Niche RPG from Squaresoft’s golden age. Maybe too philosophical for its own good - but still a very cool story and gameplay
decent first visual novel
rest in peace siegmund freud you would've loved this game
this game is easily 4.5 stars but unfortunately due to time constraints in my review schedule i didn't have time to give it the last 2 stars.
Looks a lot like Stranger of Paradise!
Imagine you were watching a movie and it was already going on way longer than it needed to with no signs of wrapping up and at the 3 hour mark the lead actors give you a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation revealing that you were only halfway through the story and that they just never finished making it.
I did not understand Fei tbh but after a solid day of thinking about his character and reading analyses (nerd emoji) I came to the realization he is one of the goats
Completely batshit insane game that is both an unbalanced exercise in frustration and the coolest thing you will ever see.
i really wanna get back to this at some point but i got so burnt out from the combat that i started reading literature recommended by people on reddit threads titled "books like xenogears" lmfao. my short-lived jrpg arc became a hopefully permanent gateway into reading.
walking around nisan for the first time and hearing "singing of the gentle wind" followed by the tour marguerite gives of the cathedral is a portion of the game thats going to stick with me.
walking around nisan for the first time and hearing "singing of the gentle wind" followed by the tour marguerite gives of the cathedral is a portion of the game thats going to stick with me.
Very ambitious and captivating story with adult themes that keeps you playing, especially the further in you go.
The music in this game is great and I wouldn't have expected anything less from Yasunori Mitsuda.
The gameplay is interesting and unique and comes with two modes of combat which helps with the repetitive aspect of battling in a 90s JRPG.
Although this game was arguably too ambitious and forced to take a more story mode pace in the later half of the game, it still managed to turn out great.
This game instantly became my favorite at the time upon playing it on release in 98.
I didn't think this game would age that well but was wrong after replaying it a few times over the years.
The music in this game is great and I wouldn't have expected anything less from Yasunori Mitsuda.
The gameplay is interesting and unique and comes with two modes of combat which helps with the repetitive aspect of battling in a 90s JRPG.
Although this game was arguably too ambitious and forced to take a more story mode pace in the later half of the game, it still managed to turn out great.
This game instantly became my favorite at the time upon playing it on release in 98.
I didn't think this game would age that well but was wrong after replaying it a few times over the years.
I now I will love this game but the PS1 control and speed sucks
Wish we had a remake soon.
Wish we had a remake soon.
I think this game fucking sucks to play and the characters and story definitely fall short in more than a few places, but I'd be lying if I said this doesn't deserve a remake. There's a LOT of stuff here that could potentially be fantastic if this was given a second chance in the modern day.
This review contains spoilers
What's that? An RPG that I've not only played but have completed and am able to review? I shit ye not comrades, it can happen and it did. For those unaware I have several RPGs and have played them all to some extent, but have not finished them. Going by how long my mates take with RPGs, it seems clear that I spend more time with RPGs than most. I take the time to talk to all NPCs at different points throughout the story, I explore places to the fullest, I spend a lot of time grinding, and other things that take up a lot of time. Including the final battle, I believe I'm at 112 hours for this game. A buddy of mine who has much more experience with RPGs and does have an account on here and has reviewed some Final Fantasy games(I'll bring them up again later) said they beat the game after around 70 hours. I do not know what the average playtime is for this game, but that difference alone should put things into perspective.
The game itself has many positives, but there are some problems as well. The battle system on foot is very interesting and a lot of fun. The gear battle system, to me, was not that great. Certain aspects of it were not explained well, some were not explained at all. You can not repair the gear conventionally as any healing abilities only restore defence in a gear and healing items do not work on gears. The only way to restore "health" is through an expensive ability, expensive in the sense of fuel, which is how you do everything in a gear.
The story is engaging and interesting, but it does become hard to follow at times. I learned some interesting information about the game from my mate, the same one mentioned before. I will try to summarise it, but I have not spoken to them about the game like this in some time, so I may get details wrong. Early on, the game. or at least the story, was supposed to be Final Fantasy VII. The story of the game was thought to be too dark for Final Fantasy, and that's saying something considering how dark the actual Final Fantasy VII can get. This game also has heavy religious references, imagery, and undertones. The heavy references and parallels to religion are lost on me, which does not exactly help with story comprehension. The way the second disc handles the story gets messy, 'cos it is clear that they ran out of time while making the game and had to rush the second disc. The second disc is cutscene and reading-heavy broken up by a dungeon or two and boss battles, with every battle being a gear battle.
The characters have depth to them and the protagonist is one of the most interesting characters I've seen. We are getting into serious spoiler territory here, I have marked the review with a spoiler warning in the editor, but I have no idea how it actually works or if it even does at all, so I'm outright warning here. The protagonist has dealt with serious trauma and has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. The way the game presents his internalised struggle with his other identities and tries to come to terms with his trauma and overcome the disorder is incredibly fascinating to me as a Psychology student with a deep interest in abnormal psychology and is a strong point of the game for me.
The music in this game is fantastic, composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda and the game has an interesting art style. The environments, gears, and bosses were 3D models, the characters themselves were sprites that had a 3D look when they moved or the camera rotated around them and the cutscenes were illustrated animation. In other words, anime. The game was really enjoyable and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but do keep in mind that the story may be hard to follow at times, disc 2 is not as good as it could've been, and it could potentially be a bit much for someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs to get through. I enjoyed it despite its flaws.
The game itself has many positives, but there are some problems as well. The battle system on foot is very interesting and a lot of fun. The gear battle system, to me, was not that great. Certain aspects of it were not explained well, some were not explained at all. You can not repair the gear conventionally as any healing abilities only restore defence in a gear and healing items do not work on gears. The only way to restore "health" is through an expensive ability, expensive in the sense of fuel, which is how you do everything in a gear.
The story is engaging and interesting, but it does become hard to follow at times. I learned some interesting information about the game from my mate, the same one mentioned before. I will try to summarise it, but I have not spoken to them about the game like this in some time, so I may get details wrong. Early on, the game. or at least the story, was supposed to be Final Fantasy VII. The story of the game was thought to be too dark for Final Fantasy, and that's saying something considering how dark the actual Final Fantasy VII can get. This game also has heavy religious references, imagery, and undertones. The heavy references and parallels to religion are lost on me, which does not exactly help with story comprehension. The way the second disc handles the story gets messy, 'cos it is clear that they ran out of time while making the game and had to rush the second disc. The second disc is cutscene and reading-heavy broken up by a dungeon or two and boss battles, with every battle being a gear battle.
The characters have depth to them and the protagonist is one of the most interesting characters I've seen. We are getting into serious spoiler territory here, I have marked the review with a spoiler warning in the editor, but I have no idea how it actually works or if it even does at all, so I'm outright warning here. The protagonist has dealt with serious trauma and has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. The way the game presents his internalised struggle with his other identities and tries to come to terms with his trauma and overcome the disorder is incredibly fascinating to me as a Psychology student with a deep interest in abnormal psychology and is a strong point of the game for me.
The music in this game is fantastic, composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda and the game has an interesting art style. The environments, gears, and bosses were 3D models, the characters themselves were sprites that had a 3D look when they moved or the camera rotated around them and the cutscenes were illustrated animation. In other words, anime. The game was really enjoyable and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but do keep in mind that the story may be hard to follow at times, disc 2 is not as good as it could've been, and it could potentially be a bit much for someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs to get through. I enjoyed it despite its flaws.
...A coherent storyline, fun characters and twists, and...Oh, there's a martial arts giant mech. It also had a decent translation.
A pity it seems the game was rushed at the end. The final disk is basically sectioned off maps for all of your party members to get their own super mechs and then the game ends. Was a lot of fun until then.
A pity it seems the game was rushed at the end. The final disk is basically sectioned off maps for all of your party members to get their own super mechs and then the game ends. Was a lot of fun until then.
Time has not been kind to this game, feels awfully dated.
I'm not a graphic whore but there's a point where the overall bad look of the game gets between me and enjoying the game.
Also it suffers from a lot of JRPG "old ways": Bad camera work, way to much and way too repetitive random encounters, lack of personalization on characters, slowness... I can force me to endure some of those thing in old games, but the game has to hook me with something else, i don't feel that "something else" here so i won't keep playing it.
I'm sure story will get good, but i will pass and wait, maybe the future will bring a remake or something for this title.
I'm not a graphic whore but there's a point where the overall bad look of the game gets between me and enjoying the game.
Also it suffers from a lot of JRPG "old ways": Bad camera work, way to much and way too repetitive random encounters, lack of personalization on characters, slowness... I can force me to endure some of those thing in old games, but the game has to hook me with something else, i don't feel that "something else" here so i won't keep playing it.
I'm sure story will get good, but i will pass and wait, maybe the future will bring a remake or something for this title.
esse jogo me deu a mesma sensação que eu tive lendo Ordem da Fênix: 500 páginas de enrolação. parem de fazer jogos desnecessariamente longos. joguei 25 horas disso e ainda não faço ideia do que se trata.
fiquei pensando se fui criado do jeito errado. jogando mario rpg, chrono trigger ou suikoden. mas honestamente acho que não. esse jogo ser enrolado desse jeito é um erro péssimo de pacing que vai afastar muita gente de experienciar a obra. uma pena, pq eu tava gostando...
em um outro grau de comparação, trago aqui red dead redemption 2. um jogo que eu tenho uma relação muito complicada. eu detestei jogar essa porra. uma das gameplays mais desinteressantes que já vi. mas por ser horrível desse jeito, dá pra rushar facinho e a história é TÃO boa e acessível que eu consegui zerar. e olha que foram 80 horas. na contrapartida, em xenogears eu tava quase tendo uma síncope com as dungeons confusas e os random encounters. a história já é enrolada e eles conseguiram enrolar ainda mais com uma gameplay travada.
o que me fez tankar tanto tempo foram os gráficos belíssimos, trilha sonora impecável também e a própria história (que eu tava legit gostando). acho que no fim das contas se o seu jogo não é divertido de se jogar, você precisa acertar muito em todo o resto...
fiquei pensando se fui criado do jeito errado. jogando mario rpg, chrono trigger ou suikoden. mas honestamente acho que não. esse jogo ser enrolado desse jeito é um erro péssimo de pacing que vai afastar muita gente de experienciar a obra. uma pena, pq eu tava gostando...
em um outro grau de comparação, trago aqui red dead redemption 2. um jogo que eu tenho uma relação muito complicada. eu detestei jogar essa porra. uma das gameplays mais desinteressantes que já vi. mas por ser horrível desse jeito, dá pra rushar facinho e a história é TÃO boa e acessível que eu consegui zerar. e olha que foram 80 horas. na contrapartida, em xenogears eu tava quase tendo uma síncope com as dungeons confusas e os random encounters. a história já é enrolada e eles conseguiram enrolar ainda mais com uma gameplay travada.
o que me fez tankar tanto tempo foram os gráficos belíssimos, trilha sonora impecável também e a própria história (que eu tava legit gostando). acho que no fim das contas se o seu jogo não é divertido de se jogar, você precisa acertar muito em todo o resto...
Xenogears is an odd beast to describe. It is a game that was incredibly ambitious for its time, and honestly even ambitious by today's standards. Originally conceived as a single episode of a much larger overarching story, it ultimately wouldn't get the level of support that original vision would have required, resulting in Xenogears's rather infamously truncated second disc. Even despite this, Xenogears is perhaps one of the most impactful gaming experiences that I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Its plot, characters, and themes are genuinely thought provoking, drawing from a number of different religious and philosophical sources. The battle system is easily one of the most unique among its peers, combining the combos of a fighting game with turn based combat. Combat and exploration are even more fleshed out when you add in the game's mechs. The music and art design are also just as memorable. Xenogears is by no means a perfect game. It is noticeably unpolished and is at times frustrating. Despite these frustrations though, it holds a special place as one of a select few JRPGs that have enriched me as a person. If one is willing to put up with its quirks and discomforts, it is a game that I truly think is a must play for all fans of the genre.
Disco 2 >>>>>> Disco 1
xeno fans are delusional
It's a pretty intriguing story that unfortunately has a terrible game attached. I would definitely play a remake of this that isn't half-baked.
It's a pretty intriguing story that unfortunately has a terrible game attached. I would definitely play a remake of this that isn't half-baked.
Muita coisa pra pensar sobre esse jogo ele é literalmente um jogo incompleto e imperfeito, mas talvez essa imperfeição seja parte do charme dele. Mesmo longe de ser o meu jogo favorito eu completamente entendo e concordo com quem diz que ele é um dos melhores
Takahashi really remade this game like 7 times and made sure it was peak fiction every single time. He had a damn good reason for it. This game is insanely goated. Like, you are cheating yourself by not playing this.
After 3 whole months, I'm FINALLY done with Xenogears, and oh boy what a trip it was.
The story in-game is very very good. I will admit that it didn't really capture me for the first, like 2 dozen hours, but around Shevat is when the game really started to get me. It was a VERY wild ride from there. I will say that I actually kinda like disc 2, because i really liked the story but I will say the pacing is very odd. It just feels like things happen and it goes by so quick you don't have a chance to take it all in. I understand completely though, since they were new to game development and had serious time crunch. The story went from very good to AMAZING when I looked into Perfect Works, the Xenogears book speaking about the entire Xenogears storyline from the beginning to the start of the game, and I find it so fascinating, simple as. It's also fascinating how Perfect Works is kind of like the bible of the Xeno series, with many things from Xenosaga and Xenoblade being inspired by the original storyline of Xenogears. This story is amazing and I kind of wish Takahashi was able to tell it in it's entirety, but we might not have had saga and blade if it did so, whatever!
The gameplay is fine. It's good, but there a few problems. My main gripe is I'm not a big fan of the gear battles. I get that it's the main thing of the game, but even after finding out how to play them they're just...alright. I much prefer the on-foot battles. I think deathblows are a bit fun, If a bit hard to manage with all the characters in your party.
The music is reallll good! I really like the Shevat theme (can you tell I like Shevat?) The boss and final boss theme, very nice. It's got that PS1 twang to it. Oh, and, I don't usually talk about graphics, but I LOVE HOW THIS GAME LOOKS! The amazing pixel sprites on top of the PS1 environments looks so freaking good, I want to make a game that looks like this someday!
Overall, fantastic game. The reason why it's not a 5/5 comes with some gameplay issues, pacing issues near the end of disc 1 and most of disc 2, and the fact that it took a while for the game's story to really grab me, but that might just be because I came from Xenoblade and got a bit hyped up on this game before I actually played it.
The story in-game is very very good. I will admit that it didn't really capture me for the first, like 2 dozen hours, but around Shevat is when the game really started to get me. It was a VERY wild ride from there. I will say that I actually kinda like disc 2, because i really liked the story but I will say the pacing is very odd. It just feels like things happen and it goes by so quick you don't have a chance to take it all in. I understand completely though, since they were new to game development and had serious time crunch. The story went from very good to AMAZING when I looked into Perfect Works, the Xenogears book speaking about the entire Xenogears storyline from the beginning to the start of the game, and I find it so fascinating, simple as. It's also fascinating how Perfect Works is kind of like the bible of the Xeno series, with many things from Xenosaga and Xenoblade being inspired by the original storyline of Xenogears. This story is amazing and I kind of wish Takahashi was able to tell it in it's entirety, but we might not have had saga and blade if it did so, whatever!
The gameplay is fine. It's good, but there a few problems. My main gripe is I'm not a big fan of the gear battles. I get that it's the main thing of the game, but even after finding out how to play them they're just...alright. I much prefer the on-foot battles. I think deathblows are a bit fun, If a bit hard to manage with all the characters in your party.
The music is reallll good! I really like the Shevat theme (can you tell I like Shevat?) The boss and final boss theme, very nice. It's got that PS1 twang to it. Oh, and, I don't usually talk about graphics, but I LOVE HOW THIS GAME LOOKS! The amazing pixel sprites on top of the PS1 environments looks so freaking good, I want to make a game that looks like this someday!
Overall, fantastic game. The reason why it's not a 5/5 comes with some gameplay issues, pacing issues near the end of disc 1 and most of disc 2, and the fact that it took a while for the game's story to really grab me, but that might just be because I came from Xenoblade and got a bit hyped up on this game before I actually played it.
This is arguably the most ambitious game on the PlayStation 1. The story is the star and addresses topics like religion and philosophy in a mature way. It even has its own retelling of Genesis. As fascinating as this game is, it has some problems.
The story is extremely complicated and poorly paced. Characters are introduced to you far too early and a lot of them are referred to as "her" and "him" throughout the game. It seems purposely confusing with the intent to wrap up everything up later. Which it does, to be fair.
I found some of the combat elements irksome. The main one being how you heal your gear. It is one of the more annoying mechanics I've experienced and is very inconvenient. This became an issue in the lengthy dungeons and later battles. Other complaints are questionable design choices (like collecting 3 books to advance), scripted battles, and tedious dungeons (mainly in your Gear). Thankfully, some dungeons include a map, which is a lifesaver.
I had not played a JRPG in many years. Despite my gripes, this game renewed my passion for the genre within a few hours. With its intriguing story and beautiful soundtrack, this is a game that will be hard to forget.
The story is extremely complicated and poorly paced. Characters are introduced to you far too early and a lot of them are referred to as "her" and "him" throughout the game. It seems purposely confusing with the intent to wrap up everything up later. Which it does, to be fair.
I found some of the combat elements irksome. The main one being how you heal your gear. It is one of the more annoying mechanics I've experienced and is very inconvenient. This became an issue in the lengthy dungeons and later battles. Other complaints are questionable design choices (like collecting 3 books to advance), scripted battles, and tedious dungeons (mainly in your Gear). Thankfully, some dungeons include a map, which is a lifesaver.
I had not played a JRPG in many years. Despite my gripes, this game renewed my passion for the genre within a few hours. With its intriguing story and beautiful soundtrack, this is a game that will be hard to forget.
I usually don't write real reviews on here but I feel like I really felt like this one deserved it.
I didn't really expect much of this game to be completely honest. I've been wanting to go through the entire "Xeno" series for awhile and as this is the first game, I had to play it.
This game is a fucking masterpiece. ...and I mean it. 90% of this game I was in genuine awe at what I was playing. I could not believe that this was a PSX game. Phenomenal music, phenomenal plot, phenomenal characters, phenomenal everything.
All of this to say, PLAY THIS GAME. I loved it, and I'm sure you'll love it too.
I didn't really expect much of this game to be completely honest. I've been wanting to go through the entire "Xeno" series for awhile and as this is the first game, I had to play it.
This game is a fucking masterpiece. ...and I mean it. 90% of this game I was in genuine awe at what I was playing. I could not believe that this was a PSX game. Phenomenal music, phenomenal plot, phenomenal characters, phenomenal everything.
All of this to say, PLAY THIS GAME. I loved it, and I'm sure you'll love it too.
In short, a game that I always think back to every week or so with how it treats it's narrative, concepts, that miraculously is a wholistic story experience.. however not a gameplay experience.
This game oh boy.
Loved the story, all the ideas it throws at you, loved how the main characters actually had depth to them, loved to explore the cities. The approach to graphics was pretty clever, with the world being 3d and characters being sprites. The gameplay was fine for the 2/3 of the game and then it really started to grind my gears, with the constant random encounters and boring combo system (gear combat was a bit better since you need to manage fuel).
Overall a game totally worth playing, but the gameplay made it feel like a chore sometimes
Loved the story, all the ideas it throws at you, loved how the main characters actually had depth to them, loved to explore the cities. The approach to graphics was pretty clever, with the world being 3d and characters being sprites. The gameplay was fine for the 2/3 of the game and then it really started to grind my gears, with the constant random encounters and boring combo system (gear combat was a bit better since you need to manage fuel).
Overall a game totally worth playing, but the gameplay made it feel like a chore sometimes
Que jogo superestimado. Faço uma review inteira mais tarde.
The game has its flaws, pacing can be weird especially on Disc 2 of course, but I can excuse it for what’s easily the best story in any game I’ve played. Even without the multiple hundred page lore book this story and its main characters are so incredibly presented, especially considering how ambitious the whole thing is. It definitely helps to go into this game knowing about Disc 2’s weirdness but if you can look past that and want an incredible story and world, this game is for you.
There are a few things I dislike about this game, chief among them are the insanely high encounter rate and most of Nortune (especially the fucking sewers). However once you get Thames this game is incredibly smooth sailing.
Gameplay is not the most stimulating considering every time I fought monsters for a bit I'd proceed to open my menu, check progress on deathblows, close menu, over and over and over (might have just been a me issue). Also inputting the same combo over and over to grind up deathblows, having to watch the animation tends to get a little stale. Had it not been for the incredibly interesting world/lore and an engaging story I don't think I would have been able to get through this game.
Overall I'd highly recommend this game with an emulator to make some of the encounter rates more bearable. When this game gets going, it gets going. Easy recommend (with emulator).
Gameplay is not the most stimulating considering every time I fought monsters for a bit I'd proceed to open my menu, check progress on deathblows, close menu, over and over and over (might have just been a me issue). Also inputting the same combo over and over to grind up deathblows, having to watch the animation tends to get a little stale. Had it not been for the incredibly interesting world/lore and an engaging story I don't think I would have been able to get through this game.
Overall I'd highly recommend this game with an emulator to make some of the encounter rates more bearable. When this game gets going, it gets going. Easy recommend (with emulator).
like the wise citan "the cannibal" uzuki once said, "it is rare to be able to talk to a real schizophrenic"