I'm not sure what I can really say that hasn't already been said by someone, somewhere else. The story is obviously the main draw here, and it is incredible, but there's a lot more to love here as well.

The decision to make the game 3D with 2D characters really pays off. In-engine cutscenes are numerous throughout and are a cut above its contemporaries' pre-rendered ones, sometimes even Xenogears' own. The cinematography and direction of some of these are very well-done. The spritework and character portraits are beautifully done, as well.

Another thing I appreciate about the visual design in general is the verticality and sense of scale. There's always stuff in your way, from ceiling fans to overhanging pipes to bridges. Even later fully-3D JRPGs don't often play around with perspective and scale to the degree Xenogears does.

The towns are among the best in any JRPG I've ever played, so full of character and life. Every NPC has something interesting to say, and there are tons of little easily-missible moments scattered throughout. One of my favorites was a merchant in Av who tries to haggle with you if you wait too long before giving a response. There are tons of moments like this in all 8 or so major towns and cities.

The dungeons unfortunately are rather bland, with the exception of Babel Tower. If they weren't going to design these as thoughtfully as all the other locations, they should have been trimmed down a bit.

Yasunori Mitsuda's score elevates the entire experience. Continuing the trend from Radical Dreamers, Xenogears' score is a bit more subdued than Chrono Trigger's, but it sets the mood perfectly... sometimes. It's quite a shame the soundtrack is so short for a game of this length because some scenes lose their impact a bit due to repeated track usage.

The combat isn't anything to write home about, it's just there to give you something to do. The UI makes it look more complicated than it really is. There's ATB bars for some reason, but the system is actually standard turn-based. You can ignore all the gear combat UI stuff, none of it affects anything. Saving up your AP to do multiple moves in one turn sounds like a great idea until you realize the damage doesn't scale, so it's useless outside of the 1 or 2 bosses that heal themselves a lot. Gear combat is more interesting on paper since you have to be careful managing your fuel, but in practice it means you'll only be using your most efficient moves. I do at least appreciate the plethora of game-breaking gear to be found in this game, it's kind of a lost art. JRPGs today are too afraid to have things as insane as Ether Doublers and Speed Shoes.

This is a game you play for narrative and presentation first, so thankfully while the combat is undercooked, it never gets in the way, either.

Stories are a bit more subjective to talk about, so I'll just say this is the kind of story that only gets better the more you experience it and the more you read into its allusions and inspirations. While we never saw the full 6-part Xenogears story realized, the way Xenogears unfolds and dilvulges its secrets, including bits from previous parts, I think ends up working in the game's favor. Perhaps my favorite quality of it simply the structure of the plot, which feels like you're slowly unraveling things layer by layer.

Well worth checking out if you enjoy story-focused RPGs, there's nothing quite like it, not even Xenosaga. Runs great on DuckStation, and there are mods you can get to speed up text boxes and provide other QOL features if you so choose.

Xenogears has one of the best stories in a game I've played, even if it's puzzling at times and surely not helped by a haphazard translation that misrepresents certain plot elements and character motivations. The gameplay side isn't quite as fleshed out, such as elements on moves and combos being worthless. It's serviceable but it feels like something the developers came up with in a few months because this intricately told gnostic alien story needed something to do inbetween the beats. I can't praise how good the story of Xenogears is enough. I actually can't, because it's like a complex work of art that I'm still in the process of digesting and learning more about as the months pass since my initial playthrough. Such an interesting and unforgettable experience.

I really can't believe I took as long as I did to play through this masterpiece. This game has left a huge impact on me and one of my standout experiences in 2023. One of the most unique stories in any of my JRPG experiences, a great and memorable cast, different, but fun combat system, and amazing OST ("Shevat -The Wind Calls-" always has me ascending, LOVE that track). The vocal theme puts me to tears, too, just like FFVIII's "Eyes On Me." Wasn't a fan of the platforming sections and obviously the localization is not the best by any means, but given the situation and time period, it does not take away from this amazing and one of a kind journey that we don't get anymore.

I think it's time for me to give up on this one. I've tried it numerous times through the years and even got decently far into it once... but it's just not super compelling to me. For being a 3D game with 2D sprites it just doesn't look that great and all around it feels very... almost but not quite. Besides the OST, which may be my most listened to OST after Chrono Cross. It's like this inbetween of CT and CC (probably because it literally was made between them).

I've heard this was originally a FFVII pitch, and then a possible Chrono Trigger 2 at some point as well, and it does have a lot in common with CT, not just the the soundtrack composer.

Anyway, I think I'm going to abandon this as a game and watch a playthrough instead. Considering how inspired by Gnosticism I am in my own projects it seems like a necessity to at least know the whole plot.

Edit: Just collecting my thoughts here while I watch a play-through, but this very much feels like a game completely led by its narrative and everything about it is in support of that narrative. Basically, there are no overly frivolous gameplay aspects, they're all there for the story. This could very much just have been a novel. Not sure how I feel about that, but it is an interesting way to approach a game.

The pacing is also pretty slow and there's a lot of dialogue to not say so much. That feels like a pretty common Japanese poetic choice. A lot of battle scenes feel like 61 episodes of DBZ.

This was a very human game. I enjoyed each character individually and how they grew (especially Bart). I REALLY liked Doc too. I honestly liked everyone a lot. The game didn't age in some ways very well but it never got too difficult so I really appreciated that. I need to be able to enjoy a story and not get pissed at getting filtered for a while and I never really had that problem. That being said, my biggest complaint is actually the music.

I went in with high hopes knowing the composer hoping that the game would be filled with lots of great tracks. The reality was that there weren't that many. Only a few good tracks. A lot of the music was extremely overplayed and got repetitive after a while.

I was able to play an official release of this on my Playstation TV in 2024 and this is an experience I will remember for sure.

This was one of my old friend's favorite games. He had high things to say about it and it was cool being able to finally live through that. We aren't on speaking terms anymore which is a shame because I would have loved to have been able to share my experience of the game while playing it.

I’d say overall, I really enjoyed this game, but man it sure liked to show its age. I’m not sure if it’s because of the PS1, but most everything felt so slow. Menuing, load times, and especially the text speed probably had to have made up 7 hrs of time in my about 50 hrs of playing.

The gameplay unfortunately is not too interesting. Deathblows all look really cool, but unlocking them was not super well explained, and once you got them you kinda just spam your strongest one except if you’re an Ether character. It sucks cause it makes the AP and Combo system irrelevant. Gear combat is so much worse though. It being reliant on fuel, and healing taking up so much fuel was so unnecessary and annoying. Luckily the game is not that hard, but that has the effect of making the combat boring most of the time instead of tedious. Some dungeons were pretty atmospheric and cool, but most end up being a slog to go through.

Now the main draw of a Xeno game for me is its story, and oh MAN did it have me hooked for the whole game. I won’t spoil it, but everything related to Fei and Elly was fantastic. For the first half I was really excited to see where everything was headed because of how many characters and areas were being introduced. It was also cool how natural it felt when each party member joined in. I heard tellings of Disc 2 and how infamous it was, and it definitely has a noticeable drop in quality, but it didn’t ruin the experience. Some of my favorite moments are actually in Disc 2 (iykyk). The only thing is I wish there were some side quests or something along the journey. Something to space out the big moments a little more or get some more worldbuilding, even though what’s there is really good (probably just the Disc 2 experience talking right now).

As per Xenoblade 2 and 3, Yasunori Mitsuda killed it with this soundtrack. Weirdly enough, I think the cutscene songs are some of my favorites in the game. But that’s not to say stuff like the boss battle theme, Shevat, and the late game dungeon theme are also some big standouts. Not really any misses. Still insane that Mitsuda was also doing Mario Party around this time.

It’s a shame because if the rough parts of Xenogears were fixed, it’d probably be one of my favorite games ever. It’s definitely one of my favorite stories. I’m now in the group who absolutely wants a remake of this game. I saw the Star Ocean 2 remake recently, and I think something like that would be perfect for Xenogears. It’s crazy to think that if Disc 2 was fleshed out, this could’ve easily been a 100 hour PS1 RPG. Also the fact that this is Episode 5 of what was supposed to be a 6 episode epic is so sad to think about. I’m looking forward to reading into this game's development journey and going through Perfect Works. Now all that’s left is Xenosaga and Xenoblade X.

PS. I really need some gunplas of the Gears. This game’s got me even more interested in checking out Gundam

PSS. It was SO COOL seeing how much of this game’s DNA is represented in Xenoblade 3, considering it’s still Takahashi at the helm for both games.
Also Joanne Hogg :)))))

Xenogears is a game that’s reputation precedes itself. Intimidating, yet fascinating. A game truly greater than the sum of its parts (a characteristic I find most great games share in common). The term “flawed masterpiece” was practically tailor made for the likes of Xenogears. Because while it’s a tour-de-force in storytelling, its shortcomings are numerous, and I’m not just talking about the obvious suspect, either.

Xenogears, being a Squaresoft PS1 JRPG, was born in what could be considered the genre’s golden age, within the walls of the genre’s greatest champion. The pedigree brings about a lot of expectations, which I think it mostly fulfills. But you can tell that this game is the work of less experienced game designers than the ones upper management at Square tasked for the Final Fantasy series. I don’t want to come across as too harsh, because the gameplay of Xenogears is a cut above your typical JRPG battle system, especially for the time, but it’s rough around the edges, without a doubt. The fighting game-esque “deathblow” mechanic isn’t ever properly explained to the player, and while it’s possible to futz around in the dark and stumble into learning these powerful moves, it doesn’t go far enough in readying players for the challenges ahead. I spent a decent amount of the early game just spamming the deathblows I had learned by accident; Something which rewarded me in the short term, but would’ve screwed me over hard if I hadn’t had the idea to consult a guide before the going got really tough. It’d be one thing if I understood what I was doing to be a short term solution, but I didn’t. Which is the part I find should’ve been the game’s responsibility to teach me about. Something I think the game did tremendously well though, was portraying the scale and power of the Gears. On foot combat I found to be the more interesting of the two sides of the battle system, but there’s something to be said regarding the sheer number inflation that occurs when piloting a gear. Wailing on these massive creatures and doing thousands of damage while barely being able to crack four digits on foot feels tremendous. Gears are devastating, which the game constantly portrays to the player.

Visually, Xenogears is almost this perfect marriage of two-dimensional characters in three-dimensional environments. It’s a look that surely wowed players back in the day, and has come back around to being incredibly appealing in a whole new way. This look was supposedly a compromise, after it proved difficult to get a fully 3D game the scale of Xenogears off the ground. As far as compromises go, this was a fair one. I feel as though any push further towards 2D would’ve sacrificed too much of the gravitas that accompanies the Gears. Still, there’s a lot about the “feel” of Xenogears that slowly got on my nerves as I played. Text speed is much too slow, which made me apprehensive to talk to many NPCs the further and further I proceeded through the game. God forbid I had to replay a lengthy cutscene due to a boss wipe. If I ever play this game again, I’ll most certainly employ the “fast text” cheat 100% of the time. I’d probably shave at least an hour off my playtime if I did. Many other aspects about Xenogears feel sluggish. The less said about the platforming, the better, so this is all I’ll say about it. No, I think the bigger culprit to my frustrations playing Xenogears have to be the random encounters. Complaining about random encounters might just be the biggest canned criticism of the JRPG genre, so let me attempt to get in front of the eyerolls and say I don’t hate the concept in the slightest. I’m far from some radical that thinks all RPGs should do away with them. They’re a mechanic that can be done well, or done poorly, like anything else put in a game. That said, I’m sympathetic to those who dislike random encounters, and certainly wouldn’t give them Xenogears to try and change their mind. Xenogears has one of the most egregious random encounter systems I’ve ever experienced. If you ask me, the key to preventing frustrations with random encounters requires at least one of two things: infrequency, or speediness. AKA, if you’re gonna have a high random encounter rate, you need to get the player in and out of the battle quickly. Battles shouldn’t require too much character management, and should be done under a minute, to choose an arbitrary time. Inversely, if you want the player to think and strategize throughout these fights, then they shouldn’t be occurring every seven steps or so, to choose an arbitrary number. Xenogears is the worst of both worlds in this regard. Random encounters take a decent amount of time whenever they occur, and they occur often. I think a decent litmus test for knowing if a JRPGs random encounter system is poor, is if the player fears navigating a dungeon outside of the bare minimum, which is a feeling I definitely had playing through Xenogears. The biggest joke of all though, is that the game has a bit of a delay between deciding a random encounter will happen, and actually putting the player through said encounter. This results in having to fight battles as they’re leaving a room, or opening a chest. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that’s done that before, it was very strange, and very frustrating.

This whole time I’ve avoided talking about the narrative, and that’s because I sorta feel out of my depth discussing it. While playing the game, I would frequently tune into Resonant Arc’s discussions on the story (seen here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJCH8faf6GaxQ_7bA7cD0lROu3yMRmwh5).
Which kept me grounded and able to keep up with many of the complex ideas the game throws at the player. It’s a fantastic story, held back by things mostly out of its control. Like the translation, which feels stilted for much of the playthrough. It’s hard to put too much blame on Richard Honeywood, the translator, after knowing the behind the scenes story, but regardless, the conditions surrounding Xenogears localization resulted in the translation suffering. The big elephant in the room, however, is the infamous “Disc Two”, a turn in the structure of the game which sees much of the story progress via abstract narration of events rather than the more typical structure of disc one where we play through the events as they happen. While this surely shocked players back in 1998, these days its reputation precedes itself; I knew what I was getting into beforehand, so I wasn’t completely blindsided by this shift. I wouldn’t go so far as to defend this change as a good thing, mind you, but with how much of the story is covered by this second disc, it’s clear that if the “true” vision of Xenogears was to ever be realized, we’d be dealing with an incredibly bloated game that would’ve taken years to finish. I think I agree with Tetsuya Takahashi when I say that it was better to finish the story then and there. At the very least, it sticks the landing. The truncated narrative of disc two also means that the amount of monotonous futuristic hallway dungeons is kept to a minimum. Although a few still managed to sneak their way onto it.

To borrow a phrase, Xenogears is: “...the type of game that relieves my fears”. A collaboration between a team in way over their heads. A project that should’ve completely buckled under its own weight and resulted in a mess few could find enjoyment in. Instead, it’s proof that vision can shine through even the roughest of circumstances. I hope that one day I can make something that’s even a quarter as profound as something like Xenogears. Which I would recommend to anyone into JRPGs who hasn’t played it, despite the game’s numerous flaws (many of which could be remedied with some simple number tweaks, or a tasteful remaster, perhaps). It requires a lot of patience, but it rewards that patience in spades.

YOU SHALL BE AS GODS!!!

I don't think after these many years of discussion i can add something there was already been said about this game.

Xenogears is not a perfect game, yet it is a masterpiece. Considering the low budget and the ambitious task, Takahashi and his team made the best they could.

Now i will watch videos about the lore because i love how rich and deep it is.

A fantastic story even with the later half changing the pace a bit. I loved my time with this game, everything about it was just so different than the other jrpgs at the time. The gear fights to the heavy religious themes it was unique. This game treats your companions with respect and gives them the spotlight here and there in ways you can better understand them and what they stand for, another thing you sometimes don't see in the genre.

I love the look of sprites in a 3D world a lot and is the reason why I love this gen's jrpgs so much. The music is great and I really liked the battle system a lot. It's a shame this isn't easily available to the masses as I think it's a story many should experience.

ok it's really really hard to rate this game in a fair way. how can i say this? xenogears has some of the best moments in jrpg history. this might be one of the best written games i played, well, at least sometimes...
the pacing of the story feels a bit all over the place, the beggining of disc one feels really slow, it picks up around 20 or 30 hours in. and by the start of disc 2, it's TOO fast, i found myself getting a bit overwhelmed with all the text and expo dump. a lot of the stuff set up in disc 1 was unresolved or straight out forgotten by the end.
some game mechanics felt kinda underutilized by the end. for example, i loved getting the deathblows and learning how they worked, but by the end it didnt really feel needed. there is no ng+ or optional dungeons that offer much of a challenge really.
the OST is also pretty repetitive for such a long game. don't get me wrong, it's an amazing sound track, but i'd liked to have a few more battle themes to listen to lol.
that all said though, i absolutely loved this game. it's absolutely a must play for the PS1, few games are as ambitious as this one. and, while the story does get a bit cheesy sometimes, it has a lot of cool ideas, interesting characters, a mysterious and engaging plot, it's different... the world is amazing as well.

A game flooded and rupturing with so much ambition, so many ideas (even with so many barely explored), and such a fascinating, evasive legacy that its incompleteness only creates infinite depth. Xenogears is the oddly-shaped kernel of a still-expanding universe, a beating, bleeding heart of a story that wears its many influences plainly and proudly while still feeling unsettlingly different from any of its peers. There’s so much more that could be here, that is here, that is instead in Perfect Works and Xenosaga and Xenoblade and in everything that’s taken inspiration from it since. I’m obsessed with Xenogears. I think I will be for a long time.

I hated my time with this game for like 35 hours
It's filled with so many bad game design decisions, extremely bad pacing at the start after the intro segment and the game absolutely never tells you where to go throught all of it, gears combat is a fucking unfun mess, like half the cast only has 1 moment to shine and never again, disc 2 completely changes the entire gameplay structure to the point it's a visual novel without even the visual part it's just scrolling text, there aren't that many music tracks so you're stuck hearing the same tracks over and over again that have some annoying segments in them.

And even then.
After all of this.
It is still.
The Perfect Work.

an incrediblly ambitious project of a video game in terms of the storytelling. i enjoyed every minute of it despite some of the frustrating dungeons. it really intrigued me instantly at the first hour of the game. some of the lines that were carried by the characters really captured my heart and somewhat felt relatable to me, personally. it's very unfortunate that they weren't able to finish up the 2nd disc the way they wanted to, but the story was still peak. reading "perfect works" after beating this game makes so much sense that they weren't able to fit the whole arc into one game.