Great forgotten gem,
Sadly it was too ambitious of a project causing Disc 2 to be greatly shortened and rushed but at least the way they presented all the cut playable content was quite tasteful. I feel like it would have benefited from being split into 2 games but considering Takahashi left Square not long after this was better than having half of the story.
Another unfortunate thing is that the English sub was heavily censored so i hope we get a faithful fan translation some day.
The story is quite complex and you do need quite a bit of media literacy to properly understand everything the game is trying to say. This game desperately needs a remake but it will most likely never happen nore would i really want one without Tetsuya Takahashi involved. All in all this is definitively a forgotten gem and i believe more people should try it out.
Sadly it was too ambitious of a project causing Disc 2 to be greatly shortened and rushed but at least the way they presented all the cut playable content was quite tasteful. I feel like it would have benefited from being split into 2 games but considering Takahashi left Square not long after this was better than having half of the story.
Another unfortunate thing is that the English sub was heavily censored so i hope we get a faithful fan translation some day.
The story is quite complex and you do need quite a bit of media literacy to properly understand everything the game is trying to say. This game desperately needs a remake but it will most likely never happen nore would i really want one without Tetsuya Takahashi involved. All in all this is definitively a forgotten gem and i believe more people should try it out.
Que cachondeo.
Limitation breeds Crescens or whatever people say.
After playing through Xenogears these past two weeks and thinking more on it since completing it the other day, I get why there’s such a strong following for it and admire much of what it does right, though with a lot wrong, in spilling its guts for hours and hours on end. And I liked the winding journey, though many parts of it make it hard to fall into a deep love with it despite having so many moments of brilliance included. After rolling credits and trying to think of what it left for me after spending so much time with it, I honestly struggled to come up with a central, almost cohesive thread that draws in all its components which speaks to how spotty yet uncompromising Xenogears’ vision is.
Xenogears to me is reckless and inspired in how it shoots for the stars across various axises in unraveling a messy tale of religiosity, psychoanalysis, never-ending warfare and conflict, oppressive systems of power and dominion, and the question of free will, place and identity. All in the runtime of a 60+ hour ps1 game.
It doesn’t perfectly encapsulate each of these themes as best as it could and some topics land a bit immature than others; the conversation of Billy selling his body being one of the most awkward next to Elly’s sudden transition into a mother-y representation of Sophia and the weird increase in Fei’s chauvinism towards her in Disc 2. However Xenogears is pretty powerful in outlining an escalation in oppressive hierarchies and dominion over groups as the scale and scope of the game becomes bigger and bigger we each story reveal. Each new cage and tyrant to throw out becomes replaced by another individual or group that is pulling the strings before the rug is pulled out again to reveal and complicate the role and context of the antagonists even more. For its time it is pretty daring how committed the team was to constructing this web of power along with the strong heaping religious and psychoanalytic text and references interwoven into the characters and worldbuilding. For as lopsided the general experience Xenogears is, the narrative does a pretty bang up job in establishing mysteries and maintaining intrigue and mostly answering them in a sufficient way with disc 2 having so many thrilling and standout moments. For as familiar as these subjects are across games such as free will and rebellion being some of the most tackled, I find that Xenogears just did it in a more nuanced and interesting fashion than even newer games centered around the same topics.
Another memorable trait is the cinematography. It’s so wonderfully crafted in the cutscenes that still illicits an impressive scale that rivals rpgs coming out today. Pre-rendered backgrounds and set camera angles from games like Resident Evil and FF VII evoke strong moments of visual language that weren’t possible before but Xenogears pushes the envelope even further with the dynamic camera movements, color grading, and more slower pulls and weaves in establishing its mood and atmosphere. Even scenes with little motion like Bart and Sigurd’s talk at night on the Yggdrasil, the moonlight encounter with Grahf, and Fei’s confrontation with the Ministry in Solaris are beautifully done in combination with other elements bringing the scenes to life like the music choice and color contrast. Another memorable sequence is the beginning cutscene teasing the doom and calamity of Lahan with nameless, faceless mechs randomly targeting a remote village now in flames and the scene later in full emphasizing dread even further after having ample time to know most of the people, and it is an absolute gut punch; Citan’s detailed expression of fear with Fei getting into the random mech juxtaposed with the village destruction has stuck with me 60+ hours on, and this cinematic expertise just ramps up even more; it honestly makes newer games look like amateur hour with what it is accomplishing here. I could honestly gush about how inspired this game is from this angle top to bottom for way much longer.
The meat of the experience that is Disc 1 is not too astray from the usual rpg fare at the time but it establishes its own language and identity very quickly from its first animated cutscene foreshadowing the inciting incident of the story. The story following Fei and the mystery around his powers and his role in this grander tale is so interesting to follow with each turn revealing darker truths that lead to his manifestation of his latent power. Elly is similarly a character with much to discover as the story progresses and I liked seeing her struggle to finding who she is and what she stands for and how it coalesces with Fei’s journey of self-discovery and growing to stand up and find his place in the world. Fei and Elly’s interactions are piecemeal initially before like the halfway point of the disc but the small moments still leave so much to ponder about and see where they both go not purely in a romantic sense but what they mean and represent existentially in the game’s world. Fei’s struggle with his own power and learning how to wield it to not continue the cycle of violence is an interesting interrogation of power that doesn’t fall into the usual “revenge/violence/power bad” camps that I feel most games fall into. Fei and Elly are the two most important characters to Xenogears’ story though they aren’t the sole ones that hold some relevance to its themes.
Bart has an interesting arc around taking back Bledavik after being forced out by Shakhan and Ethos, but it also manages to weave in nice character development moments of him becoming more of a leader for the people to look up to while not abandoning the free spirited and brash energy exuberated so much when first interacting with him. Citan has just as much relevance as Fei and Elly to the story with a strong air of mystery around him that he knows more than he lets on and I like how the game plays with that tension towards the end of disc 1 in questioning whether he truly trustworthy as he seems or has an odd way of going about his membership in the group. These four make up a pretty strong cast that offer a lot of poignant moments related to the overarching political machinations. It is a shame that the rest of the playable cast feel mostly extraneous once they are introduced with their pivotal arcs (Rico, Billy, Maria, Emeralda) as the game begins to add and focus more on the central narrative and their various parts aren’t as immeshed in them or developed as much as Fei, Elly, Citan and Bart.
In general I feel that disc 1 is pretty solid at telling an intriguing story with nice reveals while weaving the player into it for a good chunk of it with the world/dungeon traversal and the combat, but I did find many glaring issues especially that hurt my experience: the dungeons are a massive sore point across the journey outside of how atmospheric and lived in they are. The elements of platforming weren’t as unwelcoming as I expected, especially Babel tower with all the talk of that being a prominent dropping point for many, but the high random encounter rate next to how same-y and backtrack heavy the sections can get just completely halt the pacing and make the dungeons maddening in their inclusion as I wanted them to end very quickly. I wouldn’t say they are completely purposeless since Disc 2 would be even more cutscene heavy than it is without them, but maybe the length could have been lessened or just straight up making random encounters more dependent on character level and progression to calm how frequent and mood breaking they are to the dungeons. Even outside the dungeons, the pacing becomes a bit rough after a pretty good run from the start of the game up to the Desert Despair chapter outside of the few caverns and the horrendous swimming and “stealth” portions of the Fatima Castle rescue mission. While there was still much to latch onto afterwards with the Solaris part in the final hours being pretty exceptional, the huge pause in Nortune and other locales with everything leading up to getting on Solaris felt less interesting to get through. Making this worse is Xenogears main battle systems to break up the traversal and cutscenes.
To mince words, the combat in Xenogears is god awful. It does not have a deeply engaging or even fun in a long term sense combat system, but it’s not a total loss to me since I came into this curious about the story and world. The on-ground combat is pretty basic with nice flourishes via animations of executing deathblows and the mix of martial arts moves and magic to keep it from becoming too sleepy. I appreciate the idea of the deathblow system but it deserved to be fleshed out more than what it was in the final result. Gear battles are far more appetizing with some battles exercising and requiring a bit more engagement like exploiting elemental weakness, conserving or going ham with fuel as a limited resource, and throwing on tools acquired in the world to speed gears up, increase their response rate and etc. It still amounts to a pretty basic system of things that don’t really escalate beyond the cool spectacle of seeing mechs lunk around and do deathblows. When the fatigue really set in, I just strapped on ether doublers on Billy or Emeralda and just went ham to get back to the interesting tidbits of the story. In combination with the menial dungeons and excruciating enemy encounter rate, I can understand why a lot of people dropped this and I’d probably do the same if the narrative and main character studies didn’t pull me as much as it did, especially going from disc 1 to disc 2.
That leaves Disc 2 which is another bit of disconnect for me from wider opinion of this game. So much discussion on XG involves a huge lament of what Xenogears could have been if disc 2 was “finished” with a vague assumption that disc 1 was pretty seamless, and I can’t disagree more. Sure the presentation of story events relegated to the main cast recapping them while sitting in front of screenshots of said events is a rough transition from disc 1’s stronger balance of player involvement and cutscene amount, but I found the section pretty compelling. It honestly makes me even more critical of the first disc’s shortcomings versus the second since for the most part the team manages to get across the major story events while not being delivered in a completely static and one dimensional way as much of disc 2 sounds at first. I love the moments of introspection that come from Elly and Fei as they are responding to and thinking back on the events of the story we have yet to see, and the sequence of Fei’s psychology and understanding and overcoming Id is pure cinema. Oddly, the feeling of a stage play, whether intentional or not, compliments the game’s musings on control and free will that I’m pretty fine with disc 2’s vibe despite wanting a few more real time cutscenes of the story sequences like the nano machines triggering the mutations of people several times in the story. I’m also probably giving this more defense since there is much less gameplay involved here which already alleviates the big slog that was this game’s dungeons and combat systems.
For all its faults, I was pretty satisfied with Xenogears after finishing it though I can’t discount how exhausting of a game this is to get through. It just unfortunately exists and is tethered with this game given its horrendous development and mismanagement as a first title for most of the people working on it. It also further points to how ambitious of a game this was trying to be despite the hard limits of the ps1 that maybe it could have been a very sickening ps2 game in a mostly “complete” state in another time. Even in the time now that is unearthing the grave of older series titles for new releases to create and remake, I’m not sure how/if something like this could be built up again today in all its glory and eccentricities. Remake discourse is an enormous, tiring blob where it feels like no one wins that I’d rather have a new title in the series rather than another try at “completing” Xenogears that will probably rob it of the charm and vision so specific to its time and circumstances, and in some ways that cannot be recaptured to me with the slippery slope of faithful recreations being a point of contention. Also unfortunate that this specific series is stuck to the halls of the ps1 and ps2 with the tricky licensing and separate paths all of its creators have taken since then to move on to newer things. At the very least Xenogears has inspired me to actually try out its successor series more despite a rough and confusing entry into the series many years ago with its messy second title on the switch. I’ll probably still have complaints about the gameplay though.
After playing through Xenogears these past two weeks and thinking more on it since completing it the other day, I get why there’s such a strong following for it and admire much of what it does right, though with a lot wrong, in spilling its guts for hours and hours on end. And I liked the winding journey, though many parts of it make it hard to fall into a deep love with it despite having so many moments of brilliance included. After rolling credits and trying to think of what it left for me after spending so much time with it, I honestly struggled to come up with a central, almost cohesive thread that draws in all its components which speaks to how spotty yet uncompromising Xenogears’ vision is.
Xenogears to me is reckless and inspired in how it shoots for the stars across various axises in unraveling a messy tale of religiosity, psychoanalysis, never-ending warfare and conflict, oppressive systems of power and dominion, and the question of free will, place and identity. All in the runtime of a 60+ hour ps1 game.
It doesn’t perfectly encapsulate each of these themes as best as it could and some topics land a bit immature than others; the conversation of Billy selling his body being one of the most awkward next to Elly’s sudden transition into a mother-y representation of Sophia and the weird increase in Fei’s chauvinism towards her in Disc 2. However Xenogears is pretty powerful in outlining an escalation in oppressive hierarchies and dominion over groups as the scale and scope of the game becomes bigger and bigger we each story reveal. Each new cage and tyrant to throw out becomes replaced by another individual or group that is pulling the strings before the rug is pulled out again to reveal and complicate the role and context of the antagonists even more. For its time it is pretty daring how committed the team was to constructing this web of power along with the strong heaping religious and psychoanalytic text and references interwoven into the characters and worldbuilding. For as lopsided the general experience Xenogears is, the narrative does a pretty bang up job in establishing mysteries and maintaining intrigue and mostly answering them in a sufficient way with disc 2 having so many thrilling and standout moments. For as familiar as these subjects are across games such as free will and rebellion being some of the most tackled, I find that Xenogears just did it in a more nuanced and interesting fashion than even newer games centered around the same topics.
Another memorable trait is the cinematography. It’s so wonderfully crafted in the cutscenes that still illicits an impressive scale that rivals rpgs coming out today. Pre-rendered backgrounds and set camera angles from games like Resident Evil and FF VII evoke strong moments of visual language that weren’t possible before but Xenogears pushes the envelope even further with the dynamic camera movements, color grading, and more slower pulls and weaves in establishing its mood and atmosphere. Even scenes with little motion like Bart and Sigurd’s talk at night on the Yggdrasil, the moonlight encounter with Grahf, and Fei’s confrontation with the Ministry in Solaris are beautifully done in combination with other elements bringing the scenes to life like the music choice and color contrast. Another memorable sequence is the beginning cutscene teasing the doom and calamity of Lahan with nameless, faceless mechs randomly targeting a remote village now in flames and the scene later in full emphasizing dread even further after having ample time to know most of the people, and it is an absolute gut punch; Citan’s detailed expression of fear with Fei getting into the random mech juxtaposed with the village destruction has stuck with me 60+ hours on, and this cinematic expertise just ramps up even more; it honestly makes newer games look like amateur hour with what it is accomplishing here. I could honestly gush about how inspired this game is from this angle top to bottom for way much longer.
The meat of the experience that is Disc 1 is not too astray from the usual rpg fare at the time but it establishes its own language and identity very quickly from its first animated cutscene foreshadowing the inciting incident of the story. The story following Fei and the mystery around his powers and his role in this grander tale is so interesting to follow with each turn revealing darker truths that lead to his manifestation of his latent power. Elly is similarly a character with much to discover as the story progresses and I liked seeing her struggle to finding who she is and what she stands for and how it coalesces with Fei’s journey of self-discovery and growing to stand up and find his place in the world. Fei and Elly’s interactions are piecemeal initially before like the halfway point of the disc but the small moments still leave so much to ponder about and see where they both go not purely in a romantic sense but what they mean and represent existentially in the game’s world. Fei’s struggle with his own power and learning how to wield it to not continue the cycle of violence is an interesting interrogation of power that doesn’t fall into the usual “revenge/violence/power bad” camps that I feel most games fall into. Fei and Elly are the two most important characters to Xenogears’ story though they aren’t the sole ones that hold some relevance to its themes.
Bart has an interesting arc around taking back Bledavik after being forced out by Shakhan and Ethos, but it also manages to weave in nice character development moments of him becoming more of a leader for the people to look up to while not abandoning the free spirited and brash energy exuberated so much when first interacting with him. Citan has just as much relevance as Fei and Elly to the story with a strong air of mystery around him that he knows more than he lets on and I like how the game plays with that tension towards the end of disc 1 in questioning whether he truly trustworthy as he seems or has an odd way of going about his membership in the group. These four make up a pretty strong cast that offer a lot of poignant moments related to the overarching political machinations. It is a shame that the rest of the playable cast feel mostly extraneous once they are introduced with their pivotal arcs (Rico, Billy, Maria, Emeralda) as the game begins to add and focus more on the central narrative and their various parts aren’t as immeshed in them or developed as much as Fei, Elly, Citan and Bart.
In general I feel that disc 1 is pretty solid at telling an intriguing story with nice reveals while weaving the player into it for a good chunk of it with the world/dungeon traversal and the combat, but I did find many glaring issues especially that hurt my experience: the dungeons are a massive sore point across the journey outside of how atmospheric and lived in they are. The elements of platforming weren’t as unwelcoming as I expected, especially Babel tower with all the talk of that being a prominent dropping point for many, but the high random encounter rate next to how same-y and backtrack heavy the sections can get just completely halt the pacing and make the dungeons maddening in their inclusion as I wanted them to end very quickly. I wouldn’t say they are completely purposeless since Disc 2 would be even more cutscene heavy than it is without them, but maybe the length could have been lessened or just straight up making random encounters more dependent on character level and progression to calm how frequent and mood breaking they are to the dungeons. Even outside the dungeons, the pacing becomes a bit rough after a pretty good run from the start of the game up to the Desert Despair chapter outside of the few caverns and the horrendous swimming and “stealth” portions of the Fatima Castle rescue mission. While there was still much to latch onto afterwards with the Solaris part in the final hours being pretty exceptional, the huge pause in Nortune and other locales with everything leading up to getting on Solaris felt less interesting to get through. Making this worse is Xenogears main battle systems to break up the traversal and cutscenes.
To mince words, the combat in Xenogears is god awful. It does not have a deeply engaging or even fun in a long term sense combat system, but it’s not a total loss to me since I came into this curious about the story and world. The on-ground combat is pretty basic with nice flourishes via animations of executing deathblows and the mix of martial arts moves and magic to keep it from becoming too sleepy. I appreciate the idea of the deathblow system but it deserved to be fleshed out more than what it was in the final result. Gear battles are far more appetizing with some battles exercising and requiring a bit more engagement like exploiting elemental weakness, conserving or going ham with fuel as a limited resource, and throwing on tools acquired in the world to speed gears up, increase their response rate and etc. It still amounts to a pretty basic system of things that don’t really escalate beyond the cool spectacle of seeing mechs lunk around and do deathblows. When the fatigue really set in, I just strapped on ether doublers on Billy or Emeralda and just went ham to get back to the interesting tidbits of the story. In combination with the menial dungeons and excruciating enemy encounter rate, I can understand why a lot of people dropped this and I’d probably do the same if the narrative and main character studies didn’t pull me as much as it did, especially going from disc 1 to disc 2.
That leaves Disc 2 which is another bit of disconnect for me from wider opinion of this game. So much discussion on XG involves a huge lament of what Xenogears could have been if disc 2 was “finished” with a vague assumption that disc 1 was pretty seamless, and I can’t disagree more. Sure the presentation of story events relegated to the main cast recapping them while sitting in front of screenshots of said events is a rough transition from disc 1’s stronger balance of player involvement and cutscene amount, but I found the section pretty compelling. It honestly makes me even more critical of the first disc’s shortcomings versus the second since for the most part the team manages to get across the major story events while not being delivered in a completely static and one dimensional way as much of disc 2 sounds at first. I love the moments of introspection that come from Elly and Fei as they are responding to and thinking back on the events of the story we have yet to see, and the sequence of Fei’s psychology and understanding and overcoming Id is pure cinema. Oddly, the feeling of a stage play, whether intentional or not, compliments the game’s musings on control and free will that I’m pretty fine with disc 2’s vibe despite wanting a few more real time cutscenes of the story sequences like the nano machines triggering the mutations of people several times in the story. I’m also probably giving this more defense since there is much less gameplay involved here which already alleviates the big slog that was this game’s dungeons and combat systems.
For all its faults, I was pretty satisfied with Xenogears after finishing it though I can’t discount how exhausting of a game this is to get through. It just unfortunately exists and is tethered with this game given its horrendous development and mismanagement as a first title for most of the people working on it. It also further points to how ambitious of a game this was trying to be despite the hard limits of the ps1 that maybe it could have been a very sickening ps2 game in a mostly “complete” state in another time. Even in the time now that is unearthing the grave of older series titles for new releases to create and remake, I’m not sure how/if something like this could be built up again today in all its glory and eccentricities. Remake discourse is an enormous, tiring blob where it feels like no one wins that I’d rather have a new title in the series rather than another try at “completing” Xenogears that will probably rob it of the charm and vision so specific to its time and circumstances, and in some ways that cannot be recaptured to me with the slippery slope of faithful recreations being a point of contention. Also unfortunate that this specific series is stuck to the halls of the ps1 and ps2 with the tricky licensing and separate paths all of its creators have taken since then to move on to newer things. At the very least Xenogears has inspired me to actually try out its successor series more despite a rough and confusing entry into the series many years ago with its messy second title on the switch. I’ll probably still have complaints about the gameplay though.
What an incredible game. Even after finishing the masterpiece that is FFVII, this makes it look weak in comparison in nearly every way outside of presentation. The gameplay is solid and still holds up as having one of the most unique battle systems in RPGs 26 years later, and I feel like it's nearly perfect aside from some gimmicky boss fights — which would be fine, if you didn't have to sit through long cutscenes to get to that fight again. Unfortunately, most of the actual gameplay is limited to disc 1; infamously unfinished, Xenogears disc 2 is essentially a visual novel, taking you from cutscene to cutscene with an occasional dungeon or boss fight to break it up. However, the story is the real treat here anyways, because this is one of the best video game stories ever written. It has its corny moments of course, but it never feels out of place or immature when tackling its more serious themes. I'm always amazed by the amount of pretentiousness narrative-driven video games seem to have when talking about say, mental health, but the Xeno series has always been exceptional, even in the very first game. It's also fun to see the beginning of the meta-narrative that set in motion the entire series, and how later games like Xenoblade revisit these concepts and elaborate on them.
The music is wonderfully composed, as is typical of Yasunori Mitsuda, though it feels a little derivative of Chrono Trigger at points. Still, it's one of my favorite soundtracks in any video game.
So far, this is the best PS1 RPG I've played.
The music is wonderfully composed, as is typical of Yasunori Mitsuda, though it feels a little derivative of Chrono Trigger at points. Still, it's one of my favorite soundtracks in any video game.
So far, this is the best PS1 RPG I've played.
I hope someone has lobotomized the word "mother" out of Takahashi's lexicon already
Beautiful in its messy soup of random Wikipedia skims of various philosophers and thinkers, and structured like a really good mecha anime. This is my favorite game -- in its amateurish, slapped together state it feels incredibly raw and engaging.
Will teach you more philosophy in one play trough than Turkish high schools in 4 years
I'm a huge Xenoblade fan, and decided to check out the origins of the Xeno series; the cult classic 1998 JRPG for the PlayStation 1, Xenogears. This game is infamously complicated, and I've seen many describe it as the most complex and ambitious game ever created, and it's certainly the most complicated game I've ever played with an unspeakable amount of lore and concepts presented during the 80-hour run time, so I'm not gonna go too deep in detail with this review otherwise I'd be here for hours, but I will summarize my thoughts on this game and simply say that this was an enjoyable game, but I definitely had a lot of issues with it. Primarily the combat not being deep or difficult enough for an 80+ hour game, you can pretty much win every battle by spamming Level 1 deathblows repeatedly. It also doesn't help that the random encounter rate in this game is pretty high, leading to battling getting repetitive really quickly. Even further, battle animations are really long and unskippable. The animations look great, but it gets tedious watching them over and over again. I played this game on an emulator, allowing me to use the emulator's speed-up mechanic to quickly go through animations, and it was still tiring to sit through the animations, so I can't even imagine playing this game on actual hardware where you can't use speed-up.
This game also has a lot of incredibly tedious and sluggish dungeons that are a chore to navigate and get through, and the story is full of really slow pacing... at least until the infamous Disc 2 when the game decides to move the story along insanely fast due to budget and time constraints. That being said, Disc 2 surprised me, as I've only ever heard negative things about it, with many saying that it's the worst part of the game. But I genuinely found myself enjoying Disc 2 to be the best part of the game. Yes, there are a lot of problems that come with the sudden fast-pacing (some details being omitted, character development being hindered for a lot of the cast, etc.) But honestly, I enjoyed Disc 2 since the game basically turns into a visual novel, meaning there's less of the annoying combat and dungeons, and more focus on the great story.
However, this game is full of a lot of heart and at its peak is truly incredible. The story is really complex and layered and it's possibly my favorite story in all of gaming, only rivaled by Xenoblade Chronicles 1. None of the plot makes sense until the final 10 hours and I love that, makes it feel like a mystery slowly being unraveled, even more so than the Xenoblade games. The themes in this game are also incredibly strong and heartfelt, and they're easily some of the most well-handled themes in the series.
The music was fantastic (it's Mitsuda, what do you expect), and this probably has my favorite art direction in the series, since I love the fusion of old PS1-era 3D models and the 2D sprites. And of course, the anime FMVs are really great-looking with their abstract imagery.
And while I did have some problems with the cast being underdeveloped by the end (besides Fei and Elly), since Citan and Bart don't really do a whole lot in Disc 2, and the rest of the party doesn't even get any screen time past their initial arcs. The villains were good too, but I think some of them get sudden character arcs way too quickly that makes their development feel a bit unnatural at points, though that's probably an after-effect of Disc 2's fast pacing. But that being said, I still did enjoy the cast and I think Fei and Elly are some of the best-written characters in Xeno, but I think all the Xenoblade games have overall better casts.
Overall, Xenogears is a masterpiece of a story packaged in a not-so-good game. The Xeno team improved greatly by the time they reached Xenoblade, as Xenogears was poorly-designed in many areas. But the story and thematics are just so good I can't possibly bring myself to rate this anything lower than a 7/10.
Final rating: 7.5/10
This game also has a lot of incredibly tedious and sluggish dungeons that are a chore to navigate and get through, and the story is full of really slow pacing... at least until the infamous Disc 2 when the game decides to move the story along insanely fast due to budget and time constraints. That being said, Disc 2 surprised me, as I've only ever heard negative things about it, with many saying that it's the worst part of the game. But I genuinely found myself enjoying Disc 2 to be the best part of the game. Yes, there are a lot of problems that come with the sudden fast-pacing (some details being omitted, character development being hindered for a lot of the cast, etc.) But honestly, I enjoyed Disc 2 since the game basically turns into a visual novel, meaning there's less of the annoying combat and dungeons, and more focus on the great story.
However, this game is full of a lot of heart and at its peak is truly incredible. The story is really complex and layered and it's possibly my favorite story in all of gaming, only rivaled by Xenoblade Chronicles 1. None of the plot makes sense until the final 10 hours and I love that, makes it feel like a mystery slowly being unraveled, even more so than the Xenoblade games. The themes in this game are also incredibly strong and heartfelt, and they're easily some of the most well-handled themes in the series.
The music was fantastic (it's Mitsuda, what do you expect), and this probably has my favorite art direction in the series, since I love the fusion of old PS1-era 3D models and the 2D sprites. And of course, the anime FMVs are really great-looking with their abstract imagery.
And while I did have some problems with the cast being underdeveloped by the end (besides Fei and Elly), since Citan and Bart don't really do a whole lot in Disc 2, and the rest of the party doesn't even get any screen time past their initial arcs. The villains were good too, but I think some of them get sudden character arcs way too quickly that makes their development feel a bit unnatural at points, though that's probably an after-effect of Disc 2's fast pacing. But that being said, I still did enjoy the cast and I think Fei and Elly are some of the best-written characters in Xeno, but I think all the Xenoblade games have overall better casts.
Overall, Xenogears is a masterpiece of a story packaged in a not-so-good game. The Xeno team improved greatly by the time they reached Xenoblade, as Xenogears was poorly-designed in many areas. But the story and thematics are just so good I can't possibly bring myself to rate this anything lower than a 7/10.
Final rating: 7.5/10
Il mio legame con i jRPG è conflittuale, dato che a loro mi avvicino da un punto di vista più intellettuale che specificamente ludico: più che giocarli mi interessa conoscerne e studiarne le circostanze dietro lo sviluppo, siano esse storiche e politiche come anche, più nel dettaglio, gli usi e costumi della popolazione giapponese. Questa separazione la vivo in modo molto meno netto per qualsiasi altro genere
Devo dire che, in generale, mi accade sia con i jRPG che con gli adventure in generale, comprendendo le Visual Novel nel discorso. Trovo molto interessanti i punti di contatto con la cultura occidentale, a partire da ispirazioni ben risapute come DnD, Colossal Cave Adventure, Wizardry, Rogue: tutti esempi ben noti e che hanno lasciato un segno evidente nella produzione artistico-ludica giapponese. La cosa più intrigante, per me, è il modo con cui siano stati (più o meno) tutti rielaborati efficacemente per dare vita a lavori o particolarmente complessi o totalmente riadattati per accomodare le abitudini dei giapponesi: dai jRPG stessi ai replay
Queste basi si possono notare in modo più o meno sottile sia su base visiva che sul piano del gameloop e del setting
Xenogears è stato partorito da un team di Square, già allora ben impegnata nella produzione di jRPG di derivazione potremmo dire tradizionale: sono ovvi i primi Final Fantasy, King's Knight e Romancing Saga
Si tratta spesso di giochi con alla base una certa volontà di sperimentare, sotto più profili. Oltre ciò, Square ha manifestato sin da subito un certo interesse per la fantascienza e per tematiche politiche. Gli esempi più interessanti:
1)Cruise Chaser Blassty - Oggi è forse ricordato solo per gli arrangiamenti musicali di Nobuo Uematsu, ma anche lato storia e gameplay ha delle notevoli particolarità. Mi soffermo sul fatto che il protagonista, alla guida di mecha in tutto e per tutto simili a certi Gundam (realizzati, infatti, da Mika Aki), si ritrova nel mezzo di un conflitto tra un governo oppressivo e una fazione ribelle. Tra gli sviluppatori coinvolti, Sakaguchi e Kazuhiko Aoki;
2) Alpha - probabilmente altrettanto oscuro, in questo caso si tratta di un ADV game (ciò che noi chiameremmo indistintamente Visual Novel). La protagonista soffre di amnesia, e si trova su una nave spaziale incaricata di raggiungere un nuovo pianeta già che le risorse naturali della Terra sono state consumate. Anche qui, il setting prevede un conflitto tra un sistema dittatoriale e una fazione ribelle. Cosa da ricordare è che, alla scrittura, c'è Hiromichi Tanaka.
Xenogears nasce un po' da tutto questo, e da molto altro. Il fulcro del gioco ruota attorno al ruolo di Tetsuya Takahashi, già coinvolto nella realizzazione di altri giochi di spicco di Square: prendo ad esempio Chrono Trigger e Final Fantasy VI (sua la realizzazione delle Magitek, intro in CGI compresa). Assieme a lui lavorano su Xenogears molti altri professionisti provenienti dall'esperienza Chrono Trigger: alcuni di questi già menzionati, altri sono:
Katsuhisa Higuchi e Kiyoshi Yoshii (combat programmer che perfezionò l'ATB di Hiroyuki Ito), Yasunori Mitsuda (compositore), Tsutomu Terada e Tadahiro Usuda (character designer), Yoshinori Ogura (mecha designer), Yasuyuki Honne (texture mapping), e soprattutto Masato Kato. Quest'ultimo fu co-scrittore di Xenogears, e fu in effetti l'elemento di spicco dietro la scrittura di Chrono Trigger. Ci sarebbero diverse altre menzioni da fare
Questo spostamento di professionisti ben si sposa con le intenzioni iniziali del progetto, pensato come prosecuzione proprio di Chrono Trigger. Vi fu anche la volontà di renderlo settimo capitolo di Final Fantasy, per poi venir scartato proprio per il suo mischiare un setting tra il fantasy e lo sci-fi con tematiche e atmosfere seriose e cupe
Ecco, da questo punto iniziano a intrecciarsi certi fatti curiosi: lo sviluppo di Xenogears portò in effetti alla nascita di altri giochi che ne condividevano i toni, personaggi ed elementi narrativi. Prima ho menzionato Alpha e Cruise Chaser Blassty non a caso: Takahashi, sua moglie Kaori Tanaka, Masato Kato non furono direttamente coinvolti, ma presentano anche Xenogears presenta un protagonista che soffre di amnesie e il tema dell'oppressione
Spesso e volentieri si vuole attribuire una proliferazione di determinate opere e determinati temi al cosiddetto decennio perduto giapponese, per sommi capi corrispondente agli anni '90. Questa è una correlazione che devo ancora conoscere in modo che mi soddisfi, e del resto nulla vieta che esista una produzione anticipatoria di questo fenomeno e che introduca sviluppi legati alla tecnofobia e all'anti-war - vedendo, per esempio, la tensione sociale e politica derivate dalla Guerra Fredda (es.: The Death Trap)
Per ora trovo ben plausibile che Xenogears sia effettivamente figlio di quel decennio di insicurezze e instabilità politiche ed economiche, che ne rispecchi paure e trend, anche all'interno di Square stessa. Non si volle renderlo sequel di Chrono Trigger e di Final Fantasy, eppure Square da quel momento prese un nuovo tipo di strada
In FFVII sono fondamentali il Jenova Project, l'enorme potere della Shinra Electric Power Company, Sephiroth. Tutti elementi che riflettono la già menzionata tecnofobia, la paura per uno sviluppo tecnologico dipendente dalla volontà di un soggetto in grado di imporre la propria volontà in modo autoritativo, vuoi in modo subdolo o in modo diretto. Oppure si consideri Parasite Eve con il tema della maternità, dell'identità, dell'ingegneria genetica, dell'ambientalismo. D'altro canto, alcuni di questi sono presenti anche in FFVII, tra Strife, Sephiroth, il gruppo AVALANCHE
Una corrente tematica che si rileva anche in giochi come Einhänder, Treasure of the Rudras, Another Mind. Difficile stabilire se vi sia una corrente percorsa da un certo quantitativo di altre case di sviluppo, occorrerebbe perderci un po' di tempo per capire la portata del fenomeno
Xenogears è un po' tutto questo e anche molto di più, mettendo in mostra il notevole ecletticismo di tutto il team di sviluppo. Takahashi in particolare, avendo avuto ampia esperienza come lettore e spettatore di testi e cinema occidentali. Più che evidente è il suo prendere a piene mani da Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, e poi da Clarke, Harrison, George Lucas, Kubrick, Heinlein, Asimov. Le identità manifeste Fei, nate anche dal trauma oltre che da una volontà esterna, sono uno degli elementi più complessi di tutto il gioco
La scelta stessa di ripiegare su un combattimento spesso e volentieri basato sull'uso dei mecha riflette certe idee care alla letteratura fantascientifica, nonché all'animazione giapponese stessa, ripercorrendo la corrente anti-war. Spesso e volentieri si vede un confronto tra Xenogears e Neon Genesis Evangelion ma, al di là di un paio di situazioni, la scrittura rimane molto distante: il tema prevalente è quello del terrore evocato dalla guerra, dall'impossibilità di allontanarsi da essa e, al netto dell'avanzamento tecnologico, il fatto che la guerra ha sempre lo stesso volto scavato dal dolore e dalla tragedia
In Xenogears la tragedia è onnipresente, in alcune rare occasioni si riflette anche all'interno dei combattimenti (penso a quello tra il protagonista e Dan) ma viene soprattutto espresso mediante filmati realizzati in engine di gioco. Più volte questo manifesta la già menzionata tecnofobia, l'incapacità dell'uomo di controllare il mezzo o, in alternativa, la sua tendenza a farne abuso - si può pensare qui a una disillusione dall'econophoria asiatica
Attraverso l'ingegneria genetica c'è perversione della vita, proponendo riflessioni sul post-human (si pensi anche e soprattutto a esempi nell'animazione e nel cinema, da Oshii a 964 Pinocchio, da Marginal di Moto Hagio ai romanzi di Mariko Ōhara) e una sfiducia generale anche verso la spiritualità e le autorità religiose. Tra l'altro, in quest'ottica, mi piace rimandare la mente anche a Silent Hill 3 (they looked like monsters to you..?)
e il potere porta unicamente a classismo, razzismo, abuso (anche di natura sessuale, il gioco non si mostra timido verso nessun tema). Gli intrecci tra i personaggi e gli eventi sono molto complessi, la scrittura è meticolosa. Si tratta di un'opera dal sapore realmente cinematografico, adottando spesso e volentieri cambi di punti di vista, movimenti di camera virtuale, composizione che mostrano un certo tipo di ambizione molto (forse troppo) comune nell'ambiente videoludico giapponese - e sempre, assolutamente sempre dando più di uno sguardo al mondo occidentale. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher sono gli esempi più popolari che mi vengono in mente. Chiara è l'ammirazione nei confronti degli Stati Uniti e una parte d'Europa, chiaro il tentativo di raggiungerne i mercati, e a voler essere maliziosi si potrebbe anche ipotizzare uno scarso interesse verso i propri stessi ambienti intellettuali e la propria stessa produzione artistica. Un fatto da tenere in considerazione per rifletterci
Altra cosa interessante in Xenogears è l'esplorazione: più volte ho espresso il mio interesse per la varietà di modi con cui gli sviluppatori giapponesi hanno deciso di affrontare la componente adventure nei propri titoli, dai Metroid a Yume Nikki. Il fascino che provo verso un jRPG simile deriva anche, molto banalmente, dalla possibilità di ruotare la telecamera e di saltare: questa scelta ha permesso di includere anche alcune semplici sezioni di platforming e di gestire diversamente l'architettura delle città. Sembrerà una scemenza, ma così facendo rende anche possibile nascondere alcune cose che possono semplicemente essere trovate grazie a un minimo di curiosità da parte del giocatore, ampliando la dimensione degli spazi. Magari si sarebbe potuto fare a meno della Babel Tower
Peccato per la questione del Disco 2. Peccato che non siano stati in grado di evitare lo sgradevole meta rappresentato dal memory cube. Peccato anche per i combattimenti che ogni tanto mi hanno veramente rotto i coglioni nonostante l'intelligenza dietro il sistema di combo, ma questa è la mia solita repulsione per il combat ed encounter system dei jRPG. C'è comunque una certa cura nella loro progettazione: mi viene in mente Calamity, che un po' insegna al giocatore che dovrebbe iniziare a pensare a fare upgrade al proprio equipaggiamento se vuole sperare di proseguire. Oppure, mi viene in mente il torneo col suo alternare due personaggi tra esplorazione e fasi di combattimento. Si tratta in ogni caso di sparuti episodi in un gioco della durata di 50 e passa ore
Devo dire che, in generale, mi accade sia con i jRPG che con gli adventure in generale, comprendendo le Visual Novel nel discorso. Trovo molto interessanti i punti di contatto con la cultura occidentale, a partire da ispirazioni ben risapute come DnD, Colossal Cave Adventure, Wizardry, Rogue: tutti esempi ben noti e che hanno lasciato un segno evidente nella produzione artistico-ludica giapponese. La cosa più intrigante, per me, è il modo con cui siano stati (più o meno) tutti rielaborati efficacemente per dare vita a lavori o particolarmente complessi o totalmente riadattati per accomodare le abitudini dei giapponesi: dai jRPG stessi ai replay
Queste basi si possono notare in modo più o meno sottile sia su base visiva che sul piano del gameloop e del setting
Xenogears è stato partorito da un team di Square, già allora ben impegnata nella produzione di jRPG di derivazione potremmo dire tradizionale: sono ovvi i primi Final Fantasy, King's Knight e Romancing Saga
Si tratta spesso di giochi con alla base una certa volontà di sperimentare, sotto più profili. Oltre ciò, Square ha manifestato sin da subito un certo interesse per la fantascienza e per tematiche politiche. Gli esempi più interessanti:
1)Cruise Chaser Blassty - Oggi è forse ricordato solo per gli arrangiamenti musicali di Nobuo Uematsu, ma anche lato storia e gameplay ha delle notevoli particolarità. Mi soffermo sul fatto che il protagonista, alla guida di mecha in tutto e per tutto simili a certi Gundam (realizzati, infatti, da Mika Aki), si ritrova nel mezzo di un conflitto tra un governo oppressivo e una fazione ribelle. Tra gli sviluppatori coinvolti, Sakaguchi e Kazuhiko Aoki;
2) Alpha - probabilmente altrettanto oscuro, in questo caso si tratta di un ADV game (ciò che noi chiameremmo indistintamente Visual Novel). La protagonista soffre di amnesia, e si trova su una nave spaziale incaricata di raggiungere un nuovo pianeta già che le risorse naturali della Terra sono state consumate. Anche qui, il setting prevede un conflitto tra un sistema dittatoriale e una fazione ribelle. Cosa da ricordare è che, alla scrittura, c'è Hiromichi Tanaka.
Xenogears nasce un po' da tutto questo, e da molto altro. Il fulcro del gioco ruota attorno al ruolo di Tetsuya Takahashi, già coinvolto nella realizzazione di altri giochi di spicco di Square: prendo ad esempio Chrono Trigger e Final Fantasy VI (sua la realizzazione delle Magitek, intro in CGI compresa). Assieme a lui lavorano su Xenogears molti altri professionisti provenienti dall'esperienza Chrono Trigger: alcuni di questi già menzionati, altri sono:
Katsuhisa Higuchi e Kiyoshi Yoshii (combat programmer che perfezionò l'ATB di Hiroyuki Ito), Yasunori Mitsuda (compositore), Tsutomu Terada e Tadahiro Usuda (character designer), Yoshinori Ogura (mecha designer), Yasuyuki Honne (texture mapping), e soprattutto Masato Kato. Quest'ultimo fu co-scrittore di Xenogears, e fu in effetti l'elemento di spicco dietro la scrittura di Chrono Trigger. Ci sarebbero diverse altre menzioni da fare
Questo spostamento di professionisti ben si sposa con le intenzioni iniziali del progetto, pensato come prosecuzione proprio di Chrono Trigger. Vi fu anche la volontà di renderlo settimo capitolo di Final Fantasy, per poi venir scartato proprio per il suo mischiare un setting tra il fantasy e lo sci-fi con tematiche e atmosfere seriose e cupe
Ecco, da questo punto iniziano a intrecciarsi certi fatti curiosi: lo sviluppo di Xenogears portò in effetti alla nascita di altri giochi che ne condividevano i toni, personaggi ed elementi narrativi. Prima ho menzionato Alpha e Cruise Chaser Blassty non a caso: Takahashi, sua moglie Kaori Tanaka, Masato Kato non furono direttamente coinvolti, ma presentano anche Xenogears presenta un protagonista che soffre di amnesie e il tema dell'oppressione
Spesso e volentieri si vuole attribuire una proliferazione di determinate opere e determinati temi al cosiddetto decennio perduto giapponese, per sommi capi corrispondente agli anni '90. Questa è una correlazione che devo ancora conoscere in modo che mi soddisfi, e del resto nulla vieta che esista una produzione anticipatoria di questo fenomeno e che introduca sviluppi legati alla tecnofobia e all'anti-war - vedendo, per esempio, la tensione sociale e politica derivate dalla Guerra Fredda (es.: The Death Trap)
Per ora trovo ben plausibile che Xenogears sia effettivamente figlio di quel decennio di insicurezze e instabilità politiche ed economiche, che ne rispecchi paure e trend, anche all'interno di Square stessa. Non si volle renderlo sequel di Chrono Trigger e di Final Fantasy, eppure Square da quel momento prese un nuovo tipo di strada
In FFVII sono fondamentali il Jenova Project, l'enorme potere della Shinra Electric Power Company, Sephiroth. Tutti elementi che riflettono la già menzionata tecnofobia, la paura per uno sviluppo tecnologico dipendente dalla volontà di un soggetto in grado di imporre la propria volontà in modo autoritativo, vuoi in modo subdolo o in modo diretto. Oppure si consideri Parasite Eve con il tema della maternità, dell'identità, dell'ingegneria genetica, dell'ambientalismo. D'altro canto, alcuni di questi sono presenti anche in FFVII, tra Strife, Sephiroth, il gruppo AVALANCHE
Una corrente tematica che si rileva anche in giochi come Einhänder, Treasure of the Rudras, Another Mind. Difficile stabilire se vi sia una corrente percorsa da un certo quantitativo di altre case di sviluppo, occorrerebbe perderci un po' di tempo per capire la portata del fenomeno
Xenogears è un po' tutto questo e anche molto di più, mettendo in mostra il notevole ecletticismo di tutto il team di sviluppo. Takahashi in particolare, avendo avuto ampia esperienza come lettore e spettatore di testi e cinema occidentali. Più che evidente è il suo prendere a piene mani da Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, e poi da Clarke, Harrison, George Lucas, Kubrick, Heinlein, Asimov. Le identità manifeste Fei, nate anche dal trauma oltre che da una volontà esterna, sono uno degli elementi più complessi di tutto il gioco
La scelta stessa di ripiegare su un combattimento spesso e volentieri basato sull'uso dei mecha riflette certe idee care alla letteratura fantascientifica, nonché all'animazione giapponese stessa, ripercorrendo la corrente anti-war. Spesso e volentieri si vede un confronto tra Xenogears e Neon Genesis Evangelion ma, al di là di un paio di situazioni, la scrittura rimane molto distante: il tema prevalente è quello del terrore evocato dalla guerra, dall'impossibilità di allontanarsi da essa e, al netto dell'avanzamento tecnologico, il fatto che la guerra ha sempre lo stesso volto scavato dal dolore e dalla tragedia
In Xenogears la tragedia è onnipresente, in alcune rare occasioni si riflette anche all'interno dei combattimenti (penso a quello tra il protagonista e Dan) ma viene soprattutto espresso mediante filmati realizzati in engine di gioco. Più volte questo manifesta la già menzionata tecnofobia, l'incapacità dell'uomo di controllare il mezzo o, in alternativa, la sua tendenza a farne abuso - si può pensare qui a una disillusione dall'econophoria asiatica
Attraverso l'ingegneria genetica c'è perversione della vita, proponendo riflessioni sul post-human (si pensi anche e soprattutto a esempi nell'animazione e nel cinema, da Oshii a 964 Pinocchio, da Marginal di Moto Hagio ai romanzi di Mariko Ōhara) e una sfiducia generale anche verso la spiritualità e le autorità religiose. Tra l'altro, in quest'ottica, mi piace rimandare la mente anche a Silent Hill 3 (they looked like monsters to you..?)
e il potere porta unicamente a classismo, razzismo, abuso (anche di natura sessuale, il gioco non si mostra timido verso nessun tema). Gli intrecci tra i personaggi e gli eventi sono molto complessi, la scrittura è meticolosa. Si tratta di un'opera dal sapore realmente cinematografico, adottando spesso e volentieri cambi di punti di vista, movimenti di camera virtuale, composizione che mostrano un certo tipo di ambizione molto (forse troppo) comune nell'ambiente videoludico giapponese - e sempre, assolutamente sempre dando più di uno sguardo al mondo occidentale. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher sono gli esempi più popolari che mi vengono in mente. Chiara è l'ammirazione nei confronti degli Stati Uniti e una parte d'Europa, chiaro il tentativo di raggiungerne i mercati, e a voler essere maliziosi si potrebbe anche ipotizzare uno scarso interesse verso i propri stessi ambienti intellettuali e la propria stessa produzione artistica. Un fatto da tenere in considerazione per rifletterci
Altra cosa interessante in Xenogears è l'esplorazione: più volte ho espresso il mio interesse per la varietà di modi con cui gli sviluppatori giapponesi hanno deciso di affrontare la componente adventure nei propri titoli, dai Metroid a Yume Nikki. Il fascino che provo verso un jRPG simile deriva anche, molto banalmente, dalla possibilità di ruotare la telecamera e di saltare: questa scelta ha permesso di includere anche alcune semplici sezioni di platforming e di gestire diversamente l'architettura delle città. Sembrerà una scemenza, ma così facendo rende anche possibile nascondere alcune cose che possono semplicemente essere trovate grazie a un minimo di curiosità da parte del giocatore, ampliando la dimensione degli spazi. Magari si sarebbe potuto fare a meno della Babel Tower
Peccato per la questione del Disco 2. Peccato che non siano stati in grado di evitare lo sgradevole meta rappresentato dal memory cube. Peccato anche per i combattimenti che ogni tanto mi hanno veramente rotto i coglioni nonostante l'intelligenza dietro il sistema di combo, ma questa è la mia solita repulsione per il combat ed encounter system dei jRPG. C'è comunque una certa cura nella loro progettazione: mi viene in mente Calamity, che un po' insegna al giocatore che dovrebbe iniziare a pensare a fare upgrade al proprio equipaggiamento se vuole sperare di proseguire. Oppure, mi viene in mente il torneo col suo alternare due personaggi tra esplorazione e fasi di combattimento. Si tratta in ogni caso di sparuti episodi in un gioco della durata di 50 e passa ore
If this game was actually able to fully flesh out its scope instead of being rushed and if the combat wasn't completely trivial/tedious, this would be in contention for the best RPG's of all time.
For what I think though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. This game may be a 4/5 bc I'd be irresponsible to not acknowledge its shortcomings, but it's a 5/5 in my heart.
For what I think though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. This game may be a 4/5 bc I'd be irresponsible to not acknowledge its shortcomings, but it's a 5/5 in my heart.
Worth the recognition and praise, a fun adventurous story with many twists and turns, and a fun combat system that invites experimentation before testing the player. It's got some rocky parts to it, and despite the second disc completely abandoning the story-telling strengths of the first disc, there's still a significant amount of love emitting from this game.
One of the greatest of all time
aun con toda la wea del disco 2, de las mejores historias de los juegos y el mejor juego de la psx ysiiii
one of the best stories in video game history
even disc 2 won't change my rating
even disc 2 won't change my rating
do you need a fucking review? you already know about xenogears. what else is there to be said? its only competition is literally strange journey and eternal punishment. its a game so good, its creators keep on using archetypes, themes, symbolism, metaphors, and visual motifs for 30+ years. 'b-b-but disk 2--' shut the fuck up you unoriginal ass. the only people who overreact about disk 2 are your kbash game dude wannabes who grow a spine and realize literally the best part IS disk 2.
Seemed kinda mid, might give it a second chance
Finally finished this and it genuinely blew me away. One of the most ambitious games ever made with a scope that still feels huge decades later. Probably the most deep, unpredictable and utterly insane story I've seen in the medium. It covers any themes they could get past the censors - mental health, organized religion, free will, classism, genocide to name a few. (I don't think the ESRB played past 10 hours.) The presentation is outstanding with dynamic in-engine cutscene direction not over-relying on FMVs. It's a wonderful looking work in general with 2D sprites in dense 3D scifi environments and awesome mech / biblical / eldritch designs. When a lot of other RPGs on the console were using prerendered backgrounds these fully explorable multi-level populated towns seemed magic. The 360 camera made me feel like I was peering into little dioramas. I also enjoy the combat! Fighter style combo inputs either on foot or in giant mechs with complex mechanics and amazing animation.
It's well known that the developers ran out of time and money on the second disc and it becomes apparent with how the storytelling style suddenly changes and it's not nearly as open. This can even be felt in the music with how there isn't nearly enough unique tracks to cover all the different scenes and locations. So Xenogears is categorically unfinished. Disc 1 is really consistent though and by itself is more compelling and fully featured than other entire games. It was one of the longest of its day. If Square had given the team what they needed to complete it as fully envisioned with a Final Fantasy tier budget, it coulda been the best damn RPG ever. Even with those limitations and some frustrating moments, I think Disc 2 really picked up and reeled me back in, and the last hours were peak fiction.
I don't love everything about Xenogears, even the story - it's definitely not flawless and could be brutal to get through at times so I wouldn't usually give a "10/10" BUT I strongly feel that it's a work of art. That rating represents the huge impression it made on me and my respect for the vision and creativity. Anything less wouldn't be right. It continually impressed me for 50 hours and the gameplay remained fun. It's not easily recommendable because of its unintuitive design and sluggish English text speed (you NEED to apply a text speed code). But if you love Chrono Trigger and FF7 you owe it to yourself to try it out... I consider them a holy trinity of sorts.
It's well known that the developers ran out of time and money on the second disc and it becomes apparent with how the storytelling style suddenly changes and it's not nearly as open. This can even be felt in the music with how there isn't nearly enough unique tracks to cover all the different scenes and locations. So Xenogears is categorically unfinished. Disc 1 is really consistent though and by itself is more compelling and fully featured than other entire games. It was one of the longest of its day. If Square had given the team what they needed to complete it as fully envisioned with a Final Fantasy tier budget, it coulda been the best damn RPG ever. Even with those limitations and some frustrating moments, I think Disc 2 really picked up and reeled me back in, and the last hours were peak fiction.
I don't love everything about Xenogears, even the story - it's definitely not flawless and could be brutal to get through at times so I wouldn't usually give a "10/10" BUT I strongly feel that it's a work of art. That rating represents the huge impression it made on me and my respect for the vision and creativity. Anything less wouldn't be right. It continually impressed me for 50 hours and the gameplay remained fun. It's not easily recommendable because of its unintuitive design and sluggish English text speed (you NEED to apply a text speed code). But if you love Chrono Trigger and FF7 you owe it to yourself to try it out... I consider them a holy trinity of sorts.
This review contains spoilers
Whenever I play a video game (specifically a (J)RPG), two things are always my top priorities. Gameplay, story, and characters. There are other things I look for, but they’re not as important as those three imo. Now there’s a chance for a game to have one thing carry enough for me to not care abt those three, and I think Xenogears is the game that has done that for me. I don’t think “peak” is enough to describe how I feel abt this lore, the story, the characters (save for a few), the themes, everything. And yet, I don’t like the gameplay. My opinion of ground combat is that of most turn-based combat in JRPGs, and I just outright didn’t like the Gears combat. It’s the most annoying piece of shit ever, and it didn’t help that they repeated the same soundtracks for battle all the time (it’s not like the music was ass, it was just annoying hearing it all the time). The amount of parkour I had to do was annoying too; to the point where I questioned whether I’d like this game as much as everyone else. Safe to say, now I do. This game is (like I mentioned before), one of the rare cases where I can (kind of) forgive my sour feelings towards the gameplay and appreciate the game for what it is, absolute kino—well played, Taka. You’ve changed how I see games once again. (I’m not giving it 5 stars though, mind you, I said I can “kind of” forgive the gameplay. So take that 4.5)
my fav non final fantasy jrpg on the ps1 2nd disk included i wish some of the darker themes got carried over to the balde games
Una historia hecha con amor y ambición que a pesar de su extrema complejidad no le quita el mérito de ser un RPG LEGENDARIO.
Xenogears, this game took me a while to finish compared to other stuff i've played since other stuff got in the way which is why it took quite a while
a game that is filled with amazing and intriguing themes( which cover many things such as, religion, politics and mental health and human fragility, a story with many dark and crippling themes but also an existential, heartfelt story, many moments in this game i was moved heavily. Apart from these interesting themes, the cast is amazing too, i love everyone in the main cast, the chemistry and bonds between them got me hooked as i played, character dynamics and arcs were something that really caught my attention in xenogears. Each character having their own individual stories which justifies their wrongdoings and righteous acts really makes you feel some sort of empathy for the characters, even the antagonists, they all have reasons why they are driven to such ideals, this gives so much substance to the game. Another thing, for the time it was made, the combat is super satisfying and excellent, i really enjoyed my time in combat, the deathblows and combos were quite cool and i don't really think I had a bad time with any of the characters i switch around in my party, even chu chu. (so unserious). to wrap things up: the osts, combat, characters, themes and world building were all amazing i have nothing bad to say.
Fei, another amazing protagonist in the xeno series, from what i've played anyway. its crazy that both Shion and Fei are probably top 5 gaming protagonists for me, they're so good. anyways,
Fei Fong Wong, who i view as a character that is one of a kind, such a unique character. Fei's character arc and development throughout the game really touched me, also his dynamics with the cast are beautifully done. Fei as a character is layered in such a unique way, his character conflicts and how he moves past them and how his problems are portrayed through his own self, becoming one and content with himself, he embraces his hardships and the hardships of others and moves on. Fei's character and his best moments kind of really resonated with me which is interesting because i really see bits of Shion in me as well. These games know how to make masterful and impactful characters. Its kind of hard to explain fei's character without spoilers but he has one of my favourite character conflicts/arcs and a mind which references works of Jung and Freudian theory. such a special and well done character
regarding the cast as well, most of them are fleshed out and explored quite well, and they are even better through the chemistry of one and other.
the antagonist cast is packed and where some of the best concepts in the game are established, they hold really well against the other side of the cast. Every antagonist each had a reason in consequence of their ideals, finding out and taking off the layers of each antagonist was super cool, i genuinely liked all of them, their concepts, ethos and backstories/reasonings were so interesting, had me feeling some sort of sympathy and empathy for them. The main antagonist(s) is amazing, crazy ideas and just full of character. A big thing about them is the religious symbolism and goals they try to lean towards, through this it gives many pathways to their character and makes us understand their true ambitions.
dungeons and areas were cool too, all the nations and even little details such as inclusiveness among races and such shows how great this game is
Xenogears i believe is a game which was created with soul and passion, a gem among the medium and a must play for everyone, one of the great
"when will it be the day we can understand what all this loneliness and sorrow was for?.."
a game that is filled with amazing and intriguing themes( which cover many things such as, religion, politics and mental health and human fragility, a story with many dark and crippling themes but also an existential, heartfelt story, many moments in this game i was moved heavily. Apart from these interesting themes, the cast is amazing too, i love everyone in the main cast, the chemistry and bonds between them got me hooked as i played, character dynamics and arcs were something that really caught my attention in xenogears. Each character having their own individual stories which justifies their wrongdoings and righteous acts really makes you feel some sort of empathy for the characters, even the antagonists, they all have reasons why they are driven to such ideals, this gives so much substance to the game. Another thing, for the time it was made, the combat is super satisfying and excellent, i really enjoyed my time in combat, the deathblows and combos were quite cool and i don't really think I had a bad time with any of the characters i switch around in my party, even chu chu. (so unserious). to wrap things up: the osts, combat, characters, themes and world building were all amazing i have nothing bad to say.
Fei, another amazing protagonist in the xeno series, from what i've played anyway. its crazy that both Shion and Fei are probably top 5 gaming protagonists for me, they're so good. anyways,
Fei Fong Wong, who i view as a character that is one of a kind, such a unique character. Fei's character arc and development throughout the game really touched me, also his dynamics with the cast are beautifully done. Fei as a character is layered in such a unique way, his character conflicts and how he moves past them and how his problems are portrayed through his own self, becoming one and content with himself, he embraces his hardships and the hardships of others and moves on. Fei's character and his best moments kind of really resonated with me which is interesting because i really see bits of Shion in me as well. These games know how to make masterful and impactful characters. Its kind of hard to explain fei's character without spoilers but he has one of my favourite character conflicts/arcs and a mind which references works of Jung and Freudian theory. such a special and well done character
regarding the cast as well, most of them are fleshed out and explored quite well, and they are even better through the chemistry of one and other.
the antagonist cast is packed and where some of the best concepts in the game are established, they hold really well against the other side of the cast. Every antagonist each had a reason in consequence of their ideals, finding out and taking off the layers of each antagonist was super cool, i genuinely liked all of them, their concepts, ethos and backstories/reasonings were so interesting, had me feeling some sort of sympathy and empathy for them. The main antagonist(s) is amazing, crazy ideas and just full of character. A big thing about them is the religious symbolism and goals they try to lean towards, through this it gives many pathways to their character and makes us understand their true ambitions.
dungeons and areas were cool too, all the nations and even little details such as inclusiveness among races and such shows how great this game is
Xenogears i believe is a game which was created with soul and passion, a gem among the medium and a must play for everyone, one of the great
"when will it be the day we can understand what all this loneliness and sorrow was for?.."
just reading its title and its already better than valorant
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that story is what I value most in a game, and ever since I started getting into JRPGs, Xenogears has been one of the ones that caught my attention the most. This interest only intensified after one of my friends finished it. I always heard that it was a game with an excellent narrative but severely hindered by development issues, mostly related to budget and time, and… yeah, it was true. Everything related to Xenogears’ gameplay seems poorly planned in some way, starting with the human combat, which initially seems interesting, working quite differently from the rest of the genre. Here, instead of defined turns for each participant with one action possible per turn, we have a combo system. Each character has a certain amount of Attack Points (AP) per turn, starting at 3 and ending at 7 as the characters level up, and three types of attacks: weak, medium, and strong, each requiring 1, 2, and 3 AP respectively. It’s possible to keep attacking as long as there’s AP left, and different attack combinations unlock special end-of-turn moves called Deathblows, which act as specials and deal significantly more damage. Thus, you are encouraged to always vary the combos you perform to discover new Deathblows, and of course, the combinations only increase and become more complex as more AP is gained. But quickly, the novelty of this system wears off, and all that remains is repetitive, often unfair, and very, very, VERY slow combat. Slow to the point that playing with the emulator's turbo activated feels like the normal speed the combat should happen at. Learning Deathblows requires the combinations to be repeated numerous times, resulting in the player spamming the same sequences dozens of times in a row, which obviously becomes boring quickly. As usual for games of the genre, we also have magic or skills, but all except for the healing ones are extremely useless. I can count on my fingers the times it seemed advantageous to spend a turn using them instead of just attacking normally. There’s practically no challenge; most bosses consist of just healing while building up a bar that allows you to use a sequence of consecutive Deathblows to deal massive damage at once and defeat them easily. Money is also abundant for the first 80% of the game, so having the best equipment and infinite healing items is very easy, contributing to making everything even more tedious. On the other hand, we have the combat in mechas or Gears, which visually is incredible. The attack animations are extremely well done (this also applies to the human combat), the Gear models are very well crafted, and the HUD that resembles a real command screen is quite cool, but it suffers from as many problems as the previous combat. The main issue is the fuel meter; each Gear has a limited amount that changes depending on the equipped engine (engine, frame, and armor are the three parts that can be upgraded in a Gear). Each attack or skill consumes a certain amount of fuel, and if it runs out, you can basically say goodbye to that attempt and reload the save, as until the end of the game, the only way to recover fuel is by selecting the option in the battle menu, which spends a turn and recovers ~50 each time, which is a negligible amount. To give you an idea, the engine with the least amount of fuel has 1000. Yes, recovering 50/1000 PER TURN. In the first half of the game, it’s quite difficult to run out, but as you unlock more powerful Deathblows (which, consequently, consume more fuel) and when you unlock the action to heal the Gear (which consumes at least 400 fuel), you have to severely limit the actions you take to avoid running out of reserves before halfway through the fight. Some Gear bosses are ridiculously unfair, with attacks that quickly deplete your HP bar, forcing you to heal and consume fuel. Of course, you can break the game if you know which items to equip on which characters, but playing blindly is hellish. And it doesn’t stop there; remember the parts I mentioned above that can be upgraded? So, you upgrade them in shops scattered throughout the game, and the parts are expensive. But as I mentioned in the previous section, money is abundant in the first half, but in the second, prices inflate too much, and it’s practically impossible to have enough money to equip all the Gears with the best equipment without grinding. I can’t stress enough how necessary it is to have the best parts equipped if you want the slightest chance of beating the bosses. And there’s more; it’s a JRPG, so of course, there will be dungeons. As you might have guessed, they are also terrible. Most are straight lines with a few deviations here and there for treasure chests, and the ones that try to be more complex are even worse, becoming extremely confusing, and not in a good way like Megami Tensei, just in an annoying way. And of course, with the encounter rate through the roof. One, in particular, even tries to have platforming sections, PLATFORMING. WITH. ROBOTS. ON. PLAYSTATION 1. It doesn’t take a genius to imagine how poorly this controls and how imprecise it is. To wrap up the gameplay part, the world map is pretty bland; there are no side activities to do until right before entering the last dungeon, and even when they do appear, they are mediocre. It seems more like an excuse to take the player where they need to go rather than a world that's genuinely fun to explore. But at least the interactions and dialogues with NPCs in the cities are very good. Everything exudes inexperience, which is due to the fact that the team was really inexperienced. Most of the developers were new to the market, and the director himself, Tetsuya Takahashi, despite having worked in important positions in some Final Fantasy games, was only 22 at the time, and it was the first project he was directing alone. Understanding this, it’s clear where most of the numerous gameplay flaws came from.
Leaving hell behind and talking about good stuff, more than good actually, the story is exceptional. Almost all the main concepts and characters introduced have perfect arcs and conclusions. The dialogues are masterfully written, and the way everything makes sense in the end is brilliant. “Brilliant” is what you’ll find yourself repeating when trying to find words for this game’s plot. The way the game handles the psychology mainly of the protagonist, but also of other characters, is brilliant, heavily relying on the studies of Freud, Jung, and Lacan. Having at least a basic understanding of these figures’ work is crucial to fully grasp the story. The way the game deals with human relationships on all fronts—love, rivalry, friendship, enmity, selfishness, conflict with others and with oneself—is brilliant. Kaori Tanaka is easily one of the best writers to have worked in the industry. The few criticisms that can be made are related to some party characters who fall into the background for most of the plot after their arcs end and concepts that are quickly forgotten after being introduced, which are relevant to the plot, but nothing truly hinders it. Even hating the gameplay, I never felt like dropping it. The curiosity and desire to see how the narrative unfolds keep anyone playing until the end, and almost all the characters have extremely unique and charismatic personalities. Even in dialogues that don’t add much to the story, you remain interested simply because of who the characters are. Fei, Elly, Krelian, Citan, and Grahf certainly make it into my ranking of best characters of all time. It’s really something you don’t see in any game, even those focused on story. This is on par with the best stories ever told, and maybe, it’s really my favorite.
Graphically, the game is impeccable. It abandons the static backgrounds common in Square’s RPGs of the time and adds fully 3D environments with 2D character sprites, à la Persona 2, resulting in a beautiful visual. The art direction at several moments is breathtaking, and the rare pre-rendered 3D scenes are extremely cool. In combat, instead of the horrible models of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, we also have 2D sprites, which, like the Gears, are extremely well animated and beautiful. The only downside of the environments is that sometimes the camera simply doesn’t have a good angle to stay at, but it doesn’t interfere much.
The soundtrack stands alongside the best of the era. Unfortunately, there are very few songs, so you’ll hear the same tracks over and over again, which quickly becomes boring, but when a new composition appears, it’s another masterpiece.
Now, the elephant in the room... even if you haven’t played it, there’s a chance you’ve heard about the infamous second disc. It was here that the budget and time issues worsened, causing various gameplay sections to be left out and replaced with walls of text narrating what happened. Let’s face it, not having more sections of this wonderful gameplay isn’t a big loss, but it’s still disappointing to have a dungeon narrated to you instead of playing it. The real problem is that even some story parts, which would clearly be cutscenes, receive the same treatment. Unfortunately, chances for a remake of this game are rare, so the magnificent story has to be experienced in a less than ideal state, but it’s what we have.
In the end, despite several stumbles and parts that made me tear my hair out, Xenogears is an experience I will never forget, and I will always cherish it as one of the most engaging and brilliant stories I’ve ever consumed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the spiritual successors continued the legacy that started here. 9/10.
Leaving hell behind and talking about good stuff, more than good actually, the story is exceptional. Almost all the main concepts and characters introduced have perfect arcs and conclusions. The dialogues are masterfully written, and the way everything makes sense in the end is brilliant. “Brilliant” is what you’ll find yourself repeating when trying to find words for this game’s plot. The way the game handles the psychology mainly of the protagonist, but also of other characters, is brilliant, heavily relying on the studies of Freud, Jung, and Lacan. Having at least a basic understanding of these figures’ work is crucial to fully grasp the story. The way the game deals with human relationships on all fronts—love, rivalry, friendship, enmity, selfishness, conflict with others and with oneself—is brilliant. Kaori Tanaka is easily one of the best writers to have worked in the industry. The few criticisms that can be made are related to some party characters who fall into the background for most of the plot after their arcs end and concepts that are quickly forgotten after being introduced, which are relevant to the plot, but nothing truly hinders it. Even hating the gameplay, I never felt like dropping it. The curiosity and desire to see how the narrative unfolds keep anyone playing until the end, and almost all the characters have extremely unique and charismatic personalities. Even in dialogues that don’t add much to the story, you remain interested simply because of who the characters are. Fei, Elly, Krelian, Citan, and Grahf certainly make it into my ranking of best characters of all time. It’s really something you don’t see in any game, even those focused on story. This is on par with the best stories ever told, and maybe, it’s really my favorite.
Graphically, the game is impeccable. It abandons the static backgrounds common in Square’s RPGs of the time and adds fully 3D environments with 2D character sprites, à la Persona 2, resulting in a beautiful visual. The art direction at several moments is breathtaking, and the rare pre-rendered 3D scenes are extremely cool. In combat, instead of the horrible models of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, we also have 2D sprites, which, like the Gears, are extremely well animated and beautiful. The only downside of the environments is that sometimes the camera simply doesn’t have a good angle to stay at, but it doesn’t interfere much.
The soundtrack stands alongside the best of the era. Unfortunately, there are very few songs, so you’ll hear the same tracks over and over again, which quickly becomes boring, but when a new composition appears, it’s another masterpiece.
Now, the elephant in the room... even if you haven’t played it, there’s a chance you’ve heard about the infamous second disc. It was here that the budget and time issues worsened, causing various gameplay sections to be left out and replaced with walls of text narrating what happened. Let’s face it, not having more sections of this wonderful gameplay isn’t a big loss, but it’s still disappointing to have a dungeon narrated to you instead of playing it. The real problem is that even some story parts, which would clearly be cutscenes, receive the same treatment. Unfortunately, chances for a remake of this game are rare, so the magnificent story has to be experienced in a less than ideal state, but it’s what we have.
In the end, despite several stumbles and parts that made me tear my hair out, Xenogears is an experience I will never forget, and I will always cherish it as one of the most engaging and brilliant stories I’ve ever consumed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the spiritual successors continued the legacy that started here. 9/10.
If reviews for video games were a simple game of math, adding and subtracting with strengths and flaws to find a raw number that serves as some semblance of an assessment of quality, then I don't think I could give Xenogears too high of a score. But I don't think that's helpful. The art we experience isn't meant to adhere to a rigid set of criteria. It's fun to be sure, but is it productive? Is it accurate? Because truth be told, I don't think it is. A review primarily serves to tell other people what you think of a video game, and if it's worth playing. And Xenogears is worth playing.
This probably sounds like the game is horrendously flawed, but it definitely is not. That being said, there are MANY issues with this game. The combat is fairly shallow, especially in Gears, the random encounters really disrupt the flow of gameplay, some dungeons are confusing and boring, there's a few minor translation errors, and of course there's disc 2 which was so rushed to get the game out on time that there's barely any gameplay and huge story beats are squeezed into brief narration segments.
These flaws are real, and I don't want to dismiss them. But did I enjoy Xenogears? Yes, wholeheartedly. It's so clearly a passion project and something everyone who worked on it cared deeply about. The story is so intricately detailed and well-told with probably the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game. The characters are likeable and fleshed out. The music is by Yasunori Mitsuda so you know it's amazing. The spritework is amazing. Despite my gripes with it, the combat is really flashy, satisfying, and pretty fun. And, for what it's worth, most of the flaws with this game were things that couldn't be controlled - time and budget constraints placed on a pretty small team without a whole lot of experience who just wanted to create something incredible. And I they still did, despite all the compromises.
I think this is why we should judge games as a sum of their parts. Individually, a lot of things in Xenogears are rough and difficult to get over. You should go into this game with the expectation of being frustrated at times. I honestly recommend having speed-up during some sections. But... I still think you should go into this game. It's a magical experience that is absolutely worth trying. Just keep pushing through the rough patches and you will experience a phenomenal work of art. I'm going to go read Perfect Works now.
This probably sounds like the game is horrendously flawed, but it definitely is not. That being said, there are MANY issues with this game. The combat is fairly shallow, especially in Gears, the random encounters really disrupt the flow of gameplay, some dungeons are confusing and boring, there's a few minor translation errors, and of course there's disc 2 which was so rushed to get the game out on time that there's barely any gameplay and huge story beats are squeezed into brief narration segments.
These flaws are real, and I don't want to dismiss them. But did I enjoy Xenogears? Yes, wholeheartedly. It's so clearly a passion project and something everyone who worked on it cared deeply about. The story is so intricately detailed and well-told with probably the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game. The characters are likeable and fleshed out. The music is by Yasunori Mitsuda so you know it's amazing. The spritework is amazing. Despite my gripes with it, the combat is really flashy, satisfying, and pretty fun. And, for what it's worth, most of the flaws with this game were things that couldn't be controlled - time and budget constraints placed on a pretty small team without a whole lot of experience who just wanted to create something incredible. And I they still did, despite all the compromises.
I think this is why we should judge games as a sum of their parts. Individually, a lot of things in Xenogears are rough and difficult to get over. You should go into this game with the expectation of being frustrated at times. I honestly recommend having speed-up during some sections. But... I still think you should go into this game. It's a magical experience that is absolutely worth trying. Just keep pushing through the rough patches and you will experience a phenomenal work of art. I'm going to go read Perfect Works now.
(I tried to go further this third time)
Better check out Neon Genesis Evangelion, you may or may not like this work but rest assured it will respect your time unlike xenogears which is another failed "RPG" abortion that dares to drag on longer than my patience can take.
P.S. Tetsuya Takahashi looks more like a frustrated novelist than a game director as such.
Better check out Neon Genesis Evangelion, you may or may not like this work but rest assured it will respect your time unlike xenogears which is another failed "RPG" abortion that dares to drag on longer than my patience can take.
P.S. Tetsuya Takahashi looks more like a frustrated novelist than a game director as such.
Peak Fiction
Pretty great story that is privy to some pacing issues.
Gameplay initially seems pretty promising but stays simple and never evolves much the entire game. The idea of having a mech system and a normal system is pretty interesting but I think is executed pretty poorly.
I preferred the pacing of disc 2 more than disc 1 due to how I feel towards the gameplay, besides that you can obviously tell that they had a lot of ideas they weren't able to fully develop and had to rush to finish the game.
Gameplay initially seems pretty promising but stays simple and never evolves much the entire game. The idea of having a mech system and a normal system is pretty interesting but I think is executed pretty poorly.
I preferred the pacing of disc 2 more than disc 1 due to how I feel towards the gameplay, besides that you can obviously tell that they had a lot of ideas they weren't able to fully develop and had to rush to finish the game.
Pssssssssssss
p good story but ooo the gameplay but cool robots makes up for it
One of the main points of contention Xenogears' critics will bring up is the game being released in a state of not being entirely finished. Disc 2 being made up of mostly narration and Evangelion eps 25-26-esqe dreamlike cutscenes is a common point of contention when addressing this game's strengths and shortcomings. Just as every artistic medium is defined by its limitations, video games are no different. Even still, Xenogears is a special case. One of the main questions the game poses is what it means to be complete. Although this is mainly to be applied the main character Fei and his arc of finding his purpose by forming meaningful human connections, given the game's own status as a not fully realized vision makes the message all the more profound.
If there's one question that Xenogears has made me ask more than anything else, it's about the point when a piece of art becomes complete. How complete do you need to be to feel like a "whole"? A defining aspect of Gears is its stance on this topic: we aren't defined by our own journeys so much as how we affect the lives of each other.
Many may see disc 2 as unsatisfying, but the way I see it it's the brightest shining aspect of what makes Xenogears as good as it is. This game tells a front to back story, and I haven't even addressed the fact that I think this might be the best individual story I've ever experienced in a single video game! Not to mention the amazing character arcs of Fei and Elly. People throw around the term "this speaks to me on multiple levels" a lot but this is especially true to me with Xenogears.
As the game says, it's okay to not feel whole. Eventually as time marches on, we affect the lives of others and find meaning in the various human connections we form in our lives. And that gives us meaning just as much as any aspect of ourselves. Just as people are defined by the bonds we make, the people we meet, and the love we share, I think Xenogears has a somewhat similar journey.
A big reason I was interested in this game as I've been is because of how much I've heard it inspired modern JRPGs. With them being my favorite genre of game, combined with my fascination with works of fiction that inspired other pieces I so dearly enjoy made Xenogears a must play for me eventually. I'm so happy I did. Seeing this game's legacy retroactively makes me think this is the "complete" form of Xenogears: leaving such a legacy on the entire genre in the 24 years since its release.
Video games are a unique artform. The relationship between creator and consumer is an especially gray line here with many of the highest names in the industry describing themselves gamers just as much as game creators. Games, being as big of an art form as they are, cannot be created by one person (maybe in some instances but definitely not something like Xenogears for the purposes of this thought). Creators constantly build off one another, using aspects of someone else's creation for their own works, thus creating a living legacy for the original piece. Given how much inspiration others have found in the storytelling, character writing, and worldbuilding of Gears, I think it's safe to say it has about as impactful of a living, active legacy as just about any game in the genre.
Xenogears defines what it means to be a video game. Despite the fact that it's not a fully realized vision, you cannot argue the impact its had on everyone who's come into contact with it. Knowing this, is there really anything that truly needs to be changed about it? Although it's admittedly imperfect, flawed, whatever you want to call it, the lasting impressions it leaves on everyone give the game as much of a purpose as if it was truly finished.
So is Xenogears "whole"? I think so at least.
If there's one question that Xenogears has made me ask more than anything else, it's about the point when a piece of art becomes complete. How complete do you need to be to feel like a "whole"? A defining aspect of Gears is its stance on this topic: we aren't defined by our own journeys so much as how we affect the lives of each other.
Many may see disc 2 as unsatisfying, but the way I see it it's the brightest shining aspect of what makes Xenogears as good as it is. This game tells a front to back story, and I haven't even addressed the fact that I think this might be the best individual story I've ever experienced in a single video game! Not to mention the amazing character arcs of Fei and Elly. People throw around the term "this speaks to me on multiple levels" a lot but this is especially true to me with Xenogears.
As the game says, it's okay to not feel whole. Eventually as time marches on, we affect the lives of others and find meaning in the various human connections we form in our lives. And that gives us meaning just as much as any aspect of ourselves. Just as people are defined by the bonds we make, the people we meet, and the love we share, I think Xenogears has a somewhat similar journey.
A big reason I was interested in this game as I've been is because of how much I've heard it inspired modern JRPGs. With them being my favorite genre of game, combined with my fascination with works of fiction that inspired other pieces I so dearly enjoy made Xenogears a must play for me eventually. I'm so happy I did. Seeing this game's legacy retroactively makes me think this is the "complete" form of Xenogears: leaving such a legacy on the entire genre in the 24 years since its release.
Video games are a unique artform. The relationship between creator and consumer is an especially gray line here with many of the highest names in the industry describing themselves gamers just as much as game creators. Games, being as big of an art form as they are, cannot be created by one person (maybe in some instances but definitely not something like Xenogears for the purposes of this thought). Creators constantly build off one another, using aspects of someone else's creation for their own works, thus creating a living legacy for the original piece. Given how much inspiration others have found in the storytelling, character writing, and worldbuilding of Gears, I think it's safe to say it has about as impactful of a living, active legacy as just about any game in the genre.
Xenogears defines what it means to be a video game. Despite the fact that it's not a fully realized vision, you cannot argue the impact its had on everyone who's come into contact with it. Knowing this, is there really anything that truly needs to be changed about it? Although it's admittedly imperfect, flawed, whatever you want to call it, the lasting impressions it leaves on everyone give the game as much of a purpose as if it was truly finished.
So is Xenogears "whole"? I think so at least.