OverviewEdit

Xenogears initially takes place on the continent of Ignas, where the nations of Aveh and Kislev have been waging war on each other for centuries. An organization known as the Ethos, which is a church-like organization dedicated to preserving the world's culture, has excavated giant fighting robots called Gears. Gears have had a major effect on the war and have almost entirely replaced the need for human infantry. Although Kislev was gaining the upper hand in the war, a mysterious army known as Gebler appeared and started providing assistance to Aveh. With Gebler's help, Aveh not only recovered their losses, but began making their way into Kislev's territory.

The game itself begins in the small town of Lahan, which is near the border of Aveh. We are introduced to Fei Fong Wong, an eighteen-year-old male who was mysteriously brought to Lahan by a "Masked Man" three years prior. Because of the events surrounding his arrival at the village, Fei has no clear memories before arriving in the village. Despite this, Fei has a pleasant life, and is awaiting the marriage of his two best friends, Alice and Timothy.

One night, while visiting the local doctor, Citan Uzuki in his home on top of a nearby mountain, Fei is shocked to find a group of Gears flying towards Lahan. By the time Fei makes it back, the entire town is burning as the Gears storm their way through the village. Fei finds an unmanned gear nearby, and, despite Citan's protests, gets aboard; Fei has some success fending off the attackers. However, when he sees his friend Timothy shot, a new personality awakens in Fei, causing the Gear to go berserk - the entire village is destroyed, killing many of the attackers, as well as Alice, in the process. A distraught Fei is forced to become a village outcast and decides to leave the ominous black gear behind. Upon entering the Black Moon Forest, Fei encounters a strange female soldier named Elly, whom he feels a strange connection towards. From this point onward, Fei and his allies will learn of the truth behind his planet, and a past involving extensive manipulation and a being known as "Deus".

Backstory and expansionEdit

Much of Xenogears' plot and backstory is detailed in the Japanese-only book Perfect Works. This book, produced by the now defunct DigiCube, details the history of the Xenogears universe from the discovery of the Zohar to the start of the game. For the avid Xenogears fans, an important aspect of the book is the explanation of the six episodes that make up the Xenogears saga. According to the Perfect Works schematic, Xenogears is only the fifth episode in a series of six, with the first four providing the backstory for the events that took place in Xenogears.

CharactersEdit

ReceptionEdit

Xenogears maintains a 90% ratio on Gamerankings, and within the top 15 best reviewed games on the Playstation. However, it remains a critically divisive title with some, even years after its initial release. Many praise the game's storyline, with its discussions of philosophy, psychology, and religion.Template:Fact Also popular is the multitude of references to religious terms and well known science fiction films such Star Wars and Soylent Green, as well as praise for its innovative combat system. Some of the noted flaws from critics include the overabundance of cutscenes, an excessively high frequency of random battles, and linear gameplay. A notable criticism is the style of the second disc, where the use of the world map is restricted and the amount of cut scenes increases.Template:Fact

Game notesEdit

Graphically, Xenogears combines 2D sprite characters with 3D environments. The environments and Gears are principally all created within the 3D engine, but the characters are created using low resolution 2D sprites. In addition to these things, Xenogears also utilizes both traditional Japanese cel-animated scenes and pre-rendered CGI movie clips during emotive or important plot points by Production I.G. — a trait that was common in Squaresoft RPGs during this era. Another commonly-lauded aspect of Xenogears is the dramatic and powerful soundtrack that was arranged and composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and featured Joanne Hogg on vocals for two songs with lyrics by event planner Masato Kato for the ending theme and Tetsuya Takahashi for the epilogue. Aside from the official soundtrack, there is also Creid, an arrange album produced by Mitsuda and Millenial Fair.

In a press release by Square announcing the release of Xenogears in Japan, it was stated that the game's treatment of religion in general and Christianity in particular might prevent it from being released outside of Japan. However, Xenogears was released quietly into the United States, amidst minimal controversy.

"Project Noah is - apparently - what Squaresoft had intended to call Xenogears when they first started production of the game and released information to the press. Later, the name was changed to 'Xenogears'." ^[1]

Psychological/Philosophical influencesEdit

Xenogears's characters were designed to allude to many psychological concepts, notably Freudian and Jungian psychology. The most obvious allusion involves the nature of the game's protagonist, Fei Fong Wong, whose Freudian ego, superego, and id are discussed at length throughout the course of the game. Fei had subconsciously repressed his memories because of his unpleasant childhood. However, his desire to remember elements of his past eventually leads to his discovering the truth about who he is and what his relationship with the character known as 'Id' is. This repression also relates to the Jungian concept of the shadow. Distinctly Adlerian in nature, however, are the actions of certain characters, such as Ramsus, whose actions are driven by an inferiority complex that stems from unconscious 'nodes' that often permeate exterior behaviors of an individual.

Although not distinctly psychological, allusions to the theories of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, are found in game. For example, there is the concept of the eternal return, which, in Xenogears, correlates to the recurrences of the Contact and the Antitype.

Connections to XenosagaEdit

While Xenogears has never had an official sequel or prequel, some mistake a game developed by Monolith Soft and released by Namco called Xenosaga on the PlayStation 2 to be a prequel. Tetsuya Takahashi was the director and writer for both Xenogears and Xenosaga, and notes that Xenosaga is not a prequel to Xenogears because Square Enix owns the rights to Xenogears.

There is considerable debate within the Xenogears fanbase about how accurately the Xenogears time line in Perfect Works is followed by Xenosaga, which contains similar elements, such as the Zohar, as well as several allusions of characters and terms present in Xenogears.

Official interviews are somewhat vague on the matter, though Tetsuya Takahashi has stated that "It's probably more suitable to say that it follows the direction and style of Xenogears.", as well as "Now that we are under a different company, we figured we should start everything from scratch all over again. Though there are familiar faces that serve as important characters in Xenosaga, others are more like self-parodies, so we don't really want Xenogears fans to overreact. Like movies, sometimes you have the director of the movie or friend of the leading actor appearing as cameos, so it's similar to that."^[2] By the closing of Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra, the allusions to Xenogears and a possible connection become even more noticeable. However, there are many differing aspects of the Xenosaga series, and with Episode III marking a premature ending to the original forecast of six episodes, the connection between the two series remains unknown.

CrewEdit

• Game producer: Hiromichi Tanaka
• Executive producers: Tetsuo Mizuno, Tomoyuki Takechi, Hironobu Sakaguchi
• Game director: Tetsuya Takahashi
• Scenario writers: Tetsuya Takahashi, Soraya Saga
• Original character designer: Soraya Saga
• Character designers: Soraya Saga, Kunihiko Tanaka
• Gear designer: Junya Ishigaki
• Mecha designer: Yoshinori Ogura
• Art director, Map texture designer: Yasuyuki Honne
• Art designer: Takashi Arai
• Map designers: Takashi Arai, Ryosuke Aiba
• Battle planner: Hiromichi Tanaka
• Event planners: Masato Kato, Takashi Tanegashima
• Main programmer: Kiyoshi Yoshii
• Battle programmer: Katsuhisa Higuchi
• Music composer: Yasunori Mitsuda

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Information from xgam.org's encyclopaedia (http://www.xgam.org/xenogears/encyclopaedia/index.php?topic=project_noah)
2. ↑ Sato, Ike. "We talk with the director of Xenosaga, Tetsuya Takahashi."[1]