Xenosaga Episode III

Xenosaga Episode III
Developer(s) Monolith Soft
Publisher(s)
Director(s) Koh Arai
Producer(s) Tomohiro Hagiwara
Shinichirō Okamoto
Writer(s) Norihiko Yonesaka
Composer(s) Yuki Kajiura
Series Xenosaga
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date(s)
  • JP July 6, 2006
  • NA August 29, 2006
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra (ゼノサーガ エピソードIII ツァラトゥストラはかく語りき Zenosāga Episōdo Surī Tsaratusutora wa Kaku Katariki) is a role-playing video game for the PlayStation 2, and the third game in the primary Xenosaga trilogy. Also sprach Zarathustra, literally "Thus spoke Zarathustra", is also the title of Friedrich Nietzsche's most famous work, which introduced the concept of the Übermensch. The game was developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2 on July 6, 2006, in Japan and on August 29, 2006, in North America.

Development

The Xenosaga series, a successor to the 1996 RPG Xenogears created by Tetsuya Takahashi, was intended to span six installments. However, due to flagging commercial performances, the series was cut down to a trilogy. Episode II had been redone to focus more on gameplay, but player backlash prompted Episode III to revert more to the narrative-heavy style of Episode I.[1][2] Xenosaga Episode III was officially announced in 2005, alongside the Nintendo DS remake of the first two games Xenosaga where it was said that it would be the final entry in the Xenosaga series.[3] Episode III was directed by Koh Arai. Takahashi drafted and supervised the scenario.[4] Apparently, some of the material original created by Takahashi and Soraya Saga for their original Xenosaga storyline was worked into the finale of Episode III.[1] As with the rest of the trilogy, the game made heavy use of Biblical mythology. Due to the unexplained story changes in Episode II, the story was forced to shift its focus from the original plan, resulting in major changes to the original scenario.[5] The game's subtitle was taken from the native title of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The use of Nietzsche's works and concepts was a recurring element in the series.[6] The original character artist for Xenosaga, Kunihiko Tanaka, was replaced by Kouichi Mugitani, who also acted as production designer as he had for the previous Xenosaga games.[3][7] The game was announced for a western release in April 2006.[6] For its western release, all scenes where blood was visible were censored: the blood was removed, for all other aspects remained unchanged, resulting in visual and audio inconsistencies.[8]

Music

Main article: Music of Xenosaga

At the start of Episode III's development, Yuki Kajiura (Xenosaga Episode II, .hack//Sign, Noir, and Madlax) became the sole composer in Xenosaga III. A handful of remixes, arrangements and reappearances of tracks from the "Xenosaga Episode II: Movie Scene Soundtrack" appear in the game. The game soundtrack, "Xenosaga Episode III: Original Sound Best Tracks (Yuki Kajiura selection)" was announced for a 2CD release on July 12. It consists of 40 tracks selected by Yuki Kajiura from the game (though it is not a complete release of all the tracks). The ending theme of the game is called "Maybe Tomorrow", sung by Emily Curtis. The soundtrack also contains vocals by Eri Itoh. The soundtrack follows the style of Kajiura's Episode II soundtrack with several key themes from Episode II, chief among them KOS-MOS' theme, appearing throughout the game.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings82.67%[9]
Metacritic81 of 100[10]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1UP.comB+[11]
Game Informer8.5 of 10[9]
GamePro[9][12]
GameSpot8.0 of 10[13]
GameSpy[14]
GameTrailers8.2 of 10[15]
IGN8.0 of 10[16]
OPM (US)9 of 10[9]
PSM8 of 10[9]
RPGamer[17]
Yahoo! Games

According to Bandai-Namco's 3rd Quarter 2006 results, Episode III sold 343,000 copies in Japan, North America and Asia.[18] It sold over 181,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Peterson, Blake (3 December 2015). "Monolith Soft and Nintendo: Why We'll Never Get More Xenogears/saga". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Mackey, Bob (10 April 2015). "How the Xenoverse Got Its Groove Back". USGamer. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2005/091405a.html
  4. ↑ "Reader Q&A: Xenosaga Episode III". IGN. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Yip, Spencer (11 June 2010). "Soraya Saga On Xenogears And Xenosaga". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  6. 1 2 Dunham, Jeremy (13 April 2006). "Xenosaga III To North America". IGN. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  7. ↑ http://www.siliconera.com/2014/12/01/metal-gear-risings-mechanical-designer-created-mechs-xenoblade-chronicles-x/
  8. ↑ Houghton, David (10 March 2010). "Hilariously stupid game censorship". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - GameRankings". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  10. ↑ "Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra Critic Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  11. ↑ Barnholt, Ray (2006-09-13). "Xenosaga Episode 3 Review for PS2 from 1UP.com". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  12. ↑ Forms, World of (2006-09-13). "Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Review from GamePro". GamePro. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  13. ↑ Massimilla, Bethany (2006-08-30). "Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  14. ↑ Vasconcellos, Eduardo (2006-08-26). "GameSpy: Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  15. ↑ "Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Article Review and Ratings GameTrailers". GameTrailers. 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  16. ↑ Dunham, Jeremy (2006-08-30). "Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Review - IGN". IGN. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  17. ↑ Martz, Josh. "RPGamer Staff Review Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra". RPGamer. Retrieved 2012-08-11.
  18. ↑ RPGFan (2007-02-17). "Bandai Namco Announces 3rd Quarter Results". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
  19. ↑ "2006年ゲームソフト年間売上TOP500" [2006 Game Software Annual Sales Top 500]. Famitsū Gēmu Hakusho 2007 ファミ通ゲーム白書2007 [Famitsu Game Whitebook 2007] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Enterbrain. 2007.

External links

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