Words cannot describe the experience when finishing this game. It is, in a way, life changing.
Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Soraya Saga both bonded over their shared interest in philosophy, psychology, and mysticism. They saw that all these ideas were not singular absolutes but instead many paths of a whole.
This idea of incompleteness and becoming whole is the big theme of Xenogears as it explores a huge number of themes (see the wiki for the list) to explain the human experience and how to become "whole" with yourself. Although many of these topics are complicated, the goal wasn't to make this game a philosophy crash course. But instead to introduce these ideas to you, in the form of a story, as a guide in how to feel whole or complete with yourself.
This theme encapsulates every plot point, character, and even objects. As each thing is fragmented in some way. Layer after layer the story builds up itself and slowly unveils all its secrets. And once you finish, and you finally get to see the whole picture, everything will click and make sense.
Music is amazing too. Its by Yasunori Mitsuda so enough said.
This game is not perfect however. In my opinion, the gameplay has aged terribly and is bugged. You can't take 5 steps without some random battle. The deathblows progression system is also bugged, you have to use a guide to properly understand how it works because it is not explained well. The Gear (the mechas in the game) fighting system is terrible. You have to constantly upgrade your parts to have your Gears strong enough to fight the new bosses. And they have limited fuel, throughout the dungeon. You know how annoying that is to manage while you have the bugged random battle system? Fuel becomes a precious resource that you have to manage now and make sure you have enough before a boss battle.
There are translation issues as well. It is not the translator's fault however, but instead the situation that he was put in that caused rushed translations.
The second disc becomes a picture novel essentially. Ultimately, this game was too ambitious for its time.
Regardless, with some flaws forgiven, this is easily a 10/10 and a highly influential piece of work.
Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Soraya Saga both bonded over their shared interest in philosophy, psychology, and mysticism. They saw that all these ideas were not singular absolutes but instead many paths of a whole.
This idea of incompleteness and becoming whole is the big theme of Xenogears as it explores a huge number of themes (see the wiki for the list) to explain the human experience and how to become "whole" with yourself. Although many of these topics are complicated, the goal wasn't to make this game a philosophy crash course. But instead to introduce these ideas to you, in the form of a story, as a guide in how to feel whole or complete with yourself.
This theme encapsulates every plot point, character, and even objects. As each thing is fragmented in some way. Layer after layer the story builds up itself and slowly unveils all its secrets. And once you finish, and you finally get to see the whole picture, everything will click and make sense.
Music is amazing too. Its by Yasunori Mitsuda so enough said.
This game is not perfect however. In my opinion, the gameplay has aged terribly and is bugged. You can't take 5 steps without some random battle. The deathblows progression system is also bugged, you have to use a guide to properly understand how it works because it is not explained well. The Gear (the mechas in the game) fighting system is terrible. You have to constantly upgrade your parts to have your Gears strong enough to fight the new bosses. And they have limited fuel, throughout the dungeon. You know how annoying that is to manage while you have the bugged random battle system? Fuel becomes a precious resource that you have to manage now and make sure you have enough before a boss battle.
There are translation issues as well. It is not the translator's fault however, but instead the situation that he was put in that caused rushed translations.
The second disc becomes a picture novel essentially. Ultimately, this game was too ambitious for its time.
Regardless, with some flaws forgiven, this is easily a 10/10 and a highly influential piece of work.