8 réponses à ce sujet

[Mouser]

I've just started this game, so I don't know too much about the details other than the ultimate ending and other major things that have been batted around the net forever and in all the Amazon reviews I read to decide which version to get (decided on the trilogy package).. Already though I'm struck by the similarity between the two.

 

The cycle of the Reapers vs. the "Eternal Recurrence", UMN vs. those Prothean gate things. A non-understandable enemy: AI vs the Gnosis. The way the story progresses through cutscenes and the direction it seems to be heading. Even little (and I'm sure coincidental) things like Xenosaga dropping itemization altogether in Episode 2 and Mass Effect two apparantly cutting back on it, from the blurbs I've read in reviews.

 

Obviously one is turn based and the other real time, but if the designers did use Xenosaga for some of their inspiration, the final ending starts to make sense.  Maybe I'm completely missing the mark here and I'll have a totally different opinion when I'm thirty or forty hours in, but it's enough to make me wonder if anyone else saw the same thing I did, and if the similarities grow stronger as the game goes on.

 

 

Edit after finishing Mass Effect (1):  No walkthough used, so I'm sure I missed a lot along the way, though I tried to poke around in all the corners I could find. I don't know whether one inspired the other or if they both drank from the same pool (Xenosaga's currents run MUCH deeper, though), but there are more than a few parallels and similarities in the stories along the way. Can't wait to play through the next two.

[ZerebusPrime]

No.

 

We are not pulling a Xenogears.

 

The Reapers are not going to wipe out humanity and then restart it as a followup experiment on another planet.  With giant robots.

 

Just no.

 

We are not trying to draw out an other dimensional UDO with misused religious terms and space magic.  We're trying to nowaitthat'saspoilerandyousaidyouhadn'tfinishedyet with space magic!  That's bad enough!

 

And space kung fu has already backfired for Mass Effect.

 

So no.

 

No!

 

Also, hurry up and finish the games.  And get the notion of pint sized space gunslingers and Richard Epcar's voice out of your head.  Replace these concepts with space battle toads and Mark Meer.

 

 

Yes, I know the difference between Xenogears and Xenosaga.

[Mouser]

I've started the second. Yeah, I'm taking my sweet time.

 

I never played Xenogears, so I can't say I know much about the mythology of that game - I do know it was in a separate universe than Xenosaga (they wanted to start fresh).  I do wish they had finished it: How Wilhelm would have handled his role in a universe that rejected the 'eternal recurrence' would have been very interesting.

 

At least somebody gets what I'm trying to say though

 

And the Illusive Man gives me shades of Wilhelm (obviously without Wilhelm's power), but that's just a first impression.

 

And Momo rocks   I used to be a Reaper, then I took an ether-charged arrow to the knee...

 

Laus Saluto Ita!

[Mouser]

Update now that I'm about half way through ME 2:

 

1) I think I had a Baldur-gasm between the space hamster in my cabin and Tali's "Go for the optics!". I swear I could hear someone shouting "Butt-kicking for Goodness!!!" in the background.

 

2) The stories aren't the same, but the parallels keep coming. Planetary disappearances on one side, and colony populations vanishing in the other.  Both are caused by something 'ancient' coming back to haunt the present. The main difference seems to be that in this game the protagonist knows pretty much what's going on, while in the other the protagonist (and the player for the most part) has no clue. That and the Reapers are an enemy that can be fought, unlike Lemegeton.

 

3) I never really liked Wrex, but Grunt is starting to grow on me - so I guess I'm getting that 'Battle Toads' thing (that was a fun game). Other than that the only characters I really care about are Tali and Liara (romance from first game). And Joker. The rest can burn for all I care right now, though they'll probably pull through the suicide mission just to spite me.

 

Edit: And the winner for "Game tells you exactly what you're thinking" goes to Joker for his line after I don't choose Samara...  

 

 

Edit 2: I just noticed Tari also says Aeris' line about Tchikita (sp?) fastpaws, too. Double Balder-gasm!

[SwobyJ]

I wouldn't be surprised if at least one Bioware dev had Xenosaga on the mind at some point when creating stuff.

[Mouser]

Finally got ME 3 to run, after a couple reinstalls and tweaks here and there. Morinth slipped away, no surprise there, but I'm bummed I screwed up somewhere with Kelly so all my fish are gone. Cabin seems so lonely without them.  At least I still have Liara.

 

I hope the story picks up again, ME 2 just didn't grab me the way the first one did. I might go back to one of my older saves (why did they limit the number of save slots anyway? another downer) and play from there - see if I can keep my fish and what happens if I burn the collector base rather than saving it., but I don't see myself replaying ME 2 unless it's to go through the whole trilogy again sometime.

 

I did get the 'no one left behind' achievement, so all my squad is out there somewhere. I cheated a bit and checked a walkthrough for choices, but that basically just confirmed what I would have done anyway - me (adept), tali, and jack was my standard party through the game, so worked out well in the end that way. If I ever do replay the trilogy, it will be as a soldier with singularity (my favoritest power - look ma, a pinata!).

 

As for Xenosaga parallels - a bunch of stuff happened between 2 and 3, though I think a lot of that may have been in DLC (no way in hell am I spending $10 for three hours of content). Dream sequence with the kid burning was reminiscent of the Shion seeing the chunk of Lost Jerusalem. One way or another, I'll see how it all pans out soon enough ^ ^ . And since I am NOT grinding multiplayer to up my effectiveness rating, I'm guessing the "perfect" ending will be out of reach.

[SwobyJ]

You can get all forms of all endings if you have Extended Cut.

 

You miss the best version of one of the endings without EC, it seems.

[mopotter]

First time I played ME1 I thought of Berserker series by Fred Saberhagen.  

[Mouser]

Finally finished the trilogy. Don't have the extended cuts but watched those on YouTube. I'd like to say it kind of sort of made sense... but, no. Points for the "happy" ending to the nightmare (reminds me of an old legend where a soldier would meet women washing something in a river). You've got the irony of an advanced race setting up a machine to come up with a solution to a social problem with the "solution" being their own undoing by machines and the obvious sexual connotations of the crucible and the catalyst with ghost boy gaining a new perspective when they join, but what those have to do with the 50,000 year Groundhog Day for the universe via planned evolution, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", and all the other themes from the 120 hours or so I put into the game is just a bit out of my reach.

 

My best guess is one of two things happened. BioWare may have shot too high with their story and couldn't figure out a way to bring it to a proper resolution with all the elements they wanted - happens to the best of authors at times. Second choice involves a boardroom meeting at EA, probably the same meeting where someone earned a huge bonus for saying "How about we add a really cool party character and charge extra for it? KA-CHING!!!", where they decided the ending was too esoteric or highbrow for all their sports franchise fanatic focus groups and told them to cut it down to three choices.

 

Then again, maybe the guys at BioWare did think they were heading into currents a bit too deep. The nature and purpose of existence and illusion of free will aren't exactly 'light reading'.  How many Neon Genesis Evangelion fans completely miss the message of the original ending? And yes, that was the ending the series had been building to from episode one (though animation suffered at the end from the budget crunch).

 

Maybe it will make more sense after I sleep on it or if I give it another playthrough sometime... or maybe not.