A canon spin-off of beloved JRPG series Xenosaga was once feared to be lost media, but 21 years later, it's been preserved and is finally getting a fan translation

Xenosaga Episode 2.

After 21 years, a Xenosaga game once thought to be lost media has been found and preserved online. Xenosaga: Pied Piper, originally released for Japanese phones in 2004, has been a sort of white whale for series fans for years, but a burgeoning preservation scene around Japanese mobile games has made sure this JRPG is not lost to history.

Xenosaga: Pied Piper is a spin-off of the cult classic PS2 JRPG trilogy from Monolith Soft and Namco, telling the backstory of the cyborg Ziggurat 8. It's a traditional, top-down role-playing game with turn-based battles, and by all appearances, a totally solid one – though it's the fact that it tells a canon story in a beloved series that's made it so sought-after by fans.