Confirmed: Xenosaga II Is Good | Xenosaga Ep.II Analysis (Ep.3) | State of the Arc Podcast

The Resonate Arc Xeno-Cast, has become my favorite thing on this platform.

What a mammoth episode. A scene I really liked that you kinda entirely skipped over (I think?) was Ziggy completely losing it when Voyager shows up as the Black Testament, because it's a callback to the scene in Episode 1 when Ziggy confronts Jr about if he'll be able to keep it together and not lose it when he faces Albedo. Shows that Ziggy, too, cannot keep himself in check when his "archnemesis" shows up. The relationship between Jr and Ziggy is a really good one I feel since they can connect and talk unflinchingly about things they understand about each other.

You forgot about the very cryptic but significant line "Weaver of the eternal cycle of Zarathustra" There is never going to be a video game series quite like xenosaga in terms of its unbelievable depth and cohesive narrative threads. It is one of the greatest, most ambitious attempts at story telling in a jrpg medium of video games that I ever played.

1:41:41 For the longest time, Ever since my twin brother and I were young, we always joked about how if we were not twins, we would be one complete being, but since we exist now as twins, our powers are diminished; cut in half, and weak! We poke fun that on some fateful day, one of us will absorb the other in a battle of the ages haha. We still joke about this to this day, in a funny Saturday-morning-cartoon sort of way. The scene with Rubedo and Albedo made me tear up more than any other scene in Xenosaga Ep. 2, because the flip-flop of emotions between them from anger & wanting to kill the other, to sorrow & longing not to lose the other, was so well executed. I know in my heart that although my brother can push my buttons like no one else, he also brings out the kid in me like no one else. Should he pass away long before i do, i am absolutely positive i would be devastated beyond anything i could imagination

Your confusion about Shion being emotional about Cecily and Cathe is understandable. Her connection to them was one aspect of the story that was cut from the original script, and it's portrayed more clearly in the DS remake. Cecily and Cathe, like Febronia, are childhood friends of Shion's and she would often play with them while she waited outside her mother's hospital room. The DS version adds a lot of stuff that was in the original script of the game, but was unfortunately cut with the change in direction.

This podcast brought back memories of the "No! Red Dragon Mode!" moment. I laughed out loud when that happened, and laughed again when you talked about it. The wording is awkward, but the delivery is so sincere

I don't have a twin sibling, but the discussion reminded me of a story I heard on This American Life about a woman who had lost her twin sister when she was very young. She said they had a very strong bond, and described it as almost like a romance, it was that close of a connection. Then, after her sister died, she was not only devastated, but for her entire life she tried to keep her sister around by living vicariously for her. She basically was trying to live two lives, one for herself, and one for her sister, all at once. It's a very interesting story, and gives some insight into what someone losing their twin can be like. It's called "Megan and Sybil," and is available on the TAL website.

I’m so happy you are making this format for my favorite series, Xenosaga! Thank you.

Really happy to see this series forging on, can't wait until you get to Episode III and give unto us the Xenoconclusion!

lmfao -- Mike getting frustrated and just playing XS3 just to get answers is so, as they say, xeno-typiclal. I remember having to ~wait~ for XS3 to release to get those answers and it was torture.

I'm so glad you guys found enjoyment in the game. I feel like much of the discourse on XS2 is extremely weighted toward the negative, but the whole game was worth it to hear Albedo implore Jr to breath his particles in deep. On replay I recognize the shortcomings but concentrated on the strengths and came away liking the experience much better and it's easy to forget in retrospect that alot of this strong URTV plot centric stuff happens in this game. It does end up doing alot of good plot work to advance their storyline.

So, that drill sergeant you guys were talking about in this episode is actually the same drill sergeant that was in Episode 1 - Commander Vanderkam. I'm not surprised you didn't catch that, given that you only hear his voice, and he had a new voice actor that decided to give him a horrible fake southern accent. Apparently this is made more explicit in the DS version, which is tragically still untranslated. You mentioned during the whole Cecily and Cathe scene (which is among my least favorite in the game) that made you feel like you were missing context. This is one of my major issues with this game - for what feels like every major plot twist, I feel like the game didn't do a good job establishing the gravity of what we're witnessing. You focused on Shion, Cecily and Cathe - the moment I vividly remember from my first playthrough is the reveal of Voyager. When I first saw that scene, and witnessed Ziggy acting very out of character by screaming and unloading his rocket launcher without a second thought, all I could think was, am I missing something? It's almost as if the team didn't remember what the player is or isn't supposed to know at this point. There are so many moments like this all throughout the game, and I felt it substantially weakened the execution of the story.

The ending of Episode 2 is really good. The story as a whole is great. The combat not so much. Episode 3 is where the formula is perfected.

This is honestly making me wanna replay the trilogy. Luckily I still have them all!

I'm surprised that episode 2 was this good. Awesome podcasts guys.

There’s a book (you can also find the free pdf online provided by the publishers) called Ordo ab Chao: A Guide to Understanding Xenosaga. Reading that along with watching this podcast series should help simplify the absolute behemoth known as Xenosaga games

Yuriev is straight up cookin

One of the best podcasts to listen to on YouTube. 🙂

I'm so happy you guys are doing 3 soon :) I was waiting for 2 for years and worried you might take awhile to get to 3.

Yesssssss I’m here for anything Xenosaga❤