Jumpin said:
I get that so far too, I think it's the use of "Tales of" character art-style that gets me. but someone pointed out to me this little gem, which gives me a surprising amount of hope for the game: The Zohar? This is the greatest powersource in the Xenogears/Xenosaga universes, and it is the one element that was missing from XCX. It looks like some kind of power source, what could this mean? Are they planning on using this game as a bridge between XC and XCX, as XC was an independent story, and XCX fits much more in line with the universe of XG and XS, or the mainline Xeno-vision. Otherwise, it could be just a little reference and will maintain as an independent storyline. Somehow I am not sure that Takahashi is interested in wasting time with filler projects at this point in his career. A lot of science fiction authors like to write stories to join together their independent works. XCX identifies the timeline as being when the Samaarians came forth into Earth's universe. In Xenogears and Xenosaga, this is when the Zohar came through as well from a higher dimension, and the Zohar had the ability to capture beings and energy from that dimension giving it the ability to generate infinite energy in our own. Could these people be the Samaarians? Those who brought the Zohar into our universe? We'll see, something along those lines would make things more interesting. Stylistically, the character art should at least attempt to mimic Tanaka's work. Similar to XS2 and 3, and similar to how DQ spinoffs mimic Toriyama art. Otherwise, at best it's a Chrono Cross-like sequel, one that will have its fans, but will not be seen as a legitimate sequel; due to the inaccurate art style (not like Toriyama's original Chrono Trigger art at all), but unlike Chrono Cross, it is likely that the writing voice will at least be similar to the other games, whereas CC's was way off. |
There were references to the Zohar in X.
Essentially, the Zohar on the chest of that character is nothing more than a power source. A link to the Monad if you will. The blonde hair girl in green has the same thing on her chest. It is speculation they are swords, and I think they will be able to combine looking at the energy the sword gives off being red and green in the trailer. I doubt this will have anything to do with the actual Zohar any more than the lifeholds did. It's the typical "link to power" mcguffin.
Essentially what I am hoping to see from E3 (realistically wise, I know the character designs are here to stay sadly) is shadows (the trailer lacked them completely), hopefully better lighting (the games lighting in the trailer was completely static), some proof it is open world (there is no mini map in the trailer, this game could just be large open spaces like the first Xenoblade instead of a real open world like X which IMO is a step back), and customizations (and I mean TONS and TONS of customizations as is a staple of the Blade series). Give me that and the stupid character design direction will be forgiven. Hell, just give me the last 2 (Open world and customizations) and all will be forgiven. I could probably nit pick a million other things, but that's my big concerns.
What do I expect? This to be a game just as rushed as I fear it is.
