[Last updated 2025.04.16]
|
From: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20010708/namco.htm
Translation by: Gwendal
Translator: [L]ooks like marketing talk to promote Xenosaga. I [translated] the first two paragraphs [as requested]. Namco holds "Xenosaga" production announcement! [...] まず壇上に上がったのは、ナムコ社長・中村雅哉氏。中村氏は、冒頭「この物語は、『ゼノギアス』、この『ゼノサーガ』でも語り尽くせないものと聞いている。この先、ファンの強いご支持があるなら、私どもはさらなる続編を発表していくべく、努力していきたい」となみなみならぬ思い入れを語った。また、氏は、「今日まで、『ゼノサーガ エピソードI 力への意志』に関して一切の情報を聞いていなかった。それは会場に集まってくれたファンと一緒に、この場所で喜びをわかち合いたい、という思いからだ」と語った。 The first to walk up on stage was Namco president Mr. Masaya Nakamura. He started off by saying "This tale, 'Xenogears', still has much more to be told even With 'Xenosaga'. With the strong support of the fans, we want to do our utmost to present further sequels," clearly very enthusiastic about it. "Until today, you haven't heard eveything about 'Xenosaga Episode I: The Will to Power'. We want to share our happiness with the fans who have gathered here in the conventional hall [today]," he said. 映画会社日活社長も兼任する氏は、「映画はその国の文化である、と言い続けてきたが、ゲームも同様だ」と続けた。「『映画、音楽、ゲームは日本の優れた文化である』と認識を強く持っていただきたい」とあいさつを締めくくった。 Mr. [Nakamura] is also the president of Nikkatsu Film Corporation. "I've been talking about how films are [part of] this country's culture, and games are the same way," he continued. "I very much want films, music and games to be recognized as [examples of] excellent Japanese cultural products [lit: culture]," he concluded. [...] |
|
From: https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/cs/list/xenosaga/world/index.html
Translation by: trexalfa
[Translator: I kinda remembered that the official page for [Xenosaga Episode I] alone (the pages for Episodes II and III contain a negligible amount of useful info that's not in the games, aside from a page from Namco I found that brought attention to the fact that T-elos' eyes share their colour with KOS-MOS' when Maria awakens) had a few interesting tidbits that I haven't seen translated anywhere.] [] STORY AND WORLDVIEW
"Xenosaga Episode I, a great epic that depicts the universe, from its creation to its demise" [Translator: the word for epic is the same you'd see used to describe epic poems like the Iliad. I think this makes a powerful genre statement ] This is the first episode of "Xenosaga."  The stage for this story is an era in which mankind, having been compelled to relinquish the region of Earth "for a certain reason", has expanded into outer space and, under the rule of the management organization known as "Parliament", using advanced planetary exploitation technology, as well as the U.M.N. (Unus Mundus Network), which ties star systems together using navigation through spatial distortions, as their infrastructural foundation, a "Galaxy Federation" which consists of approximately 500,000 planetary states has been formed (the days in which the "Phenomena Modification Engine Zohar", an object that will become key through Xenosaga, is developed). In this era, the Earth, mankind's planet of origin, as the Forbidden Land "Lost Jerusalem", has been within a prolonged historical blank space since the dawn of the expansion into outer space, and not only its location, but its very existence is already being forgotten. The "Gnosis" and the "Galaxy Federation" The force known as "the Pilgrimage Fleet", that is, the "Gnosis", are existences hostile to the Galaxy Federation - to Mankind. Both "Galaxy Federation" and "Gnosis", who control titanic spaceship-like objects shining in white, as well as battle terminals that are neither living beings nor weaponry, fight in every single sector of space Mankind has turned into its residence, extending across several billion light years. However, almost nothing is known about the true nature of the "Gnosis", even whether they are non-human lifeforms, that is, aliens, or not, is shrouded in mystery. On the other hand, there's also another power in the form of the titanic conglomerate known as "Vector" that, while being an organization affiliated with the "Galaxy Federation", through the construction of the "U.M.N.", as well as their control over communication networks and the military, possesses an enormous amount of influence within the "Galaxy Federation" as well. "Vector", under the leadership of its CEO Wilhelm, apart from having created the synthetic humans known as "Realians" in the role of existences to be used by Man, is developing the weapon system that serves as the nucleus for the humanoid type terminal weapons known as "A.G.W.S.", and the battle system "KOS-MOS" (a female type battle android that'll follow around during the adventure as one of the playable characters), all as a means to counteract the Pilgrimage Fleet, the Gnosis.
"Zohar", a mysterious object that has been confirmed to have existed since the time of the creation of the universe, is discovered on Earth, in the Year 20XX AD. The story begins, starting from where this "Zohar", having become a "Phenomena Modification Engine" afterwards, is floating in the vacuum of outer space. In the first half of the story, the protagonist, "Shion", who had been assigned the mission of developing "KOS-MOS", the Anti Gnosis Android that had been deployed as an escort for the transportation of the "Phenomena Modification Engine Zohar", is dragged into a scramble for the object, intertwined with its development. Episode I is a story that goes up to the point Shion gains independence and starts acting under her own will.
More than a decade before the era of the game's story. Unique existences that appeared in the universe all of a sudden, whom with all physical interference is impossible, except "under a certain, specific condition". Their form is indeterminate, and whether they are biological lifeforms, or even if they are simple physical matter, isn't definite. Only one thing is, the clear hostility they hold towards Mankind, which is inferred from their behavioral patterns. They always act in big groups, their size ranges from several meters to tens of thousands of kilometres, and their numbers are thought to, at bare minimum, be of several tens of billions. Currently, the amount of people and their civilizations that have been destroyed by the Gnosis amount to several tenths of the entirety of Mankind.
"Men are necesarily driven by the Will to Power"
"The Will to Power" "Men are necesarily driven by the Will to Power" Within the context of this game, various incidents, as well as the reason behind the actions of its characters, are established using these words by Nietzsche as their basis. Exerting control over the world, escaping from said control, tyranizing others, healing them, all is "Will to Power", as defined by Nietzsche. What lies at the foundation for the reasons behind the actions of every single character is the "Will to Power". We are using that as the theme for this game. Also, we consider overcoming fear as being one interpretation of this Will to Power. From the moment they are born into this world, people fall under the control of various fears. Fear towards the future, fear towards the self, fear towards others, fear towards unknown existences, the fear of living, the fear of death... As long as people live, they won't be able to escape from these fears. Consequently, people fumble around trying to avoid this through various means, falling into anguish and suffering in return. As a result, people become unstable existences, they deny others, justify themselves, turn to reliance on transcendent ones for help, and fight, but on the other hand, they get close to one another, their hearts come into contact, reinforcing their connections. The characters from this game, each of them harbours some kind of fear within their hearts. Some of them flail about escaping from them, and others try to overcome them as well, tackling them as soon as they stand face to face. Even though it shackles man's consciousness, fear is also the main cause of humans being human-like. Does a means of overcoming this, making both the universe and man, as a new form of consciousness, evolve, really exist? Such questions regarding the self and the world will be unraveled through the entirety of this game. [Translator: And this is mostly everything that's worth something in the page. If you ask me, all of that reads weird in the context of the series... to the point it's like this had been written for something "intermediate" in between Xenogears Episode I and the Xenosaga we ended up getting. Yet, even then, it still appears as official material in the first game's website. I recall no other place that's refered to the Zohar as "Phenomena Modification Engine" in Xenosaga. Lost Jerusalem is mentioned as the "Forbidden Land", and the events depicted are all pretty Perfect Works-like. There's also certain tidbits that might be relevant in Shion's character profile in the webpage, since they elucidate bits of her characters that seemed to fly past everyone (especially come Episode III). Speaking of her, the bit about "gaining her independence" was mentioned in an Interview by Arai and Yonesaka for Episode II. Seemingly, the entire story of the Xenosaga trilogy would have that as its crux. Yet, this teaser info is saying that's a theme until the end of Episode I... until the end of Episode I as planned, I suppose. Regarding the "demise" part, that's how I translated 終焉, which can also be translated as "end". It's very likely Takahashi, in all those instances, was just repeating this particular sentence. However, I wanted to convey it's not just any kind of "end": 終焉, for all that's worth, is the end of one's life. Overall, especially in the page about Themes, there's a lot you can find elsewhere. It contains stuff Takahashi's already said in interviews or the Special Fanbook with DVD, perhaps with similar or exact wording, but the page also contains some info not contained anywhere else to my knowledge. The implication that, by overcoming fear, even the universe itself could evolve into something else is particularly interesting (and meshes up well with reality being mental to a certain degree, due to the Collective Unconscious being an essential part of reality). And I just spent the entire morning ruminating on what the inclusion of Phenomena Modification Engine Zohar in the website might mean. Somehow it looked too similar to Xenogears' version of Project Zohar, and I wondered if "phenomena modification" had ever been mentioned in the story of Xenosaga itself. Turns out that it did. I checked the ODM and found the closest match that I could: 事象変移機関ゾハル (from Xenogears, Perfect Works and the Episode I website) compared to 局所事象変移 (from the ODM). The latter are the kanji for "Local Matter Shift". Matter Shift, in purity, is literally saying just the same as what they say in Xenogears when they say the Zohar alters potential phenomena. And now this opens an enormous can of worms for theorizing since, IMO, that means Takahashi didn't just throw the concept into the trash, he made it evolve into something else. I do have a theory about this though: in Perfect Works, the Science section goes on long tirades explaining the Zohar's power using Quantum Mechanics theories like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or the S-Matrix. Xenosaga, meanwhile, mentions Quantum Mechanics only in the context of discussing the U.M.N., or the properties of the Imaginary Number Domain, and there could be a connection there.] [] CHARACTER INTRODUCTION [ Shion Uzuki | KOS-MOS | chaos | M.O.M.O. | Jr. | mathews | tonny | hammer | Ziggy | Albedo | Gaignun kookai | Shelley godwin | Mary godwin | Margulis | Pellegri | Andrew | Virgil | Wilhelm | Allen | Miyuki | kirschwasser ] Shion Uzuki Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Development Project, from Vector's First Development Division. In the beginning of the story, she is deployed by Vector in order to test KOS-MOS at the same time as investigating a planetary disappearance incident that's thought to be connected to a "certain project" that's been progressing under the combined efforts of the government and private sector, thus, she proceeds towards the relevant sector of space. She's gone through painful experiences such as, her home planet being swallowed up by war and losing both of her parents back in her childhood, as well as losing her first love in an accident two years ago, and though you'd expect Shion to have sustained deep wounds to her heart, corresponding to her circumstances, she's neither constantly fretting about all of that, nor speaking about it to others. Her words and deeds, her behaviour, that attempts to perceive what's positive in all things, perhaps tend to be mostly thought of as the result of her being a simple optimist, however, they represent her own peculiar way to resist, to the best of her abilities, her various experiences from the past, the manifestation of a will that looks forward, trying to live today, and then tomorrow, unbound by the ghost that is the "past". Being a woman of extremely "strong vitality", she drags around the people around her in an almost overbearing way, but also possesses a certain charm to her. Though Shion herself would deny it, through her work as Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Development Project, it becomes clear that she possesses considerable talent, and that, coupled with her appearance, is the reason as to why many male employees within Vector have fallen in love with her. [Translator: There's a few weird things in the profile. The foremost weird thing is that this appears to be talking about the Perfect Works Planetary Disappearance Incident, which was connected to Project Zohar. This one in Xenosaga Episode I meanwhile, had been carried out by U-TIC. Unless the mere involvement of a Zohar Emulator would make it linked to Project Zohar in some way, coupled with the fact that U-TIC was meant to be a Zohar research organization. The story section, of course, also acts like it's the Original Zohar that's found floating in space, much like in Perfect Works, although that might just be the developers trying to trick the players to deliver the twist later on. And speaking of Shion herself, this looks like it's pretty much what Shion wants to think of herself. It's impossible to take this at face value with the rest of the series existing. We have all the details about the Miltian Conflict (though said extremely generically), the death of her parents, and Kevin's death, referred to as her "first love", which I don't think is a detail we've gotten anywhere else, and speaks of how hard it must have hit Shion. Also, the profile speaks of "many" Vector employees who have their eyes on her, without specifically mentioning Allen (who is in the character section, but his crush on Shion's not mentioned anywhere in his profile, just that he's her junior). I will post a translation of the profile for KOS-MOS, as it is the most interesting one aside from Shion's (the others are either repetitions of info we get from the games themselves, or just hold back too much info. Wilhelm's profile is almost empty, and Albedo's doesn't say much besides "looks mysteriously like Gaignun and has a weird attachment to MOMO"), for different reasons. If anything, these profiles serve to know what players were expected to know of the characters before even diving into the game.] [ Shion Uzuki | KOS-MOS | chaos | M.O.M.O. | Jr. | mathews | tonny | hammer | Ziggy | Albedo | Gaignun kookai | Shelley godwin | Mary godwin | Margulis | Pellegri | Andrew | Virgil | Wilhelm | Allen | Miyuki | kirschwasser ] KOS-MOS A young girl who'll become key throughout the Xenosaga series. A female-type battle android developed by the interstellar conglomerate "Vector". She's an uncommon existence made up entirely of mechanical parts, in this era in which the technology of Synthetic Humans, "Realians", has been developed. KOS-MOS is the generic name for the battle system developed as the antithesis of the Gnosis, the Pilgrimage Fleet, she herself has no name. Prioritizing the three principles of logic, definition and duty over all, she unconditionally protects Shion, her developer. For the sake of allowing undisturbed communication with others, a "Mock Personality OS" has been implemented into her. Her name is that of "Order". [Translator: Here we have "a young girl who'll become key throughout the Xenosaga series". This is a sentence we also find in chaos' profile (calls him "a young boy who'll become key throughout the Xenosaga series") as well as something used to refer to the Zohar in a part I had already translated yesterday (the days in which the "Phenomena Modification Engine Zohar", an object that will become key through Xenosaga, is developed). This is a statement that these are characters and elements that will be prominent through the series as a whole, and are not found in any other profile in the website. Just saying so, given it seems this statement about chaos and KOS-MOS being the pivotal characters for the series has been lost. The Zohar is called the "core" of Xenosaga in Episode I's database, much like it was called the same in Xenogears Perfect Works. I also wanted to draw attention to the fact MOMO's profile includes: 善行を積んで、父ヨアキムのいる天国へ行く事を夢見ている少女。 Translates to : "A young girl who dreams of accumulating good deeds and going to the Heaven her father Joachim is in". This is also present in her character profile in the website for Episode II. Saying so because both the game and ODM say nothing of "Heaven" that I can recall, simply saying that she's looking to become human via accumulating good deeds. Apparently, the "Heaven" part is heavily reminiscent of a character planned for Xenogears Episode I. They don't need to be mutually exclusive anyway.] |
No comments:
Post a Comment