TheGreatLugia
Banned
I just finished Xenogears today and considering the size of the game there’s certainly a lot to talk about. This post is going to get a bit long.
To start with, the visuals aged pretty well from using dynamic character sprites in a 3D background. The soundtrack was also great, but that’s not much of a surprise considering who composed it.
Regarding the gameplay, the character-based combat was fun and I always enjoyed learning new deathblows. It was a bit simple but it worked. However, it took longer to warm up to the Gear combat considering how limited everything felt early on. Starting with very few combos and having no way to heal for a long stretch of the game kind of wore on the novelty of fighting in giant mechs. Once those stopped being an issue and more options opened up I started to enjoy the Gear combat more, especially after getting the Omnigears. That being said, the upgrade parts always felt just a bit too expensive.
It was neat to be able to control the camera and jump around everywhere in an older RPG, although the mechanics haven’t necessarily aged the best. Both the camera control and platforming felt clunky, which certainly wasn’t helped by random encounters triggering in the middle of a jump and making you drop like a rock. It was also annoying to have enemies spawn when going through a door or talking to an NPC. Babel Tower was easily the most notable example of all these issues, though the Kislev Sewers deserve an honorable mention for being annoying, as well. Overall the gameplay was decent but nothing amazing. It definitely got interrupted a lot by all of the cutscenes, too.
However, I didn’t mind the onslaught of cutscenes too much because I loved the story. It wasn’t perfectly executed but I loved the ambition and scope of everything. Fei, Elly, Citan, and Bart were all really likable characters, and the amount of development Fei and Elly got was incredibly well done. However, it felt like some of the later party members got a lot less focus, and it would have been nice to see them get a bit more development after their introductory story arcs came to a close. The same problem can’t be said for the major villains, though. They all got a ton of screen time and were a lot of fun to watch although even by “vague evil council” standards it felt like the Gazel Ministry was a bit more, well, vague and confusing than necessary sometimes.
Speaking of vague and confusing, the story definitely had a lot going on. I was usually able to keep track of most of the plot threads while maybe forgetting about one or two smaller details on occasion. It got a bit overwhelming in Disc 2, though. The two most egregious examples were probably the massive wall of exposition given by Miang right after she took control of Elly and the entire scene when Fei met the Wave Existence. However, I was still able to grasp most of the details and had a pretty good idea of everything that happened by the time the story ended. While I appreciate just how dense and complex the story got, a lot of the details could have been explained a bit better.
Everything that happened with Disc 2 obviously didn’t help matters. I already knew going in that the budget ran out at the end of Disc 1 so it was more or less what I expected. I never got fully hooked on the gameplay so I wasn’t too hung up on it being mostly absent. What bothered me the most about Disc 2 was how many plot developments were quickly glossed over. Quite a few potential story arcs seemed badly gutted like when humans all over the world started mutating and how the protagonists dealt with the issue. Instead the characters described the situation for roughly 20 minutes and had to move on to the next part of the plot. Disc 2 definitely felt like the second half of a massive game crammed down into 10-15 hours. Despite all of Disc 2’s issues, however, I was still hooked. The story was definitely doing something right when I still couldn’t wait to find out what happened next in spite of the plot being executed in one of the worst possible methods for a video game.
Xenogears definitely isn't perfect. The gameplay has aged a bit, the story was difficult to completely follow later on, and Disc 2 was really screwed up by development issues. In spite of all that, the story and characters still shined through and I found myself loving the game. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a story heavy RPG.
(This is my first thread, so hopefully I didn't screw anything up)
To start with, the visuals aged pretty well from using dynamic character sprites in a 3D background. The soundtrack was also great, but that’s not much of a surprise considering who composed it.
Regarding the gameplay, the character-based combat was fun and I always enjoyed learning new deathblows. It was a bit simple but it worked. However, it took longer to warm up to the Gear combat considering how limited everything felt early on. Starting with very few combos and having no way to heal for a long stretch of the game kind of wore on the novelty of fighting in giant mechs. Once those stopped being an issue and more options opened up I started to enjoy the Gear combat more, especially after getting the Omnigears. That being said, the upgrade parts always felt just a bit too expensive.
It was neat to be able to control the camera and jump around everywhere in an older RPG, although the mechanics haven’t necessarily aged the best. Both the camera control and platforming felt clunky, which certainly wasn’t helped by random encounters triggering in the middle of a jump and making you drop like a rock. It was also annoying to have enemies spawn when going through a door or talking to an NPC. Babel Tower was easily the most notable example of all these issues, though the Kislev Sewers deserve an honorable mention for being annoying, as well. Overall the gameplay was decent but nothing amazing. It definitely got interrupted a lot by all of the cutscenes, too.
However, I didn’t mind the onslaught of cutscenes too much because I loved the story. It wasn’t perfectly executed but I loved the ambition and scope of everything. Fei, Elly, Citan, and Bart were all really likable characters, and the amount of development Fei and Elly got was incredibly well done. However, it felt like some of the later party members got a lot less focus, and it would have been nice to see them get a bit more development after their introductory story arcs came to a close. The same problem can’t be said for the major villains, though. They all got a ton of screen time and were a lot of fun to watch although even by “vague evil council” standards it felt like the Gazel Ministry was a bit more, well, vague and confusing than necessary sometimes.
Speaking of vague and confusing, the story definitely had a lot going on. I was usually able to keep track of most of the plot threads while maybe forgetting about one or two smaller details on occasion. It got a bit overwhelming in Disc 2, though. The two most egregious examples were probably the massive wall of exposition given by Miang right after she took control of Elly and the entire scene when Fei met the Wave Existence. However, I was still able to grasp most of the details and had a pretty good idea of everything that happened by the time the story ended. While I appreciate just how dense and complex the story got, a lot of the details could have been explained a bit better.
Everything that happened with Disc 2 obviously didn’t help matters. I already knew going in that the budget ran out at the end of Disc 1 so it was more or less what I expected. I never got fully hooked on the gameplay so I wasn’t too hung up on it being mostly absent. What bothered me the most about Disc 2 was how many plot developments were quickly glossed over. Quite a few potential story arcs seemed badly gutted like when humans all over the world started mutating and how the protagonists dealt with the issue. Instead the characters described the situation for roughly 20 minutes and had to move on to the next part of the plot. Disc 2 definitely felt like the second half of a massive game crammed down into 10-15 hours. Despite all of Disc 2’s issues, however, I was still hooked. The story was definitely doing something right when I still couldn’t wait to find out what happened next in spite of the plot being executed in one of the worst possible methods for a video game.
Xenogears definitely isn't perfect. The gameplay has aged a bit, the story was difficult to completely follow later on, and Disc 2 was really screwed up by development issues. In spite of all that, the story and characters still shined through and I found myself loving the game. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a story heavy RPG.
(This is my first thread, so hopefully I didn't screw anything up)
