Of all the games I’ve played, this might be the hardest to do express my opinions on but I’ll give it a try. On one hand, Xenogears is a mess of a game with an overly ambitious director held back by dated mechanics. On the other hand, it’s an awe-inspiringly ambitious game that’s changed the way I look at storytelling in the medium. It’s hard to talk about the story without getting into spoiler territory but this game does not take long to strike you with tragedy. Despite this heavy introduction, much of the first disc of the game plays out like a standard JRPG in terms of both gameplay and story, with very clear signs that something much bigger is going on than the player is led to believe. Throughout your journey, you’re shown unexplained flashbacks and mysterious dialogue of various figures scheming, most of which won’t be explained till dozens of hours later. Despite the confusion of these hints, I believe they’re placed perfectly and help to motivate the player to continue and find out what is really going on.
This game’s most infamous aspect is its second disc. While not confirmed, the common belief is that the game ran out of budget halfway through, leading the second half of the game to be told almost entirely through text. While it’s definitely a jarring change in pace, the game’s second disc is where all previous questions are answered. From an objective standpoint this is pretty poor game design, but I was so invested in the story that I didn’t mind a more concentrated plot. This game goes in incredibly ambitious directions with its storytelling, with heavy religious and psychological themes that people much more qualified to talk about than me have talked about. These themes never felt forced and really help to elevate the game’s plot and characters in ways I’ve never seen before in a game.
Perhaps the weakest part of the game is its actual game part. Nothing about it is terribly offensive, in fact I really appreciate its unique take on turn-based combat, with standard attacks being a combination of button presses using a certain number of points. Over time you unlock different combinations of buttons for “deathblows”, which deal a significantly higher deal of damage. The sprite animations of these attacks are gorgeously detailed and hit sounds feel extremely substantial, making them satisfying to pull off and a joy once new ones are unlocked. This is only half of the combat, as the other half are fought on your characters’ gear mechs. Gear battles are a bit different, only allowing you to use one attack at a time with a combat level dictating the deathblows you can use. Each action you take in your gear uses up some fuel. You can’t heal with items while in your gear and fuel can only be restored by charging it for a puny amount per turn so if you run out of fuel, you’re pretty much screwed. While I absolutely love the gears’ designs in this game I found their battles to be pretty boring, as most boss fights in gears can be won using the same strategy. You’re given some customization with your gears’ parts but it’s mostly a numbers game where you’ll be wanting to just upgrade to the part that has the best stats. It’s definitely interesting in concept but I found these battles grew tedious over time.
Another aspect of the game I felt pretty mixed on were the dungeons. Most of them were fine and were short enough to not overstay their welcome, but the aggressive encounter rate started to really wear on me. In particular, one dungeon contains excessive platforming. This platforming was jank enough, but to add to the frustration your jumps can be interrupted by random encounters, resulting in you missing and having to start over. The confusing camera angles and homogenous design don’t help these longer dungeons either, and I found myself running through the same halls over and over.
Despite the qualms I have with some of the game’s design choices, I never once felt like quitting. I was so engrossed in the characters and winding narrative that I pushed through the tedium to finish the story. Certain scenes are so powerful that I forget all of the game’s annoyances, they’re really that good. I’ll be thinking about this game for a very long time.
This game’s most infamous aspect is its second disc. While not confirmed, the common belief is that the game ran out of budget halfway through, leading the second half of the game to be told almost entirely through text. While it’s definitely a jarring change in pace, the game’s second disc is where all previous questions are answered. From an objective standpoint this is pretty poor game design, but I was so invested in the story that I didn’t mind a more concentrated plot. This game goes in incredibly ambitious directions with its storytelling, with heavy religious and psychological themes that people much more qualified to talk about than me have talked about. These themes never felt forced and really help to elevate the game’s plot and characters in ways I’ve never seen before in a game.
Perhaps the weakest part of the game is its actual game part. Nothing about it is terribly offensive, in fact I really appreciate its unique take on turn-based combat, with standard attacks being a combination of button presses using a certain number of points. Over time you unlock different combinations of buttons for “deathblows”, which deal a significantly higher deal of damage. The sprite animations of these attacks are gorgeously detailed and hit sounds feel extremely substantial, making them satisfying to pull off and a joy once new ones are unlocked. This is only half of the combat, as the other half are fought on your characters’ gear mechs. Gear battles are a bit different, only allowing you to use one attack at a time with a combat level dictating the deathblows you can use. Each action you take in your gear uses up some fuel. You can’t heal with items while in your gear and fuel can only be restored by charging it for a puny amount per turn so if you run out of fuel, you’re pretty much screwed. While I absolutely love the gears’ designs in this game I found their battles to be pretty boring, as most boss fights in gears can be won using the same strategy. You’re given some customization with your gears’ parts but it’s mostly a numbers game where you’ll be wanting to just upgrade to the part that has the best stats. It’s definitely interesting in concept but I found these battles grew tedious over time.
Another aspect of the game I felt pretty mixed on were the dungeons. Most of them were fine and were short enough to not overstay their welcome, but the aggressive encounter rate started to really wear on me. In particular, one dungeon contains excessive platforming. This platforming was jank enough, but to add to the frustration your jumps can be interrupted by random encounters, resulting in you missing and having to start over. The confusing camera angles and homogenous design don’t help these longer dungeons either, and I found myself running through the same halls over and over.
Despite the qualms I have with some of the game’s design choices, I never once felt like quitting. I was so engrossed in the characters and winding narrative that I pushed through the tedium to finish the story. Certain scenes are so powerful that I forget all of the game’s annoyances, they’re really that good. I’ll be thinking about this game for a very long time.