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78-409: Gameplay is divided into different areas, free time and battle time. During either players have the ability to purchase items and fight random monsters, but there are certain things that can only be accomplished via free time and battle time. In free time players are given three opportunities to build relationships with their teammates, perform odd jobs, or explore the surrounding area. They are also given

156-418: A chance to move up to a real composition duty without some drastic action and feeling concerned about his low pay, he gave Square's vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi , an ultimatum : let him compose, or he would quit. Sakaguchi assigned the young musician to the team working on Chrono Trigger , telling him that "after you finish it, maybe your salary will go up". Mitsuda was assigned as the sole composer for

234-430: A close. After the failure of Xenosaga , staff at Monolith Soft were in a state of low morale. During the development of Disaster: Day of Crisis , Takahashi was struck with the idea of setting a game on the bodies of two frozen gods. After constructing a concept model for it with another member of staff, Monolith Soft began development. While originally intended to be an original title called Monado: The Beginning of

312-486: A copy of Famitsu . With no plans as to what he wanted to do after school, he applied for the position and joined the company in April 1992. Although his official job title was as a composer, Mitsuda found himself working more as a sound engineer . Over the next two years, he created sound effects for Hanjuku Hero , Final Fantasy V , Secret of Mana , and Romancing SaGa 2 . In 1994, realizing that he would never get

390-519: A great number of musical genres throughout his life, which he learned from his father, and is especially inspired by jazz music. He grew up listening mainly to his father's favourite jazz musician Art Blakey , in addition to the Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra , before getting into classical music. He is also inspired by Celtic music , and has created two albums of music in that style. His soundtrack for Chrono Trigger also shows

468-664: A great success, and the soundtrack proved popular with fans. Mitsuda claims that it is his "landmark" title, which "matured" him. He attributes its success to folk and jazz music, rather than the "semi-orchestral" style popular in game music at the time. Following Chrono Trigger , Mitsuda composed the soundtrack for Front Mission: Gun Hazard , again with Uematsu. According to Uematsu, Mitsuda again worked so much that he eventually defecated blood out of stress and physical problems. Mitsuda worked on three more titles for Square: Tobal No. 1 and Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki both in 1996, and Xenogears in 1998, which featured

546-448: A means of identifying his games and a symbolic representation of the series. All the games in the Xeno meta series take place within a science fiction setting with some fantasy elements, with its stories frequently featuring psychological, philosophical, and religious themes. The first title, Xenogears , was originally proposed as a storyline for Final Fantasy VII , as well as a sequel to

624-412: A redeeming point about the game for the players. The majority of his video game soundtracks are for role-playing games , but he likes projects that are different from what he has done before and is interested in working in other genres. I think [game music] is something that should last with the player. It's interesting because it can't just be some random music, but something that can make its way into

702-460: A second Xenogears game was being planned, Square decided to focus on the Final Fantasy series, a decision that Takahashi did not agree with. Leaving Square, he established Monolith Soft in 1999 along with multiple other Xenogears staff. Monolith Soft was founded so that Takahashi could continue developing the concepts of Xenogears , and with funding from Namco , the team began development on

780-453: A sound effects designer for two years before telling Square's vice president Hironobu Sakaguchi he would quit unless he could write music for their games. Shortly after, Sakaguchi assigned him to work on the soundtrack for Chrono Trigger (1995), whose music has since been cited as among the best in video games. Mitsuda went on to compose for several other games at Square, including Xenogears (1998) and Chrono Cross (1999). He left

858-507: A soundtrack, he first takes one month to gather information and artwork about the game world and scenario, so that his music will fit in with the game. He also finds it easier to be inspired if he has a visual representation. Mitsuda claims that he does not save his best work for more popular games, as he tries to compose each piece to correspond to how it is going to be used in a specific game. He also tries to compose good pieces even for games he feels do not live up to them, so that they will be

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936-593: A spiritual successor. The Xenosaga series is owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment . Xenoblade Chronicles currently spans four games: the original game (2010), the spiritual successor Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015), Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017), and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022), as well as expansions for the latter two titles. The games employ an action-based battle system, incorporating cooldown abilities and quick-time commands. Xenoblade Chronicles X also incorporates traversal using giant mechs known as Skells. While Xenoblade Chronicles adopts

1014-472: A story-driven design, Xenoblade Chronicles X uses a non-linear structure within an open world. The Skells were also a deliberate callback to the Gears of Xenogears . The Xenoblade series is owned by Nintendo and its subsidiary Monolith Soft . The " Xeno " prefix, which means something strange or foreign to a group, was used in connection with the game's themes. The Xeno title has been repeated throughout

1092-576: Is a Japanese composer and musician . He is best known for his work in video games , primarily for the Chrono , Xeno , Shadow Hearts , and Inazuma Eleven franchises, among various others. Mitsuda began composing music for his own games in high school, later attending a music college in Tokyo. While still a student, he was granted an intern position at the game development studio Wolf Team . Mitsuda joined Square upon graduation in 1992 and worked there as

1170-423: Is a Japanese science fantasy video game franchise created by Tetsuya Takahashi . The first entry was developed by SquareSoft , and subsequent entries have been developed by Monolith Soft , a company founded by Takahashi after he left Square in 1999. While the various games have no direct story connections, they have common thematic links and all sport the " Xeno " prefix, which Takahashi has variously described as

1248-599: Is an Angel, and a piece of the Mother Qualia. Marie's sister Eve, who represents the Mother Qualia, kidnaps Marie with the intent to merge her back into herself. Alto and his companions travel to the Moon and kill Xeno when he attacks them. They weaken Eve with the Celestial Hymn. Marie pleads with Alto to kill her and Eve to permanently destroy Mother Qualia. Depending on whether the player raised their affinity with Klaus to rank 2,

1326-993: Is available as a Mystery Mushroom costume in Super Mario Maker and as a color palette in Yoshi's Woolly World . The outfit of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 's protagonist, Rex, is available as an extra costume for Link in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . It also appears as a wearable outfit for a Mii Fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLC. Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 were released as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in March 2021. Songs from Xenogears would appear as DLC for Theatrhythm Final Bar Line . The Xeno series has been very highly reviewed and praised by critics. IGN described Xenogears as

1404-413: Is split into multiple parts, one of which is a violent persona known as " Id ". In addition, Xenogears uses motifs and references to abrahamic belief systems, along with other concepts such as reincarnation. During the development stage, main antagonist Deus' Japanese name was to have been " Yahweh ", but the team were convinced by localization lead Richard Honeywood not to use it, and instead made

1482-700: The Project X Zone games, namely KOS-MOS and T-elos from the Xenosaga series and Fiora and Metal Face from the Xenoblade series. Shulk , the main protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles , is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U , an entry in Nintendo's crossover fighting game series Super Smash Bros. . He later returned in the sequel Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . Additionally, Shulk

1560-503: The Xeno series, was first proposed to Square by Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife, known under the pseudonym Soraya Saga , as a potential storyline for Final Fantasy VII . While it was considered too mature for the Final Fantasy series, Takahashi was allowed to create an original work based on the premise. After initially attempting to create a sequel to Chrono Trigger , Takahashi made the project entirely unique, beginning development approximately two years prior to its release. While

1638-497: The Xenosaga development team's morale was low. To help revive their spirit, they started making a new game that eventually became Xenoblade Chronicles . Xenoblade Chronicles is thus far the highest praised series title by critics, earning perfect scores from Digital Spy , Joystiq , GamePro and RPGamer, and near-perfect scores from most other video gaming websites and magazines. The game received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic . It

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1716-513: The Xenosaga series, Monolith Soft began developing Xenoblade Chronicles , initially intended to be an original title. The games of the Xeno franchise have generally sold well and received positive press worldwide. Xenogears was released for the PlayStation in 1998 in Japan and North America. Set in an alien world with warring rival human empires, the protagonist Fei Fong Wong is drawn into

1794-404: The " Will to power ", a concept coined by Nietzsche to describe the driving motivation of humanity. The subtitles of each main Xenosaga also reference the ideas and works of Nietzsche. The themes of Xenoblade Chronicles focused on the main characters overcoming a pre-determined fate and finding the meaning of human existence, along with what Takahashi described as "contrasting the realms of

1872-513: The "hands-down best RPG" of the year, praising the storyline, gameplay, graphics, presentation, and soundtrack. The game placed 16th in Famitsu ’s 2006 poll and 32nd in IGN ’s poll of the greatest games of all time. Famitsu praised the world and character development of Xenosaga Episode I , while GamePro stated that the story and characters "[rivaled] that of a good, hard, science-fiction novel or

1950-516: The 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger , but was allowed to be developed as its own project. After Square shifted its focus onto the Final Fantasy series, Takahashi and several other Xenogears staff founded Monolith Soft and began work on the Xenosaga games. Both Xenogears and Xenosaga were intended to be six-part series, but differing circumstances caused plans to be cut down. After the premature end of

2028-643: The 20th anniversary of Chrono Trigger in 2015, Mitsuda, along with his performing group Millennial Fair, performed songs from the game at the Tokyo Globe in Tokyo, Japan on July 25 and 26. The event, titled "The Brink of Time", included Mitsuda performing on the piano, guitar, and Irish bouzouki . During the event, Mitsuda also announced that the long requested Chrono series arrangement album, entitled To Far Away Times: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album , would be released by Square Enix Music on October 14, 2015. Xeno (series) Xeno

2106-509: The Anthem, and the crystallized people recover, but Angels attack the capital. Klaus reveals he is in league with the Angels, and he is Xeno, a companion of the ancient hero Elcrest. Hilda surrenders to Alto and reveals that she is one of Elcrest's companions, and Alto is Elcrest, having been hibernating for the past 1000 years. Thousands of years ago, humanity's negative emotions spawned a godlike being,

2184-502: The Mother Qualia. Whenever humanity's numbers grew too large, Mother Qualia would awaken and perform the Eclipse, wiping out the majority of humanity. The witches are her way of observing humanity and they would sing the Anthem to trigger the Eclipse. 1000 years ago, Elcrest tried to destroy Mother Qualia. He stopped the Eclipse, but Mother Qualia corrupted him and he had to be put into hibernation. Hilda stopped her own aging so she could protect

2262-467: The Regnant Knights, led by their captain, Klaus, to search for the remaining witches. Along the way, they are harassed by Hilda and her followers, who attempt to assassinate the witches and claim that they are trying to protect the world in doing so. In some of these battles, Alto and the witches are assisted by Angels, alien beings that are hostile to Hilda. Eventually, Alto unites the witches, they sing

2340-452: The Switch that I doubt will be topped." IGN Japan gave a very positive review, stating that it "offers a timeless tale of adventure and an incredibly deep battle system." However, they criticized the fact that "its mechanics are not always well explained". Its expansion, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country , was positively received, with some critics expressing enthusiasm for

2418-719: The World and 2009's Colours of Light , a compilation album of vocal pieces Mitsuda had composed. The studio was also involved in co-designing the KORG DS-10 synthesizer program for the Nintendo DS , and its successor for the Nintendo 3DS , KORG M01D . By the late 2000s, Mitsuda began working as a producer for a team of artists. Scores in the 2010s include the Inazuma Eleven series, Soul Sacrifice , and Valkyria Revolution , with

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2496-406: The World , Nintendo 's then-CEO Satoru Iwata had the title changed to reflect Takahashi's previous games and hard work on the title, bringing the new game into the Xeno series. Working within deliberate restrictions and moving away from the previous cutscene-heavy style of Xenogears , Monolith Soft worked hard to make the game a balance between gameplay and story. For Xenoblade Chronicles X ,

2574-453: The age of five, but was more interested in sports at the time and did not take music seriously, quitting by the age of six. For a while, he wanted to become a professional golfer. By high school, Mitsuda wanted to become a music composer, inspired by Vangelis ' Blade Runner and Henry Mancini 's The Pink Panther film scores. He became interested in PCs after his father bought him one, which

2652-441: The anime Inazuma Eleven and for the independent album Kirite . On November 22, 2001, Mitsuda formed Procyon Studio as a company to produce his music, along with a record label, Sleigh Bells. The company consisted of only Mitsuda as composer along with a few sound producers for several years but has since expanded to include other composers. Mitsuda and Procyon Studio have also produced more arranged albums, such as Sailing to

2730-434: The background within settings more common to the fantasy genre. According to Takahashi, each game in the series revolves around different themes. Xenogears , Xenosaga , and Xenoblade series make extensive use of various religious and philosophical themes. Xenogears incorporated concepts from the works of Friedrich Nietzsche , Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung . A particular reference is protagonist Fei, whose personality

2808-461: The battle against Deus, an ancient machine weapon worshiped as a god. The gameplay features turn-based combat on foot and inside large bipedal mechs called "Gears". Originally planned as part of a six-episode story, Xenogears represented the fifth episode in the saga. Xenogears is owned by Square Enix . The Xenosaga series consists of a main trilogy of role-playing games for the PlayStation 2 , as well as spin-off titles that form part of

2886-414: The best anime series available". Xenosaga Episode II was the least praised title of the series, with Eurogamer still praising its characters and plot, but finding the story uncomfortably long and complicated, requiring too much foreknowledge of the original game to be enjoyable for series newcomers. GamePro believed that Episode 2 had changed game mechanics to make the title less approachable than

2964-506: The company and became independent in 1998. In 2001, he respectively founded his own music production studio and record company, Procyon Studio and Sleigh Bells. Mitsuda has also worked on anime series, films, and television programs. Mitsuda was born in Tokuyama , Japan, on January 21, 1972, and was raised in the Kumage District of Yamaguchi Prefecture . He took piano lessons beginning at

3042-541: The company, Mitsuda left Square to work as a freelance composer, the first of several of Square's composers to do so. Following his leaving, Mitsuda has only worked on one more original game with Square, composing for 1999's Chrono Cross , the sequel to Chrono Trigger . He has worked on over a dozen games since then, including the spiritual sequel to Xenogears , Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht , and major games such as Shadow Hearts and Luminous Arc . In addition to video games, Mitsuda has composed music for

3120-407: The cost of being used for free physical labor, Mitsuda got a first-hand view of the Japanese music world and valuable training both in and out of the classroom. As part of his college course, he was granted an intern position at the game development studio Wolf Team studying under composer Motoi Sakuraba . With his school term ending, Mitsuda saw an advertisement for sound production at Square in

3198-447: The developers focused on the gameplay aspect, in particular creating an open world and online elements within a new set of self-imposed restrictions. Near the release date of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Takahashi stated that, if he were given the opportunity to make another game in the Xenoblade series, he would hope to create another traditional JRPG-style video game similar to Xenoblade Chronicles . He stated that he hoped to continue

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3276-428: The end of 2004, and like its predecessor was considered commercially successful overseas. The third Xenosaga sold 343,000 units in all territories by the third quarter of 2006. Ultimately, the Xenosaga series was considered a commercial disappointment for Namco. Xenoblade Chronicles met with strong sales in Japan despite being released near to the end of its console's life cycle, and was commercially successful in

3354-409: The ending successfully tied up remaining narrative threads from previous games. Famitsu enjoyed the narrative's presentation, but noted the lack of a focused narrative due to the number of story threads needing addressing. IGN enjoyed the combat system and its blending of elements from past games, but was disappointed that no new elements had been added. After lower sales and still mixed reception,

3432-402: The ending theme to Chrono Trigger and "Bonds of Sea and Fire" from Xenogears , though his main inspiration is visual items, "paintings or other things". His music is frequently minimalistic , and he has cited Minimalism as an influence. His final battle themes for Chrono Trigger and Xenogears are based on only a few chords each, with the latter containing only two. Mitsuda has listened to

3510-478: The extent of a character's abilities can depend greatly on how close Alto is to the person, as a closer relationship or friendship can allow the character to unlock various abilities. A witch, Hilda, has been crystallizing people all over the country. Alto, an amnesiac, must unite the other witches and have them sing the Anthem that will undo Hilda's efforts. Alto can tune and amplify the witches' songs. The witches' powers stem from Qualia crystals. Alto sets out with

3588-421: The first Xenosaga . The development cycle of the Xenosaga games was troubled: after the first game commercially underperformed, the development staff was changed, the proposed six-part series was cut down by half, and the second installment shifted focus from its story to its gameplay. After outcry, the third game shifted again in an attempt to balance story and gameplay while bringing the Xenosaga story to

3666-558: The first ballad in a Square game, the Celtic ending theme "Small Two of Pieces" sung by Joanne Hogg . Mitsuda also during this period produced albums of arranged music of his original scores, creating acid jazz remixes in Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time and a Celtic arrangement album of Xenogears music, Creid . In July 1998, following up on what he had said in his original interview with

3744-531: The form of the character Lin, who had her clothing made less sexually provocative. An anime was produced by Namco and Monoliftsoft based on Xenosaga , titled Xenosaga: The Animation , premiered on TV Asahi in Japan in January 2005. The story is based on Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht . The series was licensed by ADV Films in June 2007 for $ 120,000. Several characters from the Xeno series have been featured in

3822-464: The game a positive review, referring to it as a masterpiece; they praised the gameplay, detailed world, story direction, and music, and said it has a "very high degree of perfection". Nintendo Life praised the game's battle system, deep upgrade pathways, vast world size, and graphics, but criticized the occasional difficulty spike and fetch quest. GameSpot stated that, of "all the open-world games to come out this year, Xenoblade Chronicles X may be

3900-440: The game's audio budget, musician booking, schedule management, and music sheet proofreading, for which he claimed was the largest project he ever worked on. He also composed for its expansion pack , Torna – The Golden Country , and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 . Mitsuda claims to compose by "just fool[ing] around on my keyboard" and letting the melodies come to him. He also sometimes comes up with songs while asleep, including

3978-402: The game, in the end creating 54 tracks for the final release. Mitsuda drove himself to work hard on the score, frequently working until he passed out, and would awake with ideas for songs such as the ending theme for the game. He worked himself so hard that he developed stomach ulcers and had to be hospitalized, which led Uematsu to finish the remaining tracks for him. Chrono Trigger proved

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4056-435: The influence of Asian music , including the sounds of Japanese shakuhachi flutes, Indian tabla drums and the sitar . He has cited Maurice Ravel , J.S. Bach , Pyotr Tchaikovsky , Claude Debussy , Robert Schumann , Antonín Dvořák , and Gustav Holst as his favorite classical composers, claiming that his modern influences are too numerous to name as he listens to so much music. Mitsuda names his favorite works as

4134-405: The latter marking his first fully solo game soundtrack in nearly a decade. Around the same time, Mitsuda also began to compose for non-video game media, including several NHK -produced television shows, as well as anime series such as Black Butler and adaptions of Inazuma Eleven . In addition to serving as the lead composer for 2017's Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , he also was in charge of

4212-450: The main narrative. The games were released between 2002 and 2006. The Xenosaga trilogy boast similar gameplay to Xenogears , although the balance of story and gameplay underwent drastic revisions for the second game . As with Xenogears , Xenosaga was planned as a six-episode story, but was cut down to a trilogy due to various factors. Xenosaga is not a direct continuation or prequel to Xenogears despite similarities, instead being

4290-435: The micro and the macro". Xenoblade Chronicles X was a deliberate move away from this style of storytelling and the incorporation of philosophical themes: according to Takahashi, the concept was to create a solid gameplay foundation on which to base a future work which would feature a stronger story. Despite this, it covered similar thematic ground to Xenoblade Chronicles . Xenogears , the first entry in what would become

4368-406: The most formidable" as a "truly enormous game, both in scale and scope," praising the landscapes, creature design, unlockables and quests, combat, and character progression and customization, but criticizing the inconsistent soundtrack, ambiguous systems, and disappointing story. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 received wide acclaim. John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report , who gave a 9.5 rating out of 10 to

4446-496: The name a pun on a piece of Japanese slang. The Xenosaga series made heavy use of biblical elements, particularly the New Testament . There are also extensive references to Gnosticism , Judaism and Jungian psychology. The games' principal writer said that the themes also paralleled many other world religions. The works of Nietzsche were also referenced in the Xenosaga games: the first Xenosaga drew its main theme from

4524-399: The opportunity to "tune" the witches, a process that becomes necessary when personal strife would prevent the player from increasing their relationship with the respective witch. Doing any of these things will cause time to pass and the extent to which a player develops a relationship can impact the game's ending. Engaging in battle time will progress the game's story. Battles are turn based and

4602-494: The player is left with the choice of killing or sparing Eve. There is an epilogue that varies depending on the character Alto has the highest affinity with. Imageepoch trademarked the name Stella Glow in August 2014. The game was designed as a celebration to commemorate a decade of the company's history. The game was initially planned to be self-published by Imageepoch, but publishing rights went to Sega instead. The game's soundtrack

4680-465: The player's heart. In that sense, this not only applies to game music, but I feel very strongly about composing songs that will leave a lasting impression...What I must not forget is that it must be entertaining to those who are listening. I don't think there's much else to it, to be honest. I don't do anything too audacious, so as long as the listeners like it, or feel that it's a really great song, then I've done my job. Mitsuda's music from Chrono Trigger

4758-417: The previous game, and GameSpot felt that the character growth system was simplified too much and made the game shorter as well. Xenosaga Episode III was met with divided feelings, as some such as Simon Parkin of Eurogamer , felt that the sheer number of philosophical and religious elements in the story both stifled any relatable narrative and robbed the characters of any personality; despite this he felt

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4836-505: The same year as Japan. The games have also undergone censorship. A sexually explicit scene featured in Xenosaga was toned down for its western release. The first and third Xenosaga games also received changes for their western release: in the first game, a scene between main antagonist Albedo and the character MOMO was toned down significantly; and the third game had all visible blood removed, which ended up making some scenes confusing. Xenoblade Chronicles X also received censorship in

4914-467: The series by exploring many different settings instead of being confined to a specific genre. He also stated that he would like to use the core system set up in Xenoblade Chronicles X to further expand on the story and thematic elements for their next project. Two years later, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was released which returned to the story-driven JRPG style found in Xenoblade Chronicles . This

4992-448: The series: in an interview concerning Xenoblade Chronicles , director Tetsuya Takahashi said that the prefix had become a symbol referencing the previous works of Monolith Soft. Later still, the Xeno title was described as a means of distinguishing Takahashi's work, phrased by the interviewer as a "director's signature". All of the games in the series have made use of a science fiction premise, although this has sometimes been placed in

5070-451: The soundtracks to the Chrono series, Xenogears , Xenosaga Episode I , and the original album Kirite , though he also says that all of his soundtracks are "representational works", as they represent who he was as a composer when he made them. His favorite pieces overall are "The Girl Who Closed Her Heart" and "Pain" from Xenosaga Episode I and pieces from Kirite . When he starts to compose

5148-474: The story expansion. Other critics cited endearing, relatable characters, interesting story, and an improved battle system. Xenogears shipped over one million copies worldwide by March 2003, with 910,000 being shipped in Japan and 280,000 overseas. The first Xenosaga was a commercial success in Japan, selling 450,000 units. It was also reported by Namco as one of their better-selling games overseas. The second Xenosaga sold over 256,000 copies in Japan by

5226-407: The title, considered the game "one of the finest JRPGs of the generation and perhaps of all time" and highly praising the music, "diverse world", "fresh and engaging combat", and "thrilling storyline", stating: "Washing over any minor issues is one of the most engaging stories I’ve ever played, a vastly improved and fun combat system, and an out-of-this-world soundtrack. It sets a precedent for JRPGs on

5304-787: The two games has also been performed in other video game concert tours such as the Video Games Live concert series and in concerts by the Eminence Orchestra . Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross music made up one fourth of the music of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009 at the Kölner Philharmonie which were produced by Thomas Böcker as a part of the Game Concerts series. "Scars of Time" from Chrono Cross

5382-405: The world until Elcrest's return. Mother Qualia forcibly corrupted Xeno into one of her agents, and returned him to Earth as Klaus. Hilda believed the only way to prevent Mother Qualia awakening was to crystallize humans. Alto resolves to confront Mother Qualia, and the five witches learn the Celestial Hymn, a spell to weaken Mother Qualia. Alto reawakens his memories as Elcrest. The young girl Marie

5460-594: Was a rare item at the time. He started to program computer games and compose music for them, as well as take more technically oriented classes. After high school, Mitsuda decided to leave town and become independent. With encouragement from his father and sister, he moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the Junior College of Music. Despite the school's low prestige, Mitsuda received solid instruction from his professors, most of them practicing musicians who would take Mitsuda to gigs with them to help carry and set up equipment. At

5538-404: Was also nominated for many awards, such as the 2011 Japan Game Awards where the title received the "Excellence" award. It was also nominated for many “Best RPG” and Best Wii/Wii U Game”. It was also nominated by IGN in the "Best Overall Role-playing Game" and "Best Overall Story" categories. Xenoblade Chronicles X also had its admirers, with Japanese gaming publication Dengeki giving

5616-501: Was continued in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 , released in 2022, which concluded the story arc established in Xenoblade Chronicles . At the time of its development, Square said that Xenogears would likely not release in the west due to the religious content. The localization proved especially challenging, with the original translators either quitting the project or requesting transferral to other projects. This meant that Honeywood

5694-416: Was doubtful enough that a fan campaign dubbed Operation Rainfall began working to have the game, along with two other Wii role-playing games, released overseas. Later, during the run-up to the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X , Takahashi stated that Xenoblade Chronicles was designed with an international audience in mind, and that he was pleased Xenoblade Chronicles X was receiving a western release in

5772-737: Was first performed live by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1996 at the Orchestral Game Concert in Tokyo, Japan, and released on an accompanying album. The first symphonic performance of his music outside Japan took place in 2005 at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany when music from Chrono Cross was presented. Mitsuda has arranged versions of music from Trigger and Cross for Play! A Video Game Symphony video game music concerts in 2006. Music from

5850-681: Was played at the Fantasy Comes Alive concert in Singapore on April 30, 2010. Mitsuda's music for Xenogears has also sparked fan-made albums; an officially licensed tribute album titled Xenogears Light: An Arranged Album , was published in limited quantities by the fan group OneUp Studios in 2005. The album features 20 tracks arranged from the Xenogears score and performed with acoustic instruments, such as piano, flute, guitar and violin. Another, unofficial album of remixes titled Humans + Gears

5928-571: Was produced as a digital album by OverClocked Remix on October 19, 2009, consisting of 33 tracks. Selections of remixes of Mitsuda's work also appear on Japanese remix albums, called Dōjin , and on English remixing websites such as OverClocked Remix. Music from the Chrono Trigger soundtrack has been arranged for the piano and published as sheet music by DOREMI Music Publishing. Sheet music for Chrono Cross tracks arranged for both solo guitar and guitar duets has been released by Procyon Studio. For

6006-562: Was under heavy pressure to render the game into English while both keeping it faithful to the original and stepping round some of the sensitive religious issues the title evoked. Although all three main Xenosaga entries were released in Japan and North America, the third game did not release in Europe, and the spin-offs remained exclusive to Japan. Xenoblade Chronicles was originally not announced for an overseas release, and despite being announced for release in Europe, its North American release

6084-531: Was written by Shunsuke Tsuchiya and Yasunori Mitsuda . Stella Glow received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of all four eights for a total of 32 out of 40. According to Famitsu , the title sold over 16,875 units in its first week on the Japanese market. It sold approximately 22,294 units during its lifetime in Japan. Yasunori Mitsuda Yasunori Mitsuda ( 光田 康典 , Mitsuda Yasunori , born January 21, 1972)

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