Finally finished Xenogears...

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

Have you ever finished a book, a movie, a game, that offered such an amazing experience that all you can do when it’s over is sit there and wish it wasn’t? You don’t want to sleep… you’re still too overawed by it’s brilliance to do that. You certainly don’t want to move onto another book, movie, or game… everything else would seem dull and boring in comparisen. I felt like that after finishing Zelda: LA, Zelda: LttP, Zelda: OoT, and Zelda: tWW… after reading the first and third books of Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Star trilogy. After I finished watching Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or the Fellowship of the Ring. All of these things are utter masterpieces, the highest point of quality reachable in their respective genres/entertainments.

Well, as I am sure you have realized by now, Xenogears ranks right up there with those greats. The game started out slow and fairly normal, as most of these things do… but it quickly picked up it’s pace and swept me away.

It has an amazing story, one of the best I have ever seen. It goes from a mere rebellions against Shakan, to a battle against Ramsus, to a fight against Solaris, to a battle against Krelian and Grahf, to a battle against Merkava, and, finally, to a fight against Deus itself… all of it culminating in that magnificent ending. The game masterfully draws you deeper and deeper into the story, while it masterfully introduces detail after detail, subplot after subplot, religious reference after religious reference, revelation after revelation. Such a beautifully story…

And all this is, of course, helped along by some of Mitsuda’s greatest music yet. I’ve been a fan of Mitsuda for a few years now… and he cotinues to impress. First Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross… and now this? If he gets any better I may keel over and die from the sheer genius his music possesses.

Though it is quite obviously the low point of the game, I still found the battle system very impressive, easily better then anything FF or your tradition RPG has thrown out over the years.

Of course, that’s not even counting the Gear battles. I never would have believed a game could incorporate two different battle systems so seamlessly, but this game manages it.

The game’s difficulty was perfect, too. Not so excruciatingly hard that I wanted to kill someone, but it posed enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes, actually make me work. Most RPGs are unable to keep this balance, in my experience.

Anyways… I rank this right up there with OoT and LttP as one of the greatest games ever made. Anyone who doesn’t go out and buy it is commiting a serious crime agaisnt themselves.

2

I never did quite finish Xenogears.
My save kept getting fucked.

3

Can’t say that I have.

4

Well, I’ve gotten to the very end of the game, but I haven’t finished it yet. I tend to do that with a lot of the games I play. I’ve enjoyed Xenogears, even though certain parts of the battle system drive me nuts (Deathblow learning, anyone?). It’s one of the few games I’ve played where I didn’t know anything about the story beforehand, and it was so much fun to discover, to learn, and to piece together as I progressed.

5

I loved Xenogears, that is why it’s no. 1 on my list. I completed it back in '99. This game drew me in like no other game I’ve ever played before. It was an experience. The story was magnificant. At the time I was playing Xenogears I put everything aside to make time to it.

6

there were so many memorable moments in Xenogears, so much that I plan on replaying and saving right before each good turning point in the story ^^

7

One of the games i have in really high regard,i already finished it,only one thing bothering me.What the hell,is going to happen in the last part of the series.

8

I’m still on Disc 1 of Xenogears.
Never got around to beating it.

9

I never had the patience to finish it. The battle system annoyed the hell out of me.

10

Xenogears is definitely one of the best games ever. There were only two things I mind about it:

  1. Disk two seemed rather rushed. Still good, don’t get me wrong, but I get the definite impression they had planned more stuff but had to cut it short diue to time or budget constraints.

  2. Some of the lighter characters seemed out of place (the one who looks like a Rainbow Brite pet, the bad guy team with Voltron-type mecha, etc.) Again, I enjoyed them, they just seemed out of place in the generally dark atmosphere. But I guess they were put in to lighten things up.

Highly recommended, just watch out for one or two disturbing comments in the story.

11

From what I heard, Square felt they spent to much time and money on Xenogears, so they finished up Disc 2 more sloppy then Disc 1.

12

Actually, they cut funding and support in favor of Final Fantasy 7.

EDIT: 100th post. Heh. Took me long enough… about 10 months.

13

Except Xenogears came out in 1998 and Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997, so that theory is out of the way.

Anyway, I don’t really know why the second disk was so different. I’m inclined to say that the speed of the game reflected the speed of the incidents in the world, and on disk 2 the events occured at such a rapid pace that the disk had to be narrated instead of played through, but I haven’t played it in a while, so I can’t really back that up.

I thought the Element’s group was good; for one thing it showed how mechanical Solaris was. For example, weren’t Ramsus, Citan and Sigurd all members of the Elements force? And if so, then the existing elements group (the voltron type team Wilfredo reffered too) were just replacements. Other than that, I don’t really see how they were out of place, Solaris being a highly militarized country it seems only natural, and neccessary, that special forces teams would exist. Although I never understood why Chu-Chu became part of your team, or was even in the game at all. He never really amounted to anything at any time, although it was cool to put him in his Gear form and leave your other two party members on foot and run around the world map.

And what disturbing comments? You’ll have to refresh my memory, it’s been a while. I tried to replay it, but I got caught up in something else.

14

How does that disprove anything? If anything, it supports the idea. They cut funding and support from Xenogears, making it release later, and gave them to the FF7 team to help finish up the game.

15

Sorc: I’m not dissing the Elements Team at all. But, in a world were most mecha were the more mechanical, “Gundam” type, their using Animal-shaped robots that combine (ala Power Rangers) seemed odd to me. But as I said, I liked it, I just felt it needed to be explained.

As for the disturbing comments, here they are. They’re very minor, but you have to admit, they’re NOT what you expect out of an RPG (wich shows how unusual XG was; in recollection, I realize they DID fit the game’s atmosphere, but man, was I shocked the first time!)

SPOILERS! DON’T READ (UNLESS YOU ARE WORRIED).
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One of the characters had been a child prostitute once.
The food in Solaris was made out of human flesh.

There might have been a few more I don’t remember. Certainly, certain parts of the game -like when you discover who the murderer really was- can be shocking, too.
Still, great writing, no doubt.

16

I wouldn’t hold your breath…at this rate, we’ll all be over 50 by the time the last episode is released.

For the record, xg is my second fave rpg.

17

I was thoroughly unimpressed with the game. The two battle systems don’t mesh at all. The story is sloppy and disjointed, the battle difficulty is way out of whack at times (the last boss has an attack that can do more damage than any of your gears could ever be capable of withstanding), and the overall production (though only especially apparent in the latter half of the game) is rushed. Characters sitting in front of a swinging pendent? That was an insult to my intelligence.

  • Matt
18

You must have had terrible levels/equipment if you found an attack that did mroe damage then your gears had health…

One of the characters had been a child prostitute once.

Technically, he considered it, but decided against it.

19

One of the characters had been a child prostitute once.

Actually he just said he considered it.

And i know what you mean Locke,but i can still hope.Well at least Xenosaga 2 is not that far off.

20

Why would they cut funds to a game that had less than a year in production left? It makes no sense, the game is still in the prime stages of being created. And further more, how does anything that you’ve said prove anything?

The battle systems aren’t supposed to “mesh”. I mean, come on - in one system you’re on foot, in the other you’re in giant robots. Where should the meshing be? The story is only sloppy and disjointed if you don’t read anything; by disjointed I imagine you mean disconnected (as in one part has no affect on another part). That’s really only in the beginning of the game. By the end of it, it should all make sense. Characters sitting in front of a swinging pendent is an insult to your intelligence? How so? The swinging pendent was obviously used to symbolize Fei’s hypnotized state while he was under Id’s control.