Favorite game of all time. Where had this been my whole life?

I'd started it sometime in mid-2020, got distracted and dropped off in Nortune, restarted it in mid-2021 to play alongside Resonant Arc's Xenogears podcast series (highly recommended for first time players). Suddenly became obsessed with it after finishing Xenoblade 3 in 2022 because it had so much Xenogears influence, making my mind go back to XG again and again.
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I'm the kind of person who primarily plays games for the story, gameplay second. In this case, the combat is lacking, but I still enjoy it, both on foot combat and Gear combat.

On foot combat is fun, but eventually gets repetitive with only really using the most recent deathblows acquired. The game doesn't make full use of its own combat system, I think. It needed more difficulty so that you actually make use of more ether spells and items, I think. And make special attacks actually deal more damage than just normal attacking, because why use them instead? That goes for Gear combat as well.

Gear combat is also fun, but in a different way. One thing the game doesn't explain (until very nearly the end, and hidden away in an optional area, no less) is Hyper mode. Some people call it "infinite attack", because its indicated by an ♾ icon in the attack level UI. Recommended to look up how that works after you finish Shevat, as that's when it becomes available to use. Hyper mode adds another whole level of strategy to Gear combat that I completely missed out on during my first playthrough.
Gear combat is largely about managing your fuel, though. Every time its an iron man until the next fuel-up point, basically. (or until you find a Fix Bot or Heal Seraph in combat)

(The best way to play it nowadays is the Perfect Works Build mod. They've done an excellent job reworking the combat, enemies, rebalancing characters, etc, adding more of a challenge. That mod is still in the works, getting updates to this day. It does more than just combat; retranslation, JP voices, FMV subtitles, fast text with no softlocking- and all of the options are stackable, you could have the retranslation with no other changes if you wanted. I highly recommend it.)
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The story is where its at, though. Best story in gaming, for me personally. And with the addition of the Perfect Works art/lore book its through the roof. Seemingly endless amount of lore to learn that spans 15,000 years.
There's a reason why its the "inspiration" for the rest of the Xeno games that have come since. Takahashi loves this kind of storytelling and its clear a lot of Xenogears' elements have been reworked and incorporated in different ways into Xenoblade 3.

People gave me a bad impression of disc 2, so I guess since my hopes weren't high it helped because disc 2 is amazing. Just about when Ive gotten my fill of gameplay the story takes over. Then just about when I'm getting the urge for more gameplay disc 2 delivers more exploration and combat.
The cliffhanger of disc 1 and it going straight into the iconic chair sequence and flashbacks of Lacan and Sophia is fantastic. If they ever remade this game that'd HAVE to stay the same. The monologues and music during that scene make me so emotional, honestly.

Of course its not all perfect, any XG fan will admit that freely and easily. It suffers from introducing party members and then basically never using them in the story ever again. The story is very much focused on Fei and Elly with a side of Bart and Citan.

For example, Billy had a pretty good story arc start to finish with a "supporting cast" so to speak of Jessie, Prim, and Stone, but as soon as you're done in Nortune Rico is basically forgotten about and his story's supporting cast only consists of Hammer with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Sigmund. He had so much potential.
Same goes for Maria after you finish Shevat.
As soon as you get Emeralda she is never given much attention ever (until the optional area at the end. the poor girl got the "we've only got 2 flipping years to work on this huge game" short end of the stick. even had her omnigear cut)
And the first time (only time?) Fei and Billy interact its when Billy tells him he doesn't know how to treat a woman. (lmao)
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Having a moveable camera, 2D characters in a 3D world, is something I really love. And the 3D maps are beautiful! Of course, it isn't always handled well in gameplay, especially when paired with platforming, but Ive got a lot of patience for old controls and jankiness like that so it doesn't bother me much.

Primarily, I love how they use the camera in cutscenes, the game's cinematography. Specifically the part when Fei wakes up after the opening events and how it pans to Weltall looming behind him, how it shows the camera from over Weltall's shoulder showing its perspective as Fei walks away.
The perspective of the monster in the sewers, using a red or green filter over its vision to foreshadow something, or another similar monster later where its perspective has no colored filter.
The scene right before the end of disc 1, showing events down at the characters' level rather than from high above (keeping this spoiler free).
The transitions from one scene to another like the scene with Fei and Elly where it pans upward to Shevat in the sky, and then back down to Bart elsewhere. Beautiful!
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Ive played this game about 2.5 times now. No idea how long I've spent playing it. At least 200 hours so far.
Just recently finished my second full playthrough. Going to be starting another playthrough (with the most recent PW Build mod update) soon-ish because I miss disc 1 so much.


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As an aside, I have to shout out the profound impact this game has had on my life.
The amount of external sci-fi this game has gotten me into is unprecedented for me. I wasn't a mecha person before. Now I've got them all over my desk, Takahashi style. Never would've read books like Childhood's End or watched movies like Logan's Run, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Soylent Green otherwise.
Its gotten me into contributing to the fan wiki, translating pages of PW to have accurate info for english sites, modding the game myself, the list goes on.

Without Xenogears I most likely would've stopped drawing/painting by now, I was nearly to that point of quitting entirely after years of being in a slump, but it inspired me to continue this hobby. And in connecting with the fans online I have had such a great experience. Everyone is so kind.
I am not kidding or overreacting when I say this game has changed my life so much for the better. For me it was that once-in-a-lifetime experience that impacted me to my core, and I didn't even realize it until 9 months after I finished it.