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Awesome RPG that should be played by all RPG fans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 40 / 42
Date: April 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Xenogears is definitely one of the top RPG's made by Square. This game is filled with interesting characters, awesome battles and beautiful anime cutscenes. The soundtrack is one of my favorites as well. The game really shines when it comes to story-telling and fans of great science fiction stories will love it. However, the story is very complex and can get very confusing. Playing this game twice through may be necessary to understand it, but that wasn't a problem for me, I loved it just as much the second time through! The game's soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard, unfortunately the game doesn't do the soundtrack justice. You may feel that you're hearing the same song over and over again. The only downsides of this game are the Gear battles and the dubbing of the anime scenes. The Gear battles are very cool, but they are used too heavily in the last 2/3 of the game. It would have been nice to fight as the characters more often. The dubbing of the cutscenes is pretty off, but not enough to ruin them. Overall, this is a great RPG for gamers who like very deep and though-provoking sci-fi/fantasy stories. Potential players must enjoy reading game text because there is PLENTY of it in Xenogears, especially on Disc 2. The amount of difficulty is very high, FF7 is a cakewalk compared to Xenogears. I found myself barely surviving boss battles near the end of the game. I "died" at least 10 times while playing Xenogears, that's more deaths than all my other RPG experiences combined and I have played many RPG's. This is an excellent RPG for any gamer, but RPG first-timers may be a bit overwhelmed. This is the kind of game that shows people that video games are not just for kids, because this one certainly is not. A good age range for this game would be anyone over 16 mostly due to the complexity of the storyline. Of course, there are younger gamers who can handle Xenogears, but this game is more adult-friendly than others in the genre. The game contains very few curse words and a small amount of sexual innuendo, but nothing really bad. Xenogears is a must-buy for all RPG fans, young and old, especially. If you don't already own this game, pick it up right away!

The Best Battle System in an RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: February 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a very long video game. For me, it took about 90 hours to finish. But let me emphasize that those 90 hours were some of the most engrossing that I have ever experienced with a video game. I highly recommend this game to anyone who does not mind the somewhat below-average graphics. The game's soundtrack more than compensates for any graphical shortcomings.

The battles are random, and perhaps too numerous in quantity for this gamer's preference. However, most can be quite entertaining. Some battles are fought while the characters are controlling giant machines called "Gears". Most battles are fought in hand-to-hand combat, with each character having the option to unleash powerful attack combinations.

If there is a shortcoming to this game, it has to be the fact that the story was too complicated and too deep to communicate in the manner that they chose. By the second disk, some of the main characters had to basically sit in a chair and narrate the story to get it moving in the right direction. Perhaps the older Playstation console just did not have the power for the inclusion of cutscenes.

One of the best there is!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: June 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am an avid fan of the Final Fantasy series. After playing FF7 I took a chance and bought this game. Although I prefer more fantasy-themed RPGs (and was certainly NOT into Mechs which play a large role in this game), I was intrigued by this game due to the contraversy that surrounded it at the time because of its religious themes. I went into it expecting a story and characters up to par with Final Fantasy. What I got was far more than I expected! Hidden beneath some out-of-date, pixely, Playstation graphics, and sound capabilities that usually couldn't do justice to the beautiful and quirky music, was a truly vast, highly complex, and surprisingly innovative storyline that begins with the everday troubles of a young man (the lead character, Fei) and ends with the completion of 10,000 years of events and the character's revelation about the nature of his existance and the nature of his god.

Xenogears is the conceptual ancestor of the current PS2 game Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht. In fact, Xenogears was originally meant to be the 5th part in the 6 part series. Xenosaga Ep. 1 is--suposedly--the first in the series of episodes (6 total) that lead up to and past Xenogears (or something similar to Xenogears as there are plans to "remake" it as Xenosaga Ep. 5. While it maintains many of the elements traditionally associated with console RPGs it offers its own innovations to the genre. The characterizations are complex and subtle, lending a realism to each of them not often seen in many RPGs. The visual design of the game is an interesting and stylized combination of fantasy and sci-fi that is very solidly and imaginatively executed. The battles are turn-based and consist of two modes: one, a regular battle mode that combines a turn-based menu system with attack combo moves activated via certain button combinations; the other, a "gear" battle mode in which the characters fight in mechs (gears). Both battle systems are enjoyable (the normal mode especially!), the gear mode does, however, become somewhat tedious at times as it seems to allow for less variation, especially in the second half of the game where it is used more frequently.

The game spans two disks, and some of the largest faults in the game come in the second disk where production limitations and time restrictions on the date of release caused the removal of many elements intended for the latter half of the game, making disk two consist in part of a long stretch of narrating character monologues piecing together dungeons and boss battles. Another downside is the 3-D polygonal graphics which, while describing some beautiful and interesting areas, seem highly pixelated and out of date for the game's time. The ability to move the camera around 360 degrees is a valuable touch, however.

The story is so complex and involves the motivations and actions of so many characters that after my first time through the game (80 hours on my first play) I was still unsure of everything that had happend. Who was who and what was going on? Upon replaying, I caught the hints that I had either missed or forgotten the first time through and all the facets of the story and its many themes suddenly came together. Personally, I do not find this overwhelming complexity to be a fault of the game--I think it is one of its greatest strengths and it is because of it that I have played this game through four times now--although I doubt it will be everyone's cup of tea. I hope people will at least give it a try once.

Xenogears is not a perfect game, but its originality and richness far outweigh its imperfections. If you like a complex and emense story with a vast array of highly complex characters, some lovely music, beautiful design work, and more beautifully-crafted themes and ideas than you can shake a stick at, you will love Xenogears!

-ZR

Serious design flaws interfere with what could have been a magnificent RPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Xenogears seems to split the RPG world in two: between those who worship it, and those who dislike it. I am in the middling minority- feeling neither hate nor love for it, I fall into what I consider a reasonable evaluation of this game, not letting its faults blind me to its merits, or vice versa.

My opinion, succinctly put, is: what an awesome story. What terrible design. What a half-baked game. Yes, the story and atmosphere/world of the game are fantastic, the music is great, and the battle system and characterization are very good. But the story's faulty pacing and, worst of all, grainy graphics, bad camera and slow text scrawl and loading time make it sometimes extremely painful to play, as well watch.

Given in details, for those interested:

THE GOOD

1. The music: composed by Mitsuda of the Chrono Trigger series, the music easily falls into this category- with reservations. On one hand, some of the tunes are absolutely gorgeous, enhancing the sad, haunting atmosphere of the game. The songs are beautiful too, and well-sung by both its Irish and Japanese singers. "One who was torn apart", "June (October) Mermaid" and "Small of Two Pieces" rank among my favorite game tunes ever. On the other hand, the music often does not serve the game too well. Given that it's such a huge game, and the score has relatively few tunes, the game suffers from either of 1-excessively recycled tunes, or 2-periods of silence, especially in dungeons. The battle music is not that good, and gets wearisome as you suffer through it during hundreds, even thousands of battles. Still, the score definitely is a significant contributor to Xenogears' best aspect-its melancholy, haunting atmosphere. And that in itself is a bonus elevating it from goodness to greatness.

2. Characterization: I don't understand the claim of those who say the characters are badly-done. The characters are, in fact, much more mature, in an understated way (for the time) than characters of many previous games- who may have had more "quirks", but were definitely more simplistic, even immature. (The writing of the characters, not the characters themselves). For some characters, the draw on basic psychology is so blatant as to feel forced- the character becomes more construct than person in aspects of its characterization. But there's no denying that even so, the results can be downright awesome. Yes, it may feel pretentious; but I have no objection to pretentiousness, if the results are entertaining.

3. The battle system: I liked it. First of all, it has gears. Mechas of any types = awesomeness. Second, I liked the system of developing new techniques by pressing correct sequence of the square, triangle and X buttons. Press them enough times in battles, and you learn new techniques. There's also Ether skills- mostly support skills such as healing and status effects, which contributes to the variety. A warning, though- some boss battles tend to be extremely difficult. Figuring out the correct strategy may help. Also, you tend to run out of money towards the end of the game, which can be very frustrating; just another of the design flaws of the game. Saving up ahead may be a good advice, or just spending a few hours of battles for money.

4. Replayability: because the story is so complex, the game has a very high replay value. The second time around, I enjoy understanding of what is going on. Although some aspects of the story are still complicated- I blame this on bad writing and half-baked ideas- anyone familiar with the basic political units, characters and history of the game will be able to appreciate most of the things, such as conversations and flashbacks, which seemed confusing the first time around.

THE BAD

Faulty story pacing: A frequent complaint with many players is the dreaded (perhaps even dreadful) disc 2, which shows Xenogears for what it is: an unfinished product. Somewhere along the line the creators ran out of either budget or steam, and told the remaining 15-20 hours of the story through text/pictures with some dungeons thrown inbetween. To add insult to injury, disc 1 contains some over-long, even unnecessary dungeons with little to no story. The 10-hour portion of the Kislev prison, anyone? Get rid of this one and add some dungeons to disc 2, Takahashi, and then maybe we'll talk. At any rate, as noted, this simply showed that the director needed a serious editor. And more budget, maybe.

THE GREAT

1. The atmosphere: Haunting. Sad. Eerie. Perhaps even more than the story itself, I love Xenogears' construction of a world-a world containing a past too old to recall, and eerie, ruined cities, witnesses to mankind's devastating, damning mistakes. The story is told through complicated plot twists, telling of a past saturated with the heavy burden of sadness and sin. It all feels, shall we say, fateful; but although some may dislike the use of religion, or otherwise mock it, there's no denying that at the end, something meaningful, even beautiful, rises up through these ashes, something which tells us of the fate, mortality, and fragility of humanity. Takahashi, director of Xenogears, would have benefited from a strict editor to control his wild creativity. But he had the vision, even the touch of genius, to create this atmosphere which rises beyond the story that he told. I think that, more than anything, this is truly the secret ingredient that draws the wilder claims about Xenogears' merit as a game. As a game, it may fail frequently. As a vision, it's wonderful. Well, and now that I waxed all rhapsodic, let's move on.

2. The story: All right, so it does draw on Evangelion in some ways. So what? I did not like Evangelion much (cue some automatic negative reviews here); and if its story was partially retold here, in a way I considered entertaining, I don't care. Xenogears' presentation, world and characterization are different enough than Evangelion as to not feel like a re-hash of the anime. Pretentious use of psychiatry and religious symbolism aside, the story of Xenogears veers towards the awesome. The plot is extremely complicated, and deals with politics, religion, psychology and philosophy, intervening it all through interesting characters and a complex, detailed history. I appreciate it just for the details and shocking plot twists, even if the pacing could have been better.

THE DISMAL

1. Graphical design, coloring and camera: Xenogears employs a full 3-D environment with a rotating camera, all brightly colored in blocky polygons. Now, by saying this is bad, I don't mean the graphics themselves are bad. I mean that the camera rotation is so inefficient, that half of the time you can't see the environment, making dungeons more difficult than they should be. I mean that the graphics are so grainy, and at times so bright, that I strongly believe that playing this game hurt my eyesight to some degree. The graininess, coupled with sometimes swift and random camera movements (during battles, for example), a slowly scrolling text, and coloring so bright in some environments they almost hurt the eyes, make this game intolerable to watch sometimes. The fact remains, that playing this game for a period of more than a couple of hours tends to give me a headache. My eyes just can't the strain of all these camera jumps, efforts of following the text, and grainy graphics. This is the sole reason, in fact, why it took me over six years to replay the game. Imbalanced story? Well, all right. A lot of text? I can take it, easily. But eye-strain, possibly eye-damage? No thanks. I do wish Monolith (Xenosaga) would have the opportunity to re-make this game, but at this point it seems highly unlikely. A pity.

2. Intolerable slowness- slow text scrawl, slow loading: this had been a justifiable peeve with many players. There is absolutely no reason why Xenogears' text should be laid out so slowly before the player. Someone in the design team should have put their foot down on this matter; but it somehow escaped them. Perhaps they thought that with so much text, players would appreciate slowing down. Whatever it is, slogging through so much text at such a slow pace hurts the game. Additionally, the game's loading pace is very slow. Playing it on PS2 helps just a bit, but it's still slow between battles, characters entering new areas, and so on, which happen frequently. The game's general slowness hurts it significantly, because so many players tend to lose patience with it just on this score.

THE QUESTIONABLE

1. The graphics: They good for their time, although they suffer from the problems indicated previously. As of date they are somehow outdated; but it's the graininess which hurts the eye that I personally mind most.

2. Religious symbolism: Mmm, mmm. Controversy. Or not. Given the fact that I actually understood some of the foreign words, I was more amused than incensed at this one. Plus, what's wrong in using religious symbolism? Yes, it's heavy-handed. Yes, it's sometimes very pretentious. Yes, Xenosaga, the successor, continued this tradition. But... come on. It's FUN! It's fun to have the game deal with religion. The message is, contrary to what some fans think, not "anti-God" (although it may be anti-religion, and even so, only in very particular ways- the religion of Nissan, for example, is presented in a very positive manner.) And let's face it- a little bit of religion makes many a story more interesting, and everyone has the right to express an opinion about its function and significance in human society. In the end, I don't even think the message was all that offensive, either (thank the hype for intimating that). The use of religion was as much a thematic tool for the structure of the world's history and society, as a meaningful "message". And there's nothing wrong with that.

As another review has said, Xenogears is for patient players who like excellent stories and don't mind its flaws. But play it slowly; absorb it bit by bit. Then, perhaps, you'll feel less frustrated with the flaws, and more rewarded by the merits.

I Have to be Honest

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 28 / 54
Date: August 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Truthfully, I really want to be able to recommend this game. It's not as though there's not a lot here to recommend--the story is well written, and though it doesn't stray TOO far from the well-beaten RPG path, it does break some new ground. The battle system, while not revolutionary, is at least workable. More than anything, I got around forty hours of solid enjoyment out of this title.

The only problem is that it took me sixty hours to finish the game, and it's those other twenty that get in the way of my giving an unconditional recommendation. There are a lot of ways to screw up a game. You can poorly design the levels, you can write a broken combat progression, you can blow the ending--the list is pretty well endless. One way that I never thought I'd witness, however, is simply not finishing the thing. This game is not done. There is no other way to put it.

All the way up through the end of the first CD, things cruised along nicely. Then, all of a sudden, the world map disappeared. That's the only way I can think to put it. Whereas before I had been able to control where my characters went and explore the environments, now I was forced to sit through rather uninteresting sequences featuring one of the lead characters sitting in a wicker chair and telling me what I supposedly just did. The ONLY interaction between the game and the player through that second CD consists of fighting the boss battles that it unceremoniously thrusts you into.

That is a terrible, criminal sin of game design. You are allowed to put the plot on a rail if you want, but you DO NOT get to take away any ability the player may have had to control the game or interact with the world. At that point, your "game" ceases to be a game and becomes an experiment in button pushing. I don't mind exposition, but I do expect to have some control over my own fate when the speech gets done. If you take that away from me, I get angry, and this game made me VERY angry.

There are other problems here as well. By Square standards, the localization is dismal. While it's not as incomprehensible as, say, Okage, there are still some pretty serious mistakes in the English script. Is it just me, or is it reasonable to expect that the people localizing my game for me know that the word is "should've"--not "should of." Mistakes like that are strewn throughout the game text, and I must admit that it detracted a little bit from my ability to enjoy the experience. Of course, as the game progressed, those errors got worse. Around halfway through the second CD, the script writers were dropping words by the twos and threes. Now, that didn't throw me SO much, since I normally read like that anyway, but for people who, you know, like to have all the words, this could be a problem, particularly coming from Square--a house made famous in part by its great localization efforts.

The plot is a little bit more adult than you're likely to find with other games in the genre. Indeed--any parents out there who might be concerned with their children reading thinly veiled discussions of pedophile priests and cartoon buttocks would be well advised to avoid this title. It's really pretty standard anime/manga fare on the whole, but, strangely enough, you don't see much of that in the video game industry, so the game manages to be unique and interesting. Of course, the religious references could use some work. I know from Dogma that Metatron is the recording angel (and that's pretty obscure), but I find it difficult to believe that somebody who hasn't been through seminary is going to be able to appreciate all of the parallels that this plot has with the Christian faith.

On the whole, this game is ALMOST incredible. Had it stayed in production for another year, it might have made it all the way there. Unfortunately, the product that we're left with is unfinished, with some incredibly serious problems near the end (for example, what is the point of letting me run around all over the world map and collect all these great pieces of character gear if the last dungeon is a GEAR dungeon?). As it stands, RPG faithful and anybody willing to overlook the game's faults should find an interesting experience, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody who's not a member of one of those niche groups. We can only hope that Xenosaga (NOT a prequel, as most would have you believe), due out early next year in the U.S., avoids the mistakes that hold this title back.

A perfect storyline meets perfect battling system and music

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What can I say? When I play Xenogears, I feel a sense of completeness, yet I also feel sorrow. Everytime I play Xenogears, I just can't help but feel like I want to cry with the storyline (it IS that good).

The reason why Xenogears isn't well known is because of its strong religious story -- but, this only helps spark up interests if you do so play it. Such a pity.

For those who are unaware, Xenogears is part of the Xenosaga story. :)

An epic masterpiece.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 30, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game went unnoticed by many, hidden under the shadow of much more publicized Final Fantasy 7. But this is a hidden treasure, a rare gem, and should not be missed by anyone who enjoys RPGs. It has every ingredient that makes a great RPG. Intriguing plot, engaging battle system, haunting music, and more. This game span more than 80+ hours for me, yet I did not find 1 minute of it boring. Two things that I personally appreciated the most was the story and the music. The story felt like reading a great science fiction and its philosophical, even religious, quality made it that much more mysterious and intriguing. The music was equally up to the task, making sure all those wonderful elements in the story were translated into sound of tragedy, happindess, excitement, and many other emotions that 80+ hours of game time cranked out. An epic by every definition.

The Greatest RPG of all time!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay, this game is one of those gems to keep forever. Has a great set of characters, great battle system, great number of hours to keep playing, and so on. The Story can throw you off a little because it does get a little confusing. If you ever find a copy of this game, get it. you'll be happy you did. Hint: If you did beat the game already and want to see the ending again, use that cinema trick used in Lunar Silver Star Story (I think it's this one) because it works.

The best RPG ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Wow! Thats the only word to describe how good this game is. Just the story puts this game miles ahead of any other game i have ever played. Final Fantasy 1-9, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, you name it I've played, and none of them even come close to the story of this game. Let me put it this way, the entire second disk is bassically reading. The story is so complex that it takes ove half a disk of reading just to get the jist of the story (since half the details were cut out from the Japanese version). Because the game already takes at least 70 hours to finish, if you had to play through the entire second disk to learn the story it would take at least 200 hours! Not only that but it is so completely unpredictable. Most games you can get halfway through and you already know the entire plot. With Xenogears, your completely clueless as to what is going on through the first half, but once the story starts coming together, WOW! The fairly unique gear battle system is very compelling, and the music is up to par with most other RPGs (save FF VII and Chrono Cross). If there were a downside to this game, it would be the fact there isn't that much gameplay in the second disk, but as i said this is entirely necessary. I admit the story is way too complex for many young children, but as for the heavy religious aspect that many people comment on, if you remember that this is a ficticious video game then no one with half a brain should take offense. I myself am a Roman Catholic and saw nothing offensive about the game. This was the best game I have ever played, novel I have ever read, and movie I have ever seen. If you do not buy this game you are seriously missing out.

Xenogears

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I must say that Xenogears is by far the best RPG to date. Sure, the final fantasy series comes close, but no cigar. In xenogears, you can follow the story without falling asleep or being bored to tears. In both final fantasy VII and VIII, a certain point was reached where I had to stop playing them for a couple months because i became truly bored with them. This did not happen in xenogears because the story was so involving it almost bugged me to have to get up and change discs. It always left you wondering what was going to happen next. I had to play through the game twice to get it completely figured out. I loved the game because it had everything you could want. It has a confusing plot points that keep you thinking well after that particular plot point is over. The later parts of the game onfold events that blow your mind but still make actual sense. All of the characters have logical and justifiable reasons for joining your cause which all are tossed out the window when it is realized that not only pride or vengeance was on the line but a fight for their own existence was at hand. Someone once told me that music makes up almost half of the RPG experience. This holds true for xenogears as well. When engaged in a boss battle, the music changed and reflected that fact. The same holds true with the music that accompanied the dreams and flashbacks the various characters experienced. On a scale of 1 to 100, I give this game a 95. It loses five to my only complaint about the game. That would be the terrible job done with the dubbing on the animated cutscenes. It was a little dissappointing to see one of the high points of the game marred when you notice that after the animated characters become silent, you will notice their lips keep moving for sometimes an obvious 3 or 4 additional seconds. As far as I am concerned, that is the only downside to an absolutely terrific game that no role-playing gamer should be without. To give this game 4 stars would be an injustice to this game, so i give it 5 stars. If tou like RPG's, then YOU MUST GET THIS GAME!

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