Xenosaga

Xenosaga (ゼノサーガ シリーズ Zenosāga Shirīzu) is a series of video games released for the PlayStation 2 platform. The first game in the series, EPISODE I: Der Wille zur Macht, was released in February 2002 in the Japanese market, and then in February 2003 in the American market. Released by Monolith Soft and published by Namco, it is the first episode in a three-part series, which serves as a spiritual successor to the game Xenogears, released in 1998 for the PSOne. Xenogears was originally released by Squaresoft (now Square-Enix). The series' creator, Tetsuya Takahashi, left Squaresoft in 1999 along with Hirohide Sugiura. Using funds from Namco, they started Monolith Soft. All episodes of Xenosaga are named after the books of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Many Nietzschean concepts and references appear in the series.

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There is much speculation among fans on issues such as the legality of Squaresoft retaining the copyright to Xenogears while Namco is seemingly developing prequels and/or sequels to it. Tetsuya Takahashi has been somewhat vague and ambiguous in his comments on the matter. He has said that Xenogears didn't turn out as he envisioned it, and that with Xenosaga he is "hitting the reset button" and starting over.

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EPISODE II: Jenseits von Gut und B?se was released in June 2004 in Japan and February 2005 in North America. Xenosaga: the ANIMATION, an anime based on Xenosaga premiered on TV Asahi in Japan on January 5th, 2005. Xenosaga: Pied Piper, a 3 chapter long cellphone based game depicting the history of Ziggy 100 years before the start of EPISODE I was released in Japan was also released that year.

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It has been recently announced that EPISODE III: Also sprach Zarathustra will be the final title in the Xenosaga series, effectively cutting the series in half (see section below.) A retelling of the first two episodes titled Xenosaga I & II has also been announced for the Nintendo DS and is rumoured to be the final version of Xenosaga DS. http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2005/091405a.html

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