/vr/ - Retro Games

Xenogears was supposed to be 6 episodes that spanned 3 games. Xenogears (and in extension, Perfect Works), are episodes 2-5, with episode 5 taking center stage.

Takahashi's next game was going to be a prequel, aka Xenogears Episode 1, but Square didn't approve of it due to Xenogears sales slightly missing the mark, and because of Squares focus on Final Fantasy.

He then went to Namco and made Monolith Soft with desire to make a 6 episode game series much like he wanted to do with Xenogears, but this time have it span 6 games (not necessarily 1 game per episode, though). This was Xenosaga. Pretty much Takahashi wanted to complete his 6 episode Xenogears tale as well as make a reimagining of Xenogears (presumably episodes 3 and 4 would be this).

Thing is they kinda fucked up. Xenosaga Episode 1 only told about 20% of what episode I was supposed to be, meaning they had some serious catch up to do. They then decided that instead of the game spanning all 6 episodes, they would just focus on completing the originally envisioned Episode 1.

So if you want to visualize all of this, the 3 Xenosaga games are Episode 1, Xenogears is 2-5, and Episode 6 was never told. The Xenosaga franchise was supposed to be 6 games, probably 2 games per each of these 3 circles.