After having sat on this game for a few months I can safely say my issue with it is that it feels like a DLC expansion to Kuro 1 (a la Like A Dragon: Gaiden, I assume) that got padded out into it's own game. That in itself isn't a huge problem to me, but the fact that it's a whole ass JRPG length game is. I spent 75-ish hours here and really feel like the whole story of this game could have been told effectively in half the time--maybe even less.

That being said, there is still a lot about this game I like. When the story is allowed to happen uninterrupted, it's (usually) pretty good. Kuro 2 does a great job of fleshing out a number of aspects of the world further. Even if this game does not do much to move the needle further in the overall story of the series, the general worldbuilding of the Zemurian continent has been one of my favorite aspects of the series since the moment I hopped on Sky FC and I'm glad to see the writing team still has this much attention to detail to the land they've created. In the character department, I think there is much work to be done regarding the overall cast and the group dynamic the Solutions Office faces, but individually several of my more liked characters had a ton of good stuff. There weren't many bonding events in this game but whenever there were they were definitely quite the treat; it makes me more confident of the future of the series in that regard as it's always been one of the series' greatest strengths. I'd like to give special shoutouts to Quatre, Renne, and one of my underrated faves Shizuna. With Renne in particular, Kuro 2 feels like a natural conclusion to her series long character arc. I obvs know she'll be back for future titles but her arc has been so damn good this whole time and I really appreciate what they've done with her here. I can't say the same to every character however. There was a lot of nothing done with a number of the cast. Elaine especially is an egregious example of this. Kuro 1 made her into my favorite character in the series just like that, and it disappointed me to see how little she was utilized here, especially with how much she was marketed in the months leading up to the release, and even with how the game's prologue went! One of my gripes with this series is characters just being used as static set pieces sometimes and overuse of that was definitely a knock on the overall quality of the story. The way a number of characters were utilized just frustrates me in general. To compensate for the story it's clear Kuro 2 tried very hard to be Reverie 2 in a number of ways but just couldn't land the way that did. It just doesn't work nearly as well with what they were doing.

Somewhat of a subnote, but the Calvard games have had the best gameplay in the series as well, these games play sooooo fine and I think that's one of the reasons I'll give some of the nonsense in this (and Kuro 1 too as I much as I love that game to death I can't pretend it's infallible) a semi pass. It really feels like as of this story arc Falcom has perfected the gameplay for the series, its so great seeing the progression of the formula of the series and I only think it's gotten better over time. After starting good too!! I'd really say that Kuro/Kuro 2 has a case to be made for being the best combat system ever put in a JRPG. That combined with how much I love the setting made this a much more easy to go down experience and I have nothing but high hopes for how the rest of this series goes in this department.

*Sub-subnote: ah shit this was supposed to be a quick thought and ended up a whole paragraph

Would I call this game bad? I don't know how to answer that if I'm being entirely honest. Kuro 2 is undeniably the definition of a hot mess; it has a lot of great, fantastic even, aspects about it, but at the same time sinks to lows the series has maybe never seen before. This game was very clearly rushed, it could have been so much more had Falcom given it the proper time to cook. I haven't even mentioned the poorly implemented time travel mechanic (if you could really call it a mechanic). There was a lot of good concepts introduced here but never really had the chance to develop them properly. I really wonder how we'll view this game in the future, especially with Kai no Kiseki coming later this year. If the series goes further downhill this game will be chastised to no end, but if Kai ends up being goated I hope we'll just look at this as an intermission of sorts; maybe just a recharching/cooldown period in a string of banger games.

I'm definitely anticipating Kai very heavily, and it's probably safe to say it's the game I'm most looking forward to releasing currently. I'd definitely optimistic about how it'll be, cautiously so, but I know Falcom's writing team has it in them to create something amazing with what they've done, even if I still think this was a very shaky experience. With Cold Steel 4, Reverie, and Kuro 1 being as good as they were, I am very willing to let a sub par game slide as a bump in the road if Kai is a return to form. I know the writing team has that dawg in them still. The extra year given to work on it is the main fuel for my optimism.

Van Arkride...you've rocked my world time and time again. Get it done Spriggan, I know you've got it in you.

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.

Really happy this was actually pretty good, came out of 0 hearing very mixed things about the next chunk of the series so this forebodes well. Definitely not nearly as strong a game story or character wise but still showed flashes of something brilliant here and there. Kiryu and Nishiki's dynamic was easily the highlight of this game and coming from Zero made it so much better. One of my complaints about this game is that it wasn't more focused on them, some of the other characters felt very weak and cliche.

You can definitely tell this is the first story the series told, and they were still getting warmed up in making every element in the game sit together well, especially with how Majima was utilized. He was my favorite character in Zero and it felt like he just kinda got placed here for no reason. Despite my issues, it still feels like it would have been a strong start if I had gone this route instead. Definitely way more excited for what's coming next after playing this.

A game that knows exactly what it is and celebrates that fact wholeheartedly, this is perhaps the best action game I’ve ever played. Stylish and sick as hell from top to bottom, from the characters, to the music, and the combat, the fucking combat. Doing combo after combo on defenseless demons is one of the most hype feelings imaginable, and when you manage to pull off a series of moves you thought up it gets the adrenaline flowing. I’ve never really been a heavy action game player but this makes me feel like I’ve been in love with the genre for years.

I might’ve played this game on the lowest difficulty but I had such a good time even then that I can for sure see myself replaying, something I don’t really do a lot anymore. Hell I already started doing Devil Hunter mode with Vergil. This game is just too fun, yes I know I sound like a broken record saying this as much as I have but man I haven’t had such a good time with a combat system in years. There’s still so much I don’t fully grasp about it but I’m looking forward to unlocking more skills, doing even wilder moves, and fully mastering this game in due time.

As someone who knew about this game for a long time and knew a lot of the story beats being spoiled through osmosis, I’m still very pleasantly surprised how much I adored it still, along with the fantastic characters. Everyone who’s playable has a unique personality and charm to them along with a signature fighting style that conveys that very well to the player. For a game that I completed in about ten hours, I feel like I’ve grown far more attached to these characters than I would in most given ten hour stretches of games. The dynamics between everyone feel so charged with every interaction being a treat. This being my first go-round with the series I feel like there’s definitely a bunch I’m missing but they knew exactly what to do to bring me up to speed.

I could go on about the story for a while but I’ll simply stick to my basic thoughts of it being fun as hell, intense, and cathartic all at once. Given what I do know about the story of the earlier games this feels like such an immense payoff and if I was a lifelong DMC fan I would’ve been so incredibly happy to see this game come to fruition. The climax was incredible and felt like the culmination of so much about the series, from the relationship between Dante and Vergil, to this being a coming of age story for Nero; all incredibly strong notes to end on.

This game is kinda perfect in my eyes, does its job Smokin’ Sexy Style! all the way through

This was an interesting experience to see if you can ever really get too much FF7. Nomura was definitely cooking something in here, and it had a flavor very unique to his style from the story to the new characters and worldbuilding.

Zack was a very cool character and this game definitely shot him way up for me more. Given how much original FF7 talks about his and Cloud’s dynamic and bond I really loved seeing those two in action together. I really didn’t expect Zack to be as much of a goofus as he was, especially at the beginning of the game. Seeing him come into his own was very cool. It’s kinda neat seeing how Angeal was to him, and then later how he was to Cloud. And to me that makes Cloud’s arc even more interesting retroactively. Both of those two feel even more so human after that. In addition, it was neat to be able to expand on some of the side characters that we hadn’t seen a ton of as well, especially Sephiroth. Seeing a more human side of him made me resonate with him a bit harder and showed his internal conflict leading up to the events of the original game in quite an interesting way.

However, for the other characters that were new to the game, I don’t feel so much the same. As much of a mentor figure to Zack that Angeal was, I can’t say I was very heavily invested in his character. The same can be said for Genesis too. I don’t think their buildup was very compelling and I’m not a fan of how they were used in the overall narrative. Gotta say this game overall doesn’t add much to the story of FF7 other than building up pre existing characters more (Except for Cisseni she was cool).

The gameplay loop was pretty basic; given this was a remaster, not a remake, of a mid-2000s PSP game I wasn’t expecting too much from that. But even so, the whole design of the game was just kinda…there. A lot of the levels felt very short and/or repetitive, and the whole mission structure would have been a total snoozefest if the combat wasn’t surprisingly fun. I had heard this was made into more so of an action game and that did not leave me disappointed. Zack was a very fun character to play as and really carried the missions for me. I’m glad this game is a thing because I really couldn’t imagine going back and playing the original if the combat had been very basic.

Some other minor quirks I have with this game are that I don’t think the voice acting is that great and the fact that this had no chapter select is very irritating, but I’ve already spent so much time talking about other things that there’s not really a need to go into too much detail.

I definitely am glad, not just that I played it, but that I got this game in before Rebirth. Expanding on the lore of FF7 definitely made me even more excited to see what Nomura has planned.

This was really really good. Berseria easily had one of the best stories and some of the best characters I’ve seen in a game recently; the overall message and themes heavily resonated with me.

Velvet is an all time protagonist, and her internal conflict and struggle was for sure the highlight of an already stacked story. She feels like a very realistic portrayal of trauma and despair and her deeply self destructive nature illustrates those traits well. Her dynamic with the rest of the party, them pursuing their own struggles just like she does, creates a deeply fascinating cast that I love to death. I really do want to give shoutouts to every character in the group but I feel like I’d be here all day talking about each and every thing I love about them. Every character had a nice arc and a satisfying conclusion that highlighted their way to live. I do want to bring up as strong as Velvet was, my favorite of them had to be Eleanor. I definitely saw a lot of myself in her.

As for gameplay, I’ll skim over that but I would like to bring to attention I thought it was the lowlight of this game. It felt kinda clunky to me, maybe that’s just a product of me never playing a Tales game before, but it did bring me out of it a bit. The combat was probably what my biggest issue was in regards to it; I mostly found myself using Velvet and just button mashing my way through a lot of fights. I realize I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had learned to get better by using other characters but I never really felt motivated enough to do so. There’s definitely a lot to like about what I saw but as it stands I wasn’t all that huge on it.

Really the gameplay really is the only thing holding this back from being a 10 for me, but man that story and those characters are something I’m gonna be thinking about for a long time. I picked this up on a whim, started this on a whim, but I’m so glad I did and I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of the year if this was still one of my favorites. Way to start the year right. Velvet Crowe, I was moved.