Xenogears

The Good
Xenogears is another one of those RPGs that's coveted by a dedicated fanbase and/or hardcore RPG players but is met with either disdain or dislike by everyone else. Coming out in an era when Squaresoft tried to sort of recreate its image through the kinds of themes present in their games, Xenogears is another sci-fi fantasy RPG, combining elements of advanced technology, religious and psychoanalytical philosophy, and to some extent, magic. And as with many Squaresoft RPGs, the game's strong point is its plot. Xenogears tells the story of Fei, who after "accidentally" laying waste to what he thinks is his home village, goes off on a journey to find his place in life. But what starts off as a cliche quest for soul searching turns into an epic tale of several millennia of human progress on a distant Earth, and a battle for the ultimate fate of those humans. And if that's not for you, you also get to duke it out in giant mechs called Gears. And who doesn't like giants robots, eh?

The Bad
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the previous section of this review because frankly, that's all the good stuff I could say about this game. While the concept of this game's story seems brilliant, it is executed in a dull and slow-paced fashion. I honestly have no idea how Squaresoft thought they could stuff this much plot into a two disc RPG without it gobbling up hours of gameplay time, but they certainly didn't do a very good job of it. The amount of text-based cutscenes in this game is just ridiculous. And with the dialogue already being quite poorly written, I found it irritating having to sit through them. And the amount of these scenes just increased as the game went on, with disc two being almost completely comprised of them.

But forget plot and presentation for a minute and digress to a much more important aspect of a video game: the gameplay. This is probably the biggest source of boredom and frustration in this game. The battle system seems fun and different initially, but becomes extremely boring and repetitive as the game goes on. Rarely do you do anything more in a battle than heal your party and use characters' best Death Blows. Oh sure, there are Ether spells in this game, but most of them are just there for show and are borderline useless in most situations. In-Gear battles are a bit better since you actually have to take fuel consumption into account and have Special Options and the Booster feature to use, but don't feel as fun as they should. What also bothers me is how ridiculously easy all the battles in this game are, but I guess that's there to counter the relentless encounter rate in this game.

That leads me to the topic of dungeons and cities. Most of the locales in this game are pretty boring. The NPCs don't say anything interesting, and there's little more to do than to shop and find some way to progress the plot. Okay, maybe one or two towns DO offer a mini-game for you mess around with, but they're hardly worth your time. The dungeons in this game are quite tedious and poorly designed. In a lot of them, all the rooms look the same, and while I could forgive this in an 8-bit or 16-bit RPGs which have a static overhead view, in Xenogears you're often forced to rotate your camera within dungeons to know where to go, which quickly makes you lose your sense of direction since only two dungeons in the game actually have maps, and you're forced to figure out where to go by yourself. Combine that with sloppy platforming elements, annoying puzzles, and a high random battle encounter rate and you the perfect recipe for gamer rage.

One last complaint I have about this game is a lack of any interesting side quests or dungeons. I know a few bonus areas open up near the end of the game, but only one of them is actually somewhat pertinent to the plot and offers something useful inside it. The rest are just plain stupid and pointless.

The Bottom Line
Xenogears is one of those games that you either love, hate, or don't care about whatsoever. It is an unconventional RPG that tried to set itself apart which a complex plot and unique gameplay elements which honestly didn't impress me. The dungeons and towns are boring, the battle system is underdeveloped, and there are just way too many cutscenes. If you like to play games just for the plot, then you will probably thoroughly enjoy this game, but if you like RPGs with lots of fun side quests, interesting dungeons, and a good battle system, then look elsewhere.