The Elite
BOSS
Crazetex said:Xenosaga 3 is amazing, but like mentioned above, you need to at least know a few things. I'd highly suggest, after playing through the prologue dungeon, sitting down and browsing the codex/Xenobible (in-game) for interesting bits. Especially read about characters as the codex is updated!
Here is the absolute bare minimum of what you need to know, and some suggestions on XS1/2 scenes to watch on Youtube. (HUGE XENOSAGA 1/2 SPOILERS BELOW!) Other Xenonerds, feel free to correct me.
-Shion is a scientist who is in love with her dead boyfriend Kevin and was almost crystallized by a Gnosis but survived and thus is a little wacky/distant. She is addicted to curry. She makes the best curry. She would have made a great housewife if she wasn't a necrophiliac
-Allen has the most sincere hots for Shion ever but is shy about it. He would give up his life for Shion
-chaos is an enigma, but works for good. He is fairly angelic
-chaos and KOS-MOS have a deep, almost lovers-esque relationship; Shion and KOS-MOS have a somewhat detached but still protective/sisterly relationship. KOS-MOS herself is an android and an extremely powerful anti-Gnosis weapon because she can use the Hilbert Effect
-MOMO can use a weaker version of the Hilbert Effect and is a special scout-type Realian. She was created by some Joachim guy to store the Y-Data in (the Y-Data is basically the secrets of the universe. EVERYBODY WANTS THE Y-DATA). She is modeled after Joachim's daughter, Sakura, and always wanted to "replace" her. She gets more badass as the series goes along (from magical girl to Nazi archer to magical Nazi archer)
-Jr. is part of the Kukai Foundation, a neutral space colony/metropolitan ship, and is an URTV. He and Albedo do not really get along, even though Jr. would love to be friends again (you see, Albedo's job is to screw up everything Jr. loves, from MOMO to weird DBZ OVER 9,000!!!!!! stuff). He is my favorite character because he is such a little punk
-Jin was a military man but now he is a sissy with a katana. He is Shion's brother. He likes curry
-Ziggy is a cyborg who wants to forget his depressing past. He and "Voyager" don't get along. He can kick meteors
-Canaan is an advanced Realian and expert E.S. pilot. He has a BIG SECRET and is tied to Ziggy's past (iirc?)
-Margulis and Peligri are awesome villains that believe in a god that speaks to them. Jin used to have the hots for Peligri but then bad stuff happened (REMEMBER THAT THEY TALK TO GOD)
-Mizuki or whatever her name is used to work for Shion directly, but now she is her sort of freelance weapons manufacturer. She was playable for a short time in the earlier games as one of the rare minor character battle participants (the only other ones were Canaan as a pilot in XS2's E.S. battles, and Virgil during the second dungeon of XS1)
-Virgil died early on in XS1 and was a soldier protecting Shion and KOS-MOS. He has a skin condition because he eats Realian skin as a narcotic
TERMS:
Vector - Huge network of scientists headed by Wilhelm. Allen and Mizuki(?) still work for Vector, but Shion quit in order to look into their true purpose and Kevin died when KOS-MOS went insane. They, headed by Shion and Kevin, built KOS-MOS (remember: KEVIN BUILT KOS-MOS, and KOS-MOS KILLED KEVIN)
Durandal - Jr.'s behemoth of a ship; it likes to be used as a dungeon a lot. Used as a second HQ for Shion and company
Elsa - One of the Durandal's contracted exploration/trade ships; your primary HQ and where you go between missions. Includes a bunch of somewhat annoying shipmates that you can usually safely ignore
Gnosis - Aliens that crystallize you if you come in contact with them
Hilbert Effect - Big flashy WMD that eradicates Gnosis and disables machinery; can be focused into small blasts
Android - Machine with human parts
Realian - Android with realistic skin; Xenosaga world's equivalent to black people in terms of mistreatment/slavery, except worse because people eat them. They all went crazy during the Miltian Conflict
Cyborg - Human with machine parts
URTV - U-DO Retro Virus units; human weapons "birthed" (he used egg donors' embryos) by Dimitri Yuriev to cancel out U-DO. Four Variants - purposefully genetically mutated URTVs - exist: Albedo, Rubedo (Jr.), Negredo and some chick
U-DO - Creepy energy
A.G.W.S - Warrior robots without the souls of biblical folks or something
E.S. - Warrior robots with the souls of biblical folks or something (they are pseduo-sentient)
Zohar - One of the twelve disciples - I mean, giant crucifixes - I mean, things that Gnosis are horny for
Miltian Conflict - Second Miltia (or First or... the one you don't live on) got destroyed because the Song of Nephilim was mysteriously activated
Song of Nephilim - Don't activate it. It'll destroy your planet
Merkabah - Borg cube/great way to activate the Song of Nephilim (iirc) besides necrophilia
Scenes to watch:
-The Hilbert Effect (shut up MOMO) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m57rflJVok)
-Elsa gets Gnosis'd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O0Gdj1GmIs)
-Albedo torturing MOMO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95mwIi8lVHQ)
-Xenosaga II introduction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOt9b1QgKA)
-Jin/Margulis fight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxe2knWI8Q)
Everything else can probably be intuited or looked up as you please.
Fun fact: Xenosaga is a three-part space opera. Somehow, there is a forest dungeon in every game!
Thanks. I'd love to play through the whole series but I don't think I have time. I'm a huge fan of the concept though.