In typical Tetsuya Takahashi fashion, Xenosaga proved itself to be one of the most ambitious and over-the-top video games I’ve ever played. This game is filled to the brim with religious symbolism, theological themes, and psychological elements and ideas from Freud, Jung, Nietzche, among plenty of others. These deeper meanings add an almost overwhelming amount of depth to the lore and world building of Xenosaga, however, I find myself craving these implementations; a big reason why I love Xenogears so much.
On top of all this, it’s as if every single character and concept introduced throughout this first part of Xenosaga is a reference to something, which is why the inclusion of an in-game database was a blessing. Despite the constant pauses I would take to read about the influences and definitions of the terms and topics discussed throughout this game, by the end of it I was completely sucked into this world that Monolith Soft had created; a true feat especially considering this was the team’s first solo project. While the gameplay loop overall was kind of slow, I really appreciated the combat system building off of Xenogears’ in some noticeable ways, and I particularly enjoyed the story as it began to unravel heavily in the late parts of the narrative. Regardless of what I’ve heard people say about the second episode of Xenosaga, I am very much looking forward to delving in further to this series to see it through to the end.