Board 8 > From Xenogears to Xenoblade - The History of Monolith Soft

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://kotaku.com/from-xenogears-to-xenoblade-the-history-of-monolith-so-1845759844/

I know we all have feelings about Kotaku but I'm all for more pieces like this. Looking forward to digging in.

Read the whole thing earlier this evening

Good history lesson

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Yuriev's analyses should be read, too. https://xenogearsxenosagastudyguide.blogspot.com/p/the-history-of-xenogears.html

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

I know we all have feelings about Kotaku

yes, it is good

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

I know we all have feelings about Kotaku but I'm all for more pieces like this.

Kotaku is barely even the same site from the days that it was a meme here.

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Great article! I think it is overselling xenoblade x a bit to fit it's naritive, it definitely is the black sheep of the blade franchise unfortunately. I loved it but I think just being on the Wii u hurt it too much. I still learned a lot from this though so I appreciate the author taking their time to make this

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That was a good article, talk about a trip down memory lane. Thanks for sharing

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Reading that made me long for a Xenogears remake

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

I know we all have feelings about Kotaku

Kotaku is weird. They simultaneously make the worst clickbait trash and best videogame journalism. This is obviously the later.

Reading this makes me want to play Xenoblade X again. Loved that game. Got myself a Switch recently and started playing xenoblade 2 but it doesn't feel the same. Way too cringey anime.

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The only game I have yet to play and beat in the Xeno series is Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Xenogears is one of the my favorite games of all-time. Xenosaga Ep I-III are all still in my personal collection. And Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 are some of the best time sinks I've had in gaming the past couple of years. What a ride it has been.

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I really need to play xenogears one day. And I'll get Xenoblade x if they ever port it

I own Xenogears on PS3.

I think I'm going to make sure that's my next PS1 game at least.

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this topic made me have a dream that nintendo bought xenogears from square and released an updated version of the original game with a re-done disc 2 called xenogears complete edition.

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I always thought Monolith was responsible for Blood and No One Lives Forever. And now Ive learned something.

colliding posted...

this topic made me have a dream that nintendo bought xenogears from square and released an updated version of the original game with a re-done disc 2 called xenogears complete edition.

I'd buy the fuck out of this

Xenoblade Chronicles X is easily the most underrated game in the Xeno series. Not as good as gears, but solid and honestly just as good or better than Chronicles 1 and 2.

Good article

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Xenoblade Chronicles X will probably forever be the most ambitious game ever made, I doubt we will ever get a game as with as even of a fun/deep/engaging ratio in the future.

My dream sequel is the exact same planet as Mira thousands of years in the future but it's heavily developed and changed.

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i wish that one of these monolith retrospectives would have the decency to talk about every game they made. i know people reading only really care about games with xeno in the name, but still

UF8 posted...

i wish that one of these monolith retrospectives would have the decency to talk about every game they made. i know people reading only really care about games with xeno in the name, but still

so you didn't read the article eh

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Xenoblade Chonicles X is my favorite mediocre game I never finished. It was so great at being...fine at best.

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Xenoblade Chronicles X means a lot to me because it was the first Xeno game I played and I literally worked on it, lol

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chaos tony is the reason there's no slit in the child character's underwear in the NA version, he ruined the game

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Xenoblade Chronicles X means a lot to me because it was the first Xeno game I played and I literally worked on it, lol

Wait i didn't know this. What'd you do on it

I did text check on the English version.

It was one of the coolest things I ever did.

This sounds kinda lame, but I got to email John Ricciardi at 8-4 about an item that was translated as Wrist Armor, and suggested Armwear because it wasnt on the wrist, and they approved it.

Also at one point theres an investigation into a spy and someone says something like it smells like dirty pool, and another tester put in a text bug saying it was bad translation, but I said it was a real phrase.

It turns out they shipped after changing it on one route through that quest, but another they kept it because of me lol.

As minuscule as it is, I got to make my mark on the game lol.

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That's awesome :D I'd be hype if I could contribute anything to a Xeno game

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SantaRPidgey posted...

so you didn't read the article eh

good one

you do realise they totally neglected to mention more than five games they developed, right (not to mention only barely included some of their contributions to other companies' titles) @SantaRPidgey

and this is sadly the case with every otherwise good article (or video) on this subject...

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I did text check on the English version.

It was one of the coolest things I ever did.

This sounds kinda lame, but I got to email John Ricciardi at 8-4 about an item that was translated as Wrist Armor, and suggested Armwear because it wasnt on the wrist, and they approved it.

Also at one point theres an investigation into a spy and someone says something like it smells like dirty pool, and another tester put in a text bug saying it was bad translation, but I said it was a real phrase.

It turns out they shipped after changing it on one route through that quest, but another they kept it because of me lol.

As minuscule as it is, I got to make my mark on the game lol.

Pretty cool. It's the small things.

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which games did they not cover that you'd be interested in them? I did a look up on wikipedia first and it seems to cover most of what they did

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I'll read anything Xeno related and love it but I felt like this article was trying to sell a narrative of Takahashi's failures to eventual success and I just don't agree with that. Xenogears was a pretty huge success story and a lot of people liked the Xenosaga games even though they fell short of their grand ambition.


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SantaRPidgey posted...

which games did they not cover that you'd be interested in them? I did a look up on wikipedia first and it seems to cover most of what they did

(secretly(?) i liked the crossover SRPGs they developed like project x zone (and namco x capcom and the srw og games) even if they were kind of way too long. also dbz attack of the saiyans is a great traditional jrpg and maybe the best dbz game imo. none of those really have any actual info on their development and i wish there was. soma bringer is admittedly a more significant game than them, but i still don't like that it's the only ds game mentioned there out of five (technically seven counting 3ds))

also just kinda odd that they only talked about botw (as a kind of afterthought after mentioning it earlier), animal crossing new leaf (and not new horizons?) and splatoon 2 (and not 1?) for other stuff they worked on. also a bit surprised that dirge of cerberus wasn't mentioned anywhere