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 is the cutest sweetest thing ever, and wrapping tetris in a narrative takes it from a game I love to one of my absolute favorites. Puyo Puyo is great too, even though I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around getting more than 3-chains...

I'm convinced that puzzle games are really squandering their potential when they remain purely mechanical and abstract. There's no reason why this kind of gameplay can't be used to do more than just be fun to master.

This gives me so much joy <3

Puyo Puyo tetris is the greatest collab ever. Something so random that it's perfect in every sense of the word. The game has tons of fun arcade game modes that will provide you with 10s of hours of entertainment, not to mention the whole ass campaign with a fine enough story for a puyo puyo tetris game. On top of this the game also feature online multiplayer that is super fun to play. This game is unironically in my top 25 games of all time now and considering I bough this for 5 bucks I'd say this is an absolute win. I'll definitely have to check out the long awaited sequel puyo puyo tetris 2 sometime in the future.

Literally Uncharted 1 but with more gimmicks than the shittiest shovelware kids game on Wii you can imagine where you braid your pet's pubes or whatever

SMOOTH, SNAPPY GUNFIGHTS OVER INSTA-KILL DEATH PITS. GRANDIOSE SETPIECES OVER CENTURIES-OLD CANYONS AND BURNING BUILDINGS. But OOPSIE SLOOPSIE the log you're on is SLIPPY WHIPPY, tilt the Vita left WOAH tilt the Vita right WOAH tilt the Vita left WO- FUCK OFF

RACE THROUGH A CRUMBLING TOMB WITH TIGHT PLATFORMING CONTROLS. YOU'RE DODGING DEBRIS. YOU'RE SCRAMBLING PAST ENEMIES. YOUR HEART'S RACING... okay but to exit the tomb you gotta point the Vita's camera at your lamp. For real just turn your lamp on real quick and point your camera at the light please. Oh and rub the dust off this ornament by rubbing your touchscreen. OOPSIE SPLOOPSIE THE LOG'S BACK tilt left WOA-

The final boss is a quick time event