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[trilobyte]

Where Final Fantasy VII was the "my first RPG" of its day, Xenogears could easily be classified as the "my second RPG" of the Playstation era. Newbie otakus, done with Final Fantasy VII, picked this up and probably enjoyed most of it. New to the anime/rpg scene, those people could easily overlook the broken combat system, cliche storyline, and the ba-zillion annoying subplots. RPG/Anime veterans, however, could easily see those major flaws and hacked up story.

So I don't doubt there's a sub-set of people who played Xenogears and loved it, and still do to this day. It's not a bad RPG if it was your second one ever. But hopefully these people branched out and started playing better RPGs including the classics so they can recognize that Xenogears wasn't worth its weight.

 

[alu]

I find that, alongside Secret of Mana, this was my favourite game of all time. I actually really did not care for it in the beginning, and it wasn't one of my first RPGs. When I got into it I was completely blown away by the plot and by the fun battlesystem. Can't say that I found any flaw in it. It's basically the NGE of videogames, but with a slightly less whiny character at least.

Xenosaga however made me cry.

 

[Drinky Crow]

doesn't the phrase "eva cliche" imply that eva pioneered anything, or was good?

no, it simply suggests that evangelion did it first and in a more popular form

 

[jett]

I loved this game back then...but I don't know if I could play it nowadays, with its slow ass text scroll.

edit: am I imagining things or did drinky crow once wrote a positive xenosaga review/preview for IGN, or was that another elitist gaftard?

 

[nelsonroyale]

the game really impressed me, an ambitious concept and an epic story line..and I enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere attached to the plot...

I think the story had an interesting cocept at least compared to most games, and some of the characters were very memorable...of course it borrowed alot from other works, but it wove them together well...

As for reading more books...its not applicable here...last books I read were 1984, Under Western Eyes by Conrad, Dampyers journals, The World of the Phoenicians.... I am broadly read, and the story still impressed me

Drinky weren't you the guy who was championing Blue Dragon? and you diss this... Mind you I thought alot of the level design in this game was utter shit... I really needs a nex gen remake...the only game I think needs a remake

 

[replicashooter]

I missed this the first time round and picked it up along with FFVII to see what all the hype was about.

17 hours later after running around in sewers and escaping from jail I said fruck it and put it to the side - There are too many good games available to have to sit through something this bad. The story is non existant (amazing huh, considering all that text), music is bleh and it all feels very repetitive.

FFVII on the other hand is quite a larf, just got to the Temple Of The Ancients and the gift keeps on giving.

 

[Jonas]

loved Xenogears, but I always felt like the 2nd disc was kind of half assed, compared to the first. I know a lot of people say that, but were the devs lazy or just trying to be different?

 

[NIghtWolf]

I missed this the first time round and picked it up along with FFVII to see what all the hype was about.

17 hours later after running around in sewers and escaping from jail I said fruck it and put it to the side - There are too many good games available to have to sit through something this bad. The story is non existant (amazing huh, considering all that text), music is bleh and it all feels very repetitive.

FFVII on the other hand is quite a larf, just got to the Temple Of The Ancients and the gift keeps on giving.

get out. :lol :lol


I loved FFVII and its my favorite, but I know how to differentiate one from the other.

...Non-existant story? I could take anything good, bad, regular, weird, whatever but non-existant? I think you should explain what do you mean with non-existan story without comparing it with FFVII or any other game.

loved Xenogears, but I always felt like the 2nd disc was kind of half assed, compared to the first. I know a lot of people say that, but were the devs lazy or just trying to be different?

In the second disc they were trying to "not be different" unfortunately. It seems rushed as hell, and in fact they did something different but there are 2 kinds of different:

Spoiler

the good and the stupid

they choose the worst.

 

[Servbot #42]

having finished this game four times, yes four times, i can say its one of my favorites games, sure the second is shit because you almost do nothing and was obviously meant to last much longer and some plot points were laughable (male prostitution, priest molesting kids,god, people turned in to food....really?,etc), the game got some kind of charm that kept me going, plus i really liked the battle system.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I loved this game back then...but I don't know if I could play it nowadays, with its slow ass text scroll.

edit: am I imagining things or did drinky crow once wrote a positive xenosaga review/preview for IGN, or was that another elitist gaftard?

i was excited for its release back in my usenet days, because hey wow new square rpg and it looked like grandia

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Square didn't run out of money for the game, the game was rushed even if it was in development for 3 years. Square rushed the team to finish the game, which ultimately led to the team splitting from square to form MonolithSoft.

I love the game, it is one of my favorite games of all time. With that said, the game is flawed and it was needlessly complex. It was like the metal gear saga, except that the game is 60-80 hours long.

 

[replicashooter]

...Non-existant story? I could take anything good, bad, regular, weird, whatever but non-existant? I think you should explain what do you mean with non-existan story without comparing it with FFVII or any other game.

Non-existant as in there are so many chunks of the game that just seem to be "busy work" to keep you occupied in between the morsels of tale that they feed you as you are on the brink of story related starvation.

And all of this from a game that is leaking text from every orifice...

There are many parts of the game where you are wandering around on some godforsaken random errand and you wonder "WTF am I doing this for?"

 

[vanguardian1]

Non-existant as in there are so many chunks of the game that just seem to be "busy work" to keep you occupied in between the morsels of tale that they feed you as you are on the brink of story related starvation.

And all of this from a game that is leaking text from every orifice...

There are many parts of the game where you are wandering around on some godforsaken random errand and you wonder "WTF am I doing this for?"

Uhm, unless I'm forgetting a LOT of the game, pretty much everything in the game interconnects in some way, plot-wise. I can remember only a few things in the game that didn't bear any relevance on the story in some way.

Edit : The only thing I can think of is that either you didn't get far enough into the story, or you didn't read deep enough into it.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Uhm, unless I'm forgetting a LOT of the game, pretty much everything in the game interconnects in some way, plot-wise. I can remember only a few things in the game that didn't bear any relevance on the story in some way.

That is the problem, the game interconnects too much. Within the 60+ hour saga a majority of the plot points are relevant to the main storyline. The problem is that it is presented in a manner that requires people to think and read between the lines.

Remember, people play video games for fun, not for creating a thesis paper.

 

[Schopenhauer]

Xenogears is one of my favorite games. I usually end up playing it once every year or every other year.

The biggest problem with Xenogears was the translation, but many rpg's from that era suffered a similar fate. When the translation was bad it ended up being REALLY bad.

This led to Xenogears convoluted story becoming even harder to understand. Although once it came together Xenogears told a magnificent tale.

 

[vanguardian1]

I guess that's my problem, when I get deep into games, I love to try to read in between the lines. :lol

Damnit, now I wanna play this again... I guess I could since I beat Soul Nomad the other day.

 

[hitmon]

Xenogears is definitely in my top 5 RPGs. I need to play it again. I didn't mind the way the second disc played out.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Xenogears is definitely in my top 5 RPGs. I need to play it again. I didn't mind the way the second disc played out.

Heh, top 5.

I consider it my 3rd favorite game of all time after Chrono Trigger and Grandia 1.

 

[Duderz]

Xenogears is not the worst RPG ever simply because it has the best RPG soundtrack ever.

Or close to it.

 

[hitmon]

Heh, top 5.

I consider it my 3rd favorite game of all time after Chrono Trigger and Grandia 1.

True, it may very well be in my top 3, but I just can't choose between Suikoden II, Suikoden V, Shadow Hearts, and Fire Emblem (does this count as an RPG?) or Final Fantasy VIII.

 

[Tabris]

Xenogears is everything right in RPGs.

An epic multi-layered story that doesn't try to hold anything back due to it's medium. It's the best story told in video gaming so far, even if it has to use anime/science fiction cliches to convey it.

A fast battle engine that requires semi-complex user input along with the strategy based turn based system. It also varies up the battle engine by breaking into 2 seperate systems, 1 for the characters and 1 for the mechs.

A fantastic music score composed by the greatest video game composer in the industry, mostly due to this composition. This score hits all emotion ranges, whether to feel the anguish of a character, the anticaption of battle or the grief of death.

 

[Error]

really? I thought the battle system was pretty shitty myself, I dont like the fact that I had to memorize a bunch of button commands to use some of the best techniques in the game. Im playing an RPG not a fighting game, magic spells were useless to the point that I wonder why the game even has magic spells.

Xenogears soundtrack is a tad overrated as imo Grandia, VP1, Suikoden 2, FF8, FFT, VS, SOTN best it. tho I admit I'm not a big Mitsuda fan.

 

[Clevinger]

really? I thought the battle system was pretty shitty myself, I dont like the fact that I had to memorize a bunch of button commands to use some of the best techniques in the game. Im playing an RPG not a fighting game, magic spells were useless to the point that I wonder why the game even has magic spells.

It's really not that hard. All the characters have the same buttons for combos. And I believe it even tells you the next buttons you press to get to each combo after you input the first button.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Xenogears is everything right in RPGs.

An epic multi-layered story that doesn't try to hold anything back due to it's medium. It's the best story told in video gaming so far, even if it has to use anime/science fiction cliches to convey it.

A fast battle engine that requires semi-complex user input along with the strategy based turn based system. It also varies up the battle engine by breaking into 2 seperate systems, 1 for the characters and 1 for the mechs.

A fantastic music score composed by the greatest video game composer in the industry, mostly due to this composition. This score hits all emotion ranges, whether to feel the anguish of a character, the anticaption of battle or the grief of death.

OMG, Tabris and I share the same argument and basic idea.

The world will end CONFIRMED.

 

[Error]

It's really not that hard. All the characters have the same buttons for combos. And I believe it even tells you the next buttons you press to get to each combo after you input the first button.

still seems like too much effort and after the 20th time I stopped bothering with the long ass combos because honestly that thing got old fast. havent played the game in almost 10 years? I think, so I dont remember that well.

 

[Dark Octave]

Xenogears was a great game. Don't ever let anybody tell you different.

 

[Clevinger]

still seems like too much effort and after the 20th time I stopped bothering with the long ass combos because honestly that thing got old fast. havent played the game in almost 10 years? I think, so I dont remember that well.

The longest combo is a whole five buttons, and you know how complicated it is? Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, X. And it's the same for all characters...

So hard to remember and a pain in the ass, even when there's a visual indicator helping you remember it as you start it!

 

[vanguardian1]

OMG, Tabris and I share the same argument and basic idea.

The world will end CONFIRMED.

The feeling is mutual. 0.o

 

[Error]

The longest combo is a whole five buttons, and you know how complicated it is? Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, X. And it's the same for all characters...

So hard to remember and a pain in the ass, even when there's a visual indicator helping you remember it as you start it!

:sigh

I guess you misunderstood why Im trying to say or maybe I didnt do a good job expressing myself. Im just not a fan of inputting a lot of button commands for no real reason except to do more damage. why not let me choose those moves of a menu? why force me to press all these buttons only to do more damage?

I enjoy it in VP1/VP2 because those battle systems involve timing, precision, planning and making good use of a combination of attacks to make devastating combos (specially in VP2) and because the combo depends on how well the player planned his attacks, there is great satisfaction once you pull off a good combo in those games, so imo the amount of button presses you do in a battle is justified and the game at least rewards the player for making good combos(exp crystals, item drops etc.. etc..). another thing that battle system of those games have is improvisation, the player designs his own combos and playing style so there is a lot of freedom in the battle system. if Xenogears battles had any of this I wouldnt mind pressing a lot of buttons in battles ;p

 

[Fady K]

Xenogears is everything right in RPGs.

An epic multi-layered story that doesn't try to hold anything back due to it's medium. It's the best story told in video gaming so far, even if it has to use anime/science fiction cliches to convey it.

A fast battle engine that requires semi-complex user input along with the strategy based turn based system. It also varies up the battle engine by breaking into 2 seperate systems, 1 for the characters and 1 for the mechs.

A fantastic music score composed by the greatest video game composer in the industry, mostly due to this composition. This score hits all emotion ranges, whether to feel the anguish of a character, the anticaption of battle or the grief of death.

I agree with you on almost all levels, however I didnt enjoy the story as much as I thought I would. However, back for its day, incredible - and the OST was awesome - and still is. Mitsuda isnt the same anymore though :'(

really? I thought the battle system was pretty shitty myself, I dont like the fact that I had to memorize a bunch of button commands to use some of the best techniques in the game. Im playing an RPG not a fighting game, magic spells were useless to the point that I wonder why the game even has magic spells.

Xenogears soundtrack is a tad overrated as imo Grandia, VP1, Suikoden 2, FF8, FFT, VS, SOTN best it. tho I admit I'm not a big Mitsuda fan.

I didn't have much of a problem with the battle system at all actually, XG had one of my favorite battle systems in any RPG. I was going to ask if you weren't a Mitsuda fan, but you already said that yourself, so it makes sense about why you didn't like the OST as much.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I've stated it in every Xenogears thread but I'm a huge fan of the Deathblow system (almost like Valkyrie Profile but even awesomer).

I can't honestly say I enjoyed the story since I haven't played the game in about 5 or so years but I did like the whole I.D and Fei dynamic going on. I also liked the Mecha / RPG fusion. Eh, it gets soooo much hate ;_;

I also love the soundtrack for this game but like Wild Arms and FFVII this game is a huge bucket of nostalgia juice for me, so that probably plays a huge factor.

 

[Baryn]

Despite having the best plot of any RPG, the backfiction is even better. Download "Xenogears Perfect Works" sometime!

 

[Prime crotch]

Despite having the best plot of any RPG

Oh hell no.

 

[mr_nexus]

Oh hell no.

Oh hell yes.

 

[Prime crotch]

Oh hell yes.

I do not concur!

 

[Ledsen]

To the people whining about the story: please name a few j-rpgs with a good narrative.

 

[Prime crotch]

To the people whining about the story: please name a few j-rpgs with a good narrative.

Only jRPGs? Ok then, from the top of my head: FFIV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, FFTatics and these are only Square titles.

 

[MoxManiac]

Xenogears is everything right in RPGs.

If this was the case I would have abandoned the genre long ago. No game should force you to sit there for 30+ minutes staring at scrolling text with no input from the player. Sadly, that's the least of Xenogear's problems.

 

[nelsonroyale]

Only jRPGs? Ok then, from the top of my head: FFIV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, FFTatics and these are only Square titles.

thats ridiculous...

none of those games had a better plot than xenogears though

 

[Draft]

One of my favorite JRPGs. Maybe the favorite. Doubt I could even make it through the first disc now, as I've soured on the genre. But sweet game.

 

[Prime crotch]

thats ridiculous...

none of those games had a better plot than xenogears though

Are you saying that Final Fantasy 6 did not had a good narrative? And all of those games had better plots than Xenogears simply because they were better written and had a better story-telling. Just because Xeno had some Gnostic and other philosofical concepts doesn't mean it did them right.

 

[djtiesto]

I'll echo the complaints that the detractors had - the story was too pretentious and over ambitious for its own good (although I kind of appreciate this, it was certainly a bit different from your typical RPG of the day), the battle system required you to spam the same moves over and over again, the midair random battles were frustrating, graphics looked awful and pixellated beyond recognition even back in 1998, all of disk 2, frustratingly annoying final boss encounter... But the music was really good, and the game as a whole was a LOT better than the RPG wasteland that is Xenosaga.

 

[Mashing]

Where Final Fantasy VII was the "my first RPG" of its day, Xenogears could easily be classified as the "my second RPG" of the Playstation era. Newbie otakus, done with Final Fantasy VII, picked this up and probably enjoyed most of it. New to the anime/rpg scene, those people could easily overlook the broken combat system, cliche storyline, and the ba-zillion annoying subplots. RPG/Anime veterans, however, could easily see those major flaws and hacked up story.

So I don't doubt there's a sub-set of people who played Xenogears and loved it, and still do to this day. It's not a bad RPG if it was your second one ever. But hopefully these people branched out and started playing better RPGs including the classics so they can recognize that Xenogears wasn't worth its weight.

My experience was similar, except FFIX was my first FF (and then I started buying PS1 RPGs left and right). I loved Xenogears to death but you are right, now that I'm more familiar with the genre it was definitely full of cliches. At the time that didn't bother (because I didn't know what RPG cliches were), but I enjoyed the heck out of it at the time. I'm sure I could probably still get some enjoyment out of it but not like before.

Oh and I definitely branched out and started playing the classics as you said.

 

[ITA84]

Probably my 3rd JRPG (after FFVII and BoFIII) and among those I loved the most. Looking back at it now, I can see its flaws, but they're not so heavy after all. Definitely the one game that moved me the most, and the only one I actually own an OST of.

P.S.: I played through the whole game a fourth time just to

Spoiler

beat Alpha Weltall and get its item drop.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I'll echo the complaints that the detractors had - the story was too pretentious and over ambitious for its own good (although I kind of appreciate this, it was certainly a bit different from your typical RPG of the day), the battle system required you to spam the same moves over and over again, the midair random battles were frustrating, graphics looked awful and pixellated beyond recognition even back in 1998, all of disk 2, frustratingly annoying final boss encounter... But the music was really good, and the game as a whole was a LOT better than the RPG wasteland that is Xenosaga.

Considering Xenosaga isn't all that bad, maybe....maybe I'll just throw this in the ol' PS2...

 

[Tabris]

Xenosaga Episode III is the closest video game we'll get to Xenogears and it does it with less anime/science fiction cliches.

It's sad that most people on this forum haven't experienced that game to the end due to the opinion on the previous games.

 

[ethelred]

To the people whining about the story: please name a few j-rpgs with a good narrative.

Only jRPGs? Ok then, from the top of my head: FFIV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, FFTatics and these are only Square titles.

Panzer Dragoon Saga, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle 64, Dragon Quest VII, Suikoden II, Suikoden III...

 

[satori]

Xenogears had the best story in my mind. The game dealt with some issues that you really do not see in games at that time. The great thing about the game to me is, each person experience will be different in a sense of how they see the story itself. Each of my friends who played the game, came to their own conclusion.

This game was a bliss to play, and I would play it again.

 

[Soulhouf]

Xenogears is a masterpiece with its solid gameplay, beautiful music and very interesting plot.
The concept of this experience is very strong.
The only thing I regret is the fact that squaresoft didn't give enough money to Takahashi so that his team could go on and finish his ambitious project.

The best PS1 game for me and without any doubt.

 

[nelsonroyale]

Are you saying that Final Fantasy 6 did not had a good narrative? And all of those games had better plots than Xenogears simply because they were better written and had a better story-telling. Just because Xeno had some Gnostic and other philosofical concepts doesn't mean it did them right.

no, I thought FFVI had a rather jumbled tedious plot, with paper thin characters... and I didn't really pay attention to the philosophical ramblings in xenogears...I thought the overall concept of the plot was good, and the game had strong direction (ie actually surprising plot elements) and some very impressive scenes... FFVI plot was simplistic, but not very coherent at all, and the main characters were very poorly fleshed out... Not that I think the characters in Xenogears were particularly strong, but there was a certain ambition in the plot, which few other games match...not the ones listed here at least

While I thought some of the incorporation of nietzchian philosphy was quite blatant, the concept appealed to me... religious dogma and falsity of the history. It was an interesting set up... It played out well in an interactive format. For reference I find NGE tedious, and never really got into it,,,not a mecha anime fan

Not really going to discuss my thoughts in detail on the game however... teh game was very long, and I cant be bothered really recalling my thoughts on the experience