I'm going to be honest with you: the gameplay is some of the worst I've seen in a JRPG yet. It's genuinely bad in nearly every way, to the point where I'd let out an audible groan every time the cutscenes ended and I had to actually play the game again. The on-foot combat itself is boring; all you legitimately do is spam each characters strongest deathblow or heal. Gear combat is slightly better about this, especially in boss battles, though. There's no sense of resource management either, since you just stock up on a ton of Omegasols (which fully heal you) for cheap and use them as needed. Dungeon design ranges from being merely passable to being downright tedious (the final dungeon, the sewers, and the tower), which is mostly owed to the random encounter rate being way too fucking high. You won't get any satisfaction from progression and "building" your party members either, since its extremely linear and the height of customization is "use the deathblows and equipment with the biggest stats". At the very least though, gear customization is waaaay better about this.
We've established that the gameplay is a completely joyless 40+ hour endeavor, so what makes Xenogears good? The story. It was engaging from the very beginning, and stayed engaging all throughout... for the most part. It was so engaging that it prevented even me, who often cannot stress the important of satisfying gameplay in games, from dropping it. It could use better pacing though, since the game definitely drags at times. The dogshit gameplay only serves to pour salt in the wound when it happens.
Then you get near the end of Disc 1, and you understand why people call this game a masterpiece. The narrative removes its limiters, and cranks shit up to 11. Disc 2 arrives, and elevates Xenogears to KINOgears. It's easily the best part of the game (and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot) for two reasons. First, the narrative gets even crazier; if the end of disc 1 is an 11, the end of disc 2 is a fucking 20. Truly some wonderful shit. Second, and more importantly, Takahashi ran out of time and rushed the shit out of it. In his rush, he forgot to include much gameplay in disc 2. And this is nothing short of a modern miracle.
Now I know I made a big deal out of how bad it is to play, but again, I do honestly think it's a great game, and I'd recommend it; it would simply be remiss of me to not make sure you know what you're getting into. Make sure to actually play it though. I don't want to see anyone do any goofy ass Persona 5 fan youtube shit, alright?
We've established that the gameplay is a completely joyless 40+ hour endeavor, so what makes Xenogears good? The story. It was engaging from the very beginning, and stayed engaging all throughout... for the most part. It was so engaging that it prevented even me, who often cannot stress the important of satisfying gameplay in games, from dropping it. It could use better pacing though, since the game definitely drags at times. The dogshit gameplay only serves to pour salt in the wound when it happens.
Then you get near the end of Disc 1, and you understand why people call this game a masterpiece. The narrative removes its limiters, and cranks shit up to 11. Disc 2 arrives, and elevates Xenogears to KINOgears. It's easily the best part of the game (and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot) for two reasons. First, the narrative gets even crazier; if the end of disc 1 is an 11, the end of disc 2 is a fucking 20. Truly some wonderful shit. Second, and more importantly, Takahashi ran out of time and rushed the shit out of it. In his rush, he forgot to include much gameplay in disc 2. And this is nothing short of a modern miracle.
Now I know I made a big deal out of how bad it is to play, but again, I do honestly think it's a great game, and I'd recommend it; it would simply be remiss of me to not make sure you know what you're getting into. Make sure to actually play it though. I don't want to see anyone do any goofy ass Persona 5 fan youtube shit, alright?