You thought the scene with Shion, Allen and Kevin was awesome? Awesome how, seriously? I thought it was unnecessarily moderated, like practically every love scene in video games these days. No one ever just says 'I love you,' and gets it over with. For me, the scene was a little funny but mostly frustrating because once again, love is overshadowed by friendship, a less mature theme. I hate it when games are toned down. Would it have killed them to make that scene just a little more intimate? Being a type of person who likes a romance, I was quite disappointed with how it turned out. Allen took the beating of his life for Shion and she didn't even embrace him with a hug.

Kudos for the Maria reference.

Double Kudos for the Chrono Trigger reference (Maria's grandfather was Balthasar, and this one's granpa is Magus. Coincidence? I think not).

prays for an Emeralda reference next.

Why did Jin have to die??!! I didn't like the censorship, I mean come on! He got stabbed twice and his clothes never got torn and not one drop of blood! That took away from the drama, IMO.

To me, it seemed like the game ended on a strange note. I mean, how will we ever find out how Shion and friends get to Earth/Lost Jerusalem? Will KOS-MOS and chaos come back? Will Jin become the Green Testament (or some other kind/color of Testament or some other enigmatic being)? Would the fourth game star only Shion, Allen, and Jr.? Lots of things left open-ended. It seems Bandai-Namco did that on purpose in case they got enough positive feedback to continue the series, which I really hope they do, only this time for the PS3 and with less censorship -_-

Jin's consciousness joins those of the other gnosis gathered in Abel's Ark and eventually is reborn as Hyuuga a.k.a. Citan. To have him go back and fight to the death along with chaos, KOS-MOS and the gang, is to justify his likeness in the new world that results from Abel and Nephilim's saving of the universe that in the long-term results in Xenogears' world. So no, everyone in Abel's Ark at the time of its remanifestation is no longer really part of the Xenosaga timeline.

Which does lead to the question of what Shion, Jr. and company would find if they did find Lost Jerusalem. Considering that even in Xenogears' storyline, that place hadn't been revisited. One could also take the ending as a metaphore for the surviving characters' unwillingness to settle down and let things be. They're always on their search for the next horizon. The Xenosaga team did say comfortably in an interview that this game ends Shion's arc in the overall storyline.

If any new series of games popped up regarding the Xeno universe, my bet would be on them covering Episode VI (Post-Xenogears) in the Perfect Works timeline since that's the only unknown at this point.

But I'm bummed about Shion's story ending (since it would be her story that lead to Lost Jerusalem and could have probably lasted one more game/episode). Oh well, it was great while it lasted. Kudos, Bandai-Namco :)

I doubt Jin, or anyone else will become a Testament after what happened to Wilhelm and Zarathustra. I believe if Xenosaga is continued, it will be like an alternate universe of Xenogears. Jin gets reincarnated as Citan, thats a given. KOS-MOS will be the first one the land on Lost Jerusalem, what else could that planet she was drifting towards have been? I'm going to go with an old theory in that KOS-MOS becomes Deus/Maing, somehow. Most likely the residents of Lost Jerusalem will discover her dilapidated body and collect data about humanity's past/future. Abel will become Kim/Lacan/Grahf/Fei/Id and either Nephilim or Mary become Elly. Chaos will probably be the Wave Existance. I don't know what will happen to the people on the Elsa, my guess is they'll never find Lost Jerusalem.

Abel - As a young boy living in the Cosmic War era, Abel came into contact with Zohar when he accidentally stumbled upon a facility housing a Deus/Zohar connection experiment. The Wave Existence gave Abel its power so one day he could destroy Zohar, which would free the Existence to ascend back to the higher dimension. Abel had been searching for his mother when he made contact, and his desire to be with her imparted the Existence with a mother's will when he made contact. It constructed a woman using the biological computer Kadomony, a component of the Deus system, to be with Abel, but Deus transformed the woman into the original Miang. Abel was the only human survivor of the Eldridge crash. Together with Elhaym, or Elly as he had come to call her he lived during the first years of life on the Xenogears planet. When Cain, Miang and the Gazel Ministry began laying down the foundations of what would be all their various control mechanisms in the developing human culture, Abel and Elly, now grown adults stepped forward and challenged them. Abel, having known the real truth of the matter and being the only true human on the planet was able to see through Cain's lies and called him on them in front of the whole world. Cain responded by murdering both him and Elly, however they would return eventually. Both Abel and Elly were continuously reincarnated through the Zohar until 9999 years later when Fei Fong Wong and Elhaym Van Houten were born. Fei is the last incarnation of Abel and the -Contact- who breaks Deus' hold on humanity and frees the Wave Existence.

I was under the impression that the Omega System is Deus, almost exactly. Zohar-powered, Merkabah as the chariot, the 4 coloured spheres, Omega's mutated self looking exactly like final-boss Deus. It was created to end the war, blew up a planet, etc. just like it says in Perfect Works. The Y-Data being the Raziel dealy that your party descovers on the Eldridge ruins. Since it never left Abel's Ark, it still remains capable of waking up and beginning the storyline of Xenogears.

That's also true about the Omegas System being Deus. It makes more sense than KOS-MOS being Deus to be honest. But IIRC wasn't Maing part of Deus? She was the system's fail-safe, as The Mother. Maing is the woman we see after the Eldridge crashed on the Xenogears planet [Lost Jerusalem], she was 'activated' by Deus at the time of its destruction. Her mission as The Mother was to give birth to more humans that would later be used to rebuild Merkaba/Deus. I can definitely see T-Elos being Maing because they have the same type of personality and unlike KOS-MOS, T-Elos is made of flesh and blood, Mary's flesh and blood. When KOS-MOS absorbed T-Elos and awakened, she may have acquired her genetic make up. But If KOS-MOS became real flesh and blood I don't understand how her body could survive in space, so thats a different story. I'm willing to bet that somehow KOS-MOS will be The Mother in the next game. And for the love of God please let there be a next game!

Actually, The Real Mother wasn't Maing, it was Maing and Elly combined. This happened close to the ending of Xenogears when Ramsus killed Maing, she transmigrated into Elly and The Real Mother awakened. I just had another idea, what if KOS-MOS's 'awakened' personality [KOS-MOS Quote: I am Mary, but at the same time, I am not Mary] becomes Elly and the part of T-Elos she absorbed becomes Maing? So if T-Elos becomes Maing, Mary becomes Elly, that leaves Nephilim to become either The Wave Existance or something else. If she's The Wave Existance, chaos would be another mystery character. The Testaments would also be perfect for the Gazel Ministry, but since theres only one of them left.. Theres so many directions Monolith can go with this.

Will someone tell me what happens to Albedo in episode III? Ever since the scene in Episode I where he kidnaps MOMO and does the entire laughing-while-ripping-my-head-off thing, and the final scenes of Episode II, I really began to like the guy above all other characters save Chaos...

You guys do realize that Saga and gears are not releated, right? This has been said time and time again. By the series creators, even. Jin is NOT Citan, chaos is definitely not the Wave Existance, KOS-MOS is not Miang, Deus is not Omega.

KOS-MOS as Miang has more problems with it than you can imagine. Miang was created after the Eldridge crash, and was a daughter of the first mother, created by Deus's Kadamony system. KOS-MOS being Miang makes little to no sense whatsoever. KOS-MOS doesn't actually fit into the Gears timeline whatsoever, actually. There is no character you can really compare her to.

chaos is in no way the Wave Existance. U-DO is. chaos is the physical representation of Anima, remember? The ending and database went over this if you were paying attention.

Abel is also not the same Abel from Gears. Abel here in Saga is a manifestation of U-DO, the wave existance. Abel in gears came into contact with the Wave Existance and it gave him the ability to destroy to the Zohar (in which the Wave Existance was trapped). So Abel is a Contact in Gears, while here is he actually a manifestation of U-DO as an observer. So no, not the same Abel. ABel just looks that was as, *gasp* fanservice. Just like Jin.

Lost Jerusalem is also not the Gears planet. This makes no sense.

Neph and (And definetely not Mary. Dunno why you even mention her) can't be Elly either. The first Elly was born to the original Mother, along with Cain and the Gazel Ministry. Abel (the only human survivor the Eldridge crash who wasn't given birth to by Kadamony) and Elly were killed by Cain and the Ministry after they defied them. They were given recurring lives though so they could eventualyl free the Wave Existance. Neph's appearance is merely done as a nod to gears fans.

Jin just looks like Citan as a nod to Gears fans. Just like the four spheres thing in the Ark was a nod to the end of Gears, and how each of the bosses in those spheres looked like an Omnigear. Michtam, Abel, Neph's transition at the end there. It's neat to speculate but it's not the same timeline. It's a rough retelling of the events of Episode 1, sure. But it's not the same and it would NEVER lead to Gears without some serious rewriting going on.

Deus is a bloody biological weapon. He's not a "Relic of God" like the Omega System was. Deus has a core called Omega-1 and was powered by the Zohar, this is truth. Merkava was a component of Deus though. The container/superweapon part. It's just a name thing here. Omega and Deus are not the same system. Similar broad activites but the specifics don't match.

Razael's Tree makes the most sense of all the comparisons made above. The Y-Data is not really "the knowledge of everything" that was found in Mahanon in Gears. The Tree was basically used as a device to let everyone know what Deus was about in Gears. He wasn't God, he was using people for spare parts. The Y-Data contains stuff like the location of Lost Jerrsulem and stuff, and I suppose the Tree would have that in there if people knew where it was at that time (unlikely), but it's not the same thing. The Y-Data has no mention of Deus because the Deus system does not exist in Saga. So no. That doesn't match up EITHER.

Holy crap that was long. Hopefully everyone understands now that they aren't connected though, that there will be NO WAY to connect them using the current stories of both games, and that the stuff in Saga that's rather obvious (like the character designs) is just fanservice. Jin doesn't reincarnate as Hyuga, sorry. As cool as that sounds, it's a no go.

I'd rather have the series end on this extremely high note. We don't need to know what happens what happens to Shion and crew. It's an extremely poignant ending as is. I'd much rather be left with the pleasant feelings and thoughts that they might make it to Lost Jerusalem instead of actually having more bad stuff happening to them. This was a fantastic ending, and I think that if they did write another chapter after this, it would have to be extremely well done to not lessen the emotional impact we got from this episodes ending sequence.