Awesome pimp-like reasons to play Xenosaga.
SO. I love Xenosaga a whole lot if that wasn't obvious. I love it for many many MANY reasons, including the fact that it has a lot of things that I enjoy in a series! You should play/watch/read/everything the series because there are probably tropes and many other things in the series that you would totally love. Xenosaga spans a lot more than the 3 games (originally planned to be 6), it has dramas, extra sidestories, books chock full of terminology and information on the universe, all compiled into a magical post for your viewing pleasure/if you're unable to get ahold of the series/don't have a PS2/WHATEVER.
So really this a post to spam the hell out of all of the great things in the series. From godmode sexy lesbian robots to lolis to mecha and space battles, clones and politics and Jesuses of both the trope and literal type and crazy space aliens, and much much more. Click the cut and take a look at the endless awesome and then get into this wonderful series.
I'll try not to be TOO spoilery, but I do wanna point out many various kick-ass reasons why this series it totally worth a go.
It's in the future and ~in spaaaaace~!
Xenosaga takes place 4000 years in the future (from a mid 20xx area). Earth is known as Lost Jerusalem (because it's, well, lost) and humanity is now super advanced and spread across the galaxies.
This means a lot of things. Like pretty spacey backgrounds!
And Xenosaga is chock full of the pretty space shots.
Epic spaceships!
We'll start with one of the two main ships of the series. The Lohengrin class passenger-freighter, Elsa von Brabant.
While dwarfed by the gargantuan Durandal and many other space vehicles, don't let the Elsa fool you, because this baby is all badass, all the time.
Look at the way this bitch swerves through crazy battles with LASERS AND EXPLOSIONS EVERYWHERE!!
Why the Elsa is so badass is because of its crew. Captain Matthews, the man with the boozer hat. Tony the sexytime helmsman, and Hammer the nerdy navigator.
Together they make the most derpy, hilarious but super extreme team ever.
And THIS is the Durandal. You can't ignore its length and girth!
Flagship of the Kukai Foundation and commandeered by Jr., the Durandal is very appropriately named.
Saving the day on many occasions, it's chock full of weaponry and filled with bridge-bunny lolis and hot chicks.
Aside from its phallic shape, there's nothing else suggestive about it at-- oh wait never mind.
And this would be the Dammerung, which is about the same size as Lebanon. Watch the fuck out.
Future spaceyness also means epic space battles!
And there are a lot of those. :D
That also means we have mecha!
Small mecha in the first game.
GUNDAMSIZE MECHA AT THE END OF GAME I AND ON.
Woah holy shit what the fuck is that mecha.
This also calls for in-game mecha battles. In which III by far has the MOST FUN.
This is my favorite battle (+music) in the whole series.
And then we have godmode lesbian robots!
SEXY ones, to boot.
KOS-MOS is an easily recognizable character in vidya in general. T-elos is like her evil dark clone.
They have a crazy ass assortment of weapons in all shapes and sizes!
And they have some pretty epic fighting scenes.
Their struggle? Deals with basically the entire (religious) backstory of the game.
Did I mention the badass godmode?
Blue-eyed KOS-MOS plays a big and twisty part in the series as a whole.
But we don't just have robots, we have cyborgs.
Look at this badass motherfucker right here.
Ziggy (or Ziggurat 8) used to be a man who wanted to become a full-blown emotionless robot!
Until he papa-bears a loli and realizes maybe there are things worth keeping ones humanity for. He's quiet, wise and keeps a level head, but you will so regret it if you piss him off.
And we have a whole race of synthetic humans!
Realians are artificial humans, and politics in Xenosaga deal with their rights and equality.
Able to have their emotions controlled and altered due to their creation, there were laws made against doing so (with exceptions to military Realians) for free-will reasons.
One group of the main Realians are the Kirshwassers/100-Series/MOMO. All created by one scientist who's only wish was to revive his daughter. The Kirschwassers (99-Series) and 100-Series are both semi-mass-produced.
The 100-Series being newer, are best suited for bridge-bunny work.
The Kirschwassers hang around and get tortured by the series' token psychopath.
Both have inferiority complexes to MOMO, who is scientist-daddy's pride and joy. And the token cute little girl of the team. Sweet and helpful, she had her own emo baggage, too.
But don't be fooled by the Pinocchio real-person complex, MOMO will bust an arrow in your ass. And holds many secrets and keys of the series inside her subconsciousness.
Magical girl transformations?!
... yeah we have those, too thanks MOMO.
Realians also come in dreamy bishounen flavor.
Sorry, dreamy bishounen pilot flavor*
Canaan is calm, cool and collected, and a special type of Realian. But his involvement in things may be way deeper than it originally seems.
Send in the clones!
Not only do the Realians/Cyborgs get the sub-human end of the stick, so do the clones.
These 669 child bioweapon clones were created for war. And sent into battle to die under the assumption they just had a job to do and come back home from.
There are 4 clones with wills of their own (while the other "standards" share a will), who get in deep with the same young girl that the Kirshwassers/100-Series/MOMO were modeled after.
Rubedo (Jr.), Nigredo (Gaignun), Albedo and Citrine are our main 4 clonechildren.
Their backstory is heartbreaking to adorable and everything in between.
And bioweapon clones mean mad scientists!
Scientists who do these wacky experiments because they've been instilled with fear after coming into contact with "God."
This fun-cloning douche named Dmitri Yuriev basically wants to fuck God's shit up and ascend to his domain. And will do anything for that goal.
He even goes to great lengths to extend his life and move his consciousness to new bodies! It's like future botox.
Dmitri on the left is actually later canon while right is earlier. Huge twists with the clones are the cause for this.
More science!!
Really being in the future and in space says enough that lots of Xenosaga's atmosphere is about the science and technology. And random magical relics.
And all of this stuff is explained and gone into to give you an awesome feeling of universe-immersion.
It helps that our lead character, Shion Uzuki, is a researcher and scientist, AND helped build the KOS-MOS we all know and love.
Shion is also, you guessed it, super important to the past backstories of the series alongside KOS-MOS and chaos. Smart and brave, she also doesn't take shit from anybody.
Religion!
While wrapped in future technology and space travel, Xenosaga's backbone is religion-based.
And by that I mean Jesus.
And this is a good image to move into the next semi-related category.
JESUS-TYPES
First we'll start with the Jesusest of Jesii, chaos! Hilariously voiced by Souichirou Hoshi, who voices a certain Gundam SEED Jesus.
chaos is just as heavily involved as KOS-MOS when it comes to the backstory of the series. Also, has holy-roly types of attacks.
chaos is kind and zen and floats through the series as an observer, who decides to take action later down the line, in true kick-ass, space-breathing Jesus fashion.
But worry not, because we have femJesii, too! Ones who can top people from hatred to love in a matter of days.
Febronia is tied into Shion's childhood, as well as the past of one certain Realian-hater.
Fucked in the head crazies!
Because no great series can be without the psychos.
This goes beyond fucked in the head, though, because with regenerative capabilities, this psycho likes to mutilate and behead himself!
But Albedo is not crazy for the sake of having such a psycho in the series. There are tons of reasons he turned out the way he did.
Betrayal! Forever alone-ness! Issues dealing with immortality and other stuff! And a sick obsession with Jr.
More shipping options than you can shake a stick at.
Also lots of drama and cute between the different types of humans and beings in the series. Robots and people! Clones and synthetic lolis! Cyborgs and humans! Humans and synthetic humans! Clones and humans! Have a type? Xenosaga probably has something for you.
There are fun het ships.
The guys are also adorable together.
The girl subtext is kind of the trump of the series, though.
We even have crazy incest subtext!
CREEPY LOLICON, TOO?!
FUN ENEMIES.
And in true storyline fashion, not everything may be what it seems.
The Gnosis are our introduction baddies. Bascially like SPACE ... BUG WHALE WEIRD HUMANOID SOMETIMES THINGS.
Mysterious cloaked figures.
POLITICS!
And of course on the political end we have people just trolling the shit out of each other.
Of course we have the awesome politicians. Like Gaignun Motherfucking Kukai, or Nigredo, one of those clone bioweapons mentioned earlier.
Gaignun holds a dark secret that even he is unaware of, damn you crazy evil scientists!
With the ability of subliminal suggestion by his voice (who is Crispin Freeman :3), he's one literal smooth talker. But he's not pushover, being a bioweapon learned him some fightin' skills, too.
Look at him charming the pants off of everyone in the room.
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MUSIC.
Featuring Yasunori Mitsuda and Yuki Kajiura, Xenosaga's epic story is accompanied by some fucking great music.
Here are a few scenes/battles to watch with some of the best soundtracks. This is one of my two favorite tracks.
And here's the other again, for good measure.
And now that we're at the end of this post, I am obliged to LINK THE ALL-ACCESS POST ONCE AGAIN. Go there and watch/read/etc. the series, you will not regret it!
(and then come bother me to ramble about it)
(and then app Gaignun into trans_9)
So really this a post to spam the hell out of all of the great things in the series. From godmode sexy lesbian robots to lolis to mecha and space battles, clones and politics and Jesuses of both the trope and literal type and crazy space aliens, and much much more. Click the cut and take a look at the endless awesome and then get into this wonderful series.
I'll try not to be TOO spoilery, but I do wanna point out many various kick-ass reasons why this series it totally worth a go.
It's in the future and ~in spaaaaace~!
Xenosaga takes place 4000 years in the future (from a mid 20xx area). Earth is known as Lost Jerusalem (because it's, well, lost) and humanity is now super advanced and spread across the galaxies.
This means a lot of things. Like pretty spacey backgrounds!
And Xenosaga is chock full of the pretty space shots.
Epic spaceships!
We'll start with one of the two main ships of the series. The Lohengrin class passenger-freighter, Elsa von Brabant.
While dwarfed by the gargantuan Durandal and many other space vehicles, don't let the Elsa fool you, because this baby is all badass, all the time.
Look at the way this bitch swerves through crazy battles with LASERS AND EXPLOSIONS EVERYWHERE!!
Why the Elsa is so badass is because of its crew. Captain Matthews, the man with the boozer hat. Tony the sexytime helmsman, and Hammer the nerdy navigator.
Together they make the most derpy, hilarious but super extreme team ever.
Click to viewAnd THIS is the Durandal. You can't ignore its length and girth!
Flagship of the Kukai Foundation and commandeered by Jr., the Durandal is very appropriately named.
Saving the day on many occasions, it's chock full of weaponry and filled with bridge-bunny lolis and hot chicks.
Aside from its phallic shape, there's nothing else suggestive about it at-- oh wait never mind.
And this would be the Dammerung, which is about the same size as Lebanon. Watch the fuck out.
Future spaceyness also means epic space battles!
And there are a lot of those. :D
That also means we have mecha!
Small mecha in the first game.
GUNDAMSIZE MECHA AT THE END OF GAME I AND ON.
Woah holy shit what the fuck is that mecha.
This also calls for in-game mecha battles. In which III by far has the MOST FUN.
This is my favorite battle (+music) in the whole series.
And then we have godmode lesbian robots!
SEXY ones, to boot.
KOS-MOS is an easily recognizable character in vidya in general. T-elos is like her evil dark clone.
They have a crazy ass assortment of weapons in all shapes and sizes!
And they have some pretty epic fighting scenes.
Their struggle? Deals with basically the entire (religious) backstory of the game.
Did I mention the badass godmode?
Blue-eyed KOS-MOS plays a big and twisty part in the series as a whole.
But we don't just have robots, we have cyborgs.
Look at this badass motherfucker right here.
Ziggy (or Ziggurat 8) used to be a man who wanted to become a full-blown emotionless robot!
Until he papa-bears a loli and realizes maybe there are things worth keeping ones humanity for. He's quiet, wise and keeps a level head, but you will so regret it if you piss him off.
And we have a whole race of synthetic humans!
Realians are artificial humans, and politics in Xenosaga deal with their rights and equality.
Able to have their emotions controlled and altered due to their creation, there were laws made against doing so (with exceptions to military Realians) for free-will reasons.
One group of the main Realians are the Kirshwassers/100-Series/MOMO. All created by one scientist who's only wish was to revive his daughter. The Kirschwassers (99-Series) and 100-Series are both semi-mass-produced.
The 100-Series being newer, are best suited for bridge-bunny work.
The Kirschwassers hang around and get tortured by the series' token psychopath.
Both have inferiority complexes to MOMO, who is scientist-daddy's pride and joy. And the token cute little girl of the team. Sweet and helpful, she had her own emo baggage, too.
But don't be fooled by the Pinocchio real-person complex, MOMO will bust an arrow in your ass. And holds many secrets and keys of the series inside her subconsciousness.
Magical girl transformations?!
... yeah we have those, too thanks MOMO.
Realians also come in dreamy bishounen flavor.
Sorry, dreamy bishounen pilot flavor*
Canaan is calm, cool and collected, and a special type of Realian. But his involvement in things may be way deeper than it originally seems.
Send in the clones!
Not only do the Realians/Cyborgs get the sub-human end of the stick, so do the clones.
These 669 child bioweapon clones were created for war. And sent into battle to die under the assumption they just had a job to do and come back home from.
There are 4 clones with wills of their own (while the other "standards" share a will), who get in deep with the same young girl that the Kirshwassers/100-Series/MOMO were modeled after.
Rubedo (Jr.), Nigredo (Gaignun), Albedo and Citrine are our main 4 clonechildren.
Their backstory is heartbreaking to adorable and everything in between.
And bioweapon clones mean mad scientists!
Scientists who do these wacky experiments because they've been instilled with fear after coming into contact with "God."
This fun-cloning douche named Dmitri Yuriev basically wants to fuck God's shit up and ascend to his domain. And will do anything for that goal.
He even goes to great lengths to extend his life and move his consciousness to new bodies! It's like future botox.
Dmitri on the left is actually later canon while right is earlier. Huge twists with the clones are the cause for this.
More science!!
Really being in the future and in space says enough that lots of Xenosaga's atmosphere is about the science and technology. And random magical relics.
And all of this stuff is explained and gone into to give you an awesome feeling of universe-immersion.
It helps that our lead character, Shion Uzuki, is a researcher and scientist, AND helped build the KOS-MOS we all know and love.
Shion is also, you guessed it, super important to the past backstories of the series alongside KOS-MOS and chaos. Smart and brave, she also doesn't take shit from anybody.
Religion!
While wrapped in future technology and space travel, Xenosaga's backbone is religion-based.
And by that I mean Jesus.
And this is a good image to move into the next semi-related category.
JESUS-TYPES
First we'll start with the Jesusest of Jesii, chaos! Hilariously voiced by Souichirou Hoshi, who voices a certain Gundam SEED Jesus.
chaos is just as heavily involved as KOS-MOS when it comes to the backstory of the series. Also, has holy-roly types of attacks.
chaos is kind and zen and floats through the series as an observer, who decides to take action later down the line, in true kick-ass, space-breathing Jesus fashion.
But worry not, because we have femJesii, too! Ones who can top people from hatred to love in a matter of days.
Febronia is tied into Shion's childhood, as well as the past of one certain Realian-hater.
Fucked in the head crazies!
Because no great series can be without the psychos.
This goes beyond fucked in the head, though, because with regenerative capabilities, this psycho likes to mutilate and behead himself!
But Albedo is not crazy for the sake of having such a psycho in the series. There are tons of reasons he turned out the way he did.
Betrayal! Forever alone-ness! Issues dealing with immortality and other stuff! And a sick obsession with Jr.
More shipping options than you can shake a stick at.
Also lots of drama and cute between the different types of humans and beings in the series. Robots and people! Clones and synthetic lolis! Cyborgs and humans! Humans and synthetic humans! Clones and humans! Have a type? Xenosaga probably has something for you.
There are fun het ships.
The guys are also adorable together.
The girl subtext is kind of the trump of the series, though.
We even have crazy incest subtext!
CREEPY LOLICON, TOO?!
FUN ENEMIES.
And in true storyline fashion, not everything may be what it seems.
The Gnosis are our introduction baddies. Bascially like SPACE ... BUG WHALE WEIRD HUMANOID SOMETIMES THINGS.
Mysterious cloaked figures.
POLITICS!
And of course on the political end we have people just trolling the shit out of each other.
Of course we have the awesome politicians. Like Gaignun Motherfucking Kukai, or Nigredo, one of those clone bioweapons mentioned earlier.
Gaignun holds a dark secret that even he is unaware of, damn you crazy evil scientists!
With the ability of subliminal suggestion by his voice (who is Crispin Freeman :3), he's one literal smooth talker. But he's not pushover, being a bioweapon learned him some fightin' skills, too.
Look at him charming the pants off of everyone in the room.
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MUSIC.
Featuring Yasunori Mitsuda and Yuki Kajiura, Xenosaga's epic story is accompanied by some fucking great music.
Here are a few scenes/battles to watch with some of the best soundtracks. This is one of my two favorite tracks.
And here's the other again, for good measure.
And now that we're at the end of this post, I am obliged to LINK THE ALL-ACCESS POST ONCE AGAIN. Go there and watch/read/etc. the series, you will not regret it!
(and then come bother me to ramble about it)
(and then app Gaignun into trans_9)