REBUTTAL TO: Xenogears - Schlechte Deutsche Oder: Oh yeah, I know English
Xenogears. A remarkable game that most people seem to love or hate. Myself, I fall into the category of the former. I first played this game at the impressionable young age of 13. I'm a fairly good student, smarter then the average bear you might say, so I thought I was up to the challenge of a game that was supposed to be a real deep RPG. Boy was I ever wrong.
My first play through the game started out innocent enough. I was floored by the cutscenes, especially the beginning scene, which pretty much blew my mind. "Alpha and Omega, what the hell does that mean." I played through disc one, and I though to myself, "Wow, this is a really deep game. But I think I'm getting it." Then I put in disc 2, and my world got turned upside down. As plot device upon plot device was dumped on me, I struggled to stay afloat in a sea of information that my little brain couldn't fully grasp. I struggled through it, knowing full well that I didn't understand a great deal of what was going on. In the end, I managed to make to the end and win the game. Whew, what a trip that was.
In that first play through the game, I was unaware that name Zohar was taken from the title of a major religious text, that Merkava was a biblical reference, or that there were philosophical and psychological references at every turn. In fact, the only thing I caught was that the word Deus looks a lot like Zeus, and Zeus was the king of the Greek Gods. So I figured out that Deus was supposed to be a God like figure. Hooray for me, and my inability to read into subtext. But regardless of that, I had a good time playing through the game. The battle system felt tight and very well developed, the music was stellar (continuing my love affair with Mr. Mitsuda), the graphics were kickin' and the story, albeit somewhat over my head, was enjoyable.
Fast-forward almost four years.
Now, I'm a much more intelligent 17 year old, in the top 10 of my senior class, and above all else, a dedicated RPG gamer. I make the decision to revisit an older game from my collection, and that was, of course, Xenogears. After all, Xenosaga was scheduled for release in just a few short months, and I wanted to refresh my memory on the game that started it. So, once again, I dove head first into the 2 disc epic.
The first difference this time around occurred when I watched the opening sequence. I was still floored, but not because of the graphics, but because I understood. Having some recollection of my first time through the game combined with my expanded base of knowledge over the last four years, Alpha and Omega actually meant something to me now. So I felt like this journey at least got started on the right foot. And so I play on and begin to notice things I hadn't before. Yggdrasil, the main vessel for most of the game, is named after the world tree from Norse mythology, the tree that is said to connect all worlds. Makes sense to me, seeing as the Yggdrasil does grow(through enhancement), as a tree would, and it allows exploration into otherwise unreachable places, other worlds you might say. And then Id where had I heard that word before? Oh yes, in my psychology class. Id is one of the parts of the subconscious, the part that desires self-satisfaction. Not only did the name have meaning now, but it actually helped me understand the character a bit more.
Needless to say, many more references appeared before me as I played through the game. And then I moved to disc two, this time, ready for all the plot the game was going to throw at me. So I pressed on and I really was ready. I could make sense of all (ok, not all, but most) the talk of DNA. I understood the explanation of the suppressed memories that Fei held within him from his past lives. The information about the contact coming in touch with the Zohar modifier didn't leave me reeling in confusion. When I ran into the Anima and Animus in Merkava, I recognized the names. The finally, when I beat the game I was satisfied. "Man," I thought to myself, "that game was riddled with subtext. I'm glad I gave it a second run."
Three years later, present day 20 year old me.
I'm now playing through Xenosaga 2 and I find myself picking up on allegorical references at every turn. I play the game with my laptop open and cross reference every word that comes on screen, to see what obscure text is being referenced. I now realize that, despite two runs, I missed a lot when I played Xenogears and even more in my single run through Xenosaga. After I finish up Xenosaga 2, I plan to go back and play through all the games again, looking for what allegories I missed, what references I can see now that were invisible to me before.
So what's my point? That this game is for older, more knowledged
audiences? No, that's not it at all. What I'm driving at is that
Takahashi made a solid, enjoyable and, most importantly, complete game
here. You can play it, enjoy it for its face value, or you can delve
deep into the allegory. Maybe you can just find a middle ground,
picking up on some things and totally missing others. But it's ok. It's
my firm belief that Takahashi designed this game so that if you want to
read deep, there is something there for you, but if you don't, there is
still a great story on the surface. I don't believe that it was ever
his design to link up every last reference that is made or that he
didn't because he ran out of time, space or money. While some
references work well together, and there can be long links made to
connect those that don't connect at first, some references just need to
be taken at face value. They are fun to find, interesting to read into,
but at the end of the game, its not a requirement to have enjoyed and
understood what you just played.
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