History YMMV / XenoSaga

* FoeYay:

** The concept of the U-Do, itself: [[spoiler: An alien being (he's actually God, sent into the Heroes' realm as a child and later, a flying Ark) that spies on the whole of humanity, even though he does it for scientific reasons more than anything.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: Thsi game has plenty of them. [[spoiler: Kevin outdoes them all, however.]]

* LesYay: Shion and KOS-MOS (it doesn't help that the latter is a RobotGirl with the combat capabilities of a battleship... though it [[YourMileageMayVary doesn't hurt it either]].)

** The concept of the CosmicHorror, U-Do, itself: [[spoiler: An alien being (he's actually God, sent into the Heroes' realm as a child and later, a flying Ark) that spies on the whole of humanity, even though he does it for scientific reasons more than anything.]]

* FetishFuelStationAttendant: Albedo, for those who like a WickedCultured EvilAlbino, a WhiteHairedPrettyBoy {{Bishonen}}, and an EvilGenius, who likes kidnapping and [[{{Lolicon}} harming/mind raping pre-teen looking girl robots]] [[{{Twincest}} and hitting on]] [[HoYay his brother]], [[FoeYay who is also his enemy]], [[DepravedBisexual who also]] [[{{Shotacon}} looks like he is 12 years old]], and later is a ManInWhite all rolled into one.

* MoralEventHorizon: While it has been trampled to bits by the many villians of the series, the most obvious and earliest example takes place for the character Virgil. When you meet him in the first game, he hates Realians with a passion and has even ''eaten'' their flesh in the past. He crosses the Horizon when he decides, in order to protect himself from an oncoming swarm of Gnosis, to input the Override code into some nearby Realians and then ''self destructs them.''

* CompleteMonster: there's no denying that Voyager and Dmitri Yuriev belong somewhere near the top of the list.

* FanDisservice: Albedo plays EvilIsSexy to the hilt...usually for the benefit of [[{{Lolicon}} preteen-looking]] [[ArtificialHuman Realians]] and [[{{Twincest}} his own brother]], all while crossing one MoralEventHorizon after another. In a sillier example, in the latter two games, everyone, not just the more-or-less humans, gets an optional [[BeachEpisode swimsuit]]. Including [[HollywoodCyborg Ziggy]]. It's an unflattering Speedo and ridiculous man-bra of a rebreather harness. In purple. With swim fins. Less justifiably, some gamers, apparently fearful of {{WardrobeMalfunction}}s, would list Jin's fundoshi as well. Allen's 50's style single piece swimsuit could almost count, and there's chaos'...bulge in the first game, though YourMileageMayVary. He lost it in the subsequent games, thankfully.

* FridgeBrilliance: Jr.'s best weapon in I was the Blood M9, which becomes his first weapon in III because there is no equipment changing in II.

* MemeticMutation: You will not be able to hang around Xenosaga forums or watch Xenosaga videos for very long without hearing "SHION. MY APPEARANCE IS DOWN 5%. I NEED TO BE CLEANED." You just won't.

* NightmareFuel: The infamous MindRape scene between [[spoiler: MOMO and Albedo]] definitely counts. Also, the 27 Series Asura Realians themselves count, but go over the top when [[spoiler: they kill Shion's parents right in front of her eyes when she was a child.]] And then there's the concept of the CosmicHorror, U-Do, itself: [[spoiler: An alien being (he's actually God, sent into the Heroes' realm as a child and later, a flying Ark) that spies on the whole of humanity, even though he does it for scientific reasons more than anything.]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The infamous MindRape scene between [[spoiler: MOMO and Albedo]] definitely counts. Also, the 27 Series Asura Realians themselves count, but go over the top when [[spoiler: they kill Shion's parents right in front of her eyes when she was a child.]] And then there's the concept of the CosmicHorror, U-Do, itself: [[spoiler: An alien being (he's actually God, sent into the Heroes' realm as a child and later, a flying Ark) that spies on the whole of humanity, even though he does it for scientific reasons more than anything.]]

* ContestedSequel: ''Episode II'' to ''Episode I''. Also, VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} in general, in comaprison to VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}.

* ContestedSequel: ''Episode II'' to ''Episode I''. Also, {{Xenosaga}} in general, in comaprison to {{Xenogears}}.

* CompleteMonster: YourMileageMayVary on how many of the villains qualify, but there's no denying that Voyager and Dmitri Yuriev belong somewhere near the top of the list.

* YourMileageMayVary: See StoryToGameplayRatio. Also, the likability of the various characters and their voices.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Albedo is an unquestionably horrifying, sadistic, AxCrazy pedophile who enjoys terrorizing and murdering small robot girls - but he has [[{{Bishonen}} white hair]], so he's probably just misunderstood. May also count as EvillyAffable; he takes AxCrazy and sadomasochism to new heights but ''god'', he does it with such [[LargeHam hamminess]].

* MemeticMolester: Albedo is [[{{Understatement}} a little]] ''too'' fond with MOMO and Jr.

* MissedMomentofAwesome: 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.]]

* FetishFuelStationAttendant: Albedo, for those who like a WickedCultured EvilAlbino, a WhiteHairedPrettyBoy {{Bishonen}}, and an EvilGenius, who likes kidnapping and [[{{Lolicon}} harming/mind raping pre-teen looking girl robots]] [[{{Twincest}} and]] [[IncestYay hitting on]] [[HoYay his brother]], [[FoeYay who is also his enemy]], [[DepravedBisexual who also]] [[{{Shotacon}} looks like he is 12 years old]], and later is a ManInWhite all rolled into one.

** Xenosaga III tends to be filled with these. Jr. and Shion can essentially become invincible for a couple of turns via Phantom Fly, a Master Skill that allows them to evade essentially every attack in the game. While it is normally tempered by an absurdly high EP cost, there's an accessory that you can get with a relatively easy sidequest near the end of the game that reduces SP cost to 1. Add the two together, and you get either Jr. who can support with the best of them, or Shion, who can inflict reasonable damage, break, and heal.

* AdaptationDecay / [[AdaptationDistillation Distillation]]: ''[[AnimatedAdaptation Xenosaga: The Animation]]'' simultaneously improved upon ''and'' denigrated its source material. While Jin and Pellegri's history was fleshed out two whole years before their full story was explored in ''Episode III'', Cherenkov's entire storyline was cut out and Cherenkov himself literally [[DroppedABridgeOnHim had a Gnosis dropped on him]] and has Virgil take his place [[spoiler:only to die anyway]]. Then again, what do you expect when you try to condense over 30 hours of already dense plot (plus elements from the first 3 hours of the second game) into 6 hours?

* {{Narm}}:
** The spatial anomaly that strikes terror into the hearts of people across the galaxy, U-DO. Rhymes with "Poodoo". Even less scary when you get [[HeyItsThatVoice a notably deep-voiced character]] to drawl the name for about five seconds in the grimmest tone imaginable.
** "My name is RICHARD! Let that name burn into your mind as you die!"
** Albedo's made some non-sequitur-y non-sequiturs, but "Didn't [=McCartney=] say that, too? ''Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony.''" takes the cake.
** And then there's the Elsa, which, when put on "OVERBOOST" (Which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in that it makes you go faster), it takes the form of the Knight of the Swan, you know, from Wagner, the composer. Justified in that the Elsa is a [[IncrediblyLamePun Lohengrin]] Class cruiser.
** Hakox may be the best example in the series. [[NarmCharm Horribly addicting just to]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential let your characters fall and listen to their incredulous screams over and over again.]]
** [[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]] on this one, but when Allen makes his speech to Shion to stop her [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turn]]]] in Episode III. It's supposed to be incredibly [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming]]...up until you notice how blatant it is that the voice-acting doesn't match up to the lip movements AT ALL when it shows his face up close.