Why Mass Effect and Xenosaga Feel Surprisingly Alike
It's a theory I've long held, as a big fan of both franchises.
If you're not familiar with Xenosaga, it's a science-fiction trilogy, a very old-school turn-based JRPG that combines combat with characters and mechas.
The game can be difficult to get into, especially if you're not already familiar with this type of game. But the story and lore are truly worth it.
For everyone who viscerally hates the three-color ending of Mass Effect 3 and the Star Child scene, I think it's possible to find a certain form of clarification coming directly from the lore of Xenosaga.
Obviously, the connection is purely theoretical, and there is absolutely nothing official about it. These are two completely separate franchises that have never interacted with each other in any way whatsoever.
This is only a fan theory. So read on if you're interested, and take all of this with a grain of salt.
Similarities
Mass Effect and Xenosaga are both trilogies whose stories, characters, and events unfold chronologically.
While Mass Effect allows the player to create their character and make choices that can alter the direction of the story, the overall narrative remains the same for everyone. Xenosaga is a JRPG in which the main character is predetermined and pre-written, and the story unfolds as intended regardless of what the player does.
The universe of Mass Effect, as it is presented and ultimately revealed to the player at the end of the third game, can be summarized quite simply.
An alien species known as the Leviathans created an artificial intelligence whose purpose was the preservation of intelligent species. These species continually created their own AIs, which, in time, would inevitably turn against their creators.
The Leviathans, a dominant species that believed itself above the flaws it observed in lesser civilizations, ultimately found themselves trapped by their own AI. This is a classic example of the arrogant creator who believes themselves immune to the very vices they recognize in others.
From there, the cycle began.
The Leviathans' AI created the Reapers in the image of its own creators. Machines fashioned from the very genetic essence of the race they were meant to emulate. This is the vision of an intelligence devoid of flesh and consciousness, preserving life in its most fundamental form.
The Reapers, driven by the AI's imperial will, began harvesting every civilization advanced enough to be capable of destroying itself by creating the very tool of its own downfall.
From an organic perspective, it is an ironic repetition: an AI massacring entire species because they might one day be destroyed by an AI.
From a synthetic perspective, it is an evil committed for a greater good. The very essence of those species is preserved in the form of an entity so powerful that it can no longer be destroyed. Hence the term "harvest."
For efficiency and yield, the Reapers created the Citadel and the mass relays, undeniably useful tools for galactic expansion, but with one major flaw: they are gilded cages.
The species that discover and use them have no true mastery of the technology. They do not know how it works or how it was built.
Thus, in each cycle, every civilization develops exactly in the direction intended by the Reapers. There is no randomness, no real free will. The Reapers follow a pre-established schedule with phases and checkpoints. Once all the elements are in place, they begin the harvest, then return to where they came from, and the cycle continues.
It is a constant rollback of the universe. A reset.
The universe of Xenosaga is governed by a system known as Eternal Recurrence. In other words, it follows a constant cycle. The universe forms, then species develop, evolve, and progress. Humanity reaches its technological and societal peak, before declining under the weight of its own vices.
In order to preserve the integrity of the universe and human consciousness, a reset is programmed, called the failsafe, which erases everything and returns it to a starting point.
In other words, humanity lives in an eternal loop without knowing it, for an unknown length of time, and brings about its own destruction without knowing why or how.
A major agent of this failsafe is Wilhelm, who serves as the representative of this principle within this universe. A kind of physical avatar.
“God” is the term given to an entity that dominates this domain. In Xenosaga, it is called U-DO (Unus-Mundus Drive Operation (One World Drive Operation). A complex principle that provides for humanity’s needs, while humanity remains ignorant of its workings, its nature, and its motivations. A useful and practical gilded cage.
Wilhelm is to the Reapers what U-DO is to the intelligence.
Let’s say that Mass Effect presents a more materialistic version than Xenosaga. But the underlying idea remains the same.
Then comes the action of the protagonists.
Shepard’s role is to break the cycle, just like Shion.
To restore free will to organics in Mass Effect, just as to humans in Xenosaga.
In both universes, we do not know what the future will be after the end, nor the impact of our choices in Mass Effect, or Shion’s choices in Xenosaga.
It is possible that, through their desire for preservation as well as freedom, Shepard and Shion may have completely doomed their universes. Perhaps the Intelligence and Wilhelm were right, and only a reset can preserve life from its own flaws.
We do not ultimately know who is right.
But perhaps life might ultimately transcend them, not without damage, from which order would be born out of discord.
In Mass Effect, as in Xenosaga, two opposing visions are in conflict: calculated order versus the chaos of free will.
And the hope that, despite the recurrence of all these cycles, organics will manage to fight against their own flaws, which have each time led to their own destruction.
This is why the endings of both trilogies feel bittersweet. Because we don’t know whether we made the right choice, whether we truly fought for good, or whether we instead condemned all existence to nothingness.
However cruel the methods of these entities may be, their goals were not fundamentally malicious. But it is in the nature of living beings to thrive in uncertainty.
I know this is only my interpretation. But it is my view of the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Shepard fought against the Eternal Recurrence, just as Shion fought against the Cycle. Each may be wrong, or right. But each reclaimed the right to free will from the hands of higher entities.
