History Trivia / Xenosaga

* 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 Kojima 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.

* 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. Among some of the things that were originally planned to happen for Episode II:
** Citrine would reunite with her URTV siblings.
** Shion's past history with Febronia.
** Junior rapidly growing to an adult with both options available during battle.
** The ghost of old Miltia.
** The death of Sakura.
** Brief reunion between the URTVS and grown-up Citrine.
** Gaignun vs the Zohar emulators.
** Junior and Albedo vs U-DO vs KOS-MOS 3rd armament.
** Shion's spiritual seeking/witnessing/awakening.
** The truth about KOS-MOS
** Conversation between chaos and the Red Testament.
** Conversation between Nephilim and Abel.
** An antimatter annihilation of Albedo.
** A grand majority of the series was eventually edited out. On top of the series originally being six titles long, the WhatCouldHaveBeen page itself mentions that the series took up Chapters 2 and 5 of the original ideas, with Chapter 1 being the prologue scenes to Episode I. There's also a list on a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20111121075025/http://forums.xgam.org/index.php?showtopic=9137 Xenogears fan forum (spoilers beware)]] of things that could have been but were either put in later in the series or scrapped altogether when Soraya Saga left. For example, ''Jr. was supposed to grow up and have his adult form available in battle,'' as well as something called "Gaignun vs. the Zohar Emulators."

* NoExportForYou: ''Xenosaga I&II'', ''Pied Piper'', ''Xenosaga Freaks'', and ''A Missing Year''.

* 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, and how the series relatively poor reception by mainstream audiences was, in his own words, "mortifying" for studio members. 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.

* TroubledProduction: Production on the game suffered through a number of issues, some of it internal, 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.

* The series makes its debut in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' but not as a crossover with other mechs but rather in the GaidenGame ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier''.aizen magus is name of aizen from bleach,in bleach some characters nicknamed aizen because of name.

* BadExportForYou: The series had a god-awful treatment in Europe. For starters, [[NoExportForYou Episode I wasn't even released]] but, in one of the most baffling publishing decisions in a genre popular in Europe for its baffling publishing decisions, Episode II WAS released. And in a really neat, almost-collector edition-level packaging. Too bad it was only (badly) translated into French and German (in a time when Spanish and Italian translations were already common place) and with one of the worst 50Hz conversions in the entire 6th Console Generation, which is saying something. As for the plot, the game included a DVD with a few hours worth of cutscenes from Episode I to put European audiences up to speed... sort of, since it barely counted as a barebones version of the plot of the first game. The game obviously flopped hard, so Episode III wasn't even considered for an European release.

* The series makes its debut in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' but not as a crossover with other mechs but rather in the GaidenGame ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier''.

* FranchiseKiller: The series was meant to span six games (not counting spin offs)... ''Episode II'' sure fixed that.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://xenosaga.wikia.com/wiki/Xenosaga_Wiki The Xenosaga Wiki]].

** Several potentially awesome scenes were removed from the scripts of all three games, some being added in later, but not when they were originally supposed to be; and some were completely forgotten about. The most obvious example being the fight between Jin and Margulis, which was in the trailer for the original game but ended up being in Episode II. Another being a potential plot where KOS-MOS eventually got strong enough weapons to destroy a planet, which Shion was supposed to prevent. Also, chaos, the [[spoiler: guy with the ability to destroy the universe, sits around and hangs in the background doing...well, not much. Just shopping and having cryptic conversations most of the time.]]

** Especially for European fans, as no one was gutsy enough to bring it over after the failure that was ''Episode II'', both the game's fault and due to sloppy handling of the game's release in Europe; they did not release ''Episode I'', unanimously declared to be a better game, and then they missed out on ''Episode III'', which is arguably as good as if not better than ''Episode I''.

* NamesTheSame: Albedo shares the name of a [[ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF furry comic]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music for ''Episode I'' was composed by Creator/YasunoriMitsuda. Music for ''Episode II'' was composed by Creator/ShinjiHosoe, Creator/AyakoSaso and Creator/YukiKajiura. Music for ''Episode III'' was composed solely by Creator/YukiKajiura.

* CrossDressingVoices: Jr. is voiced by Bridanne Siddall. In a much more minor example, WendeeLee voiced kid Gaignun in ''Episode III''.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Creator/CrispinFreeman is Albedo and Nigredo/Gaignun, with several instances of TalkingToHimself.
** Creator/JenniferHale is a young Nigredo/Gaignun in Episode II.
** Creator/DaveWittenberg is Allen Ridgeley.
** Creator/RichardEpcar is Ziggy.
** Creator/BrianneSiddall is Rubedo/Junior.
** Creator/LexLang is Lieutenant Virgil.
** Creator/KeithSzarabajka is Dmitri Yuriev.

** Several potentially awesome scenes were removed from the scripts of all three games, some being added in later, but not when they were originally supposed to be; and some were completely forgotten about. The most obvious example being the fight between Jin and Margulis, which was in the trailer for the original game but ended up being in Episode II. Another being a potential plot where KOS-MOS eventually got strong enough weapons to destroy a planet, which Shion was supposed to prevent. Also, chaos, the [[spoiler: guy with the ability to destroy the universe, sits around and hangs in the background doing...well, not much. Just shopping and having cryptic conversations most of the time.]]

* TheOtherDarrin: The dub of ''Xenosaga The Animation'' was done by Creator/ADVFilms in Texas, so no one kept the voices they had in-game. The Japanese dub of the entire collective franchise managed to keep pretty much everyone who was assigned to that character from the start. Creator/RichardEpcar, the voice of Ziggy through all three games, stated that he didn't even know there was an anime, or that it was being dubbed in Texas. Otherwise, he would have flown over there from California and auditioned for Ziggy.

** The truth about KOS-MOS (removed)

* HeyItsThatVoice: Creator/CrispinFreeman is Albedo and Nigredo/Gaignun.
** Creator/JenniferHale is a young Nigredo/Gaignun in Episode 2.

* HeyItsThatVoice: CrispinFreeman is Albedo and Nigredo/Gaignun.
** Jennifer Hale is a young Nigredo/Gaignun in Episode 2.