[Last updated 2024.10.14]
Previously, I used to analyze a lot of deleted and unused material in the actual story analysis pages. But due to the excessive length of those articles I decided to instead move it to a separate page in the Story Analysis Section. Although we do not know everything that was cut, left incomplete, or never implemented, Tetsuya Takahashi says in Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~ that the finished game was barely one third of what he intended, and in a March 1998 Famitsu PS interview he said it was only about 30% of the full thing.
"I have to face up to the truth that we didn't include a third of the full story."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenogears: Perfect Works, Main Staff of Xenogears, page 288)
"I'd say we only got to include about 30% of what we had hoped."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Famitsu PS March 20, 1998 Issue No. 37)
It seems that they were originally going to make Margie a playable character in the game. I would have preferred Margie as a cute, comic-relief character rather than Chu-Chu."The bazooka and hammer in the rough [sketch] are left over from when she [Margie] was still a playable character (Tanaka plan)."
- Tetsuya Takahashi, Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~
(If anyone ever makes a Xenogears remake or movie then I think Margie should have a bazooka, a bunch of grenades, and more hidden beneath that cape of hers. It is a great and funny idea.)
[ Shevat ]
There is a deleted line by Jesiah in Shevat during The Intruder (or Intruder Alert!) chapter that can be found in the game's system files. The deleted line is highlighted in the following dialogue:
Dominia: "Jesiah!? You...!? What're you doing in Shevat!? At one point, weren't you considered to be the next Gebler commander-in-chief!?"
Jessie: "Don't get so excited. It's not good for your beauty, Dominia. We adults have our own reasons. But you kids wouldn't understand."
Jessie: "I think you've played with enough fire for today. Just go home. Maria is the only one who can operate Seibzehn. You should be well aware of that."
We should note that narration in place of real time story interaction actually starts after the Shevat segment, not on Disc 2, even though it is fairly short and easy to forget:
However, the Fatima Jasper and the legendary treasures of the Aveh royal family were still in danger.
And now, he's going to play his last card and Shakhan's true intentions will be brought to light.
Honestly, this narration is pretty useless and did not even need to be included. But it gives the impression that this part was rushed, and there is more evidence of cuts during the Gate 2 segment. And so, we can determine that the cuts and compromises started at least as early as here. The game's system files have several deleted/unused lines in Babel Tower and Ft. Jasper that implies it originally was possible for Billy to miss more than once and even fail the mission:
Citan: "Billy...Billy... do you read? We are ready here. Commence firing."
Billy: "I assume this beam cannon doesn't have unlimited ammunition?" (Deleted line.)
Billy: "I recall there were 3 tanks...3 shots (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Whoa!" (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Oh no..." (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Fei...Fei! Do you read!? Get out, now!" (Deleted line.)
Citan: "No good... Too late..." (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Whoa!..." (Deleted line.)
Event error. Billy is not in the lead position. (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Whew... That was close. We did not get a direct hit."
Citan: "Billy, we cannot hold out much longer. If you miss this one, it is over. Aim well."
Citan: "...Only one shot left, Do not ...miss..." (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Our plan failed failed... We have tried everything we could think of." (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Whew... That helped." (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Billy, we cannot hold out much longer. If you miss this one, it's over. Aim well."
Citan: "Billy, you did it... The plan succeeded!"
Citan: "Here!!" (Deleted line.)
Citan: "Go!!" (Deleted line.)
Door lock has been cleared. (Deleted line.)
Lock clear. (Deleted line.)
DONE! (Deleted line.)
You have too many (Deleted line.)
This sequence, with picture from the debug room, implies that Billy failed to aim his shot at Babel's mirror, and actually hit the tower instead.
The second disc is obviously rushed with signs of a lot of compromises being made, so I think it goes without saying that a lot of material were deleted or unused for this part. But rather than speculating, I will mainly focus on the unused or deleted material that has been discovered.
During the Mahanon (Paradise) chapter there is, curiously, several alternate translations of many lines from the game's system files.
"1844 - This file is used during the Krelian-Elly 'meeting' in Golgoda, but contains lots of text used in other Eldridge-related cutscenes and Grahf and Krelian's speeches are translated in a different (and more 'complex') way from the ones shown when playing."
- Xenogears: God and Mind fansite, "Xenogears UNCUT"
I will make a comparison here. The highlighted text is from the system file 1844:
When suddenly, 'HE' appeared.
When suddenly, 'HE' appeared.
Grahf, Krelian... It was obvious they were after the data that was recorded in Razael. If this data fell into their hands... They had to be stopped...
[This line is not even featured in the game]
Krelian "The data hidden within Razael's Tree. Could you move out of the way? That data is beyond your abilities..."
Krelian "Ah, the hidden data from Razael's Tree... Move away from there. This matter is far too weighty for the likes of you."
Fei "We have to protect this with our lives! We can't let them have the Razael Data!"
Fei "We must protect it with our lives! We can't let them have the Razael data!"
[After battle with O.R. Weltall (localized as "Alpha Weltall").]
Fei "Ghu, gahh..."
Fei "Uhhhh..."
Grahf "It's over for you. Regretful? But that is to be expected. You are incomplete."
Grahf "I guess that's all you can take for now. Are you frustrated? But that is... 'only natural'. After all, you are imperfect."
Fei "I, incomplete!?"
Fei "Imperfect!?"
Grahf "Yes. That which you presently lack. Namely, your lack of hatred. It supresses your true powers!"
Grahf "Yes. You are lacking now. The absence of wrath is an impediment to you utilizing your true strength!"
Fei "H, hatred...?"
Fei "W, wrath...?"
Grahf "The desire to destroy another, the want to annihilate and massacre. That is hate. The source of power! One attains this desire through the first instance of destroying another. A sublimation. That sublimation is what rekindles the hidden power! Clutching on to your reasoning, holding back your hatred, your desires. Unleashing your true power is but only a dream within a dream for you... You know it to be true. Did not that machine respond when you held the anger within your heart? The one who draws out that machine's power. The soul of desire. That is Id. As you wished, you have the mark of an assassin by birth!"
Grahf "The drive to massacre and annihilate, the compulsion to destroy your opponent... Such wrath is power for the soul! By eliminating your foe, you attain your first sublimation of that drive. It is this very sublimation that draws out the hidden powers within oneself! But, clinging to reason... ... suppressing your wrath and desire, makes releasing your true power a dream within a dream for you. You already know this... When wrath appeared in your heart, the machine responded, did it not? What drew out such power from your machine was truly the drive of your soul... It was your 'Id'. The sign of the purpose you've been seeking... The mark of a natural born assassin!"
Fei "That's no true! That's impossible! I'm, I'm not Id! I..."
Fei "You're wrong! That's absolutely untrue! I, I am not 'Id'! I..."
Grahf "It is time... I shall consume your soul and bring out that power to its utmost limit!"
Grahf "The time has come... I'll take your soul, and draw its power out to the limit!"
Krelian "Enough!"
Krelian "Enough!"
Grahf "Hm? Why do you stop me?"
Grahf "Huh? What are you stopping me for!?"
Krelian "He is bait. If you kill the bait the little bird we wish to catch will only escape. My precious little bird, the one 'who I cannot fulfill my merciful prayer without'. ...You understand, do you not? 'Lacan'..."
Krelian "He is bait. If you kill the bait, the precious bird we wish to capture will fly away. You know... a very important bird... 'needed to fulfill my earnest desire'... You understand, don't you, Lacan...?"
Grahf "...Do what you will."
Grahf "... Suit yourself."
Krelian "We will crucify these ones. The place will be southwest of here, on top of 'Golgoda Hill'. Bind the broken Gears!"
Krelian ""We shall crucify them. In the land of Golgoda, to the west of here. Collect all the broken Gears!"
I think when God and Mind fansite referred to the system file dialogue being more "complex," it is more a case of it being more literal. I am thinking Honeywood refined the dialogue for the version we see in the game, though I cannot be sure what this is about. One observation I made, is that the 'literal' translation, if indeed it is a literal translation, has a very clearly defined Star Wars reference, from the infamous "Luke, I'm your father" scene. The following is a comparison:
Vader: "No, I am your father."
Luke: "No. No! That's not true! That's impossible!"
Vader: "Search your feelings, you know it to be true!"
Grahf: "You know it to be true. Did not that machine respond when you held the anger within your heart? The one who draws out that machine's power. The soul of desire. That is Id. As you wished, you have the mark of an assassin by birth!"
Fei: "That's no true! That's impossible! I'm, I'm not Id! I..."
While these are the lines encoded into the system files, the lines in the actual game read as follows:
Grahf: "You already know this... When wrath appeared in your heart, the machine responded, did it not? What drew out such power from your machine was truly the drive of your soul... It was your 'Id'. The sign of the purpose you've been seeking... The mark of a natural born assassin!"
Fei: "You're wrong! That's absolutely untrue! I, I am not 'Id'! I..."
[ Episode IV flashbacks (events 500 years prior to the present day) on disc 2 ]
There is a deleted scene, in which Lacan is first commisioned to paint the portrait of Mother Sophia, hidden in the debug room. It appears to take place in Shevat.
"It is logical that this scene takes place in Shevat. Near to the Shevat palace, there is a 'library'. The 2 rooms look very alike. The 2 nuns present appear to be of Nisan origin, and the man stood to the left of the room is probably from Shevat.
The scene lasts about 20 seconds. In it, Lacan steps forwards and says: "a... portrait?" Then the screen fades out. The flashback was positioned between the many Lacan/Sophia scenes that are played near the end of Disk 2, it is therefore logical to assume that before it was removed, this extra scene was intended to be played during this point in the game."
- Xenogears UNCUT article (Xenogears: God and Mind fansite)
In the very first scene of the Episode IV flashbacks near the end of Disc 2, Lacan says "I don't know why I agreed to do her portrait...", which makes me think this deleted scene should have appeared somewhere at the start of them.
Part of an unused script, portraying Krelian's first encounter with Elly, is preserved in Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~:
"You've come to kill me?"
...She spoke, standing before the man as though not afraid of her own death.
That expression devoid of thought. A face that showed him as separated from all others, alone in the world.
In contrast to this colorless -monochrome- girl, he is stained in red.
Those he had slaughtered, their blood stains his hands even now. And the man bathing in red, instead of answering her question, stands silent, while raising his sword over his head.
"...I see, thank you"
When did his will become a thing that could change? And all for a girl's gentle smile.
And for that brief moment, she shone with color.
How could such a pure and radiant smile exist in this dark world of everlasting hypocrisy and falsity, he thought.
This was the meeting of Elehayym and Karellen.
- Xenogears: Perfect Works, Extract from unused script -- An encounter
[ Bethlehem ]
The place where Zohar fell to earth is named "Bethlehem" in both Xenogears: Perfect Works and the game. While not stated in the script, the game's system files show a world map location by the name "Point Bethlehem." Apparently it was originally going to be accessible from the world map along with "Soylent System" and "Golgoda."
English voice work that never made it into the game
Several voiced lines that never made it into the game has been found on the game discs, along with over a half dozen gears, models, locations, and items that were not finished or implemented. The most interesting of the sound bits were two files that appear to have been unused English voice work for Emeralda, with the lines "Humans break easy" and "I'll repair...again." Other deleted voice work include Elly saying "No good. I can't shoot", Bart saying "Have a taste of the Sig whip!" and Billy saying "Only one more shot... So close!"
I was also given more information from the person who found those files, though she never ended up publishing her complete findings to my knowledge so I cannot verify if what she said in the following quote is true:
"What was recovered was 600+ 3D locations. I know Xenogears used a great deal of these scenes, but not all of them. I have successfully restored all scenes. I also have 60~ unknown sound files. Most of those have been repaired. The best thing I think of value is a scene with Bart walking though a cave, he then stumbles into what I assume is the Yggdrasil II.
That is the problem with extracting broken/formatted/incomplete content, sometimes after all the hard work it turns out to be nothing... up until a month ago I thought I tripped on an earlier scene with Fei and Bart in a cave."
- Mako (April 22, 2013)
Four more characters were intended to be playable?
In the debug room, there appears to be data slots for four more characters to be added to the party between "Citan2" (Citan after he starts using his sword in Solaris) and "Emerada2" (Emeralda after she grows into adult form at the end of the game). However, the game's internal file 2050 lists the characters between "Citan2" and "Emerada2" as "Dminia," "Lakan," "Roni" and "Kalerlen." Judging from this, while Dominia may have been intended to become a party member, it seems three of these characters were only intended to be playable in the Episode IV flashbacks (Lacan, Roni, and Krelian).
"A quick video I made based on my findings when playing around with the debug mode. I'm surprised that no one else has talked about this. [...] The plot thickens as to whether or not these are placeholders to fill out 16 character slots or if they had bigger plans."
- Nohar (YouTube)
Since Takahashi was going to start with Episode IV originally, later saying he put Episode II, III and IV into the final game (as flashbacks, obviously), it is not farfetched to assume, based on these internal game files, that Takahashi may originally have intended for a lot more of Episode IV to have been included and also playable. Perhaps Takahashi even intended to have you play against Grahf and the Diabolos as the boss of that segment, but obviously that much would never had gotten far into development if that was the case. It does seem like Takahashi and Soraya were attempting something similar with Ziggy's backstory in Xenosaga, which was probably meant to be a playable flashback segment within the original Episode II of that series.
This brings more clarity to Takahashi's statement that "Xenogears ended up differently from how I envisioned it," along with his previously cited statement that only about 30% of the intended story made it into the final game.
But at the same time this seems to put a nail in the coffin to the idea that Ramsus was ever meant to be a playable party member if the game had been fully completed as intended. Instead it seems we would have gotten Dominia, sometime on disc 2 before the Episode IV flashbacks, though perhaps playing as Dominia would also have been temporary. Maybe they intended for the player to be able to choose to play as Dominia the first time you infiltrate the Merkava, if you recall the following dialogue:
Fei: "You again...? Are you girls thinking of going in there too?"
Dominia: "Don't get any wrong ideas there. We are here to help our Commander. Miang and Krelian have been manipulating his emotions for the sole purpose of eliminating the Emperor. We simply want to free the commander from those bonds so that he may be saved! It's neither for the sake of the world... nor for the sake of your girlfriend, Elhaym! We have no intentions of fighting on the same side as you!"
Fei: "...Fine. You have your own battles to fight, and we have ours... Let's leave it at that. But...if things get out of hand, you head back. We'll handle it."
Dominia: "Hmph... We'll make you eat those words... You wait and see!"
Or maybe in the original plan Dominia came to Merkava by herself and joined the party, either permanently or just for that dungeon, until the party encounters Ramsus. The first Merkava dungeon was definitely cut, and hopefully it would not have looked the same as the final dungeon. It is likely that the inside of Deus had changed considerably after the Merkava was destroyed and Deus started turning the planet into a new vehicle for transportation into the universe.
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