History Trivia / XenoSaga

** Another one would be Shion's characterization in Episode III, which turned the protagonist of the trilogy into one hell of a BaseBreakingCharacter. Takahashi didn't take this reception well, to the point that one of his main concerns while writing ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' was to make sure the protagonist was likable during the entire story.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Xenosaga never got a digital release, and has never been remastered. So the only way to play the games would be to track down original UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 copies of the games and play them on a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 console or an original model UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 console or use emulation software.

* CreatorKiller: Ultimately, ''Xenosaga'' was the game that ended Kaori Tanaka's (Soraya Saga) major involvement in the gaming industry, at least documented. The TroubledProduction of this game, combined with the failure to make ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' what she and Takahashi wanted, left her dejected enough that she left and stopped working on games for the most part. While she would help with a few games briefly, she never returned to the same control and writing involvement as before.

** A remaster was planned, but, [[https://www.destructoid.com/stories/a-xenosaga-remaster-trilogy-was-talked-about-but-never-came-to-be-due-to-profit-concerns-576366.phtml according to Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada]], it failed the “market analysis” and was scrapped.
* TheWikiRule: [[http://xenosaga.wikia.com/wiki/Xenosaga_Wiki The Xenosaga Wiki]].
* The series makes its debut in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' but not as a crossover with other mechs but rather in the GaidenGame ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier''.

* TalkingToHimself: Creator/CrispinFreeman as Albedo and Nigredo/Gaignun has several instances of this.

* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: Was originally intended to be a full-blown ContinuityReboot of ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', but due to being cut down from six games to three covering the first two intended chapters of the planned MythArc (the first chapter ended up being split into two games), it ends up being a spiritual prequel that covers the period of the interstellar period that preceded Deus's crashlanding.

* CreatorKiller: Ultimate ''Xenosaga'' was the game that ended Kaori Tanaka's (Soraya Saga) major involvement in the gaming industry, at least documented. The TroubledProduction of this game, combined with the failure to make ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' what she and Takahashi wanted, left her dejected enough that she left and stopped working on games for the most part. While she would help with a few games briefly, she never returned to the same control and writing involvement as before.

* CreatorBacklash:
** Although "backlash" may be a bit too strong of a word, Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga have never expressed any fond memories from the development of this trilogy on interviews, always lamenting its TroubledProduction. Also, despite the fact that it got a pretty loyal and passionate fan base that endures to this day (and that has even ''grown'' a bit thanks to the success of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'') the series relatively poor reception by mainstream audiences was, in Takahashi's own words, "mortifying" for studio members at the time. Takahashi has also gone out of his way multiple times to express how, after working in this series, now he thinks the use of cutscenes to as the main mean to deliver narrative is "outdated". The fact that ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' took the most opposite approach to both gameplay and story telling one could think of also reinforces it.

* OldShame:
** Although "shame" may be a bit too strong of a word, Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga have never expressed any fond memories from the development of this trilogy on interviews, always lamenting its TroubledProduction. Also, despite the fact that it got a pretty loyal and passionate fan base that endures to this day (and that has even ''grown'' a bit thanks to the success of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'') the series relatively poor reception by mainstream audiences was, in Takahashi's own words, "mortifying" for studio members at the time. Takahashi has also gone out of his way multiple times to express how, after working in this series, now he thinks the use of cutscenes to as the main mean to deliver narrative is "outdated". The fact that ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' took the most opposite approach to both gameplay and story telling one could think of also reinforces it.

* TroubledProduction: Production on the game suffered through a number of issues, some of it internal due to the lack of experience of many of their key staff members (for instance, main planner and later director Koh Arai had just graduated from University when he started working on Episode 1). Among the various issues, Takahashi has mentioned that the engine they used for the first game was extremely faulty and difficult to get up and running until the last year of development. Hence the game's notoriously long cutscenes, which he describes as a means to flesh the games out with content while the staff wrangled with getting the gameplay to work. A choice was made to then shake up the staff for Episode 2, causing a bunch of people to be shifted around or put into new positions that many were not ready for, such as Koh Arai becoming the director when Takahashi stepped down. Between those shake ups and trying to repurpose the story into a trilogy instead of six games, the team became overly stressed. Episode 3 was also negatively impacted by the new writing from Episode 2, causing the team to have to try and address the issues from it, while also wrapping up the story. These factors made the trilogy so stressful and difficult, that it became an OldShame for the team.

* TroubledProduction: Production on the game suffered through a number of issues, some of it internal due to the lack of experience of many of their key staff members (for instance, main planner and later director Koh Arai had just graduated from University when he started working on Episode 1), some of it being that some of the head staff grew so frustrated that they either restructered the team or just flat out stopped working on the project. Among the various issues, Takahashi has mentioned that the engine they used for the first game was extremely faulty and difficult to get up and running until the last year of development. Hence the game's notoriously long cutscenes, which he describes as a means to flesh the games out with content while the staff wrangled with getting the gameplay to work.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The story had to cut massive amounts of corners during development, first due to Monolithsoft's then lack of experience as a company not being up to their ambitions, and then due to ExecutiveMeddling in episode II, which caused the scenario writer Soraya Saga to be dismissed and the original script by Takahashi to be discarded. A portion of the old script was retained for the Pied Piper cellphone game, while others appeared, either on Episode III or in ''Xenosaga I&II". Among some of the things that were originally planned to happen for Episode II:

* ExecutiveMeddling: Numerous - the main brains behind the series were axed by the time the third game came out. The radically different ''Episode II'' was a result of this trope as well, which pretty much led to the series being reduced from six games to three. Ironically, the third game (for which Takahashi returned in a more limited capacity as the story scenario supervisor) seems to be the most true to its spiritual predecessor and is generally regarded as the best in the series.

* TroubledProduction: Production on the game suffered through a number of issues, some of it internal due to the lack of experience of many of their key staff members (for instance, main planner and later director Koh Arai had just graduated from University when he started working on Episode 1), some of it the result of ExecutiveMeddling that resulted in the original writers and directors leaving the project by the third game. Among the various issues, Takahashi has mentioned that the engine they used for the first game was extremely faulty and difficult to get up and running until the last year of development. Hence the game's notoriously long cutscenes, which he describes as a means to flesh the games out with content while the staff wrangled with getting the gameplay to work.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Xenosaga never got a digital release, and has never been remastered. So the only way to play the game would be to track down an original UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 copy of the game and play it on a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 console or an original model UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 console or use emulation software.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Numerous - the main brains behind the series were axed by the time the third game came out. The radically different ''Episode II'' was a result of this trope as well, which pretty much led to the series being reduced from six games to three. Ironically, the third game seems to be the most true to its spiritual predecessor and is generally regarded as the best in the series.

* OldShame: Although "shame" may be a bit too strong of a word, Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga have never expressed any fond memories from the development of this trilogy on interviews, always lamenting its TroubledProduction. Also, despite the fact that it got a pretty loyal and passionate fan base that endures to this day (and that has even ''grown'' a bit thanks to the success of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'') the series relatively poor reception by mainstream audiences was, in Takahashi's own words, "mortifying" for studio members at the time. Takahashi has also gone out of his way multiple times to express how, after working in this series, now he thinks the use of cutscenes to as the main mean to deliver narrative is "outdated". The fact that ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' took the most opposite approach to both gameplay and story telling one could think of also reinforces it.

* ColbertBump: The series has gotten a lot more interest since it’s [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles spiritual successor]] hit the big time.

* OldShame: Although "shame" may be a bit too strong of a word, Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga have never expressed any fond memories from the development of this trilogy on interviews, always lamenting its TroubledProduction. Also, despite the fact that it got a pretty loyal and passionate fan base that endures to this day (and that has even ''grown'' a bit thanks to the success of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'') the series relatively poor reception by mainstream audiences was, in Takahashi's own words, "mortifying" for studio members at the time. Takahashi has also gone out of his way multiple times to express how, after working in this series, now he thinks the use of cutscenes to as the main mean to deliver narrative is "outdated". The fact that ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' took the most opposite approach to both gameplay and story telling one could think of also reinforces it.
** Another one would be Shion's characterization in Episode III, which turned the protagonist of the trilogy into one hell of a BaseBreakingCharacter. Takahashi didn't take this reception well, to the point that one of his main concerns while writing ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' was to make sure the protagonist was likable during the entire story.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The story was originally going to be very different for Xenosaga II and III before ExecutiveMeddling caused the scenario writer Soraya Saga to be dismissed and the original script by Takahashi to be discarded. A portion of the old script was retained for the Pied Piper cellphone game, while others appeared, either on Episode III or in ''Xenosaga I&II". Among some of the things that were originally planned to happen for Episode II:

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series producer Katsuhiro Harada is apparently a fan of the series, partially because [[https://www.twitlonger.com/show/ng78i3 Monolithsoft was working at the same floor as his team during development]]. This is why he reached to the fans to show their support to the franchise, so he could convince the higher ups at Bandai Namco to release an HD remaster of the trilogy (albeit, unfortunately, the call wasn't successful).

* VideoGame/{{Tekken}} series producer Katsuhiro Harada is apparently a fan of the series, partially because [[https://www.twitlonger.com/show/ng78i3 Monolithsoft was working at the same floor as his team during development]]. This is why he reached to the fans to show their support to the franchise, so he could convince the higher ups at Bandai Namco to release an HD remaster of the trilogy.