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 asXenogearsunder 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) onXenosaga: a spiritual successor and totally notXenogearsfollow-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 cameXenoblade Chronicles, which Takahashi referred to as a “morale booster.”Xenobladeseemed to really resonate with fans, spurring New 3DS and (upcoming) Switch ports, as well as two moreBladefollow-ups:Chronicles XandChronicles 2. So now you know…the rest of the story.
But back toXenosagafor a moment, which has become the black sheep sandwich ofXeno-lore. Just this week on Twitter a fan asked Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada whether or notXenosagawould 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 merelytalked 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. Rememberthose PS2 re-releases on the PS4that were mostly dumped in 2015-2016? Are those just…dead now? Just saying, Bandai Namco.
