Soraya Saga Retired From Xeno Partly Because She Doesn’t Want To “Ruin” Her Husband’s Work
Quinton is a Staff Writer from the United States. In his youth, Quinton was ridiculed for making video game ranking lists instead of paying attention in math class. In adulthood, people sometimes pay him for it. Life’s a trip.
Taking his first steps into the industry in 2020, Quinton has written for several digital publications, but his permanent literary home is right here at TheGamer.
Before striking up a conversation with Quinton, consider the risks: he’ll find a way to transform almost any topic into an analysis of either world history, Star Trek, or – at least this one’s relevant to his career – all his favorite role-playing games.
Soraya Saga rules. Her work on Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht was formative to my youth. I had the honor and privilege of interacting with her a handful of times on social media, and I’m hardly alone in that regard; in the past, she was delightfully open toward fans. And sometimes, she still is!
As best I can tell, Saga never contributed any words or major ideas to the Xenoblade Chronicles series, which has certainly been the most financially successful Xeno effort that her husband, Tetsuya Takahashi, has ever embarked upon. “Xeno” has twisted and turned its way through three publishers, two developers (Monolith Soft having been founded following Takahashi’s departure from Square), and at least four separate universes. Throughout all this, Soraya Saga has remained a pillar – the things she brought to Xenogears and the first Xenosaga have echoed through time.
Alas
Soraya Saga is credited as an “assistant author” on Xenosaga Episode II, but heavy reworks and studio meddling largely vanquished her and her husband’s narrative ambitions. She did co-write the Ziggy-centric spinoff, Pied Piper, which sadly never released in the West. By the time Episode III rolled around, prematurely concluding what could have been a six-part series, Saga’s name was nowhere to be found. Since then, Monolith Soft has found a long-running winner with Xenoblade Chronicles, whose first game turned 15 this year.
Cyberpunk fans are used to waiting a long time between announcement and release.
Saga’s only work on Xenoblade – and this isn’t to diminish her talent, mind you – was that of a guest artist for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Since then, it’s been quiet times. And, alas, she has now formally announced her retirement from games writing:
The post comes from Saga’s blogspot page, and it cites her need to look after her grandmother for five years. Sadly, the grandmother passed away last year. Now, Saga is focused on a separate family member. Suffice it to say, she’s a kind person who looks out for her loved ones. She also confirms that her own health is good – which is much appreciated, as that’s not always been the case in the past!
The part that’s sticking with fans, especially in light of certain… events following the release of earlier Xenosaga entries, is that Saga mentions Tetsuya Takahashi’s achievements with Xenoblade Chronicles as a separate reason for her retirement from games writing.
“With the success of Xenoblade Chronicles, Takahashi’s solo writing seems to be widely acclaimed by the fandom. I don’t think I should ruin it.” -Soraya Saga
I don’t want to make a mountain out of this. Let’s remember, Soraya Saga also cites family care issues. But this really stings, and I’ve seen similar sentiment being shared throughout the larger Xeno community today. You see, back when Xenosaga was happening, some “fans” attacked Saga relentlessly, criticizing her storytelling capabilities, and casting her as some kind of villain in their deranged perspective. You can like or dislike somebody’s words, but that’s just messed up. I pray everyone who reads this is in agreement there. These were direct personal attacks, and they affected Soraya Saga’s mental health as much as they would any of ours.
So, yeah. Many of us have lamented that Saga’s powerful ability to imbue characters with poignant motivations, and enrich overarching lore, hasn’t appeared in Xenoblade Chronicles. I love those games, I do, and there’s a lot of great stuff in there, but Takahashi and his co-writers could have had something even more special with his partner’s input. I believe that, and I know I’m not alone.
It’s that precise wording that gets me. “I don’t think I should ruin it.” Language barriers absolutely exist, and exact intent isn’t always there with written words on the net. We’d have to hear her say that to truly know what she means by it, and even then… you know? But based on what we’ve been given, it’s hard to read it and just nod along. You wouldn’t have ruined it, Mrs. Saga. You would have enriched it.
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I wish her a happy retirement, and hope she keeps in touch with us as time and desire permit. Oh, and in case you weren’t aware? She wrote Edgar and Sabin in Final Fantasy 6, too. Badass.
Starfield just clawed its way into Nexus Mods’ top ten most-modded games this year, while Skyrim was expectedly number one.
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I didn’t know about Edgar and Sabin in FFVI! Truly a great career, I hope she retires knowing well this.
2025-12-28 13:41:25
