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[IbizaPocholo]

Monolith Soft co-president on the studio's origins, inspired by desire to make Xenogears 2

Monolith Soft celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. When the company started out making Xenosaga, no one could have predicted where they’d be today. Xenoblade has turned into a million-seller IP while Monolith Soft has been heavily involved in some of Nintendo’s top games, including Zelda...

nintendoeverything.com

Hirohide Sugiura, co-president of Monolith Soft, spoke about the developer’s origins in last week’s issue of Famitsu. Regarding his motives for starting his own company back in 1999, Sugiura shared:

Sugiura: It all started when I played Xenogears back then. I was in charge of another game at the time, but Xenogears really stood out prominently among the rest, and I fell in love with it. Afterward, we put together plans for a Xenogears 2, but Square at the time had a lot of financial investment in their movie division, so it was extremely difficult to get things put into production internally. Despite that, I knew somehow I had to make something from these ideas, so I chose to go my own way.

That must’ve been some impression Xenogears had on you.

Sugiura: Tetsuya Takahashi, Yasuyuki Honne and 27 others felt the same. So with the help of Masaya Nakamura (founder of Namco), we went ahead with establishing Monolith Soft. We did negotiate with other video game companies when going solo, but I was a big fan of Namco – so much so that I even applied to their new hires after graduation. Anyway, after meeting with Nakamura, it was Namco’s outstanding sensibilities that was the deciding factor for us.

So that’s how Monolith Soft came to be.

Sugiura: The number one motivation for me was because I loved the world that Takahashi created. And that fact still holds true to this day.

 

[caffeware]

Square sitting on so many great ips.

 

[Grandmaster Hash]

Monolith Soft are definitely one of my favourite Japanese devs. One of the few out there still making traditional JRPGs without chasing trends or constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Although I do feel like they've been held back by Nintendo's shitty hardware over the years so their games always looked a generation behind despite being better than most of their contemporaries

 

[Rat Rage]

 

[V2Tommy]

Xenoblade X2 featuring KOS-MOS and Shion and I’ll buy a stupid Switch already.

 

[Ceallach]

Too bad Monolith can't get all of the Xenos under one umbrella. A Xenoblade Classics collection with Xenosaga and Xenogears would be a pretty easy cash grab. Not sure how much those IPs mean to Square and Namco, but Nintendo has worked close with both in the past.

 

[SentientStone]

I loved Xenogears cause it fused Christian theology, psychology, Chinese martial arts, and bad ass robots into one coherent story that spanned almost a hundred hours of playtime.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Xenogears 2, or a full blown remake of Xenogears, would not be a megaton, but a mushroom cloud explosion that shakes the very core of the earth.

 

[Saint Boot]

Too bad Monolith can't get all of the Xenos under one umbrella. A Xenoblade Classics collection with Xenosaga and Xenogears would be a pretty easy cash grab. Not sure how much those IPs mean to Square and Namco, but Nintendo has worked close with both in the past.

 

[Saint Boot]

I loved Xenogears cause it fused Christian theology, psychology, Chinese martial arts, and bad ass robots into one coherent story that spanned almost a hundred hours of playtime.

They were smart enough to get a christian recording artist to do several vocal tracks for Gears and Saga also, which made it interesting.

THis is not one of them, but you can tell the style, and I do like the way they sound.
EDIT: This one is better than the other example I originally listed.

 

[Vawn]

Finish making Xenogears 1 first.

 

[sublimit]

I need to play Xenogears some day.

 

[SentientStone]

They were smart enough to get a christian recording artist to do several vocal tracks for Gears and Saga also, which made it interesting.

THis is not one of them, but you can tell the style, and I do like the way they sound.
EDIT: This one is better than the other example I originally listed.

I remember as a teen I was obsessed with Xenogears music and Joanne Hogg's songs for a while.

 

[Ailike]

I need to play Xenogears some day.

Just youtube it. Same experience.

 

[sublimit]

Just youtube it. Same experience.

Nah. This is one of those games that i really want to experience it as it was meant to be experienced.

 

[Ceallach]

Nah. This is one of those games that i really want to experience it as it was meant to be experienced.

Ehhhh........... Disc 1 is sublime, Disc 2 is problematic to say the least

 

[Sub_Level]

I need to play Xenogears some day.

Its a glorified 90s anime that occasionally interrupts its text boxes and lets the player do something. Its a cool anime tho, for sure.

 

[Macapala]

Nah. This is one of those games that i really want to experience it as it was meant to be experienced.

Enjoy the sewer level. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


And Babel Tower.


Xenogears' sound track, characters and story are brillinant, but just be prepared for some pretty shitty dungeons.

 

[ROMhack]

Its a glorified 90s anime that occasionally interrupts its text boxes and lets the player do something. Its a cool anime tho, for sure.

What kind of hill are you fighting on here. All JRPGs are glorified animes.

 

[German Hops]

...So, are we getting a Xenogears 2 or what ?

 

[martino]

Too bad Monolith can't get all of the Xenos under one umbrella. A Xenoblade Classics collection with Xenosaga and Xenogears would be a pretty easy cash grab. Not sure how much those IPs mean to Square and Namco, but Nintendo has worked close with both in the past.

i need this

 

[Werewolf Jones]

One of the greatest JRPGs ever made even unfinished. We don't need a remake, we need an equal or superior sequel of the same quality.

 

[Dark Rider]

Big fan of Xenogears and Monolith Soft. I just hope they can do what they want to do with no restrictions, Nintendo is letting them do what they want to a certain extent but I feel they want to do more than what they are allowed.

 

[BacklashWave534]

Just youtube it. Same experience.

Your comment can be applied to any game. Xenogears is a masterpiece that deserves to be played.

 

[-YFC-]

I'd much rather they make a new F.E.A.R. game.

EDIT: Oh you mean a different studio, lol I'm an idiot.

 

[John Day]

Loved it. It was heavy on everything so that interrupted gameplay at times, but loved the combat, and loved the gears.

Imagine that scope, but with a bit more time to actually finish and polish, oofff!

 

[T_LVPL]

In 1999 I got stuck on a boss battle on the Tower of Babel after 40 hours and there’s no way to return. I’ve still got the save file but need to restart the game. Was finally going to last month but got distracted by SotC, WWII and a platinum run on mgs3. Xenogears the 3rd or 4th best RPG on the psx from memory but can’t lie I’ve forgotten everything about the story which is why want to replay it.

 

[UltimaKilo]

and where the hell is XC3? Shouldn’t this be the year that we see something?

 

[Graciaus]

I need to play Xenogears some day.

Make sure when you play it you use the hack to skip/speed up the text. Game is annoying to play otherwise.

 

[V4skunk]

WOW low iq's here.
Not one person even read the article.
We are not getting Xenogears2 ever.

 

[sublimit]

Make sure when you play it you use the hack to skip/speed up the text. Game is annoying to play otherwise.

Thanks but i intend to play the physical version on a PS2.

 

[KàIRóS]

WOW low iq's here.
Not one person even read the article.
We are not getting Xenogears2 ever.

Uhh we already did, it's called Xenosaga and it's divided in 3 episodes, they obviously couldn't use Xenogears 2 as the title, and it would'nt have made sense anyway since Xenosaga is a prequel.

Spoiler: Xenogears ending spoiler

 

[John Day]

WOW low iq's here.
Not one person even read the article.
We are not getting Xenogears2 ever.

Everyone knows that. Just talking here .

 

[TheContact]

Please Square just sell the XG IP to Monolith. I would love a XG2