Beautiful in its messy soup of random Wikipedia skims of various philosophers and thinkers, and structured like a really good mecha anime. This is my favorite game -- in its amateurish, slapped together state it feels incredibly raw and engaging.
(I tried to go further this third time)
Better check out Neon Genesis Evangelion, you may or may not like this work but rest assured it will respect your time unlike xenogears which is another failed "RPG" abortion that dares to drag on longer than my patience can take.
P.S. Tetsuya Takahashi looks more like a frustrated novelist than a game director as such.
Better check out Neon Genesis Evangelion, you may or may not like this work but rest assured it will respect your time unlike xenogears which is another failed "RPG" abortion that dares to drag on longer than my patience can take.
P.S. Tetsuya Takahashi looks more like a frustrated novelist than a game director as such.
p good story but ooo the gameplay but cool robots makes up for it
Il mio legame con i jRPG è conflittuale, dato che a loro mi avvicino da un punto di vista più intellettuale che specificamente ludico: più che giocarli mi interessa conoscerne e studiarne le circostanze dietro lo sviluppo, siano esse storiche e politiche come anche, più nel dettaglio, gli usi e costumi della popolazione giapponese. Questa separazione la vivo in modo molto meno netto per qualsiasi altro genere
Devo dire che, in generale, mi accade sia con i jRPG che con gli adventure in generale, comprendendo le Visual Novel nel discorso. Trovo molto interessanti i punti di contatto con la cultura occidentale, a partire da ispirazioni ben risapute come DnD, Colossal Cave Adventure, Wizardry, Rogue: tutti esempi ben noti e che hanno lasciato un segno evidente nella produzione artistico-ludica giapponese. La cosa più intrigante, per me, è il modo con cui siano stati (più o meno) tutti rielaborati efficacemente per dare vita a lavori o particolarmente complessi o totalmente riadattati per accomodare le abitudini dei giapponesi: dai jRPG stessi ai replay
Queste basi si possono notare in modo più o meno sottile sia su base visiva che sul piano del gameloop e del setting
Xenogears è stato partorito da un team di Square, già allora ben impegnata nella produzione di jRPG di derivazione potremmo dire tradizionale: sono ovvi i primi Final Fantasy, King's Knight e Romancing Saga
Si tratta spesso di giochi con alla base una certa volontà di sperimentare, sotto più profili. Oltre ciò, Square ha manifestato sin da subito un certo interesse per la fantascienza e per tematiche politiche. Gli esempi più interessanti:
1)Cruise Chaser Blassty - Oggi è forse ricordato solo per gli arrangiamenti musicali di Nobuo Uematsu, ma anche lato storia e gameplay ha delle notevoli particolarità. Mi soffermo sul fatto che il protagonista, alla guida di mecha in tutto e per tutto simili a certi Gundam (realizzati, infatti, da Mika Aki), si ritrova nel mezzo di un conflitto tra un governo oppressivo e una fazione ribelle. Tra gli sviluppatori coinvolti, Sakaguchi e Kazuhiko Aoki;
2) Alpha - probabilmente altrettanto oscuro, in questo caso si tratta di un ADV game (ciò che noi chiameremmo indistintamente Visual Novel). La protagonista soffre di amnesia, e si trova su una nave spaziale incaricata di raggiungere un nuovo pianeta già che le risorse naturali della Terra sono state consumate. Anche qui, il setting prevede un conflitto tra un sistema dittatoriale e una fazione ribelle. Cosa da ricordare è che, alla scrittura, c'è Hiromichi Tanaka.
Xenogears nasce un po' da tutto questo, e da molto altro. Il fulcro del gioco ruota attorno al ruolo di Tetsuya Takahashi, già coinvolto nella realizzazione di altri giochi di spicco di Square: prendo ad esempio Chrono Trigger e Final Fantasy VI (sua la realizzazione delle Magitek, intro in CGI compresa). Assieme a lui lavorano su Xenogears molti altri professionisti provenienti dall'esperienza Chrono Trigger: alcuni di questi già menzionati, altri sono:
Katsuhisa Higuchi e Kiyoshi Yoshii (combat programmer che perfezionò l'ATB di Hiroyuki Ito), Yasunori Mitsuda (compositore), Tsutomu Terada e Tadahiro Usuda (character designer), Yoshinori Ogura (mecha designer), Yasuyuki Honne (texture mapping), e soprattutto Masato Kato. Quest'ultimo fu co-scrittore di Xenogears, e fu in effetti l'elemento di spicco dietro la scrittura di Chrono Trigger. Ci sarebbero diverse altre menzioni da fare
Questo spostamento di professionisti ben si sposa con le intenzioni iniziali del progetto, pensato come prosecuzione proprio di Chrono Trigger. Vi fu anche la volontà di renderlo settimo capitolo di Final Fantasy, per poi venir scartato proprio per il suo mischiare un setting tra il fantasy e lo sci-fi con tematiche e atmosfere seriose e cupe
Ecco, da questo punto iniziano a intrecciarsi certi fatti curiosi: lo sviluppo di Xenogears portò in effetti alla nascita di altri giochi che ne condividevano i toni, personaggi ed elementi narrativi. Prima ho menzionato Alpha e Cruise Chaser Blassty non a caso: Takahashi, sua moglie Kaori Tanaka, Masato Kato non furono direttamente coinvolti, ma presentano anche Xenogears presenta un protagonista che soffre di amnesie e il tema dell'oppressione
Spesso e volentieri si vuole attribuire una proliferazione di determinate opere e determinati temi al cosiddetto decennio perduto giapponese, per sommi capi corrispondente agli anni '90. Questa è una correlazione che devo ancora conoscere in modo che mi soddisfi, e del resto nulla vieta che esista una produzione anticipatoria di questo fenomeno e che introduca sviluppi legati alla tecnofobia e all'anti-war - vedendo, per esempio, la tensione sociale e politica derivate dalla Guerra Fredda (es.: The Death Trap)
Per ora trovo ben plausibile che Xenogears sia effettivamente figlio di quel decennio di insicurezze e instabilità politiche ed economiche, che ne rispecchi paure e trend, anche all'interno di Square stessa. Non si volle renderlo sequel di Chrono Trigger e di Final Fantasy, eppure Square da quel momento prese un nuovo tipo di strada
In FFVII sono fondamentali il Jenova Project, l'enorme potere della Shinra Electric Power Company, Sephiroth. Tutti elementi che riflettono la già menzionata tecnofobia, la paura per uno sviluppo tecnologico dipendente dalla volontà di un soggetto in grado di imporre la propria volontà in modo autoritativo, vuoi in modo subdolo o in modo diretto. Oppure si consideri Parasite Eve con il tema della maternità, dell'identità, dell'ingegneria genetica, dell'ambientalismo. D'altro canto, alcuni di questi sono presenti anche in FFVII, tra Strife, Sephiroth, il gruppo AVALANCHE
Una corrente tematica che si rileva anche in giochi come Einhänder, Treasure of the Rudras, Another Mind. Difficile stabilire se vi sia una corrente percorsa da un certo quantitativo di altre case di sviluppo, occorrerebbe perderci un po' di tempo per capire la portata del fenomeno
Xenogears è un po' tutto questo e anche molto di più, mettendo in mostra il notevole ecletticismo di tutto il team di sviluppo. Takahashi in particolare, avendo avuto ampia esperienza come lettore e spettatore di testi e cinema occidentali. Più che evidente è il suo prendere a piene mani da Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, e poi da Clarke, Harrison, George Lucas, Kubrick, Heinlein, Asimov. Le identità manifeste Fei, nate anche dal trauma oltre che da una volontà esterna, sono uno degli elementi più complessi di tutto il gioco
La scelta stessa di ripiegare su un combattimento spesso e volentieri basato sull'uso dei mecha riflette certe idee care alla letteratura fantascientifica, nonché all'animazione giapponese stessa, ripercorrendo la corrente anti-war. Spesso e volentieri si vede un confronto tra Xenogears e Neon Genesis Evangelion ma, al di là di un paio di situazioni, la scrittura rimane molto distante: il tema prevalente è quello del terrore evocato dalla guerra, dall'impossibilità di allontanarsi da essa e, al netto dell'avanzamento tecnologico, il fatto che la guerra ha sempre lo stesso volto scavato dal dolore e dalla tragedia
In Xenogears la tragedia è onnipresente, in alcune rare occasioni si riflette anche all'interno dei combattimenti (penso a quello tra il protagonista e Dan) ma viene soprattutto espresso mediante filmati realizzati in engine di gioco. Più volte questo manifesta la già menzionata tecnofobia, l'incapacità dell'uomo di controllare il mezzo o, in alternativa, la sua tendenza a farne abuso - si può pensare qui a una disillusione dall'econophoria asiatica
Attraverso l'ingegneria genetica c'è perversione della vita, proponendo riflessioni sul post-human (si pensi anche e soprattutto a esempi nell'animazione e nel cinema, da Oshii a 964 Pinocchio, da Marginal di Moto Hagio ai romanzi di Mariko Ōhara) e una sfiducia generale anche verso la spiritualità e le autorità religiose. Tra l'altro, in quest'ottica, mi piace rimandare la mente anche a Silent Hill 3 (they looked like monsters to you..?)
e il potere porta unicamente a classismo, razzismo, abuso (anche di natura sessuale, il gioco non si mostra timido verso nessun tema). Gli intrecci tra i personaggi e gli eventi sono molto complessi, la scrittura è meticolosa. Si tratta di un'opera dal sapore realmente cinematografico, adottando spesso e volentieri cambi di punti di vista, movimenti di camera virtuale, composizione che mostrano un certo tipo di ambizione molto (forse troppo) comune nell'ambiente videoludico giapponese - e sempre, assolutamente sempre dando più di uno sguardo al mondo occidentale. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher sono gli esempi più popolari che mi vengono in mente. Chiara è l'ammirazione nei confronti degli Stati Uniti e una parte d'Europa, chiaro il tentativo di raggiungerne i mercati, e a voler essere maliziosi si potrebbe anche ipotizzare uno scarso interesse verso i propri stessi ambienti intellettuali e la propria stessa produzione artistica. Un fatto da tenere in considerazione per rifletterci
Altra cosa interessante in Xenogears è l'esplorazione: più volte ho espresso il mio interesse per la varietà di modi con cui gli sviluppatori giapponesi hanno deciso di affrontare la componente adventure nei propri titoli, dai Metroid a Yume Nikki. Il fascino che provo verso un jRPG simile deriva anche, molto banalmente, dalla possibilità di ruotare la telecamera e di saltare: questa scelta ha permesso di includere anche alcune semplici sezioni di platforming e di gestire diversamente l'architettura delle città. Sembrerà una scemenza, ma così facendo rende anche possibile nascondere alcune cose che possono semplicemente essere trovate grazie a un minimo di curiosità da parte del giocatore, ampliando la dimensione degli spazi. Magari si sarebbe potuto fare a meno della Babel Tower
Peccato per la questione del Disco 2. Peccato che non siano stati in grado di evitare lo sgradevole meta rappresentato dal memory cube. Peccato anche per i combattimenti che ogni tanto mi hanno veramente rotto i coglioni nonostante l'intelligenza dietro il sistema di combo, ma questa è la mia solita repulsione per il combat ed encounter system dei jRPG. C'è comunque una certa cura nella loro progettazione: mi viene in mente Calamity, che un po' insegna al giocatore che dovrebbe iniziare a pensare a fare upgrade al proprio equipaggiamento se vuole sperare di proseguire. Oppure, mi viene in mente il torneo col suo alternare due personaggi tra esplorazione e fasi di combattimento. Si tratta in ogni caso di sparuti episodi in un gioco della durata di 50 e passa ore
Devo dire che, in generale, mi accade sia con i jRPG che con gli adventure in generale, comprendendo le Visual Novel nel discorso. Trovo molto interessanti i punti di contatto con la cultura occidentale, a partire da ispirazioni ben risapute come DnD, Colossal Cave Adventure, Wizardry, Rogue: tutti esempi ben noti e che hanno lasciato un segno evidente nella produzione artistico-ludica giapponese. La cosa più intrigante, per me, è il modo con cui siano stati (più o meno) tutti rielaborati efficacemente per dare vita a lavori o particolarmente complessi o totalmente riadattati per accomodare le abitudini dei giapponesi: dai jRPG stessi ai replay
Queste basi si possono notare in modo più o meno sottile sia su base visiva che sul piano del gameloop e del setting
Xenogears è stato partorito da un team di Square, già allora ben impegnata nella produzione di jRPG di derivazione potremmo dire tradizionale: sono ovvi i primi Final Fantasy, King's Knight e Romancing Saga
Si tratta spesso di giochi con alla base una certa volontà di sperimentare, sotto più profili. Oltre ciò, Square ha manifestato sin da subito un certo interesse per la fantascienza e per tematiche politiche. Gli esempi più interessanti:
1)Cruise Chaser Blassty - Oggi è forse ricordato solo per gli arrangiamenti musicali di Nobuo Uematsu, ma anche lato storia e gameplay ha delle notevoli particolarità. Mi soffermo sul fatto che il protagonista, alla guida di mecha in tutto e per tutto simili a certi Gundam (realizzati, infatti, da Mika Aki), si ritrova nel mezzo di un conflitto tra un governo oppressivo e una fazione ribelle. Tra gli sviluppatori coinvolti, Sakaguchi e Kazuhiko Aoki;
2) Alpha - probabilmente altrettanto oscuro, in questo caso si tratta di un ADV game (ciò che noi chiameremmo indistintamente Visual Novel). La protagonista soffre di amnesia, e si trova su una nave spaziale incaricata di raggiungere un nuovo pianeta già che le risorse naturali della Terra sono state consumate. Anche qui, il setting prevede un conflitto tra un sistema dittatoriale e una fazione ribelle. Cosa da ricordare è che, alla scrittura, c'è Hiromichi Tanaka.
Xenogears nasce un po' da tutto questo, e da molto altro. Il fulcro del gioco ruota attorno al ruolo di Tetsuya Takahashi, già coinvolto nella realizzazione di altri giochi di spicco di Square: prendo ad esempio Chrono Trigger e Final Fantasy VI (sua la realizzazione delle Magitek, intro in CGI compresa). Assieme a lui lavorano su Xenogears molti altri professionisti provenienti dall'esperienza Chrono Trigger: alcuni di questi già menzionati, altri sono:
Katsuhisa Higuchi e Kiyoshi Yoshii (combat programmer che perfezionò l'ATB di Hiroyuki Ito), Yasunori Mitsuda (compositore), Tsutomu Terada e Tadahiro Usuda (character designer), Yoshinori Ogura (mecha designer), Yasuyuki Honne (texture mapping), e soprattutto Masato Kato. Quest'ultimo fu co-scrittore di Xenogears, e fu in effetti l'elemento di spicco dietro la scrittura di Chrono Trigger. Ci sarebbero diverse altre menzioni da fare
Questo spostamento di professionisti ben si sposa con le intenzioni iniziali del progetto, pensato come prosecuzione proprio di Chrono Trigger. Vi fu anche la volontà di renderlo settimo capitolo di Final Fantasy, per poi venir scartato proprio per il suo mischiare un setting tra il fantasy e lo sci-fi con tematiche e atmosfere seriose e cupe
Ecco, da questo punto iniziano a intrecciarsi certi fatti curiosi: lo sviluppo di Xenogears portò in effetti alla nascita di altri giochi che ne condividevano i toni, personaggi ed elementi narrativi. Prima ho menzionato Alpha e Cruise Chaser Blassty non a caso: Takahashi, sua moglie Kaori Tanaka, Masato Kato non furono direttamente coinvolti, ma presentano anche Xenogears presenta un protagonista che soffre di amnesie e il tema dell'oppressione
Spesso e volentieri si vuole attribuire una proliferazione di determinate opere e determinati temi al cosiddetto decennio perduto giapponese, per sommi capi corrispondente agli anni '90. Questa è una correlazione che devo ancora conoscere in modo che mi soddisfi, e del resto nulla vieta che esista una produzione anticipatoria di questo fenomeno e che introduca sviluppi legati alla tecnofobia e all'anti-war - vedendo, per esempio, la tensione sociale e politica derivate dalla Guerra Fredda (es.: The Death Trap)
Per ora trovo ben plausibile che Xenogears sia effettivamente figlio di quel decennio di insicurezze e instabilità politiche ed economiche, che ne rispecchi paure e trend, anche all'interno di Square stessa. Non si volle renderlo sequel di Chrono Trigger e di Final Fantasy, eppure Square da quel momento prese un nuovo tipo di strada
In FFVII sono fondamentali il Jenova Project, l'enorme potere della Shinra Electric Power Company, Sephiroth. Tutti elementi che riflettono la già menzionata tecnofobia, la paura per uno sviluppo tecnologico dipendente dalla volontà di un soggetto in grado di imporre la propria volontà in modo autoritativo, vuoi in modo subdolo o in modo diretto. Oppure si consideri Parasite Eve con il tema della maternità, dell'identità, dell'ingegneria genetica, dell'ambientalismo. D'altro canto, alcuni di questi sono presenti anche in FFVII, tra Strife, Sephiroth, il gruppo AVALANCHE
Una corrente tematica che si rileva anche in giochi come Einhänder, Treasure of the Rudras, Another Mind. Difficile stabilire se vi sia una corrente percorsa da un certo quantitativo di altre case di sviluppo, occorrerebbe perderci un po' di tempo per capire la portata del fenomeno
Xenogears è un po' tutto questo e anche molto di più, mettendo in mostra il notevole ecletticismo di tutto il team di sviluppo. Takahashi in particolare, avendo avuto ampia esperienza come lettore e spettatore di testi e cinema occidentali. Più che evidente è il suo prendere a piene mani da Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, e poi da Clarke, Harrison, George Lucas, Kubrick, Heinlein, Asimov. Le identità manifeste Fei, nate anche dal trauma oltre che da una volontà esterna, sono uno degli elementi più complessi di tutto il gioco
La scelta stessa di ripiegare su un combattimento spesso e volentieri basato sull'uso dei mecha riflette certe idee care alla letteratura fantascientifica, nonché all'animazione giapponese stessa, ripercorrendo la corrente anti-war. Spesso e volentieri si vede un confronto tra Xenogears e Neon Genesis Evangelion ma, al di là di un paio di situazioni, la scrittura rimane molto distante: il tema prevalente è quello del terrore evocato dalla guerra, dall'impossibilità di allontanarsi da essa e, al netto dell'avanzamento tecnologico, il fatto che la guerra ha sempre lo stesso volto scavato dal dolore e dalla tragedia
In Xenogears la tragedia è onnipresente, in alcune rare occasioni si riflette anche all'interno dei combattimenti (penso a quello tra il protagonista e Dan) ma viene soprattutto espresso mediante filmati realizzati in engine di gioco. Più volte questo manifesta la già menzionata tecnofobia, l'incapacità dell'uomo di controllare il mezzo o, in alternativa, la sua tendenza a farne abuso - si può pensare qui a una disillusione dall'econophoria asiatica
Attraverso l'ingegneria genetica c'è perversione della vita, proponendo riflessioni sul post-human (si pensi anche e soprattutto a esempi nell'animazione e nel cinema, da Oshii a 964 Pinocchio, da Marginal di Moto Hagio ai romanzi di Mariko Ōhara) e una sfiducia generale anche verso la spiritualità e le autorità religiose. Tra l'altro, in quest'ottica, mi piace rimandare la mente anche a Silent Hill 3 (they looked like monsters to you..?)
e il potere porta unicamente a classismo, razzismo, abuso (anche di natura sessuale, il gioco non si mostra timido verso nessun tema). Gli intrecci tra i personaggi e gli eventi sono molto complessi, la scrittura è meticolosa. Si tratta di un'opera dal sapore realmente cinematografico, adottando spesso e volentieri cambi di punti di vista, movimenti di camera virtuale, composizione che mostrano un certo tipo di ambizione molto (forse troppo) comune nell'ambiente videoludico giapponese - e sempre, assolutamente sempre dando più di uno sguardo al mondo occidentale. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher sono gli esempi più popolari che mi vengono in mente. Chiara è l'ammirazione nei confronti degli Stati Uniti e una parte d'Europa, chiaro il tentativo di raggiungerne i mercati, e a voler essere maliziosi si potrebbe anche ipotizzare uno scarso interesse verso i propri stessi ambienti intellettuali e la propria stessa produzione artistica. Un fatto da tenere in considerazione per rifletterci
Altra cosa interessante in Xenogears è l'esplorazione: più volte ho espresso il mio interesse per la varietà di modi con cui gli sviluppatori giapponesi hanno deciso di affrontare la componente adventure nei propri titoli, dai Metroid a Yume Nikki. Il fascino che provo verso un jRPG simile deriva anche, molto banalmente, dalla possibilità di ruotare la telecamera e di saltare: questa scelta ha permesso di includere anche alcune semplici sezioni di platforming e di gestire diversamente l'architettura delle città. Sembrerà una scemenza, ma così facendo rende anche possibile nascondere alcune cose che possono semplicemente essere trovate grazie a un minimo di curiosità da parte del giocatore, ampliando la dimensione degli spazi. Magari si sarebbe potuto fare a meno della Babel Tower
Peccato per la questione del Disco 2. Peccato che non siano stati in grado di evitare lo sgradevole meta rappresentato dal memory cube. Peccato anche per i combattimenti che ogni tanto mi hanno veramente rotto i coglioni nonostante l'intelligenza dietro il sistema di combo, ma questa è la mia solita repulsione per il combat ed encounter system dei jRPG. C'è comunque una certa cura nella loro progettazione: mi viene in mente Calamity, che un po' insegna al giocatore che dovrebbe iniziare a pensare a fare upgrade al proprio equipaggiamento se vuole sperare di proseguire. Oppure, mi viene in mente il torneo col suo alternare due personaggi tra esplorazione e fasi di combattimento. Si tratta in ogni caso di sparuti episodi in un gioco della durata di 50 e passa ore
do you need a fucking review? you already know about xenogears. what else is there to be said? its only competition is literally strange journey and eternal punishment. its a game so good, its creators keep on using archetypes, themes, symbolism, metaphors, and visual motifs for 30+ years. 'b-b-but disk 2--' shut the fuck up you unoriginal ass. the only people who overreact about disk 2 are your kbash game dude wannabes who grow a spine and realize literally the best part IS disk 2.
One of the greatest of all time
This the single most flawed game I've given a 4* rating to. Xenogears is an unfinished mess, with some of the worst dungeons I've played in an rpg, some VERY silly moments and questionable pacing. But even then, I'll miss Xenogears, because even through a sea of bs I greatly enjoyed my time with the game (avid disc 2 defender btw).
If you're willing to forgive some of the game's faults, you'll find a very impactful and compelling narrative with a lot of great characters and an almost living world.
If you're willing to forgive some of the game's faults, you'll find a very impactful and compelling narrative with a lot of great characters and an almost living world.
Pretty great story that is privy to some pacing issues.
Gameplay initially seems pretty promising but stays simple and never evolves much the entire game. The idea of having a mech system and a normal system is pretty interesting but I think is executed pretty poorly.
I preferred the pacing of disc 2 more than disc 1 due to how I feel towards the gameplay, besides that you can obviously tell that they had a lot of ideas they weren't able to fully develop and had to rush to finish the game.
Gameplay initially seems pretty promising but stays simple and never evolves much the entire game. The idea of having a mech system and a normal system is pretty interesting but I think is executed pretty poorly.
I preferred the pacing of disc 2 more than disc 1 due to how I feel towards the gameplay, besides that you can obviously tell that they had a lot of ideas they weren't able to fully develop and had to rush to finish the game.
Xenogears, this game took me a while to finish compared to other stuff i've played since other stuff got in the way which is why it took quite a while
a game that is filled with amazing and intriguing themes( which cover many things such as, religion, politics and mental health and human fragility, a story with many dark and crippling themes but also an existential, heartfelt story, many moments in this game i was moved heavily. Apart from these interesting themes, the cast is amazing too, i love everyone in the main cast, the chemistry and bonds between them got me hooked as i played, character dynamics and arcs were something that really caught my attention in xenogears. Each character having their own individual stories which justifies their wrongdoings and righteous acts really makes you feel some sort of empathy for the characters, even the antagonists, they all have reasons why they are driven to such ideals, this gives so much substance to the game. Another thing, for the time it was made, the combat is super satisfying and excellent, i really enjoyed my time in combat, the deathblows and combos were quite cool and i don't really think I had a bad time with any of the characters i switch around in my party, even chu chu. (so unserious). to wrap things up: the osts, combat, characters, themes and world building were all amazing i have nothing bad to say.
Fei, another amazing protagonist in the xeno series, from what i've played anyway. its crazy that both Shion and Fei are probably top 5 gaming protagonists for me, they're so good. anyways,
Fei Fong Wong, who i view as a character that is one of a kind, such a unique character. Fei's character arc and development throughout the game really touched me, also his dynamics with the cast are beautifully done. Fei as a character is layered in such a unique way, his character conflicts and how he moves past them and how his problems are portrayed through his own self, becoming one and content with himself, he embraces his hardships and the hardships of others and moves on. Fei's character and his best moments kind of really resonated with me which is interesting because i really see bits of Shion in me as well. These games know how to make masterful and impactful characters. Its kind of hard to explain fei's character without spoilers but he has one of my favourite character conflicts/arcs and a mind which references works of Jung and Freudian theory. such a special and well done character
regarding the cast as well, most of them are fleshed out and explored quite well, and they are even better through the chemistry of one and other.
the antagonist cast is packed and where some of the best concepts in the game are established, they hold really well against the other side of the cast. Every antagonist each had a reason in consequence of their ideals, finding out and taking off the layers of each antagonist was super cool, i genuinely liked all of them, their concepts, ethos and backstories/reasonings were so interesting, had me feeling some sort of sympathy and empathy for them. The main antagonist(s) is amazing, crazy ideas and just full of character. A big thing about them is the religious symbolism and goals they try to lean towards, through this it gives many pathways to their character and makes us understand their true ambitions.
dungeons and areas were cool too, all the nations and even little details such as inclusiveness among races and such shows how great this game is
Xenogears i believe is a game which was created with soul and passion, a gem among the medium and a must play for everyone, one of the great
"when will it be the day we can understand what all this loneliness and sorrow was for?.."
a game that is filled with amazing and intriguing themes( which cover many things such as, religion, politics and mental health and human fragility, a story with many dark and crippling themes but also an existential, heartfelt story, many moments in this game i was moved heavily. Apart from these interesting themes, the cast is amazing too, i love everyone in the main cast, the chemistry and bonds between them got me hooked as i played, character dynamics and arcs were something that really caught my attention in xenogears. Each character having their own individual stories which justifies their wrongdoings and righteous acts really makes you feel some sort of empathy for the characters, even the antagonists, they all have reasons why they are driven to such ideals, this gives so much substance to the game. Another thing, for the time it was made, the combat is super satisfying and excellent, i really enjoyed my time in combat, the deathblows and combos were quite cool and i don't really think I had a bad time with any of the characters i switch around in my party, even chu chu. (so unserious). to wrap things up: the osts, combat, characters, themes and world building were all amazing i have nothing bad to say.
Fei, another amazing protagonist in the xeno series, from what i've played anyway. its crazy that both Shion and Fei are probably top 5 gaming protagonists for me, they're so good. anyways,
Fei Fong Wong, who i view as a character that is one of a kind, such a unique character. Fei's character arc and development throughout the game really touched me, also his dynamics with the cast are beautifully done. Fei as a character is layered in such a unique way, his character conflicts and how he moves past them and how his problems are portrayed through his own self, becoming one and content with himself, he embraces his hardships and the hardships of others and moves on. Fei's character and his best moments kind of really resonated with me which is interesting because i really see bits of Shion in me as well. These games know how to make masterful and impactful characters. Its kind of hard to explain fei's character without spoilers but he has one of my favourite character conflicts/arcs and a mind which references works of Jung and Freudian theory. such a special and well done character
regarding the cast as well, most of them are fleshed out and explored quite well, and they are even better through the chemistry of one and other.
the antagonist cast is packed and where some of the best concepts in the game are established, they hold really well against the other side of the cast. Every antagonist each had a reason in consequence of their ideals, finding out and taking off the layers of each antagonist was super cool, i genuinely liked all of them, their concepts, ethos and backstories/reasonings were so interesting, had me feeling some sort of sympathy and empathy for them. The main antagonist(s) is amazing, crazy ideas and just full of character. A big thing about them is the religious symbolism and goals they try to lean towards, through this it gives many pathways to their character and makes us understand their true ambitions.
dungeons and areas were cool too, all the nations and even little details such as inclusiveness among races and such shows how great this game is
Xenogears i believe is a game which was created with soul and passion, a gem among the medium and a must play for everyone, one of the great
"when will it be the day we can understand what all this loneliness and sorrow was for?.."
Me when I make one of the best stories ever, but decide to fuck with everyone and force people to put up with one of the worst games ever made to witness it🔥🔥🔥
Cinema!
Cinema!
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that story is what I value most in a game, and ever since I started getting into JRPGs, Xenogears has been one of the ones that caught my attention the most. This interest only intensified after one of my friends finished it. I always heard that it was a game with an excellent narrative but severely hindered by development issues, mostly related to budget and time, and… yeah, it was true. Everything related to Xenogears’ gameplay seems poorly planned in some way, starting with the human combat, which initially seems interesting, working quite differently from the rest of the genre. Here, instead of defined turns for each participant with one action possible per turn, we have a combo system. Each character has a certain amount of Attack Points (AP) per turn, starting at 3 and ending at 7 as the characters level up, and three types of attacks: weak, medium, and strong, each requiring 1, 2, and 3 AP respectively. It’s possible to keep attacking as long as there’s AP left, and different attack combinations unlock special end-of-turn moves called Deathblows, which act as specials and deal significantly more damage. Thus, you are encouraged to always vary the combos you perform to discover new Deathblows, and of course, the combinations only increase and become more complex as more AP is gained. But quickly, the novelty of this system wears off, and all that remains is repetitive, often unfair, and very, very, VERY slow combat. Slow to the point that playing with the emulator's turbo activated feels like the normal speed the combat should happen at. Learning Deathblows requires the combinations to be repeated numerous times, resulting in the player spamming the same sequences dozens of times in a row, which obviously becomes boring quickly. As usual for games of the genre, we also have magic or skills, but all except for the healing ones are extremely useless. I can count on my fingers the times it seemed advantageous to spend a turn using them instead of just attacking normally. There’s practically no challenge; most bosses consist of just healing while building up a bar that allows you to use a sequence of consecutive Deathblows to deal massive damage at once and defeat them easily. Money is also abundant for the first 80% of the game, so having the best equipment and infinite healing items is very easy, contributing to making everything even more tedious. On the other hand, we have the combat in mechas or Gears, which visually is incredible. The attack animations are extremely well done (this also applies to the human combat), the Gear models are very well crafted, and the HUD that resembles a real command screen is quite cool, but it suffers from as many problems as the previous combat. The main issue is the fuel meter; each Gear has a limited amount that changes depending on the equipped engine (engine, frame, and armor are the three parts that can be upgraded in a Gear). Each attack or skill consumes a certain amount of fuel, and if it runs out, you can basically say goodbye to that attempt and reload the save, as until the end of the game, the only way to recover fuel is by selecting the option in the battle menu, which spends a turn and recovers ~50 each time, which is a negligible amount. To give you an idea, the engine with the least amount of fuel has 1000. Yes, recovering 50/1000 PER TURN. In the first half of the game, it’s quite difficult to run out, but as you unlock more powerful Deathblows (which, consequently, consume more fuel) and when you unlock the action to heal the Gear (which consumes at least 400 fuel), you have to severely limit the actions you take to avoid running out of reserves before halfway through the fight. Some Gear bosses are ridiculously unfair, with attacks that quickly deplete your HP bar, forcing you to heal and consume fuel. Of course, you can break the game if you know which items to equip on which characters, but playing blindly is hellish. And it doesn’t stop there; remember the parts I mentioned above that can be upgraded? So, you upgrade them in shops scattered throughout the game, and the parts are expensive. But as I mentioned in the previous section, money is abundant in the first half, but in the second, prices inflate too much, and it’s practically impossible to have enough money to equip all the Gears with the best equipment without grinding. I can’t stress enough how necessary it is to have the best parts equipped if you want the slightest chance of beating the bosses. And there’s more; it’s a JRPG, so of course, there will be dungeons. As you might have guessed, they are also terrible. Most are straight lines with a few deviations here and there for treasure chests, and the ones that try to be more complex are even worse, becoming extremely confusing, and not in a good way like Megami Tensei, just in an annoying way. And of course, with the encounter rate through the roof. One, in particular, even tries to have platforming sections, PLATFORMING. WITH. ROBOTS. ON. PLAYSTATION 1. It doesn’t take a genius to imagine how poorly this controls and how imprecise it is. To wrap up the gameplay part, the world map is pretty bland; there are no side activities to do until right before entering the last dungeon, and even when they do appear, they are mediocre. It seems more like an excuse to take the player where they need to go rather than a world that's genuinely fun to explore. But at least the interactions and dialogues with NPCs in the cities are very good. Everything exudes inexperience, which is due to the fact that the team was really inexperienced. Most of the developers were new to the market, and the director himself, Tetsuya Takahashi, despite having worked in important positions in some Final Fantasy games, was only 22 at the time, and it was the first project he was directing alone. Understanding this, it’s clear where most of the numerous gameplay flaws came from.
Leaving hell behind and talking about good stuff, more than good actually, the story is exceptional. Almost all the main concepts and characters introduced have perfect arcs and conclusions. The dialogues are masterfully written, and the way everything makes sense in the end is brilliant. “Brilliant” is what you’ll find yourself repeating when trying to find words for this game’s plot. The way the game handles the psychology mainly of the protagonist, but also of other characters, is brilliant, heavily relying on the studies of Freud, Jung, and Lacan. Having at least a basic understanding of these figures’ work is crucial to fully grasp the story. The way the game deals with human relationships on all fronts—love, rivalry, friendship, enmity, selfishness, conflict with others and with oneself—is brilliant. Kaori Tanaka is easily one of the best writers to have worked in the industry. The few criticisms that can be made are related to some party characters who fall into the background for most of the plot after their arcs end and concepts that are quickly forgotten after being introduced, which are relevant to the plot, but nothing truly hinders it. Even hating the gameplay, I never felt like dropping it. The curiosity and desire to see how the narrative unfolds keep anyone playing until the end, and almost all the characters have extremely unique and charismatic personalities. Even in dialogues that don’t add much to the story, you remain interested simply because of who the characters are. Fei, Elly, Krelian, Citan, and Grahf certainly make it into my ranking of best characters of all time. It’s really something you don’t see in any game, even those focused on story. This is on par with the best stories ever told, and maybe, it’s really my favorite.
Graphically, the game is impeccable. It abandons the static backgrounds common in Square’s RPGs of the time and adds fully 3D environments with 2D character sprites, à la Persona 2, resulting in a beautiful visual. The art direction at several moments is breathtaking, and the rare pre-rendered 3D scenes are extremely cool. In combat, instead of the horrible models of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, we also have 2D sprites, which, like the Gears, are extremely well animated and beautiful. The only downside of the environments is that sometimes the camera simply doesn’t have a good angle to stay at, but it doesn’t interfere much.
The soundtrack stands alongside the best of the era. Unfortunately, there are very few songs, so you’ll hear the same tracks over and over again, which quickly becomes boring, but when a new composition appears, it’s another masterpiece.
Now, the elephant in the room... even if you haven’t played it, there’s a chance you’ve heard about the infamous second disc. It was here that the budget and time issues worsened, causing various gameplay sections to be left out and replaced with walls of text narrating what happened. Let’s face it, not having more sections of this wonderful gameplay isn’t a big loss, but it’s still disappointing to have a dungeon narrated to you instead of playing it. The real problem is that even some story parts, which would clearly be cutscenes, receive the same treatment. Unfortunately, chances for a remake of this game are rare, so the magnificent story has to be experienced in a less than ideal state, but it’s what we have.
In the end, despite several stumbles and parts that made me tear my hair out, Xenogears is an experience I will never forget, and I will always cherish it as one of the most engaging and brilliant stories I’ve ever consumed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the spiritual successors continued the legacy that started here. 9/10.
Leaving hell behind and talking about good stuff, more than good actually, the story is exceptional. Almost all the main concepts and characters introduced have perfect arcs and conclusions. The dialogues are masterfully written, and the way everything makes sense in the end is brilliant. “Brilliant” is what you’ll find yourself repeating when trying to find words for this game’s plot. The way the game handles the psychology mainly of the protagonist, but also of other characters, is brilliant, heavily relying on the studies of Freud, Jung, and Lacan. Having at least a basic understanding of these figures’ work is crucial to fully grasp the story. The way the game deals with human relationships on all fronts—love, rivalry, friendship, enmity, selfishness, conflict with others and with oneself—is brilliant. Kaori Tanaka is easily one of the best writers to have worked in the industry. The few criticisms that can be made are related to some party characters who fall into the background for most of the plot after their arcs end and concepts that are quickly forgotten after being introduced, which are relevant to the plot, but nothing truly hinders it. Even hating the gameplay, I never felt like dropping it. The curiosity and desire to see how the narrative unfolds keep anyone playing until the end, and almost all the characters have extremely unique and charismatic personalities. Even in dialogues that don’t add much to the story, you remain interested simply because of who the characters are. Fei, Elly, Krelian, Citan, and Grahf certainly make it into my ranking of best characters of all time. It’s really something you don’t see in any game, even those focused on story. This is on par with the best stories ever told, and maybe, it’s really my favorite.
Graphically, the game is impeccable. It abandons the static backgrounds common in Square’s RPGs of the time and adds fully 3D environments with 2D character sprites, à la Persona 2, resulting in a beautiful visual. The art direction at several moments is breathtaking, and the rare pre-rendered 3D scenes are extremely cool. In combat, instead of the horrible models of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, we also have 2D sprites, which, like the Gears, are extremely well animated and beautiful. The only downside of the environments is that sometimes the camera simply doesn’t have a good angle to stay at, but it doesn’t interfere much.
The soundtrack stands alongside the best of the era. Unfortunately, there are very few songs, so you’ll hear the same tracks over and over again, which quickly becomes boring, but when a new composition appears, it’s another masterpiece.
Now, the elephant in the room... even if you haven’t played it, there’s a chance you’ve heard about the infamous second disc. It was here that the budget and time issues worsened, causing various gameplay sections to be left out and replaced with walls of text narrating what happened. Let’s face it, not having more sections of this wonderful gameplay isn’t a big loss, but it’s still disappointing to have a dungeon narrated to you instead of playing it. The real problem is that even some story parts, which would clearly be cutscenes, receive the same treatment. Unfortunately, chances for a remake of this game are rare, so the magnificent story has to be experienced in a less than ideal state, but it’s what we have.
In the end, despite several stumbles and parts that made me tear my hair out, Xenogears is an experience I will never forget, and I will always cherish it as one of the most engaging and brilliant stories I’ve ever consumed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the spiritual successors continued the legacy that started here. 9/10.
This review contains spoilers
Xenogears - as a piece of art - is incomplete. It’s a game defined by a tragic story of a development cycle that continued to never sway in its favor. Yet it’s exactly through that that Xenogears is as fascinating as it is. You can never truly separate art from its process of creation. Whether intentionally or not, it will always find itself manifested somehow in the final work. It is an unavoidable effect of the fact that creating art is projecting yourself onto a blank canvas.
The main and underlying theme of the game is that we, as people, cannot be complete. Everyone is flawed in some way. No-one is ever truly ‘whole’, and you can never truly become that. Instead, Xenogears suggests that everyone is an imperfect half, made to be complimented by another imperfect half. The main visual symbol for this theme are the statues of the one-winged angels. Two religious symbols of imperfection, existing to fill in each other’s flaws by helping each other, and being there for one another.
This theme is also explored in the game’s most iconic scene, that being Adrift at sea where Fei and Elly, upon becoming stranded together, share a moment of introspection. The introspection intentionally omits any dialogue boxes or signs of who is talking, because the scene is wholly universal to the both of them. It is what they both needed to hear at that exact time. They feel happy to help each other, both through their mutual introspection, as well as through the sharing of rations.
"It's okay to not be 'whole'. Even if you only feel partly complete, if you repeat that enough, eventually it'll be 'whole'. A part... is better than zero."
Yet I’ve always found that even stronger than any narrative symbol for the game’s themes, is the nature of the game’s release itself. Xenogears was dealt a bad hand by Square Enix. Initially rejected from being Final Fantasy VII in favor of Yoshinori Kitase’s game, and then rushed through development and faced with a difficult choice. Tetsuya Takahashi was told that he could either release disk one as a separate game, then pray for a sequel that would most likely never come to be, or rush disk two and release it in an incomplete state. He chose the latter, and while I believe he made the right choice, he has clearly been haunted by it ever since.
A game about imperfect halves ended up being forced to have half of it utterly incomplete. Disk two is extremely rough around the edges. Its balancing is all over the place, it omits most gameplay and opts instead to describe what happens over text, it never has any time to focus on anything else than what is most important. It’s a rushed effort for the sake of completing an ambitious vision that was not allowed to come to light.
Coming back to the game’s relation to FFVII, I find that both games are completely inseparable. I don’t think you can earnestly analyze one without connecting it to the other. Perhaps exactly because they were both initially supposed to be the same game, they hold a lot of connections with each other, be they narrative, thematic, or general execution. Both games are perfect companion pieces for each other, and playing both of them in close vicinity of one another sheds so much insight into the inner workings of both games. Once again, two imperfect halves filling each other in to make one another more ‘whole’.
But there is also a much more cynical way of looking at this. When asked in an interview which character Takahashi relates most to, he answered that it’s Ramsus. While at first this seems like a very funny answer, it makes a lot of sense if you consider it in the context of the game’s fate. Ramsus was created to be a perfect being. He was created by Krelian to become the contact, and to kill and replace Emperor Cain. In the end, however, Ramsus was a scrapped project in favor of Fei, who showed much more promise as the contact. Ramsus came into the world as an imperfect existence, replaced by Fei since birth, and only finds solace in the idea of killing Fei to prove his status as an ultimate existence.
Ramsus IS Xenogears, and Fei is Final Fantasy VII. And if you will humor me to take this analogy further, Krelian is Square Enix. Xenogears too was a promising concept, in the end replaced in favor of its peer. Xenogears too was forced to come in as an imperfect existence, completely and utterly overshadowed by what ultimately became the biggest JRPG to ever exist. Ramsus is a character that is essential to understanding the whole of Xenogears, because his character is Takahashi’s spite and resentment towards both Square Enix and Final Fantasy VII projecting directly onto a canvas.
I’ve often pondered the hypothetical of “What if Xenogears DID get to release as Final Fantasy VII” and wholeheartedly I believe that it would have the same amount of influence as FFVII did. That influence would just be taken in a different direction. Xenogears and FFVII share so much between each other that I do sincerely believe that the reception of XG as FFVII would not be much different from what FFVII ended up receiving. Of course, there is no way to prove this. This is a mere hypothetical decided by a lot of different factors. Maybe Xenogears wouldn’t have succeeded as FFVII, maybe it would. Regardless, the sheer idea that this beautiful game could have had the same amount of influence, is ultimately extremely tragic, and I think this is definitely something that was on Takahashi’s mind. Once again, not unlike the relationship Ramsus and Fei have over the course of the game.
Entertaining the idea of Krelian as Square Enix is admittedly a humorous one, because it’s so scathingly spiteful. Krelian doesn’t care about any of his creations. He’s willing to make anyone suffer for his own benefit, and no amount of human pain is ever too much if it means achieving his goal. He actively experiments on humans, then feeds said humans to other people. He is a mad scientist who has no qualms about robbing people of their lives and transforming them into monsters. When he scraps using Ramsus as the contact for the sake of Fei, he does it directly in front of him, and acknowledges that he’s already able to understand everything he is saying. Was this how Takahashi felt being told about the promise of Final Fantasy VII as his vision was being actively shut down? There is no way to know for sure, but I don't think it's a stretch to imagine it that way.
It’s truly no wonder that Takahashi has spent the rest of his career attempting to recapture and remake Xenogears. The Xenoblade series so actively attempts to finish the vision he never got to accomplish with Gears. Across the entire series, there are so many major parallels, often down to following the exact same plot points. Takahashi is by all means a successful creative nowadays. Xenoblade Chronicles is an enormous JRPG series, respected over the entire world. That in turn shows just how deep the scars caused by Xenogears go. Even Xenoblade 3, the big conclusion to his series, ended up being about finishing his vision for Xenogears. The parallels between N and Lacan are really not hard to spot, with some segments between the two being nigh identical.
On the other hand, I do find it important to mention that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 contains a direct reference to Final Fantasy VII. Towards the end of the game, Noah can be seen standing in front of a skyscraper much in the same composition as the iconic cover of FFVII. Referencing a game that ruined everything for him in a wholly respectful way feels really cool, and possibly means he no longer holds feelings of resentment towards the game that doomed his own project. Whether this is an empty homage or proof that Takahashi has let go, who can truly know, but I would rather believe the latter.
Xenogears is a beautiful and massive game that can be analyzed under so many lenses. There is sincerely so much to talk about with this game. With this essay, I purely just wanted to focus on what I always found to be most fascinating about it. Going back to my initial thesis: art cannot be separated from its creation process. Takahashi’s frustrations, his sadness, his anger, it all comes through in the game. Disk two is not finished, and it’s not even conventionally good, in spite of containing a lot of the game’s best scenes. But that only makes the game so much more beautiful in my eyes. Xenogears managed to become its own self serving proof of its themes.
Xenogears is incomplete. Xenogears is not whole, and will never be whole. Xenogears was robbed of its chance to be huge.
And yet, if you look at it just right, Xenogears is perfect.
The main and underlying theme of the game is that we, as people, cannot be complete. Everyone is flawed in some way. No-one is ever truly ‘whole’, and you can never truly become that. Instead, Xenogears suggests that everyone is an imperfect half, made to be complimented by another imperfect half. The main visual symbol for this theme are the statues of the one-winged angels. Two religious symbols of imperfection, existing to fill in each other’s flaws by helping each other, and being there for one another.
This theme is also explored in the game’s most iconic scene, that being Adrift at sea where Fei and Elly, upon becoming stranded together, share a moment of introspection. The introspection intentionally omits any dialogue boxes or signs of who is talking, because the scene is wholly universal to the both of them. It is what they both needed to hear at that exact time. They feel happy to help each other, both through their mutual introspection, as well as through the sharing of rations.
"It's okay to not be 'whole'. Even if you only feel partly complete, if you repeat that enough, eventually it'll be 'whole'. A part... is better than zero."
Yet I’ve always found that even stronger than any narrative symbol for the game’s themes, is the nature of the game’s release itself. Xenogears was dealt a bad hand by Square Enix. Initially rejected from being Final Fantasy VII in favor of Yoshinori Kitase’s game, and then rushed through development and faced with a difficult choice. Tetsuya Takahashi was told that he could either release disk one as a separate game, then pray for a sequel that would most likely never come to be, or rush disk two and release it in an incomplete state. He chose the latter, and while I believe he made the right choice, he has clearly been haunted by it ever since.
A game about imperfect halves ended up being forced to have half of it utterly incomplete. Disk two is extremely rough around the edges. Its balancing is all over the place, it omits most gameplay and opts instead to describe what happens over text, it never has any time to focus on anything else than what is most important. It’s a rushed effort for the sake of completing an ambitious vision that was not allowed to come to light.
Coming back to the game’s relation to FFVII, I find that both games are completely inseparable. I don’t think you can earnestly analyze one without connecting it to the other. Perhaps exactly because they were both initially supposed to be the same game, they hold a lot of connections with each other, be they narrative, thematic, or general execution. Both games are perfect companion pieces for each other, and playing both of them in close vicinity of one another sheds so much insight into the inner workings of both games. Once again, two imperfect halves filling each other in to make one another more ‘whole’.
But there is also a much more cynical way of looking at this. When asked in an interview which character Takahashi relates most to, he answered that it’s Ramsus. While at first this seems like a very funny answer, it makes a lot of sense if you consider it in the context of the game’s fate. Ramsus was created to be a perfect being. He was created by Krelian to become the contact, and to kill and replace Emperor Cain. In the end, however, Ramsus was a scrapped project in favor of Fei, who showed much more promise as the contact. Ramsus came into the world as an imperfect existence, replaced by Fei since birth, and only finds solace in the idea of killing Fei to prove his status as an ultimate existence.
Ramsus IS Xenogears, and Fei is Final Fantasy VII. And if you will humor me to take this analogy further, Krelian is Square Enix. Xenogears too was a promising concept, in the end replaced in favor of its peer. Xenogears too was forced to come in as an imperfect existence, completely and utterly overshadowed by what ultimately became the biggest JRPG to ever exist. Ramsus is a character that is essential to understanding the whole of Xenogears, because his character is Takahashi’s spite and resentment towards both Square Enix and Final Fantasy VII projecting directly onto a canvas.
I’ve often pondered the hypothetical of “What if Xenogears DID get to release as Final Fantasy VII” and wholeheartedly I believe that it would have the same amount of influence as FFVII did. That influence would just be taken in a different direction. Xenogears and FFVII share so much between each other that I do sincerely believe that the reception of XG as FFVII would not be much different from what FFVII ended up receiving. Of course, there is no way to prove this. This is a mere hypothetical decided by a lot of different factors. Maybe Xenogears wouldn’t have succeeded as FFVII, maybe it would. Regardless, the sheer idea that this beautiful game could have had the same amount of influence, is ultimately extremely tragic, and I think this is definitely something that was on Takahashi’s mind. Once again, not unlike the relationship Ramsus and Fei have over the course of the game.
Entertaining the idea of Krelian as Square Enix is admittedly a humorous one, because it’s so scathingly spiteful. Krelian doesn’t care about any of his creations. He’s willing to make anyone suffer for his own benefit, and no amount of human pain is ever too much if it means achieving his goal. He actively experiments on humans, then feeds said humans to other people. He is a mad scientist who has no qualms about robbing people of their lives and transforming them into monsters. When he scraps using Ramsus as the contact for the sake of Fei, he does it directly in front of him, and acknowledges that he’s already able to understand everything he is saying. Was this how Takahashi felt being told about the promise of Final Fantasy VII as his vision was being actively shut down? There is no way to know for sure, but I don't think it's a stretch to imagine it that way.
It’s truly no wonder that Takahashi has spent the rest of his career attempting to recapture and remake Xenogears. The Xenoblade series so actively attempts to finish the vision he never got to accomplish with Gears. Across the entire series, there are so many major parallels, often down to following the exact same plot points. Takahashi is by all means a successful creative nowadays. Xenoblade Chronicles is an enormous JRPG series, respected over the entire world. That in turn shows just how deep the scars caused by Xenogears go. Even Xenoblade 3, the big conclusion to his series, ended up being about finishing his vision for Xenogears. The parallels between N and Lacan are really not hard to spot, with some segments between the two being nigh identical.
On the other hand, I do find it important to mention that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 contains a direct reference to Final Fantasy VII. Towards the end of the game, Noah can be seen standing in front of a skyscraper much in the same composition as the iconic cover of FFVII. Referencing a game that ruined everything for him in a wholly respectful way feels really cool, and possibly means he no longer holds feelings of resentment towards the game that doomed his own project. Whether this is an empty homage or proof that Takahashi has let go, who can truly know, but I would rather believe the latter.
Xenogears is a beautiful and massive game that can be analyzed under so many lenses. There is sincerely so much to talk about with this game. With this essay, I purely just wanted to focus on what I always found to be most fascinating about it. Going back to my initial thesis: art cannot be separated from its creation process. Takahashi’s frustrations, his sadness, his anger, it all comes through in the game. Disk two is not finished, and it’s not even conventionally good, in spite of containing a lot of the game’s best scenes. But that only makes the game so much more beautiful in my eyes. Xenogears managed to become its own self serving proof of its themes.
Xenogears is incomplete. Xenogears is not whole, and will never be whole. Xenogears was robbed of its chance to be huge.
And yet, if you look at it just right, Xenogears is perfect.
aun con toda la wea del disco 2, de las mejores historias de los juegos y el mejor juego de la psx ysiiii
Una historia hecha con amor y ambición que a pesar de su extrema complejidad no le quita el mérito de ser un RPG LEGENDARIO.
I'm a huge Xenoblade fan, and decided to check out the origins of the Xeno series; the cult classic 1998 JRPG for the PlayStation 1, Xenogears. This game is infamously complicated, and I've seen many describe it as the most complex and ambitious game ever created, and it's certainly the most complicated game I've ever played with an unspeakable amount of lore and concepts presented during the 80-hour run time, so I'm not gonna go too deep in detail with this review otherwise I'd be here for hours, but I will summarize my thoughts on this game and simply say that this was an enjoyable game, but I definitely had a lot of issues with it. Primarily the combat not being deep or difficult enough for an 80+ hour game, you can pretty much win every battle by spamming Level 1 deathblows repeatedly. It also doesn't help that the random encounter rate in this game is pretty high, leading to battling getting repetitive really quickly. Even further, battle animations are really long and unskippable. The animations look great, but it gets tedious watching them over and over again. I played this game on an emulator, allowing me to use the emulator's speed-up mechanic to quickly go through animations, and it was still tiring to sit through the animations, so I can't even imagine playing this game on actual hardware where you can't use speed-up.
This game also has a lot of incredibly tedious and sluggish dungeons that are a chore to navigate and get through, and the story is full of really slow pacing... at least until the infamous Disc 2 when the game decides to move the story along insanely fast due to budget and time constraints. That being said, Disc 2 surprised me, as I've only ever heard negative things about it, with many saying that it's the worst part of the game. But I genuinely found myself enjoying Disc 2 to be the best part of the game. Yes, there are a lot of problems that come with the sudden fast-pacing (some details being omitted, character development being hindered for a lot of the cast, etc.) But honestly, I enjoyed Disc 2 since the game basically turns into a visual novel, meaning there's less of the annoying combat and dungeons, and more focus on the great story.
However, this game is full of a lot of heart and at its peak is truly incredible. The story is really complex and layered and it's possibly my favorite story in all of gaming, only rivaled by Xenoblade Chronicles 1. None of the plot makes sense until the final 10 hours and I love that, makes it feel like a mystery slowly being unraveled, even more so than the Xenoblade games. The themes in this game are also incredibly strong and heartfelt, and they're easily some of the most well-handled themes in the series.
The music was fantastic (it's Mitsuda, what do you expect), and this probably has my favorite art direction in the series, since I love the fusion of old PS1-era 3D models and the 2D sprites. And of course, the anime FMVs are really great-looking with their abstract imagery.
And while I did have some problems with the cast being underdeveloped by the end (besides Fei and Elly), since Citan and Bart don't really do a whole lot in Disc 2, and the rest of the party doesn't even get any screen time past their initial arcs. The villains were good too, but I think some of them get sudden character arcs way too quickly that makes their development feel a bit unnatural at points, though that's probably an after-effect of Disc 2's fast pacing. But that being said, I still did enjoy the cast and I think Fei and Elly are some of the best-written characters in Xeno, but I think all the Xenoblade games have overall better casts.
Overall, Xenogears is a masterpiece of a story packaged in a not-so-good game. The Xeno team improved greatly by the time they reached Xenoblade, as Xenogears was poorly-designed in many areas. But the story and thematics are just so good I can't possibly bring myself to rate this anything lower than a 7/10.
Final rating: 7.5/10
This game also has a lot of incredibly tedious and sluggish dungeons that are a chore to navigate and get through, and the story is full of really slow pacing... at least until the infamous Disc 2 when the game decides to move the story along insanely fast due to budget and time constraints. That being said, Disc 2 surprised me, as I've only ever heard negative things about it, with many saying that it's the worst part of the game. But I genuinely found myself enjoying Disc 2 to be the best part of the game. Yes, there are a lot of problems that come with the sudden fast-pacing (some details being omitted, character development being hindered for a lot of the cast, etc.) But honestly, I enjoyed Disc 2 since the game basically turns into a visual novel, meaning there's less of the annoying combat and dungeons, and more focus on the great story.
However, this game is full of a lot of heart and at its peak is truly incredible. The story is really complex and layered and it's possibly my favorite story in all of gaming, only rivaled by Xenoblade Chronicles 1. None of the plot makes sense until the final 10 hours and I love that, makes it feel like a mystery slowly being unraveled, even more so than the Xenoblade games. The themes in this game are also incredibly strong and heartfelt, and they're easily some of the most well-handled themes in the series.
The music was fantastic (it's Mitsuda, what do you expect), and this probably has my favorite art direction in the series, since I love the fusion of old PS1-era 3D models and the 2D sprites. And of course, the anime FMVs are really great-looking with their abstract imagery.
And while I did have some problems with the cast being underdeveloped by the end (besides Fei and Elly), since Citan and Bart don't really do a whole lot in Disc 2, and the rest of the party doesn't even get any screen time past their initial arcs. The villains were good too, but I think some of them get sudden character arcs way too quickly that makes their development feel a bit unnatural at points, though that's probably an after-effect of Disc 2's fast pacing. But that being said, I still did enjoy the cast and I think Fei and Elly are some of the best-written characters in Xeno, but I think all the Xenoblade games have overall better casts.
Overall, Xenogears is a masterpiece of a story packaged in a not-so-good game. The Xeno team improved greatly by the time they reached Xenoblade, as Xenogears was poorly-designed in many areas. But the story and thematics are just so good I can't possibly bring myself to rate this anything lower than a 7/10.
Final rating: 7.5/10
Worth the recognition and praise, a fun adventurous story with many twists and turns, and a fun combat system that invites experimentation before testing the player. It's got some rocky parts to it, and despite the second disc completely abandoning the story-telling strengths of the first disc, there's still a significant amount of love emitting from this game.
Pssssssssssss
just reading its title and its already better than valorant
If this game was actually able to fully flesh out its scope instead of being rushed and if the combat wasn't completely trivial/tedious, this would be in contention for the best RPG's of all time.
For what I think though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. This game may be a 4/5 bc I'd be irresponsible to not acknowledge its shortcomings, but it's a 5/5 in my heart.
For what I think though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. This game may be a 4/5 bc I'd be irresponsible to not acknowledge its shortcomings, but it's a 5/5 in my heart.
Peak Fiction
one of the best stories in video game history
even disc 2 won't change my rating
even disc 2 won't change my rating
Will teach you more philosophy in one play trough than Turkish high schools in 4 years
If reviews for video games were a simple game of math, adding and subtracting with strengths and flaws to find a raw number that serves as some semblance of an assessment of quality, then I don't think I could give Xenogears too high of a score. But I don't think that's helpful. The art we experience isn't meant to adhere to a rigid set of criteria. It's fun to be sure, but is it productive? Is it accurate? Because truth be told, I don't think it is. A review primarily serves to tell other people what you think of a video game, and if it's worth playing. And Xenogears is worth playing.
This probably sounds like the game is horrendously flawed, but it definitely is not. That being said, there are MANY issues with this game. The combat is fairly shallow, especially in Gears, the random encounters really disrupt the flow of gameplay, some dungeons are confusing and boring, there's a few minor translation errors, and of course there's disc 2 which was so rushed to get the game out on time that there's barely any gameplay and huge story beats are squeezed into brief narration segments.
These flaws are real, and I don't want to dismiss them. But did I enjoy Xenogears? Yes, wholeheartedly. It's so clearly a passion project and something everyone who worked on it cared deeply about. The story is so intricately detailed and well-told with probably the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game. The characters are likeable and fleshed out. The music is by Yasunori Mitsuda so you know it's amazing. The spritework is amazing. Despite my gripes with it, the combat is really flashy, satisfying, and pretty fun. And, for what it's worth, most of the flaws with this game were things that couldn't be controlled - time and budget constraints placed on a pretty small team without a whole lot of experience who just wanted to create something incredible. And I they still did, despite all the compromises.
I think this is why we should judge games as a sum of their parts. Individually, a lot of things in Xenogears are rough and difficult to get over. You should go into this game with the expectation of being frustrated at times. I honestly recommend having speed-up during some sections. But... I still think you should go into this game. It's a magical experience that is absolutely worth trying. Just keep pushing through the rough patches and you will experience a phenomenal work of art. I'm going to go read Perfect Works now.
This probably sounds like the game is horrendously flawed, but it definitely is not. That being said, there are MANY issues with this game. The combat is fairly shallow, especially in Gears, the random encounters really disrupt the flow of gameplay, some dungeons are confusing and boring, there's a few minor translation errors, and of course there's disc 2 which was so rushed to get the game out on time that there's barely any gameplay and huge story beats are squeezed into brief narration segments.
These flaws are real, and I don't want to dismiss them. But did I enjoy Xenogears? Yes, wholeheartedly. It's so clearly a passion project and something everyone who worked on it cared deeply about. The story is so intricately detailed and well-told with probably the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game. The characters are likeable and fleshed out. The music is by Yasunori Mitsuda so you know it's amazing. The spritework is amazing. Despite my gripes with it, the combat is really flashy, satisfying, and pretty fun. And, for what it's worth, most of the flaws with this game were things that couldn't be controlled - time and budget constraints placed on a pretty small team without a whole lot of experience who just wanted to create something incredible. And I they still did, despite all the compromises.
I think this is why we should judge games as a sum of their parts. Individually, a lot of things in Xenogears are rough and difficult to get over. You should go into this game with the expectation of being frustrated at times. I honestly recommend having speed-up during some sections. But... I still think you should go into this game. It's a magical experience that is absolutely worth trying. Just keep pushing through the rough patches and you will experience a phenomenal work of art. I'm going to go read Perfect Works now.
One of the main points of contention Xenogears' critics will bring up is the game being released in a state of not being entirely finished. Disc 2 being made up of mostly narration and Evangelion eps 25-26-esqe dreamlike cutscenes is a common point of contention when addressing this game's strengths and shortcomings. Just as every artistic medium is defined by its limitations, video games are no different. Even still, Xenogears is a special case. One of the main questions the game poses is what it means to be complete. Although this is mainly to be applied the main character Fei and his arc of finding his purpose by forming meaningful human connections, given the game's own status as a not fully realized vision makes the message all the more profound.
If there's one question that Xenogears has made me ask more than anything else, it's about the point when a piece of art becomes complete. How complete do you need to be to feel like a "whole"? A defining aspect of Gears is its stance on this topic: we aren't defined by our own journeys so much as how we affect the lives of each other.
Many may see disc 2 as unsatisfying, but the way I see it it's the brightest shining aspect of what makes Xenogears as good as it is. This game tells a front to back story, and I haven't even addressed the fact that I think this might be the best individual story I've ever experienced in a single video game! Not to mention the amazing character arcs of Fei and Elly. People throw around the term "this speaks to me on multiple levels" a lot but this is especially true to me with Xenogears.
As the game says, it's okay to not feel whole. Eventually as time marches on, we affect the lives of others and find meaning in the various human connections we form in our lives. And that gives us meaning just as much as any aspect of ourselves. Just as people are defined by the bonds we make, the people we meet, and the love we share, I think Xenogears has a somewhat similar journey.
A big reason I was interested in this game as I've been is because of how much I've heard it inspired modern JRPGs. With them being my favorite genre of game, combined with my fascination with works of fiction that inspired other pieces I so dearly enjoy made Xenogears a must play for me eventually. I'm so happy I did. Seeing this game's legacy retroactively makes me think this is the "complete" form of Xenogears: leaving such a legacy on the entire genre in the 24 years since its release.
Video games are a unique artform. The relationship between creator and consumer is an especially gray line here with many of the highest names in the industry describing themselves gamers just as much as game creators. Games, being as big of an art form as they are, cannot be created by one person (maybe in some instances but definitely not something like Xenogears for the purposes of this thought). Creators constantly build off one another, using aspects of someone else's creation for their own works, thus creating a living legacy for the original piece. Given how much inspiration others have found in the storytelling, character writing, and worldbuilding of Gears, I think it's safe to say it has about as impactful of a living, active legacy as just about any game in the genre.
Xenogears defines what it means to be a video game. Despite the fact that it's not a fully realized vision, you cannot argue the impact its had on everyone who's come into contact with it. Knowing this, is there really anything that truly needs to be changed about it? Although it's admittedly imperfect, flawed, whatever you want to call it, the lasting impressions it leaves on everyone give the game as much of a purpose as if it was truly finished.
So is Xenogears "whole"? I think so at least.
If there's one question that Xenogears has made me ask more than anything else, it's about the point when a piece of art becomes complete. How complete do you need to be to feel like a "whole"? A defining aspect of Gears is its stance on this topic: we aren't defined by our own journeys so much as how we affect the lives of each other.
Many may see disc 2 as unsatisfying, but the way I see it it's the brightest shining aspect of what makes Xenogears as good as it is. This game tells a front to back story, and I haven't even addressed the fact that I think this might be the best individual story I've ever experienced in a single video game! Not to mention the amazing character arcs of Fei and Elly. People throw around the term "this speaks to me on multiple levels" a lot but this is especially true to me with Xenogears.
As the game says, it's okay to not feel whole. Eventually as time marches on, we affect the lives of others and find meaning in the various human connections we form in our lives. And that gives us meaning just as much as any aspect of ourselves. Just as people are defined by the bonds we make, the people we meet, and the love we share, I think Xenogears has a somewhat similar journey.
A big reason I was interested in this game as I've been is because of how much I've heard it inspired modern JRPGs. With them being my favorite genre of game, combined with my fascination with works of fiction that inspired other pieces I so dearly enjoy made Xenogears a must play for me eventually. I'm so happy I did. Seeing this game's legacy retroactively makes me think this is the "complete" form of Xenogears: leaving such a legacy on the entire genre in the 24 years since its release.
Video games are a unique artform. The relationship between creator and consumer is an especially gray line here with many of the highest names in the industry describing themselves gamers just as much as game creators. Games, being as big of an art form as they are, cannot be created by one person (maybe in some instances but definitely not something like Xenogears for the purposes of this thought). Creators constantly build off one another, using aspects of someone else's creation for their own works, thus creating a living legacy for the original piece. Given how much inspiration others have found in the storytelling, character writing, and worldbuilding of Gears, I think it's safe to say it has about as impactful of a living, active legacy as just about any game in the genre.
Xenogears defines what it means to be a video game. Despite the fact that it's not a fully realized vision, you cannot argue the impact its had on everyone who's come into contact with it. Knowing this, is there really anything that truly needs to be changed about it? Although it's admittedly imperfect, flawed, whatever you want to call it, the lasting impressions it leaves on everyone give the game as much of a purpose as if it was truly finished.
So is Xenogears "whole"? I think so at least.