[DrForester]

Hate how Citan gets his sword before you go to Solaris, and he doesn't use it till much later.

[Seda]

I'm at the second disk now.

Wow...it god so bad so quickly.

[DrForester]

I'm at the second disk now. Wow...it god so bad so quickly.

But the story is oh so good

[Seda]

But the story is oh so good

It's pretty good...but IMO it doesn't make up for this....trainwreck...

s c e n e s c e n e s c e n e

boss

s c e n e s c e n e s c e n e

boss

ugh. And long scenes didn't bother me in saga so much.

[B.K.]

I'm at the second disk now. Wow...it god so bad so quickly.

Wrong. The second disc is the best part of the game.

[DrForester]

On the last part of game. Anyone remember a good place to level grind/earn G.

Want to get Fei to 80 for his final deathblow, and get G for Big Joes.

[Xelinis]

It's pretty good...but IMO it doesn't make up for this....trainwreck... s c e n e s c e n e s c e n e boss s c e n e s c e n e s c e n e boss ugh. And long scenes didn't bother me in saga so much.

Yup, that's where the game's entire budget got yanked.

[UltimaKilo]

I'm 12 hours into Xenogears. It's one of those games that have escaped me throughout the years. I started to play it alongside Vagrant Story a game I've played, but never beat (and it was so many years a go I don't even remember anyways).

I've only touched Xenogears exclusively after getting 6 hours into Vagrant Story. I thought playing such an old game would be difficult, but it really hasn't been, both have been fantastic.

I had thought that perhaps games don't have the appeal that they did back then because I was younger... That theory has been debunked. These two games are great, they're such high quality, the level of detail is ridiculous. It's just too bad Xenogears doesn't have the translations that Vagrant Story does, it can get corny.

I was so disappointed by FFXII, FFXIII and DQIX that I thought the JRPG had seen its best days.

But now I'm using these two games to hold me off on the JRPG genre until the true successor comes out... Xenoblade. :D

[ProudClod]

Beat the game a few days ago. The experience was fantastic. One of the better jRPGs I've played (though still not even close to P3/P4/Nocturne levels). While the experience was great, and I'm very glad to have played it, this game has some serious issues. For one, 'the translation' is absolutely 'terrible'. Grammar is 'completely' -disregarded-. This really bothered me, especially because there are a few specific scenes in the game that were translated wonderfully (e.g. the first time we see Lacan painting Sophia, and we see it from both of their perspectives. It made me shed a tear). The anime cutscene distribution was ridiculous and made no sense. There was absolutely NO effort done to lip sync the cutscenes to an English VA. It's utterly terrible. The fan made Yugioh and DBZ abridged have MUCH better lip syncing, and they simply play around with an INCREDIBLY limited amount of frames from the respective shows. This game had the worst dungeons ever. Even though Persona 3 is one of my favorite games ever, I used to think that Tartarus was frustrating... Boy, was I fucking wrong. The plot is incredibly convoluted, and this is only a negative because the translation made it even more convoluted. Things that I'm sure made a lot more sense in Japanese, make absolutely no sense in the translation. And once again, as everyone has mentioned, the cheap narration style story exposition in Disc 2 absolutely sucks. If only the translation was better, or the team did something to convey a sense of atmosphere during the narration. It all felt so detached. It was just like, "oh, we went there and did that." Things that should have been huge deals, and absolutely heroic undertakings get a sentence saying, "we beat that bad guy and stuff got better."

Once again, despite all of the above, I recommend this game to everyone. Even though there is a lot of room for improvement, the depth of some of the concepts, the absolute epic scope of the game, and the incredibly touching story within is worth all the things I could nitpick.

[B.K.]

Beat the game a few days ago. The experience was fantastic.

Now you can go read Perfect Works and find out everything about the story from Episode I all the way to the beginning of Episode V.

[Dreamer RD]

One of the best games of all time. Very good thread also. Crucified Chu chi is epic

[LeadProtagonist]

This bump reminded me to go attempt to finish up the game this summer. I put a huge dent into it during Spring break and now I've got plenty of free time.

I think I'm somewhere around the area where I'm about to get Billy.

[2San]

It's pretty good...but IMO it doesn't make up for this....trainwreck...

Yeah, I think the same. Hence I don't recommend the game to anyone. The 2nd disc just pissed me off way too much.

[Shirokun]

Yeah, I think the same. Hence I don't recommend the game to anyone. The 2nd disc just pissed me off way too much.

Did you beat it? The stuff with how some of the second disk was handled blows, especially considering what could have been. That said, the sum of the game's parts certainly make up for it in my eyes: Interesting world and characters, great story, decent battle system, EXCELLENT soundtrack - It's still one of my favorite games from the generation.

[2San]

Did you beat it? The stuff with how some of the second disk was handled blows, especially considering what could have been. That said, the sum of the game's parts certainly make up for it in my eyes: Interesting world and characters, great story, decent battle system, EXCELLENT soundtrack - It's still one of my favorite games from the generation.

Yeah, I beat it. I honestly think people are somehow rating the game on what it could've been than what it is. Or they only rate the good parts and ignore the bad parts. While the story and soundtrack are good they weren't enough to make up for the absolutely terrible pacing and absolute shit game-play(in the 2nd disc). The detail in presentation took a hit as well imo. I'd probably like the game more if they just released the first disc and called it the start of a trilogy. As a complete package I personally refuse to rate it since it's simply incomplete. Since any enjoyment I felt was replaced by shit and I forced myself to complete since I was interested seeing how it would end.

[Shirokun]

Yeah, I beat it. I honestly think people are somehow rating the game on what it could've been than what it is. Or they only rate the good parts and ignore the bad parts. While the story and soundtrack are good they weren't enough to make up for the absolutely terrible pacing and absolute shit game-play(in the 2nd disc). The detail in presentation took a hit as well imo. I'd probably like the game more if they just released the first disc and called it the start of a trilogy. As a complete package I personally refuse to rate it since it's simply incomplete. Since any enjoyment I felt was replaced by shit and I forced myself to complete since I was interested seeing how it would end.

That's absolutely not the case - for me, anyway. I recognize that the game would have been better had Square let Takahashi actually finish it, but I really enjoyed it for what it was. The game was narrative heavy to begin with, so even with the axed gameplay sections I could still appreciate what was going on.

[hobbitx]

[IMG]http://i52.************/2lviw4p.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i55.************/35812th.jpg[/IMG]

Remember Scud? I never noticed it the first time, but I thought it was so odd and peculiar how they pretty much made a unique character with such a complete moveset to only be used once during the entire game. It's like encountering Bart or Rico with their full movesets once in like one area and never seeeing them again, almost freaky when you think about it. Others like Gonzalez and the scythe wielding guys popped up as generic enemies. I'm almost certain she was meant to be a main character, wish I could contact a dev a confirm it. I guess between Maria, Margie, and Emeralda that was just too much loli for one disc. haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-S2f4szkbk

[Dreamer RD]

Remember Scud? I never noticed it the first time, but I thought it was so odd and peculiar how they pretty much made a unique character with such a complete moveset to only be used once during the entire game

Probably another victim of deadline. Thanks to Sakaguchi, we got terrible 2 disc with chair stories and that Scud + other content was left. Not to mention a whole FMV with Stars of Tears song, that can only be accesed by ripping from disc image.

[Xelinis]

Thanks to Sakaguchi, we got terrible 2 disc with chair stories and that Scud + other content was left.

Uhh, I don't believe Disk 2 was Sakaguchi's fault. It was a general upper management thing.

[Gaylord Sweetwood]

I haven't gotten to it yet, but I will buy Xeno from the PSN store and replay it. It's been awhile, but I really enjoyed the story when it came out.

What I would give for Monolith Soft to say fuck it and redo the entire 6 episodes more according to the Perfect Works book, with same characters, etc. etc.

[bgassassin]

I remember trading consoles with a friend to play this game back in college. I ended up beating it for he did, ha. From what I remember I did enjoy the game, but hated how it would make a loading sound before a random encounter killing some of the unpredictability for me.

[Sophia]

Probably another victim of deadline. Thanks to Sakaguchi, we got terrible 2 disc with chair stories and that Scud + other content was left. Not to mention a whole FMV with Stars of Tears song, that can only be accesed by ripping from disc image.

Erm, Wasn't Sakaguchi the one who okayed the project in the first place?

[Dreamer RD]

Erm, Wasn't Sakaguchi the one who okayed the project in the first place?

Even so. There was some interview with developers, where said about Hironobu boosting up the project which is resulted in what we see. But dont get me wrong. I have nothing against him. Final Fantasy father ftw.

Also, is it true that game was planned for SNES in the first place?

p.s. if anyone needs PSN version, I can share for something like Parasite Eve 1

[SkylineRKR]

Xenogears is a bit like The Abyss. Good and pretty epic for its time, but ends like a train wreck of some sorts.

Although I was disappointed by disc 2, I didn't find it all that horrible back then. I kind of loved that I didn't have to go through big dungeons such as Babel and the Sewers yet again but was just pitted against those bosses. I clocked about 50 hours by the time I hit disc 2 and I was actually looking forward to ending it.

Its when I replayed it just a few years ago that I noticed how messed up the dialogue and especially disc 2 was. The scrolling is also far too slow.

But, great game. Just not one I'd easily replay like I did with FFIX etc. Too many annoyances and too slow pacing for that.

[KidDork]

Just got a PS3 and am thinking of downloading this and Vagrant Story. I've been trying to find a PS1 copy of Xenogears for awhile now, but wasn't prepared to spend close to a hundred dollars. Or should I clarify, my wife wasn't ready for me to spend a hundred dollars.

[Zwei]

Or should I clarify, my wife wasn't ready for me to spend a hundred dollars.

Yup, that's how it works..

[sazabirules]

How long is this game? I'm going to rescue Margie in the city. I don't think I'm very far at all.

[Edgeward]

50+

[Tabris]

How long is this game? I'm going to rescue Margie in the city. I don't think I'm very far at all.

40-60 hours and that is legitimate, not inflated by side quests. It's probably the longest RPG in terms of story without inflating with side quests.

[Sophia]

How long is this game? I'm going to rescue Margie in the city. I don't think I'm very far at all.

Yeah you're... not very far in. You're basically at Chapter 11, and there's 60 chapters. Easily around 50 hours or so of gameplay.

Also, is it true that game was planned for SNES in the first place

It was originally submitted as a much more basic idea (possibly a Final Fantasy? I can't remember off the top of my head), but was declined because it was too sci-fi for an RPG.

Sakaguchi gave them the go to turn it into a new project.

[Zwei]

It was originally submitted as a much more basic idea (possibly a Final Fantasy? I can't remember off the top of my head), but was declined because it was too sci-fi for an RPG. Sakaguchi gave them the go to turn it into a new project.

That would be Final Fantasy VII. From wikipedia:

[34] Xenogears started out as an early concept conceived by Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka for the Square game Final Fantasy VII.[32] Their superior in the company deemed it "too dark and complicated for a fantasy", but Takahashi was allowed to develop it as a separate project.

[Sophia]

That would be Final Fantasy VII. From wikipedia:

Ah, yeah. Knew it was something like that. Ironically, Final Fantasy VIII borrowed elements from Xenogears, so go figure.

I'd love to see a fully envisioned second disc. Regardless of the reason as to why it got stopped short, it's pretty blatant with how many bugs (endgame spoiler: Elly's gear getting stolen from the player, even though the game can and does remove it when anyone leaves your party earlier on in the game ) it has.

[witchedwiz]

Ah, yeah. Knew it was something like that. Ironically, Final Fantasy VIII borrowed elements from Xenogears, so go figure. I'd love to see a fully envisioned second disc. Regardless of the reason as to why it got stopped short, it's pretty blatant with how many bugs (endgame spoiler: Elly's gear getting stolen from the player, even though the game can and does remove it when anyone leaves your party earlier on in the game ) it has.

yeah well with all the shits and gizbo... i still love xenogears, if only they paced the second disk better :/

[-GOUKI-]

Hey guys just started this game after beating Xenoblade. Wanted more similar experience. Just got out of that forest. Damn the maps are confusing.

[-GOUKI-]

Maybe im too early in the game but the combat system is so boring

[Psxphile]

Yeah at first the battle system is pretty bare-bones. As the story progresses it'll open up: you'll get more AP per turn and you'll be able to learn new Deathblows. And then of course there's the Gear battles.

[wakajawaka]

Hope it's fine to rescue this post...

Just finished this game and ... son, I'm disappoint.

The game has some nice ideas, the music is awesome, some characters are so good, some moments really got me, but all of this feels like it's buried on a gigantic, unfinished mess. Not just the story pacing, the game gave me this feeling in almost every way. It's a bit sad.

Should I even bother with Xenosaga?

[Ixion]

I've always wanted to play this game and so I finally bought it off the PS Store.

However, after two hours in I'm not enjoying it. The characters talk WAYYYY too much and the writing is not good enough to warrant it.

Also, navigating each area is a pain due to the rotating camera and lack of mini-map.