Believe it or not, somehow ten years have passed since Xenosaga III was
released in Japan on the sixth day of the seventh month 2006.
Of course it would take another 14 days before I actually got the game,
or god materialized as I called it back then.
It was actually my first japanese game and a relative helped me to
import it through Playasia. I am eternally grateful.
The US version had not gotten a release date yet by then and seeing
how most RPGs took 6-12 months to get an english version on the PS2
it was a huge surprise that we only had to wait two months
with Xenosaga III. Still, I couldn’t help but to play the
japanese version, at least try it for a bit, I still can’t believe
how magical that one moment was and still is to this day.
Part of the story is of course that I still lived with my parents,
had my first job and spent all the money earned on preparation for Xeno,
I remodeled my room to be worthy of this godly game, I hid away
everything unnecessary and distracting behind black cloth, in fact I
covered every inch of the room in black, all that was left in the end
was the newly bought bed, newly bought receiver and speakers,
and of course the newly bought projector and screen!
Everything had to be perfect and working, I also bought an extra PS2,
extra copy of the game, isolated the room from sound, and when it was
time for the actual US release, I also bought food supplies for a week and
isolated myself completely. Yes all of this was of course extreme,
in the room next door my brother also played the game on his ordinary CRT
and without isolating himself and spending thousands of dollars on
the one game… At least it gives some hint at my passion or maybe
madness when it comes to Episode III.
While I wish that I had some big announcement, have found some
spectacular rare item or finally written something deeper about
the game, I have not. I had ten years to prepare for this day
but all I can say is happy anniversary!
I will at least enjoy it in the very same fashion as ten years ago, well maybe
not as extreme but I still use most of the equipment from back then:
KOS-MOS lurking in the corner, hehe.
Once again, in the same place. It has begun.
(And of course there will be cake.)
xenosagacollector.com 
Wow, ten years already. I’m planing to do a post once it hits ten years for the US version. Since that was the one I got first.
Really wish I had the time to replay the whole series right now, but sadly I don’t. But I love your story of what you did when you got the game. So beautiful. ❤
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Hehe, thanks, yeah the time around the release was crazy times and everything surrounding that includes some of my strongest memories, hard to put words on them all…
I actually haven’t played Episode III for at least 5 years so this is the perfect excuse, I’m about halfway trough now at the save before the first heavily censored scene, luckily I am playing the japanese version, we’ll see if I will play the english as well in august, having to watch the ending again in just two months sounds dangerous to the mental health, hehe.
I will look forward to your post at the US anniversary!
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Nån dag så ska jag spela trilogin 🙂
3:an släpptes såpass sent alltså? Samma år som FF15 avslöjades 🙂
Måste säga att det ser riktigt bra med ut en så stor skärm!
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Det är klart du ska! Men som tur är blir inte bra spel sämre med tid.
Mm, rätt sent men det hann ändå komma en hel del rollspel till i slutet
av 2006 och början av 2007. Det är inte för inte det är det bästa spelet, även tekniskt så har det dom kortaste laddningstiderna och vackraste miljöerna på PS2, hur dom lyckades få till allting på såpass kort tid och med en antagligen mycket mer begränsad budget än t.ex Square-spelen eller Tales of-spelen förblir ett mysterium.
Och projektorn har verkligen tjänat mig väl genom åren, jag valde den när dom flesta andra uppgraderade till “platt TV” så i början spelade jag alla PS3 och 360 spel på den.
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I will never ever stop using CRT monitors, that is until OLED becomes standardized. ;O
I had a pretty similar experience with this game except I didn’t splurge quite so much money to get the effect. I should say that I had a very religious preparation ceremony for each Xeno game going back to the first Western release back in 2002, dear God I was hyped out of my mind and my expectations were never let down, I still find the graphics/char models/environments to be amazing, not to mention holy music.
It was cool to see someone keeping this series in mind to the day, but as Harada has let us know there won’ t be an HD remaster set without ‘hundreds of thousands’ of signatures to the Facebook campaign. Whatever, PCSX 2 will do it better.
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Of course, CRTs are always the best and I still use that for all “retro” games,
these days the projector is only for special occasions like this.
Oh, so you have been a fan since the beginning then! It’s still amazing how especially
Episode III could live up to that “hype” after thinking about it every second since the end of Episode II, religious ceremony, hyped out of your mind and holy music makes it sound like we are on the same page, hehe!
The sad part is that you probably are right about PCSX 2, I haven’t tested it with my current computer yet but I did try it on my old one with full resolution and maximum anti aliasing etc, sure it probably moved in 5 FPS but it is still the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
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One thing to say is that Xenosaga II is bashed by alot of people, and for obvious reasons – the style, tone change, the shift of writers and focus to make it more mainstream ‘anime appeal’ etc.
But I fucking Love Xenosaga II and its music!
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