Xenosaga II to III: A Missing Year

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Xenosaga II to III: A Missing Year
AMY Logo.png
Runtime May 13th 2006 - July 6th, 2006 (Flash version)
2006-08 (Novel version)
Chapters 6
Writer Shinichiro Okamoto (Flash)
Yuichiro Takeda (Novel)

Xenosaga II to III: A Missing Year ~Fragments of Truth Sealed in the U.M.N.~ (ゼノサーガ エピソードII to III a missing year 〜U.M.N.に封印されし真実の断片〜), also known simply as Xenosaga: A Missing Year, is a Flash video series that was released on Bandai Namco's Japanese website with the first chapter released on May 13th 2006 and the last chapter released on July 6th, 2006.
It was taken down some time after the release of Xenosaga Episode III; a novelized version was later made available in the Episode III Official Complete Guide that depicts the story in chronological order and from Jin's perspective. Neither version was officially released outside of Japan.

The primary focus of the story is detailing the events that take place between Xenosaga II and Xenosaga Episode III, serving as a "bridge" between them.

Characters[edit]

Development[edit]

While there is little to no info about the development of A Missing Year, it is known that it is slightly smaller than it was intended to, according to CHOCO in Xeno Emission E2.[1] The E.S. Dinah was set to appear, since CHOCO designed its aerial combat systems, but it didn't make it to the final product.[2] Additionally, CHOCO designed the Astraea, Doctus' A.M.W.S, for A Missing Year instead of Xenosaga Episode III.[3]

A Missing Year was developed between the second half of 2005 and the first half of 2006 by Monolith Soft and produced by Bandai Namco (being the first entry of the Xenosaga series to be released by Bandai Namco, instead of Namco). While the original author and the supervisor was Tetsuya Takahashi, Norihiko Yonesaka (who previously worked on the scenario script of Xeno-comi) was the one who wrote the scenario script. Koichi Mugitani (CHOCO) designed some characters and graphical resources for the animation while Yasushi Shibue did the illustrations. Chapter 1 was released on May 13th 2006, Chapters 2 and 3 were released on June 11th 2006, and Chapters 4, 5 and 6 were released on July 6th 2006 alongside Xenosaga Episode III. All of them were released for free on Bandai Namco's Japanese website.

Although the Flash video series was taken down some time after the release of Xenosaga Episode III, a novelized version was later included in the Xenosaga Episode III Official Complete Guide. Yuichiro Takeda, who previously worked on Xenosaga Outer File, Xenosaga The Animation and Xenosaga I & II, would adapt the script to be fully novelized. For unknown reasons, the story was slightly rewritten in chronological order and told from Jin's perspective.

Music[edit]

Main article: Music of A Missing Year

The music of A Missing Year mixes recorded instruments and electronic instruments, however, the audio quality is noticebly low. Since the grand majority of the tracks were never released, they don't have official names and were archived before the website went down. The only officially released track is my long forgotten cloistered sleep (unreleased work of Xenosaga).

All tracks were composed by Yuki Kajiura, and my long forgotten cloistered sleep (unreleased work of Xenosaga) is sung by Emily Bindiger.

Plot[edit]

Main article: Plot summary of A Missing Year

A Missing Year, as the title suggests, explains the events that occur during the year-long gap between the ending of Xenosaga Episode II and the introduction of Xenosaga Episode III that drive Shion to leave Vector Industries and eventually join Scientia. The plot follows Shion and her brother Jin as they investigate and combat against the organized Gnosis attacks, known as Gnosis terrorism, happening across the Galaxy Federation. Along the way they meet Doctus, an agent with Scientia, and a mysterious Realian girl who calls herself Nephilim.

Gameplay[edit]

While not a game in the traditional sense, A Missing Year is an interactive experience that can be seen as a very basic visual novel. The viewer advances the story by clicking the "Next" button to move from one sentence to the next. At the end of each scene, terms and character bios (similar to the databases seen in other Xenosaga media) are presented as footnotes in orange text. These entries become available as the chapters progress but can only be accessed at the moment they appear; there is no menu for revisiting previously unlocked database entries.

External Links[edit]

Gallery[edit]

Wiki icon - Image Needed.svg This page or section could use some images.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Xeno Emission E2, page 73:
    "As for "A Missing Year", the content itself turned out to be slightly smaller in scope than I'd expected, so there's a lot of designs [I did] that never saw the light of day in the actual story."
  2. ↑ Xeno Emission E2, page 78:
    "This is a design for Dinah's aerial combat systems, which wasn't used in "A Missing Year"."
  3. ↑ Xeno Emission E2, page 81:
    "Somehow, this robot ended up making its appearance during the beginning of EP3 instead of in A missing year."


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Xenosaga II to III: A Missing Year
Development Staff • Unused content
Plot Script • Plot summary • Database
Other Music • Images
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