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I am an avid fan of the Final Fantasy series. After playing FF7 I took a chance and bought this game. Although I prefer more fantasy-themed RPGs (and was certainly NOT into Mechs which play a large role in this game), I was intrigued by this game due to the contraversy that surrounded it at the time because of its religious themes. I went into it expecting a story and characters up to par with Final Fantasy. What I got was far more than I expected! Hidden beneath some out-of-date, pixely, Playstation graphics, and sound capabilities that usually couldn't do justice to the beautiful and quirky music, was a truly vast, highly complex, and surprisingly innovative storyline that begins with the everday troubles of a young man (the lead character, Fei) and ends with the completion of 10,000 years of events and the character's revelation about the nature of his existance and the nature of his god.Xenogears is the conceptual ancestor of the current PS2 game Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht. In fact, Xenogears was originally meant to be the 5th part in the 6 part series. Xenosaga Ep. 1 is--suposedly--the first in the series of episodes (6 total) that lead up to and past Xenogears (or something similar to Xenogears as there are plans to "remake" it as Xenosaga Ep. 5. While it maintains many of the elements traditionally associated with console RPGs it offers its own innovations to the genre. The characterizations are complex and subtle, lending a realism to each of them not often seen in many RPGs. The visual design of the game is an interesting and stylized combination of fantasy and sci-fi that is very solidly and imaginatively executed. The battles are turn-based and consist of two modes: one, a regular battle mode that combines a turn-based menu system with attack combo moves activated via certain button combinations; the other, a "gear" battle mode in which the characters fight in mechs (gears). Both battle systems are enjoyable (the normal mode especially!), the gear mode does, however, become somewhat tedious at times as it seems to allow for less variation, especially in the second half of the game where it is used more frequently.
The game spans two disks, and some of the largest faults in the game come in the second disk where production limitations and time restrictions on the date of release caused the removal of many elements intended for the latter half of the game, making disk two consist in part of a long stretch of narrating character monologues piecing together dungeons and boss battles. Another downside is the 3-D polygonal graphics which, while describing some beautiful and interesting areas, seem highly pixelated and out of date for the game's time. The ability to move the camera around 360 degrees is a valuable touch, however.
The story is so complex and involves the motivations and actions of so many characters that after my first time through the game (80 hours on my first play) I was still unsure of everything that had happend. Who was who and what was going on? Upon replaying, I caught the hints that I had either missed or forgotten the first time through and all the facets of the story and its many themes suddenly came together. Personally, I do not find this overwhelming complexity to be a fault of the game--I think it is one of its greatest strengths and it is because of it that I have played this game through four times now--although I doubt it will be everyone's cup of tea. I hope people will at least give it a try once.
Xenogears is not a perfect game, but its originality and richness far outweigh its imperfections. If you like a complex and emense story with a vast array of highly complex characters, some lovely music, beautiful design work, and more beautifully-crafted themes and ideas than you can shake a stick at, you will love Xenogears!
-ZR
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This is bar none the most rewarding RPG experience I have had in my life, even more so than the flawless FFVI and FFVII. With the release of FFXII coming up in only months, I feel like I should tread back into the past and relive this incredible adventure once again.I'm not going to get into technical details, because those have been regurgitated over and over again. The story in this game is just so perfectly written, I have to give it five stars no matter how the game itself ended up. I'm a writer myself, so when it comes to deep, well written characters and plot, I'm a sucker. Every character, with the exception of the worthless Chu-Chu, has a deep and interesting backstory, most of which are explored in detail as the game progresses. The way the characters react to their given cirumstances always makes sense. The entire first disc of this game is just incredible. Like every other entry in the Xeno series, there is intense political intrigue, flashbacks, a massive conspiracy brewing underneath the surface that has to do with the ultimate fate of mankind, a number of religious symbols and religious overtones. In fact, the good vs. evil aspect of the story really has a thin line drawn in it; both sides play each other carefully and even turn on their own factions. Lets just say the enemies you start out having never end up being the entire opposition. Then we get to the second disc.
To make this clear to everyone that does not know, the creator Tetsuya Takahashi had this planned as a six-episode series, with Xenogears being episode V (why start with 5 I have no idea). But then due to the project going overbudget and other problems he had with Square, the project was cut short and the second disc became what it is. Disgruntled, Takahashi left Square and started Monolith, in which he restarted the series with Xenosaga (the first episode being exactly the game he wanted to make and then the second being a chopped-up version of his original story script). It seems that once again he was screwed over, and the series is ending after Ep. 3 is released. A truly sad thing. Hopefully, he had the tenacity to have a series of books written to fully encompass this massive and incredibly told story.
Basically, I want people who are new to the Xeno universe to know that the gaming itself may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the story makes up for any other shortcoming. You will NOT be disappointed in that department, and with the total play time of 60+ hours guaranteed your first time through, what is there not to like? Actually, I did wish there were more towns to visit around the world (I think were maybe ten or so at the most).
Honest reviews on Xenogears - PlayStation
Xenogears seems to split the RPG world in two: between those who worship it, and those who dislike it. I am in the middling minorityfeeling neither hate nor love for it, I fall into what I consider a reasonable evaluation of this game, not letting its faults blind me to its merits, or vice versa.My opinion, succinctly put, is: what an awesome story. What terrible design. What a half-baked game. Yes, the story and atmosphere/world of the game are fantastic, the music is great, and the battle system and characterization are very good. But the story's faulty pacing and, worst of all, grainy graphics, bad camera and slow text scrawl and loading time make it sometimes extremely painful to play, as well watch.
Given in details, for those interested:
THE GOOD
1. The music: composed by Mitsuda of the Chrono Trigger series, the music easily falls into this categorywith reservations. On one hand, some of the tunes are absolutely gorgeous, enhancing the sad, haunting atmosphere of the game. The songs are beautiful too, and well-sung by both its Irish and Japanese singers. "One who was torn apart", "June (October) Mermaid" and "Small of Two Pieces" rank among my favorite game tunes ever. On the other hand, the music often does not serve the game too well. Given that it's such a huge game, and the score has relatively few tunes, the game suffers from either of 1-excessively recycled tunes, or 2-periods of silence, especially in dungeons. The battle music is not that good, and gets wearisome as you suffer through it during hundreds, even thousands of battles. Still, the score definitely is a significant contributor to Xenogears' best aspect-its melancholy, haunting atmosphere. And that in itself is a bonus elevating it from goodness to greatness.
2. Characterization: I don't understand the claim of those who say the characters are badly-done. The characters are, in fact, much more mature, in an understated way (for the time) than characters of many previous gameswho may have had more "quirks", but were definitely more simplistic, even immature. (The writing of the characters, not the characters themselves). For some characters, the draw on basic psychology is so blatant as to feel forcedthe character becomes more construct than person in aspects of its characterization. But there's no denying that even so, the results can be downright awesome. Yes, it may feel pretentious; but I have no objection to pretentiousness, if the results are entertaining.
3. The battle system: I liked it. First of all, it has gears. Mechas of any types = awesomeness. Second, I liked the system of developing new techniques by pressing correct sequence of the square, triangle and X buttons. Press them enough times in battles, and you learn new techniques. There's also Ether skillsmostly support skills such as healing and status effects, which contributes to the variety. A warning, thoughsome boss battles tend to be extremely difficult. Figuring out the correct strategy may help. Also, you tend to run out of money towards the end of the game, which can be very frustrating; just another of the design flaws of the game. Saving up ahead may be a good advice, or just spending a few hours of battles for money.
4. Replayability: because the story is so complex, the game has a very high replay value. The second time around, I enjoy understanding of what is going on. Although some aspects of the story are still complicatedI blame this on bad writing and half-baked ideasanyone familiar with the basic political units, characters and history of the game will be able to appreciate most of the things, such as conversations and flashbacks, which seemed confusing the first time around.
THE BAD
Faulty story pacing: A frequent complaint with many players is the dreaded (perhaps even dreadful) disc 2, which shows Xenogears for what it is: an unfinished product. Somewhere along the line the creators ran out of either budget or steam, and told the remaining 15-20 hours of the story through text/pictures with some dungeons thrown inbetween. To add insult to injury, disc 1 contains some over-long, even unnecessary dungeons with little to no story. The 10-hour portion of the Kislev prison, anyone? Get rid of this one and add some dungeons to disc 2, Takahashi, and then maybe we'll talk. At any rate, as noted, this simply showed that the director needed a serious editor. And more budget, maybe.
THE GREAT
1. The atmosphere: Haunting. Sad. Eerie. Perhaps even more than the story itself, I love Xenogears' construction of a world-a world containing a past too old to recall, and eerie, ruined cities, witnesses to mankind's devastating, damning mistakes. The story is told through complicated plot twists, telling of a past saturated with the heavy burden of sadness and sin. It all feels, shall we say, fateful; but although some may dislike the use of religion, or otherwise mock it, there's no denying that at the end, something meaningful, even beautiful, rises up through these ashes, something which tells us of the fate, mortality, and fragility of humanity. Takahashi, director of Xenogears, would have benefited from a strict editor to control his wild creativity. But he had the vision, even the touch of genius, to create this atmosphere which rises beyond the story that he told. I think that, more than anything, this is truly the secret ingredient that draws the wilder claims about Xenogears' merit as a game. As a game, it may fail frequently. As a vision, it's wonderful. Well, and now that I waxed all rhapsodic, let's move on.
2. The story: All right, so it does draw on Evangelion in some ways. So what? I did not like Evangelion much (cue some automatic negative reviews here); and if its story was partially retold here, in a way I considered entertaining, I don't care. Xenogears' presentation, world and characterization are different enough than Evangelion as to not feel like a re-hash of the anime. Pretentious use of psychiatry and religious symbolism aside, the story of Xenogears veers towards the awesome. The plot is extremely complicated, and deals with politics, religion, psychology and philosophy, intervening it all through interesting characters and a complex, detailed history. I appreciate it just for the details and shocking plot twists, even if the pacing could have been better.
THE DISMAL
1. Graphical design, coloring and camera: Xenogears employs a full 3-D environment with a rotating camera, all brightly colored in blocky polygons. Now, by saying this is bad, I don't mean the graphics themselves are bad. I mean that the camera rotation is so inefficient, that half of the time you can't see the environment, making dungeons more difficult than they should be. I mean that the graphics are so grainy, and at times so bright, that I strongly believe that playing this game hurt my eyesight to some degree. The graininess, coupled with sometimes swift and random camera movements (during battles, for example), a slowly scrolling text, and coloring so bright in some environments they almost hurt the eyes, make this game intolerable to watch sometimes. The fact remains, that playing this game for a period of more than a couple of hours tends to give me a headache. My eyes just can't the strain of all these camera jumps, efforts of following the text, and grainy graphics. This is the sole reason, in fact, why it took me over six years to replay the game. Imbalanced story? Well, all right. A lot of text? I can take it, easily. But eye-strain, possibly eye-damage? No thanks. I do wish Monolith (Xenosaga) would have the opportunity to re-make this game, but at this point it seems highly unlikely. A pity.
2. Intolerable slownessslow text scrawl, slow loading: this had been a justifiable peeve with many players. There is absolutely no reason why Xenogears' text should be laid out so slowly before the player. Someone in the design team should have put their foot down on this matter; but it somehow escaped them. Perhaps they thought that with so much text, players would appreciate slowing down. Whatever it is, slogging through so much text at such a slow pace hurts the game. Additionally, the game's loading pace is very slow. Playing it on PS2 helps just a bit, but it's still slow between battles, characters entering new areas, and so on, which happen frequently. The game's general slowness hurts it significantly, because so many players tend to lose patience with it just on this score.
THE QUESTIONABLE
1. The graphics: They good for their time, although they suffer from the problems indicated previously. As of date they are somehow outdated; but it's the graininess which hurts the eye that I personally mind most.
2. Religious symbolism: Mmm, mmm. Controversy. Or not. Given the fact that I actually understood some of the foreign words, I was more amused than incensed at this one. Plus, what's wrong in using religious symbolism? Yes, it's heavy-handed. Yes, it's sometimes very pretentious. Yes, Xenosaga, the successor, continued this tradition. But... come on. It's FUN! It's fun to have the game deal with religion. The message is, contrary to what some fans think, not "anti-God" (although it may be anti-religion, and even so, only in very particular waysthe religion of Nissan, for example, is presented in a very positive manner.) And let's face ita little bit of religion makes many a story more interesting, and everyone has the right to express an opinion about its function and significance in human society. In the end, I don't even think the message was all that offensive, either (thank the hype for intimating that). The use of religion was as much a thematic tool for the structure of the world's history and society, as a meaningful "message". And there's nothing wrong with that.
As another review has said, Xenogears is for patient players who like excellent stories and don't mind its flaws. But play it slowly; absorb it bit by bit. Then, perhaps, you'll feel less frustrated with the flaws, and more rewarded by the merits.
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This is a very long video game. For me, it took about 90 hours to finish. But let me emphasize that those 90 hours were some of the most engrossing that I have ever experienced with a video game. I highly recommend this game to anyone who does not mind the somewhat below-average graphics. The game's soundtrack more than compensates for any graphical shortcomings.The battles are random, and perhaps too numerous in quantity for this gamer's preference. However, most can be quite entertaining. Some battles are fought while the characters are controlling giant machines called "Gears". Most battles are fought in hand-to-hand combat, with each character having the option to unleash powerful attack combinations.
If there is a shortcoming to this game, it has to be the fact that the story was too complicated and too deep to communicate in the manner that they chose. By the second disk, some of the main characters had to basically sit in a chair and narrate the story to get it moving in the right direction. Perhaps the older Playstation console just did not have the power for the inclusion of cutscenes.
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