Xenogears - Development

Development

Xenogears was produced by Hiromichi Tanaka, who previously worked on the SNES game Secret of Mana. The scenario of the game was written by director Tetsuya Takahashi and by Kaori Tanaka. Yasuyuki Honne served as art director, while Kunihiko Tanaka was responsible for the character designs. Tetsuo Mizuno, Tomoyuki Takechi, and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi were executive producers for Xenogears. Koichi Mashimo, an animator for Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion, was in charge of the anime cut scenes. Xenogears started out as an early concept conceived by Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka for the Square game Final Fantasy VII. Their superior in the company deemed it "too dark and complicated for a fantasy", but Takahashi was allowed to develop it as a separate project. It is the fifth part of a six-part story detailed in Xenogears Perfect Works; at the end of the game's credits, "Episode V" appears on screen. The story of Xenogears is influenced by the ideas of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche, and they are referenced numerous times within the game's narrative.

Square had announced that Xenogears may not have come out in the United States due to "sensitive religious issues". However, Square soon after reversed this and, with a joint partnership with Electronic Arts, released the game in October 1998. The English translation of Xenogears was the first instance in which an English localization team worked directly with Square developers. It also was the first major project of Square translator Richard Honeywood. According to Honeywood, translating the game was a particularly difficult task due to it containing numerous scientific concepts and philosophies.

Square Enix released Xenogears on the Japanese PlayStation Network on June 25, 2008 and in North America on February 22, 2011.