History VideoGame / Xenogears

The game was written and directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, who later on would become the founder of the Creator/MonolithSoft studio. Interestingly enough, the game's creators have stated that in its [[DivorcedInstallment early development stages]], ''Xenogears'' was planned to be ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', and later, ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''. Despite a rocky development, the game would go on to become a cult classic, and served as the start of Takahashi's venture into the genre, leading to two other series; ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', all of which draw inspiration from this game.

* SekaikeiGenre: Bonus points for having not only the current conflict, but also much of the world's history resting on the shoulders of the lead couple's [[ReincarnationRomance romance]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The game writers seem to have some... interesting... ideas about how DNA works. Fan translations of [[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Works]] have revealed that the weird backstory justifications for some of the technology in the game takes this UpToEleven, like "[[AWizardDidIt The Wave Existence did it]]".

* HumongousMecha: All over the place. Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler:Super Dimensional Gear Yggdrasil IV, which was literally an ''entire district'' of Nortune.]]

The world of Ignas is in conflict between the countries of Aveh and Kislev. Aided by a mysterious organization called "Gebler", Aveh has successfully forced a stalemate against Kislev, while a neutral Church like group called Ethos provides both sides with unearthed HumongousMecha called "Gears". Meanwhile, a young man named [[TheHero Fei Fong Wong]] lives in the remote village of Lahan, while dealing with amnesia. His life is changed when a battle between Gears occurs outside his home, and In an attempt to save the village, Fei uses one of the Gears to fight back, causing him to lose control and destroy his home. With his fate bound to the Gear, which is being hunted by the military, our reluctant hero has to [[GrandTheftPrototype flee inside it]]. From there, Fei goes on a journey to stop the war, find thr truths of the world, and discover himself, aided by those he meets, including a woman named Elly, with whom he finds a strange connection to.

** At least the Honeywood translation of Solarian has it have definite similarities to Germanic.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Krelian]], after he ''loses'' no less.

** Margie assists Bart once; she was once meant to be a PlayerCharacter, who got demoted [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC status]].

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Lacan and Sophia/Elly meet as children and had feelings for each other by that point. They separate and don't meet again for almost 10 years.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: there is an infamous scene where the heroes' HumongousMecha are crucified at the top of a mountain with the sun setting behind them - creating an unintentionally hilarious moment if your party contains the TeamPet, Chuchu. This led to the MemeticMutation "Chu-chu died for your sins."

* CutsceneIncompetence: Too many instances to count. Usually in the flavor of "spectacular failure right after ''defeating'' a boss".
** There are ''multiple occasions'' in which ''people die'' because Billy conveniently forgets that ''he has a gun''. Despite ''[[TheGunslinger his entire fighting style revolving around having guns]]''.

* DeathByCameo: [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Lucca]] appears to explain how Memory Cubes work. After [[DoomedHometown Lahan is destroyed]], [[NeverFoundTheBody she's never seen again]]. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Considering something ]]''[[{{Foreshadowing}} very]]'' [[{{Foreshadowing}} similar happens before the start of]] ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''...

* DefeatMeansPlayable: ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' does this an awful lot. Bart, Elly, Rico, Maria, and Emerelda are all initially bosses before joining the party. Though in the case of Elly, she already had a brief stint as a party member before she's fought and joins up as a permanent party member after that.

* EarthIsYoung: Played with. In an inversion of the norm, the official Ethos church doctrine states that humans evolved from apes. In actuality, [[spoiler:the humans that live on this planet were created by the giant bio-weapon Deus 10,000 years ago in order to act as spare parts to repair its damage. The humans that created Deus presumably evolved from apes on Earth but they are mostly a separate gene pool from Deus' created humans.]] So yeah.

* GeneticMemory: [[spoiler:Fei and Elly]] can remember each and every one of their past lives this way, but not until close to the end of the game.

* GoldfishPoopGang: The Elements. They waffle between this and QuirkyMinibossSquad becuase they're actually some pretty tough recurring bosses, but while Dominia at least is a rather credible threat to the party's wellbeing, the other three... aren't.

* GrayAndGrayMorality: On the surface of things, it seems like there is a clearly EvilEmpire, against which your band of protagonists fight. As the story unfolds and the characters become more fleshed out, it becomes much more difficult to place any individual character at the far end of the morality spectrum.
** To demonstrate: [[TheProtagonist Fei]], under normal circumstances, is a decent if troubled person who tries to do well by those in his life. [[spoiler: He also has a SuperpoweredEvilSide who is implied to have killed millions of people **and** he is the reincarnation of a man who lusts only for power and once nearly ended all human life... but both [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening Id]] and [[OmnicidalManiac Grahf]] exist only because of the massive trauma to which they were subjected as a result of the machinations of [[BigBad Miang]], who has been cultivating (and occasionally annihilating) mankind... because she is following the programming given to her by [[GreaterScopeVillain Deus]], an interstellar doomsday weapon which never asked to be created.]]

* GunsAreWorthless: Elly is introduced holding Fei at gunpoint. Once she starts fighting, though, she switches to a pair of metal batons, presumably because of this trope.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Fei wants Elly and eventually gets her.

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: Krelian ends up killing them all before they do anything but provide uselessly vague exposition. He also tells them all to shut up as he's killing them. Their conversation is only vague and useless if you've haven't already completed the game, and maybe even if you did. Many of what is said is actually pretty interesting once you've already know most the story. Either way, their conversations are completely within the context of the story considering their experiences, knowledge, and arrogance, even if many have no idea what they're talking about.

* OurGodsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Deus is very powerful and capable of creating life, but is really just a [[AIIsACrapshoot malevolent interstellar war machine]], capable of being destroyed. The Wave Existence is an extradimensional being of unfathomable power, but its only concern is to go back to its own dimension. [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Its destructibility]] is unknown.]]

* PiecesOfGod: Oh my. God is a true jigsaw puzzle in Xenogears. Some core parts are buried into the sea, then there are the twelve Anima Relics, [[spoiler:Miang]] has a role to play in it too, and [[spoiler: most of the human population]] is ''spare parts''. Most of the game metaplot is actually about conflicts between factions fighting over if, how, when and why God should be rebuilt.

* PlotArmor: So it turns out [[spoiler: the entire population of the planet save for about a thousand people are dead]]... but hey! None of them were friends of the main characters!
** This is actually explained by Miang in an easily missed line: the ones who didn't turn into Wels are the descendants of the Gazel Ministry from back when they were flesh and blood, thus rendering them immune to the Gaetia Key.

* PowerLimiter: Nanomachines again. [[spoiler: They're inherent in every human to keep them afraid of Solaris and unable to attain the limits of their potential power; these are removed by Gaspar to allow your characters to use Level 7 Deathblows. Also, in the second disc, Fei is given a limiter to allow him to use [[SplitPersonality Id]] [[SuperMode semi-controllably]]. This breaks down right before he gets Xenogears, but since System-Id allowed him to enter Hyper Mode on command at a cost of 1000 fuel and Xenogears has an innate 99% chance of doing so naturally when it reaches attack level 3, few people will miss it.]]

* RagnarokProofing: Babel Tower, Mahanon, Ft. Jasper, the Zohar, Kadamony, and Merkava (all parts of the ''Eldridge'') work rather well after 10,000 years of sitting dormant.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Sort of the case with [[spoiler:Emperor Cain]]. Through his [[spoiler:extremely long lifespan]] he has finally acquired some compassion for ordinary people and doesn't want them to get killed or hurt. He is finally murdered [[spoiler:by Ramsus -- manipulated by Krelian --]] because his moral objections made him an obstacle.

** And shortly after that, Ramsus hunts Fei and Elly down in his newly-minted Omnigear, Vendetta, and tears Weltall to pieces as vengeance for a lifetime of perceived wrongs that Fei is only tangentially (if at all) responsible for.

* RunawayFiance: [[TheScrappy Dan]] tries to convince Fei to run off with Alice before her wedding, and Fei has the choice of shooting him down or agreeing to his plan. Either way it doesn't work, though not in the expected way.

** While 99 percent of what the game says about Dissociative Identity Disorder ranges from FairForItsDay (the now outdated computer analogy, avoiding switch triggers as care) to absolutely untrue (no, Citan, it is ''not'' schizophrenia and bipolar, those are two separate problems) to UnfortunateImplications of InsaneEqualsViolent stereotyping of TheMentallyDisturbed - it does have a few things correct: DID *is* indeed caused by childhood trauma and what Fei went through is ''more'' than enough to initiate it. Also, while Id is an ''[[InsaneEqualsViolent extreme stereotype of it]]'' and IRL systems are generally ''not'' violent toward others, real systems ''can'' have alters that can engage in destructive, harmful, or even suicidal behavior from their own triggers the host may be unaware of, out of feeling it is "protective," or because they're too immature to have self-awareness or not have BlackAndWhiteMorality - among other reasons.

* SincerestFormOfFlattery: In an interview, Tetsuya Takahasi was asked "You're a fan of ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', aren't you?" His response was simply to smile. This would explain some of the Gear design, especially [[spoiler:Weltall-2's System Id]].

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Too many to count, given the game's near-BlindIdiotTranslation.

* TechnicalPacifist: Citan refuses to use his sword. He points out to Fei that he swore never to use his sword again and instead primarily fights with his fists. He later takes it up as a relucatantly since times have grown so desperate that having the moral high ground doesn't mean much anymore.

* TheUnfought: Krelian. Though he is debatedly the BigBad of the game, the heroes never directly fight him. At most they fight people he works with

* VillainousBreakdown: You wouldn't like Ramsus when he's unstable.

** This is a big part of Krelian's backstory: [[spoiler:the man flipped his shit when Sophia sacrificed herself. He loved her, she thought they were JustFriends. He reasoned that a just God would not let Sophia die while Solaris continued to exist, thus there was no just God in the universe.]] His resolution to fix this problem led him to became the MagnificentBastard [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] that many fans considered him to be.

The game was written and directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, who later on would become the founder of the Creator/MonolithSoft studio. Interestingly enough, the game's creators have stated that in its [[DivorcedInstallment early development stages]], ''Xenogears'' was planned to be ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', and later, ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''. Despite a rocky development, the game would go on to become a cult classic, and served as the start of Takahashi's venture into the genre, leading to two other series; ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', all of which draw inspiration from this game.

* RedStringOfFate: [[spoiler: Fei and Elly and all their incarnations, by virtue of being reincarnations of the Contact and the Antitype.]]
** [[spoiler: Could be argued to be StrangledByTheRedString in the case of the Lacan, Sophia, and Krelian love triangle. Krelian has been with and has been through so much more with Sophia and has dedicated so much more of himself to her but she is destined to fall in love with Lacan even though she and Lacan only knew each other for a fairly brief time as kids. While it is true that she knew and fell in love with Lacan first and may just be remaining loyal to those feelings, Krelian had no chance of making her fall in love with him no matter what due to destiny.]]

* TheUnfought: Krelian.
* UniverseCompendium: ''Perfect Works''

The world of Ignas is in conflict between the countries of Aveh and Kislev. Aided by a mysterious organization called "Gebler", Aveh has successfully forced a stalemate against Kislev, while a neutral Church like group called Ethos provides both sides with unearthed HumongousMecha called "Gears". Meanwhile, a battle between Gears occurs outside his home. In an attempt to save the village, Fei uses one of the Gears to fight back, causing him to lose control and destroy his home. With his fate bound to the rather unique Gear, which is being hunted by the military, our reluctant hero has to [[GrandTheftPrototype flee inside it]]. From there, Fei goes on a journey to stop the war, find thr truths of the world, and discover himself, aided by those he meets, including a woman named Elly, with whom he finds a strange connection to.

The game opens on a very mysterious note with a large spaceship being taken over and destroyed by ''something'' from within, [[KillEmAll killing any crew who attempt to escape]] while delivering a MadnessMantra of "You shall be as Gods". After the ship crashes on the planet where the game is set, a [[MysteriousWaif mysterious woman]] looks out from the wreckage at what seems to be shooting stars. Afterwards, the scene switches to a peaceful village out in the boonies where we are greeted by [[BareFistedMonk Fei Fong Wong]], a sensitive painter with [[EasyAmnesia a past he's conveniently forgotten]]. Fei's life becomes [[KudzuPlot extremely complicated]] when a stolen [[HumongousMecha mecha]] (or "[[AMechByAnyOtherName Gear]]") crashes into his village and [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed razes it to the ground]]. With his fate bound to the rather unique Gear, which is being hunted by the military, our reluctant hero has to [[GrandTheftPrototype flee inside it]].

Of course, rather than just hide it in a hole or something simple like that ([[RefusalOfTheCall not for a lack of trying]]), Fei instead gets caught up in the civil war between an [[BunnyEarsLawyer extremely eccentric exiled prince]] named [[HotBlooded Bart]] and the EvilChancellor, [[BaldOfEvil Shakhan]], who's taken over his kingdom. Along for the ride is Citan Uzuki, a local OmnidisciplinaryScientist doctor (who is much more than he seems), and Elhaym Van Houtem, an enemy officer whom Fei [[DejaVu conveniently calls "Elly" before learning her name]].

All of this, of course, while battling the tyrannical [[TheEmpire Sacred Empire of Solaris]], run by [[BigBadEnsemble quite a lot of villains]] who, on top of everything, have the distinct advantage of having more screen time than most party members and a fair shot at getting what they want: Kahran Ramsus, a [[WhiteHairBlackHeart sword-fighting bishonen]] general from the inner circles of Solaris surrounded by his [[AmazonBrigade beautiful bodyguards Miang and the Elements]]; the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Gazel Ministry]] which controls the [[PathOfInspiration the Ethos]], a mysterious church with [[BadassPreacher gunslingin' priests]] who have a stranglehold on the world's technology; and most notably, Grahf, a "Man in Black" piloting a gear full of weird components... essentially an upgraded copy of Fei's own Gear, Weltall. And atop them all is the [[BigBad supreme leader]], [[TheEmperor Emperor]] [[NameOfCain Cain]], whom Ramsus [[BigBadDuumvirate is partnered with]].

Fei Fong Wong's incredible voyage from his defunct native village to the perilous headquarters of an evil empire he'll eventually knock off its pedestal could encompass its own game. [[AncientConspiracy But then Fei starts to peel back the mystery of who he is, the forgotten history of the planet, and its true underlying struggles that go back thousands of years]]. This is about the point where things get [[MindScrew really weird]], as Disc One is replaced with Disc Two. Most of the rest of the story is actually narrated by the main characters sitting in wooden chairs over [[TakeOurWordForIt still images of cool stuff happening]]. In other words, it's a [[SignatureStyle standard Square JRPG]] for the first half, and a series of narrations interspersed with boss fights for the second half, which a lot of gamers dig and others simply don't.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the upper range of the double digits.

* AttackDrone: The Aerodes on some gears are basically the funnels or bits from the Gundam series: small remote weapons controlled by special people (elementals in Xenogears' case) that mount small beam guns to execute multi-range attacks.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: The introduction for the game features a spaceship whose systems, under mysterious circumstances, lead to its destruction and crashing onto the planet. This event, and what it has to do with the main plot, is not explained until near the end, but most of the specific events and characters featured in it are really not important at all.

All of this, of course, while battling the tyrannical [[TheEmpire Sacred Empire of Solaris]], run by [[BigBadEnsemble quite a lot of villains]] who, on top of everything, have the distinct advantage of having more screen time than most party members and a fair shot at getting what they want: Kahran Ramsus, a [[WhiteHairBlackHeart sword-fighting bishonen]] general from the inner circles of Solaris surrounded by his [[AmazonBrigade beautiful bodyguards Miang and the Elements]]; the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Gazel Ministry]] which controls the [[PathOfInspiration the Ethos]], a mysterious church with [[BadassPreacher gunslingin' priests]] who have a stranglehold on the world's technology; and most notably, Grahf, a [[DarthVaderClone "Man in Black"]] piloting a gear full of weird components... essentially an upgraded copy of Fei's own Gear, Weltall. And atop them all is the [[BigBad supreme leader]], [[TheEmperor Emperor]] [[NameOfCain Cain]], whom Ramsus [[BigBadDuumvirate is partnered with]].

* BigBadDuumvirate[=/=]BigBadEnsemble: [[TheEmperor Emperor]] [[NameOfCain Cain]] and [[WhiteHairBlackHeart Kahran]] [[CharClone Ramsus]] are the duumvirate, the former being the [[EvilOverlord supreme leader]] of [[TheEmpire the Sacred Empire of Solaris]], and the latter effectively being [[TheDragon his general]] who [[DragonInChief personally antagonizes the heroes]]. The two are competing with [[EvilChancellor Shakhan]], [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Gazel Ministry]], and [[DarthVaderClone Grahf]] for control of the empire, while [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Id]] seeks revenge on them all. [[spoiler:Except Cain [[GoodAllAlong turns out to be]] trying to [[StealthMentor help the heroes]], Ramsus betrays him, and all of them are revealed to be {{Unwitting Pawn}}s. [[TheManBehindTheMan The real villains]] are Miang Hawwa, Kahran’s [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan supposed]] [[BodyguardBabes sidekick]], and Krelian, the MadScientist true leader of Solaris driven by [[LoveMakesYouEvil the death of his love]]; they in turn are working for {{Deus|EstMachina}}, the GreaterScopeVillain. Miang herself, or rather the Miang Factor personified as the [[{{Ouroboros}} Urobolous Snake]], is the PostFinalBoss of the game. Defeating her means Deus cannot be activated and is utterly useless.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: A few notable exceptions (Miang, Krelian (before joining Solaris), Seraphita, Kelvena, Helmhoz, and Stratski).

** [[spoiler:Krelian. After all he did, he still gets to "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence [go] to walk with God]]." Apparently, as long as you really love people, it's okay to be complicit in trying to commit genocide.]]

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: TheEmpire of Solaris are [[RecycledInSpace Space Nazis]] with absolute power over an entire planet for centuries. Their cultural attributes and structure, and therefore so, ''so'' many of their atrocities from chattel slavery to extreme racism (complete with the upper class being largely made of people with blonde hair and blue eyes) to human experimentation and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]] to teenage soldiers on PsychoSerum, to establishing and bending religion to serve them, to total war, and ''more'' are inspired by real-life colonialist, fascist, and imperialist regimes.

* LikeThatShowButWithMecha: It's largely based on ''Literature/TheBible'', and has giant robots.

* IAteWhat: When in Solaris, Fei and Elly decide to help themselves to some stored food they come across. Then they open the door into the Soylent Factory and...well, see ImAHumanitarian below.

* GainaxEnding: The entire second disc. All world map exploration and mini-games were left out of Disc 2 and replaced with cutscenes of the characters [[ExpositionBreak sitting on a rocking chair]] and [[HowWeGotHere telling the player about their adventure]]. It's been rumored that this was due to a sudden, severe lack of time and funding, because of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'''s production. As for the actual ending, it's probably the clearest thing in the game.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: TheEmpire of Solaris are [[RecycledInSpace Space Nazis]] with absolute power over an entire planet for centuries. Their cultural attributes and structure, and therefore so, ''so'' many of their atrocities from chattel slavery to extreme racism to human experimentation and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]] to teenage soldiers on PsychoSerum, to establishing and bending religion to serve them, to total war, and ''more'' are inspired by real-life colonialist, fascist, and imperialist regimes.

''Xenogears'' was released by [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] in 1998, and is probably their most well-known UsefulNotes/PlayStation game that isn't ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII VIII]]'', '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX IX]]'', or ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics Tactics]]''. It is particularly remembered both for a [[KudzuPlot uniquely convoluted plot spanning ten thousand years]]; themes cooked out of {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, [[{{UsefulNotes/Judaism}} Jewish mysticism]] and [[UsefulNotes/CarlJung Jungian]] psychology; and an atmosphere which was remarkably {{Anime}}-like for its time, leading to the game's infamous hour-long cutscenes, and its TroubledProduction that resulted in the game's rushed state.

''Xenogears'' was released by [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] in 1998 for the {{UsefulNotes/PlayStation}}, and is probably their most well-known UsefulNotes/PlayStation game that isn't ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII VIII]]'', '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX IX]]'', or ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics Tactics]]''. It is particularly remembered both for a [[KudzuPlot uniquely convoluted plot spanning ten thousand years]]; themes cooked out of {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, [[{{UsefulNotes/Judaism}} Jewish mysticism]] and [[UsefulNotes/CarlJung Jungian]] psychology; and an atmosphere which was remarkably {{Anime}}-like for its time, leading to the game's infamous hour-long cutscenes, and its TroubledProduction that resulted in the game's rushed state.

''Xenogears'' was released by [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] in 1998 for the {{UsefulNotes/PlayStation}}. It is particularly remembered both for a [[KudzuPlot uniquely convoluted plot spanning ten thousand years]]; themes cooked out of {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, [[{{UsefulNotes/Judaism}} Jewish mysticism]] and [[UsefulNotes/CarlJung Jungian]] psychology; and an atmosphere which was remarkably {{Anime}}-like for its time, leading to the game's infamous hour-long cutscenes, and its TroubledProduction that resulted in the game's rushed state.

** While 99 percent of what the game says about Dissociative Identity Disorder ranges from FairForItsDay (the now outdated computer analogy, avoiding switch triggers as care) to absolutely untrue (no, Citan, it is ''not'' schizophrenia and bipolar, those are two separate problems) to UnfortunateImplications of InsaneEqualsViolent stereotyping of TheMentallyDisturbed - it does have a few things correct: DID *is* indeed caused by childhood trauma and what Fei went through is ''more'' than enough to initiate it, and while Id is an ''[[InsaneEqualsViolent extreme stereotype of it]]'' and IRL systems are generally not violent toward others, systems ''can'' have alters that can engage in destructive, harmful, or even suicidal behavior out of feeling it is "protective" or because they're too immature to not have BlackAndWhiteMorality.