There is one additional question that Casen answered here: ua-cam.com/video/MZRm1Kg4HHI/v-deo.html With that done, we'd just like to thank everyone who watched all the way through this Xenogears series! Also, we want to point you toward Retrograde Amnesia's podcast (link here: ua-cam.com/channels/-ZMfpromeak2dHU4IybFYw.html) and Pat's website where you can read his books on game design (link here: thegamedesignforum.com/). Pat is also directing an RPG called Quartet, which you can learn more about here: store.steampowered.com/app/1307960/Quartet/
45:30 or you could assume that it was cellular degradation of Deus? 01:23:25 or it could be that (assuming it kills you when you receive the power) that he is testing the capabilities of him ressurecting Diabolos army for another try besides "training" Fei
It can’t be said enough that Chris and Eric did a truly comprehensive and wonderful overview of Xenogears. It was absolutely fantastic and had me laughing a ton throughout. To those who enjoyed the Resonant Arc boys, you will love the Retrograde amnesia podcast.
Hey Guys! I Just wanted to say a huge, heartfelt thank you for this amazing journey together. I was already a Xeno fan thanks to Xenosaga and Xenoblade, but this adventure together made me fall in love with the poetic ambition of Takahashi more than ever, turning this 24yo game into my favorite game ever. Thank you for the company you kept me in these long months and thank you again for the incredibile job and stress you faced to bring us this magnum opus. It's more than right that you take a long and deserved pause fron JRPGs in the podcast but know this: I'll be here, waiting for the Time of the Gospel when you will face that monstrous entity that is the Xenosaga. Name the price on Patreon for that, I'll support you. XenoSaga deserves an analysis as strong and deep as this. Once again thank you for the wonderful journey, can't wait to join you on the next one!
I'm listening to this 3 years late. But finished this this whole resonant arc series so good! My first time I played Xenogears I couldn't even read yet, I must've been 5 or 6 years old. I would simply try to memorize what my brothers did in interacting with characters to move the story forward. Since then I've played the game probably a dozen times over just to relive that thought provoking story. I really enjoyed the "how did this game affect you" section of this episode as it's a relatable part to me and I'm sure many others. It really got me to think about these deep concepts at such a young age and it's stuck with me forever. Other than that I love a story about destiny, something like Xenogears with Fei as the contact, or Dune and Lisan Al Gaib there's something that really grabs you about the idea of someone being destined for something larger than life.
Thanks for bringing Pat for this finale. These podcasts are giving another insight for people that are interested with the story, lore, and allegory in Xenogears. And also, godspeed for guys at Retrograde
so we finished the game it was really a life changing experience and I'm glad that I stuck to the end of this analysis from the start to finish and I Also want to say that I'm really glad that this podcast existed in the same time for my first playthrough of Xenogears -We Stood Tall And Shaked The Heavens
I finished Xenogears a week ago and really loved it, I dedicated the last 4 or so days to hearing this entire 21 part podcast and it was wonderful. You did the game justice and you absolutely gained a new subscriber. Thanks for the amazing experience and for basically making me understand this masterpiece.
"Krelian's Lab was a great dungeon but I can't handle 5 more of those" lmao. That is pretty much how I felt at the end of disc 1/switching to disc 2. I was right at 60 hours at that point and was kind of glad the bulk of the gameplay was done and was ready to get to the end. If disc 2 was fully playable like disc 1 it would have been like 100 hours easy.
To credit the genius that is Takahashi along the line of thought that he struggles by his own genius to finish his works, I believe I read that it wasn't until Nintendo gave him the ability to not rush his vision (as it was close to not finishing or being hampered like Xenogears and Saga) that he realized the commercial and acclaimed success that is Xenoblade.
Was looking for this comment. I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned in the talk. The game is beautiful and if you allow it to be what it is and not what you want, you are gifted with something great. The game had critical success, bogged down by anticipation and poor sales expectations. There is another UA-camr (an older lady 😉) that speaks on this more.
I absolutely love that you stayed true to the game and made the last episode 4 hours long lmao. True grit. Great job all around. I thoroughly enjoyed this series.
The EPR Paradox is not a scientific fact or theory, but rather it is a debate regarding the validity or possible flaws inherent to the Theory of Quantum Mechanics and by extension the Theory of General Relativity. It is very similar to how Schrodinger called out some of the apparent flaws in General Relativity. Generally speaking the "paradox" is that both Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity work very well for what they are applied to; But they are fundamentally incompatible theories. So how can they both be right? (If you have heard of string theory that is a half baked attempt to try and get both QM and GR to play nice together). Particularly it is a thought experiment presented by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen to Bohr and Heisenberg which questions the validity of quantum entanglement and the state of unobserved reality. Basically it was designed to show how the idea of measuring one particle A would have any discernable effect on the state of a second unobserved particle B is absurd. For starters, the transfer of info from A to B would occur FTL, an impossibility according to GR (see told you QM and GR don't like each other). And secondly the true state of B exist regardless of the state of A or whether it has been observed. In a nutshell it's an argument regarding the fundamental nature of reality between some Big Brains w/ no particular conclusion - hence paradox. The idea discussed here is is one viewpoint; that concludes reality is defined by our perception of it. The other viewpoint (ironically the one Einstein was advocating) is the idea that the world exists in a defined state regardless of our perception; Perception only effects how much of that reality we are able to observe.
I was literally thinking; "I hope they release the final episode in a day where I'm not on phones at work" and you did it! I'm so happy you guys experienced this game. I need to do so but hearing all the unique ideas or comments was great. I'd love if you guys did a Tales of game like Tales of the Abyss because it's Ike Xenogears in terms of the dense story but excellent plot and characters.
Tales of the Abyss is a great game and I'm happy to see more and more people mentioning it recently. By far my favorite Tales games and one of the best JRPG protagonists. We really need a remastered version for modern platforms.
46:32 In regards to the 10,000 years "deadline" I liked Patrick's answer that maybe the villains didn't know, but I thought of another good answer, which also fits Deus' character/role. What if Deus was intentionally deceiving its subordinates with the deadline, in order to keep them on track? Kind of how like your boss sets a deadline at work, just to keep you working your hardest, but when you miss the deadline, suddenly there's a "new" deadline.
The biological portion of Deus would also be deteriorating though right? They even mention this in the podcast. Eventually Dues would no longer be functional so I think Deus put a time limit on the resurrection in order to be repaired before it was too late and the system failed completely.
The problem with this answer is that Perfect Works is clearly using the deadline as a plot hook for an unrealized new entry in the series, so there's definitely more to it than just trickery. You simply cannot find a straight answer with what we are given in both the game and PW. I think that theorizing over this in terms of "remaining side mystery" instead of "plot hook that's foreshadowing stuff to come" is problematic. If you'd pardon the expression, you cannot just handwave a massive plot hook (which even Perfect Works calls a huge, unsolved mystery) with a boring explanation such as "this machine be tricking his wiping boys".
Hey guys! Loved the series. Being a philosopher PhD myself, I appreciated and was impressed by how clear Patrick was when explaining the relationship between Platonismo/Neo-platonism and Gnosticism.
But why does it sound like he's on 1.25 speed and everyone else is on normal? And why does it sound like he's on the other end of a Wendy's drive through intercom? And why is his head so big? At what point does that cross over into being a medical condition? Meanwhile y'all got a real nice basement setup and great mic presence.
Congratulations on reaching the end of this marathon! Tons of analysis and interesting discussion in this series that I'm sure will be revisited by many people replaying the game for years to come.
I always wanted to play this game, and this series absolutely increased my enjoyment of it tenfold. Thanks so much for the great work - the format, the research, and the presentation is all top class. Absolutely phenomenal series of videos guys.
This was like the pizza party at the end of the semester. Great job on the whole thing. Having these episodes on in the background always helped the workday go by more quickly.
This has been a wild ride. It's almost embarrassing how quickly I managed to binge through this entire Xenogears series. I never had the chance to play Xenogears. I wasn't in a wealthy family and could only afford an N64 and even then didn't have the biggest library of games for it. But I was exposed to Xenogears early on when my family visited my aunt and her family and my cooler older cousin had a Playstation 1 and tons of those classic JRPGs, which were like his favorite game genre back then. It's where I got exposed to Final Fantasy 7+8+9 for the first time. Legend of Legia, Wild Arms. I generally didn't get the chance to play them, to be honest they were definitely above me to play and understand back then. But I did watch him play through and he'd show me all sorts of neat things he'd unlocked like his 100% saves or watch through him doing part of a 2nd playthrough. It was like a whole other world. And aside from Final Fantasy VII which is the one game on that list I would actually someday play, the one game that always stuck with me the most was Xenogears. I had always wanted to play Xenogears and it stuck with me for a while that mix of playing with the giant mecha and the on foot segments. But I never really had a good chance to. I did have the playstation classic version on Playstation 3 but sadly my fatty PS3 bricked before I could really dig into it beyond the Blackmoon Forest. Max Derrat's video sent me on my way to this playlist and sitting down, listening to it the past week or 2 weeks, has been really enjoyable. I don't think I have the time or energy to commit to playing a game like Xenogears at this point in my life, but listening through this book club style while also having Mike's foreknowledge and preparation and research about the sheer staggering amount of depth and references and influences Xenogears drew from really put into perspective how unparalleled this game was in many ways. You really just don't get games that feel like this have this level of scope to their world, history, and characters like you did from the JRPGs of this era and it was definitely something I felt when I finally got around to playing and beating Final Fantasy VII around like 2009~ ish. I do still feel a bit of disappointment that Xenogears wasn't something I got to play and experience maybe when I was a bit older than when I was first exposed to it to where I could beat a game like that. Like 12-13+ But I think this podcast gave me as rich of an exploration I could have ever hoped and felt like a solid substitute toward that experience and answering and putting to rest why all those fleeting memories of a game I only say snippets of left me so curious and stuck in my head for so many years. Subscribed and looking forward to more stuff from you guys.
I played the game A LONG time ago and this really helped me understand the game as a whole. I'll play it again someday but you guys inspired me to take another look at this piece of art. Thank you
This has been a journey for me with this book/game club approach and let me tell ya I had that single tear fall when I heard the music signing us off. To do this with something that shaped my childhood is....I just want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart! Amazing job guys
Gotta say, Mike talking about learning more about the inner opposite was really amazing for me to see. I've been watching your videos/listening to these podcasts for a while now and it was always noticeable to me how Mike was always focused on rationality and logic (which wasn't a bad thing), leading to not quite understanding some things commenters/other people disagreed about or found meaningful. It's just really cool to see Mike learn more about that because of Xenogears/this podcast.
Thanks so much for this series. It was my third playthrough and I did it along with this series,Chris and Erich's hilarious and insightful podcast, a first watch-through of Evangelion, and reading Childhood's End. It's been my favorite game since my first playthrough in 1999, but I think I finally understand the plot and inspirations much better. So thanks again for the fantastic series. And hats off to Casen for picking up so much as it went along. Watching his insights and reactions was a real highlight.
This is the same Patrick Holleman who did the 'CT & Structural Perfection' video. I was wondering what happened to him. Glad to see he's doing just fine.
1:28:00 I think there's a lot more to Ygg IV than you guys give it credit for. This specific part of Disc 2 is really poorly done, so no fault for missing it, but this segment is very important to the themes of the game. The whole Ygg 4 part represents the unification of the surface dwelling nations of Kislev and Av, the end of the 500 years of suffering, and joining together against a common enemy. The body of Ygg 4 is in the Kislev capital, but can only be used with the Yggdrasil, an Aven ship. This likely also would have been where a lot of Rico's payoff would be, as the son of the Kaiser.
This was such an amazing podcast. I binged the hell out of it on my travels a few weeks after completing the game and I must say it really deepened and expanded the experience. Thank you for your work, what a ride, what a blast. Keep up the good stuff! :)
Thank you so much for doing this. I played Xenogears on release I woulda been around 13 and could barely grasp anything and struggle greatly to comprehend through reading but I was very drawn to the psychology stuff and the deep thinking that the game provokes. It's been my number 1 since I've said so many times it's one of those "if I had a nickel" situations. All the work you put into learning what is involved in the game. I cannot imagine honestly. The journey of this game with you guys coming to an end here brought me to tears. Almost as good as the game itself. Thank you. 2:16:45 This is what brought me to tears the most here as we're wrapping up. I don't know what it is that prevents me from being able to do this. I have extreme trouble reading and retaining the information for longer than maybe a half second. So this podcast and everyone involved the guests too and Casen's first play through experience combined with his knowledge of stuff has been beyond amazing. Casen talking about Babel Tower Episode 1 two seconds into the game was so mind blowing because I myself know nothing about everything so literally every outside bit of information was new to me. I cannot thank everyone involved enough for this. Oh and this was my first impression of your channel so GOOD FETCHING JOB!
After this 5 month adventure with you guys it pains my heart to know this will not reach the amount of people it deserves, Xenogears is already a cultural phenomenon that has touched way less people than is fair, and has been really instrumental in the growth and development of a very privileged group of people, and in the end that is more important than sales or views, thank you very much for giving this amazing piece of art some much needed exposure.
The first time I was introduced to Xenogears wasn't the robot on the box art, it was the demo disc that came with a different Squaresoft game. I had no idea what it was before that, and as I played the demo, what stuck out to me wasn't the robots or the storyline, but the really fun version of a turn based RPG battle system. I suppose it was really the presentation more than anything. The really cool looking sprite art and animations used for the Deathblows really impressed me. I remember that day I played it, I went out to the store with my friend who could drive already (and I couldn't) just to buy the game. So you could say it was completely shallow reasons that I discovered the game. Yet as I played it, I was a young dumb teenager, I think I was 15 or 16 at the time, and had zero knowledge of any sort of philosophies or any knowledge of any religion other than Christianity. Yet the depth of the game's plot and world building was not completely lost on me, even if I couldn't possibly understand it all yet. The plot had a lot of religious references and very deep confusing and epic moments, so at the time, I thought of it as an off brand Neon Genesis Evangelion game. That was the best thing I had at the time to compare it to. But as I played it, I fell so in love with the entire world, the confusing but deep story, and most of all a few of the characters in particular. Citan Uzuki is my favorite RPG character of all time, even still to this day. Watching this entire series of podcasts helped me greatly with understanding a lot of the more convoluted aspects of the story that I never understood before.
It was the demo disc that was packaged with Parasite Eve. It had demos for Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi and Bushism Blade on it. But more importantly, it had an FMV from FF8 on it as well. I still have that demo disc and replayed the demo and there is some whacky stuff on it
Some final thoughts on Xenogears that I've been saving to see if you guys covered some of it. Xenogears, to me at least, always read as a counter to Gnosticism. Fei, being the Christ figure, was created by the Monad (Wave Existence) to destroy the Demiurge (Deus). I always thought that if the story had played out like in Gnosticism, Fei would have brought gnosis, that knowledge of that inner divine nature and flawed material nature, to humanity and they would have all left their physical bodies behind and joined with the W.E. In other words, it would've ended like an Arthur C. Clarke novel with the evolution of man into some divine being. I also figured that's why Karellen (a pretty clear reference to Childhood's End) was an antagonist in this game. I think Xenogears works as a JRPG, specifically, because of the way it uses a lot of the tropes of the genre. Stuff like the generic glass shattering battle transition being used as a symbolic representation of Fei's psyche, save points having an in-universe narrative purpose, and ether being used as a metaphor for the Pleroma instead of just being some generic magic system, all help elevate the game for me. I'm surprised that Pat didn't mention the comparisons between the Gnostic stuff and some of the psychoanalytic content. The Monad (W.E.), Demiurge (Deus), and Sophia (Kadomony/Ellehayym) always struck me as being intentionally meant to parallel the way Fei had the three personas within him, representing the Id, Ego, and Superego. That and having the male Demiurge and the female Sophia act like a male-female aion pair/syzygy with the genderless Monad seemed like it was supposed to symbolize the animus and anima. I mean, the Kadomony itself being composed of the -Persona-, -Anima-, and -Animus- felt like it was reiterating that sort of symbolism. Also, Casen mentioned it at the start of the game, but it never got mentioned again. Early on, he talked about the four stages of anima/animus development. And there are four incarnations of Abel/Elly. Elly's incarnations in particular mirror the stages of Anima development pretty clearly from Eve to Helen, Mary, and finally Sophia. It also makes it a bit more clear what the intent behind Lacan not being able to properly reunite with the Wave Existence was. I don't think I have more strongly mixed feelings about any other piece of media besides Xenogears, but there is something about it that has stuck with me. It's probably a mix of the scale, depth, and ambition that keeps me coming back and thinking about it. I don't know if there are many other games, or anything else really, that has had as big of an impact on my taste and own creative vision. Thanks for doing this podcast, guys. It's been a blast and super insightful.
You guys mentioned other stuff with the same depth as Xenogears, I'd say the only games I've played that have anywhere close to the same depth is stuff like The Silver Case and most of Suda Goichi's pre-No More Heroes work as well as Marathon Infinity.
Top tier comment. There is something about Xenogears that has significantly influenced my writing, as well, particularly its focus on the sort of cyclic futility of man (Fei/Elly death/rebirth).
55:30 "Consciousness" isn't what causes wave-function collapse. It's merely the act of quantum systems interacting with the outside world that causes wave-function collapse. At least, that's according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is the dominant interpretation of quantum mechanics. There is, however, an interpretation of quantum mechanics called the Von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation which *_does_* posit that it has something to do with human consciousness that causes wave-function collapse, but very few physicists actually believe the interpretation to hold any merit.
@@RetrogradeAmnesia I thought he didn't on the first episode of this podcast,showing my ignorance i suppose lol. Regardless though it adds to the experience. Thanks for all the content y'all produce that i regularly re-watch.
You guys don't know how stoked I am that there's other fans of this game out there that make in-depth analysis content like this. There's not a lot I remember from my middle adolescents back in 1998, but xenogears has always popped into my mind every so often thought the years.
Never let anyone tell you, whether your a planner or a pantser, that your writing style is wrong. They are both completely legit and have representation in the upper echelon of successful novelists. Stephan King, for instance, famously spurns an outline as stifling to his creativity.
One year late to the party, but I finally played Xenogears last winter then listened to this entire podcast on my travels. It was a great ride and you guys' input helped solidify Xenogear's story as one of the best I've ever been told in gaming. In my experience CD2's pacing wasn't as bad as I'd thought since I was playing the game with cheats on to deactivate random encounters and rebalance the party's experience gain at will. It made CD1 far more cinematic and its pacing closer to CD2's.
I'm a couple years late to watching this series, but I absolutely loved what you guys did. I received Xenogears as soon as it was released on the PS1, and played it several times for the last couple decades. My second most favourite game (second to FF7), and it really remains a masterpiece. I was on internet forums discussing the plot prior to people translating Perfect Works online, and it was great to see how peoples theories were a hit or miss. I hope one day this can be a remake.
To say that this was a journey and a blast and an amazing experience is to say nothing. I loved this series and it is great that you decided to feature other great people that delve deeper into games like this. Thank you so much :)
You did great guys, you did the game justice. Job well done. Hopefully a Chrono Cross 20 Episode series on the horizon! Especially with the remaster/remake coming potentially in the near future.
I really loved this analysis series as a long time fan of this game and this era of Squaresoft. I had already heard Retrograde Amnesia as well as other video essayists talk at length about the religious and philosophical imagery of the game. The emphasis you guys put on the linguistics is the part that I find so invaluable. Even the most seasoned of game critics have a tendency to throw up their arms in dismissal for games like this and say: "Bad translation therefor bad game." I think it's brilliant that you guys worked tirelessly not to give this story short shrift and always strive to make sense of all the text as presented while also being able to interpret the Japanese script. Probably my favorite part of this is then watching through the series after this one and Casen always finding an excuse to bring up similarities to Xenogears. I LOVE that! I love that he's become such an unabashed fan of Xenogears that he literally cant help himself. As a long time fan of Xenogears that's the best! Thanks and keep up the great work.
Xenogears is a true work of art. I played it in 1998 when I was 15 years old and it deeply affected me and changed my life. I replay it to this day every couple of years. I don't think I will ever see any other game that will captivate me as much. To me, it transcends the medium of videogames, and I consider it to be real Art.
Well this was a Great Series. Thanks to Mike and Casen for creating such a entertaining and informative show. Thanks as well as to Patrick, Eric and Christ for their valuable input. This has been such a Fun deep dive into one of my favorite games. Congratulations on completing such a monumental achievement and I am looking forward to what comes next. Enjoy your well deserved rest and be content w/ a job well done. Though I know this was a thoroughly exhausting experience, I do home someday the will brave tackling the Xenosaga series as well.
I have listened to each of these podcasters over an audio format for years and am really surprised by the human faces behind the voices. Not unpleasantly surprised, mind you, just very different than what I was presuming, albeit unconsciously. Imagination makes novels especially individualistic for the same reason.
Thanks for saying those nice things. We know you've been around Retrograde Amnesia since basically the beginning and we appreciate it very much. Onward!
Based on 2:02:00 The hierarchies in Gears are all build on false interpretations of divine knowledge and how those claiming to know the true face of god put themselves above others in a sense devouring others without learning from the other side of the story, the hidden or occulted knowledge. They devour and only rebirth their own flawed self image, so their hierachie is eternal stagnation while the opposite of the Ouroboros is the one winged angels that birth the promethean or divine flame through cooperation. It's not really just "hierarchie is bad" rather "don't think you know everything and instead try to learn from your opposite" kinda in a "love your enemy" type of sense
Finally finished this series - what a magnificent series of podcast and analysis. It was truly a joy watching everything (and some segments, twice) and it has truly depend my appreciation for Xenogears and I learned a lot about Gnosticism, lacan, Jung, freud, Jewish mysticism and all the other topics that were covered. I'm a more educated and better person for it. And I can't say that about other gaming content on UA-cam.
Did Mike ever talk more in-depth about Childhood's End during this series? I just played Xenogears for the first time alongside the podcast and read Childhood's End too because he kept mentioning it but I don't remember hearing him get back to it. Anyway, even a few years later, this was an amazing series and I feel lucky I got to play the game for the first side along with your guys' analysis. Been feeling really lost within myself lately and everything about Xenogears has given me a lot to chew on and think about. Feels like I'm finally moving forward again.
Xenogears story is just pure art. It’s going to hang around because there is human emotion attached to it and because it closely mirrors our own world. 1,000 years could pass and this story will still be relevant because it is a human story. We play the game because it’s fun, but we are left with deep philosophies that trigger us to try to understand. Once we are shown what this game is about, we cannot just go back to how we were.
I'm sooo behind on the episodes of this but I feel everyone young person needs to hear everything spoken from 1:50:00 onward, especially the part about education through storytelling and embracing both the yin and the yang, the masculine and the feminine. Learning how to communicate with others.
So amazing watching this series - outstanding work Mike and Casen! This has been the best podcast series I’ve ever listened to and found myself anxiously waiting for each new episode! Huge props to Pat for coming on as well, what an enthusiastic, intelligent and well spoken guy! Would listen to a podcast of his as well. Additionally, welcome back to the retrograde amnesia boys! Great having you on for the finale!
I want to fight this guy on Chrono Cross...and Lain. But really, amazing job. This is the most in depth discussion. He is also completely wrong on there being no plan for One Piece. Thing has had the ending written since the beginning, and every arc adds to the previous one and the world at large.
Hearing him say that made me assume he was simply pulling a "Long Manga Bad" of sorts. Like "How could something that has gone on for THIS LONG be planned out? It has to be like a Detective Conan or Pokemon deal where there isn't really a plan" which is straight up false. While not everything was planned, Oda has been working on the story since he was in Grade School, he's had a meticulous plan of exactly where the story would go. He just had the chance to flesh out that story
I honestly didn't mind the format of disc 2. Disc one was so long and I didn't like the combat very much, so it was nice to skip over most of the dungeons and get right to the bosses and story. If the whole game had been like that I probably wouldn't have connected with it but after 60 hours on disc 1 it was a welcome change.
my only issue with xenogears is that they run out of time and the game was never fully realized and while I fully understand that a private company (especially back then) have a right to put up a budget and timeline for projects they SHOULD have been able to stretch it somewhat -especially when at the finishing line. Xenogear got voted by famitsu readers as their 10 most favorite game of all time these latest 30 years and squaresoft couldnt realize themself that they worked on a great game ?
I like to think that part of the reason Deus got the Wels and eventually the Seraphs (with Krelian's help) rather than Diabolos is part of the whole demiurge-is-always-flawed thing. Or in lore terms, the Diabolos were developed by an advanced civilization. On this primitive planet scavenging crashed starship parts after at least several cycles of near-human extinction, it is not working with much. The nanomachines do bridge the gap somewhat and it's unclear whether Deus' developers had nanomachines given Deus' incredibly... convoluted regeneration system (or didn't want a grey goo situation). Rather than microscopic components of a war machine reassembling itself, it just has very large components.
i feel when it comes to jrpgs the closet to xenogear's narrative complexly might be yoko taro's games. but for the most part alot of these tend to be more common in western style rpgs. like planescape torment comes to mind instantly as it and gears have a similar concept with past lives.
Congratulations, guys, and thank you for endeavoring on this immense project! You inspired me to revisit my favorite game from my childhood, and I now understand it and appreciate its unique achievements and quirky flaws better than I ever expected. Thank you for creating a comprehensive modern legacy for this unique and deserving title!
What a fulfilling journey! Wonderful ending with deep discussion. A really nicely organized discussion, good listeners all around. I Hope this isn't the end of Casen referencing Gandalf every episode though!
I have to point out an error in a comparison to antagonists in other games "being correct" or "speaking truth". In FF7, Sephiroth is not exposed to the truth of himself or Jenova until, I believe, he is awakened from his sleep in the northern cavern by Cloud and the Black Materia. In the library beneath the mansion in Nibelheim, Sephiroth comes to the conclusion that Jenova was a Setra and he was descended from that line, as his "mother" was Jenova. Just from the game, it seems he is misguided on what things truly are and where their places are in the world. We don't get much dialogue from Sephiroth after he is awakened, which is really a shame, but there had to be a point during his slumber where he realized what Jenova truly was and sought ultimate power for himself rather than for Jenova. He's not as linear in his goals as it seems at times, and I think that works in his favor in terms of being an interesting antagonist. He has suffered, he doesn't have a place he belongs, and he is willing to do anything to find that place. And though he finds a goal, it was not there the whole time. Feels more organic and realistic. Thanks for the great content, everyone!! I have enjoyed this series immensely!
Excellent episode - I was looking forward most to this one. And yes, Sonic fan here - definitely agree that it's fallen to the wayside (until recently, with Sonic Mania) arguably since it moved on from the Genesis. Anyway. The question, "Which element do you think made Xenogears work..." - For me, personally, I feel that every "element" used to present and convey the game, in exactly the way they utilized them, made Xenogears into the treasure that it is. And that is an extremely bland, broad/generic (of course) kind of answer. However, there is one aspect that, if not present/done by someone else... the game/story simply would have struggled tremendously. And that is the musical score Yasunori Mitsuda contributed. Chris mentioned a "glue guy"... and to me, that is Mitsuda's work in Xenogears. For me, it is his best work (and also, my favorite of his - there's a distinction ;) ). Had it not been for him, I don't think the characters/themes/scenarios/dialogue, would have carried quite so much the weight and depth of heart that they do. Simply irreplaceable.
1:52:30 I completely agree. I hate the American school system, but I want to teach! I want to inspire critical thinking through art. I was not hired to stay and teach again during the next school year at my current position at a school that focuses on test scores. I plan to ask in any upcoming interviews how the school builds a culture of literacy and if I’m allowed to teach students in different manners instead of making it a factory classroom.
Man...what a journey I beat this game eailer this year, iv been subbed to these guys for awhile and had no idea this is wat they've been up to crazy how things work out sometimes ....
Positively loved the podcast but 55:28 is a big no no. As usual, an extremely bad choice of word from scientists lets us think totally wild - and wrong - interpretations. There is no such thing as "someone is observing" in quantum physics, "observation" was the word chosen for an interaction between a quantum object and a measuring device ; it generally refers now to any interaction leading to an object losing its superposition of states and falling into a classical state. Any interaction, with anything, may constitute an "observation" and there is absolutely no requirement for any form of life or consciousness to be part of the process. This confusion, originally made by some founders of quantum physics, is still plaguing us today.
I played this game around 11 to 14 years old. And it led me to read about all this stuff, drawing, 3d modeling. It really changed my life on how I think of trauma and opportunity. Beautiful series, most of the silliness of the game I may explain as appealing to kids, because as a kid I really liked the voltron scene 🤣 also my family was religious, but my parents did not speak english or knew anything about videogames, so my dad got me the robot game on a whim.
Best rpg channel around imo. Appreciate your work, subbing to your patreon. Great video quality and editing as well as always. Also Mike, drop that workout routine dawg!
There is one additional question that Casen answered here: ua-cam.com/video/MZRm1Kg4HHI/v-deo.html
With that done, we'd just like to thank everyone who watched all the way through this Xenogears series! Also, we want to point you toward Retrograde Amnesia's podcast (link here: ua-cam.com/channels/-ZMfpromeak2dHU4IybFYw.html) and Pat's website where you can read his books on game design (link here: thegamedesignforum.com/). Pat is also directing an RPG called Quartet, which you can learn more about here: store.steampowered.com/app/1307960/Quartet/
45:30 or you could assume that it was cellular degradation of Deus?
01:23:25 or it could be that (assuming it kills you when you receive the power) that he is testing the capabilities of him ressurecting Diabolos army for another try besides "training" Fei
1:51:52 can you imagine a world where your teacher makes you play Xenogears as a homework to understand philosophy and literature?
I, too, bought Xenogears because of the robot in the cover and had noooooo idea it would forever change my life.
It can’t be said enough that Chris and Eric did a truly comprehensive and wonderful overview of Xenogears. It was absolutely fantastic and had me laughing a ton throughout.
To those who enjoyed the Resonant Arc boys, you will love the Retrograde amnesia podcast.
Hey Guys! I Just wanted to say a huge, heartfelt thank you for this amazing journey together.
I was already a Xeno fan thanks to Xenosaga and Xenoblade, but this adventure together made me fall in love with the poetic ambition of Takahashi more than ever, turning this 24yo game into my favorite game ever.
Thank you for the company you kept me in these long months and thank you again for the incredibile job and stress you faced to bring us this magnum opus.
It's more than right that you take a long and deserved pause fron JRPGs in the podcast but know this: I'll be here, waiting for the Time of the Gospel when you will face that monstrous entity that is the Xenosaga. Name the price on Patreon for that, I'll support you. XenoSaga deserves an analysis as strong and deep as this.
Once again thank you for the wonderful journey, can't wait to join you on the next one!
I'm so glad this series exists, one the most influential works of fiction when it comes to my artistic career. Thank you so much.
I'm listening to this 3 years late. But finished this this whole resonant arc series so good! My first time I played Xenogears I couldn't even read yet, I must've been 5 or 6 years old. I would simply try to memorize what my brothers did in interacting with characters to move the story forward. Since then I've played the game probably a dozen times over just to relive that thought provoking story.
I really enjoyed the "how did this game affect you" section of this episode as it's a relatable part to me and I'm sure many others. It really got me to think about these deep concepts at such a young age and it's stuck with me forever. Other than that I love a story about destiny, something like Xenogears with Fei as the contact, or Dune and Lisan Al Gaib there's something that really grabs you about the idea of someone being destined for something larger than life.
Thanks for bringing Pat for this finale. These podcasts are giving another insight for people that are interested with the story, lore, and allegory in Xenogears. And also, godspeed for guys at Retrograde
so we finished the game it was really a life changing experience and I'm glad that I stuck to the end of this analysis from the start to finish and I Also want to say that I'm really glad that this podcast existed in the same time for my first playthrough of Xenogears
-We Stood Tall And Shaked The Heavens
This series has been one of the most enriching content I have ever consumed!
I finished Xenogears a week ago and really loved it, I dedicated the last 4 or so days to hearing this entire 21 part podcast and it was wonderful. You did the game justice and you absolutely gained a new subscriber. Thanks for the amazing experience and for basically making me understand this masterpiece.
This podcast made me really appreciate the complexity of this story. Thank you so much for giving context to a game I’ve loved for over 20 years!
"Krelian's Lab was a great dungeon but I can't handle 5 more of those" lmao. That is pretty much how I felt at the end of disc 1/switching to disc 2. I was right at 60 hours at that point and was kind of glad the bulk of the gameplay was done and was ready to get to the end. If disc 2 was fully playable like disc 1 it would have been like 100 hours easy.
To credit the genius that is Takahashi along the line of thought that he struggles by his own genius to finish his works, I believe I read that it wasn't until Nintendo gave him the ability to not rush his vision (as it was close to not finishing or being hampered like Xenogears and Saga) that he realized the commercial and acclaimed success that is Xenoblade.
Was looking for this comment. I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned in the talk. The game is beautiful and if you allow it to be what it is and not what you want, you are gifted with something great. The game had critical success, bogged down by anticipation and poor sales expectations. There is another UA-camr (an older lady 😉) that speaks on this more.
I absolutely love that you stayed true to the game and made the last episode 4 hours long lmao. True grit. Great job all around. I thoroughly enjoyed this series.
The EPR Paradox is not a scientific fact or theory, but rather it is a debate regarding the validity or possible flaws inherent to the Theory of Quantum Mechanics and by extension the Theory of General Relativity. It is very similar to how Schrodinger called out some of the apparent flaws in General Relativity. Generally speaking the "paradox" is that both Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity work very well for what they are applied to; But they are fundamentally incompatible theories. So how can they both be right? (If you have heard of string theory that is a half baked attempt to try and get both QM and GR to play nice together). Particularly it is a thought experiment presented by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen to Bohr and Heisenberg which questions the validity of quantum entanglement and the state of unobserved reality. Basically it was designed to show how the idea of measuring one particle A would have any discernable effect on the state of a second unobserved particle B is absurd. For starters, the transfer of info from A to B would occur FTL, an impossibility according to GR (see told you QM and GR don't like each other). And secondly the true state of B exist regardless of the state of A or whether it has been observed.
In a nutshell it's an argument regarding the fundamental nature of reality between some Big Brains w/ no particular conclusion - hence paradox. The idea discussed here is is one viewpoint; that concludes reality is defined by our perception of it. The other viewpoint (ironically the one Einstein was advocating) is the idea that the world exists in a defined state regardless of our perception; Perception only effects how much of that reality we are able to observe.
I am a total Pat Holleman stan. I love this dude
Stan?
I was literally thinking; "I hope they release the final episode in a day where I'm not on phones at work" and you did it!
I'm so happy you guys experienced this game. I need to do so but hearing all the unique ideas or comments was great.
I'd love if you guys did a Tales of game like Tales of the Abyss because it's Ike Xenogears in terms of the dense story but excellent plot and characters.
Tales of the Abyss is a great game and I'm happy to see more and more people mentioning it recently. By far my favorite Tales games and one of the best JRPG protagonists. We really need a remastered version for modern platforms.
46:32 In regards to the 10,000 years "deadline" I liked Patrick's answer that maybe the villains didn't know, but I thought of another good answer, which also fits Deus' character/role. What if Deus was intentionally deceiving its subordinates with the deadline, in order to keep them on track? Kind of how like your boss sets a deadline at work, just to keep you working your hardest, but when you miss the deadline, suddenly there's a "new" deadline.
The biological portion of Deus would also be deteriorating though right? They even mention this in the podcast. Eventually Dues would no longer be functional so I think Deus put a time limit on the resurrection in order to be repaired before it was too late and the system failed completely.
The problem with this answer is that Perfect Works is clearly using the deadline as a plot hook for an unrealized new entry in the series, so there's definitely more to it than just trickery. You simply cannot find a straight answer with what we are given in both the game and PW. I think that theorizing over this in terms of "remaining side mystery" instead of "plot hook that's foreshadowing stuff to come" is problematic. If you'd pardon the expression, you cannot just handwave a massive plot hook (which even Perfect Works calls a huge, unsolved mystery) with a boring explanation such as "this machine be tricking his wiping boys".
when Casen said that Dna by BTS was basically xenogear i realized that DNA by Kendrick Lamar is also basically Xenogears
Hey guys! Loved the series. Being a philosopher PhD myself, I appreciated and was impressed by how clear Patrick was when explaining the relationship between Platonismo/Neo-platonism and Gnosticism.
PHEW! I was afraid a real Platonist was gonna come in here and totally destroy me. (I'm just a game dev who secretly wants to be Tetsuya Takahashi!)
They say that if you bring Patrick Holleman on a podcast, ye shall be as gods.
But why does it sound like he's on 1.25 speed and everyone else is on normal? And why does it sound like he's on the other end of a Wendy's drive through intercom? And why is his head so big? At what point does that cross over into being a medical condition?
Meanwhile y'all got a real nice basement setup and great mic presence.
@@patrickholleman9323 You make some valid criticisms of Patrick Holleman.
@@WildMatsu He's problematic.
I choose rather to believe the old myths and legends...
Thanks for answering my question, and thanks for the podcast. Really looking forward to the next game project you guys play through.
What a wonderful finale. Bringing in the additional perspectives and thoughts really made this special.
Thanks for this podcast! It motivated me to finally get through all of Xenogears and now I have a new favourite JRPG
Congratulations on reaching the end of this marathon!
Tons of analysis and interesting discussion in this series that I'm sure will be revisited by many people replaying the game for years to come.
I always wanted to play this game, and this series absolutely increased my enjoyment of it tenfold. Thanks so much for the great work - the format, the research, and the presentation is all top class. Absolutely phenomenal series of videos guys.
This was like the pizza party at the end of the semester. Great job on the whole thing. Having these episodes on in the background always helped the workday go by more quickly.
This has been a wild ride. It's almost embarrassing how quickly I managed to binge through this entire Xenogears series.
I never had the chance to play Xenogears. I wasn't in a wealthy family and could only afford an N64 and even then didn't have the biggest library of games for it.
But I was exposed to Xenogears early on when my family visited my aunt and her family and my cooler older cousin had a Playstation 1 and tons of those classic JRPGs, which were like his favorite game genre back then. It's where I got exposed to Final Fantasy 7+8+9 for the first time. Legend of Legia, Wild Arms. I generally didn't get the chance to play them, to be honest they were definitely above me to play and understand back then. But I did watch him play through and he'd show me all sorts of neat things he'd unlocked like his 100% saves or watch through him doing part of a 2nd playthrough. It was like a whole other world. And aside from Final Fantasy VII which is the one game on that list I would actually someday play, the one game that always stuck with me the most was Xenogears.
I had always wanted to play Xenogears and it stuck with me for a while that mix of playing with the giant mecha and the on foot segments. But I never really had a good chance to. I did have the playstation classic version on Playstation 3 but sadly my fatty PS3 bricked before I could really dig into it beyond the Blackmoon Forest.
Max Derrat's video sent me on my way to this playlist and sitting down, listening to it the past week or 2 weeks, has been really enjoyable. I don't think I have the time or energy to commit to playing a game like Xenogears at this point in my life, but listening through this book club style while also having Mike's foreknowledge and preparation and research about the sheer staggering amount of depth and references and influences Xenogears drew from really put into perspective how unparalleled this game was in many ways. You really just don't get games that feel like this have this level of scope to their world, history, and characters like you did from the JRPGs of this era and it was definitely something I felt when I finally got around to playing and beating Final Fantasy VII around like 2009~ ish.
I do still feel a bit of disappointment that Xenogears wasn't something I got to play and experience maybe when I was a bit older than when I was first exposed to it to where I could beat a game like that. Like 12-13+ But I think this podcast gave me as rich of an exploration I could have ever hoped and felt like a solid substitute toward that experience and answering and putting to rest why all those fleeting memories of a game I only say snippets of left me so curious and stuck in my head for so many years. Subscribed and looking forward to more stuff from you guys.
I played the game A LONG time ago and this really helped me understand the game as a whole. I'll play it again someday but you guys inspired me to take another look at this piece of art. Thank you
This has been a journey for me with this book/game club approach and let me tell ya I had that single tear fall when I heard the music signing us off. To do this with something that shaped my childhood is....I just want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart! Amazing job guys
Gotta say, Mike talking about learning more about the inner opposite was really amazing for me to see. I've been watching your videos/listening to these podcasts for a while now and it was always noticeable to me how Mike was always focused on rationality and logic (which wasn't a bad thing), leading to not quite understanding some things commenters/other people disagreed about or found meaningful. It's just really cool to see Mike learn more about that because of Xenogears/this podcast.
"Kim went to medical school"
Patrick and Casen are comedy gold.
Thanks so much for this series. It was my third playthrough and I did it along with this series,Chris and Erich's hilarious and insightful podcast, a first watch-through of Evangelion, and reading Childhood's End. It's been my favorite game since my first playthrough in 1999, but I think I finally understand the plot and inspirations much better. So thanks again for the fantastic series. And hats off to Casen for picking up so much as it went along. Watching his insights and reactions was a real highlight.
Great last episode on this podcast. Thank you very much for your in depth analysis! Take care and can't wait to see the next thing!
Such an amazing podcast! I had so much fun going through this game with you guys and I learned a lot. Can't wait to finish this beast of an episode!
This is the same Patrick Holleman who did the 'CT & Structural Perfection' video. I was wondering what happened to him. Glad to see he's doing just fine.
1:28:00
I think there's a lot more to Ygg IV than you guys give it credit for. This specific part of Disc 2 is really poorly done, so no fault for missing it, but this segment is very important to the themes of the game. The whole Ygg 4 part represents the unification of the surface dwelling nations of Kislev and Av, the end of the 500 years of suffering, and joining together against a common enemy. The body of Ygg 4 is in the Kislev capital, but can only be used with the Yggdrasil, an Aven ship. This likely also would have been where a lot of Rico's payoff would be, as the son of the Kaiser.
My second time watching through this series, what a great job you guys did. Over 40 hours of analysis!
This was such an amazing podcast. I binged the hell out of it on my travels a few weeks after completing the game and I must say it really deepened and expanded the experience.
Thank you for your work, what a ride, what a blast. Keep up the good stuff! :)
What a journey! This has been great. I'm gonna miss the Xenogears discussions, thanks for it all. Gonna stick around more for the next ones.
Thank you so much for doing this. I played Xenogears on release I woulda been around 13 and could barely grasp anything and struggle greatly to comprehend through reading but I was very drawn to the psychology stuff and the deep thinking that the game provokes. It's been my number 1 since I've said so many times it's one of those "if I had a nickel" situations. All the work you put into learning what is involved in the game. I cannot imagine honestly. The journey of this game with you guys coming to an end here brought me to tears. Almost as good as the game itself. Thank you.
2:16:45 This is what brought me to tears the most here as we're wrapping up. I don't know what it is that prevents me from being able to do this. I have extreme trouble reading and retaining the information for longer than maybe a half second. So this podcast and everyone involved the guests too and Casen's first play through experience combined with his knowledge of stuff has been beyond amazing. Casen talking about Babel Tower Episode 1 two seconds into the game was so mind blowing because I myself know nothing about everything so literally every outside bit of information was new to me. I cannot thank everyone involved enough for this.
Oh and this was my first impression of your channel so GOOD FETCHING JOB!
After this 5 month adventure with you guys it pains my heart to know this will not reach the amount of people it deserves, Xenogears is already a cultural phenomenon that has touched way less people than is fair, and has been really instrumental in the growth and development of a very privileged group of people, and in the end that is more important than sales or views, thank you very much for giving this amazing piece of art some much needed exposure.
The first time I was introduced to Xenogears wasn't the robot on the box art, it was the demo disc that came with a different Squaresoft game. I had no idea what it was before that, and as I played the demo, what stuck out to me wasn't the robots or the storyline, but the really fun version of a turn based RPG battle system. I suppose it was really the presentation more than anything. The really cool looking sprite art and animations used for the Deathblows really impressed me. I remember that day I played it, I went out to the store with my friend who could drive already (and I couldn't) just to buy the game. So you could say it was completely shallow reasons that I discovered the game.
Yet as I played it, I was a young dumb teenager, I think I was 15 or 16 at the time, and had zero knowledge of any sort of philosophies or any knowledge of any religion other than Christianity. Yet the depth of the game's plot and world building was not completely lost on me, even if I couldn't possibly understand it all yet. The plot had a lot of religious references and very deep confusing and epic moments, so at the time, I thought of it as an off brand Neon Genesis Evangelion game. That was the best thing I had at the time to compare it to. But as I played it, I fell so in love with the entire world, the confusing but deep story, and most of all a few of the characters in particular. Citan Uzuki is my favorite RPG character of all time, even still to this day. Watching this entire series of podcasts helped me greatly with understanding a lot of the more convoluted aspects of the story that I never understood before.
It was the demo disc that was packaged with Parasite Eve. It had demos for Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi and Bushism Blade on it. But more importantly, it had an FMV from FF8 on it as well.
I still have that demo disc and replayed the demo and there is some whacky stuff on it
Wow!!!! I was 15 at the time when I played the Squaresoft demo, and the battle system drawn me into this game also.
Second time watching this start to finish and I gotta say it is probably my favorite video game analysis ever. Seriously, great job you guys.
Some final thoughts on Xenogears that I've been saving to see if you guys covered some of it.
Xenogears, to me at least, always read as a counter to Gnosticism. Fei, being the Christ figure, was created by the Monad (Wave Existence) to destroy the Demiurge (Deus). I always thought that if the story had played out like in Gnosticism, Fei would have brought gnosis, that knowledge of that inner divine nature and flawed material nature, to humanity and they would have all left their physical bodies behind and joined with the W.E. In other words, it would've ended like an Arthur C. Clarke novel with the evolution of man into some divine being. I also figured that's why Karellen (a pretty clear reference to Childhood's End) was an antagonist in this game.
I think Xenogears works as a JRPG, specifically, because of the way it uses a lot of the tropes of the genre. Stuff like the generic glass shattering battle transition being used as a symbolic representation of Fei's psyche, save points having an in-universe narrative purpose, and ether being used as a metaphor for the Pleroma instead of just being some generic magic system, all help elevate the game for me.
I'm surprised that Pat didn't mention the comparisons between the Gnostic stuff and some of the psychoanalytic content. The Monad (W.E.), Demiurge (Deus), and Sophia (Kadomony/Ellehayym) always struck me as being intentionally meant to parallel the way Fei had the three personas within him, representing the Id, Ego, and Superego. That and having the male Demiurge and the female Sophia act like a male-female aion pair/syzygy with the genderless Monad seemed like it was supposed to symbolize the animus and anima. I mean, the Kadomony itself being composed of the -Persona-, -Anima-, and -Animus- felt like it was reiterating that sort of symbolism.
Also, Casen mentioned it at the start of the game, but it never got mentioned again. Early on, he talked about the four stages of anima/animus development. And there are four incarnations of Abel/Elly. Elly's incarnations in particular mirror the stages of Anima development pretty clearly from Eve to Helen, Mary, and finally Sophia. It also makes it a bit more clear what the intent behind Lacan not being able to properly reunite with the Wave Existence was.
I don't think I have more strongly mixed feelings about any other piece of media besides Xenogears, but there is something about it that has stuck with me. It's probably a mix of the scale, depth, and ambition that keeps me coming back and thinking about it. I don't know if there are many other games, or anything else really, that has had as big of an impact on my taste and own creative vision.
Thanks for doing this podcast, guys. It's been a blast and super insightful.
You guys mentioned other stuff with the same depth as Xenogears, I'd say the only games I've played that have anywhere close to the same depth is stuff like The Silver Case and most of Suda Goichi's pre-No More Heroes work as well as Marathon Infinity.
Top tier comment. There is something about Xenogears that has significantly influenced my writing, as well, particularly its focus on the sort of cyclic futility of man (Fei/Elly death/rebirth).
55:30
"Consciousness" isn't what causes wave-function collapse. It's merely the act of quantum systems interacting with the outside world that causes wave-function collapse. At least, that's according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is the dominant interpretation of quantum mechanics. There is, however, an interpretation of quantum mechanics called the Von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation which *_does_* posit that it has something to do with human consciousness that causes wave-function collapse, but very few physicists actually believe the interpretation to hold any merit.
The quality of this last episode is truly above reproach
I like seeing video of Eric and Chris instead of audio only. Chrisp has a beard now lol.
Chrisp has always had a beard, the glasses, however, are new.
@@RetrogradeAmnesia I thought he didn't on the first episode of this podcast,showing my ignorance i suppose lol. Regardless though it adds to the experience. Thanks for all the content y'all produce that i regularly re-watch.
You guys don't know how stoked I am that there's other fans of this game out there that make in-depth analysis content like this. There's not a lot I remember from my middle adolescents back in 1998, but xenogears has always popped into my mind every so often thought the years.
I'm late to the party but thank you guys SO MUCH for an incredible journey! Loved every second.
Gongratulations!! This is awesome series. You are soo nice, guys!
BIG THANKS!
Never let anyone tell you, whether your a planner or a pantser, that your writing style is wrong. They are both completely legit and have representation in the upper echelon of successful novelists. Stephan King, for instance, famously spurns an outline as stifling to his creativity.
One year late to the party, but I finally played Xenogears last winter then listened to this entire podcast on my travels.
It was a great ride and you guys' input helped solidify Xenogear's story as one of the best I've ever been told in gaming.
In my experience CD2's pacing wasn't as bad as I'd thought since I was playing the game with cheats on to deactivate random encounters and rebalance the party's experience gain at will. It made CD1 far more cinematic and its pacing closer to CD2's.
I'm a couple years late to watching this series, but I absolutely loved what you guys did. I received Xenogears as soon as it was released on the PS1, and played it several times for the last couple decades. My second most favourite game (second to FF7), and it really remains a masterpiece. I was on internet forums discussing the plot prior to people translating Perfect Works online, and it was great to see how peoples theories were a hit or miss. I hope one day this can be a remake.
I saw Mike's old Xenogears discussion videos last night. It is amazing to see how much his attitude towards the game has changed
So cool to see how Xenogears impacted some people's lives.
@@jackbatay4692 ☺
God what I wouldn’t give for y’all to land an interview with Takahashi and/or Saga some day
wow. I've been watching since episode one and this is some high level Xenogears chat.
Thank you guys so much for this. I had a blast playing this along with you! 😎👍
I know it would be another massive undertaking, but you guys should really do the Xenosaga series
To say that this was a journey and a blast and an amazing experience is to say nothing. I loved this series and it is great that you decided to feature other great people that delve deeper into games like this. Thank you so much :)
Excellent job with this series fellas. Gonna miss this weekly analysis, but it’s been an awesome ride
You did great guys, you did the game justice. Job well done. Hopefully a Chrono Cross 20 Episode series on the horizon!
Especially with the remaster/remake coming potentially in the near future.
I really loved this analysis series as a long time fan of this game and this era of Squaresoft. I had already heard Retrograde Amnesia as well as other video essayists talk at length about the religious and philosophical imagery of the game. The emphasis you guys put on the linguistics is the part that I find so invaluable. Even the most seasoned of game critics have a tendency to throw up their arms in dismissal for games like this and say: "Bad translation therefor bad game." I think it's brilliant that you guys worked tirelessly not to give this story short shrift and always strive to make sense of all the text as presented while also being able to interpret the Japanese script. Probably my favorite part of this is then watching through the series after this one and Casen always finding an excuse to bring up similarities to Xenogears. I LOVE that! I love that he's become such an unabashed fan of Xenogears that he literally cant help himself. As a long time fan of Xenogears that's the best! Thanks and keep up the great work.
If you want Xenogears.Pat Holleman is the guy.
Loved finding out about the audio sample at 6:05! Wild.
Best UA-cam experience I've ever had. (from Homeless to next Patreon on January, doesn't matter the game)
Xenogears is a true work of art. I played it in 1998 when I was 15 years old and it deeply affected me and changed my life. I replay it to this day every couple of years. I don't think I will ever see any other game that will captivate me as much. To me, it transcends the medium of videogames, and I consider it to be real Art.
Well this was a Great Series. Thanks to Mike and Casen for creating such a entertaining and informative show. Thanks as well as to Patrick, Eric and Christ for their valuable input. This has been such a Fun deep dive into one of my favorite games. Congratulations on completing such a monumental achievement and I am looking forward to what comes next. Enjoy your well deserved rest and be content w/ a job well done.
Though I know this was a thoroughly exhausting experience, I do home someday the will brave tackling the Xenosaga series as well.
I have listened to each of these podcasters over an audio format for years and am really surprised by the human faces behind the voices. Not unpleasantly surprised, mind you, just very different than what I was presuming, albeit unconsciously. Imagination makes novels especially individualistic for the same reason.
I'm super excited about this collaborative conversation. It's wonderful to have these podcasters come together to Captain Planet Xenogears.
Thanks for saying those nice things. We know you've been around Retrograde Amnesia since basically the beginning and we appreciate it very much. Onward!
Based on 2:02:00
The hierarchies in Gears are all build on false interpretations of divine knowledge and how those claiming to know the true face of god put themselves above others in a sense devouring others without learning from the other side of the story, the hidden or occulted knowledge. They devour and only rebirth their own flawed self image, so their hierachie is eternal stagnation while the opposite of the Ouroboros is the one winged angels that birth the promethean or divine flame through cooperation.
It's not really just "hierarchie is bad" rather "don't think you know everything and instead try to learn from your opposite" kinda in a "love your enemy" type of sense
Finally finished this series - what a magnificent series of podcast and analysis. It was truly a joy watching everything (and some segments, twice) and it has truly depend my appreciation for Xenogears and I learned a lot about Gnosticism, lacan, Jung, freud, Jewish mysticism and all the other topics that were covered. I'm a more educated and better person for it. And I can't say that about other gaming content on UA-cam.
What a trip guys. In... sane..
Feels like the end of a journey. One of the best at that.
Tremendous respect!
Did Mike ever talk more in-depth about Childhood's End during this series? I just played Xenogears for the first time alongside the podcast and read Childhood's End too because he kept mentioning it but I don't remember hearing him get back to it.
Anyway, even a few years later, this was an amazing series and I feel lucky I got to play the game for the first side along with your guys' analysis. Been feeling really lost within myself lately and everything about Xenogears has given me a lot to chew on and think about. Feels like I'm finally moving forward again.
Thank you! I had no idea it was such a good idea to stick with you guys after the Nier playthrough. Really glad I did.
Xenogears story is just pure art. It’s going to hang around because there is human emotion attached to it and because it closely mirrors our own world. 1,000 years could pass and this story will still be relevant because it is a human story. We play the game because it’s fun, but we are left with deep philosophies that trigger us to try to understand. Once we are shown what this game is about, we cannot just go back to how we were.
I'm sooo behind on the episodes of this but I feel everyone young person needs to hear everything spoken from 1:50:00 onward, especially the part about education through storytelling and embracing both the yin and the yang, the masculine and the feminine. Learning how to communicate with others.
So amazing watching this series - outstanding work Mike and Casen! This has been the best podcast series I’ve ever listened to and found myself anxiously waiting for each new episode!
Huge props to Pat for coming on as well, what an enthusiastic, intelligent and well spoken guy! Would listen to a podcast of his as well.
Additionally, welcome back to the retrograde amnesia boys! Great having you on for the finale!
Thanks for this. Sad it’s over. This podcast series was awesome.
I want to fight this guy on Chrono Cross...and Lain. But really, amazing job. This is the most in depth discussion. He is also completely wrong on there being no plan for One Piece. Thing has had the ending written since the beginning, and every arc adds to the previous one and the world at large.
Hearing his comment about One piece I doubt he made it very far in the story🤣
@@kaizakira triple post, jesus christ
@@BinaryDood my bad UA-cam was acting up on my phone and wouldn’t let me post the comment at first
Time stamp
Hearing him say that made me assume he was simply pulling a "Long Manga Bad" of sorts. Like "How could something that has gone on for THIS LONG be planned out? It has to be like a Detective Conan or Pokemon deal where there isn't really a plan" which is straight up false. While not everything was planned, Oda has been working on the story since he was in Grade School, he's had a meticulous plan of exactly where the story would go. He just had the chance to flesh out that story
I honestly didn't mind the format of disc 2. Disc one was so long and I didn't like the combat very much, so it was nice to skip over most of the dungeons and get right to the bosses and story. If the whole game had been like that I probably wouldn't have connected with it but after 60 hours on disc 1 it was a welcome change.
my only issue with xenogears is that they run out of time and the game was never fully realized and while I fully understand that a private company (especially back then) have a right to put up a budget and timeline for projects they SHOULD have been able to stretch it somewhat -especially when at the finishing line. Xenogear got voted by famitsu readers as their 10 most favorite game of all time these latest 30 years and squaresoft couldnt realize themself that they worked on a great game ?
I like to think that part of the reason Deus got the Wels and eventually the Seraphs (with Krelian's help) rather than Diabolos is part of the whole demiurge-is-always-flawed thing. Or in lore terms, the Diabolos were developed by an advanced civilization. On this primitive planet scavenging crashed starship parts after at least several cycles of near-human extinction, it is not working with much. The nanomachines do bridge the gap somewhat and it's unclear whether Deus' developers had nanomachines given Deus' incredibly... convoluted regeneration system (or didn't want a grey goo situation). Rather than microscopic components of a war machine reassembling itself, it just has very large components.
Hell of a sendoff to a classic. Great job guys!
i feel when it comes to jrpgs the closet to xenogear's narrative complexly might be yoko taro's games. but for the most part alot of these tend to be more common in western style rpgs. like planescape torment comes to mind instantly as it and gears have a similar concept with past lives.
3:52:14 also, to me, the final battle does show like a phallus touching the ovule... was it just me who caught that?
Great job on analyzing this game guys! Xenogears is definitely one of the greats!
Congratulations, guys, and thank you for endeavoring on this immense project! You inspired me to revisit my favorite game from my childhood, and I now understand it and appreciate its unique achievements and quirky flaws better than I ever expected. Thank you for creating a comprehensive modern legacy for this unique and deserving title!
What a fulfilling journey! Wonderful ending with deep discussion. A really nicely organized discussion, good listeners all around. I Hope this isn't the end of Casen referencing Gandalf every episode though!
I have to point out an error in a comparison to antagonists in other games "being correct" or "speaking truth". In FF7, Sephiroth is not exposed to the truth of himself or Jenova until, I believe, he is awakened from his sleep in the northern cavern by Cloud and the Black Materia.
In the library beneath the mansion in Nibelheim, Sephiroth comes to the conclusion that Jenova was a Setra and he was descended from that line, as his "mother" was Jenova. Just from the game, it seems he is misguided on what things truly are and where their places are in the world.
We don't get much dialogue from Sephiroth after he is awakened, which is really a shame, but there had to be a point during his slumber where he realized what Jenova truly was and sought ultimate power for himself rather than for Jenova. He's not as linear in his goals as it seems at times, and I think that works in his favor in terms of being an interesting antagonist. He has suffered, he doesn't have a place he belongs, and he is willing to do anything to find that place. And though he finds a goal, it was not there the whole time. Feels more organic and realistic.
Thanks for the great content, everyone!! I have enjoyed this series immensely!
Excellent episode - I was looking forward most to this one. And yes, Sonic fan here - definitely agree that it's fallen to the wayside (until recently, with Sonic Mania) arguably since it moved on from the Genesis. Anyway. The question, "Which element do you think made Xenogears work..." - For me, personally, I feel that every "element" used to present and convey the game, in exactly the way they utilized them, made Xenogears into the treasure that it is. And that is an extremely bland, broad/generic (of course) kind of answer.
However, there is one aspect that, if not present/done by someone else... the game/story simply would have struggled tremendously.
And that is the musical score Yasunori Mitsuda contributed. Chris mentioned a "glue guy"... and to me, that is Mitsuda's work in Xenogears. For me, it is his best work (and also, my favorite of his - there's a distinction ;) ). Had it not been for him, I don't think the characters/themes/scenarios/dialogue, would have carried quite so much the weight and depth of heart that they do. Simply irreplaceable.
1:52:30 I completely agree. I hate the American school system, but I want to teach! I want to inspire critical thinking through art. I was not hired to stay and teach again during the next school year at my current position at a school that focuses on test scores. I plan to ask in any upcoming interviews how the school builds a culture of literacy and if I’m allowed to teach students in different manners instead of making it a factory classroom.
Man...what a journey I beat this game eailer this year, iv been subbed to these guys for awhile and had no idea this is wat they've been up to crazy how things work out sometimes ....
Positively loved the podcast but 55:28 is a big no no. As usual, an extremely bad choice of word from scientists lets us think totally wild - and wrong - interpretations. There is no such thing as "someone is observing" in quantum physics, "observation" was the word chosen for an interaction between a quantum object and a measuring device ; it generally refers now to any interaction leading to an object losing its superposition of states and falling into a classical state. Any interaction, with anything, may constitute an "observation" and there is absolutely no requirement for any form of life or consciousness to be part of the process.
This confusion, originally made by some founders of quantum physics, is still plaguing us today.
I don't if the comments have said this already, but the lyrics for Stars of Tears and Small Two of Pieces were written by Kato believe it or not.
I played this game around 11 to 14 years old. And it led me to read about all this stuff, drawing, 3d modeling. It really changed my life on how I think of trauma and opportunity. Beautiful series, most of the silliness of the game I may explain as appealing to kids, because as a kid I really liked the voltron scene 🤣 also my family was religious, but my parents did not speak english or knew anything about videogames, so my dad got me the robot game on a whim.
Best rpg channel around imo. Appreciate your work, subbing to your patreon. Great video quality and editing as well as always. Also Mike, drop that workout routine dawg!
Really enjoyed the game and yalls anylisis. I'm playing xenosaga now and looking forward to this journey again. Keep it up fellas 👊🖐
31:40
Grahf's gear, Alpha Weltall, is an *_Omnigear_*