Xenogears: Great game or mediocre at best?

[Quark]

I have noticed that when people are polled on their favorite RPGs of all time, Xenogears is a title that is often placed near the top of the list. I guess I never understood why. I played Xenogears from beginning to end, and although it was a good game that provided some much needed distraction at the time, I never considered it one of the best RPGs I had played. Overall, I would probably give it a 7 out of 10. I have a few basic criticisms of the game. First of all, the game was entirely too long. With most great RPGs, I always wish that the game would never end. With Xenogears I found myself thinking “when the hell is this thing going to end”.

My second complaint has to do with the extreme plot twists in the game. Don’t get me wrong, plot twists can be great if used skillfully and if the player has some ability to recall some moments in the game that would explain the plot twist. However, in Xenogears, plot twists seemed to be dropped into the story just for the sake of a plot twist. Furthermore, there were never any signs or hints that made the plot twists make sense. Overall, it just seemed like poor storytelling.

I guess I also have a bias against futuristic game settings, and for the most part, I did not feel a connection with the playable characters.

I am very curious to hear people’s thoughts. What would you give the game on a scale of 1 to 10? What did you like or not like about the game? Would you say it is one of the best RPGs you have ever played?

[Shiva Indis]

I love Xenogears, but I will also grant just about any criticism of it. I don't know if I'd agree that it has plot twists for plot twist's sake, but it does get overwrought, and the main characters have about three characters-worth of backstory. It might come across as needlessly complicated. It might also help if the end of the game was an RPG.

[Aaron]

Xenogears is mediocre at best. It's so bad, that I feel like it is a waste of time writing about it.

1 out of 10

[Guild_Premier_Ghaleon]

I absolutely love Xenogears. The Gear battles are very unique and a blast to play, discovering the deathblows is awesome, and the characters are all very likable. The primary reason I like it though, is the basis of the Freudian theory of Id, Ego, and Superego behind the plot. It gives Fei some serious depth, and when viewing other characters in that light? Truly awesome.

[Asmodean]

I loved Xenogears. My only problem with it, is the fact that it got cut short and the story was kinda hurt. I always wanted to know what Emerelda's gear would have looked like upgraded. The soundtrack was one of the major reasons why I loved it as well. Lost... Broken Shards is my all-time favorite song.

[DevNall]

Xenogears is a great game, but as others have noted, it was cut short and it really shows in some spots.

[Justinzero]

I love Xenogears, but I will also grant just about any criticism of it. I don't know if I'd agree that it has plot twists for plot twist's sake, but it does get overwrought, and the main characters have about three characters-worth of backstory. It might come across as needlessly complicated. It might also help if the end of the game was an RPG.

This is exactly how I feel about the game. If you haven't played it, you at least owe it to yourself to try it out. Just be warned, its not perfect and it really needed more time in the shop. If anything, the soundtrack is a MUST HEAR for any RPG fan.

[DragonmasterDan]

Without going into a long story about how this game and the original Metal Gear Solid came out the same day (in the US) and how Xenogears sat a few weeks on my shelf, got played a lot and sat a long time again before being completed. I'll cut to the chase.

The first half of Xenogears is pretty good. Sure the engine is clunky, the localization is a little lacking, battles occur in mid air and the story is a cliched anime story, there's some balance issues but it's decent.

The second half of the game is a giant book that prevents you from saving has almost no content and was clearly slapped together in just a few months.

Overall, the game is average at best. Even for its time of release. What makes the game so popular is it was one of the first US games (Crystalis and Alundra to a certain degree) to handle the topic of killing a god and blasphemy. And I think the fact that this was a new experience to a lot of gamers leads to be (like Final Fantasy 7) far more fondly remembered by the audience of people who were new to RPGs at that time than it was worth.

[Werefrog]

I can't play Xenogears because it gives me a headache every time I try. I would love to finish it, but I just can't.

[liquidpolicenaut]

I happen to love the game but do agree that the ending did feel a bit rushed. Still a greta game overall and, I agree, the soundtrack is still an awesome one

[Sonic#]

I liked it a whole bunch. The first half of the game was better, but the second half was fine with me, since I happen to like plot-heavy convolutions, or did the last time I had played. Like Shiva, I have to grant every criticism of the game, because those criticisms simply describe aspects of the game I can either like or overlook.

It has some of my favorite characters (especially Elly and Billy), I always like mobile suits, the battle system was simple in a good way, the music was some of my favorite... I think that it has a lot of good qualities, like it or not.

[brightshield]

there were never any signs or hints that made the plot twists make sense. Overall, it just seemed like poor storytelling.

There were tons of signs and hints for pretty much every major twist. The problem is that many of these things pop up several hours before the twist is revealed. Thus much of the information is forgotten. Things that seem like minor details come back as major plot points later on. It's not until the second playthrough that most people notice these things.

[Chrono]

I love xenogears I totally got into Fei and Elly, what a kick ass dramatic idea to throw into the mix, My old ps3 was stolen and I got 40 hours into it and never got to beat it after spending 80$ on a copy off of ebay. Oh and by the way, broken shards rules! Only the land dwelling -lambs- could not like this game. Just kidding, I can see why some people would not like it actually it is such a long game and about 70% of it is talking. I give it a 9/10 I really hope it gets released on the PSN so I can play it on my psp.

[sux2bme]

it was a great game, being an rpg game and the mech battle, it was a perfect hybrid for that... until the second cd... the second cd is absolutely 6/10 the 1st cd, would be 9.5/10 coming from me...

[fates]

Thought it was Ok.

When I started I was like "COOL! JUMPING! IT'S LIKE SUPER MARIO RPG!!!"

But then I got to the Tower of Babel. Missed jumps and fell.

Twice.

Yeah... random battles + hit or miss platforming =

Also, I have to say I'm not a fan of the "press various buttons to make attacks" systems. They usually end up in the same general amount of damage. It just seems like an arbitrary change to make combat seem different than the norm. Same goes for Chrono Cross' combat, but that game had a whole OTHER slew of issues.

[brightshield]

Also, I have to say I'm not a fan of the "press various buttons to make attacks" systems. They usually end up in the same general amount of damage. It just seems like an arbitrary change to make combat seem different than the norm. Same goes for Chrono Cross' combat, but that game had a whole OTHER slew of issues.

Well you do get deathblows in Xenogears, and the harder ones to learn do massive damage. Even without them you do a decent amount more damage based on the risk you take. For example, triangle attacks will almost always hit, but do little damage; while x attacks will miss half the time, but do lots of damage. In this respect it is fairly similar to CC, but the deathblows blow the damage ratios out of proportion in Xenogears.