Xenogears Analysis: Introduction

Introduction
Chapter 00: Prologue
Chapter 01: It started in the village called Lahan. (U.S. ver: Lahan Village)
Chapter 02: Over the gorges (U.S. ver: Mountain Path)
Chapter 03: the momentary peace (U.S. ver: House on a Hill)
Chapter 04: The things fallin' in the dark night (U.S. ver: Fallen Shadows)
Chapter 05: The evil attacked Lahan (U.S. ver: Attack on Lahan)

Introduction

In order to fully understand Xenogears, there are some things that should be established first. Because people will go into any work of art with different experiences, attitudes and expectations, I find that to truly understand something it is often necessary to listen to its creator and his or her intent for making it. It can make a world of difference in how one chooses to approach the work. Luckily, the creators of Xenogears and Xenosaga have made several interviews and written quite a lot of supplementary material that will make it easier to follow their train of thought. I won't cite all of it during this coverage, but I will list off a few of my favorite quotes right away:


"I know that in real life, if Tetsuya Takahashi spoke directly to a bunch of young people they would never accept the message. So I use the story and the characters I've created to act as my spokespeople."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga -Official Design Materials-, 2002)

"Xenogears is basically a story about 'where do we come from, what are we, where are we going'."
- Soraya Saga (Interview with Siliconera, 2010)

"When I was younger
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Iwata Asks - Xenoblade Chronicles interview, 2010)


The literary allusions, Takahashi's interest in reading and even writing novels, as he had stated during the making of Xenogears and Xenosaga, gives them that special literary quality that has become quite apparent to people, who have written in their reviews things such as:


"Xenogears is essentially literary (and for that reason I only with reluctance apply the term videogame to it); its primary aesthetic value is its story, which is supported by its game, music, and visual art. I do of course think games can have artistic value apart from their story, it's just that here the main value is the story. It is obvious the director knew this: there is no place where those supporting elements overshade the main element. It is not that those supports are done poorly, only that they know their place in this game, unlike many games where the visual element steals primacy, or where primacy fights back and forth between game and story.

The plot construction of Xenogears is usually good, often unusually good, and sometimes can compare with the greatest novelists -- which is impressive considering the length and complexity of it (it can take up to 100 hours to finish). As I said in the first sentence of this review however, Xenogears was rushed to completion and much of the later sections of the plot are not filled out, with many cuts from what was originally planned. But even with these cuts, which do give it an unfinished feeling, it remains an epic and meaningful plot"
- Paul Eres, Xenogears 4-Part First edition review, 2003


"The plot is magnificent. Marvelous. Sublime. It shares a similarity with almost all the great works of this century: the opening of the plot is rather slow, but this consequently strengthens the proximity between the player and the characters, to an almost unbearable extent. And when it truly starts taking off, Xenogears (what a wonderful name) delivers its inspirational message with defiant eloquence. Saying that Tolkien himself wouldn't have disliked the story and that some of the lines seem to deal with existential questions with a vividness rivaling the works of most renowned Jamesian authors wouldn't be exaggerating much, really."
- Kane, Xenogears review "Enfant terrible", 2002


There's also a lot of misconceptions about Xenogears and Xenosaga and their approach to religious references, Nietzsche, Freud and Jung, as well as giant robot anime. It's true that Takahashi is a fan of giant robot anime, but Xenogears is not a rip-off of any of those shows. There are some references and homages, especially to older giant robot anime, but nothing that wasn't obviously made in good fun. And while there are many superficial and coincidental similarities with Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion, the charge that Xenogears ripped off that series has been nothing but ignorant conjecture, and co-creator Soraya Saga even said that Xenogears was not influenced by Evangelion in response to this. You can read more about this in the "History of Xenogears and Xenosaga" article on the site.

Religious references
The religious references are more about Jewish and Gnostic stuff than Christianity, with a handful of Christian and Islamic allusions peppered throughout along with some references to Norse and other myths. In fact, Gnostic Christianity served such an inspiration for the world and story concept in Xenogears and Xenosaga that it's more like a fictional version of it, or an analogy.

Nietzsche
While Xenogears, on a superficial level, is about "destroying God," and Xenosaga's episodes have subtitles that are named after Nietzsche's books, the creators of Xenogears and Xenosaga are not adherents to Nietzsche's philosophy. One thing that will become clear as we examine the story is that Tetsuya Takahashi is not championing the Nietzscheian ideal here. The Nietzscheian elements found mainly serve to illustrate the points that the series attempts to refute, in particular that of the "transcended man." Many gamers assumed that since Xenogears rejected the idea of organized religion and "God" it was in spirit a Nietzscheian game, and therefore Xenosaga would be Nietzscheian as well. However, neither series is actually pro-Nietzsche philosophy. Both stories are far more objective than to take any definitive sides. Tetsuya Takahashi does have a good grasp on what Nietzsche was about and he shows in Xenosaga that he has a lot of respect for Nietzsche still, probably finding him fascinating. The basic element in Nietzsche's philosophical outlook which provides a basis for understanding human behavior - that of the "will to power" - is one of the things Takahashi does agree with, and this is why he often refers to consciousness and souls as "wills" in the stories.

"We tend to depict human characters as a strong will in a fragile flesh and blood."
- Soraya Saga (Interview with Siliconera, 2010)


Freud, Jung, and Psychology
Make no mistake about it, Xenogears and Xenosaga's stories and "science" are very much rooted in actual real psychology. However, while Xenogears and Xenosaga use multiple references and concepts from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these are not the sole basis for Xenogears and Xenosaga's use of psychological theories. Freud and Jung are merely the easiest to spot, because the concept of Freud's "Id" and Jung's "Anima," "Animus," and "Collective Unconscious" are very famous and recognizable.
However, there are a number of other Psychoanalysts who's names and concepts are referenced and used as well. Between Xenogears and Xenosaga you have references to Karen Horney and her "theory of neurosis," Jacques Lacan and his "Other" and "Desire," Erich Fromm and his "escape from freedom," Melanie Klein and her "Transference" and "object relations," and Donald Woods Winnicott and his "transitional object," "true self and false self," and "the anti-social tendency." There are also references to Josef Breuer, Otto Rank and Frantz Omar Fanon, and possibly others, even though Breuer, Rank and Frantz have been regarded as unjustified references. However, even dismissing these as unjustified may be premature since most gamers don't know a thing about them, while Takahashi does know more than gamers give him credit for. For example, Rank's "here-and-now" approach fits remarkably well with Rank's characterization in Xenogears.

The characters in both Xenogears and Xenosaga were in fact written using more or less textbook psychology as the basis, as the many references to psychoanalysts should tell you, but the strongest influence appears to be the Enneagram of Personality (referred to in the Xenosaga -Official Design Materials-); a dynamic psychospiritual typology of human personality which describes sophisticated body-mind archetypes, principally developed by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, partly based on earlier teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. To improve on it, Naranjo did in fact discover connections between Ichazo's protoanalysis (Enneagram work), and theories by all the aforementioned psychoanalysts and more, especially Karen's "theory of neurosis." While the Enneagram of Personality is not a typology that is commonly taught or researched in academic psychology, it is in many ways superior to those materials taught when properly understood and not dismissed as something akin to an astrology classification. Understood properly, Enneagram of Personality constitutes a tool to reach the roots of Ego's conditionings and deformities. Not all Enneagram author's are good at conveying this, especially not all the amateurs on the net, so one needs to learn this material from the source if they wish to truly grasp it.
Since academic psychology and psychoanalytic theory began its exploration with peripheral phenomena - behavior, moods, symptoms, conflicts, erotic drives, aggression, fears, guilts, instincts and impulses, etc, which are actually secondary to ego psychology which is an absolutely fundamental factor to understanding human consciousness, it is this aspect of the Ennea-types that makes them a more profound and dynamic basis for character and "human types" than what is often taught in academia.
Part of what I love about the characterization is that you clearly see characters disintergrating and intergrating throughout Xenogears and Xenosaga, and I will point out some examples of this during the coverage.

Taken at face value, Xenogears might seem like a typical JRPG; a teenage boy from a doomed hometown goes on an adventure and helps people along the way while being manipulated by "an omniscient council of vagueness" ...and then you kill a god. On the abridged surface the game is somewhat troperific and clich�, which is why reading a mere plot synopsis isn't going to impress most people. But that's not what makes Xenogears good. What makes Xenogears good are its allegories and metaphors, the relevant philosophical and ethical issues that it touches upon, the sharpness of its setting, the poetic and eloquently expressed ideas and truths through language and imagery, the scope of its lore, the depth of its psychological approach to characters, and, quite simply its high spiritual, moral and intellectual worth. What Tetsuya Takahashi has done is taking, what is otherwise an immature means of expression, and turned it into mature intellectual discourse. There is something visionary about his approach to telling a story, characterized by "science and ideology."
Of course there are other reasons people like Xenogears. Some like it because of its action scenes, its ultra-kitsch Japanese mechs, its beautiful soundtrack, or even just it's gameplay. But those things are generally not the reasons why it is held in such a high regard.

Science and Ideology
Many scientific ideas have inspired Xenogears and Xenosaga, such as the aforementioned psychology (which is also a type of science). You'll find here, for example, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and Hawking's imaginary time being used and referenced in the stories. As with the psychological aspect, the scientific ideas are well-researched and implemented in very creative and fitting ways.
As for the "ideology" part, you'll find that Takahashi is fascinated by the idea of opposites. He sets characters in opposing, contrasting roles, and he pits ideas and philosophies against each other. In Xenogears and Xenosaga, he illustrates many foil relationships between characters, which places each character in a complex position on a multidimensional grid of ideology and philosophy. It is, in fact, not unlike the Duality and the clash of ideas that Dostoevsky was so famous for incorporating into his writing.
Actually, many people seem to be rather confused over what it is Tetsuya Takahashi is trying to say in these works, and there has been much discussion and debates. Examples:

"The humans (sans Krelian and Grahf) *do* make the right decision and prefer their so-called limited world, but the troubling thing is the relation between the worlds: the game is saying that the limited world of certainty is a mere outgrowth, a minor one and perhaps a mistake, of the unlimited anything-goes world. This I think contradicts the theme; if the game takes the side of free will why have a cosmology where the dimension where free will is allowable is subsidiary and in a sense a mere burp of the dimension where free will doesn't exist? If I ever meet Tetsuya Takahashi, I intend that to be the first question I'll ask him."
- Paul Eres, Xenogears 4-Part First edition review, 2003)

"Eventually [some villains] died heroically with their reasons . Does this support what Tetsuya Takahashi thinking as Beyond Good and Evil ?"
- Xenosaga fan

"The Subjectiveness of morality is a big theme of Xenogames."
- Xeno fan

From what Tetsuya Takahashi has said and written, it seems that his personal ideal is "living like a carefree child who doesn't think too deeply about things" and his aim for the two works have been to show "a mirror that reflects truth," offering "much food for thought," and asking "what would you do in this case?", among other things. I myself cannot claim to have the final answer on what it is he is trying to say, apart from what has been stated, but I have made a few observations I'd like to share:
1. Takahashi is trying to use science and psychology to show, objectively, how human beings operate - examining why people come to hold different types of ideologies and viewpoints - but doesn't ever aim to fully take sides.
2. The whole point, I believe, is to show that humans are all flawed and "imperfect", and at the end we will all have to realize this and be forced to become humble in the face of our own exposed weakness.
Those are the main two principles by which Tetsuya Takahashi seems to approach his main message in both Xenogears and Xenosaga. I will try to go in a little deeper when we get to the parts of the story that relates to this. But for now, that's my abridged stance on it.

Plot Holes:
As several detractors - and even fans - have pointed out about Xenogears and Xenosaga, they have several plot holes and/or problems with the narrative. While I agree with some of them, I'm not going to respond to every one that has been pointed out, though I might adress a few that I strongly disagree with. Also, whenever things "aren't realistic," I think people are getting a bit too anal about things that ultimately isn't the point of the work. The point, according to Takahashi, was to use an imaginary sci-fi setting to get messages across to a young audience, similar to Star Trek. In Star Trek you also had Scotty drinking alcohol which wouldn't be suitable on a Federation Starship, but that wasn't the point. Since the Enterprise was a metaphor for "starship Earth," and as alcohol is common on Earth, the abuse of this substance was sometimes necessary for the plot or to get the message across (i.e. showing the difference between 'good' Kirk and 'evil' Kirk, or how aliens can be seduced by human weaknesses and pleasures). While it might be fun to disect inconsistencies and absurdities, I do not think it is realistic to expect a 100% accuracy and logic in any work. If such expectations of the most pedantic research and accuracy were placed on every author then they'd never be able to complete their work. Usually the surface narrative and world is only a covering to be able to tell something else, something deeper.

Of course, this analysis/coverage will also be somewhat subjective and in no way 'complete'. These games offer so much food for thought - in addition to their intricate storyline - that it is impossible for one person to cover everything. Thus I have narrowed it down, although I may add to it in the future. There are spoilers so do not read on if you have not played through the entire game and do not wish to be spoiled.

---A.C.

Prologue
The story begin by kicking things off in a compelling way by posing questions that compel answers. What you first see after firing up your "New Game" is a visceral and emotionally resonant opening that makes a promise of an intense and rewarding experience ahead.
One thing I want to get out of the way first is that Xenogears has numerous translation problems that adds to an already confusing plot. Already in the opening movie we have the line "Damn, so they're planning on attacking." This line is not meant to be ambiguous. It's a translation error. You can read a quote from localizer Richard Honeywood himself explaining it in Xenogears: Guide to translation errors. What's attacking is, of course, Deus. There's also a transcript of the opening movie dialogue in there if you couldn't make out what they were saying during the techno-babble. I actually advice that you read through the Xenogears: Guide to translation errors before you try to make sense of the story. For this coverage I have decided to use many of the original names for characters and terms, in respect of the creator's vision, and to hopefully inspire fans to make an improved translation someday.

The cinematic opening takes place 10,000 years in the story's past and opens with the epigraph "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Since part of this line is later used by the 'Existence,' it can also be taken as him/it speaking. This epigraph is taken from the Book of Revelation, and it basically means "I am God," and "I am eternal."

"Exon replacement" is stated in Xenogears: Perfect Works to be the same phenomenon as that of the 'Original Elhaym' awakening into 'Miang'. You might also want to read the Xenogears: Perfect Works sourcebook before you can make complete sense of the story.
And the Captain's daughter is not meant to look like Elly. Her eyes are a different color and even the hair is not right. The sketch of Captain's daughter in Xenogears Perfect Works doesn't look at all like Elly. You can read a discussion about it here. Why they bothered to show that the Captain had a family was likely to add a human element to the opening, as it manages to condensely make the destruction of thousands of people important by focusing on the thoughts and actions of just one character.
Other than that, "the main planet" is explained as Lost Jerusalem (i.e. Earth) in Xenogears: Perfect Works, but the Captain destroys the Eldridge before Deus can go there.

'You shall be as gods' is a reference to the forbidden fruit and the fall of man in the biblical genesis. In Genesis this quote is spoken by the Serpent (Satan) who tempted Eve, and when Deus is breaking out of the Eldridge's hull the image is that of serpents breaking out. Other than this movie's allusion to Genesis, I interprete this line as coming from Miang Hawwa after exon replacement has awakened her in Persona (as explained on page 170 in Perfect Works), and alludes to her current symbolic role as both Eve and the serpent, as well as the Gnostic Demiurge that is about to create "the material world" for new, artificial humans. In that respect, Miang is Eve, Satan AND Yahweh in one package. Another allusion to her being Satan is the fact that the Eldridge's auto-pilot system is named 'Faust' which is a reference to the protagonist of a classic German legend who makes a deal with the devil. The allusion is that the Eldridge's auto-pilot system submits to Deus just as Faust dealt with the devil. In fact Gnostics (including John and Paul) saw the Hebrew God (Yahweh) as a fallen angel or worse, the devil himself. Clearly this must be why the concept of these beings are all fused into Miang/Deus. And in fact Deus was originally called 'Yahweh' but the name was changed due to the concerns of localizer Richard Honeywood who thought it might upset fundamental Christians. While Honeywood thought the developers were trying to twist the Judeo-Christian references, they are in fact based on Gnostic Christianity.
Another cool thing is that the Eldridge appears to be slightly based off of one of the Nazca Line drawings, specifically the Hummingbird. Which fits nicely into Erich von D�niken's Chariots of the Gods? premise that this opening movie resembles.
As XG:PW explains, when the ship explodes and crashes on the planet below, Kadmoni is ejected from Zohar and makes a soft landing. That's the wreckage we see on the ground at the end of the movie, where the Original Elhaym, in Miang mode, has exited the Biological Computer Kadmoni as a new "Eve" of that world. The dark dawn of the new world is over, and the sun rises while burning parts of the Eldridge rains across the sky.

Chapter 01:
It started in the village called Lahan.
(U.S. ver: Lahan Village)
A lot of gamers find Lahan to be clich�, but I actually really like the sharp contrast between the heavy sci-fi intro and this down to earth setting, and it's not completely void of substance either. Examples of playing with the beauty of language, using figures of speech to toy with words, can even be seen in some of the mere NPC dialogue:
"Here's a tip, Fei. Be very cautious of alcohol and women. Behind those sweet and beautiful appearances lies a deep, dark swamp. Before you realize it, you are trapped, and lose your freedom. They are the most fearsome demons in this world."
Shitan's line about music seems to have touched a lot of gamers, as many fans cite that line as one of their favorites from the entire game. I also like the following line by one of the villagers; "In life, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is." The first Act - Lahan Village / Shitan's House - was written by Masato Kato, so it has a slightly different flavor to it compared to the rest of the game.


The World / Setting:
As part of the initial hook, right after the opening movie we have a new hook that relates to the landscape of the story ahead - the imaginary world of Xenogears - the stage of the story. Here the world is set in the future of our own 4-dimensional universe (i.e. speculative fiction or science fiction) rather than a completely original and mystical fantasy world like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Sakaguchi's Final Fintasy RPGs. That said, there are some elements that will appear slightly mystical, so this world shouldn't be taken as "hard sci-fi." It shows that they did a lot of world-building before scripting out the game, which is why pretty much every elaborate setting details have buildup to them and are not just being randomly shoved down your throat. This is why the amazing inch-thick coffee table tome Xenogears: Perfect Works was also released, showing all the work that has gone into this world.

I also agree with Paul Eres' review that the world of Xenogears is masterfully detailed while not being overdetailed with extraneousness, but detailed just enough to completely complement the story. The origin of the world, the countries and their histories, the timeline of events, even the measurement system in Xenogears have been invented carefully. This is also where I think this work differ fundamentally from Monado (Xenoblade) where the world of two giant gods steal primacy from the story. This problem is also often cited as being the flaw in some areas of Tolkien's books. In addition to being worlds composed of timeless universals, Xenogears and Xenosaga keeps the story and characters the goal and not the world. The world of Xenogears has been compared to 1984, Brave New World, Childhood's End, Gundam and Star Wars, in addition to several past RPGs made by Square, such as Chrono Trigger. I think all of these are pretty good comparisons to the setting.
One thing in particular I like is that unlike a lot of other imaginary worlds, Takahashi has a way of making all the elements come together and give them an explanation, even if it's through "pseudo-science." For example, a pseudo-scientific explanation is eventually given for the game's magic spells, "Ether."

Also, the 4-dimensional universe that is the stage of Xenogears and Xenosaga is but an element of a universe that includes a higher dimension. These are sometimes given the names "Lower" and "Upper" domains respectively to describe how they relate. But although the existing role and function differ in each due to their difference in structure, the lower domain is indispensable for the upper, and the upper domain is necessary for the lower. This is because they form a single universe with both parts included. The two domains possess an intimate link as if they are melded together without being detached worlds, yet, despite that, they are existences that whiff past each other and cannot be seen. Moreover, it can be thought that many lower domains exist.


The first Act - Introducing the hero
As with any classic narrative the hero enters the story early, long before the arrival of the "Inciting Incident," as we need to see the hero in his/her pre-Incident life. This is Act I, also known as the set-up.

Hero character analysis:
Fei is a light hearted, harmonious and reassuring character who's personality originated in a desire to have attachment, confluence, and oneness with others and the world. This has the consequence of making him unselfconscious and passive-aggressive, which in turn gives him a reluctant hero role. Not only that, but his personality is actually a "subpersonality" that was created only 3 years before the start of the game. The reason why Fei doesn't have any memories of his past is because his current personality did not even exist prior to 3 years ago. What Takahashi has done here is taking the ennea-type 9 neurosis to its limits. Disassociative Identity Disorder, the psychiatric diagnosis that describes the condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities corresponds to ennea-type 9's level of pathological destructiveness, most often due to hidden damage and negative trauma, due to rearing by parent, the lack of love, etc. Especially painful to Fei since people of type 9 want attachment to everything and everyone. However, since he is merely a subpersonality, and because he doesn't have his full memory or experience, his personality is generally regarded as weak or uninteresting in the early parts of the story.
Personally I didn't have any problem with his characterization. Fei is a fascinating character study, based on actual psychology, and thus the writing here, regardless of how we may feel about Fei, still deserves some respect. As I said in the introduction above, this type of writing also relates to Takahashi's nickname as the "science and ideology" game director, as psychology is a type of science.

For the most part I identify gamers chief quarrel with Fei as an issue of misinterpretation in perception filtered through their JRPG experiences. Since our experience tend to be filtered through layers of pictures from the past (what psychologists refer to as object relations or object-image), this has in many gamers developed, in conjunction with a sense of familiarity with superficial aspects - which forever bears their imprint of previous games and characters - a template through which they experience the whole of every new game or story they encounter. This impression, pieced together from elements of games and stories from the past, buffers us from what is really going on in Xenogears and with Fei, distorting and causing many to misinterpret what they perceive, so that they are indeed responding to the past and not the present story before them. This may then manifest in such criticism as Fei being a "stereotypical amnesiac hero" or that he is another "Shinji Ikari," and they point out a number of other familiar anime aspects that they themselves are projecting onto the characters and the story. But in many cases these are self-deceptions that doesn't point out flaws with Xenogears and its characterizations per se, but instead is a flaw and prejudice in these gamers perception. For this very reason their criticism tends to be self-deceptive and unprofessional.

Another thing that should be adressed here is the commonly observed symptom of gamers and anime fans who seems to only be able to appreciate works by identifying themselves with and investing their emotions into the characters; suffering from what Evangelion's director Hideaki Anno referred to as "self-imposed autism" of anime and fantasy fans (which was his greatest frustration). These type of gamers take a so-called "Otaku narcissistic pleasure" in cool or attractive things that they wish to merge with or lose themselves in, and thus too many neurotic or dislikable traits, regardless of how realistic or relevant they may be, brings about the displeasure of these fans who usually won't stand for a story where the main characters are unhappy. Therefore Takahashi's choice of using actual psychology to explore the neurosis and problems facing individuals and society brought about a deviation from the usual attractive anime-, game- or fantasy-like things in these works, which consequently alienated gamers who feel they deserve only pleasure from gaming, and who often take the narcissistic or pretentiously callous stance of putting these works or the characters down because it doesn't appeal to their liking. But ultimately their criticism only reveals their narcissistic, hedonistic, and sometimes "over-serious" attitude. It's not criticism that has any substance, and their demands that what is pleasurable should be championed over games like Xenogears and Xenosaga is ultimately projecting exaggerated stature onto something that usually don't deserve it, which is ultimately pretentious rather than clever.

I think the best way to approach Fei's character is as a "lovable doofus." This is a character whom you can name 'Beloved Slacker' in the Aveh martial arts tournament and will get the chance to get some booze, buy a toy, get a balloon, and breath fire for the hell of it in Aveh's festival.

Chapter 02:
Over the gorges
(U.S. ver: Mountain Path)
Chapter 03:
the momentary peace
(U.S. ver: House on a Hill)
Support character analysis:
I'm not going to analyze each and every character that comes along when Xenogears: Perfect Works and the character profiles here on Study Guide already do an adequate job of examining them. I will mostly examine how they relate to the story and do it when they make an impact in the story. Otherwise this analysis would be too long simply because of the sheer number of story characters. I will cite another reviewer who had the same problem on how to go about doing a coverage of Xenogears:

"[The] sheer number of story characters in this game is probably the highest of any game's story -- it has about as many named characters as 1000+ page novels like War and Peace. Amazingly, unlike some of the characters in those types of novels it's never difficult to tell them apart or to remember who did what, though this may have to do with the visual aids -- in novels you don't get distinctive portraits of each character when they speak.

Besides the pictures, just how did they become so precisely and clearly defined? I think it's just plain skill in placing them; with only one or two exceptions each minor character does his role in the story and then gets out. People who are only in one or two plot scenes in the entire game (Yui, Midori, Alice, Timothy, Dan, old man Maison, Big Joe, the Captain of the Thames, the Captain of the Eldridge, Primera, Samson, a bunch more) actually are more developed and memorable than main characters of most other RPGs; it's not just their characters that are interesting but it's the amazing way the game manages to condense such a high degree of character in so little time on screen. They are almost archetypes, but not quite because they have unique characteristics. The Captain of the Thames (a walrus demi-human), for example, is in the 'man of the sea' captain archetype, honorable and jovial who helps out cast-aways, but gains individuality through his extremity at being that and by way of (when asked why he does anything) his memorable "That's because... // I am! // A man! // Of the sea!"

It's in the less major and in the very minor characters, actually, are where I think the game shines at its full brightness. I have never in any other RPG seen 'ordinary townsperson' dialogue as interesting, as coherent, and as wonderfully styled as in here (though coming close would be Nintendo's Earthbound and the Wind Waker Zelda game)."
- Paul Eres, Xenogears 4-Part First edition review, 2003)


For now I will only touch on Shitan (U.S. ver: Citan).

Shitan
In reality he is one of Solaris' Guardian Angels sent down to the surface on a secret mission for Emperor Cain. His real name is Hyuuga Rikudou (U.S. ver: Hyuga Ricdeau). For the story he tends to serve as the voice of reason that always seems to stand in your favor, which in turn helps with Fei's characterization and motivation. And, in fact, many fans regard Shitan as the best portrayal of the archetypal wise man who guides you on your journey from Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, placing him ahead of both Gandalf and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The name "Shitan" has been speculated to be an allusion to "Satan" (Satan is based on the Arabic word "Shaitan" which means "adversary"), which is fitting since he is a "Guardian Angel" (also a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's novel) who has turned against Solaris and "God."
However, this allusion is incorrect. The katakana for "Shitan" is different from that of "Shaitan," and although the name can still refer to the Arabian "Shitan," which means "demon," if you put the kana for Shitan in Google translate, you get "rosewood," which is actually the name of Japanese wood used for things like furniture and Bonsai display stands. This fits with Citan's Japanese characteristics, as well as Xenosaga's "Shion" Uzuki character being named after a flower. Furthermore, there are already several other characters in these works who serve as allusions to the devil, and all of them - except Shitan - have rather clearly defined symbolic imagery of Satan attached to them, such as Yuriev marking his children with numbers, Deus/Miang looking like a serpent, and Graf destroying the world with the army of "Diabolos." All of these are also antagonistic characters.

Also, regarding these allusions and references; Takahashi has sometimes been charged with having "gratuitious" or unjustified excessive referencing. I do not agree with this charge, since I think most references are alluding to concepts that are relevant to examining and understanding the unsaid layers and guiding motifs behind the writing. A lot of the references serve as symbolic foreshadowing and leitmotifs. In addition to this, having the player get curious about these names and looking them up is a good way to invite young people into reading more and acquire knowledge outside of the world of escapist fantasy worlds.

Also, Shitan refers to himself as "a son of man." "It might actually be better to live an ordinary life, in this condition... As a son of man..." "Son of man" is a Hebrew idiom meaning "human being" or "mortal," with Shitan referring to the possibility of living a life that isn't special. It's nice and subtle foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing:
In both Xenogears' and Xenosaga's set-up there is a sense of impending change. In fact, it isn't just the Inciting Incident that is foreshadowed, major events of the story to come are also foreshadowed and, like some of the best foreshadowing in literature or cinema, it is not always recognized as foreshadowing when it occurs. A simple thing like Fei's turbulent painting foreshadows his inner mental landscape, and even the fact that he is a painter foreshadows the artist behind the painting in Nisan's Cathedral. But only in retrospect can you tell these things. The scene where Shitan shows the musicbox to Fei has so much foreshadowing in it that it almost tells the entire story right there. Although I don't know if it was intentional, the decoration inside the box resembles the Zohar, and the angel in front of it is later in Shevat heavily implied to be a statue of Sophia. You see the same statue outside Aphel Aura and a woman in Shevat's dungeon says to Elly:
Excuse me... Miss... You resemble the girl who was like an angel, and was sacrificed in the great war... I can picture Zephyr and the followers' confusion.

The imagery is fitting, since Elly was created inside the Kadmoni inside Zohar and advented to the Earth from there.
Also, Fei says he's heard this music, called "A Distand Promise", somewhere before. If you return to Shitan's house later you can read the following on the box: "Celebrating my daughter's birth...may all the dreams, courage & love in the world be yours." A lot of people have thus concluded from this that the music box belonged to Kim, and that Kim had made it for Emeralda's birth. However, the ruins that were being excavated in that area contained Gears from the war 500 years ago, so it is more likely that it originated from that period, which is also in line with the statue being an icon of Sophia from that time. In addition to this, when you visit Shevat and play this music in the bar's jukebox, if you talk to the man in the bar a few times while it's playing he will state that the music originated as a poem:
"Broken mirror, a million shades of light, The old echo fades away. But just you and I can find 'the answer' someday..." 'A distant promise'. A poem composed long ago... Can you find 'the answer' which supposedly exists somewhere...?
Related to this bit of music and it's theme (the meaning of which I will examine later) is the track "Lost... Broken Shards", and if you play this tune and talk to the man he will say:
We're all part of a larger world, as one of its countless fragments. All their shapes and colors are unique... It's nice yet sad... Long time ago, one of the three sages said something like that.
This line suggests that it was perhaps one of the sages that either wrote, or inspired this poem, which again ties it to the 9500s era.

For this reason I believe it is more likely that Fei heard the music when he was little (or maybe 500 years ago), as the poem appears to be famous, and that the inscription is by Citan celebrating his daughter Midori's birthday.

When the musicbox starts playing, notice how shards start flying by. The imagery of humans as "broken shards" is to be a main theme in the game, and much of it's soundtrack is related to this.

Yui and Midori
These are both common Japanese female names. The spelling of Yui combines the characters for "gentle superiority" (or possibly "grace") and "garment," and Midori simply means "green." If this is symbolic of anything, it's that Citan likes green stuff. Pedestrian as both names are, Yui's is a fairly good indication of her character. "Gentle superiority" was likely not just a random choice.

Chapter 04:
The things fallin' in the dark night
(U.S. ver: Fallen Shadows)
A storm is coming
The pace and focus of the scenes at this point are beginning to unfold in context to - and pointed at - the Inciting Incident. There's a sense of foreboding and shifting winds that starts to accelerate to the point at which everything suddenly changes. This happens as night falls, the ground starts shaking, and Fei watches as "Giants" head for Lahan Village.

Chapter 05:
The evil attacked Lahan
(U.S. ver: Attack on Lahan)
Inciting Incident
The Inciting Incident is the point where the story really begins. It's the moment when something enters the story in a manner that affects the hero's status and plans and beliefs, forcing her or him to take action in response, and inherent to that moment is the call for the hero to do something they weren't doing before. In Xenogears it's not the Gears arriving or the attack on Lahan that is the "Inciting Incident" as much as it is the hero's unforeseen entanglement with Weltall, since Gears and wars are already known to exist in this world, so their arrival does not come totally unexpected. Fei's entanglement with Weltall, however, does come totally unexpected. And related to this is also the "leader" of the Kislev Gears, who will soon reveal himself as "Graf." And so, with Weltall and Graf appearing, the story's primary conflict makes its initial center-stage appearance.

Fei begins his long relationship with the machine Weltall from this point up until the end. What the rest of the story will be about is defined here. This is the bridge between Act I and Act II, meaning everything that came before this incident was a set-up for it, and everything that comes after is a response to it. This is classic story architecture in full glory.

Alice
Fei's love interest in the set-up was originally named Aruru. One could be forgiven for the mistranslation, given the relative obscurity of this bit of mythology (and the fact that "aruru" sounds like so much Japanese onomotopoeia), but Aruru is the surname of the Mesopotamian mother-goddess Ninhursag, a primordial spirit of fertility. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Ninhursag-Aruru created the beast-man Enkidu, who was sent to defeat Gilgamesh, the overly-proud king of Uruk, in an effort to humble him. Just as Ninhursag shaped Enkidu, a violent beast of a man, Aruru's death in the opening chapters of Xenogears triggered a violent reaction in Fei that resulted in the annihilation of Lahan (Id). It's somewhat obtuse, but the reference may have been an intentional one.

Weltall
The name of Fei's Gear is simply German for "universe" or "cosmos." It references something that encompasses a grand order of things. The meaning isn't particularly deep, though the unfolding story reveals that Fei's acquisition of the Gear was certainly part of some greater plan.

How Elly and Weltall arrived at Lahan
Some have found the whole series of events that transpired before this Incident to be confusing, so I'll sort it out. First, Graf had Weltall developed for Id in secret somewhere in Solaris, basing the stock body and Slave generator on that of his Omnigear "Original Weltall" ("O.R. Weltall" for short). He then gave it to Id while training him as an assassin, as seen during Ramsus' flashback of the quelling of Elul (U.S. ver: Elru). Once Id disappeared thanks to Kahn, Graf, with the help of Miang as "Executioner," gave the stock body of Weltall to Kislev so that they could produce a modern type of Gear to even the fight between Ave and Kislev in order to keep the war going for the sake of obtaining combat data in preparation for the resurrection of Deus (part of both Graf's and Miang's plans). However, the main goal was to provoke Fei into conflict and awaken his destructive personality again. When everything was ready, Miang sent a group of Gebler's Special Forces - Elly's unit - to retrieve Weltall from Kislev's secret "Goliath facility," while Graf alerted Kislev's army and had Elly's unit pursued until they arrived over Lahan and there forced them to make an emergency landing.

Cinematography
One thing I want to mention also is how much I love Xenogears' cutscene cinematography using the game's own engine. The shots of Weltall standing tall, dark and ominous in the morning where Lahan used to be is particularly striking and cool, and this aspect helps separate it from other PS1 RPGs like Final Fantasy (which CG cutscenes I tend to find terrible, graphically promiscuous and over-the-top, much like the Star Wars prequels) and the camera angles in Xenogears are done with a nice cinematic style that, in my opinion, makes up for the somewhat subpar graphics. Though I think it's still rendered better than most people give it credit for, and the graphics have aged a whole lot better than most PS1 games.