Spoony Plays One-Shot: Mega Man III (DOS)

Rozner Labs had two years to refine their craft between the two Mega Man DOS titles, but did that result in a better game?  

...Nope, this one's just as bad as the original.  In fact it's actually worse in a lot of ways...

Spoony Plays One-Shot: Mega Man (DOS)

An original Mega Man title developed by Rozner Labs and published by Hi-Tech Expressions under license from Capcom, Mega Man for DOS is... well, not very good.  Poor stage designs, unfitting enemies, a complete absence of music and some very mediocre bosses all lend themselves in varying capacities to making this one of the worst games to ever bear the Mega Man moniker.  Thankfully it's also relatively short, so you can power through it in well under an hour once you master its asinine controls..

Spoony Plays Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Part 4

It's time to take the first eight steps to become an Avatar. Then do a bit of preparation for the extraordinarily difficult ninth and tenth steps...

Let's Play Xenogears Bonus - Unused content and connections to Xenosaga

Unused content

As a result of Xenogears' rushed development schedule, large portions of the story ended up being cut or trimmed down.  As a result, there are a lot of unused elements in the game.  The story was also intended to be much broader in scope, encompassing just one part of what was intended to be a six-part series that would comprise three games and three novels; you can read more about that aspect here.

Gears

The entire team was supposed to upgrade to Omnigears - even Seibzehn, Crescens and Vierge had Omnigear equivalents.

El Seibzehn, Maria's unused Omnigear.

El Crescens, Emeralda's unused Omnigear.

El Regurus, Elly's (somewhat) used Omnigear.

 Of these, only Vierge's upgrade, El Regurus, makes an appearance in the game (and only then during a cutscene and as a bonus character in the Nortune arena on Disc 2).  Data for it as a playable character does technically exist, but is very incomplete - attempting to hack it into your party will simply lock up the game.

There is also a plethora of unused and incomplete equipment and items in the game; presumably they would be strewn throughout shops and chests in Disc 2 had the game not been so rushed.

Unused Song and FMV

An unused music track exists in the game called "Stars of Tears", which is essentially an instrumental version of the map theme complete with lyrics.  It's really quite good...

There is also an unused FMV in the game utilizing this song.  This may have been intended as an opening FMV for Disc 2.

Connections to Xenosaga

While Tetsuya Takahashi has denied any direct connection between the Xenogears and Xenosaga franchises (unsurprising, as both IPs are owned by different companies), there are nevertheless a number of similar themes between the two, and small tributes to Xenogears in the latter.

(Spoilers ahead, obviously)

Abel/Lacan/Fei -> Abel

The character who has made contact with the Wave Existence/U-DO and is ultimately the key to humanity's salvation.  Both also look very similar.

Elly -> Shion/KOS-MOS

Both Elly and KOS-MOS are continually resurrected characters and the antitype to Fei/chaos.  Both also prove integral to the salvation of humanity.  Shion and Elly also resemble one another to a degree, and all three characters have ties to their respective universe-spanning threats.

Citan Uzuki -> Jin Uzuki

Citan shares his surname with the Uzuki family, who are the central figures in Xenosaga's story.  The most striking resemblance comes from Jin; both he and Citan resemble one another and wield swords, as well as pilot sword-wielding mecha.

Billy Lee Black -> Jr.

Both wield guns, utilize some similar moves and feature prominently in the game's religious themes (though in much different ways).  They also bear a slight resemblance to one another.


Emeralda -> MOMO

Both characters are artificial life forms whose relationship to their "parents" are explored throughout the story.  Both also factor into the villains' plans.

Rico -> Ziggy

Both have ties to a villainous character in the story and take on a less-than-human form.  Both are also hard-hitting characters.

Vanderkaum -> Vanderkam

Both are hot-headed military types with prominent facial tattoos.  Both also don't last very long...


Ramsus -> Albedo

Both are genetically engineered super-humans who become consumed by madness and both are obsessed with one of the main characters, though for much different reasons.  They also bear a resemblance to one another.

Grahf -> Kevin Winnicot

Both are seekers of power jilted by a past tragedy, looking to destroy the reality they know and recreate it in their own image.  Both have ties to the main character of the series and have been killed and resurrected on at least one occasion.

Krelian -> Wilhelm

 Both are long-lived villains attempting to lead humanity to "salvation" in their own twisted ways and both serve as the main antagonists of their respective stories.  Both also have a small collection of loyal underlings whom they utilize for their ends.

Wave Existence -> U-DO

Both are non-corporeal entities trapped within the Zohar and a central focus of the plot.

Hammer

Both have the same name, but that's about it...

Gazel Ministry -> Testaments

Both are resurrected beings who serve as underlings to the main antagonist.  Both are also quite evil and manipulative.

Zohar

A monolith-like object that is bound to the wave existence and factors heavily into the villains' plans.  Both also serve as a power source for the ultimate villains in their respective games.

Anima Relics

In both games they serve as the means by which a mecha (either a Gear or an ES) can be greatly increased in power by linking them directly to the Zohar.  They also bear the names of the children of Jacob in the Bible.

Omnigear -> ES

Mecha of extraordinary power that mentally link with their pilots and are powered by Anima relics.

Eldridge -> Abel's Ark

The vessel around which the plot is based, home of a sort of super-weapon, the staging ground for humanity's ultimate fate and also the site of the final battle.  Both have a similar appearance.

Deus -> Zarathustra

Both are super-weapons born of humanity's hubris and the means by which the villains seek to attain godhood.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 27 (Final)

The battle that will determine humanity's fate, and possibly that of the entire universe as well.



(I really hope you enjoyed this LP, by the way.  I spent six and a half months on it...)

Answered questions

• Krelian's plan was, in short, to cause humanity to transcend their physical forms and become "wave existences" themselves, thus being free of all of strife.  However, due to the interference of Fei and company, the only one who transcends in this way ends up being Krelian himself...

Various Factoids and Symbolism

• Metatron and Sundel are likely named after the twin angels Metatron and Sandalphon, said to be the "voice of God" and the one who delivers prayers to God, respectively.

Unanswered questions

• What is Sigmund trying to gain by allying with Grahf and the "masked woman"? (Never answered; this mostly just goes to show that Krelian, Miang and Grahf are manipulating both sides of the war)
• What kind of deal did Sigmund want to make with Fei? (Also never answered)
• Miang apparently has the power of hypnosis.  How many people is she manipulating with this power, and what is her motive in doing so? (It's never seen again after that particular scene, so take a shot for the Square cliche of "introducing a plot point, then immediately dropping it and never mentioning it again".)
• What threatens to turn Citan over to the "dark side"? (I think this was just a touch of purple prose; the middle of the game seems to have a real problem with that...)

My conclusion

In some ways Xenogears is Square's most frustrating game, and that is simply because it encapsulates their propensity for wasting talent in virtually every facet of its design.  They get a script written by three of the best writers ever to work under their banner with some legitimately well-crafted characters and an interesting universe, then proceed to bury it beneath a shoddy translation, insipid humor and cliches, terrible pacing and sparse gameplay with virtually no exploration element.  They get a great voice actor like Cam Clarke to play the story's tragic villain, then don't let him act.  They get a talented composer in Yasunori Mitsuda and have him write maybe a dozen songs that you'll soon get tired of because they play constantly throughout the game's 50+ hour runtime.  Hell, even the designers go to waste; rather than allowing them to create a vast and dense universe for us to explore in depth, they were just encouraged to turn the whole thing into a linear sequence of plot scenes that feed the player exposition by the shovel-full (particularly evident toward the end of Disc 1 and especially throughout Disc 2).  A lot of Square's other games are mediocre and forgettable, certainly, but Xenogears had everything it needed to become a golden game, and that just makes it all the more frustrating when it ends up falling so far short.  I don't regret playing it again (as doing so has allowed me to better appreciate its strong points), but taken as a whole, I simply can't recommend it.

Well, at least virtually everyone involved with this game learned their lesson about Square and has gone on to do bigger and better things than they could ever dream of at that dead-end company...

A translated version of Xenogears Perfect Works, in case you're curious as to what Xenogears was originally intended to be...

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 26

We tie up all the loose ends and prepare to launch our big, all-or-nothing strike on Deus.



Answered questions

• Grahf possessed Khan's body when he had come to take control of Fei; Fei's powers as the Contact (awakened through Miang's experiments) struck down both Grahf and his mother, leading to Fei's fractured psyche and Grahf possessing Khan instead out of desperation.  However, Khan's will proved too strong for Grahf to gain full control over, resulting in lapses where Khan's personality resurfaced and he was able to lend aid to Fei and Shevat as Wiseman.
• Emeralda was created by Kim as a means to undo the genetic damage humanity had sustained and extend their lives.

Various factoids and symbolism

• The symbol on the front of Merkava greatly resembles the Tree of Sephirot.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 25

We swat an annoying fly and then the writing takes a huge, staggering upward swing in quality.



Answered questions

• Yabeh/Deus was the superweapon being carried aboard the Eldridge at the start of the game; proving uncontrollable, its creators attempted to destroy it.  This failed, however, as its remnants simply fell to this planet.   It created Cain, Miang and the Gazel Ministry to ensure that humanity would repopulate the earth and provide the means for its rebirth.  Zohar is its power source and Merkava is its "ark", while Kadomony is the "Persona" and means by which it generates organic material.
• As a result of this, Miang has existed since the beginning of this planet's history, transferring her mind to another woman each time she died.  One such victim was Fei's mother, Karen Wong, who performed the inhumane experiments that led to the birth of Id.
• The Coward and Id both blamed one another for Karen's death and failed to see the truth of the matter, leading to Id's rampage and Khan intervening to create the third personality (the one we've followed for much of the game) to keep Id in check.
• Grahf and Lacan are indeed one and the same person.  Grahf was created when Lacan, anguished after Sophia's death, came in contact with the Zohar; his anger and emptiness gave rise to a violent, nihilistic personality obsessed with power and the world's destruction.
• Fei is continually reborn throughout history in different guises as a result of his role as the "Contact", an entity granted power by the Zohar and the "Wave Existence" therein which seeks freedom from its prison.  Four such incarnations are shown in the game - Abel (the original), Kim (the Zeboim scientist who gave rise to nanotechnology), Lacan (the painter who would become Grahf) and Fei Fong Wong.
• Elly is Fei's "antitype" who separated from Miang.  She too is fated to continually be reborn alongside him, always dying a violent death.  She embodies the Wave Existence's will and Fei embodies its power.
• Krelian's obsession with Elly stems from his former love of Sophia and his anger at her death, leading to his desire to "create god".

Various factoids and symbolism

• The Ark is a reference to the story of "Noah's Ark", where Noah was ordered by God to build an ark and save two of every animal from a great flood.
• Seraphim are said to be the highest order of angels and direct servants of God, who surround His divine throne.
• Rene and Roni's names are probably familiar to anyone who played Final Fantasy 6; they share their names with the characters Sabin Rene Figaro and Edgar Roni Figaro.  This is not a coincidence, as their characterizations and story scenes were also written by Kaori Tanaka (aka Soraya Saga), one of the three head writers on Xenogears.
• "Har" literally means "tell", a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment.  It's commonly associated with the phrase "Armageddon", in which a climactic military amassment at the Har of Megiddo is said to bring about the end of the world.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 24

We get another Omnigear we'll barely use.  Hooray!



Answered questions

• Rico is apparently Kaiser Sigmund's son.  This doesn't end up having much of an impact on how the story plays out, though...
• The ship shown in the intro was the Eldridge, which was carrying the superweapon "Yabeh".  It went rogue, resulting in the Captain activating the self-destruct and causing the ship's remains to crash-land onto this planet, resulting in the chain of events the game chronicles.

Various factoids and symbolism

• The twelve Anima Relics are named after twelve of the children of Jacob:  Dan, Joseph, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Judah, Dinah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Naphtali.
• 'Persona' is a concept in Jungian psychology, being the social face the individual shows to the world. It is opposed to the 'Shadow', the inner feelings a person keeps hidden from others.
• 'Razael' is a corruption of Raziel, an archangel said to be the "Keeper of Secrets."  Appropriate given the role of Razael's Tree in the story.
• The Zohar is a group of books that form the foundational work in the Jewish Kabbalah, which covers the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, and other topics.
• Golgoda is a corruption of "Golgotha", the site outside the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.
• El Regurus (Elly's Omnigear) may be named after the star "Regulus" in the constellation of Leo.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 23

We were up against a strict deadline and couldn't afford to design most of the rest of the game, so... welcome to Exposition Theater!

Answered questions

• Grahf and Lacan are the same person.  How Fei also has Lacan's memories has yet to be revealed, however...
• Ramsus was cultivated to be an ultimate life form of sorts, but was rejected when Fei came into the picture and literally cast aside into a garbage dump.  He managed to survive and re-emerge, however, and developed a subconscious hatred for the one who had replaced him, hence his obsession with Fei...
• Ramsus is being manipulated by Krelian, Miang and the Ministry into killing him, which is something only he is capable of as he is Cain's clone.

Various factoids and symbolism

• The Kahal/Qahal are a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society.
• Taura (Melchior) shares his name with the last of the three sages who visited Jesus after his birth.
• In Norse mythology, Fenrir is a monstrous wolf and son of Loki, who was foretold to be the cause of Odin's death at Ragnarok (though he would also be killed shortly thereafter by Vidarr).

Let's Play Xenogears Part 22

We finally start getting some answers.  Well over forty hours into the game.



Answered questions

• As we see here, Krelian is a high ranking Solaris officer, singlehandedly responsible for many of their illicit experiments on surface-dwellers and also in league with the Gazel Ministry as they seek to revive 'god' (The "M Project", as they have termed it).  He also seeks to eliminate Fei and utilize Elly toward some unknown end...
• Fei is the "Contact" and Elly is the "Antitype", though it's still unclear what these terms mean.
• Krelian's interest in Emeralda was to further his research into nanotechnology.
• The Term "Anonelbe" refers to Fei as the one who can free humanity from the grasp of 'god'.
• Citan's reason for working alongside Emperor Cain (and observing Fei in secret) was to determine whether Fei was a threat to humanity, and whether his rule was truly necessary.
• Miang is the Masked Woman/Executioner.
• Id and Fei are one and the same, as are Weltall and the red Gear.  More accurately, Id is a second personality within Fei, born of some past trauma, who surfaces when he is pushed to his breaking point.  When Fei transforms, Weltall does as well (owing to the mysterious "black boxes" mentioned in its profile).  
• The one we know as "Fei" is a personality created by Khan Wong three years prior to the start of the game, and was created to keep Id's tremendous powers in check (unsurprising, considering he is directly responsible for thousands of deaths and the destruction of at least two civilizations).  Fei also possesses a third personality, the "coward", which seems to possess his memories of the past and holds some sway over both other personalities...
• Grahf is the one who brought about the Diabolos five hundred years ago, as well as the one who trained Id.

Questions so far

• What is Krelian's interest in Elly?  It seems to run deeper than her simply being the 'Antitype'.  Could it be due to her resemblance to Sophia?
• Why did Hammer betray the group?  He mentioned something about fixing "it"...
• Is Khan Wong really dead?
• Is Grahf really Lacan?

Various factoids and symbolism

• Fei's three personalities represent the three facets of the self in Freudian psychology - The id, the ego and the superego.  The id governs a person's basic, instinctual drives and craving for self-gratification (represented by Id), the Superego strives to act in a moral and socially acceptable manner (represented by Fei) and the Ego governs the balance between the two extremes (represented by "the coward").
• "Urobolus" is likely a corruption of "Ouroboros", a symbol of ancient origin depicting a snake or serpent eating its own tail, said to represent cyclicality or self-reflexivity.  Carl Jung also believed it to have archetypal significance to the human psyche.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 21

Wherein we infiltrate an Orwellian society and immediately blow our cover, resulting in a chase scene recycled from every Square RPG ever made.

(REMINDER: Enable captioning to see my commentary)



Answered questions

• The Wels were created by Krelian's experiments with genetic manipulation and nanotechnology.
• The "M Plan" refers to Solaris' system for creating Wels and maintaining the Limiters in the "lamb" population.

Various factoids and symbolism

• Samson is likely named after the biblical hero Samson, granted great strength by God so long as he never cut his hair.
• The Soylent Factory is a reference to the 1973 film "Soylent Green", and provides a similar purpose to the product in the film.