In the past few years, Square Enix remastered many of its classic role-playing games, such as the first six entries in the Final Fantasy series, some entries in the Romancing SaGa franchise, and even Chrono Cross, which was stuck on the original PlayStation before last year’s release of the Radical Dreamers Edition. One game that the Japanese publisher doesn’t seem interested in bringing back is the excellent Xenogears, which will remain stuck on the original PlayStation for the foreseeable future.
While Square Enix isn’t remastering Xenogears anytime soon, dedicated fan 1vierock released an unofficial HD remaster, which reworks the game’s interface and improves sprites and textures considerably, as showcased in the comparison videos below. The HD remaster patch requires the Retroarch emulator, and full installation instructions, as well as download links for the CD1 and CD2 patches, can be found here.
The history of Xenogears, which was released back in 1998 on the first PlayStation, is rather interesting. The game’s original draft was pitched as the seventh main entry in the Final Fantasy series but was rejected due to the dark tone of the game and some controversial elements. Some of these controversial elements, such as the heavy religious imagery, almost prevented the game from getting released in the United States, requiring challenging localization work that could keep some of the game’s most controversial concepts without making them offensive. The game’s second disk is also highly controversial in how it switches from the classic JRPG formula of the first disk to a visual novel-styled experience with limited gameplay. The switch wasn’t originally planned, as the development team ran out of time and budget but still wanted to complete the story the best it could.
While the Xenogears series is over and done, its director Tetsuya Takahashi has continued making involving Japanese role-playing games, releasing the Xenosaga and Xenoblade series, which share some themes with the 1998’s game. The latest entry in the Xenoblade series received its story expansion, Future Redeemed, this week.
