Albedo's english voice actor, Crispin Freeman, was the most prolific and talented VA in the industry at the time. I'd say he did a stand-out job but... he was in what felt like most games and anime at the time and all of his roles were equally high quality!
The Xenosaga trilogy tells my favorite story in video games and I don't think that will ever change. The games aren't perfect by any means but the highs and payoff that the games have provided me have yet to be topped by anything else I've experienced. More people should give Xenosaga a try......I just want more people to see what I see 😭
So spot on- I do "like" Xenoblade but I'm nowhere near as invested as I was with Xenosaga. That being said, I hear XBC3 is so close to that Xenosaga narrative perfection, I'm basically plowing through XBC2 at breakneck speed lol
Thats the plan for me too! I have yet to start XBC2 but I finished XBC1 a while back. I really want to see what XBC3 has cooking up especially with the huge namedrop in future redeemed.
@@karnotik I've played every trails game available in english haha. Just waiting for that translation on Kuro 2. The Xeno and Trails fan overlap is kind of nuts LOL
I couldn't agree with you more. love the Xenosaga trilogy, some of the funniest turn-based combat great character development overall intriguing story what's not to love. Sure there may be some flaws in the games but overall they're a great experience.
This game was the first to truly touch me emotionally. I remember i played episode i as a freshman in high school and then finished episode iii after i had moved out on my own 3 years later. The passing of my first lover also really hit Shion's arc home for me and i identified with her struggle. Fabulous video as always TKN!
The Xeno series as a whole is probably favorite RPG franchise as a whole, with Xenosaga holding a special place. I'm currently replaying XS3 and man, some of the payoff from these early story segments is really well done. Super excited to see your vids on the rest of the series!
The Xenosaga Trilogy is a masterpiece - period. At least to me it always was and always will be. Played all 3 titles twice and the depths of character personality and character evolvement still to this day is stunning. The personality of lots of FF characters pales in comparison to the Xenosaga cast. The way they show how they are haunted by inner demons and demons of the past is amazing. The only FF character who ever comes close in this regard is Cloud. Also no other RPG ever touched me like Xenosaga or took me on an emotional rollercoaster - till Xenoblade Chronicles came out for the Wii back then. MonolithSoft truly are masters in story-telling. Got every Xenogame from them and even Baten Kaitos which is another gem. Thanks a bunch for this nostalgia kick!
Won't watch all the way through to avoid spoilers, but dropping a comment regardless! Really hoping Xenosaga receives an HD trilogy remaster, and I think the ending of Future Redeemed may heavily hint towards that 👀
I really loved the art of the first game and thought it took a massive dive in quality (along with nearly everything else) after that. They had a style, and then dropped it for what was very generic game visuals for the time. I also kind of enjoyed the lack of background music in most areas, at the time I thought it gave it more of a cinematic feel, with music only coming in during big story moments and combat. I wouldn't say I preferred it to a normal soundtrack, but I got what they were going for.
No judgement, everyone knows swimsuits are always best equipment. I like how Albedo in the uncensored says something along the lines of "ah my peche, don't make those sounds, you'll make me feel like a peche myself" with the accent on the 2nd peche making it for sin rather than peach (forget how it went exactly)
Xenosaga-1 was memorable for me... I'm one of the people who was getting really twitchy about the endless cut scenes. I felt like it was very broken up and i never had the opportunity to just do what i wanted. I enjoyed the combat mechanics but it was extremely compartmentalized where you would get six hours of story and cutscenes and then nothing but combat for the next hour or two. Frequently you would be locked into story segments and there was no option to just go do some grinding/fighting. I remember laughing about the swimsuits and all the female characters that could wear them were locked into them for the whole game for me... Something about increased XP being too good to ignore! :)
Talk about synchronicity. I start feeling the urge to play this game and then you post this. Guess it's time I finally gave it a go for the first time since I played a bit of it on the ps2 almost 20 years ago
@TheKisekiNut definitely on my loooong list of games to play. I have an android phone and I use AetherSx2 and retroarch to emulate uhh.... legally obtained roms. I'm hoping I can get Xenosaga to run without any issues
I love this trilogy. As the years passed I am glad I picked up all three when they first came out. The story is one of the best I have seen in a long time, but I do admit now a days the battle system can feel a bit dated and hard to grasp.
Yeah, I'd say you pretty much hit the nail on the head with this synopsis. Funny I haven't played it since it first came out, but I still remember so many of the details you brought up.
I love this series. I hope when you get to episode 3 that you really explain that Episode 3 is not Episode 3-6 cramped into one. Sadly what we got is only the first major story arc out of 3. The initial plan was to cover each major story arc with 2 games each, but what we got in the end was. Episode 1 and 2= Episode 1 Missing Year, Piped Piper and Episode 3= Episode 2.
Yeah, that was the original plan. However, it wouldn't have exactly given people what they wanted anyhow because the idea was to leave the prior cast behind after two of the "old split-episodes". So nomatter what, we would have never gotten a continuation of the characters people cared about.(Unless of course if they decided to yeet the idea of diffrent arcs entirely if the released games performed better and continued Xenosaga 4 from where 3 left off.)
Quite like this series (well, except for 2), but yeah it is hard to recommend to people because of that 2nd entry. Glad you enjoyed them enough to get through!
They didn't release XS I and III for the EU.😞 They did add a summary from I with II. So, I/we only miss III the most. It's so weird they didn't released III here. Maybe on a day when I've a PS2 emulator, I can play all 3 games.
Oh, you will bite your tongue over the models and voice actor changes used in Episode 2. Thankfully, it's a short game and don't have to suffer them for long. The final game brings back the original voice actors and strikes a good balance for the models of KOS-MOS and Shion. They made Shion look like my neice in the final game - it was surreal!
Funny how little of this I remember. I only played episode 1 because of the difficulty of finding the sequels at the time. Now I just don't want to pay the asking price.
He's my favorite villain ever for sure. Sephiroth is alright and all that but the most memorable thing about him is his theme song rather than his actual character and villainous actions. Albedo is different. Sometimes I legitimately lay awake thinking about how insanely well written Albedo is as well as Crispin Freeman's impeccable performance playing him.
Really great video mate!. I love the commentary on the series. Very enjoyed it. I will say too. Maybe you should know too that I am developing a full out live action Xenosaga movie series that will be a sequel series to the trilogy!. Titled Xenosaga V: Center of Tragedy. The first part of Xenosaga V will be coming in 2025!. I play the role of Allen Ridgeley in the coming Xenosaga V movie series.
I recently finished xenosaga episode 1 and loved it! I actually really liked the eerie ambience when running around, definitely different than your average jrpg. Also am I retarded or something cause I had to look up the puzzles on proto merkabah 🤣🤣.
I can definitely understand the lack of music being a hit with some players - it was massively off-putting for me personally, but I put a lot of weight on an OST.
"Please bring back the music, and change those models! Please!" Uh yeah episode 2 does that and let's just say the results are mixed to say the least. I do like the cutscene soundtrack for the second game, Yuki Kajiura did an amazing job with that and would go on to do the entire soundtrack for 3, but yeah the in game soundtrack is hit or miss. The battle themes for that game are actually really good though, but Second Miltia and the Elsa's themes are literally WTF were they thinking. Granted I think the composer for the in game soundtrack, Shinji Hosoe, was really rushed and I can't exactly fault him for some bad tracks when most of them are decent albeit a bit rough. The problem is these two pretty bad ones are the one's you'll be hearing the most in the game since the Elsa and Second Miltia are hubs for the game. What I can't excuse is the poor character models in the second game. I don't think the outfits are that bad, but man the realistic proportions to the faces are smack dab in the middle of the uncanny valley. Oh and the final boss of episode 1 won't use that one hit kill attack if you don't kill both of the beetle adds he brings out, so I usually just let one of those remain and don't have to deal with that attack. Anyway here's hoping for a remaster of this trilogy soon. My hopes are higher thanks to Baten Kaitos getting remastered, but who knows if Xenosaga was up for consideration as well when that got green lit.
Monolith / Xeno gets dumbed down each with each iteration (gears > saga > blade > chronicles). We have to go back 20 years to get any sort of narrative depth as the games are now just shallow kids cartoons with tons of fan service.
I am very sorry to say this, but as a German, I can tell you completely butchered those titles. But it's ok. Those titles have a lot of words in them most non Germans could never say properly. Especially Jenseits, Böse and Zarathustra. There was no way you could pronounce those words without knowing any German. And in regards to the swimsuits, I had a similar problem in Xenoblade 1. Where literally every equipment I got for Sharla turned her into more horny bait! I swear it's not on purpose! Those skimpy underpants with no other cloth just had better stats! So many people complain about the designs in Xenoblade 2, but Sharla was even worse in my eyes! None of her gear is safe for work! Everything she can wear is horny bait! But in regards to Xenosaga again, KOS-MOS is amazing of course. But then there is Albedo, who is completely off the rails and from what we could see here, and amazing antagonist. I am excited for the next video on this series, because I never really got around to finishing that lets play series I was watching. I only know that Xenosaga gets wild with the bible lore. Because it is basically the bible. In Space! Takahashi always wanted to tell an epic space saga with philosophy and stuff. Xenosaga was sadly cut short during its runtime. I wonder where the world would be if he ever finished Xenosaga like he wanted to? But I am here for more cool space stuff and swimsuits in space. Why do games force swimsuits on you and why are they alway better than the regular gear? JRPGs are weird!
People don't remember because playing Sharla for longer than one has to is a bad idea. And in DE, you can just fashiongear her into her standard outfit and forget about it entirely, which is not exactly possible in Xenoblade 2 for most of the "problematic characters" and especially not without DLC.
Thanks for the video! Xenosaga doesn't interest me that much -- I find the Xeno[x] games a bit dense for my tastes and often lose interest about eighty percent through -- but it was interesting to hear your thoughts on the game.
I recently played all 3 this year. Story Episode I meh Episode II below average Episode III Good Music Episode I below average Episode II Great Episode III average Grahpics Episode I meh meh meh Episode II eww Episode III One of the best looking PS2 games Battle system Episode I braindead Episode II grrrrr Episode III competent
