#Xenosaga Episode 3

[minothtime]

i've reached the end of xenosaga episode III

[rikitravels]

Random News: Xenosaga Episode 3 & Tales of the Rays Mobile Game Collaboration

KOS-MOS!

[h34vybottom]

KOS-MOS

[notallbloodmages]

Xenosaga 3 time!

twitch.tv/korianders

[semi-sketchy]

The Q&A of the Xenoblade 3 art book leaked and I am. Feeling something.

I think it's annoyance. I don't know if even Takahashi knows what he's cooking at this point.

[himejoshinoah]

[matt-lifesage]

I'm rooting for the funniest timeline where Xenosaga 1 and 2 don't get new ports but Xenosaga I & II (the DS game) gets an English release/port. P3P discourse on steroids LET'S GO

[magmellenium]

I feel sorry for new xeno fans who have to get through 8 full length RPGs (gears/saga 1 2 3/blade 1 X 2 3), 3 DLC Campaigns (all the xenoblade DLC), what is basically a visual novel (xenogears disc 2 💀💀), a 12 episode anime (xenosaga: the animation), a letsplay of a dead mobile game (xenosaga pied piper), and the entire bible.

[satoshi-mochida]

Xenosaga Fan Translates Full Playthrough of Canonical Phone Game, Pied Piper

Noisy Pixel Source. Possible Spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 below.

To celebrate the 19th anniversary of the largely unknown Xenosaga: Pied Piper, fan @ValakTurtle has announced that they have translated an entire playthrough of the game on YouTube by @Keju_frangelico. Additionally, “the translation was built on top of Chaoslace’s original translation that was hosted on Zarathustra.”

The script was previously translated, but an in-game translation was absent.

For those unaware, Xenosaga: Pied Piper is a canonical entry in the series that is essentially required reading to fully understand and appreciate the events of Xenosaga Episode III. Given the title’s exclusive presence on mobile phones plus its lack of official localization, it’s not really known by those who haven’t played the Xenosaga games.

In fact, while it has been over a decade since I last played Xenosaga, I (think?) I remember Episode III trying to recap the events of Piped Piper because it is actually significant. As a result, it’s recommended to check out Pied Piper after playing Xenosaga Episode II, despite it taking place roughly a century before the events of the first game.

Piped Piper is arguably more vital to experience than Xenosaga: A Missing Year, which connects Xenosaga Episode II and Episode III.

If you’re a Xenosaga fan and have never delved into Pied Piper, this is a pretty fantastic way to do so. Honestly, huge thanks to @ValakTurtle for deciding to translate this playthrough with English captions. It even appears they’ve translated the menus during battles, which is a pretty intense and intricate step.

You can check out the full Xenosaga: Pied Piper playthrough playlist here or start watching the first episode below:

Earlier this year, fans united for G-MODE Archives to officially re-release Piped Piper.

Speaking of Xenosaga, the conclusion of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed storyline has seemingly opened up the possibility of a Xenosaga revival or continuation.

[datcloudboi]

List of video games turning 20 years old in 2023:

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Alien Versus Predator: Extinction

Amplitude (an early rhythm game from Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band)

Ape Escape 2

Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (the Superman 64 for Aquaman)

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

Batman: Dark Tomorrow (the Superman 64 for Batman)

Beyond Good and Evil

Bloody Roar 4 (the last game in the series to release)

Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand (a very unique action RPG from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima)

Brute Force

Call of Duty (the very first one)

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Dark Cloud 2

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Devil May Cry 2

Dino Crisis 3 (C'mon, Capcom, do another one)

Disaster Report

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II

Drake of the 99 Dragons

Dynasty Warriors 4

Enter the Matrix

Eve Online

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (my personal favorite TRPG)

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy XI Online (in the States. Also the first MMO in the series)

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (the first Fire Emblem game to release in the States)

Freedom Fighters

Freelancer

F-Zero GX

The Getaway

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Grabbed by the Ghoulies (the first game developed by Rare after being acquired by Xbox)

.hack//Infection

.hack//Mutation

.hack//Outbreak (yep, three .hack games were released in a single year)

Homeworld 2

Ikaruga (the most video game-ass video game that ever video game'd)

Jak II

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

Kirby: Air Ride

Legacy of Kain: Defiance (the last game in the series to release)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Lost Kingdoms II

Manhunt

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Party 5

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Mega Man & Bass (was originally a Sega Saturn exclusive that only released in Japan. It released over in the States on the GBA.)

Mega Man Battle Network 3

Mega Man X7

Mega Man Zero 2

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

Midnight Club II

Need for Speed: Underground

Otogi: Myth of Demons (an early SoulsBorne-like game from From Software)

Panzer Dragoon Orta

P.N.03

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire (in the States)

Postal 2

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

Rise of Nations

Robocop (the Superman 64 for Robocop)

Silent Hill 3

The Simpsons: Hit & Run

Sonic Advance 2

SoulCalibur II (the console versions)

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

Star Wars: Galaxies

Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (a remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the GBA)

Tak and the Power of Juju

1080° Avalanche

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Tony Hawk’s Underground

Toontown Online

True Crime: Streets of LA (Activision's attempt at a GTA clone)

Unlimited SaGa

Unreal II: The Awakening

Viewtiful Joe

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (the last Warcraft game before WoW)

Wario World

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega MicroGame$!

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (The Will to Power)

XIII

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

[yuurei20]

Meet the Seiyuu: Lilia Vanrouge

Lilia’s VA  Midorikawa has voiced many characters in iconic series such as SLAM DUNK’s Rukawa Kaede and Gundam Wing’s Heero Yuy (the performance that inspired Shimazaki Nobunaga—the VA of Lilia’s adopted son, Silver—to go into voice acting as well).

In interviews Midorikawa has explained that he first formed an interest in voice acting in elementary school after watching the anime “Mobile Suit Gundam” and as a child he decided to, one day, join the same agency as the VA of the main character after reading about the company in a voice acting magazine.

That is now his current agency, Aoni Production.

As the eldest son in his family he was originally intended to take over the family pharmacy, but he defied his parents in order to pursue his dream of voice acting.

Midorikawa made his voice acting debut in 1988 and has since had roles in over 300 anime series and OVA and 400 video games. 

Where you know Midorikawa from will vary by generation, so here is a quick rundown of a fraction of the projects in which he has appeared: Flame of Recca, Weiß kreuz, Cowboy Bebop, GTO, Doraemon, Detective Conan, SHAMAN KING, s.CRY.ed, SAMURAI DEEPER KYO, Tokyo Mew Mew, Astro Boy, Saint Beast, Xenosaga THE ANIMATION, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh! (Season 0), Air Gear, CODE GEASS Lelouch of the Rebellion, Togainu no Chi...

...BLEACH, Angel Beats!, Fate/Zero, Saint Seiya, DIABOLIK LOVERS, Dragonball Z, Fushigi Yugi, Granblue Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, Persona 3, Danganronpa, ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., My Hero Academia, ONE PUNCH MAN, SK∞ the Infinity, AIR, Slayers and Tales of Destiny 2.

Midorikawa enjoys collecting merchandise that features characters he has voiced.

He appears as a guest in episode 5 of Twisted Radio Station, brings out a bag full of Twst-related merchandise (including a magical pen that he says he won in a raffle) and shows off his Diasomnia socks during the recording (much to Sebek's VA Ishiya Haruki's delight).

Collection of Midorikawa roles, Part 1

Collection of Midorikawa roles, Part 2

[doktorpeace]

I finished Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Redeemed

All in all absolutely phenomenal experience. Truly a visionary and audacious way to end such a popular series. Thematically resonant through to the end and well earned in the resolution it goes for. Beyond this I'm going to put a read more, under which will contain spoilers for the entire Xeno- franchise. That means Gears, Saga Episodes I-III, Chronicles 1-3, and X. I have a lot of thoughts and plenty more marinating to do, but these are my initial impressions.

Somehow managing to connect all of the Xeno- series not to AUs but canonically the same Prime Earth, which contextually is Our Earth is RIDICULOUS in how he pulled it off. It feels truly organic to all of the stories *AND* doesn't contradict any of them! It even, seemingly, directly ties into the beginning of X with it being 'May 23rd, 2022'. Elma arrived on Earth in the early 2020s and I believe she's that blue dot we see flying onto the Earth at the end of the credits.

Smashing all of those different FTL/Outer Space Colonization projects into a single radio broadcast in the background of just one cutscene is truly remarkable. Just a few lines recontextualizes this man's entire career.

And also, to those in the know, it reveals that all three of them: The Earthlife Colonization Project (Xenogears) The Immigrant Fleet (Xenosaga) and Project Exodus (Xenoblade X)

Occur due to Zohar related experiments gone horrifically wrong. Which we know from each series individually. But knowing that all of them stem from a single post-scarcity, conflict-free, truly equitable and globalized Earth, which nonetheless kept on trying different experiments with these godlike processors and all of them went awry is really interesting.

This game in particular very much focuses on the idea that advancement and power and control for their own sake are meaningless. If you don't have an idea behind it, if you don't want to make things the world tangibly better it's pointless.

Future Redeemed successfully ties every Xeno- game into this theme directly, no matter how subtle they are about it in their own content.

The Chronicles games happened solely because Klaus wanted to play God and make a new universe he would control, using The Zohar.

Gears happened because The Gazel Ministry wanted to create a creature that matched the Biblical God in terms of ability which they could control.

The Saga games happened because people wanted this power for transhumanism, to perfectly control the genes and births of every person, to ignore the realities of death and disease, but in doing so became so entrenched in making literal Designer Babies that it cuts off natural human diversity and reduces the people born to mere products and instruments shilled by different companies with different patents.

And all of these happened from The Zohar, a processor/machine mind that far outstrips anything humanity can believe. A thing which the humans of Earth only discovered by chance. Being meddled with purely out of avarice and hubris. The humans of that Earth didn't need any of those things. They'd already accomplished a perfect, post scarcity world. And that's why Alvis, a machine who's sole purpose is to be the logical arbiter between two other AI, when left to his own devices, decided going back to that would be best, no matter the cost.

He saw all of the tragedies in the three Chronicles settings that occurred solely due to Klaus' hubris and realized none of it would happen if these humans, the ones who've only known strife and difficulty and pain, had access to that post scarcity, conflict free, equitable world and beyond this, Takahashi buries the lede a little bit.

All of those previously mentioned projects to get humans off of earth. They're all cover ups by the Coalition Government of Earth. They're all touted as great advancements for human progress and potential but in actuality they're all just covering up massive, horrific, failures which would each result in the destruction of the Earth and its people. It's just Klaus' mistake had such immediate and tremendous consequences it couldn't be covered up.

Everything was destroyed in an instant. And we see, in Gears and Saga, that those decisions still ultimately do lead to an unimaginable amount of human suffering, just not on Earth. All they've done is ship off that suffering, literally, to some far reach of space.

Underpinning all of this is a distrust in the government and their motivations. A distrust for authority who claims they only want best for you.

Which is why Fei returns to living a quaint life. It's why Shion and Kos-Mos return to their normal. It's why Shulk refuses to become a god. It's why Rex and Pneuma live simple lives. And it's why Noah throws away the Sword of the End.

Each has the chance to become an ultimate authority, to have complete dominion over the lives of countless others, and they all give that up to just be...human. This franchise is truly something special. I cannot wait to see what comes next.

Please, Takahashi. Let us go back to Mira now.

Thank you, truly, @andawarmgeek, for sending me a download code out of the blue for Future Redeemed. This was an experience that I won't soon forget.

[deus-and-the-machina]

Maybe this was obvious but it really has just hit me recently that like. Every mainline xenoblade heroine and then some other characters are all just fucking kosmos.

like fiora? Robot girl housing some divine entity with an eye color change to accompany it.

Elma’s true form is just alien Kosmos pretty much to the point where some even theorized she was Kosmos’ next body.

Pyra and mythra? Artificially created beings (though them being initially ai is more of a revelation than a feature like kosmos being a robot is) who draw on the direct power of the Zohar/conduit, and pyras torso + weird short shorts resemble episode 1 kosmos’ design and Mythra’s shoulder armor diamonds are also similar to her design motifs.

Mio’s more of a callback to elly xenogears overall but even she can’t escape being kosmosified, namely in her ouroboros form which looks very kosmos-y. Heck you could probably argue M’s design is a bit kosmos-y too though it’s a bit more surface level “they both have light cool colored hair and armor”

But it doesn’t end there. You have Poppi QTpi (can’t find the pi symbol wailing) in canon is designed off the Aegis girls and I think out of canon utilizes aspects of Pyras beta design, meaning that she’s a kosmos twice removed. There’s also the superficial similarities of being a quirky robot girl though kosmos is only used comedically once in a while or in xenosaga freaks.

then A. A is the funniest example to me bc they fucking kosmosified the chaos-like (sentences that may not be in the Christian Bible but are definitely in A Bible that exists. hint hint play xenosaga) but vague appearance similarities aside A’s kosmos connections are more thematic. Defying your purpose and programming after developing empathy and going off at the end with an unsure but determined promise they’ll return again someday, it’s all very end of xenosaga 3. also kosmos herself is just in 2 along with t-elos. Meaning that counting the pneuma girls as separate, plus Poppi, xenoblade 2 has six fucking kosmos’ including kosmos herself.

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

curious; between drakengard, ar tornelico, and xenosaga, how would you rank them in terms of favorites? (or xenogears? i havent played any of the xeno series lol)

Making me choose between my favorites, aaa it’s tough, but I usually consider Xenosaga as a whole and Ar Tonelico 2 my all time favorite games.

If I had to pick just one, I think Xenosaga I’d consider the best of all time just cause the depth of its story and character writing are unmatched, and it’s one of the few series I can legitimately say I was interested in practically every character. I can’t pick between the three games (+pied piper) cause I think of them as a whole? It also had a lot of thought put into its world (I LOVE the in-game databases and the guidebook that has diagrams and everything explaining how the world works), turn based battle systems which I tend to prefer (Episode 1’s in particular is my favorite), and even the music (actually the reason I got into it, because I’m a fan of Yuki Kajiura and she did half the music for 2 and all for 3, episode 1 is also great cause Yasunori Mitsuda doing orchestral pieces) all work together to make a series I consider a masterpiece on every level.

Xenogears I do greatly enjoy too, but I think saga took a lot of what made gears good and improved on it? And also didn’t fall into the kinda annoying problem gears had where just about every female character is shoved into the mother role… good for some characters but I want variety please. (Blade is so disappointing and so different that I wish it wasn’t lumped in with gears and saga, it lacks the depth of those two so I simply do not care about it)

AT has my favorite worldbuilding and single most dear character (Infel), and of course its music and conlangs are legendary, and Drakenier has my favorite ending and boss fight (DOD1 ending E and The Final Song respectively) and some of the coolest concepts and also good music. Within Drakenier, DOD1 and Replicant (2010) are my favorites.

Surge Concerto I also consider among my all time favorite series, but that’s closely connected to Ar Tonelico, I just wanted to bring it up too!

[shinysamurott9]

I finished Xenosaga Episode 3 last night, meaning I have now played everything in the Xeno Series, it has its ups and downs but my god Xeno is incredible. Jr was easily my favourite from Saga, dual guns are cool and always will be, and he's also just a great character in general.

I tried to do something a bit different with poses and perspective here. Want to get better at that

Radio Man Jumpscare

[springdayautumnmoon]

My current RPG power rankings

(Disclaimer, I am still a zoomer to this genre don't be mean)

Tiers are ordered for the most part. The higher tiers I'm pretty certain about, but as you go down I put less and less thought into ordering them so don't take them too seriously. Also bear in mind, some of these games I haven't played in several years, especially the ones in the bottom tier. These are being judged based on how I think I'd feel about them today, even if I did enjoy them when I was younger.

S+ TIER (Crystalline perfection):

Xenoblade Chronicles

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

Deltarune (When it's finished, probably)

S TIER (Excellent):

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected

Fallout New Vegas

Deltarune (as is)

A TIER (Really good):

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Mother 2

Undertale

Live A Live

Xenosaga Episode 1: Das Fluten Duten

Mother 3

B TIER (Good):

Xenogears

Yakuza 7: I Refuse To Call This Series "Like a Dragon"

Final Fantasy VII

Get in the Car, Loser!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country

Mother 1

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

C TIER (Alright):

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Fallout 3

Fable: The Lost Chapters

D TIER (Boring):

Xenosaga Episode 2: Englisch Ist Mein Lieblingsfach

Pokemon Leaf Green

Fable 2