an article by Neosmith
Anyway, Albedo boards the Simeon and it turns out another Kirchwasser is in there. Now, I assume this must be a different Kirchwasser from the one that Jr. blew away, given that there is no way she could’ve made it to the Simeon. The problem is of course with differentiating them is again, that they are mystery motive characters, who are at this point downright interchanageable - there is really nothing character-wise to distinguish one from the other - both are semi-Zombie Realians, who follow Albedo around for no truly discernible reason.
Yet in another string of random events, the Pilot Kirchwasser is absorbed by the ES Simeon. And at this point, it’s really impossible to care about what's happening to the Kirchwassers, as we know absolutely nothing about the Kirchwasser or Albedo’s mech or just what exactly any of the Kirchwassers want or really what even Albedo really wants. Honestly, I see really no point to bring this mystery up right now, given that again, it has absolutely no impact on the story or the characters. So the Kirchwasser inexplicably died…and who cares? No one really. Except Momo, but we’ll get to that shortly.
So, once the battle with the Simeon is done, Albedo and Jr. begin their psychokinetic duel, resulting in some of the coolest and most anime-esque visuals in the game to date. During the duel, Chaos, Mary and Gaignun spouts foreboding lines to Jr., urging him not to unleash his powers out of fear that something bad might happen. Of course, nobody else bothers to ask what might happen and really, the series ultimately never revealed just what the consequence of Jr. using his Red Dragon power really is. Given that Soraya Saga stated that Jr. would’ve originally grown into his adult form over the series and both his child and adult forms would be selectable, I do believe the intention was that Jr. would start to age and would possibly die if he unleashed his true powers. This is given credence by the leaked notes, which state:
During the final anti-U-DO operations (14 years before the story begins), Jr. had to face off against Albedo, a close friend who suddenly went berserk. Dealing with him required Jr. to use all of his abilities to their utmost limits, consuming the majority of his life expectancy in the process. As a result, he has suspended the growth of his body indefinitely.
So the reverse must be true - namely, that by unleashing his power, Jr. would stop halting the development of his body.
Anyway, Jr. and Albedo are dueling, while everyone else again works as an audience/Greek chorus and doesn’t bother to help Jr. out. Despite how everyone should be worried and concerned about Momo and her well-being at this point, nobody pays any attention to Momo as she regains consciousness. Again, this sort of inconsistency is quite ingratiating...one second, the main characters are all worried about Momo, the next they act like the most careless and neglectful bunch of protagonists ever. This allows Momo to have a conversation with the Kirschwasser, who now magically learns to talk and turns out be not such a Zombie after all. She dies, however, before actally providing any reasonable explanation for why she would follow a man, who indiscriminately murdered her sisters.
What follows is perhaps the strangest and by far the most outlandish plot twist in the chapter, as Momo inexplicably gains a set of new URTV-based superpowers. First, she teleports from behind Shion, Ziggy et all right into the middle of the Jr./Albedo aura-clash. Then, she proceeds to nullify their powers, terminating their duel. Her explanation is that Albedo gave a part of himself to her during their connection. One of the issues I have with this whole subplot is the simple fact that it is immediately forgotten. Momo would never use her URTV+ powers again, and neither would they ever be mentioned nor referred to, not even in the UMN databases, which typically at least partially clarify random and inexplicable plot twists.
This leads me to speculate that the developers must’ve decided to drop this subplot rather quickly and pretend it didn’t really happen. So Momo stops the duel and then Albedo proceeds to talk while everyone listens. Again, I must question as to why all the main characters prefer to just stand around and do nothing as the villain they ostensibly came to apprehend prattles on and on. Shion then decides to shoehorn her way to the conversation, only to be interrupted by the Azure Cloak Man (ACM).
ACM apparently has arrived to buy Albedo enough time to get away and complete his job, to make him stop wasting his time. The dialogue here indicates that Albedo is actually working for Wilhelm, though we would never actually come to understand how much Albedo does or doesn’t know about who Wilhelm is. What precisely is the 'job' that ACM is referring to here? Is it opening the pathway to Old Miltia via the Y-Data? Or is it summoning Proto Merkabah, which is what Albedo would do a couple of scenes later? Doesn’t seem like the latter is likely, as Albedo only learns of the Merkabah from the Y-Data fragments.
So Albedo quickly leaves on the ES Simeon. Then the main characters set out to confront ACM/Virgil, who instead of simply answering their question regarding his identity, begins to spout some cryptic dialogue that doesn’t at all befit Virgil’s character. I have no problem with the ACM’s intervention, but I do have a problem with what it accomplishes. Namely, I don’t really see what the point is of allowing Albedo to get away, just for him to come back moments later and summon yet another huge space station that threatens the Federation and Second Miltia. And the fact that he returns would also mean that he didn’t actually do his job. In other words, Albedo’s subsequent return renders the ACM’s actions rather pointless.
So, after noticing Albedo’s gone, ACM vanishes after making another cryptic statement that nobody really understands. KOS-MOS then announces that the SON has conveniently ceased all functions for no reason. Yet again, nobody shows any concern for Momo, despite the fact that her rescue was the reason everyone came here in the first place.
It’s not until everyone returns to the Durandal that Jr. and Momo have an actual reunion scene, which logically should’ve occurred earlier on the SON. Then, despite not caring about all the dead Kirschwassers on the SON and not having any interest at all in the Fauxmo Kirchwasser just a scene earlier, the main characters then suddenly start discussing the Kirschwassers and expressing a sympathy for them that comes out of nowhere. Jr. asks whether they will find peace. Chaos states their that their wish is fulfilled. Wait, how is it that their wish is fulfilled? Do all of them share a collective memory with Momo? How do their memories live on in Momo? What is that supposed to mean?
And so we come to the end. Proto Merkabah, the final stage of Xenosaga Episode I.
And what a disappointment it is. Had the developers ended Episode I with the Song of Nephilim chapter and allowed the story to move onward towards Second Miltia, Episode I would’ve gone out on a high note. Instead, we get one more pit stop designated to stop the story progression in its tracks and detract us from moving onward to Second Miltia.
One of the inherent problems of PM as a chapter lies in its redundancy. Put more aptly, it simply rehashes every major beat of the SON chapter:
Throughout all of this, nothing of actual consequence occurs, neither for the plot, nor for any of the main characters - there is no change, no upsetting of the status quo.
With the SON, we had so many actual plot developments including Momo’s kidnapping, Albedo’s mental penetration, the URTV revelation, the debut of the ACM and an expansion of the Testaments’ roles. With the PM, the narrative grinds to a screeching halt in order to accommodate the reversal of Albedo returning just to confirm some vague theory he has about KOS-MOS and Shion following his seeing them in the Y-Data. Honestly, it’s a huge waste of time that doesn’t have any long-term consequences.
Certainly, Albedo does destroy a good portion of the Federation Fleet, but that event has really no bearing on the main narrative at all. Much like never see the outcome on the political level of what the Kukai Conspiracy really amounted to, neither would we see what the notion of a madman wreaking havoc on the Federation would have on a grand scale. It’s not like anyone would really care though.
What is worse however, is that unlike the SON, Merkabah offers little of anything to the characters on the level of genuine personal motivation. What made the previous chapter so appealing in part was the fact that the characters did have an actual personal stake in going to the SON, which was to rescue Momo. Even if they made some pretty stupid decisions on the way and pretty much forgot about Momo after getting there, it was a compelling driving force for them.
Here the stakes are a lot more general - save Second Miltia. But the thing is, pretty much nobody has any actual reason to go the PM now except for Jr. and possibly Shion, with Miltia being her homeland and all, though it again makes one question as to what Shion’s motivation is, as there is nothing she could do at this point to contribute to the destruction of the Merkabah.
Again, we have to wade through the entire main cast willingly taking Momo into a dangerous life-threatening situation for no actual reason than the fact that she is a main character. Does it not occur to anybody, including Momo’s mother, that perhaps it is not such a good idea to send the Y-Data’s carrier on a dangerous mission where she could possibly die? Especially when that mission is intended to stop the very madman that just earlier mentally violated Momo?
Wouldn’t Momo then be unwilling to go anywhere near Albedo again? Seriously, if Momo has to go to PM, the scenario has to sell us on the fact that she is absolutely crucial to the mission, that she wants and needs to go. I would understand if she were the only one who could guide them through the system, but Episode I doesn’t even try to sell us on the idea and just completely sidesteps it.
And since we’re on the subject of motivation, I feel compelled to point out that Albedo’s entire scheme here makes no sense.
As usual, we also have to put up with Hashi's penchant for unbelievably cryptic dialogue and mystery motive shenanigans. We have absolutely no idea of what the Proto Merkabah is really for, what Albedo's reason for using it is or why everybody makes these allusions to something big happening when the SON, PM and OZ link together, yet nobody actually states what that would be. Why even bring up this point when it has nothing to do with the story at hand?
Albedo's final words to Jr. also bring up some confusing continuity issues in regards to the insanity of the Miltia URTVs. Thus begins the debate of what drove them insane - UDO's infection, the SON or both:
"Because you closed yourself off from us, our mental link was broken, and one after another, we succumbed to the power of the Song."
Note also that Albedo claims that he wants Jr. to atone for his sins with his life. Meaning that he wants to kill Rubedo for causing the death of his brothers. This motivation on his part is in fact confirmed in the ODM.
"... you must atone for your sins, atone with your life! I am the executor for all those who were destroyed!"
I'm sure skeptics will claim Albedo is lying, hiding his true motive or that this is just a red herring. The dialogue here as such establishes that one way or the other, U-DO was Albedo's key to the higher dimension.
Ultimately, there is simply no genuine story reason for the Merkabah to exist as a chapter. In fact, later translations of the DS interview with Hashi would reveal that the Merkabah and Nephilim were originally one dungeon, split apart for play purposes, as I recall, which explains the redundancy.
All this points to a major disconnect between Hashi's desire to convey a narrative as a cinematic storyteller and his skills as a world builder/game designer. Indeed, from a game design perspective, Xenosaga displays many attributes of what scholar Henry Jenkins describes in his famous essay, Game Design as Narrative Architecture.
Jenkins: GAME DESIGN AS NARRATIVE ARCHITECTURE
"How often, for example, has science fiction been criticized for being preoccupied with world-making at the expense of character psychology or plot development? These writers seem constantly to be pushing against the limits of what can be accomplished in a printed text and thus their works fare badly against aesthetic standards defined around classically-constructed novels. In many cases, the characters - our guides through these richly-developed worlds - are stripped down to the bare bones, description displaces exposition, and plots fragment into a series of episodes and encounters. When game designers draw story elements from existing film or literary genres, they are most apt to tap those genres - fantasy, adventure, science fiction, horror, war - which are most invested in world-making and spatial storytelling. Games, in turn, may more fully realize the spatiality of these stories, giving a much more immersive and compelling representation of their narrative worlds..."
"Many game critics assume that all stories must be classically constructed with each element tightly integrated into the overall plot trajectory. ... Spatial stories, on the other hand, are often dismissed as episodic - that is, each episode (or set piece) can become compelling on its own terms without contributing significantly to the plot development and often, the episodes could have been reordered without significantly impacting our experience as a whole. ... Spatial stories are not badly constructed stories; rather, they are stories which respond to alternative aesthetic principles, privileging spatial exploration over plot development. Spatial stories are held together by broadly defined goals and conflicts and pushed forward by the character's movement across the map. Their resolution often hinges on the player's reaching their final destination, though, as Mary Fuller notes, not all travel narratives end successfully or resolve the narrative enigmas which set them into motion. Once again, we are back to principles of "environmental storytelling." The organization of the plot becomes a matter of designing the geography of imaginary worlds, so that obstacles thwart and affordances facilitate the protagonist's forward movement towards resolution. Over the past several decades, game designers have become more and more adept at setting and varying the rhythm of game play through features of the game space."
"Game designers struggle with this same balancing act - trying to determine how much plot will create a compelling framework and how much freedom players can enjoy at a local level without totally derailing the larger narrative trajectory. As inexperienced storytellers, they often fall back on rather mechanical exposition through cut scenes, much as early film makers were sometimes overly reliant on intertitles rather than learning the skills of visual storytelling. Yet, as with any other aesthetic tradition, game designers are apt to develop craft through a process of experimentation and refinement of basic narrative devices, becoming better at shaping narrative experiences without unduly constraining the space for improvisation within the game."
In this sense, much of Episode I's best storytelling is conveyed through the environment – many of its locales feel lived-in and communicate ideas that allow us insight into this world's history and culture. As an example of the spatial storytelling common in videogames and science-fiction then, it is a resounding success. But as a cinematic work, it is a failure. It is no wonder then, as to why the mainstream largely rejected Episode I–, this was a game that attempted to tell a story primarily through its cinematics and to make the gameplay elements secondary to its narrative. And yet, the game design/spatial elements were much stronger than the cinematics, because Hashi, though a great world-builder, had little to no mastery over the storytelling mode that he chose to predominantly utilize. One cannot say, if Xenosaga would've been a success for sure, had the story been actually executed in the more traditional storytelling mode. But it likely wouldn't have turned off as many potential players as it did at the time.