A Word With the Xenosaga Developers (2003)

Famitsu Episode II Interview (By Fennec Fox) [2003.05.30]


Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura discuss the next game.

Although Namco and Monolith Soft have finally admitted up to Xenosaga Episode II existing, they still aren't being fully upfront about what's no with the game. In an effort to shed light on these matters, the editors of Famitsu sat down with director Tetsuya Takahashi and producer Hirohide Sugiura to talk about the series and where it could be headed in the future. Could an anime be that far in the future? Episode I has enough cutscenes to make an entire anime season, after all...

Q: In Xenosaga Episode I, Sugiura served as producer while Takahashi handled direction and writing duties. I'd like to ask you about the direction the Xenosaga series will take in the future.

Hirohide Sugiura: Well, first off, our roles will be very different from before. To be more exact, I'll be stepping down from the producer role, Takahashi will drop the heavy-sounding job of executive vice president [of Monolith Soft], and another person will handle the direction this time.

Q: So both of you are leaving the front lines of development?

Hirohide Sugiura: This transition has everything to do with both Monolith's structure and where we want to take the Xenosaga series in the future. I've begun to feel recently that game creators are getting older and there aren't many younger ones coming out. You see developers in their mid-thirties to early forties in magazines all the time, even in the case of brand-new products. If this keeps up, we'll never see a shift to a new generation, which I don't think is very healthy from an industry standpoint. So I decided that I should change this structure starting with Monolith Soft, my own company. I wanted to free Takahashi of his old position and let him work more freely as a creator, so he'll be acting as the supervisor and provider of the original story.

Q: So Mr. Takahashi will still play a central role in the series.

Hirohide Sugiura: You could compare this to producing an anime show for TV. Even if a series goes on for 26 episodes, it's not like the same person directs every episode. There's a general director, and then a different director builds the story in each episode.

Tetsuya Takahashi: When you deal too long with a single project, I feel like it becomes harder to chase after new possibilities. I don't want to limit the Xenosaga series to its current state; instead I'd like to explore other genres and other possibilities.

Q: How long do you think Xenosaga is as a series?

Tetsuya Takahashi: If you want to make a single game, that basically means you need to spend two or three years of your life completing it. However, with the world we're trying to display here, that's really nowhere near enough time. With Episode I, we've only managed to show about 20 percent of the complete scene.... and, of course, I always come up with new things I want to present in the middle of development, so it'd probably take me decades to finish everything if it keeps going like this. That's why I'm in the position I am now---I can work on presenting the world of Xenosaga in all sorts of different ways, unfettered by company management or anything else that doesn't have to do with creation.

Q: Is it possible we could see a non-RPG Xenosaga game, then?

Hirohide Sugiura: It's a very distinct possibility. At one point we had a product document for a simulation RPG, although it never became a reality.

Tetsuya Takahashi: We are thinking about developing the series in all sorts of completely different genres, not necessarily involving games. For example, I'd love to try creating a novel or anime series. In my mind, there are still lots of Xenosaga characters that nobody else in the company knows about. There really isn't enough time in the world to present all of them.

(The blue text parts were skipped by Fennec Fox and are translated by Gwendal.)

From "Reloaded" to "Episode II"

Q: Now, moving on to the main topic, what kind of game [lit.: software] is the planned October release "Reloaded"?

Hirohide Sugiura: Basically, it'll be a reimportation of the overseas version of "Episode I". However, the voices will be in English and the text in Japanese. Like the overseas version, they'll both be in English, but [the regular English version] is hard for Japanese users to play [while Reloaded will be easier].
[Kind of strange sentence, but that seems to be how it's worded]

Q: What are the specific differences between this and the Japanese version released last year?

Hirohide Sugiura: We made English dialogue that didn't feel out of place with the mouth movements from the Japanese version. I'm very pleased with this dub. But that's not all. Actually, at the time of the Japanese release, there was one part of a movie scene we changed. [That's the infamous scene with Albedo and Momo, right?]
This was unavoidable for [something with the] presentation, but with "Reloaded" we should be able to show it in something close to its original form. We also plan to include a DVD as a special bonus.

 Q: So what you're saying is that there will be new discoveries even for users who have played "Episode 1" already?

Hirohide Sugiura: Yes, you could say that. We're also going to include a trailer for our new work on the special DVD.

Q: Wait a second. Is that new work "Episode 2"?

Hirohide Sugiura: Yes. Apart from that, we're also going to include various things [we think] everyone is going to enjoy.

Q: Now I'd like to turn the topic over to your newest work, Xenosaga Episode II, the game your fans are probably looking forward to the most.

Hirohide Sugiura: I guess the first thing Takahashi and I should do is thank them all for waiting so long. (laughs) I know a lot of them were worried sick that it wasn't going to come out at all, but don't worry---we are making the game.

Q: Is the story related to Episode I?

Tetsuya Takahashi: You could call it a basic continuation; it starts right where Episode I ends. As a result, most of the cast is borrowed from the first game. Jin, Shion's brother and the guy that appeared in Episode I's ending, will also make an appearance. In Episode II I'd like to reveal some of the interpersonal relationships in the story, especially those involving Jr.---how he's connected to Gaignun, what is between him and Albedo, and so forth. We'll be painting out his past and show why he feels so much attachment to Momo.

Q: Will some of the riddles left unanswered in Episode I be answered here?

Tetsuya Takahashi: I think they will gradually be made clear. However, Xenosaga is still packed with riddles: the Zohars, the struggles surrounding them, how they're connected to KOS-MOS, the true form of chaos [the Xenosaga character], and so on. Episode II will feature some new riddles of its own, too, but as far as the RPG Xenosaga goes, the story is mainly about KOS-MOS and the Zohars*. However, we likely won't be dealing with the exact same KOS-MOS for the whole story... We'll also probably explore the inner emotions of Shion as well.

* Japanese nouns are interpreted as singular or plural depending on context. In this particular case, there's really no way to know for sure if it is "Zohar" or "Zohars". Gwendal translated it in the singular since he only remembered there being one Zohar, so it's the translators' guess.

"Here's the rest of the missing bits. By the way, I couldn't find the two questions about the gameplay system or their regrets for things they couldn't do with Episode 1 anywhere in that interview, so maybe it's from a different one."
- Gwendal

Q: You're making mysteries based on elements like science and ancient civilizations, politics
and religion. Is it hard to put it all together?

Tetsuya Takahashi: No, I enjoy it. Since it's fundamentally SF, it's rather easy for me to create. In the near future, I'd love to put together the history of this world, so there's a lot of things I need to look into for that purpose.

Q: Things you need to look into, huh. I suppose someone like you read a lot of books, right?

Tetsuya Takahashi: As someone who writes for a living, I don't really think I read that much. When I need to read something, I do so.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

Tetsuya Takahashi: I read quite a few books on subjects such as science, technology and religion [among others]. I also read essays/articles from time to time [I think, not 100% sure about this sentence]. On the other hand, I probably don't really get to read novels very often.

Q: Are there any books you'd like to recommend?

Tetsuya Takahashi: Hmm, not anything in particular. When it comes to books and movies, and games too for that matter, there's not really anything I'm too fixated on. I'm willing to try anything instead of dismissing things without giving them a chance. You could say I'm just not [something, I really can't figure out exactly what he's saying here, sorry]. (Laughs)

My take for the famitsu answer is this: “You could just say I’m not a nerd about any topic in particular. (Laughs) He uses the word “moe” in a really odd way, so it’s kind of confusing what he’s trying to say even in Japanese, but I assume that’s what he means.
- Lugalbanda

Q: So some of the things you were attracted to ended up becoming part of your own "Xenosaga" world, right?

Tetsuya Takahashi: Inside my head, and inside the company, there's a lot of "Xenosaga" characters no one knows about. But we really don't have enough time to present all of that. [Wasn't this in one of the other translations you already have somewhere?]

Hirohide Sugiura: If we write it all down [lit.: put it all to print] and save it, maybe someone will turn it into a work many decades from now. Like with Stanley Kubrick's movies (laughs).

But apart from what we've said already, we'll tell you more at the presentation for the new work on the 21st of July. At that time, we'll be able to tell you about the content [of Episode 2] in more detail.

Q: Is there anything new with the game system?

Tetsuya Takahashi: Wow, you're fast. (laughs) We haven't even shown the game yet and you're already asking about that. I can't really go into any specifics right now, but it's a marked improvement, right down to the little details. We've used our experience and regrets from the last game to improve the gameplay.

Q: Were there a lot of regrets or things you couldn't do with the first episode?

Tetsuya Takahashi: There were a lot, but I think most of them stemmed from the fact that we didn't have a real grasp of the capacity we had. Monolith Soft had just been founded at the time, and we hadn't established a firm knowledge of how to make a game on the PlayStation 2 hardware. The whole project, including the business end, was a feeling-out process, so we did have to cut out some things in the end. This time, though, we're starting production with a firm grasp of all these issues, so I imagine that this will be an even better polished game than the previous one. Our programming and visual skills have improved, too.

Q: Finally, do you have any message for Xenosaga fans?

Hirohide Sugiura: We couldn't have begun work on a Xenosaga sequel without the fervent support our fans have given us. Our plan is to continue with Episode III and IV later on, so please visit us during our public gathering in July.

Tetsuya Takahashi: The future is always filled with uncertainties, but I'd love to present Xenosaga in other forms besides Episode II. I think we'll be able to show a different type of Xenosaga around next year. I hope you're all looking forward to Episode II, too!

"I know the part about the theme is a bit off, and I might have missed something, but I think it should be the gist of it. Sorry about that, but some of those sentences were a bit hard to make complete sense of."
- Gwendal

Interviewer: If you were to sum up the theme of "Episode 2" in one word, which one would it be?

Takahashi: This time, hmm...it feels like "pressing the wrong button". [Probably one of those tricky idioms again, but that what it looks like to me] It's hard to sum it up in just one word, but that might be a bit of a misunderstanding or incorrect way of thinking about it. Without being too frank, it goes completely against the point [lit.: would be walking in the totally opposite direction].
Human relationships are common in reality. It [the theme] would be the blending of the fabric of those human relationships, I think.

Interviewer: The hardships you went through from the founding of Monolith Soft to the development of "Episode 1" were fairly serious, [right]?!

Sugiura: In the beginning we had to feel each other out. We really didn't know who had what way of thinking about things. With "Xenosaga", once we got past the initial chaos [lit.: scenes of carnage], I feel we got gradually settled in.

Interviewer: In interviews before the game was released, you said you wanted to hear users' opinions once they had a chance to play it. What complaints made an impression on you regarding "Episode I"?

Sugiura: There were many opinions, but long load times, play time being too short and being forced to watch movies all the time [were the main ones to leave an impression]. All of those [issues] will be fixed in "Episode II". This time, "pleasant play" will be the main proposition, and we will improve/increase the gameplay parts [lit.: "the parts of content where you control your character holding a controller", yes, he really does word it like that].

(See the original Japanese interview here:

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