Were any of the FF7 creative team working on CC?
Only one I know of off the top of my head is Kato. He was an editor for FF7 and actually wrote the scene of Cloud and Tifa in the lifestream. Maybe more than that, but that's at least what he takes credit for from what I've read.
Yes, there are some rpg cliches between both games, several of which are perpetuated throughout other games as well, but few of those have the
same impact on both the story and gameplay between games. Example: Xenogears does have an identity crisis in the lead character, who's antagonized by his father's own identity issues, but it doesn't have a love triangle, rainbow packed angels (rainbow mechbot maybe, but I'd relate the Angels to Weapons, but they're not tootie-fruitie like the dragons.)
.....
Timeout here. I've just run a train-track collision here mid thought. Geez, maybe Xenogears is just about a world having an artificially made replica of Lavos falling on a world and the fun that inspires >.> Lead character with identity issues that has an antagonistic father that's fighting an alien monster, who merged with said hero's girlfriend, and in turn also (that is the monster) wants to absorb/merge the protagonist. Th monster is also a tapped power source use for both technological machines and also effects evolution of the planet's species. >.>
Whatever. Everyone rips off everything anyway and nothing ends up being original. I'm going back to bed