thread.

[Seraphina]

Are there any huge Xeno fans like me here? You know what I am talking about right? Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade and hopefully a new one will be coming on the Wii U as well.

Anyway, who thinks these games are the best for suspense factor? Xenogears did an amazing job at keeping you guessing about what will happen next, and so did Xenosaga. Xenoblade as well!

What is your favourite game in the series and why? Do you welcome a remake of Xenogears, or maybe a HD collection of Xenosaga?

Who is your favourite character in the series and why?

[sceptile33]

I've only played Xenoblade so far. I've been thinking about getting into other Xeno games, but I'm not sure what to expect from them at all. A remake/collection of any of those past games would be great for me, and I would definitely welcome them.

[Zazie]

I like Xenosaga because I enjoy turn based JRPG's. I am unlikely to try Xenoblade because I don't care for it's real time, quest based style game-play. Xenogears seems okay, but not worth the price tag.

[sceptile33]

Oh yeah I forgot to say.

Xenoblade is the best ****ing game ever.

[Un0va]

So semi-related to the series - is there any good place to find a physical copy of Xenoblade without getting completely price-gouged? None of the GameStops in Ohio have it, unfortunately.

[sceptile33]

Your best bet at this point is to just look around any garage sale-kind of places. Gamestop is completely sold out almost everywhere in America, and Amazon's prices are through the roof. I wish you the best of luck.

[KillerDraco]

Makes me glad I got Xenoblade immediately when it came out. A friend of mine in Europe advised me that I had to have it ASAP due to how fast it sold. I was originally going to wait to get it since it came out during Finals Week of my senior year in college, but... bought it and just waited to play it. Best decision ever due to how hard it became to find it thereafter.

I feel bad for the people who try to find a retail-value copy of the game nowadays. I've never seen a game's price skyrocket so quickly... Then again it is an amazing game, and has absurd length so it'll keep you busy for a while.

[Rakurai]

I've only actually played Xenoblade, but from watching the other games, I don't think they'd really appeal to me.

Pretty much everything about Xenoblade was amazing to me and it's easily the best RPG I've played in about the last decade or so, IMO.

[KillerDraco]

I've only actually played Xenoblade, but from watching the other games, I don't think they'd really appeal to me.

Pretty much everything about Xenoblade was amazing to me and it's easily the best RPG I've played in about the last decade or so, IMO.

I'm in the same boat, but from what I've heard from a few friends of mine who were die-hard Xeno- fans since the beginning, -Saga and -Gears supposedly felt... "incomplete". Like they didn't quite reach the potential that they could've, and that Xenoblade was a refreshing change of pace since not only did it feel more complete, but the sheer scale of the game was just ridiculous.

[Rakurai]

From what I've heard, Xenoblade is actually the only one that didn't suffer from rushed development, so it feeling complete compared to the others is understandable.

Xenosaga, for instance, was meant to span more then three games, but it ended up getting cut short, and it's pretty evident in the ending of the third game.

[Zazie]

I like how people are talking inferring about the quality of xenogears and xenoblade, when they haven't played them.

If you like more traditional style JRPG's like the "classic" Final Fantasies*, they are well done examples of that game style. While the games are cutscene heavy, you can pause and skip them, and you do not have to play the games in order to understand what's going on. (Part 3 has recaps for 1 and 2, though part 2 doesn't have recaps)

*fairly linear, narrative heavy and turn based

[KillerDraco]

I like how people are talking inferring about the quality of xenogears and xenoblade, when they haven't played them.

If you like more traditional style JRPG's like the "classic" Final Fantasies*, they are well done examples of that game style. While the games are cutscene heavy, you can pause and skip them, and you do not have to play the games in order to understand what's going on. (Part 3 has recaps for 1 and 2, though part 2 doesn't have recaps)

*fairly linear, narrative heavy and turn based

You mean Gears and Saga? Also just for the record I did outright state that I was only going on hearsay for the other Xeno- games.

[Zazie]

You mean Gears and Saga? Also just for the record I did outright state that I was only going on hearsay for the other Xeno- games.

I am a little confused asw what your question is directed at, but I will attempt to explain better.

What I mean is that going by what other people say isn't always the best way to get a good view on the games. Xenogears and Xenosaga in particular have an issue where some fans of one game will trash upon the other one. (Xenoblade is very different, which is why I rarely see anyone try to compare it to the older games)

And for the record I have only played Xenosaga, so I can't say how Xenogears is. (nor Xenoblade for that matter)

[KillerDraco]

I am a little confused asw what your question is directed at, but I will attempt to explain better.

What I mean is that going by what other people say isn't always the best way to get a good view on the games. Xenogears and Xenosaga in particular have an issue where some fans of one game will trash upon the other one. (Xenoblade is very different, which is why I rarely see anyone try to compare it to the older games)

And for the record I have only played Xenosaga, so I can't say how Xenogears is. (nor Xenoblade for that matter)

You said "I like how people are talking inferring about the quality of xenogears and xenoblade, when they haven't played them.". I assumed you meant Xenogears and Xenosaga, based solely on the fact that I hadn't seem quite as much of what you mentioned when it comes to Xenoblade. Doesn't really matter either way though.

I would say Xenoblade is probably one of the "Must play" games of 2012 though, since it's very ambitious in terms of scale. I'd go so far as to say it's scale would be akin to that of an MMO; it's freaking huge.

[Jb]

I don't know why the 3 games are even being compared. Xenoblade was the best game released this gen period. Gears and Saga...wasn't. Doesn't mean they're bad though.

So semi-related to the series - is there any good place to find a physical copy of Xenoblade without getting completely price-gouged? None of the GameStops in Ohio have it, unfortunately.

Wanna buy mine for $90? Because the game is super rare and we gotta make profit.

business 101 and such

[Seraphina]

From what I've heard, Xenoblade is actually the only one that didn't suffer from rushed development, so it feeling complete compared to the others is understandable.

Xenosaga, for instance, was meant to span more then three games, but it ended up getting cut short, and it's pretty evident in the ending of the third game.

No, Xenosaga Episode II did horrible in Europe so they cut the series down to 3. It was a huge mistake to give the one with the most complicated battle system to Europe. Also no... Xenogears was not rushed. There is no evidence.

There is an Operation Xeno going around. I would appreciate if you guys helped get a hd remake possible someday. https://www.facebook.com/OperationXeno

Also I would just like to say even though Xenosaga was cut down, the games were great. II's battle system not so much though.

[bobandbill]

I played Xenoblade throughout my summer break (and a bit after) last/this year when a friend lent it to me, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The battle system wasn't my most favourite but it was good enough, and they certainly put a lot of effort into the world and story as well.

A question though - how many times does Reyn roll his shoulder? :V

[SBaby]

Also no... Xenogears was not rushed. There is no evidence.

Uh, yeah. It was rushed. Perfect Works gives you an idea of how rushed it was. But if you want more evidence, I'll be happy to supply you with it.

One of the biggest points of evidence actually lies within the game itself. If you use a certain gameshark or PAR code (you can easily find the code if you search), you can go to a debug room, where you can essentially teleport to any map or cutscene in the game. If you look around for awhile, you'll start to see dialogue scenes that... well, look a little different from what you get in the game. They look like legitimate story points, but if you play through the game normally, they aren't there. These are actually cutscenes that were removed from the final version of the game, because they weren't finished before the deadline came up on them. There are even entire maps that you never see in the game itself that you can still access through the debug room, including maps of the Soylent System mentioned in Disc 2, and a map of the Zohar area, which is where you get Xenogears (yeah, that was supposed to be an entire dungeon).

Another point of interest is the idea that the game was originally supposed to be three discs (according to interviews with the game's production team), and you were never meant to be cut off from the overworld map for such an extended period of time. This didn't happen either, presumably for the same reason. It is widely believed that the reason for all this is that Square moved the deadline for the game's release up, and rushed production, so they could work on Final Fantasy VIII. Given when this game came out, compared to when FFVIII came out (a little more than a year apart), that does actually make alot of sense.

This is just a small sample of the evidence that points to it being rushed.

[Seraphina]

Uh, yeah. It was rushed. Perfect Works gives you an idea of how rushed it was. But if you want more evidence, I'll be happy to supply you with it.

One of the biggest points of evidence actually lies within the game itself. If you use a certain gameshark or PAR code (you can easily find the code if you search), you can go to a debug room, where you can essentially teleport to any map or cutscene in the game. If you look around for awhile, you'll start to see dialogue scenes that... well, look a little different from what you get in the game. They look like legitimate story points, but if you play through the game normally, they aren't there. These are actually cutscenes that were removed from the final version of the game, because they weren't finished before the deadline came up on them. There are even entire maps that you never see in the game itself that you can still access through the debug room, including maps of the Soylent System mentioned in Disc 2, and a map of the Zohar area, which is where you get Xenogears (yeah, that was supposed to be an entire dungeon).

Another point of interest is the idea that the game was originally supposed to be three discs (according to interviews with the game's production team), and you were never meant to be cut off from the overworld map for such an extended period of time. This didn't happen either, presumably for the same reason. It is widely believed that the reason for all this is that Square moved the deadline for the game's release up, and rushed production, so they could work on Final Fantasy VIII. Given when this game came out, compared to when FFVIII came out (a little more than a year apart), that does actually make alot of sense.

This is just a small sample of the evidence that points to it being rushed.

Actually no. Those are the only things they left out. They did it because they wanted more focus on the story. What? Where is your source for those interviews? The game was never intended to be 3 discs long.

[Grim Heaper]

I'd like if this thread was renamed the Monolith Soft Thread. Considering all three of those games were made by said company, they made one of my favorite games which is a bit of a cult classic, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier and it's sequel, and both Namco X Capcom and Project X Zone were developed by them, which is obvious if you look at the similarities in the battle system and characters of Endless Frontier and Project X Zone.

As for the Xeno games though, I've only played some of Xenoblade, but I really like it.