| 1 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/812fbe6c5760bf95aa90b6caa5103143.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:300:''Stand Tall and Shake the Heavens''.[[note]] From left to right: [[BadassPreacher Billy Lee Black]], [[TheBigGuy Ricardo "Rico" Banderas]], [[ArtificialHuman Emeralda]], [[MentorArchetype Citan Uzuki]], [[LadyofBlackMagic Elhaym "Elly" Van Houten]], [[TheChosenOne Fei Fong Wong]], [[NobleFugitive Bartholomew "Bart" Fatima]], [[PluckyGirl Marguerite "Margie" Fatima]], [[TeamPet Chu-Chu]], [[TeenGenius Maria Balthasar]].[[/note]]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"I am Alpha and Omega,\ |
| 5 | The beginning and the end,\ |
| 6 | The first and the last."'' |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ''Xenogears'' was released by [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] in 1998, and is probably their best-known Platform/PlayStation game that doesn't bear the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' name. 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. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The world of Ignas is dealing with a war 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 with a case of amnesia after having been dropped off by a masked man. 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 the 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. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The game was concived and co-written by [[CreatorCouple husband and wife developers]] Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga, with Takahashi also directing the game. The script was written by Masato Kato (''[[VideoGame/NinjaGaidenNES Ninja Gaiden]]'', ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''), featured a musical score written by Creator/YasunoriMitsuda and featured animation [=FMVs=] by Creator/BeeTrain, Creator/ProductionIG, and Omnibus Studio. After production wrapped, Takahashi would leave Square and go onto establish Creator/MonolithSoft studio. Interestingly enough, the game's creators have stated that in its [[DivorcedInstallment early development stages]], ''Xenogears'' was initially pitched 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}}'' (which Saga also worked on) and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', all of which draw inspiration from this game - with ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' in particular, as well as their respective expansions ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2TornaTheGoldenCountry Torna ~ The Golden Country]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed Future Redeemed]]'' recycling many plot points and concepts originally seen in ''Xenogears''. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Now up on the [=PS3's=] Platform/PlayStationNetwork. The ''[[http://www.flickr.com/photos/29956195@N08/sets/72157616593453778/ Perfect Works]]'' has also been translated (almost entirely) into English. |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Tropes used in ''Xenogears'': |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[folder:A-H]] |
| 22 | * AbortedArc: Pretty much every character who joins the party after Bart (essentially everyone not named Fei, Elly, Citan, and Bart) has their attendant subplot reduced to a footnote or outright forgotten after the portion of the game in which you recruit them. Most egregiously, Rico has absolutely no significance after his moment of fame in Kislev; as [[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Works]] notes, there was originally going to be a plot going into detail about [[spoiler:[[LukeIAmYourFather Sigmund being his father]]; in the game itself, Hammer simply mentions this twist and it stops being important]]. |
| 23 | * AbusiveParents: Karen and Khan Wong: [[spoiler:Karen was possessed by an ancient spirit and began to conduct horrific experiments on her son, Fei, upon learning he was [[TheChosenOne the Contact]], and Khan was just negligent and didn't believe Fei when he told him, then years later stalked and psychologically tormented Fei under both the guise of the Wiseman and unwittingly as Grahf, though he did it as a StealthMentor in both cases]]. |
| 24 | * AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: In a relative sense, when it comes to Elly and learning all her deathblows. The infinite combos for your gears become available based on level, and the X Button combos do not unlock until level 60-ish. While you probably will reach that level by the end game, it takes a lot of deliberate grinding to get Elly that high before she permanently leaves the party. |
| 25 | * AccidentalMisnaming: Krelian calls Fei [[spoiler:Lacan]], while Ramsus only acknowledges him as [[spoiler:Id, the Demon of Elru]] for the majority of the game, and Emeralda calls him [[spoiler:Kim]] until she [[PlotRelevantAgeUp grows up]]. Citan, meanwhile, is always [[spoiler:"Hyuga," his Solarian name,]] to all of his former [[spoiler:Gebler comrades]]. |
| 26 | * AceCustom: The most powerful normal Gears are these. Among the heroes' models, Heimdal, Brigandier, Stier and probably Renmazuo come to mind; the others are mainly LostTechnology. |
| 27 | * AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Shevat and Solaris. |
| 28 | * AerithAndBob: Sophia, Maria, Billy, and Stone, meet Krelian, Seraphita, and Lacan. Elly van Houten is this trope by herself, as she has a normal Dutch name, but it's short for the very weird Elhaym rather than the more common Ellen. Fei Fong Wong's name is a zigzagging of this trope: it's not a normal name for a Western or Japanese audience, but is an actual name in China. |
| 29 | * AfterTheEnd: |
| 30 | ** Zeboim was a civilization with technology analogous to our world TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. [[spoiler:Miang and Cain]] engineered its destruction because of the lifespan-shortening genetic damage of its population. Nearly all the Gears excavated from the ruins of the world originated in the Zeboim era, and most of the remains have fallen deep into the ocean. |
| 31 | ** Five hundred years ago, [[spoiler: Grahf unleashed the Diabolos to reset the world]]. |
| 32 | * AkashicRecords: |
| 33 | ** Razael's Tree, the mainframe computer located in Mahanon. [[spoiler:You can see the two golden computer monoliths on the Eldridge in the opening FMV. One of the the bridge operators even says "Alpha 1 to Razael Central".]] |
| 34 | ** Those save points look [[LeaningontheFourthWall awfully familiar]], don't they? |
| 35 | * AllLoveIsUnrequited: |
| 36 | ** This is a big part of Krelian's backstory: [[spoiler:the man lost his shit when Sophia sacrificed herself. He loved her, she was in love with Lacan instead, and at the time, Krelian had no idea the two were effectively destined to be together. 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 TheChessmaster in attempt to "create" God. |
| 37 | ** Dominia also loves Ramsus, but he's so wrapped up in his own issues that he can't see it. Citan and Jessie set him straight by the end of the game, though. |
| 38 | * AllThereInTheManual: All there in the Japanese-only "Perfect Works"-- otherwise, good luck in understanding the whole thing, though there are fan-translated scans available online. |
| 39 | * AlternateCharacterReading: Remember terms within -dashes-? Well, in the Japanese version, these dashes were <pointy brackets>. You see, Xenogears' text system did not really support Furigana like, for example, Xenosaga's did, and so used one term without brackets to show what the character saying this term is meaning, while using the brackets to designate how they were supposed to be spoken. Like so: ''Stand back, Surface Dweller<Lamb>''. In keeping with traditional English syntax, the best way to designate this in the US version could have been something like this: ''Stand back, Lamb(Surface Dweller)''. Unfortunately, the translator either did not know this or, more likely, thought it would look ugly, and thus let the characters use both terms most of the time, putting the furigana term -in dashes-. This leads to some oddities, though, such as Fei not getting what Elly means when using the term lamb, even though he must have gotten from the syntax that she was referring to "surface dwellers" (and thus would have to ask a completely different question). Furthermore, some stuff got lost or confused, such as the term ''Time(Reversal) of the Gospel'', which was rendered ''-time- of the -gospel-'' In the English version. Much subtext is lost or changed this way... |
| 40 | * AmbidextrousSprite: Bart and Sigurd both have two separate character portraits to ensure that their [[EyepatchOfPower eyepatches]] always cover the correct eyes. |
| 41 | * AmbiguouslyGay: Sigurd. He shows no interest in women, unlike many of the other male characters, and falls well into the "confirmed bachelor" trope. In prequel manga created by one of the game's creators, the ambiguity is gone - he's implied to have been Ramsus's lover. |
| 42 | * AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler:First, [[GodofEvil Deus]] spawned the human race to repair the damage it sustained and Miang is its primary agent across human history to ensure humanity grows the right way. Secondly, [[TheOmniscientCouncilofVagueness Cain and the Gazel Ministry]] create Solaris to control and direct the surface dwellers. Third, [[MagnificentBastard Krelian]] wants to manipulate all of the latter to achieve his own ends and travel [[AscendtoaHigherPlaneofExistence the Path of Sephirot]]. Finally, the Zohar itself wants to use the -Contact-, in this case Fei, to destroy Deus and free itself.]] |
| 43 | * ANaziByAnyOtherName: TheEmpire of Solaris are 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. |
| 44 | * AndManGrewProud: The rise and fall of Zeboim, or [[spoiler:how Miang fixes her mistakes]]. |
| 45 | * AndThisIsFor: When Fei is faced with Dan at the tournament, Dan immediately assaults Fei with attacks for avenging everyone who Fei accidentally killed during the prologue. |
| 46 | * ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:A Class 2 occurs by the end of the game. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], Miang induces these at regular intervals. Also, before the start of the game, there was the interstellar war that Deus was built for. It is unclear how destructive it was, possibly ranging from Class 0 to almost Class 3.]] |
| 47 | * ArchaeologicalArmsRace: Most of the best Gears used in the war between Aveh and Kislev are dug up relics from previous wars, not newly manufactured. This naturally leads to conflicts over the best salvage sites. |
| 48 | * ArcWords: Most of the terms within [[AlternateCharacterReading -dashes-]]. For example, -Time of the Gospel- isn't explained until disc 2/Perfect Works despite being used sporadically throughout disc 1 by Solaris officials. |
| 49 | * ArtificialAnimalPeople: The [[BeastMan Demihumans]] are revealed to be the result of humanity messing with {{Nanomachines}} in the past after Bishop Stone collects the nanomechanical colony [[RobotGirl Emeralda]] in the Zeboim ruins. |
| 50 | * ArtificialHuman: Emeralda, and also [[spoiler:Ramsus]], and even [[spoiler:the whole of humankind]]. |
| 51 | * 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 up to eleven, like "[[AWizardDidIt The Wave Existence did it]]". |
| 52 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: The night before the attack on Aveh, Bart and Sigurd are having a nighttime chat on their ship which is bobbing up and down. The problem is, it's a sandship and it's not moving, so it shouldn't be bobbing as if it were in water. |
| 53 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: As part of the deeply poignant ending, [[spoiler:Krelian ascends into Heaven with the Wave Existence to live in a world without death or loss.]] |
| 54 | * AssistCharacter: |
| 55 | ** Margie assists Bart once during the game. |
| 56 | ** Miang assists Ramsus every time he fights the player, until she becomes a boss herself. |
| 57 | ** In a sense with Big Joe during your fight with him in the tournament. He gets stat boosts from the fans cheering for him. They also damage you by throwing debris at you from the stands. |
| 58 | * 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. |
| 59 | * BadassArmfold: Alpha Weltall ''never'' leaves this pose, not even when it's [[HopelessBossFight kicking your ass]] [[spoiler: or saving Elly's life]]. Bonus points for performing it atop a Gear-sized rock and in front of an enormous red moon so as to look [[RuleOfCool as awesome as possible.]] |
| 60 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: Fei and Elly are the only characters with completely naked sprites, but you never see any pixel junk. |
| 61 | * BareFistedMonk: Several party members but Fei is the best example. |
| 62 | * BeamSpam: Grahf's signature attack in midair. Doubles as foreshadowing: [[spoiler: guess who learns a midair BeamSpam deathblow late in the game? Grahf's descendant.]] |
| 63 | * BeePeople: Solaris is intentionally structured like this, with the "worker bees" living in the dregs, and the nobles living in a maze of shopping malls and indoor suburbs. The lower-class citizens bunk in beehive-shaped living quarters, with each hexagon comprising a single unit. These hexagons are also detachable via cranes. |
| 64 | * BecauseDestinySaysSo: While the main character is a bona fide ChosenOne, it could be argued that the entire story of the game is a cosmic, magnificent GambitRoulette perpetrated by one of the central villains in an effort to first fulfill the [[BecauseDestinySaysSo destiny of the universe]] and then [[ScrewDestiny subvert it]] so that he can have his cake and eat it too. |
| 65 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: |
| 66 | ** Elly, who upon seeing [[spoiler: her father be killed in Solaris]], [[CutscenePowerToTheMax briefly manifests more of her powers than she should be able to]] (since she [[spoiler: hasn't accessed all her genetic memories yet.)]] The villains who provoke this reaction are still so much more powerful than her at the time that it doesn't help, but it does show she will become someone [[SuperPowerMeltdown that you really shouldn't mess with.]] |
| 67 | ** There's also a sketch in the Perfect Works of Margie showing off a stash of concealed weaponry hidden under her cloak. |
| 68 | ** Fei. One on the nicest fellow you will ever meet, he is also [[spoiler: the [[PhysicalGod most powerfull being]] this side of the Wave Existence]]: if you get on his [[spoiler:literal]] bad side [[spoiler: [[DisproportionateRetribution Genocide]] ''will'' ensue]] |
| 69 | * 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 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.]] |
| 70 | * BigBrotherIsWatching: [[spoiler: The Gazel Ministry keeps track of your movements through the game's OhCrap save points, which in the story save one's genetic information.]] |
| 71 | * BiggerStick: The one time that Ramsus clearly beats Fei, it's after [[spoiler: he's received an Omnigear. Before the development of Weltall-2 and System-Id, Fei has no answer to that kind of power]]. |
| 72 | * BlandNameProduct: Bartweiser. |
| 73 | * BlindIdiotTranslation: There are many errors in the translation script, but considering that the translator was all alone on this project (after other translators actually quit or begged to be reassigned to another project), had a VERY tight deadline and even had to do some coding himself, this is forgivable. You certainly cannot say he lacked dedication either -- the man took to sleeping in his bureau in order to get the game done! |
| 74 | * BloodKnight: Id. When he shows up, asses get kicked. |
| 75 | * BodyHorror: [[spoiler:When humans start reverting to their true state: the Wels, a.k.a. body parts for Deus.]] |
| 76 | * BodySurf: Grahf and [[spoiler: Miang]] have existed like this [[spoiler: for 500 and 10000 years, respectively.]] |
| 77 | * BossInMookClothing: The Bloody Bros., reincarnations of Redrum, who appear as normal enemies in Solaris. And you have to fight ''two at once''! Thankfully they're rare. |
| 78 | * BreakTheCutie: Elly, who gets to see[[spoiler: her parents get killed]], and then watch [[spoiler: as her entire civilization is destroyed]]. Not to mention immediately afterward that she learns that [[spoiler:Fei is Id]]. This leads a brief HeroicBSOD. |
| 79 | * BridalCarry: In Kislev, Fei carries Elly in this fashion. More accurately, Fei in Weltall carries Elly in Vierge in this fashion. |
| 80 | * BridgeBunnies: In the opening movie. |
| 81 | * BrokenAce: Big Joe may not look like much, but he is in fact an award-winning actor, Pulitzer Prize winner and star athlete who took home trophies from the NBA, MLB Triple Crown, Wimbledon Grandslam and WWE Championship. At one of his numerous prize ceremonies, he fell over, [[DeathByFallingOver got brain damage]] and was later locked in a nanoreactor and placed in [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] before Zeboim fell. He woke up 4000 years later, the unstoppable blue suede juggernaut that he is today. |
| 82 | * BrokenAesop: You learn relatively early on in the game that the drug, "Drive" is bad and makes you kill people. After an IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with a drugged Elly, Fei says something to the effect that she shouldn't do drugs. Later in the game, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation you'll find and be able to purchase drive to increase your stats, with no ill effect.]] |
| 83 | * BrokenBridge: A mix of this and NPCRoadblock is lampshaded to hilarious effect. |
| 84 | -->'''Bart:''' That Margie! Leaving a stuffed animal in a place like this! Because of this, we can't get into the bridge. |
| 85 | * CainAndAbel: Yeah. |
| 86 | * TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: So, so very much, Fei. |
| 87 | * TheCameo: |
| 88 | ** Lucca from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' appears near the beginning to explain part of the game engine. |
| 89 | ** Tifa from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' appears on a poster in Etrenank. |
| 90 | * CataclysmBackstory: Zeboim, an ancient civilization that blew itself up through nuclear war. A good deal of its technology was lost. [[spoiler: It's also revealed that another incarnation of Fei and Elly were here, when they created Emeralda.]] |
| 91 | * CharacterFilibuster: The true climax of the game is [[spoiler:Fei and Krelian's debate and what's better, a life free of pain but also bereft of individualism or a life of suffering but with people you love and care about.]] |
| 92 | %% ZCE * CharacterPortrait |
| 93 | * ChekhovsGun: You think that there might be a badass story about how Bart and Sigurd lost their eye? Nope, turns out it was caused by a mechanical accident on the Yggdrasil. However, their eyes do play a bigger role in a future event. |
| 94 | ** The Administrative District of Nortune looks suspiciously like an advanced battleship. [[spoiler:Not only is that true, but it forms the body of the single largest gear in the world, Yggdrasil IV.]] |
| 95 | * TheChessmaster: Krelian and Miang. |
| 96 | * TheChosenOne: Fei Fong Wong is [[spoiler:the slayer of god and the Contact]]. |
| 97 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Big Joe. He was once a famous boxer from Zeboim until he got hit on the head and [[NapoleonDelusion started thinking he was Elvis]], yes ''that'' Elvis. He then got locked in a cryogenic chamber and emerged 4,000 years later and began wandering the planet generally making a wonderful ass of himself. Eventually, [[spoiler:once the world goes to shit]], he ends up back down in the ruins of Zeboim as a merchant selling the best Gear equipment in the game. |
| 98 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Lacan and Sophia meet as children and had feelings for each other by that point. They separate and don't meet again for almost 10 years, but they right away resume their feelings for each other. |
| 99 | * CrucifiedHeroShot: To draw out Elly later in the game, the villains capture the heroes and crucifie them in their Gears. |
| 100 | * CrutchCharacter: Bart. He's useful for most of the first disc, [[spoiler: and is the first to get his Infinity Plus One Gear, which has abnormally high HP for that point in the game]]. But towards the end of the game there's not much he can do that somebody else can't do better. |
| 101 | * CrypticConversation: Half of the game's dialogue. [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness The Gazel Ministry]] to the point of hilarity. |
| 102 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 103 | ** Weltall[[spoiler:-ID- dismembers Ramsus's Wyvern then drops the Yggdrasil on Bart]]. |
| 104 | ** Ramsus [[spoiler:shows up out of fucking nowhere in Vendetta and tears Weltall limb-from-limb at the end of Disc One]]. |
| 105 | ** Fei [[spoiler:pays him back at the start of Disc Two]]. |
| 106 | ** [[spoiler: Elly]] gets mauled by a pair of [[spoiler: Krelian's -Wel-]] Gears and that's virtually the last that's seen of her for the rest of the game. |
| 107 | ** Grahf shows up and beats the shit out the party aboard the Goliath. For emphasis, ''he's on foot'' and your party members are all in Gears, and even then, the only thing keeping him from being a nightmare of a boss fight is that [[spoiler:he won't attack Elly, and actually forfeits once she's the only one left standing]]. He only "loses" because Citan and Hammer literally drop him off the Goliath, than shoot him out of the sky at basically point-blank range. |
| 108 | ** When Grahf ''does'' fight you in his Gear, it's a HopelessBossFight. Although it is possible to win the battle by making use of certain equipment for your gear and spamming the hell out of him with accuracy-lowering status afflictions, for which you are rewarded with a rare item. But nonetheless, his Gear is still standing upon his "defeat" and the scene following the battle is the same as it would be if you were defeated. |
| 109 | *** Later, [[spoiler:once Weltall-2 gets upgraded to Xenogears, Fei pays him back with interest]]. |
| 110 | ** Oh, and that piss-poor [[PostFinalBoss final boss Ouroburous]] that pretty much is no challenge at all? [[spoiler: That's ''Miang'']]. Feel better about that battle now? |
| 111 | * CutscenePowerToTheMax: Gears can fly. FLY. But apparently something happened that rendered their flight systems out of commission when they got to the "Tower of Babel" Arc. |
| 112 | * CuteBruiser: Maria. Useless on foot, but an unstoppable monster in her Gear. |
| 113 | * DarkerAndEdgier: In keeping with Square's "dark years" of the late [[TheNineties 90s]], following on the heels of games like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' and ''VideoGame/BushidoBlade''. In fact, part of the reason ''Xenogears'' wasn't a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game itself is because the plot was determined to be too dark for a mainline ''FF'' title. |
| 114 | * DarkestHour: Most of disc 2 is based around the various plot threads finally coming to fruition, and quickly becomes intensely dark and serious, with the narrative making it clear how seriously bad things are. Notably, over 90% of humanity perishes in this section of the game. |
| 115 | * DeepCoverAgent: |
| 116 | ** ''An entire religion of them in the Ethos,'' who pretend to be a SaintlyChurch interested in discovering the history of the world and progressing it culturally and scientifically. [[spoiler: they're an observation and resource extraction group for Solaris. Worse, it turns out that they were considering splintering off to rule the world]]. |
| 117 | ** [[spoiler: Citan]], who is actually one of the highest-placed individuals in Solaris. |
| 118 | * DefeatingTheUndefeatable: |
| 119 | ** The premise of the game is to [[spoiler: kill "God"]]. Though it turns out [[spoiler:to be a physical false god that's simply trapping the benevolent metaphysical god in the material universe.]] It's still pretty damn tough though. |
| 120 | ** An in-battle example is Alpha Weltall at Mahanon. It is defeatable, but the deck is so stacked against you that the game continues on as if you lost. It is the only winnable scripted battle in the entire game. |
| 121 | ** It is also possible to defeat Rico, but probably only with gameshark cheats, whereas it was possible to defeat Alpha Weltall without gameshark cheats. The game still continues as if you had lost though. |
| 122 | * DefeatMeansPlayable: |
| 123 | ** The game does this often. 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. |
| 124 | ** [[spoiler: The character Id]] is fought as a boss too, but since he's actually [[spoiler:Fei]], [[spoiler:defeating him just means you get control over Fei back]]. |
| 125 | ** You also have to defeat the Xenogears before you get to control it. |
| 126 | * DefectingForLove: |
| 127 | ** Elly. She starts the game on the side of the enemy, but soon becomes a vital part of Fei's team. [[spoiler: And yes, they do [[WillTheyOrWontThey eventually kiss. And have sex.]]]] Then again, [[spoiler: they have been lovers for one hundred effing centuries: Their current incarnations are implied to be the first to live happily instead of, you know, getting murdered by the AncientConspiracy.]] |
| 128 | ** [[spoiler: Citan]], for Yui in the backstory, possibly for Fei in the main story, although that can be taken more platonically depending on your read of their friendship. |
| 129 | ** Sigurd, though for platonic reasons, defected from Solaris in the past to return to Bartz. |
| 130 | * DefiantStoneThrow: Targeting Fei, in favor of a wrestler. |
| 131 | * DegradedBoss: Redrum, whom you encounter in the sewers of Kislev, is widely considered ThatOneBoss. Later, a PaletteSwap of him called Bloody is encountered on the Wels ship as a miniboss, and in Solaris, two of them, called Bloody Brothers, can be fought at once in random encounters. All iterations have similar same stats and get progressively easier to fight. |
| 132 | * DepopulationBomb: A combination of [[spoiler:the Limiter Release, the turning of the Gaetia Key, and Deus's reactivation turns approximately 90% of the populations into -Wels-, then ultimately into either Seraphs or just [[GreyGoo spare parts for Deus]]. This is the in-game reason why almost all the locations you visited on disc 1 are inaccessible on disc 2 - ''every single person that you met there is dead.'' Only the wreckage of Shevat and Nortune are inhabited - the former by the only humans on the planet even ''trying'' to survive, as the latter contains only nihilistic gladiators whaling on each other in the arena.]] |
| 133 | * DemotedToExtra: By the time Disc Two rolls around, Fei, Elly, Citan and Bart are the only playable characters who are really important to the plot anymore. By that point in the game, the ''villains'' get more dialogue than most party members. |
| 134 | * DestroyerDeity: Deus. Gains power and strength by assimilating its parts in GreyGoo fashion, is worshipped and treated as God by most of the population that it created, and is a literal DoomsdayDevice, being an interplanetary weapons system. |
| 135 | * DetonationMoon: Fei's Big Bang spell |
| 136 | * DeusEstMachina: It's even ''named'' Deus. Played a little more straight than usual; [[spoiler: Deus actually is the creator "god" of humanity, though not "God" as is usually understood.]] |
| 137 | * DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Some of Lahan's citizens like Timothy, Alice, and the village chief who serves as Fei's adopted father, are given a good degree of characterization that leads you to believe they'll be more important, with implications that there may even be a LoveTriangle between Fei and the former two that threatens to cause drama for the upcoming wedding. They don't survive past the first hour of the game. |
| 138 | * DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Fei kills God. ''Twice.'' The first time is in the cargo hold of the USS Eldridge, where the remains of the original Deus are found; the second time is the resurrected Deus, which serves as the game's FinalBoss.]] |
| 139 | * DieselPunk: Look at Kislev's slums. |
| 140 | * DisasterDemocracy: [[spoiler: When the world is reduced to about a few thousand people at the end of the game, they hide in the arctic circle and band together to survive.]] |
| 141 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: Grahf and the "Executioner" ([[spoiler:Miang]]) are the last ''playable'' bosses on Disc One, but [[StoryToGameplayRatio the disc goes on for at least another hour after that]] and culminates in an unplayable CurbStompBattle between Weltall and [[spoiler:Ramsus's new Omnigear Vendetta]]. |
| 142 | * DiscOneFinalDungeon: Solaris. |
| 143 | * DiscOneNuke: Elly's Aerods with an Ether Doubler equipped. Mass destruction. Or if you do not want to use fuel, her normal spells with an Ether Doubler can achieve lesser but still broken results. |
| 144 | * DoomedHometown: |
| 145 | ** Fei's hometown of Lahan gets razed, and almost all of his friends get [[EveryBodysDeadDave killed off in horrible fashion]]. The player can't even return to the burnt out remains on the map. |
| 146 | ** Happens again mid-way through the game with Elly when [[spoiler:Id tears Solaris a new one]]. |
| 147 | * DoomsdayDevice: |
| 148 | ** The Gaetia Key/Goetia Key. Its activation causes an effective ZombieApocalypse by mutating most of the planet's existing humans into -wels-. |
| 149 | ** Combined with DestroyerDeity for Deus. Had Elly ''not'' gotten it out of the planet's atmosphere, the result would have been what little of humanity and the non-terraformed planet was left being consumed in a massive nuclear detonation. |
| 150 | * DramaticEllipsis: '''''All over the place.''''' The worst offenders would have to be Citan and the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Gazel Ministry]], though. Almost every panel of their dialogue uses it. |
| 151 | * DramaticHighPerching: Grahf makes himself appear in front of Fei by standing on top of a peak at the desert. |
| 152 | * TheDulcineaEffect: ''Twice.'' Within 30 minutes of each other, no less. Though there ''is'' a good reason for that... |
| 153 | * DysfunctionJunction: One of the primary early examples of DysfunctionJunction: The JRPG. |
| 154 | * EarlyBirdCameo: |
| 155 | ** [[spoiler:Miang's Omnigear Opiomorph is glimpsed in storage in a vat of water (for some reason) deep in the inner workings of Solaris. The ominous music that plays in the background and the fact that Citan gets all creeped out about it instantly tells you that this will not be the last time you're going to be seeing this thing. [[ThatOneBoss And boy howdy, you'd be right about that]].]] [[spoiler:The water was apparently full of nanomachines, as stated by Citan. This comes up again when you actually fight Opiomorph, plot wise. No matter how much damage you inflict on it, the nanomachines will repair it.]] |
| 156 | ** In the opening movie, [[spoiler: [[BigBad Deus]] appears onscreen for about five seconds in silhouette (and again shortly after for less than a second). It takes him upwards of 45 hours to make a proper appearance.]] |
| 157 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: The game ends on a hopeful note despite its crushing [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism cynicism]]. |
| 158 | * EarthIsYoung: Played with. In an inversion of the norm, the official Ethos church doctrine states that humans evolved from apes instead of anything like being created by a higher power. Early on Bart discusses this by commenting on this fact and finds it a bit odd. 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 were from Earth, but they are mostly a separate gene pool from Deus' created humans.]] |
| 159 | * EasyLevelsHardBosses: At least with Gear fights. Random encounters aren't much trouble, but bosses are more difficult. Bosses can outlast your resources. If you aren't careful, you'll run out of fuel, which almost every action consumes some of. Using the "Charge" command can help you regain it, but it'll only restore '''30''' fuel out of literally thousands of your original amount. You can only charge more very late in the game with [[spoiler: Hyper Mode]], and Charger items. |
| 160 | * EldritchAbomination: Deus. It's a biological weapon, that goes from looking almost human like, to passing it well before the final battle. |
| 161 | * TheEmpire: |
| 162 | ** The Sacred Empire of Solaris. |
| 163 | ** Kislev also has some accents of this, at least compared to Aveh (which is more TheGoodKingdom but has been taken over by an EvilChancellor). It looks like a militaristic and industrial nation, Nortune is a rather grim and dirty city (whereas Bledavik is a quite pleasant and lively place), and the nation is ruled by a kaiser, which is a german word for "emperor". On the other hand, it is slightly mitigated by the personality of the current kaiser, who despite other flaws, is extremely lucid about the economic and social cost of war and is more interested in his people's wellbeing than in just conquering Aveh for the sake of it. |
| 164 | * ElvisImpersonator: Joey "Big Joe" Balboa. |
| 165 | * EnigmaticMinion: Miang. [[spoiler:[[HiddenAgendaVillain Do not underestimate her]]]]. |
| 166 | * UsefulNotes/TheEnneagram: Used extensively and [[ShownTheirWork accurately]] for almost all the characters. |
| 167 | * EvilChancellor: Shakhan used to be the prime minister of the old Fatima king (Bart's father) before taking control of Aveh. [[spoiler: It turns out he is just a pawn for Gebler and Solaris, but that just means he is still a chancellor/viceroy and is still evil.]] |
| 168 | * EvilGloating: Grahf loves bragging about killing Fei's father, how sweet his death scream was and the like. [[spoiler:It turns out he's lying, since he didn't kill Khan but [[GrandTheftMe stole his body]], and his control is less than perfect. Anyway he still completely fulfills this trope.]] |
| 169 | * ExpositoryHairstyleChange: A few of them, two notable examples are Krelian's blue hair turning beige after he joined Solaris and Emeralda's hair suddenly shortening after she grows up. |
| 170 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 171 | ** Fei Fong Wong is an homage to mythical Chinese hero Wong Fei Hung, previously played by Jet Li in the ''Once Upon A Time in China'' series and Jackie Chan in the ''Drunken Master'' series. |
| 172 | ** Maison is one for [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Alfred]], [[AllThereInTheManual according to Perfect Works]]. |
| 173 | * EyepatchOfPower: Played, but downplayed, by Bart. Bart is something of a badass in that he's a pirate captain, prince/king, rebel leader, sailor ([[AC:man of the sea!]]), mechanic, and warrior/gear pilot. But he's also shown to have a real soft side and defies most tough guy tropes. Sigurd plays it straight, being essentially a pirate 1st mate and [[spoiler: ex-elite badass from Solaris]]. |
| 174 | * EyesAlwaysShut: Kelvana. It helps her control her ether powers. |
| 175 | * FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Hammer turns on the party because he cannot stand being a {{Muggle}} in the midst of extraordinary people.]] |
| 176 | * FantasticRacism: |
| 177 | ** The people of Solaris view the surface-dwelling humans as -lambs-. In their eyes, the surface people are cattle or tools that need to be used by them to advance their society, with even people sympathetic to them having a degree of entitlement towards them. |
| 178 | ** It's also hinted that demihumans don't have it that great. Life's not easy when you look like a llama. Kislev especially has a negative view of them. |
| 179 | * FatalFamilyPhoto: The ''Eldridge'''s Captain takes a moment to glance at a pocket-watch photo of his wife and child, then blows the ship up. |
| 180 | * FauxActionGirl: Elly is supposed to be one of the elite in Gebler, and beyond that is also [[spoiler: the Messiah]]. You'd think that would count for something, but half of the time she's ''still'' a DamselInDistress. She does manage to be, by far, your most powerful Gear character throughout most of the game, mainly until [[spoiler: she's no longer in your party.]] |
| 181 | * FeminineWomenCanCook: Yui. Not only is she [[LadyOfWar the greatest swordsman in the world,]] but she's also the greatest cook. |
| 182 | * FlashBackEcho: Elly speaks to a mob of wels, offering to sacrifice her body to them in order to ease their pain. In the middle of her speech, the game flashes back to Sophia, [[spoiler: one of her previous incarnations]], saying the same words. |
| 183 | * FloatingContinent: The cities of Shevat and Solaris. Shevat plays this more straight, having been what remained of the nation being made able to fly. |
| 184 | * FloweryElizabethanEnglish: Grahf has a tendency to do this, along with a more general tendency to be a ridiculously LargeHam whenever he makes an appearance. "Dost thou desire the power?" |
| 185 | * ForeverWar: |
| 186 | ** The war between Aveh and Kislev has been going on hundreds of years, and none of the participants remember why it started. By the time it ends though, the protagonists have much bigger problems to deal with. |
| 187 | ** The war between Shevat and Solaris has been going on for well over five-hundred years. Since neither faction can right away strike at the other, both instead make secretive operations against the other, and try to acquire special targets to join their side to make winning easier. The last time they did openly fight each other, it nearly ended the world due to events spiraling outside of their control. |
| 188 | * FreudianExcuse: Probably more than half the cast uses this to some degree. Most notably, of course, is the main protagonist and one of the main antagonists, [[spoiler: Fei/Id/Grahf and Krelian.]] |
| 189 | * FromBadToWorse: Essentially, the final hours of Disk 1 and most of Disk 2. |
| 190 | * GambitPileup: By the time you reach the second disc you're probably thoroughly confused as to who's working for whom. [[spoiler: The three top-level factions are [[BigBad Krelian/Miang]], [[BigGood Cain/Citan]], and [[WildCard Grahf]].]] |
| 191 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: |
| 192 | ** Drive is treated as bad, and taking it is stated by many heroes to be terrible to do. By the end of the game, the player can use Drive without issues despite many of the characters knowledge of how bad it is. |
| 193 | ** Another fairly irritating example is Babel Tower, a lengthy vertical platforming gear level which requires some fairly precise jumps (which leads to a lot of falling down and having to repeat the section to try again), despite the fact that several times before AND after this it's shown that your gears can '''''fly'''''. |
| 194 | * GangInitiationFight: When Fei is thrown into D Block prison, he has to fight the current Battle Champ Rico and four of his subordinates as part of a "Baptism" ceremony. The reason is also pragmatic: inmates are given ranks based on how well they can fight, so inmates who fight as many of Rico's guys and win get better rooming and leeway. Fei manages to get the second highest rank after just waking up and being injured, but essentially gives up when he gets to fighting Rico. |
| 195 | * GeneticMemory: |
| 196 | ** The game discusses this idea by suggesting that there are genes within each person that allow them to remember things from either past lives, or something from their linage. [[spoiler:This becomes important since several of the main characters are able to get Omnigears because they have traces of the original Gazel Ministry's genes in them.]] |
| 197 | ** [[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. |
| 198 | * GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Citan does this to Ramsus near the end of the game. |
| 199 | * GiantEyeOfDoom: Deus hibernates in a silver plated dome surrounded by eyes. |
| 200 | * GodIsEvil: The creator of mankind turns out to be a [[spoiler: previously broken [[SealedEvilInACan malevolent interstellar war machine]] in severe need of death.]] [[spoiler:Well, the creator of the humans on that planet, anyway. The creator of the entire universe shows up later on, who's basically a decent guy (for a horrifying PhysicalGod anyway) who just wants to go back home after being trapped in the universe he accidentally created for billions of years.]] |
| 201 | * GoldfishPoopGang: The Elements. They waffle between this and QuirkyMinibossSquad because 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 for the most part, and tend to be at best minor annoyances when they show up. |
| 202 | * GoombaStomp: The typical result when someone tries to take on a Gear or Gear-sized enemy on foot. The key word here is ''typical''. |
| 203 | * GrayAndGrayMorality: |
| 204 | ** 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. |
| 205 | ** 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.]] |
| 206 | * GreyGoo: Deus is literally made of the stuff. |
| 207 | * GunsAreWorthless: |
| 208 | ** 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. The baton seems to be used as a way of amplifying her ether abilities, suggesting that by default, it is her main weapon. |
| 209 | ** On the other hand, [[BadassPreacher Billy's]] attacks are certainly powerful. You're probably using him for his awesome healing spells instead, though. |
| 210 | * GunNut: ''Jessie.'' The man who speaks in what would be NRA talking points if the planet had an NRA, who loves guns so much he literally ''becomes a part of a gun,'' who introduces himself with a ClickHello, who is ''very'' TriggerHappy. It's implied in his past in Solaris he fell under the PushyGunTotingVillain as well. |
| 211 | * TheGunslinger: Billy and Jessie. Shows off some awesome GunKata as Deathblows. |
| 212 | * HandOrObjectUnderwear: While BarbieDollAnatomy is used in most nude scenes, a conspicuously placed lens flare covers Elly's breasts in during the ending FMV. |
| 213 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Emperor Cain]] has come to regret his actions over the past [[spoiler:10,000]] years, including [[spoiler:personally killing Elly's first incarnation]]. |
| 214 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Citan, as he [[spoiler: alternately betrays every single side in the game, out of his need for creating balance and his obligations to all, but in the end sides with Fei above everyone else]] |
| 215 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 216 | ** Happens many, many times to Fei. His biggest comes after [[spoiler:Elly is taken over by Miang and his body is overridden by Id. He nearly accepted his own end until he's reminded that Elly can still be saved]]. |
| 217 | ** Maria [[spoiler: during her fight against Achtzehn.]] |
| 218 | * HeroicSacrifice: The most notable are [[spoiler:Elly's father Erich]] at Solaris and [[spoiler:Maria's father Nikolai]]. |
| 219 | * HollywoodKiss: [[spoiler: In disc 2, between Fei and Elly, though the cutscene gets obscured in light millimeters away]]. |
| 220 | * {{Homage}}: The fight between Fei and a crazy Elly and [[spoiler:the location Deus]] show that Tetsuya Takahasi ''really'' likes ''Gundam''. |
| 221 | * HomeworldEvacuation: Humans left Earth in AD 2510 due to a space-time anomaly. The only reference to Earth in the game, though, is in the intro, and it is called "the main planet." |
| 222 | * HopeSpot -> DarkestHour: Midway through the second half, [[spoiler:Taura's nanomachines are working to cure those who've been turned into Wels by Krelian and Miang... and then the Gaetia Key is activated, and damn near ''everyone'' turns, losing their free will to Deus to boot.]] |
| 223 | * HopelessBossFight: A few encounters with Grahf and Id. It ''is'' possible to defeat Grahf in his Weltall, but the odds are so stacked against you that it's nigh-impossible unless you're very lucky. |
| 224 | * HowWeGotHere: Almost the entirety of Disc 2 consists of this. |
| 225 | * HulkSpeak: [[ArtificialHuman Emeralda]] uses this exclusively, perhaps speaking a little better than Hulk or a caveman, but worse than a child. |
| 226 | * HumanPopsicle: Big Joe, a celebrity from the Zeboim era who was accidentally cryofrozen for 4000 years. No really, it's AllThereInTheManual (Perfect Works, in this case). |
| 227 | * HumongousMecha: All over the place. Exaggerated with [[spoiler:Super Dimensional Gear Yggdrasil IV, which was literally an ''entire district'' of Nortune.]] |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:I-P]] |
| 231 | * ICouldaBeenAContender: Ramsus [[spoiler:was genetically engineered to be an artificial -Contact-, but was literally thrown in the trash heap as a baby after Fei was discovered]]. To his credit, he survived and crawled his way up to a position of status and made life a living hell for all his detractors simply by ''continuing to exist''. [[spoiler: [[BatmanGambit Which was all part of the plan.]]]] |
| 232 | * IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Fei and Elly, Maria and Nikolai, Elly and Id, Fei and Grahf. |
| 233 | * ImAHumanitarian: |
| 234 | ** Along with LampshadeHanging and MeaningfulName. Who names their factory "[[Film/SoylentGreen Soylent System]]" anyway? In Japan, ''Soylent Green'' isn't an iconic movie where everyone knows the twist, so Japanese gamers wouldn't instantly put two and two together. |
| 235 | ** The [[spoiler: Wels, mutated humans,]] also consume human flesh as a way to [[spoiler: ease the pain of their transformation]]. |
| 236 | * ImpendingDoomPOV: During the stay at Nortune, several workers in the sewers are attacked by a carnage creature with the movement shown through its eyes as it evades Fei, Citan, and Rico hunting for it. [[spoiler:But it turns out it wasn't the monster who killed the victims, it was Fei's other self, ID]]. |
| 237 | * IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Kahran Ramsus appears as a primary villain early on, and with his {{Bishonen}} looks, [[WhiteHairBlackHeart white hair]] and usage of a sword as his weapon seems destined to be the BigBad. By the end of the game [[spoiler: his wallflower-like [[BewareTheNiceOnes personal assistant]] has turned out to be the real BigBad, he finds out he's a [[BetaBaddie failed clone]] designed to mimic the powers of the Emperor and is abandoned by his masters for his [[YouHaveFailedMe repeated failures]]. He's basically the only character in the game more fucked up than the main hero.]] |
| 238 | * InevitableTournament Twice. Once with gears, once without. |
| 239 | * InjuredSelfDrag: At the end of Disc 1, Fei and Elly are shot down by Ramsus and crash-land in a forest, with both of them sustaining critical injuries. Fei could only carry the unconscious Elly while forcing himself to press onwards regardless of his own wounds before collapsing, and only survived because they were unknowingly rescued by Grahf when he took them to Taura. |
| 240 | * InterfaceScrew: There are numerous automated text boxes that open when some background character is talking. These prevent the player from talking with others or opening doors to other areas. One refugee in Shevat opens [[{{Kiai}} exercise grunts]] within two seconds of each other, making interacting with anything in that room a royal pain. |
| 241 | * JustifiedSavePoint: [[spoiler: The Gazel Ministry ''[[BigBrotherIsWatching reads your saves]]'' from the Memory Cubes to keep tabs on you.]] This is carried over to ''Chrono Cross'', which shared the same development team, with the [[MeaningfulName Records of Fate]] in a similar fashion. |
| 242 | * JigsawPuzzlePlot: Try explaining this game's plot and characterization to someone with no knowledge of it. Just try. Even a lot of people that have played the game still have no idea what's going on. |
| 243 | * KarmaHoudini: |
| 244 | ** [[spoiler:Krelian. After all he did, he still gets to "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence [go] to walk with God]]".]] |
| 245 | ** Neither the Elements nor Ramsus suffer any repercussions, besides bruised egos, for being some of the main enforcers of a murderous empire built on slavery and bigotry. They do at least get beaten up several times, and so actively show signs of changing later, so it at least isn't totally out of no where. |
| 246 | * KingIncognito: Hilariously played with when Bart and his friends are "infiltrating" Aveh's capital Bledavik to rescue Margie. Bart is a NobleFugitive, the crown prince of the legitimate Fatima ruling dynasty of Aveh whose throne was usurped by the current ruler. He is also a highly wanted pirate. Yet, he just enters the city, with his highly recognizable EyepatchOfPower, whip and signature Fatima blue eyes, not even wearing a PaperThinDisguise. Still, the guards couldn't care less and let him walk in without any suspicion. But we can't help bursting into laugh when at the first inn he visits, someone asks him "Excuse me, are you Prince Bartholomew Fatima ?". |
| 247 | * KissingCousins: Bart and Margie. It's suggested that the Fatimas do a lot of this in order to maintain the purity of the "Fatima Jasper" [[spoiler:the stunning blue eyes possessed by members of the Fatima royal family... and their bastards]]. |
| 248 | * LargeHam: Big Joe. ''GREAT''... and '''DYNAMIC'''! |
| 249 | ** The Captain of the Thames. |
| 250 | --> "I am! * strikes pose* A man! * strikes pose* of the ''SEA!''" |
| 251 | * LaserGuidedTykebomb: [[spoiler: Ramsus, for Emperor Cain.]] |
| 252 | * LateCharacterSyndrome: Emeralda joins the party ''very'' late, after the penultimate dungeon in the first disc, and can't be used at all in the very lengthy Solaris chapter, which means she can only have a serious presence in the second disc and really has no bering on the plot. While she's by no means a bad fighter, is capable of having high statistics after her PlotRelevantAgeUp, and is an even better mage than Elly. It helps that after going through an optional dungeon and unlocking her adult form, Emeralda gets by far the best stat gains per level-up of any character. |
| 253 | * LethalJokeCharacter: Chu-Chu is a semi-useless party member who doesn't really offer much gameplay wise, but can be okay in Gear battles due to not needing Fuel, and being one of the only characters who can heal Gears outside of special equipment. |
| 254 | * LethalJokeItem: Alice's Wedding Dress, which comes with a high amount of defense that's on par with items that comes at a later area. |
| 255 | * LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: When the team attempts to escape Shakhan by using Citan's flyer, the music slowly fades out once the machine starts to malfunction. |
| 256 | * LetsPlay: |
| 257 | ** [[http://whatdoesgodneedwithastarship.com/ What Does God Need With A Starship]] |
| 258 | -->This may be explained sixty hours from now, but it will never actually make sense without or even with the three hundred page supplementary texts. Welcome to Xenogears. |
| 259 | ** LetsPlay/TheDarkId also did a Let's Play of the game. Can be found [[http://lparchive.org/Xenogears-(by-The-Dark-Id)/ here]]. |
| 260 | * LevitatingLotusPosition: The final battle with [[spoiler: Deus]] implies that it has come to [[spoiler: [[AGodAmI believe in its own hype]]. Deus' physical shell is a winged form with crossed legs, along with an 'angel' on each hand.]] |
| 261 | * LightIsNotGood: |
| 262 | ** The EvilEmpire is the Sacred Empire of Solaris. Despite being populated mostly by slave labor and an upper-class of unrepentant douchebags, native Solarians are mostly light-haired, most wear white clothing, their military Gears and vehicles tend to be white. Solaris itself is white. White is also a major motif of the BigBad and his component parts. Save for a few notable exceptions, you might almost say that this game plays the trope straight. |
| 263 | ** Almost all of [[spoiler:Deus']] forms have white colors in them. [[spoiler:Deus itself]] is very much not a good thing at all. |
| 264 | * LimitedWardrobe: |
| 265 | ** Rico never takes his big orange bomb collar off even though he technically hasn't been a "prisoner" of the Kislev Empire for quite some time. |
| 266 | ** [[spoiler:Lacan, Fei's incarnation from 500 years ago]] wears the ''exact same outfit''. |
| 267 | * LongGame: [[spoiler:In order to revive Deus, Miang and the Gazel Ministry have been manipulating all of human civilization for ''10,000 years''.]] |
| 268 | %%* LostColony: [[spoiler:The Xenogears planet.]] |
| 269 | * LostTechnology: Two layers: the ''Eldridge''-era technology (Babel Tower, Ft. Jasper), and the later Zeboim-era technology (Gears in general). Most all was take from the "Eldridge" though, as the majority of said technology was far more advanced than anything else on the planet. What is the main reason why you had the remains of a spaceship gunwhale over 40 km in length sticking out of the ground for over 10000 years and chock full of tech not bringing you back up to par? [[spoiler: No one but a child was left who understood the original language.]] |
| 270 | * LoveMakesYouEvil: Grahf [[spoiler:is Lacan, who despaired after Elly sacrificed herself and told him "Live!".]] |
| 271 | * LoveTriangle: There are few examples but the most famous one is the one between Lacan, Sophia, and Krelian. |
| 272 | * LuckBasedMission: The dreaded "RPS" minigame. Basically, you have to win five games of Rock-Paper-Scissors ''in a row'' (although a draw doesn't count against you). And no, you can't go and save after each win; leaving the room resets the counter. Just to top it all off, the RPS guy is a complete jackass who rubs it in your face when he wins, and is just as sore when he loses. |
| 273 | * LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Grahf is Fei's father, Khan Wong.]] More correctly, he was born as [[spoiler:Lacan, a past life of Fei,]] and is currently [[spoiler:possessing Khan Wong.]] Also, [[spoiler:Bart and Sigurd are half-brothers.]] |
| 274 | * LukeYouAreMyFather: [[spoiler:Emeralda is an ArtificialHuman made by Kim, one of Fei's previous incarnations. Emeralda regards Kim, and later, Fei, as her father.]] |
| 275 | * TheMagicGoesAway: [[spoiler: The Zohar powers Gears and Ether, and once the Wave Existence is freed, the Zohar engine is destroyed and Deus is defeated, all gears but Xenogears cease functioning. Ether also goes away in a more traditional fashion.]] |
| 276 | * MeaningfulName: |
| 277 | ** [[spoiler:Id, Fei's SuperpoweredEvilSide]], is named after the Freudian unconscious of primal drives; Elhaym / Elly evokes [[spoiler: Elohim, one of the names given to the Judaeo-Chistian God]]; Miang / [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Myah]] is occasionally spelt [[spoiler: Myahle, the reverse of Elhaym]] in the artbook. |
| 278 | ** Hawwa[[spoiler:, used to designate the first Miang, the original woman,]] is an academic transliteration of [[spoiler: חַוָּה, (Ḥawwāh), also known as ''Hava'' or ''Chava'', the Hebrew form of Eve.]] |
| 279 | ** Krelian is properly "Karellen," named after the leader of the Overlords from Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd''. |
| 280 | ** Ramsus comes from Ramses, better known as Ozymandias, King of Kings. Ramsus is [[spoiler:a clone of Emperor Cain, the ''de facto'' ruler of all humanity]]. |
| 281 | ** Citan's [[spoiler: real surname when he's Hyuuga is properly spelled 'Rikudou'. For the reason why, it's best to look at the following URL.]][[http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml Ta-da.]] The name Shitan/Citan itself is also a reference to how he plays the role of Lucifer to Deus/Solaris and to humanity by choosing to fight with it and for Fei. |
| 282 | ** The Family Name vanHouten means "from the forest". And Fei meets Elly in the forest. |
| 283 | ** This game is plagued by some... iffy Romanization. Gebler should have been Gevurah (גבורה) (...Che!?!), one of the spheres on the Tree of Life. It represents severity and judgement. For more information, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gevurah Wikipedia is your friend!]] The NA audience missed out on a lot of plot cookies because the poor localization team got rushed to hell. |
| 284 | ** Gear names usually have connotations. They’re usually either [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Foreign Words]] (Like Seibzehn and Achtzehn), or named after figures from mythology and religion [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Alkanshel]], Wyvern, and Fenrir, for example.) And then of course you have and [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Calamity and Bladegash…]] |
| 285 | ** Most of the locations are named after Hebrew months (which confusingly actually originate in Babylonian): Kislev, Shvat, Elul, Nisan, Aveh (actually Av) and Thames (actually Tammuz). |
| 286 | ** Zeboim is one of the sister towns of the famed Sodom and Gomorrah, which was destroyed with them. |
| 287 | ** Jesiah is a portmanteau of "Jesus" and "Messiah." It’s probably to contrast his hatred of the Ethos church, which is obviously based on Catholicism. ("Ethos," incidentally, means "shared fundamental traits.") |
| 288 | * MemoryRestoringMelody: TheHero Fei gets a pang of nostalgia he can't explain upon hearing a song from an ancient music box Citan dug up, prompting Citan to [[DiscussedTrope briefly mention this trope.]] [[spoiler: It's implied that the music box was made by Fei's previous incarnation Kim Kasim back in the Zeboim era, in anticipation for [[ArtificialHuman Emeralda]]'s completion/birth.]] |
| 289 | --> '''Citan:''' Music is a mysterious thing. Sometimes it makes people remember things they do not expect. Many thoughts, feelings, memories... things almost forgotten... Regardless of whether the listener desires to remember or not. |
| 290 | * MetaMecha: [[spoiler:-Super Dimensional Gear Yggdrasil IV-]] was ''an entire district of [[spoiler: Nortune City]]'' before it launched. |
| 291 | * MetaOrigin: Supposedly, the strongest Gears in existence are the Omnigears, which have infinite power due to being linked to God through the Anima Relics, [[spoiler: which were designed as Deus' terminal interface weapons]]. [[spoiler: Actually, in a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], around half of the main characters use something else for their final weapons, and likewise Deus' real [=TIWs=], the Seraphs, end up using a different technology. Most of the new technology can be traced to Krelian in some way, but the Xenogears is another kettle of fish entirely, and nobody has a ''clue'' what the hell Chu-Chu is.]] |
| 292 | * MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Fei, usually as Id.]] |
| 293 | * MileLongShip: The dimensions of the ''Eldridge'' are incredible, measured at over 40 kilometers and several billion tons by rough estimates. |
| 294 | * MindRape: Miang, serially. She is supremely talented at coercing, manipulating and cajoling entire civilizations into doing exactly what she wants, but if that doesn't work, she can break a mind with brute force, too. |
| 295 | * MindScrew: |
| 296 | ** The storyline is a bit messy and hard to understand, though [[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Works]] clears some of it up. |
| 297 | ** "[[LetsPlay Just remember: if you ever have a good idea of what's going on in Xenogears, then Xenogears isn't doing its job.]]" |
| 298 | ** Number of plotlines: '''''13'''''. [[spoiler: Deus's creation and the Soylent System, the Wave Existence reincarnating Fei and Elly, Shevat's involvement with Solaris, Grahf trying to make Fei become Id, Krelian's plot to find Deus, Aveh's war with Kislev, Ramsus and his reason for existing, Aveh's government, the Gears from the Zeboim civilization, the rebellion against Solaris that Lacan was part of, Citan being part of Solaris, some of the characters meeting at Jugend, and Nikolai being inside one of the Gears.]] |
| 299 | * ModestyBedsheet: Used for both Miang/Ramsus and [[spoiler: Elly/Fei]], albeit in slightly different ways. Miang and Ramsus start off using the sheet, then when they get out of bed, Ramsus is wearing Magic Briefs and Miang is nude from the waist up, [[ToplessnessFromTheBack only showing her back to the camera]]. With [[spoiler: Elly and Fei]], [[spoiler: Elly]] does the "sitting up with the sheet pulled up over her breasts" routine. |
| 300 | * MoodWhiplash: The game wasn't initially much darker than the average Square game for the first disc, but disc two quickly, unrelentingly becomes one of Square's darkest games. |
| 301 | * MouthFlaps: In the prologue, they're relatively well synced, but every scene after has the lip flaps go on long after the dialogue runs out. |
| 302 | * {{Muggles}}: |
| 303 | ** Hammer, who ends up [[spoiler: betraying the party out of despair and bitterness over being an ordinary person surrounded by heroic, special people.]] He's got a point, too, since... |
| 304 | ** ...In addition to this, most "ordinary" people are fated to be [[spoiler: [[FateWorseThanDeath simple building material for the physical body of Deus]], and thus consigned to a bitter fate of becoming bloodthirsty monsters in perpetual pain, an injustice that essentially causes the downfall of civilization, and is a matter of significant shame and misery to the game's heroes, who being special people don't encounter such ill effects.]] |
| 305 | ** Also, in a world chock full of [[TheChosenOne destined heroes]], [[SealedEvilInACan immortal forces of evil]] and [[AncientConspiracy ancient conspiracies]], most defined by near-magical superpowers and the [[BecauseDestinySaysSo power of fate]], [[MagnificentBastard Krelian]] managed to become the de-facto leader of the world's strongest nation and the nearest thing to a lord over the fate of the universe, with nothing but the [[MadScientist power of science]], his wits and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]]. |
| 306 | ** And arguably, the entire point of Ramsus' character is that [[spoiler:he was made to be an ''imitation'' of something special, then simply discarded when the real thing turned up]]. |
| 307 | * MultilayerFacade: [[spoiler:The mysterious masked man called "Wiseman" who fights in Fei's style, the mysterious Darth Vader-like guy Grahf who hunts him, and Fei's own father are all actually the same person.]] |
| 308 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: Most of the protagonist's Gears attack by punching and kicking their enemies. In RealLife (besides the impracticality of HumongousMecha in the first place), imagine a semi truck slamming into you. Now imagine that truck as a thin iron bar coming after you and going to IMPALE you. Compare that to a Gear's fist and big toe, respectively. |
| 309 | * MusicalSpoiler: "Omen" is a remix of "Light From the Netherworld", the latter of which plays in the game's opening sequence. [[spoiler:Omen plays in parts of the Eldridge and during events relating to Deus.]] |
| 310 | * MysteriousBacker: Wiseman. |
| 311 | * {{Nanomachines}}: ''The'' buzzword of Disc Two and late Disc One. Emeralda, Deus, and Miang's Omnigear Opiomorph are completely comprised of nanomachines. It's even stated in [[WordOfGod The Perfect Works]] that in order to defeat Opiomorph, every last namomachine that comprises it needs to be [[FromASingleCell completely obliterated at the subatomic level]] otherwise it will completely regenerate. |
| 312 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: |
| 313 | ** Solaris placed genetic limiters on the surface dwelling population which made humanity weak, ignorant, and generally fearful of Solaris/Emperor Cain by instinct. The removal of those limiters ultimately ends with a good chunk of people mutating into Wels, and then into spare parts of Deus after the Gaetia Key is turned. |
| 314 | ** Sophia's HeroicSacrifice in the past caused the StartOfDarkness for Krelian and Lacan, both of whom would then go on to cause massive amounts of death, chaos and destruction for the next 500 years. |
| 315 | * NonstandardGameOver: Choosing to remove Fei's bomb collar does have a chance of it exploding, killing Fei, Citan, and Hammer. Fei immediately finds himself back in the medical ward and opts to find another solution. |
| 316 | * NoSell: All of Achtzehn's attacks when trying to fight Chu-Chu. |
| 317 | * NotSoHarmlessVillain: [[spoiler: Hammer]], after he kills [[spoiler: Medena]]. |
| 318 | * OlderIsBetter: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]]. Technological advance goes up and down because Miang keeps wiping out civilization when it reaches a certain level of sophistication, so LostTechnology tends to be better than modern tech. However, [[spoiler: the divine technology behind the Omnigears, which is 10,000 years old, is a little behind the nanotech of Zeboim (4,000 years old), which for most of the game is better than anything before or since. The ''most'' advanced technology is a result of Krelian and the Sages reverse-engineering and improving on the technology of Zeboim and Deus, which happens during the game. The Xenogears is stronger than all of the above and is created during the game, but it's a manifestation of the will of the Wave Existence, a being older than the universe.]] |
| 319 | * TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Gazel Ministry scenes are very vague and use a lot of terms or phrases that don't make sense at first, and require often replaying the game to better understand it. 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. Part of this is also due to the translation having trouble translasting some of the conversations. |
| 320 | * OmnidisciplinaryScientist: |
| 321 | ** Dr. Citan Uzuki, physician by trade; mechanic, physicist, ''very bad'' psychologist, philosopher, historian, biologist, and GeniusBruiser by hobby. |
| 322 | ** [[http://whatdoesgodneedwithastarship.com/xenodurr1.html "God bless those perfectly normal country doctors."]] |
| 323 | *** Justified, in that he's [[spoiler:not only a Solarian posing as a humble surface-dweller, but working directly under Emperor Cain until he frees the party from Krelian and the Gazel Ministry.]] |
| 324 | * OneManArmy: Fei and Id. Id has destroyed entire countries, and the player as Fei, gets to bust through a team of enemy Special Forces, including a drugged out Elly, and then an entire border fleet, fairly early in the game. |
| 325 | * OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are two, completely unrelated characters named Franz: the first of which is a member of the Yggdrasil's crew, the second of which is a Gebler soldier that is subordinate to Elly. To be perfectly fair, the latter is also translated as Vance. |
| 326 | * OrganicTechnology: It's a little hard to see given the limited graphics power of the Platform/PlayStation, but the artwork in the ''Perfect Works'' book shows that all the Omnigears [[spoiler:and Deus in its final forms]] are all in some way organic. There's a line in the game around the time of Andvari's discovery that says something to this effect, but it's easily missable and it's not that big of a plot point in the game until [[spoiler:Miang drags her GreyGoo-powered Opiomorph out of storage and whoops your ass with it]]. |
| 327 | * 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. Deus becomes effectively a God though due to being connected to the Wave Existence, and the only way to free the Wave Existence is to defeat Deus.]] |
| 328 | * OutOfFocus: Pretty much everyone who joins the party after Bart doesn't get much of the spotlight after the plotline where they're introduced. Rico, in particular, is given nothing unique to do after the party leaves Kislev. |
| 329 | * PathOfInspiration: The Ethos is a church that purports to offer aid and salvation to the unfortunate, and that exterminates the mutant "Reapers" or "Wels" that appear in the world and threaten humanity. [[spoiler:However, it is in fact a front for the nation of Solaris, to keep the humans living on the surface docile and under control, and to furnish Solaris with excavated resources and slave labor. Oh, and they also are involved in deploying and keeping track of the Wels as well as exterminating them.]] |
| 330 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: Lots, not only shop stock changes but within the very first town, where you're presumably just running around getting used to the game, there's a solid handful of items that will later pay off but you cannot get later - including an item you won't get to trade in for a useful item until the very end of the game. |
| 331 | * PersonOfMassDestruction: |
| 332 | ** Id. Part of the reason he freaks Ramsus out so much is that Ramsus once saw Id destroy an entire squad of Gears. ''On foot and by himself''. Not to mention that Id once singlehandedly destroyed an entire ''continent''. Ramsus' subordinate Dominia is [[LastOfHerKind the sole survivor of that particular rampage]]. [[spoiler:At the end of Disc One. You know Solaris, the EvilEmpire that's been hyped up as the BigBad for the entire game thus far? Yeah, that one takes him about ten minutes.]] |
| 333 | ** Grahf also qualifies, given that in one battle, he wastes your characters in Gears while ''he's'' on foot. Of course, this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] considering that [[spoiler:he's basically the same person as Id, just from a past incarnation, and managed to survive as a spirit possessing other bodies. Or something like that, anyway.]] |
| 334 | * PimpedOutDress: Alice's wedding dress is absolutely beautiful, but she dies before she gets a chance to wear it. Dan hangs on to it and gives it to Fei out of pure spite to remind him that he's the reason Alice is dead. Joke's on Dan though, as the dress is equippable and has some [[LethalJokeItem fairly decent stats to it]]. |
| 335 | * PinkProductPloy: Vierge, because ''of course'' a giant mecha needs tertiary sex characteristics. |
| 336 | * PlotRelevantAgeUp: There's a sidequest to age Emeralda to an adult. [[spoiler:Curiously, she appears as an adult in the ending cinematic regardless of whether or not you did the sidequest]]. |
| 337 | * PostFinalBoss: Ouroburous. |
| 338 | * PowerDyesYourHair: Fei Wong's hair is dark but [[spoiler: turns red when he becomes Id.]] |
| 339 | * PowerGivesYouWings: |
| 340 | ** Id's Gear has several energy wings coming out of the spikes on its back. Weltall-2 gets these once in hyper mode or when activating System Id in order to use Id's power on a conscious level. |
| 341 | ** Bart also (somewhat nonsensically) gets a pair in one of his Deathblows. |
| 342 | ** The Xenogears itself has energy wings when it goes into hyper mode. The explanation is that the wings are the gears' superheated exhaust. |
| 343 | * 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.]] |
| 344 | * {{Pun}}: Jumping into the well in Lahan will get you a series of well-related puns. |
| 345 | * PuzzleBoss: Had quite a few, especially in the Gear battles where each could only be feasible defeated at your level by fighting a certain way, but [[spoiler:Deus]] is memorable in that every time you attack, he heals for all his HP. His HP is huge, and in no way could you do enough damage to kill him in this way. The true method to killing him is by [[spoiler:letting him keep using his only move, which halves the hp of everyone on the field, and then tearing into him when his health is low enough to kill in one turn]]. |
| 346 | * PsychoSerum: -Drive-. Which is made all the weirder by the fact that you can ''buy it'' from Big Joe at the end of the game. And it gives you ''permanent'' increases to your stats-- [[GameplayAndStorySegregation with no bad side effects or penalties to other stats]], no matter how many you use. |
| 347 | * PunctuatedForEmphasis: |
| 348 | -->[[AC:I AM...\ |
| 349 | A MAN...\ |
| 350 | OF THE SEA]]! |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | [[folder:Q-Z]] |
| 354 | * QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Elements, Elly's strike team. |
| 355 | * PuppetKing: Shakhan is just a puppet Gebler uses to control Aveh. More generally, many of the countries and forces present on the surface are secretly controlled by higher powers, most notably Solaris and Shevat, which have been waging war by proxy for centuries. |
| 356 | * RagnarokProofing: |
| 357 | ** 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. |
| 358 | ** The Zeboim Ruins are in unusually good condition as well, despite not having the excuse of being parts of the ''Eldridge''. Most of the buildings are intact, albeit deep underground, and some of the machinery even still functions. |
| 359 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Oh, where to start. There's [[spoiler:Krelian]], [[spoiler:Emperor Cain]], [[spoiler:Queen Zephyr]]... oh, and [[spoiler:Grahf]] and [[spoiler:Miang]], though they technically maintain their immortality by [[spoiler:body-hopping.]] |
| 360 | * RecurringTraveler: Big Joe is frequently encountered on random areas of the map, seemingly always in the same general area the heroes are currently situated in. How he's able to move around so freely is never explained, but he's implied to be able to teleport. |
| 361 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: |
| 362 | ** 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. |
| 363 | ** Also the case with [[spoiler: Grahf]], who sacrifices himself to [[spoiler: buy Fei enough time to defeat Deus]]. |
| 364 | * {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:Only Fei and Elly reincarnate. The other characters either had an IdenticalGrandfather (Bart, Sigurd), transmigrated into new bodies (Grahf, Miang), or had really long lifespans (Krelian, Zephyr).]] |
| 365 | * ReincarnationRomance: Fei and Elly have found each other over again for millennia, lived together blissfully for years or even decades. However, BigBad Miang is reincarnating endlessly as well, and each of Fei and Elly's incarnations ended up pissing her off by interfering with her plans, resulting in her killing them in horrible, violent ways over and over again for millennia. Only by defeating her once and for all can they live happily, which they achieve at the end of the game. One of the people that helps them do it is their daughter from a previous life. |
| 366 | * RedStringOfFate: [[spoiler: Fei and Elly and all their incarnations, by virtue of being reincarnations of the Contact and the Antitype. After their very first lives ended, their reborn selves always eventually meet and fall in love.]] |
| 367 | * RedOniBlueOni: Dominia and Kelvena of the Elements. Not to mention Fei and Bart, Fei and Elly, Fei and Citan, Bart and Sigurd, Tolone and Seraphita, Ramsus and Miang,[[spoiler: Elly and Miang]]... |
| 368 | * ReluctantWarrior: Fei. ''So very much.'' "I hate fighting. And gears..." and he still racks up quite the body count [[spoiler: even if you don't count the SuperpoweredEvilSide.]] |
| 369 | * ReverseShrapnel: Elly's Aerods. |
| 370 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: |
| 371 | ** When Miang and Krelian [[spoiler: try to kill your party in Solaris]], Id emerges. Id who is partially influenced by Fei's emotions. Id's reaction to [[spoiler: Elly's near-death is to remotely activate the Weltall Gear, transform it into his own red version, and then use it to destroy Solaris.]] |
| 372 | ** 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 responsible for. |
| 373 | ** Also Id when he [[spoiler:destroys Etrenank]]. |
| 374 | ** It is also the whole story behind [[spoiler:Grahf's very existence]]. When [[spoiler:Lacan witnessed the murder of Elly]], he decided that life should not exist if such a crime was possible, and he started his goal of trying to destroy of life. [[spoiler:He has been working on it for 500 years, which makes it both a really extreme and really long RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]] |
| 375 | * RunawayFiance: Dam 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 he doesn't, though he couldn't even if he wanted to. |
| 376 | * RhymesOnADime: Tears for Fears. |
| 377 | * SandIsWater: You can sail on the desert. And ships can sink in it. [[FridgeLogic Even though people can walk on it.]] |
| 378 | * SaveTheWorldClimax: The game starts off with Fei just living his normal life in a quiet village, devoid of conflict. Then TheEmpire invades and razes the town to the ground, forcing him to defend himself in the heat of the moment. One thing leads to another and then he's fighting against a man-made God to save the world. |
| 379 | * SchizoTech: A JustifiedTrope: Emperor Cain and his followers (Solaris ''writ large'') [[spoiler: have been developing their own technology for close to 10,000 years and actively working to make sure the surface dwellers don't get their hands on it and become too powerful. Cain and Miang obliterate civilizations that becoming too advanced, incite wars between nations to stunt their development, and employ a CorruptChurch to cover up mankind's true history to keep the populace ignorant.]] |
| 380 | * SecretWeapon: The Goliath is supposed to be that for Kislev in his war against Aveh (the title of the chapter when [[spoiler:you steal it]] is even titled "Secret Weapon"), which is probably why ''everyone'' seems to know about it. There is a huge swirling hologram of the machine in a room in the central district of Kislev, soldiers around make comments about how great it is, and later, when spotting it on his periscope, Bart comments: "This is the Goliath we have been hearing so much about!" |
| 381 | * ShownTheirWork: |
| 382 | ** The developers were obviously familiar with UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} when they made the game, and it shows. This carries over to ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. |
| 383 | ** A small example, but at some point the time when something was last accessed is reported when exploring some ruins. It's more or less accurate to when the events that made the place into ruins. |
| 384 | ** While some of what the game says about Dissociative Identity Disorder is either out of date or not really correct, 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. |
| 385 | * ShootTheShaggyDog: Boy, all the work that was put into [[spoiler: ending the war between Aveh and Kislev and restoring Bart to the throne]] [[SarcasmMode sure was worth it]], as was all that work that was put into [[spoiler: locating, infiltrating, and destroying Solaris]], as well as [[spoiler: finding a way to turn the Wels back into humans]]. |
| 386 | * SlapOnTheWristNuke: Big Bang, among other things. |
| 387 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Relentlessly'' cynical. Almost everything good will, at some point, find itself broken. The lead protagonist [[spoiler:harbors a sadistic, amoral SuperpoweredEvilSide, and has died, along with his fated love, time after time in invariably tragic ways]]. Every major location is, at some point, considered to be safe, [[spoiler:but most of them are doomed, anyway]]. And it doesn't even matter, since [[spoiler:almost all of humanity is wiped out by the end, just one in a series of near-total apocalypses which have been visited on mankind deliberately throughout the game's history]]. Wicked, inhuman shadow masters rule the planet from their invisible nation of scientifically-advanced fantasy Nazis. Everyone has their lives manipulated by these people so that they can one day [[spoiler:[[PiecesOfGod be used as parts to revive the superweapon they all believe is their God]]]]. Almost all of the villains are the villains because their idealism was shattered in some amazingly cruel fashion. Just ask [[spoiler:Lacan]] and [[spoiler:Krelian]]. The only thing you can accomplish by saving the world [[spoiler:is that a handful of people ''don't'' die]]. |
| 388 | * SpoilerOpening: While the opening is presented entirely devoid of context, [[spoiler:it shows a hefty portion of the very first sequence of events that put the game into motion, missing only Abel's exposure to Kadomony. The BigBad acts dozens of hours before he will be revealed in the story, and the only thing the player *might* glean from it is recognizing Myyah--and even then, her hairstyle is drastically different.]] |
| 389 | * SmallGirlBigGun: Maria. Her Gear is so big it can't even fit in the [[CoolShip Yggdrasil's]] hangar. |
| 390 | * SoLastSeason: The Omnigears are originally hyped as "god gears," and the first time you get one, you've unearthed a righteously-powerful AncestralWeapon that makes Bart Fatima stand temporarily head and shoulders above everyone else. Then Weltall is upgraded into Weltall-2, which trivially defeats the Omnigear that had originally trashed the Weltall. Then [[spoiler: Krelian's nanomachine Gears and Seraphs come into play]], and suddenly the Omnigear technology starts looking a little outdated. [[spoiler: Half of the party still end up with Omnigears, but even these need to be upgraded with Krelian-based nanotechnology to stand a chance against the Seraphs.]] |
| 391 | * SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: The game jacks [[spoiler:Elly]] from you half way through Disc Two. |
| 392 | * SpikesOfVillainy: Id's Gear is covered in these, its most prominent feature being a pair of huge, spiky "wings". [[spoiler: The design of the Xenogears itself takes this even further -- it's basically just a bunch of spikes arranged in a humanoid shape.]] |
| 393 | * SplitPersonalityMerge: The climax of Fei's HeroicBSOD in Disc Two is an internal battle for control between [[spoiler:Fei, Id, and The Coward over who gets to control the body they all share. In the end, Fei manages to convince the two to come together, giving them their memories and power, making him basically himself but fully awakened as the Contact.]] |
| 394 | * SpritePolygonMix: The inverse of games like ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', more in line with [[VideoGame/Grandia1 the first Grandia]]. Backgrounds, objects, and Gears/Gear sized objects in battle and cutscenes are all completely 3D. All characters and gears in their overworld sprites are 2D. |
| 395 | * StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:Lacan and Elly. Kim and Elly. Abel and Elly. Do you notice a pattern?]] Also, Alice and Timothy. [[spoiler: Considering that Alice was more in love with Fei than Timothy, it may be more like Fei and Alice if you choose return her feelings and agree with Dan to "steal her away." Poor Timothy.]] |
| 396 | * StatGrinding: Use Drives to max out Chu-Chu and watch her Gear-sized self kick all kinds of ass, and without that pesky fuel gauge to constantly monitor. |
| 397 | * StayInTheKitchen: After the party defeats [[spoiler:Hammer]], Fei convinces [[spoiler:Elly]] to stop fighting, citing her [[ThouShallNotKill reluctance to kill]]. She reluctantly agrees, but ends up having to fight anyway when the others are in danger. |
| 398 | * StealthMentor: [[spoiler:Grahf was this to Fei, but only because Grahf planned to possess Fei and needed him to be as strong as possible.]] |
| 399 | * SuperPrototype: |
| 400 | ** Both Elly and Miang's Vierges are a straight examples: both Gears sport a lot of new technology, most of which is useless for regular Gears. |
| 401 | ** Seibzehn and Achtzehn, though future developments of the technology behind them went in significantly different technological directions instead of just being scaled down for mass-production. |
| 402 | ** [[spoiler: Alpha Weltall]] was "super" because the prototype used LostTechnology that the second model's designers didn't have access to. The design compromises involved become a plot point. |
| 403 | ** Apart from gears, Citan conjectures that the Yggdrasil II is originally the Yggdrasil's SuperPrototype, but was forsaken by Bart's father because it partly runs on LostTechnology (from Shevat) which he didn't want to use. |
| 404 | * SuperRobotGenre: All of Omnigears of Xenogears are definitely super robots. To a lesser extent, a few other gears, such as Weltall (including OR Weltall, Weltall Id, and Weltall-2), Crescens, and Seibzehn would still qualify. Nearly all of the other Gears piloted by the protagonists that are ''not'' Super Robots fall into the category of AceCustom. Those used by most bosses (aside from Ramsus and Miang) and mooks are closer to [[RealRobotGenre Real Robots]]. |
| 405 | * 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 reluctantly since times have grown so desperate that having the moral high ground doesn't mean much anymore, and he no longer can run away from what is needed of him as a warrior. |
| 406 | * TheTeamBenefactor: |
| 407 | ** Hammer is a straight example [[spoiler:until he betrays the team]]. He provides everyone with equipment, services and information nobody else has access to at the moment. |
| 408 | ** Taura Melchior is one too during Disk 2. Only his extensive knowledge of {{nanotechnology}} and more generally LostTechnology enables the team to pursue its objectives and successfully engage enemies who have access to vastly superior resources and technology. |
| 409 | * TemptingFate: You pretty much know Timothy is a goner when he tells Fei this: |
| 410 | -->'''Timothy''': Anyway, to me it feels like I've always been friends with you ever since we were kids. And we will go on being friends forever, right? |
| 411 | * {{Textplosion}}: Much of Disc 2. Due to harsh deadlines forcing the developers to choose between leaving the story off on a cliffhanger or telling the rest of it in highly compressed form, 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 telling the player about their adventure. |
| 412 | * ThemeNaming: |
| 413 | ** Nisan, Thames (=Tammuz), Aveh (=Av), Elru (=Elul), Kislev, and Shevat (=Shvat) were named after months in the Hebrew calendar. The remaining month names Iyyar, Sivan, Tishrei, Heshvan, Tevet and Adar went unused. |
| 414 | ** The three sages of Shevat are named [[Literature/TheBible Belthasar, Gaspar and Melchior]]. |
| 415 | ** The Four Elements Dominia, Kelvena, Tolone, and Seraphita are intended to follow the hierarchy of Angels in Heaven: Dominions, Cherubim, Thrones, and Seraphim. |
| 416 | * ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Summoning a Gear while fighting a human-sized enemy may be a waste of fuel, but it sure is funny. |
| 417 | * TitleDrop: |
| 418 | ** "Xenogears" is the name of [[spoiler:the ultimate form of Weltall, Fei's gear]]. |
| 419 | ** Krelian's plan to [[spoiler:revive Deus, walk with god, and reconstruct Merkava]] is called [[WorkingTitle -Project Noah-]]. |
| 420 | * TookAShortcut: Big Joe turns up ''everywhere''. |
| 421 | * TranslationConvention: When Fei and Elly first meet, the latter shouts at him in a foreign language, then she switches to his language as she realizes he can't understand a word she's saying. Later you can only communicate with the Solarians if one of the two Solaris natives (Elly or [[spoiler: Citan]]) are in your party. |
| 422 | * TroublingUnchildhoodBehavior: |
| 423 | ** ''Dan.'' He makes lewd remarks about how his ''sister'' is well-endowed at Fei when we first meet him, pursues a revenge quest all the way to a fighting tournament, and more. |
| 424 | ** Billy qualifies for this: his first experiences with guns at three years old, his considering "selling his body" and being very blase and cynical about the concept rather than afraid despite only being sixteen, plus his being a parent in charge of an entire orphanage of younger children at sixteen. His overly serious and formal/studious manner also is such - and it's a clue to the sort of unsettled childhood he had. |
| 425 | ** [[spoiler: Fei system]] killing people almost before he was old enough to recognize that he was. |
| 426 | ** Citan in the backstory: at 13, he is a ChildProdigy capable of inventing a plague vaccine (and possibly of having started said plague himself as an accident) and building/designing Gears. |
| 427 | ** Arguably anyone in the Solaris military, as Jugend recruitment starts in the early teens. |
| 428 | * TurnsRed: [[spoiler: Hammer]] and the FIS-6 do this when they're near death. Weltall does this when [[spoiler:Fei becomes Id]]. |
| 429 | * TheUnfought: Krelian. Though he is debatably the BigBad of the game, the heroes never directly fight him. At most they fight people he works with. |
| 430 | * UniverseCompendium: ''Perfect Works'' works as a way for the writers to explain the setting and history of it. It goes into extensive detail on how the world works, even including a timeline. |
| 431 | * UnknownRival: Poor Ramsus largely serves as this to Fei. The irony is that most of Ramsus' problems have been caused by Id and the Ministry, but he keeps lashing out irrationally at a convenient target. Fei has no idea why Ramsus hates him, and sees him as a constant problem, but not a rival. |
| 432 | * UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The game has a few. The most obvious is Maria's Siebzehn (prototype) vs his father Nikolai's Achtzehn (upgrade). We also have Fei's Weltall vs Grahf's Alpha/True Weltall, but although Alpha Weltall is a SuperPrototype using LostTechnology, Fei's Weltall is more an AceCustom inspired from the former and can't really be considered an "upgrade". |
| 433 | * UselessUsefulSpell: When used normally, the offensive Ether skills are far less effective than the characters' combination attacks; however, purchasing an Ether Doubler in Nisan before a plot event makes it unavailable turns Elly's damaging Ether spells into a DiscOneNuke. Congratulations, you now have magic on steroids. |
| 434 | * UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: This is Krelian's justification for [[spoiler:turning 90% of humanity into grey goo]]. |
| 435 | * VanillaEdition: |
| 436 | ** Despite the fact that only the one version of Xenogears ever came out (meaning there's no LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition to contrast), the final product was supposed to have '''much''' more content, including Omnigear forms for Crescens and Seibzehn, among other things to more fully flesh out the second disc. However, time and money weren't in enough abundance to permit this to happen. |
| 437 | ** There was a collectors edition in Japan, it came with a figure of one of the main characters (either Fei or Elly). Good luck finding one though, it was extremely limited. |
| 438 | * TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Deus.]] |
| 439 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Sure, you can beat up that little kid who is still grieving his sister's death (that you are partially responsible for) when he joins a tournament to get revenge on you... |
| 440 | * VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: But you won't be able to get a certain item (his sister's wedding dress) if you do. To get it, you just have to defend against his attacks until he gives up and leaves. |
| 441 | * VillainousBreakdown: You wouldn't like Ramsus when he's unstable. After the first hour or so after his introduction, he goes from seeming calm and in control, to gradually going mad as the game goes on. |
| 442 | * VillainsNeverLie: This one's a toss-up: Miang lies through her teeth, Ramsus is too dumb to be deceitful, and Krelian is bitingly forthright about almost everything. |
| 443 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: Emeralda, whose body is composed entirely out of nanomachines. She physically merges with her [[HumongousMecha Gear]] when piloting it. |
| 444 | * WakeUpCallBoss: Calamity will ''annihilate'' Weltall and Brigandier if you don't regularly upgrading your Gears or know any deathblows and how boosting works. |
| 445 | * WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma: The "script" for ''Xenogears'' sure "likes" putting certain "words" inside "quotation marks" presumably for "emphasis". Excessive use of ellipses is also rampant. |
| 446 | * TheWatcher: Miang is just ''fascinated'' by the absurdities of human behaviour. |
| 447 | * WeddingSmashers: Elly crash-lands in Lahan the night before Alice and Timothy's wedding, pursued by a small army of Kislev gears who proceed to trash the town. |
| 448 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Krelian. He seeks to end the pain and misery caused by mankind, but has crossed into being uncaring about the lives of people due to his plans. |
| 449 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Citan's wife, Yui, disappears in disc 2 without any explanation. [[spoiler:It's not made clear if she died in any of the cataclysms that struck the earth in that time, or if she was one of the unfortunate souls to transform into a wel, or what]]. Neither her husband nor daughter make any mention of her. |
| 450 | * WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Fei destroys: [[spoiler:His childhood home, his adoptive home, and his mother's homeland. His father's homeland of Shevat is also destroyed, but he had nothing to do with it or he'd be 4 for 4]]. |
| 451 | * WhamLine: Towards the end of the game, after [[spoiler:Fei makes contact with the Wave Existence]]: |
| 452 | -->'''Khan:''' You and I...\ |
| 453 | [[spoiler:'''Grahf:''' ...must become one!]] |
| 454 | * WhamShot: Overlaps with WhamLine. After Elly, Citan, and Fei leave Taura's house: |
| 455 | -->'''Taura:''' [[spoiler: Right, Lacan? ''*camera pans to show Grahf*'']] |
| 456 | * WhatTheHellHero: Fei does this not once, but ''twice''to Elly when it comes to just what she's doing while she stays in Gebler. |
| 457 | * WifeHusbandry: According to [[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Works]],[[spoiler: Abel was 7 years old when he crashed on the Xenogears planet and met the first Elly. As shown in an in-game video, this Elly is an adult when they first meet (though technically she is probably less than a month old).]] |
| 458 | * YouAreNumberSix: Seibzehn and Achtzehn, German for "seventeen" (though spelled incorrectly) and "eighteen", respectively. Gear shops even prefix Seibzehn's equipment with "#17" instead of following the other Gears' standard of the first four letters capitalized. |
| 459 | * YouAreWhatYouHate: Kaiser Sigmund's anti-demi-human policies stem from the fact that he's a self-hating (cosmetically passable) demi-human who he fathered a demi-human bastard (Rico). |
| 460 | * YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: [[spoiler:The Wave Existence]]. The form it appears in is what is indicated to be the best way it could appear to Fei, and even then it isn't remotely humanoid. |
| 461 | * YouKnowTheOne: At ''least'' 50% of the game's exposition. On a good day. |
| 462 | * YouWontFeelAThing: A variation said by the drugged Elly. |
| 463 | -->'''Elly''': Fear not. In return for treating me so kindly, I will kill you painlessly. Farewell, Fei... |
| 464 | * ZeroEffortBoss: [[PostFinalBoss Ouroburous]]. |
| 465 | [[/folder]] |
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