As I sit here and play Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra, I realized that today is the anniversary of Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht’s (The Will to Power) release in North America. Xenosaga Episode I turns 15 today. Xenosaga was originally envisioned as a six-part epic, but Episode I was so ambitious that it was cut down to a 40-hour game instead of 80 hours, causing it to become a trilogy with only one arc. Originally, KOS-MOS and chaos (KOS-MOS in Greek translates to order) were the only characters to appear in all three arcs.
Regardless of this, Xenosaga is the greatest narrative ever told in any video game, and thus its 15th anniversary must be celebrated. This series is Tetsuya Takahashi’s masterpiece and passion project. Episode III is one of the best RPGs ever made. The sheer amount of thought that went into the story and even the unique gameplay was ahead of its’ time. When I first played the first Xenosaga I thought the cutscenes were so long. Over the past week, I’ve played the entire series and have realized today’s games have much more in much larger doses. It’s the direction the medium is going in.
Project Zohar is launching a petition to get a Xenosaga HD Collection for the Nintendo Switch, taking advantage of the popularity of the Xeno brand, as Xenoblade 2 has sold over one million copies as of December 30.
Happy Anniversary Xenosaga: The Will to Power! You launched the greatest trilogy in the history of gaming and we will be forever thankful for that.