Banpresto games merges with Bandai Namco

[Dygenguard]

I don't believe the XG planet is ever named. There was a planet in Xenosaga that had something happen to it that was very similar to what Deus does to planets, which caused some theories to fly around with theorists of the "XG and XS are directly related" camp. I don't recall its name, it was only talked about for like ten seconds anyway. XS does a half-assed job of paying XG tribute anyway -- Jin's "Citan" look in the third game was cool, but the obvious Maria Balthasar reference was more annoying than nostalgic.

Anyway, I know I'm a little jaded about XS, but I did enjoy it to some extent. I just can't let go of XG -- it's still one of my top favorite RPGs of all time. And J-Lead, a sixth episode was supposedly set up by Takahashi. I'm not sure how it would have gone without that certain element you mentioned, but it's been fodder for fanfiction since someone translated it from the Perfect Works. Plus, Takahashi was a smart enough guy to plan ahead -- if the sixth episode was too improbable, he could always just retcon it out after doing the four prequels to XG.

As for weird crossovers, I have a feeling they'd just be in passing in Soul Calibur. It's all just the same dolls with similar moves dressed up in different clothes -- something you may notice if you did the custom character randomization mode. I'm sure you can reproduce a Zengar using the Barbarian character model. Just give him a two-handed sword and he'll cleave evil with a simple press of Down + B.

[Ascension]

Okay, if we get a Zengar/Sanger as a hidden character in a Soul Calibur game, I will officially faint in a cloud of fanboyish joy. He wouldn't be nearly as fun as a create-a-character because you'd have to shout "Zankantou! Ikki Tousen!" yourself if you wanted the atmosphere.

And on the other planet issue, don't forget that Ideon has been in SRW, and it takes place on other planets (IIRC), so I don't see how an extraterrestrial locale would disqualify Xenogears.

[Mark064]

Extraterrestrial locale has been used in SRW for ages as various series require at least one visit to a non Earth planet including shows like L-Gaim, Baxingar, Daihoja, Combattler V, Voltes V and so on.

But really you guys are taking this merger a bit too seriously. Bandai and Namco themselves don't work together on games so it's unlikely we'll see Banpresto working with both or a whole bunch of akward character mergers. Aside from a corporate stand point the fan will probably notice nothing except probably a different name on the games.

[Dygenguard]

Yeah, that's the only real extent of it. It's just fans are going to go ga-ga over something like this and throw around the notion of crossovers. It'd be like if Gainax and Sunrise merged or something -- I can only imagine the fandom tossing around the "OMGZ GURREN LAGANN X GUNDAM".

I just hope that perhaps there is some synergy between the two companies. They were both pretty mediocre in my honest opinion and perhaps, if they do combine creative energy, they can produce some nicer games. If not, well, then all we have to look forward to is the prettier company logo on the packaging.

[Chaos42]

the reason they had poor sales is that they only put them out on the advanced and people want ds games-people don't care about the advanced anymore ive only gotten 2 myself because im short on cash and wanted the more advanced one plus the others already an anime

but i like the game play and the mecha if they put out a ds version that would get more peoples attention