Good lord where to begin. The story is really solid and probably the biggest draw for the game, but also blatantly unfinished, frequently skipping over major events in disc 2. Additionally, while some characters get significant focus during the course of the game, others might as well not be there after their arc is done, Maria and Rico getting the worst of it. Combat is relatively satisfying, especially on foot, if a little simplistic. The combat is split in two however, between on foot and in a mech, and the mech combat is much less interesting and much more frequent especially as the game goes on. I can’t in good conscience call this a bad game, but the overambition clearly shows.

You know, usually I really like story focused games where the gameplay isn't really that good (games like Shin Megami Tensei 1 and 2). Xenogears is especially infamous for this, so I thought I'd hop aboard the fan train seeing how so many praise it. The reality though, is a lot more complicated.

Gameplay

Ok so... everything involving gameplay is a mess. Usually as long as the game is easy I can tolerate it for the story, and while this game is pretty easy outside of some bosses, I found it particularly egregious in this game. First things first, combining platforming and random encounters is a match made in hell. Its super annoying when you're in the middle of platforming and about to make a jump when a random encounter loads, fucking up your jump, and thrusting you into the tedious and dull gameplay, and expect that to happen multiple times thanks to the high encounter rate. They would've been much better off approaching this like the Mario & Luigi rpg games where enemies are present in the over-world so you can choose to fight them instead of being forced in the middle of parkour. As for the actual combat, like I mentioned, its tedious both in gears and when you're on-foot. 90% of the time you're spamming your strongest deathblows/combos, and thats it.

Theres no other strategy apart from a few enemies that punish you for using them, in which case you just spam magic instead lol. If I had to choose, I'd say on-foot combat is better than in gears (though the distinction means little when both still suck). You still do the same stuff, aka spamming deathblows, but you need to keep in mind your fuel and health which you can't restore unless at a shop (you can get an accessory that restores hp later in the game but it uses up a lot of fuel 💀), which serves to make it even more frustrating coupled with the high rate random encounters and platforming. One final complaint, dungeons are rarely good, especially the final dungeon. Don't have anything else to add, just think they're not fun (just like the rest of the gameplay.)

Story

Now here's the reason people actually like the game. It takes a little while to draw you in, but I can say that the hype of the story is warranted, though because of the over-ambitiousness of it far exceeding the budget, the game feels majorly unfinished in a lot of areas. First off, most of the characters that arent Fei, Elly, Citan, Bart, the antagonists, have nothing going on after their arc. Rico's backstory gets dropped after Kislev aside from a one-off mention in disc 2, Maria is completely irrelevant after Shevat, Billy is kinda the same but he interacts with the party a lot more, and Chu-Chu is chu-chu. Emeralda would be the same but at the very least she has her (optional) sidequest which was really cool. And speaking of the infamous Disc 2, even with how badly the budget cuts affected the presentation of the story, I'd still consider it better than Disc 1, because it focuses on the actual good part of the game, the story, while the shitty gameplay takes a complete backseat. Sure, it's nowhere near as impactful to see characters sit in a chair summarizing events instead of actually playing through those events firsthand, but how good the story beats are make up for it in the end.

Conclusion

This game really would've worked better as an anime or movie. Gameplay from the combat and overworld movement is poorly-designed and dull, with the highlight being the story, and even then the unfortunate budget slashes hinders it from reaching the creator's full artistic vision. However, in a way, all these flaws served to make the experience all the more memorable in the end, and that's (probably) the most valuable thing you can get from any piece of media. Would recommend (if you really hate the gameplay though just watch a youtube cutscene walkthrough or something).

A beautiful yet overambitious epic. The only flaws exist in disc 1 with dungeons and long portions being extremely boring, feeling like a rough attempt from a dev fresh off final fantasy. While despite disc 1 still being fun and having a lot of great characters, arcs and moments, disc 2 showed the game's true colours. The momentum the game needed - THE XENO came into play and it showed that this game has one of the greatest outlines for a story of all time. I, like many others, strongly wish the game had put more effort into this stretch of the story over disc 1 but despite this, the dodgy presentation of disc 2 didnt hold it back at all.

For what it was for the time and how the outline of perfect works still holds up among the most well thought out pieces of fiction ever told, it's safe to say Takahashi had a masterpiece in his hands with this one. I'm glad he has the chance to recreate it through Xenoblade but deep down, I hope this version of his universe gets to see the light someday. 9.5/10

Review in progress:
The story is very good, but a bit hard to follow at times due to how intricate/convoluted it is. Have an in-game journal/glossary and the ability to rewatch cutscenes would've helped a lot. It may just be that my memory is poor.

The combat leaves a lot to be desired. The combo system is repetitive and rarely requires you to change your strategy. Like with most JRPGs, it's very easy throughout. The visuals and soundtrack have help up well.

Unfortunately, Xenogears is one of the most blatantly unfinished games I've ever played, and I've played Super Mario Sunshine. Disc 2 is a massive letdown and is basically just a huge infodump.

I hope that Xenogears will eventually get a remake that addresses the issues I mentioned, but that seems extremely unlikely at this point. It has the potential to be something truly special.

Xenogears is a very ambitious game and it’s clear that Tetsuya Takahashi was aiming highly with his vision. Even 25 years later, Xenogears still have more nuanced story writing than most games that came after it. It’s a game filled with interesting and complex ideas that combine Analytical psychology, religious symbolism, and scientific theories wrapped in a war-torn science fiction, mecha-filled setting spanning across centuries. As ambitious as Xenogears is, there is quite a lot of stumbling as the game approached the finish line with questionable game design, plot inconsistencies, irrelevant characters, and a very patchworked disc 2. Despite the many issues Xenogears obtains, it still entertains its promising concept from start to finish and does what it can to share a fraction of the overall scope of Xenogears.

Gameplay-wise, Xenogears is very resemblance to the golden days of the PS1 RPG. Random encounters, action time-based combat, a world map to explore and discover towns, dungeons, and hidden places, etc. all with little to no clear guidance on where to go next to progress the story. However, that’s more of a testament to what was considered standard PS1 RPG design than an element specific to Xenogears. What set apart Xenogears from other Square games such as classic Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger is the Deathblow system. Rather than having a basic attack command, there are three button inputs, square for a light attack, triangle for a heavy attack, and X for a fatal attack. Different combinations can create a Deathblow combo for more damage. In addition, there are ether attacks and abilities (or character-specific alternatives such as chi or arcane) that function similarly to the game’s magic system and the possibility to perform several Deathblows in one turn, known as “combos”, granted if the player has built enough action points (AP) to perform them.

Another major factor in Xenogears’ combat is mecha battles, which are known as Gears in the game. Considering Gears are an essential part of Xenogears’ story, there are several Gears battles to engage in. They share similarities to on-foot combat such as using regular and ether attacks. However, each attack requires fuel to perform and a certain attack level is required to perform Deathblows. The player can also engage in boosting, which will increase the characters’ speed in exchange for more fuel usage. In addition to “special options” that feature Gear-specific attacks or repairing damage granted the Gear has the correct part for the command.

Despite featuring both on-foot and Gear battles, there isn’t much to Xenogears’ battle system. In fact, besides unlocking more Deathblows and ether attacks, the player will see the full extent of its combat system within the ¼ mark of the game. Combat will eventually feel repetitive, especially with the high encounter rate in dungeons and in the world map. Not to mention, the party can only truly get stronger by grinding out battles for more EXP or obtaining better gears to increase stats such as attack and defense for both physical and ether attacks as well as agility to increase speed. However, considering its age and the period the game is from, it’s ultimately serviceable at least.

That said, one of the biggest flaws of the game is at times, the dungeon designs are atrocious and frustrating to deal with. I do not know whose idea it was to include platforming, but it’s some of the worst I’ve ever played in a game. In fact, platforming through Babel Tower was one of the most unenjoyable experiences I had in recent memory and I wanted to just give up on playing the game a few times, especially since it’s quite a time waster to redo certain areas of the dungeon and it have created so much stress and anxiety for me. Plus there are a few dungeons with confusing layouts that feel maze-like and very easy to get lost in without a map. On top of the high encounter rates….exploring dungeons is definitely one of the weakest areas for Xenogears.

Despite its gameplay, which is presented enough at least for the majority of the game, Xenogears biggest strength that often receives praise is the story. It’s a sprawling epic featuring protagonist Fei Fong Wong traveling across the Ignas content to discover the mysteries of the Aveh/Kislev war, the all-ruling Solaris nation, the floating country of Shevat, the religious deity of Ethos, and within himself alongside Elehayym Van Houten, Citan Uzuki, and others. Xenogears have a large scope between various countries, lore, and terminology covered across the game’s narrative and it’s especially impressive considering its age and its fellow contemporaries don’t even come close to the amount of detailed worldbuilding Xenogears contains. One aspect that I’ve particularly found impressive was the occasional updating of NPCs with different dialogue as the story progress. It’s not as text-heavy compared to say…the Trails series that would emerge a few years from now after Xenogears, but it was a pleasant surprise to see this feature in a PS1 game as it helps fleshes out the worldbuilding a tad bit more.

Xenogears starts off very promising with its scale, as the game quickly pushes the plot forward in a very dramatic execution that forces Fei to travel around begrudgingly. During his journey, the player sees Fei develops as a character and understands his role as a Gear pilot as he met key characters that would eventually join his party and understands the current state of each country. However, as the stakes increase all across the country, this means there is more ground to cover and focus for Xenogears. Meaning as the game progress, character motivations and purposes for half of the playable cast will be forgotten and plot points will be more inconsistent and rushed through quickly.

Xenogears serve very well for the protagonist, deuteragonist, and tritagonist. Which are respectively, Fei, Elly, and Citan. These three characters are introduced very early on in the story, within the first few hours, and remain a constant device to advance the narrative. Fei and Elly in particular are explored fully with their own psyche and how both of them play a critical role in the game’s themes of human existence and purpose throughout religious mythology, self-identity, and using technology to achieve the state of godhood and ascension. The two characters complement each other well beyond their surface relationship for each other, but also as the subtext of the role of Psychoanalysis and Metempsychosis. Citan also serves as a foil character to Fei with his calculated methodology approach and juxtaposition to Fei’s emotional and uncontrolled outbursts along with Citan’s own motivations.

While Fei, Elly, and Citan are overall excellent characters that embody the central message of Xenogears, unfortunately, I can not say the rest for the playable characters. It’s common for the PS1 era to let the player form their own three-person team and only the required characters have speaking lines during story moments while the rest are awkwardly silent as if they’re not there at all. However, I personally found that Xenogears mistreats a huge chunk of its characters even for PS1 standards. Besides, Fei, Elly, and Citan, Bart is the most important playable character and does have some significance throughout the game. However, Billy, Maria, and Rico all have a minor arc early in the game that is ultimately used just to spread insight into the game’s world, and beyond that, they have very few lines in the overall story, and if they were cut out from the game, hardly much of anything would be drastically changed. In fact, Chu Chu is merely nothing more than a cutesy mascot character and I’m sure Xenogears will almost be exactly the same game without her. Perhaps Emerlada is the most snubbed playable character. She is introduced right before the end of disc 2 and Emerlada is never a required character to use not once in the game. However, she has so much important lore behind her character that is easily missable and it’s only found at a hidden location right before the final dungeon of the game. It’s quite frustrating and even sad to see how the game eventually forgets about the importance of ⅔ of the playable cast.

Aurbably, a major reason why most of the cast become irreverent overtime is because of the dramatic change of story presentation in disc 2. disc 2, half of the time, is completely narrated by either Fei or Elly at a black void with one of the two sitting down in a chair with a backdrop of still images of them explaining what has occurred. In comparison to how the events of disc 1 unfold, disc 2 feels like a quick summary at times. From my understanding, some say budget cuts are the result of disc 2, while others have said Tetsuya Takahashi felt like he and his team could not fully complete Xenogears within 2 years and have to settle for a compromise. Either way, it’s very evident between the lack of dungeons, open map exploration, and detailed story writing, the development team at some point began to rush through Xenogears.

However, I personally believe not all of disc 2 is messy and incomplete. With how the story presentation is formatted, it serves well to gain and study an introspection of Fei’s psychology and mental state in a way that would be jarring and out of place to do during disc 1. Not to mention the heavy usage of backstory and flashbacks to conceive how much of Xenogears’ setting is built before the start of the game. Disc 2 is rather excellent to enforce the Psychoanalysis and Metempsychosis themes without disrupting the game’s pacing of the present state of events too much.

Xenogears, at a quick glance, is a sci-fi epic that has a lot to tell. Upon further inspection, however, there are some areas that are superior such as Fei and Elly being excellent character studies that enforce the core themes of the game. While other parts such as the rest of the cast slowly become forgotten and the rushed pacing of the plot near the end of the game, there’s still much to be desired as well on top of the awful dungeon design. Xenogears is very flawed but it uses its flaws the best it can to come to a conclusion no matter what, rather than leaving it incomplete, and it’s quite admiring that Tetsuya Takahashi does what he can to tell his vision. While it will be years from now until Takahashi can fully realize his ideas with the Xenoblade Chronicles series, Xenogears is the first example of the boundless potential Takahashi is capable of. As rough and unpolished as it is, there is a diamond underneath the psyche of Xenogears.

Xenogears is a weird game. The pacing and gameplay of disc 2 are poorly paced, as i think most people already know, but disc 1 is probably the most consistent rpg ive ever played.

The pacing of disc 1 is very episodic, making it pretty digestible in shorter bursts. soundtrack is great, world design and lore is amazing....I wish some characters, namely Rico, Billy and Maria, did more after their arcs were done.

But the biggest problem ive had with Xenogears is that the combat is very repetitive and youll do the same strategies over and over throughout the adventure. Rare are the encounters that require more than spamming deathblows (on foot) or just Heavy > Deathblow 1 (on Gear). But i will say this certainly stood out more to me because i played Xenosaga 1 first, and XS1's combat is pretty much Gears' but on steroids.

All in all, a very charming game that is worth playing.