Where to begin with Xenogears? How does someone organize their thoughts on a game that drops an anime cutscene on you, raising a whole bunch of questions (What does "You shall be as gods" mean? Who is that purple haired lady?) that it doesn't answer for dozens of hours? And just who is Fei, the protagonist who is also the author of the stereotypical destruction of the starting village?
Kind of like Xenogears, I won't be answering those questions here for spoiler reasons, though the game does get around to satisfying those questions. What I will say is that this is an incredibly ambitious game and story, and it is amazing to reflect on the fact that this was attempted at all, let alone in 1998.
If you enjoy any of Tetsuya Takahashi's work (and that of his wife, Soraya Saga, who co-wrote this and worked on some of the Xenosaga games with him) this is worth checking out. I can't take credit for this idea, but in listening to a book club podcast about Xenogears, someone quoted a filmmaker who said that every director is constantly trying to remake one movie. I feel this to be true with Takahashi, as many of the ideas and themes found here in Xenogears are present in later games he has worked on, all under a "Xeno-" brand in Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles. Jungian and Freudian Psychology, Gnosticism, Jewish Mysticism, Dogmatic religions. All are themes here and elsewhere in his work.
If you give this game a try, and I encourage anyone interested to absolutely do so, like I said above is it highly ambitious, while also being flawed in many ways. Bear in mind that this was also Takahashi's first game, and that the translation was apparently a nightmare to complete.
Kind of like Xenogears, I won't be answering those questions here for spoiler reasons, though the game does get around to satisfying those questions. What I will say is that this is an incredibly ambitious game and story, and it is amazing to reflect on the fact that this was attempted at all, let alone in 1998.
If you enjoy any of Tetsuya Takahashi's work (and that of his wife, Soraya Saga, who co-wrote this and worked on some of the Xenosaga games with him) this is worth checking out. I can't take credit for this idea, but in listening to a book club podcast about Xenogears, someone quoted a filmmaker who said that every director is constantly trying to remake one movie. I feel this to be true with Takahashi, as many of the ideas and themes found here in Xenogears are present in later games he has worked on, all under a "Xeno-" brand in Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles. Jungian and Freudian Psychology, Gnosticism, Jewish Mysticism, Dogmatic religions. All are themes here and elsewhere in his work.
If you give this game a try, and I encourage anyone interested to absolutely do so, like I said above is it highly ambitious, while also being flawed in many ways. Bear in mind that this was also Takahashi's first game, and that the translation was apparently a nightmare to complete.