Xenosaga-Xenogears Theories (Spoilers Warning)

[Andromeda]

With having completed Xenogears and having read Perfect Works, the companion to Xenogears, I have a smaller understanding of Xenosaga. Considering most of the things in Xenogears take place about 10000 years after Xenosaga, if not 15000 years, a lot of it does not connect up. Though I do have some theories about what threads that do lie on the floor between the two.

The first and most important is the Zohar, which is the only thing that is mentioned in both games. The Zohar in Xenogears powers Deus and all Gears and Ether on the planet. The Zohar is Deus' power source, which is a source of infinite power. According to Perfect Works, Zohar was created by the humans that left Lost Jerusalem (Earth) when they found MAM about 2001 Earth AD, MAM is Magnetic Abnormal Matter, it was an eye sort of object. Anyone remember the intro cutscene of Xenosaga, should remember that a they discover an object. Well, best as I can figure that was the MAM they found. Then a lot of times passes and 4000 years later the MAM is discovered again, guess it got lost when the Immigration Fleet left Lost Jerusalem, anyone played Xenosaga II should be familar with the Immigration Fleet. Well they do research and experiments with the MAM and then Project Zohar is start, unfortunately there is a problem and the planet is destroyed. I am guessing that unnamed planet is the one that is talked about in Xenosaga, I'm a little rusty on Xenosaga story, but I know that Milita was blocked off, but has things to do with the Zohar, though it is not the disappeared planet.

Well according to Perfect Works, the MAM is recovered and the Project Zohar is completed along with the computer Kadamony, which controls Deus and power distrubtion. Deus was construction to fight in a war that was going on. Now during Xenosaga the time period of Zohar's creation, there was a conflict going on, the Gnosis. Considering Deus is suppose to be a super powerful weapon that can destroy planets, Deus might be the answer to the Gnosis problem, I am guessing Vector problem is working on it currently. But the thing I am wondering is, KOS-MOS playing a very important role, as well as having numerous black boxes, one theory I have is that KOS-MOS is the proto-type or pre-cursor to Deus. Considering KOS-MOS' power.

Another thing to bring up about Zohar is the Zohar emulators, there are 12 of them. And there are 12 Anima Relic, which Perfect Works refers to as Fake Zohars, logic would say the the Zohar emulators are the 12 Anima Relics. Though none of them have bonded with a machine yet, I would not be surprise if a couple do in Episode III. Seeing at there were a few that were already Omnigears that the Gazel Ministry had, or at the very least a few of those will soon become in Omnigears. The time period of Xenosaga is my best guess, about two to ten years prior to Deus' crashing on that planet. Which does bring up some matters that Episode III will have to handle.

Also from Episode I, Proto Merkaba, I am figuring it is the Prototype for Merkava the Mother Ship for Deus, the shape is quite similar too if I remember correctly. Plus the spelling is quite similar, I doubt its coincidence.

Abel, the original Fei from 10,000 years, should be alive sometime in this time period of Xenosaga, or about to be. So his appearance might be in Episode III.

Another interesting similarity, though I do not know if there is importance to this, but Billy and Junior, they have similar dress and have a fondness of guns. Though Junior is an URTV.

And the Gnosis, well my theory on them is that they are Wave Existence, or similar to the Wave Existence, since they are attracted to the Zohar just as the Wave Existence was. The finishing of Zohar awakened the Wave Existence, or rather pulled it in through the Path of Sephirot. Which probably opened the doorway for the Gnosis to come in as well from another Higher Dimension. But seeing as they have no importance in Xenogears, whether due to not being thought of, or the problem is solved, because the planet has Zohar, so it would be Gnosis central.

Then there is the issue about Zohar and the Wave Existence that lives within the Zohar. Both Abel and Shion have come in contact with the Zohar. And considering chaos' familiarity with Nefiphlim, chaos is either another Wave Existence or some Higher Dimension Being that managed a physical body. But the girl inside, she probably a representation of the Wave Existence, though the fact that it was Abel and not Shion that gave the Wave Existence human feeling of being like a mother and thus the creation of Elly and Miang, Shion's role must be something else. Plus she came into contact with one of the Gnosis, so for all we know she might become the compotents of Elly and Miang. There is a lot of unanswered questions around Shion and the Zohar.

Then the next thing is the E.S. that Xenosaga II introduce, which almost make me think of Omnigears. Because Margulis said that one of the E.S. was given the Vessel of Anima, though seeing as the Zohar Emulators are the Anima Relics, its a little confusing. But I believe the E.S. are something similar to the Omnigears. And then there is all the ones that the mysterious group that the Vector Director hangs out with. They are an unlabeled group right now, but Virgil is with them and they all have a machine, that is probably an E.S. I know they are not the Gazel Ministry, seeing as they are not made yet. But not even the Perfect Works, talks about a third party, though this group is the larger picture behind everything. So the real question is what is their importance with Deus and Zohar and the Gnosis.

I would say that this could be a club almost, but I have to find out if people really want to talk about this. There is a lot of information and plenty to theorize about.

Well tell me what you think, I know I missed somethings and there is still plenty of things in the Perfect Works that I have not talked about, but most of it is about Deus and Xenogears, rather than connecting Xenosaga with Xenogears.

[Secret Azn Man]

Due to the fact that Squaresoft/Square-Enix owns the copyright to Xenogears, Monolithsoft couldn't directly refer to elements in Xenogears directly.

A lot of the things you mentioned that draws such similarities such as E.S. and Omnigears are simply the same but referred to as different names because of licensing or just as a plot element. (Words, names, etc can change over time and place, especially from the era of Xenosaga and Xenogears. World War I was known as The Great War until World War II occured,.)

I really would love to discuss and exchange rtheories with you deeper, but it's been awhile since I played any of the Xeno games nor read materials on them.

[T.G. Oskar]

Actually, Andro...what SAM says is right...Squeenix holds the rights to Xenogears, thus Monolith Soft can't link any of the Xenosaga games to XG.

I heard from a friend of mine how the Xenosaga was originally planned to be. Supposedly, Xenosaga Episode 1 happened around 10-15 thousands years before the original XS. The second would happen around 5000 years before, the 3rd would have happened around 1000-2500 years before and would have dealt with a war or something, and XS 4 would have been around 250 years before, and its main character was supposed to be a character from the XG game, actually one of Fei's earlier incarnations, one that was supposed to be still alive during the XG game. Xenosaga 5 was supposed to be the revamped Xenogears, and the Saga was to finish on episode 6. Since the aforementioned event happened, MS decided to drop the idea and make direct sequels to the first game, making it independent.

Sorry that I cannot give you more details, since Xenogears is alien to me.

[Andromeda]

Yeah I know that SE owns the rights to Xenogears, which is why a lot of things cannot be directly connected. Though they did managed to pull in Zohar from Xenogears, I do not know how they got away with that, seeing as they step around all the other subjects. But yeah what you said Oskar would make more sense of an approach for making the games. As for Episode IV, it would probably have been aroud 500 years before, and the main character would have been Lacan, or Grahf as he was also known as in Xenogears. Seeing as the time 500 years ago was a pretty important event though.

As Xenosaga I does take place 10,000 years before, unfortunately Xenosaga II is also. Considering Xenogears, everything that Xenosaga is, should have been one game, rapped up together and then moved to another cast, like you said they were going to do Oskar.

It is too bad SE and Monolith can't get together to finish what they started for the fans of the series. Because Monolith done a poor job of keeping the torch lit.

[T.G. Oskar]

First of all, thanks for pointing out the options in the Ep. IV question I had. The main character was supposed to be Grahf, and well...that time period had to be explained.

Second, while Xenosaga draws heavily on the Zohar aspect, the concept of Zohar is not akin to the Xenogears world but to the Jewish world, more to Kabbalah. So, Monolith Soft was capable to pull it off because of this little concept. Now...how they could use the surname "Uzuki" beats me...

And, considering Ep. III is supposed to be the last of the series...not what the Xenogears fans expected, but they at least try to finish the series decently. All I can say is, if Squeenix wants to re-release Xenogears (which may loom into the future considering how such games became cult hits), MS and fans should request, no, demand SE that after it the Xenogears franchise be liberated, so Namco and MS can do what they actually wanted to do. And, since th PS3 is on the loom, and possibly it will include larger-capacity disks, maybe they can remake the XS games into one big game, complete with fixing the storyline so it can remain one cast per game.

Hopes of a fan who never played the game but actually desires too. Do not lose faith, tho...recent prayers were answered not so long.

[Andromeda]

Well I doubt disc capacity stopped Monolith from making a longer game. I mean SE made 2, 4 CD games, FFVIII and FFIX. So making a 4 DVD PS2 game, why not? Xenosaga II and Star Ocean 3 are both 2 Disc games, there a problem with making a 3 or 4 Disc if you got the story for it? I would not be stopped by something so small as a disc. Monolith must have other reasons for making one story into a 3 part game, because even without the license, they should have been able to make all the Perfect Works story without dividing it up.

As for Uzuki, I figure you can't copyright a name. Or at least the guidelines of a name are less strict than ideas and stories. But I don't know, that would be my guess.

[Gorath Sodom]

Sadly I can't add much to this because I've only played saga and not gears. However, I doubt there is any direct connection between the franchises, just similarities as saga was intended to be a remake of a multipart game that may never see the light again.

As for some of the mysteries...

Spoiler: Wilhelm addressed chaos as Yeshua near the end of XS II. One would think 'OMG, is chaos really Jesus?' Not very subtle of Monolith to throw that in there though it could mean something else entirely (i.e. he is some prodigy of god or is some sort of savior, not necessarily the biblical messiah). I wondered if Wilhelm was supposed to be god and the Testaments his archangels, or maybe Satan and his archdemons. Again, that may not be the case as I doubt Monolith would make anything so obvious (or at least I hope not).

[T.G. Oskar]

It might just be Monolith's intentions. Notice the gigantic amount of religious references in the game? The Zohar, Gnosis...you get the idea. I suppose they will explain in the last game what this all means.

I don't know, but...dont you think Wilhelm looks a lot like the angel Gabriel from the movie Constantine? Same hairstyle, and that androgynous look. Hey, it might be that Wilhelm is actually one of the 2 Gabriels mentioned in the Bible, most specifically the "fallen angel" one. Thus, the Testaments would be also fallen angels, and the Realians made of angelic genetics. I need to play the second and third to really understand...

[TomStrife]

According to my understanding, Monolith does own the right to Xenogears now. Allow to explain the information I have gained.

Monolith wasn`t always called "monolith". From my understanding it was a company that worked under square. Their biggest classic was the rpg classic "Chrono Trigger." That`s right, Monolith made Chrono Trigger.
They then began a project called Xenogears which was basically an attempt to make another classic. They suceeded, but the classic was nowhere near as good as Chrono Trigger.
To make some money, Monolth (not called Monolith yet, still part of Square) develped a sequel to Chrono Trigger called Chrono Cross combining the battle engines of Xenogears and Chrono Trigger. Chrono Cross was considered a hit, but as we all know...

NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS CHRONO TRIGGER.

Soon after Cross, Monolith (not yet known as monolith) developed an idea to make a prequel to Xenogears and make the episodes below since Xenogears read Episode V at the end. Square did not like the idea.
Monolith wanted to it to become a reality so they left Square and became and independant company called "monolith" and owns rights to the Chrono franchise and the Xeno franchise as far as I am concerned. Namco bough Monolith and it has been announced that once Xenosaga is completed a 4th Chrono game (if we include Radical Dreamers) will be released.
That is the information research has given me, but nevetheless, I could be wrong.

As for the storyline connections, I do believe the next Xenosaga will have numerous ties with Xenogears. I hope the ending sequence of Xenosaga will include Abel and the crew of the Eldridge leaving the dock and going on the quest to eliminate Deus.