Maybe Tomorrow, Xenosaga
“The time we spend apart will be an instant in the flow of universal time. So please don’t be sad.” - KOS-MOS, to Shion.
Recently we were hit with devastating news: it was confirmed, after analysis and conversation with the powers that be, that a re-release or remaster of Xenosaga is not going to happen any time in the near future. Fans have been strung along for years now, holding out hope since the Operation Rainfall events in the early 2010s when Xeno-fans banded together to get Nintendo to import some sorely-wanted RPGs, one of which was the bestseller Xenoblade Chronicles.
We live in a strange time for the video game medium. Games have been touted as an art form for as long as I can remember — you can’t look at Shadow of the Colossus or Dark Souls or Final Fantasy and not see the obviousness of art. But when it comes to preservation, video games are often left to fend for themselves. While albums receive audio remasters and old films often see Blu-ray releases, video games exist in a nebulous place where the cost to re-release and remaster often outweighs the effort.
Xenosaga never sold well. Before release it was hyped to be the next big RPG, as exciting and groundbreaking as the phenomenal Final Fantasy X. The ambition behind it was engineered by industry powerhouses, and the game series itself was to be a spiritual prequel to Xenogears, a…
