Just finished Xenosaga Episode 3 over the weekend, and I realized that I played Xenogears over 8 years ago, right before I graduated college, it brought back memories, supposedly the best story of any video game ever, modeled after Evangelion, XenoSaga is the unofficial prequel to Xenogears, which was planned to be episode 5 in the Saga, but while Monolith (the developers) went over to Namco from Square, they couldn't officially connect the games. Many quabble over the internet whether the xeno games are indeed connected, well, they are, and they aren't. But thats not important, just like people quabble over whether videogames can be art, well, they are. I think a game designer once said that no game story can ever be great and it just would be silly if the script of a game with a strong story (I believe the example used was Deus Ex) was turned into a movie script. XenoSaga put that statement and whoever that said it to shame..., just how do people that ignorant make statements as if they were the authority of something? In any case, XenoSaga had everything, a sci-fi epic that does put the Matrix, Star Wars, to shame, and would rival the best books like the Ender Universe and Hyperion for years to come. It had so much story and themes I spent hours going thru the game's database and looking thru forums just to figure out what happens and what it all means. People who read my blog may wonder why I write so much about other stuff, other than my daily life.., well, mundane life just isnt that interesting..., XS began a simple story in the far away future, when mankind uncovered an object called the Zohar, an artifact of God, which led to the destruction of old Jerusalem (Earth), and those who immigrated out to space, found out that they are not alone... the Gnosis, spirit form aliens (similar to those in FF:the Movie) from imaginery space, but are they not the human souls who reject and fear each other (AT field in EVA?).... in any case, I'm posting something from GameFaq, which is a partial explanation of XenoSaga, which is really just to remind myself how great of a story this is:
U-Do:
The only high dimensional eixstence that ever appeared in this game. A wave eixstence that is not restricted by individuality. To the lower dimension (the world of human) he is literally
The God. U-Do desires comprehension of lower dimension's nature, its inhabitants, everything, thus U-Do makes direct approach to those who can recognize its existence. Also, U-Do created Abel and Abel's Ark, his extenions terminals that allows him to approach lower dimension better.
Though, despite U-Do has no other agenda for the lower relm other than learn and observe (No, U-Do have no grudge with the lowe relm or anything, it is just there watching), its mere existence poses a threat to the lowe relm. Compare to the all powerful, unified will that is U-Do, the wills of the lower relm are fragmented and weak. Those weak wills fear death, they desire eternity, thus they keep on rejetcing other beings to secure their own existence. But U-Do represents everything the wills from the lower relm that is not.
U-Do being a giant unity that is not bounded by individuality, is percieved as what represents the extinction of self to the wills of the lower relm. This leads the wills of the lower relm to reject things further, as there is now a greater fear that is U-Do. But the act of rejection would only speed up the fragmentation of the wills and the transformation of the gnosis, which would eventually trigger the fail safe of the univese, which would be the end of the world.
Anima:
A force borned of the collective uncounsciousness of the lower relm, it also has the fail safe of the universe. Anima eventually manifested itself in a human form with human will, which is known as YHVShVa, later chaos. chaos, by possesing a human consciousness questioned himself why he exists, what is the purpose of the fail safe? The nature law of the universe demands Anima's existene, but what does the Anima think of itself? Trying to avoid his own as well as the universe's destruction, he allowed himself to be splited into 12 different Anima Relics by Maria. But that is not the answer of his questions.
By the end of Ep.3, chaos eventual realize he can use his power to preserve this universe instead of destroying it. Together with Nephilim, he release the Anima to shift out Lost Jerusalme, where the key to save the universe lies, then entursted that power to Abel, U-Do's terminal that accepted the lower relm. chaos though, should have vanished as his Anima dissipated, but as the will of the universe continues to demand the existence of a fail safe, chaos lived, as a consciousness at the lost of his flesh.
Animus:
The opposing force of Anima, which took the form of Maria. Animus has the ability to reverse Anima's power (Which can reverse the fail safe, allowing the world to be recreated rather than being destroyed). As Anima can brought forth the destruction of the universe, Animus can reverse that force and set the world anew. This is also the mechanics behind the Zarathustra System. Long in the past Maria tryied to preserve chaos's life by dividing him into Anima Relics. She then joined Wilhelm to run the system of Zarathustra to preserve this universe.
By the end of Ep.3, Maria eventually splited. Apart of Animus left KOS-MOS and enters Nephilim as she shfits to Lost Jerusalem along with chaos. KOS-MOS also become soemone who is Maria but also is not, as she didn't awaken within T-elos as planned. The Maria within Nephilim has take all the fragemented wills into her and shift to the Lost Jerusalem. While the Maria inside KOS-MOS's broken body fallen asleep and slowly drifts back to Lost Jerusalem in space.
Nephilim:
The daughter of Grimore Verm. The first human ever to be "vanished" by Zohar 4000 years ago, as she is the first sample used on the Zohar link experiment (Grimore Verm is fooled by Wilhelm to use his own daghter for the experiment). Her disapperance by Zohar triggered Abel's appearance into the lowe relm, as well as Lost Jerusalem gettign consumed by Zohar. How did she preserved her own consciousness after making contact with Zohar, and how did she linked to Abel remains unknown. But what's known is the fact she is who maed Abel accpets the lower relm. Abel, finding himself among the fragemented and rejecting wills, also felt isolated and rejected in responce (which is a bad thing, you don't want U-Do unhappy). But Nephilim accepted him, which leads Abel to join preserving the lower relm.
Nephilim takes the form of an adult after she recieves the power of Animus, she then gathers all the fragmented wills into herself and shifts to Lost Jerusalem, for the time to come.
Wilhelm:
The person who is in charge of the Zarathustra system. We still don't know what is he. Though, we can do tell he is not as potent as the Anima or Animus. (There is nothing he can do when Maria rejects him and Zarathustra goes berserk.) There is little emotion in him, the only matter that occupies his mind is to defy the the future predetermined by the god. Zarathustra originally was created to invade the upper relm, but Wilhelm knowing the fact that human can never destroy the god, added a different function into Zarathustra, a lower relm preserving function. It works by blinding U-Do's terminals and trap them in lower relm, thus limiting the infleucne from the god, then repeat the currrent universe indefinitly so the will of the lower relm can have aplace to stay.
In the end Wilhelm vanished when Zarathustra is destroyed. Did he just died? Or continued to exist somewhere else? We can not tell.
Testment:
The term reffered to the people that has shed away their relaity side and exists only in imaginary side. Yet they can still infleunce the relaity side by accessing its imaginary side counter parts. When they appear before someone, they directly send the image of their existence to the person's consciousness, so their appearance can be reocgnize (No, they don't phsyically appear, ther eis nothign physical left about them anymore, so if you take a caerma and take a shot at them, the photo would show nothing).
Tesetmenst are the opposite to the type of the people that would resonante with the Anima and detonates the fail safe. Taking the will that suppose to trigger Anima and control it in reverse, what you have is a Testment.
To complete the Eternal Return would mean taking all the will that resonates to the Anima and shift them to the opposite (which means taking the will that would cause ther universe to end and use them in the opposite direction for rebirth). But to do so, you don't need to reverse the will of everyone, but just to have enough will reversed that there is enough density to trigger a chain reaction that woudl reverse erbvyone. This is the reason why Wilhelm create the Testments, they are those dense reversed will to start the chain reaction. (And Maria/Animus is the full trigger, which can turn the power of Anima 180 degree upside down)
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