Disclaimer: This review is purely my opinion!
Well VGChartz, two days ago, on Sunday, I finished the PS1 epic by Square that we all know as Xenogears, after a truly long journey dominated by mundane gameplay and epic (and oh god, LONG) cutscenes... just in time for its US PSN release yesterday. This is what I feel about the game after years of having its fans flaunt its awesomeness in my face.
Premise/story
The game kicks off with a mysterious cutscene of a huge manned spaceship in dire straits (whose importnace will not remain unexplained) and later, the status-quo of the Ignas continent, on which most of the story will unfold. If you're in this thread, then you've probably been in that setting before - two massive Empires amidst war, which is more of a stalemate chocking its participators than anything else. You play as Fei, an amnesiac martial artist that was brought over to his village of Lahan and doesn't remember a thing of what happened prior to that... that's something that will obviously not last.
I'd go as far as saying that half of the story is about uncovering Fei's identity and repressed memories - and it's an absolutely epic and enthralling journey, transcending time, empires, wars, and dark, intoxicating feelings. In fact, with all the potential and premise that the game holds, they should've made it a trilogy. The story is deep, complex, and yeah - most of the time, confusing. If you have strong imagination, you'll like it that much more. The scale of events consistently grows, and always in the right way, showcasing Fei's struggle for humanity, his friends, and for himself. The game, as is, will leave you with your mouth watering for more, and not just because of the huge and unexplored lore in it, but because the ending will hardly answer all your questions as well.
Ah, and a note about Fei's friends - I don't expect anyone to be bored with this coloured bunch. A doctor, a sand pirate, a martial artist, and a royal knight all gather up in a bar... a start of a joke? No, it's Xenogears! They are obviously not all the characters you'll befriend, so expect surprises...
Gameplay
From a shining star in the sky of RPG's, spiraling down to the ground... no less.
The gameplay in the game leaves a huge lot to be desired. The random encounters are extremely plentiful, the enemies are money and skill fodder for most of the time, the dungeons are symmetrical, unimaginative (in a structure kind of way), the game isn't challenging aside from 2-3 boss battles, and the battle system redefines repetetive and mundane. Let me elaborate before you tear me down ;)
Battles are of two kinds - gear battles and character battles:
Character battles are a chore. No less. You have your special moves, "deathblows", you have combos - chains of deathblows, you have a huge spell arsenal, and it all looks and sounds fun... however, there is one problem about this whole system - you don't NEED to use ANYTHING aside from your one deathblow for 90% of the game, the other 10% being enemies that counter deathblows/immune to physical attacks. This whole system makes for terribly repetetive gameplay that will break even the most avid grinder in you. It's just not as flexible or fun as in other RPG's.
Gear battles are a bit more challenging and flexible, but are no less repetetive. Your mecha avatars - "Gears", also have deathblows (no combos though), and have an interesting "infinity mode" in which the gears get extremely powerful and simple deathblows. Gears use fuel for any action aside from spells (simple charcter spells adjusted for size), and you'll have to build your gears around fuel effectiveness. Those needs and the infinity mode, along with the slightly different way deathblows work in gears, make for a bit more challenging and interesting system, but ultimately, I still found it boring.
Funnily enough, the controls in the game are great and the various minigames in it never get boring and are better than in most RPG's - try out the arena gear battles, preferrably with a friend. And using peoples heads' as leverage also never gets old.
Sound
Sound is almost perfect, from music to voiceovers. the "Flight" theme as well as the Dazil and Shevat town music are tracks that you'll remember well enough to still recognize in ten years past. The voiceovers that you'll hear in the anime cutscenes (more on those later) are believeable, which is pretty amazing for a 1998 title. You'll relate, promise. If it wasn't for the disappointing battle theme and boss battle theme, the ones you'll probably hear most throughout the game, sound could be rated "impeccable". As it is, it's just great.
Graphics
The graphics are well done both in style and in execution. Xenogears mixes 3D environments with 2D sprite characters, doing it extremely well. The sprites look lively, and "shortage of polygons" is not something that you can use to describe the 3D objects in the game - the gears and angels in the Nisan church look great, and for 1998, they must've been quite a sight.
There is also quite a bit of anime cutscenes along the way, in fact, the game begins with one. The drawing style, quality, and flow are good. The compression is also nice, they look like straight from a VCD. I wish that we'd see more of those in games.
Closing words
Xenogears, for me, is all-in-all, a mixed bag. A great and emotional story, boosted by music that runs deep and graphics that were some of the best back then. Sadly, if you couple that with the near-atrocious gameplay that it has, it ruins the expereience quite a bit. The story could also be better developed if they split the game in two or did a trilogy out of it. I do not regret my purchase, but did play much better RPG's on my life. Had an RPG been all story, Xenogears would be one of the best - but it's the complete package that matters, and as a complete package, I give Xenogears a 7.5.
P.S: English is my 3rd language, no grammar nazi'ing please :D
Xenogears & screenshots ( c ) Square-Enix.
