ゼノギアス // Week 23 // Chapter 41 & 42

[Voi]

ゼノギアス // Week 23 // Chapter 41 & 42

Week 23	2026 April 11
Last Week	Week 22
Next Week	Week 24
Home Thread	ゼノギアス

Ending Point
After the boss rush finishing with the battle with Achtzehn/アハツェン , save at the nearest save point.

Screenshot

Gameplay

Gameplay notes

• Maria can’t learn DBs, but can do some good damage with her summon Gear skills which are in place of Ether skills, especially with an ether doubler.

Unique Missables

• Economether/スモールアンプ in the emergency shaft. It halves EP usage.

"FMVs”

None.

Walkthrough
English Guide Ctrl+F WK40
Japanese Guide

Vocab

	Script	JPDB
CH41	Here	Here
CH42	Here	Here
NPC	Here	Here

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
3. Avoid posting any information from later in the game than the current week’s reading. If it is necessary to doing so, it needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.

Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1”]).

Discussion

• Hello again Yui and Midori.

• Summoning Gears in foot battles feels kinda like cheating

• Did you find the obligatory Big Joe?
• It’s been a while – who is your favorite NPC to date?

Participation

Will you be playing with is this week?

• I am playing along.
• I’m still playing but I haven’t reached this part yet.
• I am no longer playing.
• I’m just here for the discussion

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

[Sasabonsam]

Week 23

The NPCs in the palace have a ton of future plot relevant stuff to say compared to the regular townspeople from last week. They’re dropping character names, terms, and pseudo-biblical parables left and right. They know the SBOOG’s real name! (It’s the ガゼル法院)

My first TPK was in this week’s dungeon vs. the long armed machine guys, ティアーズ? I shouldn’t have insisted on testing elemental weaknesses while they were powered up. Aside from that I’ve remembered why I disliked having Maria present in ground battles, her sprite animations are kind of bizarre. Is she dancing…?

Lots of シェバト citizens talk about how unprepared they are for hostility with ソラリス but it’s still kind of funny that the only people in the room talking with Queenie about fighting off the invaders are us, the newbies, and small child Maria. She doesn’t have any advisors or assistants or anything? ワイズマン? Part of me wonders how much time crunch was impacting development at this point, late disc 1.

A lot of weird stuff happens in this game, made even more surreal by the graphics at times. The pink creature with cutesy speech suddenly turning 3D and growing 50x its size so it can be the last hope against the evil invader robot who’s also a brainwashed mad scientist… is up there with the weirdest of it. It’s not quite THE weirdest part (that’s coming in disc 2!) but it’s close.

Still I have to say I enjoy how weird it gets, and also the whole sequence with Maria, ゼプツェン, and アハツェン. Maybe it’s because the father actually died in this one. At least, I think he dies/died, sort of. It was a little unclear about what form he’d exist in after transferring data to ゼプツェン.

Airship!

@Voi

Did you find the obligatory Big Joe?

I didn’t! I thought I’d looked everywhere

[Akashelia]

Week 23

@Voi

• Hello again Yui and Midori.

I talked to them and understood from the conversation that Fei knew them back from Lahan but I have to admit that I have zero memory of them

@Voi

• Did you find the obligatory Big Joe?

Yes, this was completely random but at this point, why not xD that’s the only thing he says too…

@Voi

• It’s been a while – who is your favorite NPC to date?

Hm… Maybe Sigurd? I liked Dan too I think. Maybe Billy’s little sister. Don’t really have someone in mind right now…

Wrote a lot of things down this week.

Yay, a map again! I can see the cursor on it this time around. I used it too!

@Sasabonsam

• Did you find the obligatory Big Joe?

I didn’t! I thought I’d looked everywhere

I guess it’s too late now but I think I took the screenshot of the map just before entering the room where Big Joe is!

The quadruple combat at the gates was fun. At first I went in blind, and without upgrading my gears. Fei had a very bad time at the first station but managed to win anyway. Citan won easily. Then it was Eri at number 3 and no matter how many times I tried, I lost. So I went back, upgraded gears as much as my money would allow (not all the way for everybody, need to grind more!), made some better choices and then it was an easy win for my 4 gears \o/ (ended up with Eri → Billy → Citan → Fei).
Also made some good money again, nice!

Definitely was not expecting to fight as a giant ChuChu, what is this game xD

Again great camera work with following Maria running for her Gear, loved it.

Wasn’t expecting Maria to join the party definitely.
Now sure how I feel about that, that’s quite a crowd now

Damn it’s going to be expensive to buy good Gear for everyone :x

@Sasabonsam

My first TPK was in

I had to look up TPK

@Sasabonsam

A lot of weird stuff happens in this game, made even more surreal by the graphics at times. The pink creature with cutesy speech suddenly turning 3D and growing 50x its size so it can be the last hope against the evil invader robot who’s also a brainwashed mad scientist… is up there with the weirdest of it. It’s not quite THE weirdest part (that’s coming in disc 2!) but it’s close.

Oh my god, I am shocked, can’t wait to find out what can be weirder

[Sasabonsam]

this and that

@Akashelia

I talked to them and understood from the conversation that Fei knew them back from Lahan but I have to admit that I have zero memory of them

They’re Citan’s wife and daughter. I didn’t have Citan in my party at the time but he probably has some unique dialogue with them. They’re very calm about their husband/dad going on dangerous adventures. You could even say, suspiciously calm.

@Akashelia

I guess it’s too late now but I think I took the screenshot of the map just before entering the room where Big Joe is!

Ahhh I know what happened, I’d ended up going around first and thought it would just be backtracking to go up the staircase. Jooooooeeee

@Akashelia

I had to look up TPK

Ah yes sorry, that’s my tabletop game vocabulary bleeding into my video game vocabulary!

@Akashelia

Oh my god, I am shocked, can’t wait to find out what can be weirder

It’s all subjective of course, but there’s definitely more weird stuff to come

[Akashelia]

more replies

@Sasabonsam

They’re Citan’s wife and daughter.

Wow really? Completely forgot that we had met his family! I do remember a bit the house and the spider in the tree but nothing about the family, oopsy.

@Sasabonsam

Ahhh I know what happened, I’d ended up going around first and thought it would just be backtracking to go up the staircase.

Yes that was a bit mean of the game. I saw it on the map and thought the same “well going there would just make me go back” and almost didn’t go through the door!

@Sasabonsam

Ah yes sorry, that’s my tabletop game vocabulary bleeding into my video game vocabulary!

Haha no problem, I like learning new things

[Akashelia]

End of week 23 - help pls

Wow, flying is really cool! But I have no idea where we are supposed to go now? :x

[Voi]

ゼノギアス // Week 24 // Chapter 43

ゼノギアス // Week 24 // Chapter 43 Week 24 2026 April 18 Last Week Week 23 Next Week Week 25 Home Thread ゼノギアス Ending Point Save in Nisan after exiting the Mausoleum and getting . Screenshot Gameplay Gameplay notes Unique Missables "FMVs” Walkthrough English Guide Ctrl+F WK42 Japanese Guide Vocab Script JPDB CH43 Here Here Discussion Guidelines Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you…

[Voi]

Fly to Nisan! Make sure to stock up and upgrade beforehand. You can optionally also revisit some old areas

[Akashelia]

Thanks! I keep forgetting what we have to do from week to week, usually I take notes but apparently I forgot last week!

[eagleflo]

Another high-octane week!

Week 23

Yeah, if last week the NPCs gave that slightly otherworldly “been separated from earthly matters for 500 years” philosophical vibes, this week’s NPCs in the palace just spill out the beans, completely.

Multiple people commenting on フェイ’s looks, how he looks just like カーン. We learned his father was from シェバト a while ago, but this week drives it home.

There is so much lore dumping happening in the various rooms… hope you read all or most of it! (Should still be available afterwards…)

A really bad dungeon, again. I hate enemies that can steal all of your EP in one hit, especially when one character is completely useless without it. 1990s game design.

For whatever reason I recalled that now you’re suddenly supposed to use フェイ’s chi attack, which has been mostly useless all game — and yup, it’s very damn good here. Kills those annoying EP suckers with one blow.

Ok, I finally cracked and made エリィ reach her potential. エーテルダブル、E回路、パワーマジック… she rips literally everything with a single エアッド.

@Sasabonsam

A lot of weird stuff happens in this game, made even more surreal by the graphics at times. The pink creature with cutesy speech suddenly turning 3D and growing 50x its size so it can be the last hope against the evil invader robot who’s also a brainwashed mad scientist… is up there with the weirdest of it.

Oh yeah. I remember these chapters like yesterday from ~25 years ago, exactly because it was so weird. And we are just revving up…

@Akashelia

Wasn’t expecting Maria to join the party definitely.
Now sure how I feel about that, that’s quite a crowd now

Me neither! It was honestly a surprise to get a new character, and then get another even more unexpected character right afterwards…

Not only did the ぬいぐるみキャラ suddenly grow in size, she’s got an attitude to match!! … until she takes the first good hit, lol. I had no idea there was an audio line for this, haha.

マリア runs like ナルト here. Did this predate ナルト or is this extremely fast turnaround for commentary?

Mind-uploading yourself into a mech is a very エヴァ motif. I’m pretty sure we killed ニコラ’s completely brainwashed real body with the gear… worrying about permanent brainwashing was also very late 90s Japan, with the sarin gas attacks by the cult members and all.

Even though this week lifted the lid on great many things, the writers still wanted to leave something for later as well… planting some seeds.

You can troll Xenogears fans by calling the scene depicted here “hastily cut content from end of disc 1”.

@Voi

It’s been a while – who is your favorite NPC to date?

Somehow this time around it has been ミャン. Takes over every scene she is in. Scheming with グラーフ, clearly playing another yet-higher level game.

[Akashelia]

Plot and brainwashing

@eagleflo

Multiple people commenting on フェイ’s looks, how he looks just like カーン. We learned his father was from シェバト a while ago, but this week drives it home.

There is so much lore dumping happening in the various rooms… hope you read all or most of it! (Should still be available afterwards…)

I feel like I try to talk to everyone but I’m not sure that I have understood all that, I think a lot of things flow over my head. This story of this game is quite complex to begin with, combined with the fact that it’s in Japanese, usually with no lookups, and spread out on many weeks, I’m afraid my brain is not connecting the dots. Might need to look for a summary or something when we are done with the game maybe a replay in a few years could be nice too, it’s also fun to see things unravel and hints get dropped when you know what’s going to happen later.

@eagleflo

worrying about permanent brainwashing was also very late 90s Japan, with the sarin gas attacks by the cult members and all.

Interesting, I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s spot on with the timing!

[eagleflo]

I’m mostly referring to people inside the palace, about halfway through to bottom on this page: https://xenodd.xxxxxxxx.jp/memory/npc11.html.

Some brief examples

• Much more detail about the war 500 years ago. While ソラリス and シェバト were duking it out, a third entity called the ディアボロス appeared and almost wiped them both out
• ガゼル法院, 12 people from the distant past (now SOL-9000) who search for 12 魂アニマの器
• シェバト forced to become a passive observer, powerless to help peoples subjugated by ソラリス via 『教会』
• カレルレン fought against ロニ・ファティマ、ゼファー and ラカン (briefly mentioned when we first visited ニサン) 500 years ago
• The 障壁ゲート technology that keeps シェバト alive is also used by ソラリス to hide their whereabouts, we’ll need to find them next

The book club format doesn’t make it easy to keep all this straight, but keeping notes can help (as you already do).

[Akashelia]

Really cool, thanks! It’s giving me motivation to try and make a summary of what we know so far, after all there are 14 weeks left, would be nice to be able to follow along and enjoy the story!

[Akashelia]

I interrogated an LLM about what we know so far and I didn’t spit out anything interesting before I asked specifically about the terms you highlighted. I feel more up to date now, thanks!