The Xenosaga's Many Allusions

Xenosaga and it's related games, the trilogy for the Playstation 2 and the original Xenogears, are filled with religious, science fictions, and other allusions. Some are subtle, but others are very obvious, it just depends on the extent of the knowledge of the player. The following are some of the most stunning, and important, and also funny allusions that the Xeno series makes

If you notice the two woman who are Jr.'s second in command aboard the Durandal are named Mary and Shelly, put them together and you have Mary Shelly the famed author of Frankenstein. Also the last names of the two girls are Godwin, which was Mary Shelly's original Last name! Both Mary and Shelly in Xenosaga have been victims of a process in which they are now declared mutants due to their psychic abilities, leading some to call them "freaks" just like the Frankenstein's Monster.

The U.R.T.V's that were sent to destroy U-DO were named Albedo, Rubedo (a.k.a. Jr. or Little Master), and Nigredo (a.k.a. Gaignun Kukai,) all three of their names refer to colors used in Alchemy. Nigredo means Black, Rubedo is re, and Albedo is White, which also happens to be the colors of each characters hair.

The character chaos is also referred to by Wilhelm as "Yeshua" wich is believed to be the Aramaic name of Jesus of Nazareth. chaos also seems to be the only person who can understand Wilhelm, and vise versa, each completing one another, chaos has dark skin and blue eyes while in contrast Wilhelm has plae skin and red eyes.

All three games Xenosaga I, II, and III display subtitles under their official title, Xenosaga Episode I (Der Wille zur Macht) which translates to "The Will to Power". The Second Game Xenosage Episode II (Jenseits von Gut und Bose) translates to "Beyond Good and Evil) and the third game Xenosaga Episode III (Also Sprach Zarathustra) translates to "Thus Spoke Zarathustra. All three games carries these subtitles that were also written by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, recognize the middle name of Wilhelm?