Xenosaga's Official Design Materials, or ODM, is an official book filled with information that is not mentioned in the game. The pages of text are filled with detailed analyses of characters, organizations, core concepts and ideas, and items. More than that, though, there are interviews with the creators of Xenosaga appear within the book, as well as artwork and screenshots.

The primary force behind the interest of ODM is that of fans wanting the explanations of the plot and story devices within the game series.

Perfect Works, or PW, is the official book that was put out to clarify some of the aspects within Xenogears. Translations of parts of this text are available online.

The ODM has only been printed in Japanese, which is a bit of a problem for the fans that do not speak the language. This project brings together people who desire to translate pages of the ODM and those that desire to understand the book.

People began to wonder what was in the book. Everything on this project is originally that of X CubeStation's work. He started with a post at GameFAQs containing some translated pieces of the book. Fans eventually gained interest in it, and the Japanese speakers amongst them began to translate scanned pages 'by request.' More scans appeared, and more people followed. The pages were translated, posted to the boards, and they were cross-posted to the website that he hosted for public-sharing.

The people that began translating this book started at GameFAQs. There also were others that just felt like contributing to the project.

Some websites, such as GameFAQs, have concerns with posting copyrighted material, while others don't seem to care. To avoid such problems, a "scan-safe link," or a link containing access only to the translations of the pages, was created. However, the list of pages that include both translations and scans is availble on the main index.

Since the site has moved to be housed on XenoTen, more access has been opened to the places of discussion for ODM. There still exists a thread at GameFAQs where this topic can be chatted about (here). However, there are also forums that are part of XenoTen where this topic can also be discussed due to the move of the project.

If you know Japanese, you're more than welcome to join and translate pages. Also, you're more than welcome to clear up any foggy translations. You can post your translations at the project's thread on GameFAQs or at the XenoTen Forums. Subsiquently, you can also send an email to jinxhaas. When you submit, state your alias and whether or not you wish to be credited. Try to call dibs on the page first, though, so that other translators know that someone else is working on it.

If you find any bugs anywhere on the website, sending an email to jinxhaas stating what kind of error and where it is occurring would be extremely helpful.

Of course! You can post on either set of boards available.

There are pages that are marked as "In Progress" on the main page.

Enneagram n.
a system of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine personality types or primary roles with the recognition of one's type tantamount to a spiritual awakening. (Greek ennea `nine')

An Enneagram Type is a way of classifying one's personality with various traits. It includes information on what one might like or dislike and how one acts in regards to others. It's no wonder that this personality classification is also one closely linked to Gnosticism.

For more information on Enneagram Personality Types, you can visit this link: www.enneagraminstitute.com

Keeping in-line with the old website, they used a system of color coding so that translations were easily identifiable. The system made its return, but the colors did change. The color coding is as follows:

Available (fully translated pages)

Partial Translations

Pages in Progress

Requested Pages

To paraphrase a quote from X Cube:

"I, X Cube, started college and simply ran out of time to update the site . . .

Thank you to everyone who made this project possible. It makes me proud that a group of people who hardly know eachother could make something like this, and that I could be a part of it."

I, nikki, would also like to take this moment to thank him for the chance of letting us house his "baby" (the ODM translation site) on our beloved Labyrinthos. I also would like Jinx to know that I'm incredibly happy that she is working with us and can both be able to help maintain the translations website and continue the project.

(Note from Jinx): Labyrinthos has unfortunately closed its doors. They were wonderful hosts for the ODM and other translation projects, and I will always be thankful for that. It makes me sad to see the site go, but things like this happen I guess, and the project moves on. The ODM translation project now has a new home, thanks to XenoTensei. Thanks guys.

The boards that were mentioned earlier (the project thread at GameFAQs or the XenoTen Forums) are a great place to contact the people working on this project. However, if you much rather prefer to email jinxhaas, please include "ODM" in the subject.