Harada speaks
The whole “Xeno” series is so incredibly rich with history, you could write a compelling book about its exploits.
It (in theory) began life on the original PlayStation as Xenogears under the Square Enix umbrella in 1998; which is arguably still the best entry in the pseudo-franchise. Out of the ashes of that game director Tetsuya Takahashi founded Monolith Soft, which partnered with Bandai Namco (just Bandai at the time, please) on Xenosaga: a spiritual successor and totally not Xenogears follow-up. That new series, which was intended to reach the six-game mark, only hit three due to lower than anticipated sales.
Out of that great loss came Xenoblade Chronicles, which Takahashi referred to as a “morale booster.” Xenoblade seemed to really resonate with fans, spurring New 3DS and (upcoming) Switch ports, as well as two more Blade follow-ups: Chronicles X and Chronicles 2. So now you know…the rest of the story.
But back to Xenosaga for a moment, which has become the black sheep sandwich of Xeno-lore. Just this week on Twitter a fan asked Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada whether or not Xenosaga would get some sort of HD Collection/remaster, to which Harada replied: “This actually progressed to the remaster’s plan, but failed in a profitable market analysis. Sorry guys, This plan will be difficult to resurface.”
In other words, a potential remaster trilogy was merely talked about, but shut down by the powers that be due to budget concerns, to the point where it may not happen. Never say never of course, but unless we see a massive resurgence of this series somehow, it’ll have to carry out its legacy on existing platforms. Remember those PS2 re-releases on the PS4 that were mostly dumped in 2015-2016? Are those just…dead now? Just saying, Bandai Namco.
Katsuhiro Harada [Twitter]
