'Xeno' what?!

[Tommy]

What the heck does 'Xeno' mean and is there any relation between Xenosaga and Xenogears?

I herad that Xenosaga is a prelude to Xenogears and then i here there is no similarity beteen the titles. iF so, is there a sequel to Xenogears?

Someone explain to me all this 'Xeno' stuff?!

Also, does anyone know what 'Rebel' is in Japanese? I`m planning to start my own 'RPG' company when I`m older and i`ve come up with this great title, but I need to know what the word 'Rebel' is in Japanese. I`ve tried google, but it doesn`t work.

[Link Antilles]

Xeno refers to stranger or foreigner (more or less, alien) in Sci-fi stuff like Star Wars. I know, Xenophobia is fear of the strange. So, strange or alien, take your pick.

My personal guess is... "Strange"Saga (Xenosaga) and "Alien"Gears (Xenogears) for the Xeno games.

[Rocketshipper]

Actully, Xenophobia is fear of foreigners. I guess it can be used to describe a fear of strange things, but its usally used specificly for a fear of strange or foreign people ^^.

As for if Xenosaga and Xenogears are related, well thats up for debate at the moment. Technicly, I don't think Xenosaga can legally be related to Xenogears, because gears is owned by Squenix and saga is owned by Monolith Soft and Namco, so there would be copyright issues. I think the writers have stated that saga is like a "spiritial" prequal to gears, but not a real prequal. However, my theory is that the creators of the game are just being sneaky and trying to work around the copyright problem, because there are way too many similarieties between gears and saga for there to be no connection. Besides the title (why name the new series "Xenosaga" if it has nothing to do with Xenogears? ^^), there is the Zohar gold monolith thingy that exists in both games and the character Nephelim, who not only looks like Elly from Gears but even has her same taste in jewlry (episode 1 even recreates the swinging cross chaped jewlry imagery that kept repeating in Gears). There are "the Vessels of Anima" in saga that transform AWGS into more powerful AMWS, and the "Anima Relics" from Gears that transform normal gears into Omnigears; both relics and vessels are also linked to the Zohar in some way and all are named after the 12 tribes of Isrieal (sp? ^^). Finally, the most convincing similarity for me is the very brief apperance in episode 1 of a little boy named Abel, a little boy who looks EXACTLY like a certain little boy named Abel from Xenogears who plays a signifigant role in that story. but don't take my word for it, compare them for yourself ^_^.

Abel from Xenosaga = http://www.rpgamer.com/games/xeno/xenosaga/screens/xeno_62.jpg

Abel from Xenogears = http://ffxo.blindecho.net/avatars/abel%20avatar%203.jpg

My theory is that the Xenosaga series will set up the events that will ocurr in Xenogears without being too obvious about it.

[Sync]

even with difference in copyright/ownership I believe the connection was intended in the first place; with Xenogears being the final chapter, and an as of yet unkown number of games that prequel it (I've heard from 5 up to 9). However one of the primary story writers, Soraya Saga, left the dev team back in January; making the completion of the series (as it was intended originally) a bit less likely to happen.

[kazekami]

I heard that Xenodsaga will be 6 episodes.

[HikariChan]

6? sheesh, the 2nd one just came out right? It took awhile just for that one to come out. If there is six then theres a long road ahead of us.
Lmao~ =]

[kazekami]

exactly. The second one was really good. The story part was short though. The first game I did no side quests and took 70 hours to beat. The second game I had 30 hours with no side quests. But in the game plus I was able to get it up to 80 hours with side quests. Haven't finished the side quests though.

My friend told me there are quite a few references in Xenosaga to Xenogears. I want to play Xenogears. =)

[Bobtheduck]

THe fear of strange thing comes from the fact that "strange" is a term used to describe things that are foreign. An example of Xenophobia could be people who won't watch anime because the stories are often very Japanese and the people don't understand things like, say, the preoccupation with nuclear disaster from early stuff, the fact that the anime characters don't have rediculously stereotypical "chintzy" eyes, or any number of small or large refferences and devices that come specifically to Japanese Culture, both traditional and popular. Not wanting to have to figure out the things not specifically american (or brittish or australian or mexican or... swedish for that matter) they will ignore and mock it because it is "weird"

As for the Gears/Saga connection, yes... The Xenosaga games are prequals (and, I believe, one sequal eventually) to Xenogears... I think it was said when XS1 came out that XG was the second to last story out of 7... I could be wrong on that point, and it may actually be the last one... The company change thing makes it no less a prequal... The series just changed hands, that's all.

Entirely off topic, but I just noticed it was raining... *sigh*

[CDLviking]

I hope they also plan to remake the gears portion.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

i have xenogears, never got into it much

[enishi]

xenogears tied with my other favorite games for ps1, lunar and ff7. xenogears is definately worth a play, xenosage however is not. bad cg, bad!

[CDLviking]

I enjoyed Xenosaga much more than Xenogears.

[kazekami]

I really like Xenosaga. The story is good. I'll definatly have to get ahold of a copy of Xenogears though.

[Rocketshipper]

It would be really scary if they remade Xenogears. On the playstation Xenogears was possibly the longest RPG ever! There were some story segments that were 45 minutes or more, and I think the one at the end of disc one was like 90 minutes ^^, and it was all just text! Think about how long the game would be if it was all voice acted and animated cinemas!!! The cinemas by themselves would probably be 4 times as long as either episode 1 or 2!

Xenogears was originally intended to be episode 5 of the 6 episode series that was outlined in Xenogears Perfect Works. Episodes 1 was supposed to be about some war and the creation of Deus, and I think episode 2 was the crashing of the Eldridge and Abel. However, so far neither episode 1 or 2 of Xenosaga appears to be following the original Perfect Works episode outline. My theory is that all 6 episodes of Xenosaga will be "episode 1" of Xenogears, or that Episode 3, which is rumored to be the final episode that will feature Shion-tachi, will lead into the creation of Deus and the Eldridge crash.

[CDLviking]

If they were to remake the Xenogears portion, I doubt it would retain it's original form. I'm guessing that because it was isolated from the chapters that were to precede it, it was probably changed somewhat to make it stand alone. A new installment of it would probably simply be based on the Episode and not on the previous game.

[MasterDias]

He's right. Unless the Xenosaga games have a massive cast change somewhere in the middle, then there is no way Xenosaga 5 can be a Xenogears remake.

And as Rocketshipper stated, they don't appear to be following Perfect Works.

[CDLviking]

I'm unfamiliar with "Perfect Works." More info please.

[MasterDias]

Xenogears: Perfect Works was a detailed sourcebook, containing nearly everything you ever want to know about Xenogears, its universe, characters, monsters, artwork, etc.

It contained a historical timeline of the Xenogears universe.

[Lynx]

in reference to your other question, i think the japanese word for rebel is gyakuto... atleast thats what the dictionary says. i dont have a context, so i cant tell if that's the correct shade of meaning, but there ya go

[Tommy]

I planned on my title to my 'Rebel Quest' but i wanted to shoot for a more japanese style name for some aparent reason. Rebel Quest works beywon Gyuakuto Quest. For right now, it`s just a novel I have written in pencil. I don`t plan on doing it anytime soon, but can I submit it to Square or something? I won`t for a while f i can and no one copy the title. It`s been a while that I`ve been working on a title for this.

[Tommy]

So its pronounced "Zenogears" right? I might buy it this week.

[Cognitive Gear]

well, that the easy way.

"x" is pronounced as "KS"

so it's

ksenogears

Although... that's really hard to say >.<

[Tommy]

Um.....thanks i`ll just stick to Zenogears. By the way what does ikimasu mean?

[Cognitive Gear]

Well, to make it quick, essentially it means "go"

And as for the reason I named myself go, it's quite literally a random word.

[Tommy]

It sounds very animeish.

[Neosevangel]

Besides the religious issues, how bad is the language? What kind of words and how often?

[Rocketshipper]

It's meant to be pronounced "zeno". That's how they pronounced it in the commercials and the demo trailer

[Tommy]

i heard the language problum was minor and the religous stuff wasn`t that bad in Episode I but worse than Grandia II ( Pretty Bad) in Episode II.

[Neosevangel]

Oh yes IT IS WORSE! A lot worse! I've read the entire script for Episode ll and I have to say Its very very controversial. Heed my advice, unless you can handle it stick only to Episode One like I am probably going to do.

[Tommy]

I can handle religous themes. As I`ve said in many oher forums:

"It`s just a video game. It`s not like any of this stuff is real. I`m strong in my faith and I know that all the things around me are fake. Unless, the game has me fighting God himself, I have no problum playing it. Or if it`s involved Sanatic acts and rituals."

So, I`ll give both Xenosagas a try.