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Michael91
08-07-13 08:47 PM
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Zman757
08-08-13 03:30 AM
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An ambitious game that's not for everyone

 
Game's Ratings
Overall
Graphics
Sound
Addictiveness
Depth
Story
Difficulty
Average User Score
9.3
9.5
9.5
9
9
9
7
Michael91's Score
8
9
9
8
8
8
4

08-07-13 08:47 PM
Michael91 is Offline
| ID: 862915 | 922 Words

Michael91
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Likes: 3  Dislikes: 0
JRPGs are known for the grandiose stories and plethora of cut scenes. However, even by JRPG standards Xenogears takes these elements to the extreme. Xenogears contains a massive story with a myriad of sci-fi elements, a large dose of Christian mythology, a romantic plotline and more. There is roughly as much story as there is gameplay, with the story portion heaviest in the shorter second disk. If you get fed up with video game cut scenes keeping you from the gameplay, this game is not for you. On the other hand, if you're happy to take repeated breaks from your gameplay and don't mind keeping track of an extensive convoluted world, I suggest you try Xenogears.


As a story driven game, Xenogears lives and dies by its plot. Xenogears largely succeeds in creating an engaging story; however, some elements hold up better than others, the story tends to overuse common tropes, and it tends to throw too much against the wall towards the end. The story starts off rather small by exploring a war between two kingdoms and a prince trying to reclaim his throne, but continuously expands its focus as the plot unfolds. I feel the strongest portion of the plot occurs towards the middle. In the earlier stages, I never felt invested in the prince's quest and felt the story was too simplistic and anachronistic. However, the story soon takes off and introduces numerous mysteries to keep the player engaged. At this point, I had to keep playing to find out what would happen next. When the game hits the second disk, the expanse of the plot reaches its apex and reveal after reveal arrive in rapid succession. With the second disk, it can become very hard to keep track of everything in the world, and the quantity of the reveals caused each individual reveal to lose meaning for me. I felt the plot could have done with some trimming. However, for many sci-fi/fantasy fans, the more complex the better. In addition to the complexity, the plot also suffered from overuse of tropes, particularly the damsel in distress trope. This must have been used around half a dozen times in one form or another, and really grated on me, especially considering the patriarchal implications of this trope. Both of these concerns (complexity and tropes) aren't problematic for every player. However, one should keep these issues in mind before investing dozens of hours in this game.


The gameplay is divided into two types of battles, character and gear. Character battles are similar to the standard Final Fantasy style active time battle. Xenogears does differentiate itself with an attack point system that the player can use to execute a certain number of light attacks each turn to produce combos. The combos can be fun to use; however, after I saw the attack animations a few times I got a bit tired of having to sit through them each time. The character battles were generally extremely easy; however, I battled every random encounter I faced and it might be tougher for those who flee many enemies. Nevertheless, I had fun with it. The gear battles on the other hand diverge a bit from standard RPG battles. The basic Active Time Battle style is the same but the gears play more like bosses than RPG characters. Each gear has a ton of health, so can take a beating. While standard RPG battles generally involve powerful attacks that can knock a character out in a blow or two, that never happens with gears. Thus, gears can keep on hitting the opponent with standard attacks for a numerous turns. Support options are also limited, so attacking is mostly what one will end up doing with these gears. Unlike characters, gears gain power by equipment upgrades rather than experience. If one's gears have all the latest upgrades, they should be able to outlast the opponent in almost every winnable battle just by attacking. Thus, strategy is rather limited. However, despite the lack of skill involved, using the gears can be a lot of fun. There something satisfying from going around the overworld stomping on enemies a tenth your size.



In addition to battles, your characters must move around dungeons and the overworld. For the most part, this is a smooth process. However, occasionally the camera angles are inadequate and background graphics can get in the way. Additionally, there is some platforming involved that can be a pain with the camera angles. This is particularly true in one mid game dungeon where one has to restart the first area every time one missteps. It would have been better if Xenogears had scrapped this section. As far a the overworld goes, there isn't very much to it. The game is quite linear, so exploration is limited. When I finally got the chance to travel freely through the over world, I was disappointed to find there really wasn't any reason to do so. The game gets even more linear at the start of the second disk, but some exploration is available right before the final dungeon.



As for the graphics and the music, both are strong. The locations and gears look fantastic, and the bits of anime sprinkled into the story work well. The music is quite effective at setting the tone of each location. The composer for Xenogears also was composer for the Chrono series, which is also known for its strong musical composition. If you like the music in the Chrono series, you should also like Xenogears' score.
JRPGs are known for the grandiose stories and plethora of cut scenes. However, even by JRPG standards Xenogears takes these elements to the extreme. Xenogears contains a massive story with a myriad of sci-fi elements, a large dose of Christian mythology, a romantic plotline and more. There is roughly as much story as there is gameplay, with the story portion heaviest in the shorter second disk. If you get fed up with video game cut scenes keeping you from the gameplay, this game is not for you. On the other hand, if you're happy to take repeated breaks from your gameplay and don't mind keeping track of an extensive convoluted world, I suggest you try Xenogears.


As a story driven game, Xenogears lives and dies by its plot. Xenogears largely succeeds in creating an engaging story; however, some elements hold up better than others, the story tends to overuse common tropes, and it tends to throw too much against the wall towards the end. The story starts off rather small by exploring a war between two kingdoms and a prince trying to reclaim his throne, but continuously expands its focus as the plot unfolds. I feel the strongest portion of the plot occurs towards the middle. In the earlier stages, I never felt invested in the prince's quest and felt the story was too simplistic and anachronistic. However, the story soon takes off and introduces numerous mysteries to keep the player engaged. At this point, I had to keep playing to find out what would happen next. When the game hits the second disk, the expanse of the plot reaches its apex and reveal after reveal arrive in rapid succession. With the second disk, it can become very hard to keep track of everything in the world, and the quantity of the reveals caused each individual reveal to lose meaning for me. I felt the plot could have done with some trimming. However, for many sci-fi/fantasy fans, the more complex the better. In addition to the complexity, the plot also suffered from overuse of tropes, particularly the damsel in distress trope. This must have been used around half a dozen times in one form or another, and really grated on me, especially considering the patriarchal implications of this trope. Both of these concerns (complexity and tropes) aren't problematic for every player. However, one should keep these issues in mind before investing dozens of hours in this game.


The gameplay is divided into two types of battles, character and gear. Character battles are similar to the standard Final Fantasy style active time battle. Xenogears does differentiate itself with an attack point system that the player can use to execute a certain number of light attacks each turn to produce combos. The combos can be fun to use; however, after I saw the attack animations a few times I got a bit tired of having to sit through them each time. The character battles were generally extremely easy; however, I battled every random encounter I faced and it might be tougher for those who flee many enemies. Nevertheless, I had fun with it. The gear battles on the other hand diverge a bit from standard RPG battles. The basic Active Time Battle style is the same but the gears play more like bosses than RPG characters. Each gear has a ton of health, so can take a beating. While standard RPG battles generally involve powerful attacks that can knock a character out in a blow or two, that never happens with gears. Thus, gears can keep on hitting the opponent with standard attacks for a numerous turns. Support options are also limited, so attacking is mostly what one will end up doing with these gears. Unlike characters, gears gain power by equipment upgrades rather than experience. If one's gears have all the latest upgrades, they should be able to outlast the opponent in almost every winnable battle just by attacking. Thus, strategy is rather limited. However, despite the lack of skill involved, using the gears can be a lot of fun. There something satisfying from going around the overworld stomping on enemies a tenth your size.



In addition to battles, your characters must move around dungeons and the overworld. For the most part, this is a smooth process. However, occasionally the camera angles are inadequate and background graphics can get in the way. Additionally, there is some platforming involved that can be a pain with the camera angles. This is particularly true in one mid game dungeon where one has to restart the first area every time one missteps. It would have been better if Xenogears had scrapped this section. As far a the overworld goes, there isn't very much to it. The game is quite linear, so exploration is limited. When I finally got the chance to travel freely through the over world, I was disappointed to find there really wasn't any reason to do so. The game gets even more linear at the start of the second disk, but some exploration is available right before the final dungeon.



As for the graphics and the music, both are strong. The locations and gears look fantastic, and the bits of anime sprinkled into the story work well. The music is quite effective at setting the tone of each location. The composer for Xenogears also was composer for the Chrono series, which is also known for its strong musical composition. If you like the music in the Chrono series, you should also like Xenogears' score.
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Post Rating: 3   Liked By: Booker, jnisol, Serotriptomine,

08-07-13 11:24 PM
B619ook is Offline
| ID: 862966 | 67 Words

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Not bad , you made a great review! Loads of details words and you put it all in neatly! Yet I would make a suggestion and tell you to add in the categories I see that you put them somewhere in this review yet I suggest you make them have there own paragraph yet besides that very amazing review you made here! Keep up the good work!
Not bad , you made a great review! Loads of details words and you put it all in neatly! Yet I would make a suggestion and tell you to add in the categories I see that you put them somewhere in this review yet I suggest you make them have there own paragraph yet besides that very amazing review you made here! Keep up the good work!
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08-08-13 03:30 AM
Zman757 is Offline
| ID: 862993 | 23 Words

Zman757
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...oh...my...gawd... I frickin love Xenogears!  Wish Squarenix would make some sort of sequel.  Oh and pretty good review of the game, nice job.
...oh...my...gawd... I frickin love Xenogears!  Wish Squarenix would make some sort of sequel.  Oh and pretty good review of the game, nice job.
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