Xenogears

## Summary

An RPG video game, released in 1998 by Square Soft, *Xenogears* follows the story of an amnesiac man chosen by God to obtain his power discovering more about himself and the history of the faraway planet the story takes place in. With it's surreal and philosophical narrative and expansive setting beginning at the start of time to potentially the end of the universe, *Xenogears* has earned a following throughout the years. It remains incomplete as it failed to reach one million sales when first released, a threshold needing to be met to continue with a sequel. *Xenosaga* continued the story in spirit under the ownership of publisher, Namco and developers, Monolift Soft.

The plot of the game is a multi-generational epic spanning thousands of years from the beginning of life on the planet to the revival of *Mother God,* itself. The opening cinematic starts 10,000 years ago, in the year T.C. 4767 which is approximately 7279 A.D. An interstellar emigrant spacecraft, *the Eldridge,* suffered a sudden shipwide systematic malfunction caused by Mother God taking control over the ship. Moments before this, one of the passengers on the ship, a lost boy called *Abel,* touched and a golden monolith called the *Zohar.* This attracted the attention of a strange entity, *the Wave Existence,* who had been trapped inside. Seeing in Abel the potential to break free, it granted him supreme power and what he desired most: a mother figure. On the monitors that warned of the ensuing danger, a message from Mother God, which is Genesis 3:5 from the Bible, was displayed: **"Ye shall be as gods."** The Eldridge crash landed into an unknown planet and there, life began, in order to repair the wounded Mother God.

In the present day, the game follows *Fei Fong Wong*, an amnesiac painter living in the small town of Lahan. Lahan is near the border between the two warring nations of Aveh and Kislev. A battle breaks out over the peaceful town leading to Fei piloting a mysterious Gear dropped in the battlefield called *Weltall*. The battle is disastrous that ends in Weltall accidentally exploding and taking all of Lahan with it, leaving very few survivors that escaped the warzone. For that action, Fei is exiled by the town to go to the forests where he meets a soldier from Solaris, *Elehayym "Elly" Van Houten*. The confrontation was initially hostile but it improves when her life is in danger that leads Fei to obtain Weltall again to save her life. They depart and the journey to discover themselves takes root.

## Overall Standing

Xenogears is part of the *Xenoseries* and is arguably the strongest in the series. The characters boast numerous abilities that range from probability manipulation to reality warping. All powers originate from the *Zohar Modifier* and *U-DO* (known in this game as the "Wave Existence") which are both infinite and perpetual. Thanks to this, even those with minor access to the Zohar grants extraordinary abilities from magic called, "Ether," to blatant superhuman feats such as Id and Grahf taking down Gears on foot.

The god tier of the Xenoseries is U-DO who originates from the Wave Dimension. Due to its origin and its composition, U-DO and its dimension are made up of Wave Energy, which can create entire universes with a single droplet and multiverses with a wave. There are numerous dimensions below U-DO such as the "Path of Sephirot," which is situated above the 4th Dimension and connects to the Wave Dimension and is itself made of that same Wave Energy despite being smaller in size. Further, U-DO shares its power with its chosen "Contact," Fei Fong Wong and his God Gear, the Xenogears. Xenogears is quite comfortably one of the most powerful video game series of all time thanks to this revelation.

### **Yggdrasil:**

Fei Fong WongElly Van HoutenRico BanderasBilly Lee BlackEmeralda KasimMaria BalthasarChu-Chu