Xenogears

Xenogears
Developer(s)	Square
Publisher(s)	JP Square NA Square Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Tetsuya Takahashi (director, scenario writer) Hiromichi Tanaka (producer) Masato Kato (script writer) Yasunori Mitsuda (composer) Kunihiko Tanaka (character designer) Yasuyuki Honne (art director)
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	JP February 11, 1998 NA October 21, 1998
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player Limited two-player battle mode

Xenogears (ゼノギアス, Zenogiasu) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now known as Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation video game console. It was released on February 11, 1998 in Japan and on October 21, 1998 in North America. Xenogears never saw a PAL release.

Gameplay

Xenogears' gameplay combines the traditional and the innovative, using two-dimensional sprite overlays on three-dimensional backgrounds, as well as two different battle systems, one of which uses the actual characters in combo-based physical combat, while the latter takes place in turn-based 'Gear' battles.

Battle system

Battling is a variant of the ATB2 active time battle system found in Chrono Trigger and various Final Fantasy games. Once a battle starts the screen quickly changes to a combat scenario. Characters fight with martial combat and ether attacks along with special Deathblow moves that are learned through combinations of strong, moderate, and weak hits. Attacks use Action points (AP) and cost, 3 points, 2 points, and 1 point, respectively. You begin with 3 AP per turn (which is not enough to execute a deathblow) and as you progress in level you will eventually have 6 AP per turn. At a certain point in the story, an additional AP (7 AP per turn) will be acquired and you will also be able to learn Elemental Deathblows, which can be unlocked quicker at higher levels. AP may be saved and used as Attack Points for combo attacks. A total of 28 AP may be accumulated for combo attacks, powerful sequences using multiple Deathblows to inflict massive damage. However, only Deathblows of 6 AP cost or less may be chained, so by the end of the game, individual Deathblows become superior to combo attacking.

Characters can also use "magical" abilities that either aid the party or damage enemies. These abilities are limited by the number of ether points (EP) that are available. Unlike AP, EP do not replenish between attack rounds. For most characters, these abilities are called 'Ether,' although some characters' abilities have a different name, implying differences in their origins. For example, Fei's magic is called 'Chi,' and Citan's is 'Arcane'. Unlike the main characters of most RPGs who specialize in either physical or magical strength exclusively, the main characters in Xenogears are generally competent in both areas, although few characters have more than one or two direct damage spells. While in Gears (mechanized fighting machines) 'Ether' abilities are amplified, though some change or become unavailable.

Gears battle

In addition to the small-scale, hand-to-hand combat, the characters sometimes fight from within their respective combat robots, called 'Gears'. These fighting machines are often similar in fighting style and aesthetic resemblance to the characters that pilot them. For these particular battles, the combination style is reduced to a selection of strong, medium, or weak attacks that build up the attack level of the Gear with each turn until it can unleash a special, more powerful attack. While in gears, the limiting factor of AP is replaced with a fuel gauge, with each attack consuming an amount relative to its power. There are three levels of normal special gear attacks (respectively levels 1, 2, and 3) and one additional 'infinite' level of special gear attacks. These moves are acquired in correspondence to a character's learned deathblow skills. Infinite level differs from the other three levels in several ways. When it is reached, the Gear will go into a special mode known as 'infinity mode'.

Infinity mode lasts three turns, and while in this mode, fuel can be recharged in a larger amount or the Gear can use Infinity attacks. Infinity mode cannot be reached until elemental deathblows are learned (with the exception of Maria Balthazar, who has them automatically, and Chu-Chu, who cannot perform special gear attacks whatsoever). To reach infinity mode, a character has to stay at attack level 3 while performing any other action. With each turn, there is a chance that infinity mode will be reached (this ratio is displayed on screen along with the gears status). Infinity level uses special attacks that use very little fuel and are much more powerful. Gears can regain fuel by 'charging'. The amount of fuel gained differs depending on what attack level the character is currently at. Most engines have a base charge level of 30 fuel. Attack levels add 20 fuel per level with infinite level multiplying the charge rate by ten (charge levels are not cumulative). When equipped with certain items, the gain rate of fuel may be increased. The Gears can also activate 'Boosters' which enable them to act faster but consume more fuel. The 'Special Option' command allows for Gear HP restoration abilities (if equipped with the proper parts) and special attacks, at the cost of large amounts of fuel. When a gear has no Fuel left, it can no longer execute attacks, use special options, or use boosters. They can, however, charge (regain fuel) and use ether abilities. The main characters can purchase Gear fuel, parts, and upgrades in shops or from certain individuals.

Plot

Setting

File:Xenogearsworldmap.jpg

The map of the Xenogears world.

Xenogears initially takes place on the largest continent of the Xenogears world, 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.

Much of Xenogears' plot and backstory is detailed in the Japanese-only book Xenogears 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.

Characters

Main articles: Main characters of Xenogears and Supporting characters of Xenogears

Xenogears' characters were designed to allude to many psychological concepts, notably Freudian and Jungian psychology. There is also an important character bearing the name of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. 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.

Story

The game opens with a cinematic displaying a colossal human space-ship--the Eldridge--flying by an unknown planet in the distant future. The ship carries hundreds of thousands of human colonists, along with a massive, sentient weapons system--Deus--which the ship's captain has been ordered to take as far away from Earth and other human colonies as possible, and hopefully destroy. The Deus system has been implemented with the Zohar modifier, an artifact found long ago (~early 21st century A.D.) on Earth, which has unified it with the supernatural "Wave Existence," a powerful, deistic force which only desires to be free of its entrapment. At this time, Deus awakens and realizes what is happening, and it hacks into the ships mainframe and takes it over, attempting to turn it around and back toward human civilization. It turns the ship's cannons on the escape pods and forces the captain to order the fail-safe, self-destruct procedure on the ship. Explosions batter throughout the ship and it falls to the planet's surface, colliding with the force of a small moon. A large portion of the hull lands vertically into the ocean and is left towering into the sky. Smaller parts of the ship, including some of its independent Zohar-powered armaments, break off and pepper the planet's surface. Deus is highly damaged but not entirely destroyed, and it is in desperate need of organic tissue to rebuild and substitute for its wrecked components. As a result, it launches "Project Eve" and utilizes its supernatural power to birth a woman which will trail blaze the advent of a new human civilization which Deus hopes that, in the distant future, will have grown large enough to harvest and systematically incorporate into itself.

We are then swept several thousand years forward, after great civilizations have risen, fallen, and risen again, to the small town of Lahan, which is in the borderlands of the country 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. The gears have been stolen by Aveh from their enemy, the nation of Kislev, and are currently being hotly pursued. By the time Fei makes it back, the entire town is burning as the Gears battle 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 and several townspeople, in the process. A distraught Fei is forced to become a village outcast and decides to leave the ominous black gear, Weltall, behind. Upon entering the Black Moon Forest, Fei encounters a strange female soldier named Elly who was shot down during the battle. Fei feels a strange connection towards her. Elly is from Solaris, a mysterious, militaristic, powerful and ultra-advanced nation-state which sits somewhere in the sky and has been helping Aveh for unknown reasons. On their way out of the forest, Elly is attacked by a Tyrannosaur-like creature. Citan delivers Weltall, allowing Fei to use him to save Elly from the Rankar. That night, Citan reveals to Elly that he knows who she "really" is, and advises her to leave.

Fei and Citan continue on to Dazil, a city in the desert of Aveh. In search of spare parts to repair Weltall, they go to the Ethos workshop, but are informed that the parts are not available. Citan rents a sand buggy to search for the parts in the desert while Fei waits in Dazil. Instead of waiting, Fei follows Citan to the desert. While navigating the dunes at night, Fei ends up running into a mysterious psychopath named Grahf, who expresses an interest in Fei and preaches his desire for world destruction and rebellion against "god." Grahf unleashes a desert worm-monster upon Fei; Citan arrives with Weltall again and Fei survives. However, they are immediately arrested and detained by Aveh military forces, and Fei, Citan and Weltall are held captive on a sand cruiser. In a stroke of luck, sand pirates, led by the young Bartholemew Fatima, attack the cruiser. While Citan manages to escape, Fei and Bart get into a fight while in their gears and end up falling through the sand into an underground cavern system.

Bart comes to understand that Fei is not an Aveh soldier, and they establish a temporary truce to try to get out of the cave together. They discover Ol' Man Bal, an ancient man living in the caverns, who upon seeing Weltall announces that he is the "Host for the Slayer of God". After finding the way out, they return to Bart's sand-submarine, the Yggdrasil, where Citan is waiting. Bart reveals he is the rightful heir to the Aveh throne and requests that Fei and Citan temporarily join his crew and help him launch a mission to gain it back.

Fei is distarught with Grahf's allusions of killing his father, along with the combined weight of the events leading up to Bart's proposal. Bart gets the story from Citan and tries to coax Fei from his depression. Afterwards, Bart's right-hand men, Sigurd and Maison, show "the young master's" tender side by eavesdropping on his "conversation" with his dead father. This attempt fails; Fei's depression is deep enough to have him hesitate to guard the desert base while under attack by Gebler elite Gears. However, Fei realizes the pirates are defending their home, a concept he recognizes, as he was unable to save his home. After joining Bart and Citan, the three battle and defeat the Schpariel, an automated Gear with enhanced weapons and durability.

It is revealed that Bart's cousin Margie is being held hostage by the Gebler-assisted tyrrany of the Aveh nation. Her rescue is imperative, not only for the fact that she is a leading figure in the Nisan religion, but also because she possesses one half of the "Fatima Jasper," which is supposively the key to a legendary power handed down from Bart's ancestors. Gebler sends Commander Kahr Ramsus and Miang Hawyyet to speed up the search, while Emperor Shakhan is plotting a coup de grace in the background.

Fei, Bart and Citan are the strike team meant for Margie's rescue. They enter Bleadick (the Aveh capital) and discover there are just too many soldiers to initate a smooth retrieval. Coincidentally, they arrive at the time of a national tourament, in which Fei enters in hopes of distracting the army's main force. His opponent in the first round is Dan, a survivor of Lahan who blames Fei for the death of his sister, Alice. Even more unexpected is the presence of a masked man by the name of "Wiseman," who knows Fei by name (despite the fact Fei entered with a false name). In the end, Wiseman forfeits the final match, leaving Fei the de facto victor.

Bart navigates the city's sewer system into a hidden entrance into the castle.

Development

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. Aside from the official soundtrack, there is also Creid, an arrange album produced by Mitsuda and Millennial Fair.

"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'."

Audio

The music in Xenogears was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda who was made famous by his work on the Super Famicom title, Chrono Trigger. The original soundtrack was released on two disks and published by Digicube in Japan. There are two vocal tracks included on the OST and both are sung by Joanne Hogg. The first vocal track is titled "Stars of Tears" and is reminiscent of the game's principal overworld theme, "Emotions". This track is not played anywhere in the actual Xenogears game and can only be accessed by unconventional means. The second vocal track is titled "Small Two of Pieces" which bears resemblance to the music box song "Faraway Promise". This song plays at the conclusion of the game during the end credits.

An arranged soundtrack of Xenogears also composed and arranged by Yasunori Mitsuda was released as "Creid: Yasunori Mitsuda and Millennial Fair". The soundtrack contains one disk with ten tracks. Two of the tracks are the Japanese versions of "Stars of Tears" and "Small Two of Pieces". The rest are arrangements of tracks from the OST with heavy Celtic influences.

Reception

Xenogears maintains a 91% ratio on Game Rankings, 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. One criticism is the style of the second disc, where the use of the world map is restricted and the amount of cut scenes increases.

Connection to Xenosaga

While Xenogears has never had an official sequel or prequel, some consider 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 "with our relation between Square, I think it is difficult for us to say it is a direct sequel or prequel."

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." 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 nonexistent.

External links

• Xenogears Official Website on Square Enix
• Yasunori Mitsuda's Homepage
• Xenogears at MobyGames
• Xenogears Database — detailed plot, location, and character database originally on Wikipedia
• Xenogears Shrine - Large collection of information on the world of Xenogears