losing my xenomind out here

I'm not sure what I expected walking into Xenosaga. I've played Xenogears and I've played Xenoblade Chronicles, and I'm used to a certain kind of experience. Mostly, I expected KOS-MOS - everyone's favorite blue-haired robot from a game they've never played. Now that I've run this PS2 rpg trilogy, I have some thoughts! I do! They were just here I swear!!

Xenosaga is all kinds of shwacked - like not in a bad way either, right? Xenosaga is fun, and pretty simple to start playing. The games evolve in strange ways, mechanically speaking, throughout the trilogy, but not every aspect of play evolves simultaneously. They all prioritize different things, and the vision isn't particularly cohesive. At least to me.

The major difficulty with Xenosaga was Takehashi stepping down as director for the sequel, and the other extant development issues that challenged the game, leading to what can only be described as Xenogears: The Sequel, in more ways than one. You are witnessing a 6-part series crushed into 3 games, relevant pieces relegated to mobile and web spaces, and a refusal to let go of the original concepts informing Xenogears. Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?

**I edit a clerical error, and Jr. isn't a realian but a URTV, which I conflated - URTVs are biological in nature, so he is not synthetic. That is all, have a pleasant day.

If you'd like to support the show, I'm here:   / kbash  
Currently running through Monster Hunter games, but I'm buffing that video with several other projects so I can actually record them...

0:00 Alienstory
2:18 Xenosaga I
29:50 XSI Spoiler Segment
40:40 Xenosaga II
58:13 XSII Spoiler Segment
1:10:36 Xenosaga III
1:22:28 XSIII Spoiler Segment

#xenosaga #retrospective #kbash