History YMMV / Xenogears

** Most jarringly, if ironically easy to miss, the Ethos is structured like and has symbols similar to those of Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, with confessionals, cross-like shapes, and bishops. In its ''theology,'' however, it is completely lacking a historical Messiah figure and due to that has more in common with Judaism or Islam, ''doctrinally'' speaking, than with Christianity, meaning all those crosses, [[NunsNRosaries habit-wearing nuns]], [[ChristianityIsCatholic cassock-wearing priests]], and hierarchical/practical similarities to the world's largest Christian church are misplaced, sometimes severely. The most blatant of these [[CrystalDragonJesus loosely-Christian]] references is a scene with three crosses on a hill with a name very similar to "Golgotha", the Hebrew name for the hill where Jesus was crucified; but even the most Messiah-like figure in the game (from a Gnostic-type religion, not from Ethos) didn't die by Crucifixion or anything remotely ''like'' it.

* EvilIsSexy: Miang. Good lord, Miang.

** At the end of Fei and Bart's fight with Ramsus, Margie summons a horde of rats to "cover" their escape. It works but it never happens again, and nobody except for Ramsus comments on the randomness of Margie summoning the castle's rats to let her escape, which made it feel like it just kinda comes out of no where.
** Several, but the most notable comes in Shevat. [[spoiler:Maria learns that her father is all but dead and is confronting the fact that she will have to fight his last creation, which speaks with his voice. Then Chu-Chu shows up, inflates to gear size and engages in a scripted battle that is impossible to lose, managing to provide neither challenging gameplay nor story development.]]

* LesYay:
** [[QuirkyMinibossSquad The Elements.]] In particular, Tolone and Seraphita are ''never'' seen outside each other's company.
** Miang admiring Elly's [[WhatBeautifulEyes beautiful eyes]] before hypnotizing her has been noticed by the fandom.

** Ramsus's intense anger at the other Elements having abandoned him, as well as their intense admiration of him in the past, is implied to be due to more than just friendship or respect for a VisionaryVillain. It's intensified by WordOfSaintPaul [[AllThereInTheManual manga]] from the main writer which strongly imply Ramsus and Sigurd to have once been an outright couple when they were in Jugend.

** ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' are NOT the same franchise. While it's true that they share creators, {{Mythology Gag}}s, and many highly similar narrative elements due to the fact that the latter series are explicitly {{Creator Driven Successor}}s of the first, and were written in such a way that many of them could have plausibly lead to story beats in one of the other franchises, they are separate [=IPs=], owned by three separate companies (Creator/SquareEnix, Creator/BandaiNamco, and Creator/{{Nintendo}} respectively), with three separate narratives and continuities that generally[[note]]KOS-MOS makes a cameo in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' with backstory information implying that Shion and Allen also exist in that game's universe alongside her, but it is unclear how canon this is.[[/note]] do not cross over with each other (a bit like the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock'' franchises, for instance). Even if they could be in the same setting, the fact each series is owned by a different company makes it very unlikely to be true, ''Xenogears'' especially because it was made before ''Monolith Soft'' became a thing, hence why the title only appears in ''Square Enix'' owned media. This is not helped by the fact that fans of Monolith's work tend to refer to the games collectively as the ''Xeno'' franchise for the sake of brevity, which can be misleading for casual observers and newcomers. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed'' may have changed this though, thanks to a cutscene prior to that game's FinalBoss fight.]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' are NOT the same franchise. While it's true that they share creators, {{Mythology Gag}}s, and many highly similar narrative elements due to the fact that the latter series are explicitly {{Creator Driven Successor}}s of the first, and were written in such a way that many of them could have plausibly lead to story beats in one of the other franchises, they are separate [=IPs=], owned by three separate companies (Creator/SquareEnix, Creator/BandaiNamco, and Creator/{{Nintendo}} respectively), with three separate narratives and continuities that generally[[note]]KOS-MOS makes a cameo in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' with backstory information implying that Shion and Allen also exist in that game's universe alongside her, but it is unclear how canon this is.[[/note]] do not cross over with each other (a bit like the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock'' franchises, for instance). Even if they could be in the same setting, the fact each series is owned by a different company makes it very unlikely to be true, ''Xenogears'' especially because it was made before ''Monolith Soft'' became a thing, hence why the title only appears in ''Square Enix'' owned media. This is not helped by the fact that fans of Monolith's work tend to refer to the games collectively as the ''Xeno'' franchise for the sake of brevity, which can be misleading for casual observers and newcomers.

** "Chu-Chu dies for your sins!"
** "Master, Sir, did you just see my MAD SKILLZ?!"

** ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' are NOT the same franchise. While it's true that they share creators, {{Mythology Gag}}s, and many highly similar narrative elements due to the fact that the latter series are explicitly {{Creator Driven Successor}}s of the first, and were written in such a way that many of them could have plausibly lead to story beats in one of the other franchises, they are separate [=IPs=], owned by three separate companies (Creator/SquareEnix, Creator/BandaiNamco, and Creator/{{Nintendo}} respectively), with three separate narratives and continuities that generally[[note]]KOS-MOS makes a cameo in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' with backstory information implying that Shion and Allen also exist in that game's universe alongside her, but it is unclear how canon this is.[[/note]] do not cross over with each other (a bit like the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock'' franchises, for instance). This is not helped by the fact that fans of Monolith's work tend to refer to the games collectively as the ''Xeno'' franchise for the sake of brevity, which can be misleading for casual observers and newcomers.

* HilariousInHindsight: Id's flowing red hair and pale skin makes him resemble [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Kuja's Trance form]], from yet another Squaresoft RPG.

* HollywoodPsych:
** While a DID system can, theoretically, have a violent defender/persecutor alter (especially under such extreme abuse as that to which the Fei system was subjected, with very little positive guidance and lots of negative guidance), the game's portrayal dips deep into InsaneEqualsViolent territory and stereotype.
** Citan's monologues diagnosing Fei label him as one person with multiple personas (which is not how a DID system works - DID systems are individual personalities within one body/mind), and as being schizophrenic and bipolar - all of which are separate illnesses with very little overlap. While this can be attributed to his canonical expertise being mechanical, not psychological, nothing is ever presented with anyone calling him out on it or questioning it.
** Fei's "fusion into one" that's presented as his victory over Id and himself, actually would qualify as ''retraumatization,'' and likely would leave him at best not on any good path to recovery without better help once the pressure forcing the system to work together or die ended.