They have done more than bugger all with Xenogears though. Like people say Square Enix doesn't do anything with Xenogears and pretends it doesn't exist, but that isn't true.It's amazing that both Square and Bandai-Namco just kind of sit on the IP doing bugger all with it when the Blade series has been doing so well. In the case of both they could easily just throw in a marketing blurb about the origins of the Xeno series, but alas...
I agree with a lot of your post. Xenogears and the first two Xenosagas have rough edges all over the place that makes them hard to sell to new audiences without some major improvements.-Battle system. One opinion I've heard more than once is that one of the most positive things about disc 2 is that you didn't have to fight as often. Let's face it, Xenogears' battle system is quite bland. Arguably unfinished too, no doubt another victim of its troubled development. Why does the game have an elemental system in place that almost never matters? Why are combos only truly useful in like 2-3 battles in the whole game? Why does Fei unlock a deathblow at level EIGHTY? Why are there so many underwhelming skills not worth using? Why does half your party not get access to elemental deathblows? What's the point of old deathblows once you unlock stronger ones? etc, etc
I don't think you would completely need to revamp the battle system to make it more engaging. Several points I listed I strongly suspect simply came about as a result of them running out of time to properly balance the game. For example what I commented about the elemental system largely not mattering. Simply adding more elemental resistances/weakness to more battles in the game would go a long way in making the battle system feel more engaging (and elemental attacks less pointless). Fei doesn't need to wait until level 80 to unlock Yamikei. And I can't imagine people complaining about equating the number of deathblows, that's simply adding a little bit more content.I'm not so sure about the specific part of your post I quoted though. I agree with every criticism of the combat you described. I don't really like Xenogears combat at all myself. I think people like how different attacks are tied to the push of a face button making it feel more actiony, but the attacks aren't really meaningfully different. If However, I think an important part of game preservation is not changing mechanics in a fundamental way. You always run the risk of upsetting the game's biggest fans and plenty of people love gears's combat even if I don't get it. Monolith themselves thought this was important when the remastered the first Xenoblade. Xenoblade 1 has my personal favorite RPG battle system and yet I even I would say it could use improvements. But, Monolith thought it was important to keep as much of the original vision intact. There are only three notable mechanic changes: they fixed the max damage glitch, changed how Riki works as a shooter in gem crafting, and changed at what point damage is calculated during an art's animation. The latter is the biggest change as it makes positional attacks more challenging (and I'm curious if it carries over to xb3), yet how many of you noticed it?
get on gears prontoOne day I will definitely play Saga and Gears.
One day....
They have done more than bugger all with Xenogears though. Like people say Square Enix doesn't do anything with Xenogears and pretends it doesn't exist, but that isn't true.
- They added several Xenogears characters to be playable in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (https://square-enix-games.com/en_US/home/final-fantasy-brave-exvius-xenogears-collaboration)
- They made Xenogears (the mech) a secret boss in World of Final Fantasy
- There was a 20th anniversary concert for Xenogears featuring Anuna. Square Enix have a blu ray recording available on their store (https://store.na.square-enix-games....ary-concert-the-beginning-and-the-end-blu-ray).
- They commissioned Bring Arts to do really nice figures of Fei, Elly, and Weltall (https://store.eu.square-enix-games.com/en_GB/product/470876/xenogears-bring-arts-fei-fong-wong). Something very few of SE's series have gotten the privilege of. They've made or are making more since like FF Tactics and Vagrant Story ones but at the time they released the Xenogears figures, I think Bring Arts had only done Final Fantasy 9 and Dragon Quest figures for SE. And they're still making more to as you can preorder a Weltall-ID figure (https://store.eu.square-enix-games....xenogears-bring-arts-action-figure-weltall-id).
- They made model kits of Weltall, Vierge, Heimdal, and Brigander (https://store.eu.square-enix-games....e-plastic-model-kit-series-vol-1-display-of-4)
The only thing they haven't done is get Xenogears a more recent release than the PSN release for PS3 and PSP. This isn't unique to Xenogears though. Square Enix has struggled to make a lot of their PS1 library available on current consoles like Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Dragon Quest 7. They're only just now getting around to Chrono Cross. They're going at a slow pace and it's possible the unfinished state of disc 2 makes the prospect of a remaster difficult.
Regarding Xenosaga, I don't really like how people dunk on Harada for his statements regarding Namco's marketing research thinking it would be non-profitable. It's sad that's the case and I would love the series to be easily available and in HD, but I feel we should be grateful Harada for thinking of Xenosaga at all. He threw a bone at the series and made an effort for the fans to pitch a remaster and push for it when he had nothing to do with the original development of the series. Direct your ire to the Namco sales department who did the research or whatever, not Harada. Maybe it will change as Xenoblade continues to do well, It's possible the Xenosaga remaster research was done before Xenoblade 2 hit 2 million sales.
Xenogears was kinda an HD-2D game already, being 2D sprites in a 3D environment. That'd actually work really well.Ironically despite being a mostly 3D game I think the future of Xenogears might be a HD2D remake.
I'm not sure exactly what 2D-HD would mean for Xenogears. As chocolate_supra said, the game is already a mix of pixel art characters in polygonal environments. The way playstation games did it (not just Xenogears, but Grandia and Breath of Fire 3&4 and probably some others) is fairly different from Asano's HD-2D though.Ironically despite being a mostly 3D game I think the future of Xenogears might be a HD2D remake.
A xenogears remake isn't happening unless nintendo somehow gets or cares to get the rights to gears. We'll only see re-releases/ports (I'm surprised it hasn't been ported more tbh).I started playing Xenogears for the first time this month and I can confirm that the visuals do hold up really well. It’s much prettier than games like Final Fantasy VII. The 3D backgrounds + pixel art models was a really good choice. The environments are full of charm even if they lack some detail.
One of the main things to do if they do remake it is add a map. I still haven’t gotten to the infamous disc 2, so I can’t comment on that.
Do you people think this will be remade? Will Square greenlight it? Would Takahashi be involved and make it a collab with Nintendo/Monolith Soft?
Canipa just published a video about Monolith Soft.
He says "their creative lineage began with Xenoblade", which in my opinion is not giving credit where it isn't due, and not discounting those works' innovations and success. He's just pointing out a perceived trail of inspiration.now that I watched it, his video oversells Monolith's influence, attributing them to BotW to Elden Ring, Genshin Impact, and Pokemon Legends.
XS3 concluded the arc of the characters, 4-6 were supposed to focus on different ones IIRC. It's very doubtful saga content will be in blade outside of surface level references.So I just finished Xenosaga Episode 3. That was definitely the best of the 3 games, by a very wide margin. It's unfortunate that it sort of ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but who knows, with the extensive cameos in Xenoblade, maybe they'll eventually directly allude to what happens there.
Unfortunately, it appears that the copy I got was scratched enough to interfere with cutscene playback a bit, but fortunately only 2 completely stalled, and I just found them on YouTube.
I'm not expecting anything super detailed, but what ultimately happened to KOS-MOS and the fate of the universe as a whole definitely seem potentially on the table depending on the direction things go in Xenoblade.XS3 concluded the arc of the characters, 4-6 were supposed to focus on different ones IIRC. It's very doubtful saga content will be in blade outside of surface level references.
Glad you enjoyed it! Episode 3's my favorite, and one of my favorite turn-based games in general. Like Zeal543, I also felt the characters' stories were complete. Like Shion's story was definitely done. But there was apparently some old interview with Takahashi where he said KOS-MOS and chaos were meant to appear in every episode so those two would have gone on. Most fan theories I've seen go along the lines that the original six episode plan was comprised of three arcs each taking two games with Shion's arc being the first one but development problems caused it to stretch into three games, while the second arc would've been a new cast on Lost Jerusalem where KOS-MOS arrives. Of course, those are just fan theories, but I do sort of agree. Had there been an episode 4, a new cast with only KOS-MOS and chaos carrying over makes sense to me.So I just finished Xenosaga Episode 3. That was definitely the best of the 3 games, by a very wide margin. It's unfortunate that it sort of ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but who knows, with the extensive cameos in Xenoblade, maybe they'll eventually directly allude to what happens there.
Unfortunately, it appears that the copy I got was scratched enough to interfere with cutscene playback a bit, but fortunately only 2 completely stalled, and I just found them on YouTube.
The cliffhanger comment was really more about the world than the characters (obvious exceptions aside), since, while the characters have completed their arcs, the main crisis they're trying to solve hasn't been averted, just pushed back for a while so that a proper solution can be searched for.Glad you enjoyed it! Episode 3's my favorite, and one of my favorite turn-based games in general. Like Zeal543, I also felt the characters' stories were complete. Like Shion's story was definitely done. But there was apparently some old interview with Takahashi where he said KOS-MOS and chaos were meant to appear in every episode so those two would have gone on. Most fan theories I've seen go along the lines that the original six episode plan was comprised of three arcs each taking two games with Shion's arc being the first one but development problems caused it to stretch into three games, while the second arc would've been a new cast on Lost Jerusalem where KOS-MOS arrives. Of course, those are just fan theories, but I do sort of agree. Had there been an episode 4, a new cast with only KOS-MOS and chaos carrying over makes sense to me.
Speaking of KOS-MOS, I managed to pull her in my current replay of Xenoblade 2. Once Zeke joined my party, I accepted all the DLC core crystals and figured I'd pull them all on Zeke to get him caught up with the others and KOS-MOS was the first rare I got on him. I've never gotten her while still doing the story, last time I grinded legendaries cores on Cloud Sea King before pulling her. Only problem is, I don't really know how to use Zeke in a party lol.
Xenoblade reference spotted in Lego Star Wars
Edit: This line was intentionally added by one of the devs when they realized Adam Howden was doing some voicework for the game.
Edit 2:
now that I watched it, his video oversells Monolith's influence, attributing them to BotW to Elden Ring, Genshin Impact, and Pokemon Legends.
they didn't work on LegendsHaven't watched, but two of those makes sense they worked on botw and I heard legends.
Enjoy the ride! I still remember my first time playing XC1. It was my introduction to Xeno and it was a wonderful experience.4 hours into xenoblaDE. i'm fully in now, this is amazing.
Is this your first time with Xenoblade 1, or just your first time with the remaster?4 hours into xenoblaDE. i'm fully in now, this is amazing.
first time with 1. i've played and finished 2 years ago.Is this your first time with Xenoblade 1, or just your first time with the remaster?
Today marks the 7 year anniversary for the Japanese release of Xenoblade X. I hope we get to revisit planet Mira before the 10 year anniversary.