Xenosaga HD Collection

Xenosaga HD Collection

Developer

Bandai Namco Studios

Publisher

Bandai Namco Entertainment

Release date

N/A

Platform(s)

N/A

Xenosaga HD Collection is a rumored remastering of the Xenosaga trilogy in a high-definition format. While this page refers to a collection, different rumors refer to an HD release of the first game, Xenosaga I: Der Wille zur Macht.

The Xenosaga series was released on PlayStation 2 in a standard definition format, spanning five DVD discs in total. So far, none of the games have been released on digital distribution services like the PlayStation Store and Episode I and Episode III were never released in Europe.

History

On September 11th, 2014, Bandai Namco director Katsuhiro Harada tweeted a link to his response on the site Twitlonger. He stated that, while he understood the Xenosaga fan community wanted a high-definition release and appreciated their passion, he felt different methods were needed. "It has been a long time since Xenosaga has been released. It really brings back memories of those days they were developing the first Xenosaga staying up all night, when the TEKKEN Project was also staying up all night on the same floor at office."

Harada recalled previous market research into the potential of an HD release of Xenosaga when Project X Zone was released outside of Japan. Back then, he writes, he did not find the market size to be big enough to pay for the development fees needed. "Back then, the reactions on SNS and unique users were rather few in number," he wrote. "It may be that I didn't work hard enough."

What Harada felt would be needed was "... cheers from as many "unique users" as possible", and that he wanted this effort to be realistic, as "[i]t mean[t] more to have 100 people mentioning they want the game one time, rather than having one person repeating it 100 times."

The same day, a Western fan-led social media campaign called Operation KOS-MOS was started on Twitter and Facebook. Two days later, a petition was created, which gained over a 1000 signatures by September 14th, 2014.

In July 2015, Bandai Namco director Katsuhiro Harada tweeted, "To Xenosaga Fan. About HD collection: I don't expect miracle by Petition any more. I'll find another way!! Thanks."

In December 2017, another rumor about a potential Xenosaga HD release surfaced from leaked information regarding an upcoming Bandai Namco presentation, which stated the collection would be a Nintendo Switch/PS4/PC exclusive. Liam Robertson stated it was based off of a misinterpretation of statements he had made about the rumours on his Patreon podcast. He later tweeted, "Not a lot I can share re: the Bandai Namco press event, but I can say there’s no Dark Souls Switch or Xenosaga HD there." While Dark Souls 1 Remastered was officially announced in early January 2018, there were no official announcements concerning a possible HD port of the Xenosaga trilogy.

In December 2019, Katsuhiro Harada made another tweet on the issue, apologizing and stating that a possible HD remaster had "progressed to the remaster's plan, but failed in a profitable market analysis".

Emulation

Currently, the only way to play Xenosaga in HD is to use PCSX2 emulator on PC using a widescreen patch. While this method works generally fine, there are some minor visual issues.

All Episodes

• Best used with HW hacks offset 0 by 1000.

Episode I

• Certain save locations will freeze the entire emulator (listed below). This can be fixed by enabling Automatic Gamefixes in PCSX2-1.7.0-dev-1028 and later, or by downloading these pnaches created by pandubz for earlier versions.
  • In Shion's room
  • Small bedroom in the Woglinde
  • "Do you want to save?" intermission screen just after KOS-MOS fires a tracking device
  • "Do you want to save?" intermission screen picture with winged robot
  • Elsa bridge