#xenogears disc 1

[mechafiora]

i've been playing xenogears...

[mysticorbcollector]

Whenever I have a shitty day I just remind myself that Fei Fong Wong is absolutely 100% having a worse one, and then I have to stand up because my problems kinda pale in comparison

[linnaealyn]

Old mod page, abandoned 3/2/24; New mod page @ Godsibb

Finally, after 2 years of work, it is complete. -But still being updated.

There's a Japanese version of the mod now!

今は日本語版のMODがある！

This is a mod for Xenogears using Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement feature. (It requires the Vulkan driver, so make sure your graphics card supports that.) (Duckstation doesn't have a similar option, unfortunately.)

It replaces every single character dialogue portrait, menu portrait, & (almost every) battle portrait (looking at you, Yggdra officer Gear pilots) with high quality, cleaned up artwork, as well as recreated high quality UI while keeping it as close to the original game as possible.

And best thing about it is, if there's anything you don't like about it, like certain aspects of the UI, you can locate and delete that file from the folder. Everything is optional. (if you have any questions as to what's what, drop them into my dms)

Current version: 1.4

現在の日本語版: 1.4

(More screenshots below download info and UI changes.)

Being a real-time texture replacer, it should work with any English version of XG, both base-game and modded/patched. Any fan-translated patch using the US version as a base should display correctly.

There's a separate version for the Japanese version of the game. May need some editing still with other characters' UI ("Ether"/"Spells"/"Arcane"/etc) but for the most part its good to go in terms of battle UI. Let me know if you find any errors.

(I've been using it with the Perfect Works Build mod. Highly recommended!)

(Note!!: If you use PWB mod, don't use its "readjusted portraits" patch when patching your rom, as that patch interferes with this mod's portraits texture replacing.)

(It works on Steam Deck... but don't ask me for details in setting that up in particular, I don't own one 😅)

~~~

Download/ダウンロード

I recommend reading the instructions txt files I included in the DL.

This includes information such as how to set up .cue and .m3u files, swapping discs, renaming the texture folder, Retroarch settings and Beetle PSX HW Core settings to get the mod working, settings suggestions for making a cleaner looking and faster playing XG (YMMV), and settings to fix certain emulation issues Ive come across (freezing on fast-forward, crackling audio during 3D/effects-heavy cutscenes/gameplay, blank screen during Rico flashback, etc).

~~~~~~~~~~

-Changes made to the UI include:

Menu UI:

selection triangle, Walk/Gear icons

menu portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow menu icons

ABXY button DeathBlow menu icon- alternate textures

Battle UI and on-foot specific battle UI:

Circular battle palette and tags behind text

Battle palette text, "Combo", "Return", "Enter", "Miss", "EP", & HP/DMG/heal/AP numbers

HP/AP bars

"Time", "fuel", "total damage", AP numbers, "1/2/3 point(s)", "cancel end"

battle portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow icons

ABXY button Deathblow icons- alternate textures

Bottom screen mid-DeathBlow ▲ ■ ✖ icons (unfortunately, there's no way to change the other mid-DB quadruple-button icons)

Combo 1-7 and Accept icons

In-Gear specific battle UI:

"fuel" and fuel numbers

"Fuel" (when using boost)

fuel bars (top and left)

All Gear status menus' green text/numbers

Attack level numbers and ∞

Gear menu backgrounds

Gear "power shut down", "camera damaged", "out of fuel", etc, statuses

background UI elements, runes, triple red triangles, Gear lock-on UI (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular part of this UI)

Misc UI changes:

Red/grey spheres (in the menu and loading screen)

All instances of selection diamonds, both horizontal and vertical

Load/save screen "CARD 1"/"2" text, memory card icon, load/save bar/text

Disc 1 and 2 maps (with alternate color versions; makes the enterable area indicators harder to see though)

NESW compass letters (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular compass texture)

~~~~~

-Screenshots (before & after and alts):

And Japanese version's (日本語版) UI:

⬇!!Spoilers in images further down!!⬇

--

I won't be showing all portraits here; only the ones worth mentioning.

Portraits created for the mod that have no artwork equivalent:

Portraits to match their sprites vs official unedited artwork:

(default on left, alt on right)

Roni/Medena/Erich edited sprite equivalent vs their official PW art

Citan edited unsmiling (dialogue-only) sprite equivalent vs official smiling art)

Krelian(s) edited sprite equivalent vs official art

Portrait alts created for fun:

Both sides of scar-eyed Bart

Two-eyed Bart

Kim lab coat with glasses

Fei-colored Id

Fei-colored Id with Id's yellow eyes

Fei-colored young & older Emeralda

(might add to this list later. have any suggestions? fun ideas? lmk. It doesn't have to be canon-compliant.)

Screenshots of alt portraits in-use:

I'll continue to update this and subsequently reblog it as new versions are released.

With any new updates, just DL and replace/overwrite the old folder.

In-progress tumblr post of the past as a bit of a time capsule for myself 😄

[misifus-mankhado]

Xenogears Disc 1 summed up. Sorry not sorry.

[konigstigerr]

How is Arise in your opinion?

Vesperia is one of my all time favorites and Berseria is excellent as well, so i'm curious if it holds up

it's a hard game to recommend tbh.

gameplaywise, it's almost good. the new mechanics are interesting and give a nice amount of options to engage your party members more than any game before and the movesets are varied and combo well. almost as good as berseria, but that's a very high bar to clear. the real issue is the fact that enemy numbers are so unbelievably inflated. no boss will ever be won quickly or without a large number of deaths, and yet it won't be compelling either. berseria suffered from this but it was at the end, this is a problem in arise from the very beginning.

a lot of people complain about party ai, but i think it's just because of how much damage bosses pump out that you can't afford your party to run into aoes like you could in previous games. it almost locks you into playing a melee and three casters with all of their close-range artes disabled. you could play in other ways, you're just gonna have a bad time, because ai alphen will self-damage himself into death, ai law can't keep dps and ai kisara will walk into aoes to get aggro.

the story is on the same boat. the ideas are good, but many aspects are barely explored. the first three realms are great, but the fourth and fifth have almost nothing on, they're more for the party's development than anything else. and the second half is just like xenogears disc 2, similar themes, similar tone, and similar fucking unfinishedness.

and it repeats itself, god does it repeat itself. characters will learn something, have a conversation about it and their next choice of action, immediately after you'll get a skit or several about the exact same thing, and on the next cutscene they will restate the things they learned.

it might be subjective, but the writing feels cheesier than previous entries. tales is always a bit cheesy, but it feels worse in this one.

the characters are alright, not the best, not the worst, but compared to the terrorist cell of weirdos of berseria they are as bland as crackers, particularly alphen.

visually, it is great, beautiful areas, great character design. can't fault that part at all. tho, i feel they phoned it in with how few attachments you get, but that's a nitpick.

it's not a terrible game, but unless you're a big fan of tales in general, you can totally skip it.

if you have a ps3 play xillia 1 and 2 tho.

[springdayautumnmoon]

i beat xenogears disc 1

[extoller]

hey guys why did xenogears disc 1 ending do that to me

i didnt like it very much :'(

[pollyanna-nana]

Thinking again about how I would rewrite Xenogears to make it actually good

- Fei and Bart kiss (epic and removes the turbo cringe cousin kissing aspect of the game. Bartholomew I’m so sorry the writers would do that to you sweetie oh my god)

-Rewrite Elly entirely. No more weird sexism please

-Maybe make her Fei’s sister or something? And remove the reincarnation thing I think that plot point sux (I am of the mind with this series that more complicated =/= good)

-there’s also a weird Freudian thing with how it is now so I would like that gone please

-Obvious one but make the other playable characters more relevant to the plot. Disc 1 really is just Bart and Fei’s Gay Desert Adventure and as epic as that is it’s not exactly balanced lmao

-REMOVE. MURDER DID PLOT. This one is also obvious FUCK that

-Dunno what I’d do with Id tho. Wouldn’t cut him completely bc he IS cool and the angst potential is there

-Disc 2 (derogatory) so much here I don’t even know where to start + a lot isn’t really the OG writer’s fault so *shrugs*

- That little bitch Krelian does NOT get to go to “heaven” in the end or whatever. No. I’m making him stay on earth and live forever atoning for his crimes. It’s what he deserves and is more narratively interesting than him just getting what he wants.

Overall I just. Do not really like Xenogears’ story outside of a few isolated elements (COUGH Bart COUGH) but I think the game is soooo pretty and charming so aaagh. What I would give to rehaul the script entirely…

[translationandbetrayals]

Xenogears, a bit old, but a masterpiece nonetheless

Maybe you heard about Xenoblade Chronicles, its last entry got released this year and has become one of the most beloved franchises published by Nintendo (that’s not Pokemon of course), with over 1 million copies sold in every core entry it’s curious how this is the spiritual successor of the spiritual successor (yes) of a PlayStation game that barely released overseas, in an era when adding certain themes to videogames was dangerous, it’s somewhat a miracle it even released here.

  Xenogears,  was originally pitched as an scenario for Final Fantasy VII, but it was rejected, claiming that it was too dark for a fantasy game (it is an actual quote i’m not making anything up), however it was allowed to exist as a proper game not tied to the flagship of Square Soft, and after a rough development cycle that almost cut the game in half Xenogears was released in 1998 for both Japan and América, never seeing the light in Europe.

  Xenogears was created by Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Kaori Tanaka (also known as Soraya Saga) using themes they both shared interest in, which included Jungian Psychology, Judeo-Christian themes, and a lot of philosophy from a bunch of authors, and Mechas, a lot of them, as Tetsuya Takahashi demonstrated his passion about  “the giant robots” even when he worked in Final Fantasy VI.

The setting mixes sci-fi elements with more typical ones of JRPGs, although they do not exist and separate things mixed like a Chimera, they are tightly related, from your good old first town, to ancient cities in the desert, to an industrial city, to dystopian citadels, all of this accompanied with a gorgeous soundtrack composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, they are few compared to other games with similar duration, but they are indeed gems, and after playing the games they are plagued with even more feelings.

Being honest, Xenogears didn’t aged so well in the technical department, some of its mechanics are outdated an clunky, and the second disc suffered from the rough development, it lacks a lot of gameplay in favor of finishing the story, with walls of text explaining things that originally were playable with a few battles in between. But in the other department, the writing, it’s still a masterpiece.

I would like to spend hours talking about what it means to me as a person, all the thoughts it provoked on me and how it changed my perception on things, i would also spend hours talking about the plot, that is one of its main selling points, but i personally think that a quick summary wouldn’t do justice to the game, I heavily recommend this game, its indeed old in the technical department, but a unique experience nonetheless

-Fernando Gálvez 

[not-the-conversation-starter]

I Have Finally Finished Xenogears (1998) And Can Finally Start And Enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022)

YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[xenoblademisadventures]

The biggest issue with the xenoseries is Takahashi overestimating how much story he can cram into one game.

[xemobladechromicles]

Top 5 Best Villains

5. Ramsus (Xenogears)

I’m going to admit to not entirely remembering Xenogears’s story, but Ramsus was my favorite antagonist there. The problem with most villains in the game are that their most important content happens in disc 2, which is too abbreviated and difficult to follow to properly sell their impact. Overall, Xenogears is a game heavily bogged down by its complexity. It was ultimately both too ambitious for the skill and resources of its creators, which results in a story that presents interesting ideas but is also clumsy and difficult to follow.

Like, many characters, he is a strong concept with a difficult to follow execution. He is a general of Solaris, which are functionally Nazis, while still trying to follow his ideals. He spent his childhood being groomed by the people running Solaris to hate Fei because of lore reasons. So, he’s conceptually meant to be a good person who was raised from birth to be a commander in a fascist government. In practice, Rammus is primarily a Disc 1 antagonist, who starts off intimidating but the player learns about his past over time and starts to sympathize with him. Ultimately, the execution is clumsy and difficult to follow, but his concept always stuck with me. 

He also acts as a counterpart to Elly, who is also a soldier from Solaris who ultimately defects. I honestly don’t remember if this idea is even explored because Rammus’s backstory is mostly revealed in Disc 2, which summarizes and skips over a lot of stuff. 

Overall, you can probably tell from this that I don’t have the same respect for Xenogears as a lot of its fans, but the main thing that elevated Ramsus over other major antagonists was that I was able to understand the major story beats of his character before consulting the wiki. The only other antagonist to accomplish this was Id, but I wanted to talk about Ramsus because Id barely has the chance to do anything because he’s primarily a disc 2 character. 

4. Dickson (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Dickson is a really well done twist villain. He’s primarily a scumbag with shallow motives, but he makes up for it by his plot presence. His VA does an amazing job selling him as enjoying himself but not completely off from the Dickson we knew before that point. He treats the affair of betraying the party like a business as usual ordeal where he just enjoys his job. 

He does a lot of heavy lifting in setting the game’s final act, beginning it by killing the game’s protagonist and talking about how he only raised Shulk because he was Zanza’s vessel. Before this point in the game, Dickson was a secondary character who was somewhere between a dad, a jokester, and a cheesy action hero. He effectively goes from being a fun side character to being a fun fuck-you villain. Out of the Zanza-aligned antagonists, Dickson is the only one with an established personality, so leading this act with him shooting Shulk kicks off the final quadrant which is defined by fighting former friends and loved ones, betrayal, and everything the characters knew about the world coming crashing down.

As an antagonist, Dickson is pure evil. No redemption, no mind control, nothing; he does what he does because he does. This hurts because he’s a likeable character, therefore you want him to be redeemable, but he simply isn’t. As a side note, while I don’t think Dickson did the most subtle job at foreshadowing his eventual betrayal, I do think he did a good job at ensuring that this act didn’t come out of literally nowhere, which is the most important thing. Xenoblade chronicles has a lot of foreshadowing in the form of off-handed dialogue, especially placed in the earlier parts of the game, which works for Dickson because even if the player catches on that Dickson is deceiving the party in some way in Satorl Marsh, his betrayal is so much later in the game that there’s a high chance of the player forgetting it. The moment before he shoots Shulk is also great. There’s just enough timing for dread and anticipation to crop up right before he shoots on second viewing.

Dickson’s death was also perfect for the character. He isn’t redeemable, he’s been lying to you this entire time. Despite it all, he did watch the protagonists grow strong enough to beat him. So, his send-off is bitter-sweet. I like how Shulk cries while walking into the portal to fight Zanza. I also like how Dickson calls off the fight when he’s dying and goes to die in a corner and take a smoke. Even though he’s ultimately a piece on Zanza’s chess set, he still got to choose how he wanted to die, a right afforded to him by Shulk, who is fighting to end everyone’s predetermined destinies. 

He’s a simple antagonist that could have benefitted from more complications, especially from Shulk’s or Dunban’s part, but he fills his role in the story well for what he is.

3. Kevin (Xenosaga)

Warning: abuse mention

Kevin is interesting to me because he’s such a shitbag. Like, holy shit the amount he emotionally manipulates Shion is ridiculous. I think the Xenosaga series has issues with the concept of restraint, but it really works here. He also acts as a foil to Allen, where Kevin is trying to save Shion from her fate but does so by emotionally scarring her, Allen cares a lot about Shion and wants to protect her but cannot. 

He’s first introduced in Xenosaga Episode I as the primary motivator for her to complete KOS-MOS. She was their project and even though KOS-MOS killed him due to a malfunction, Kevin would have wanted her to finish their project. Shion treats KOS-MOS almost like her child because of it. The player doesn’t learn that he faked his own death until Episode III, where its first primary conflict is KOS-MOS being scrapped in favor of T-ELOS, an android created from KOS-MOS with significantly higher output, which is secretly run by Kevin. By this point in the series, KOS-MOS has established herself as somewhere between a person and a weapon, effectively having a soul, so killing her isn’t going to fly. This also reflects on how Kevin is more than happy to take Shion’s feelings and throw them into the garbage dispenser just to advance his own goals. Which is contrasted by how much Shion obviously loves him. She was willing to complete and defend his legacy in spite of her own mixed feelings because of how much she loves him.

The protagonists of Xenosaga can be defined as being weak but human, while Kevin made the decision to give up his humanity to become strong. This weak but human dynamic is most represented in Allen, who is literally just some guy, but he cares a lot about Shion and even though he’s so nothing, he’ll always try to stay by her side. Allen cannot save Shion from her death, he cannot save the universe from collapsing in on itself, he can’t protect Shion from her trauma, but he’s still there doing every limited thing that he humanly can. Kevin can save Shion from her death, he’s working to prevent the universe from destroying itself, he can do so many things that a human like Allen could never hope to do, yet he’s still a self-serving bastard. He isn’t trying to save Shion because she wanted to be saved, he’s doing so because he wants to save her. And his methods are a major source of trauma for her. Watching him, it becomes unclear whether he even truly cares about her. 

Kevin’s also an extension of the themes KOS-MOS vs T-ELOS represents between materiality and spirit. KOS-MOS was created by Shion in memory of a dead loved one and holds Mary Magdalen's soul, while T-ELOS was created by Kevin for the sole purpose of housing Mary Magdalen’s body. Which is reflected in how the two characters see the world. Shion is a very emotional character. She sees the life and value in what exists around her. Kevin, on the other hand is a very material heavy character, he sees the world only in terms of what does and does not exist. So of course Shion’s creation would house a soul while Kevin’s would only house a body. This theme of soul vs material is extremely common in Monolith’s writing and it’s very present here as well.

What I like about Kevin’s story is how messy it is. The story is told almost entirely from Shion’s perspective. Her rose-tinted lens of the man. As the player, it’s hard to know whether he’s a genuinely good person making bad decisions or the biggest pile of dicks to exist ever. But ultimately, through all the feelings of love or any of his stated intentions, he abused Shion. At the end of the series, he sacrifices himself. Whether he did so to protect Shion or for redemption, it’s up to interpretation. I honestly cannot tell whether or not he’s meant to be sympathetic, and I like that because it just adds to the mixed feelings the character leaves you with. 

The character being so difficult to get a read on works because that’s how abuse works. Victims of abuse will have a hard time realizing that they’re being abused until it’s too late, they’ll side with their abusers, they’ll see them as good people and make excuses for them, even when they act inexcusably because on some level, abusers are human beings and their victims know this. A lot of stories that cover abuse struggle to really get this aspect of it correct. Usually them being an abuser will be signposted to the audience way before the characters, which makes the character’s sticking with them look like poor judgement rather than what it actually is. Kevin is unique because his hands are never fully revealed, so even after his true death, the player is left without a clear direction on him.

2. Lao (Xenoblade Chronicles X)

Warning: Suicide Mention

Lao starts off as a party member, who then betrays the party for the Ganglion. He is the main focus of the game’s strongest story beat. Lao is a hero villain. He is also the first in a series of villains in the series who is beaten down by despair and opposes the party out of a suicidal desire rather than a malicious one. I personally am not a fan of the villains who want to kill the world because they are suicidal because that explanation doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Generally when someone wants to kill themselves, it comes from a sense of deep hopelessness and wanting a way out. I’m not saying that it’s always the case, but these villains are typically presented as destroying the world out of a sense of hopelessness. So, I’m left confused on why these antagonists chose to kill the world rather than just themselves. Ultimately, characters like Jin and N feel like they’re trying to imitate Lao without truly understanding why he worked.

As an antagonist, Lao’s value is derived almost entirely from his motives. In Xenoblade X, you should be playing the sidequests experience the full story, so you have likely already encountered evil human characters or characters colluding with the Ganglion, especially if you’ve completed Hope’s second affinity mission. What makes these characters different from Lao lies in their motives and thematic purpose. The human NPCs in X are complex as a whole, each having their own subtly different takes on the events of the game. Earth’s destruction, mimeosomes, etc. They exist to show the complexities of humanity. How some people will do everything they can for the greater good while others will act selfishly, even when it’s to the detriment of both their own and everyone’s survival. Which are how these side-quest antagonists typically fit into X’s themes. As a suicidal character, Lao is not unique either. Throughout affinity missions and NPC dialogue, you learn that many human characters feel disassociated in their mimeosome bodies. Either seeing themselves as not real or expendable. Which is only compounded with by witnessing their friends and loved ones die with the earth.

Lao exists as a combination of ideas already presented in side-stories. He wants to die and he knows that dying can’t be permanent because of the stasis created by the mimeosomes. Even if he took his own life, he’d just be brought back in another mimeosome. It would be an endless cycle. Thus, it would easier to just tear everything to the ground than to go on living in these empty bodies dying over and over again just to protect the parts of humanity least worth saving. All he has to do is steal a piece of data, run, and wait for the clock to go out. His motives become more thematically appropriate upon learning the context of Chapter 12. 

On his own, Lao provides an interesting perspective on everything. So much of X is about how humanity intends to survive after losing everything. Elma is the character most representative of this. Her sole focus is the survival of humanity. Lao asks if humanity is worth saving. After all, it would be easier to just accept death than fight this uphill battle. Which is what the conflict between him and Elma is fundamentally about. You could say during this fight, the protagonists represent fighting for humanity’s survival while Lao is fighting for humanity’s soul. That’s also why he gives up on his goal upon seeing Lin stopping Elma from shooting him. Because she proves that humanity still has a soul. It is also why he acts the way he does during Chapter 12, if humanity is worth protecting, he will protect it. The final fight with Lao isn’t about the opposition between humanity’s survival and, well, humanity, it’s about overcoming the ugliest parts of humankind to pave a way towards the future; a sweltering uncontrolled amalgamation that just wants to survive and die and aimlessly destroy where one consciousness has no hope of ever directing the mass of disfigured beings. 

The fight against Lao during Chapter 11 is one of the most thematically dense moments in the series, especially among the more recent games. I’ve already talked about how Elma represents survival no matter the cost while Lao represents the cost itself. But the actual details of their debate says a lot about both Lao’s and Elma’s characters. To Elma, there is no such thing as a soul, rather the human experience can be surmised as a collection of one’s memories. There is very little variance between human to human, after all, the DNA of two people on opposite sides of the Earth are functionally identical. Thus, factors like race, class, age, etc. weren’t things she saw as important to consider when it came to archiving the human experience and, in more practical terms, who was worth saving. Lao argued that because she ignored those things, only the worst of humanity escaped Earth’s annihilation. It doesn’t matter if those issues aren’t logical, humans will still do it anyways. The only survivors from Earth were the ultra wealthy and the military. What about the people who were neither rich nor useful? The homeless, the poor, the disabled, the young, the elderly, his family. This isn’t humanity. Lao challenges the very reason you’re trying to save the human race from extinction. 

Then there is Lin, the sole child to survive human extinction. She represents everything humanity is meant to protect. Though she was only brough aboard the White Whale because of her engineering talents, she is humanity’s future. Lao recognizes this. While Elma treats Lin as an adult, entrusting her with a world of responsibilities, Lao sees her as the kid she is. For her, he puts aside his depression and takes care of her in whatever capacity he can. He takes her out for tea, he jokes with her like an uncle, he keeps an eye out for her wellbeing. Even when he’s seeking to destroy the human race, he’s still trying to protect her from his hopelessness.

Lao is the climax to Xenoblade X’s themes. An interesting villain with easily understood motives hiding a lot of depth. He acts as a foil to the two protagonists, giving them a lot more depth. Elma in particular really shines during the Lao fight because he challenges everything she stands for.

1. Metal Face (Xenoblade Chronicles) 

Metal Face is a pure fuckboy villain, and he leaves a glorious first impression. He has the perfect combination of amusing and terrifying, ending his run as pathetic. He establishes the Faced Mechon and the mechon as a whole as malicious and threatening, which sets the scene perfectly for every mechon-related villain after him. 

The reason he’s able to establish himself as a threat so quickly and effectively is that his first two encounters consist of him taking the protagonists down a notch. During his first encounter, you just got the Monado and just obtained some way to fight the mechon, only for this one mechon to appear that cannot be damaged by the Monado and then said mechon proceeds to kill an established party member. Metal Face’s decision to leave doesn’t appear to be caused by the protagonist’s actions either. In all of Shulk’s rage and Fiora’s desperate final stand, they were only able to scratch him. The second time Metal Face shows up, he doesn’t even fight you, he only taunts you. This time, he appears right after Xord’s death, which establishes that the Faced Mechon are not invincible. Metal Face uses this time to reestablish the Faced Mechon’s threat and to undermine any growth the protagonists might have undergone between his first and second encounter. Even resident badasses and heroes Dunban and Dickson showing up only proceeds to amuse him. Xenoblade Chronicles is a shounun, which uses strength as a metaphor for growth. By having the protagonists unable to even shut him up, it’s a reminder that they are still weak and powerless. But the fact that he is forced out of the encounter by a Telethia piloted by some unknown man says that seriously threatening Metal Face, and, by extension, the mechon as a whole, is possible and the protagonists will get there. As a side bonus, it also puts the Telethia above the mechon in hierarchy early in the story, which helps elevate Zanza’s threat during the final quarter of the story.

Metal Face’s role in the story changes during Prison Island. While his first two encounters consisted of him knocking the protagonists down a peg by showing up at the worst times possible and being a dick, you are prepared for him this encounter, and you destroy him. Shulk rips his arm off and could have killed him easily if not for the revelation that the Faced Mechon were once homs. Now that the protagonists can annihilate the mechon, which is represented by Shulk chopping Metal Fuck in half, the story begins to shift towards should he do so. Metal Face goes from representing the image of all mechon to representing the evil of the mechon. If Metal Face didn’t exist to ask the question of “can Shulk destroy the mechon,” it would have diminished the tension of “should Shulk destroy Egil,” which is the primary question that follows Metal Face’s death.

During Metal Face’s encounter during Valak Mountain, he attempts to pull the same stunt as his second encounter where he appears out of nowhere to put down the protagonist’s goals of making progress, but he ultimately fails at that mission as the goal has begun changing from “defeat the mechon” to “understand the mechon.” Thus, introducing Egil here as the leader of Mechonis progresses that goal while phasing out Metal Face’s importance. As Mumkhar, he is presented as a pathetic man using the power given to him as a mechon to incite petty revenge against Dunban. Mumkhar is not an interesting character and the story doesn’t try to make him one either. 

I will say that the story stuff surrounding Mumkhar is weak. Most of the details are left to the imagination. Was Mumkhar corrupted by the Monado? The mechon? Was he always a dickbag? He’s established as a coward in the prologue, but does that translate to him being a murderer? These questions at best create some uncertainty around Face Nemesis, but are undermined by her trying to have a conversation with the party before he interrupted. Mumkhar’s death was also quite weak. The party spares him, but he ultimately gets himself killed in a last ditch effort to kill the party. This could be meant to set up the idea that no everyone can or deserves to be spared, which could have lead nicely into the decision not to spare Zanza or his disciples, but this is never properly reflected on by the party, which results in Metal Face’s death feeling like a cop-out.

Overall, Metal Face does an amazing job establishing the groundwork for Xenoblade Chronicles. He gives the mechon a face before that torch can be passed to Egil. He also sets the scene of the conflict of the Homs and Mechon as being a simple conflict, which will be subverted later in the game. On his own, Metal Face strikes a strong balance between fun and threatening. His existence enhances the presence of many other villains that follow him.

[chemicalbrew]

hi. if i wanted to get into a xeno series which one do you recommend i should start with? i've also been thinking of starting a trails/kiseki series but which one of those fellas should i start with too?

RE: Xeno: there are three different 'arcs' in this series, each related to the other moreso in theming than continuous story\plots. But within each subset there is a definite play order.

There's Xenogears, a single ps1 game from 1998 with troubled development that was supposed to be (iirc) part five of six and spans 2 discs, with the second one famously consisting mostly of text dumps with very brief gameplay breaks. It's easily the most complex work in the series plot-wise, with much of its lore literally hidden away in an artbook. I can't say I regret trying to get into it, but it was very intimidating, and I have no idea why I even bothered to try and do it when I was, like, 16.

There's Xenosaga, a trilogy of games on the ps2. These games are my personal weak point (the only ones I haven't watched\played), which I do plan to eventually fix in the future, but for now, I guess I'll just mention that they exist. This series was also planned to have six episodes rather than three, but from what I was told, it managed to have an ending stretch far less abrupt than Gears.

And then there's Xenoblade, which is easily the most accessible both in the literal sense with the games available on the Switch and in the 'having a digestible plot' sense. It's also, naturally, the most popular part of the franchise and the easiest jumping in point. Technically you can play 1 and 2 in either order, but playing in the exact order (1 then 2) tends to have more impact when it comes to certain story beats. I believe you have to play both before touching 3, though, but I can't vouch for this, because I still haven't played 3 yet (haha, I'm a fraud /j)

Xenogears and the first Xenosaga game had soundtracks composed by Yasunori Mitsuda (of Chrono Trigger\Cross fame), and he also contributed to some extent to Xenoblade 1\2. I'm mentioning this because Mitsuda is my favorite video game composer because this might help spark your interest!

RE: Trails\Kiseki: thankfully, this is much more straightforward. Play in release order, and don't skip anything! (Trails in the Sky FC-SC-3rd, Trails from Zero-to Azure, Trails of Cold Steel I-IV, Trails into Reverie).

Some people tend to suggest you start with Cold Steel instead, because it has a stronger start than Sky FC and also has more modern conveniences, but doing that will make things more complex down the line, since Cold Steel III and onward assume you know what happened in all previous games, including Zero and Azure. Therefore, you would have to have a sudden change in style\look just two games in! I don't see the merit of doing this, unless you really can't stomach the slow burn that Sky offers.

There's also a spinoff called Nayuta: Endless Trails that's scheduled to have an official English release next year. It is (or at least, appears to be) related to the series in nothing but name, but it is a very fun game in its own right with a banger soundtrack to boot, though it plays nothing like the rest of the series, being an action RPG with sectioned-off stages rather than a turnbased RPG set in a hub town\continent. I still can't believe such a niche title is finally getting what it deserves! <3

[mendelpalace]

Xenogears, widely considered one of the greatest role-playing games ever made, has long felt to fans like an unfinished product thanks to its controversial, seemingly unfinished second disc. Although western gamers have assumed that the team simply ran out of money, the real story—as revealed by director Tetsuya Takahashi to Kotaku today—is a little more nuanced. Whereas the first disc of Xenogears is a sprawling role-playing game, full of towns and dungeons and beautiful cut-scenes, the second disc takes a different approach. Disc 2 of Xenogears chooses to tell rather than show the game’s epic finale, putting main characters Fei and Elly in a dark room and having them narrate the game’s climactic events while a slideshow plays on a screen in front of them. It’s an unusual and jarring change of pace. Conventional wisdom has long been this: Square ran out of money and rushed the team, forcing Tetsuya Takahashi to put Xenogears’ second half together with duct tape. Fans have always believed that Takahashi had more ambitious plans but was forced to ditch them because of budget and time issues. As far as I can tell, however, there’s been no official explanation since Xenogears was released 19 years ago. So while interviewing Takahashi during E3 in Los Angeles today about his new game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (more on that soon), I had to slip in a question about that urban legend. Xenogears is one of my favorite games, I said, but what happened to that second disc? “Honestly speaking, what had happened is Xenogears as a project was staffed pretty much entirely out of new staff members, young staff members,” said Takahashi, speaking through a translator. “Back then, we had the direction of, ‘All projects take two years and that’s when we need to get it done.’ So on top of developing the game, we had to nurture and teach and grow these younger employees. Things like 3D were extremely new, which led to some delays in the schedule. It just wasn’t possible to get everything done.” As it became clear that Takahashi and team weren’t going to hit their deadlines, Square’s higher-ups suggested that they just end the game after the first disc, when Fei and his team escape from Solaris. “It was a rough way to end it, and I felt like if we do that, then the players will not be satisfied,” Takahashi told me. “So we had a proposal—I proposed that if we do disc 2 in this way that it turned out to be, we can finish the game with the current number of staff and the current time allotted for the schedule and the remaining budget we have.” So they turned disc 2 of Xenogears into the montage that shipped with today’s game. Instead of playing through events like the world’s mutation and the search for Fei, you just have to watch them. And it was Takahashi’s decision—so he could finish the story he wanted to tell rather than cutting it off after the first half. “I do think my decision was the right one to make,” said Takahashi. “Because if we had just ended at Disc 1 it would have been bad.”

[xenosagaepisodeone]

sisterreisaid replied to your post: can you write a post on why people should play...

Takahashi Tetsuya said Evangelion wasn’t an influence. The only direct influences on Xeno are the chair and spotlight monologues in Xenogears disc 2 and the twelve monoliths (Zohar modifiers / Seele holograms). Production I.G. did animate Xenogears.

takahashi is probably telling the truth but I don’t believe for a second that one of the writers for cherenkov’s entire character arc wasn’t influenced by nge because a lot of the similarities are quite literally 1:1

[wolven0ne-universe]

You know, people talking about remaking this or that Final Fantasy, but honestly, I think it would make more sense to remake Xenogears instead. At least the Final Fantasy games all got proper endings. With Xenogears, after you get to the end of disc one you go into a twelve-odd hour cutscene and are only let out of it when it’s time to go fight the last boss. For me, that’s pretty darn glaring. Especially since Disc 1 was a pretty good adventure back in the day!