A Review of Xenogears

Welcome to my review of Xenogears! In this review, I'm going to do my best to give an honest impression of how I felt about the game, as a modern gamer going back to look at a now 20+ year old PlayStation game. This is, admittedly, going to be very difficult to do. Xenogears is a game so loaded with controversy and strong opinions at this point that I'm going to go ahead and say this now before continuing with this review: If you've been interested in the game but on the fence about it, no review is ever going to be able to properly convey the game in a way that will let you decide. There isn't truly anything to say about Xenogears that hasn't already been said, probably more eloquently, by someone else. This is something you will have to play and decide for yourself. I just like to write reviews for fun.

My first experience with Xenogears was years ago, back when the PlayStation 2 was king. I'd heard tons of talk from friends about this crazy game with theological and psychological themes, and I had to try it out myself. I managed to get my hands on a physical copy, and played all the way to somewhere in the infamous Disc 2, where I got stuck, took a break from playing, and my save file somehow got deleted. Until now, I'd never returned to the game, and it pains me to say that I have no idea where my physical copy went. I'd love to have it back at some point.

When replaying older games, I usually prefer to play on either the original hardware, or something close enough to replicate the experience in a modern setting. In this case, I made an exception that ended up making my play experience much more enjoyable as a whole. I downloaded my copy of Xenogears onto my PS3 from the PSN store for $10US, and then used that to install it on my PSP as well. Many PlayStation Classic titles available on PSN allow you to take advantage of this, and you can even swap your save file back and forth from the home console to the portable. It almost functions as a proto-Switch in this way. In my opinion, this is the ideal way to play a lot of older games. I usually used the PS3 to play through bigger story sections, so as to give an (in my opinion) more immersive experience, while using the PSP to play when away from the TV. Using the portable format also makes grinding levels, special moves, and money a lot less tedious, if you feel the need to grind. One added advantage is that the blocky 3D graphics look great on a tiny PSP screen, making the overall transition of switching back to an older title after being spoiled on modern graphics a lot less jarring.

At the time of release, Xenogears stood out from it's JRPG peers with it's battle system, which was sort of based on Final Fantasy's ATB system, with some really great additional features, like the ability to chain attacks together with button combinations to make special moves called Deathblows. It's almost like if a fighting game used turn-based battle mechanics. This system, while innovative at the time, isn't always explained well (although some would argue that's a feature, not a bug) and some options, like the ability to combo different deathblows together to unleash huge amounts of them at once, are markedly inferior to just using your best deathblow or ether attack every turn, except in a couple very specific situations. Combat is split between in-character, and inside character-piloted robots called Gears. Gears also have some unique mechanics, but like the character combat, the best option just tends to be repeating the same level 1 Deathblows or the best ether attacks over and over. I was also fairly disappointed that the final stages of the game occurred pretty much entirely in Gears, making me feel like I had wasted a lot of time building up my characters to fight on foot, only to end up having my endgame character builds centered around buying a bunch of expensive gear parts.

In it's defense, if you find making absolutely broken character builds satisfying, a bit of research is all you need to make quick work of anything the game can throw at you. It's not that hard to build characters that can easily hit the damage cap every turn. Just don't expect to be able to piece them together just from what the game tells you. There's a fair amount of hidden stats that aren't explained that well, and have only been revealed after the fact from a lot of experimentation by dedicated fans. Expect to be reading some guides online if you want to make the most of the combat system.

Looking back at the graphics, I'd say it's hit and miss in terms of what holds up and what doesn't. All characters are hand-drawn 2D sprites, set on a fully 3D environment. No pre-rendered backgrounds here. I think the aesthetic looks great. Animations, especially in combat, are fluid and entertaining. It can be great fun to spin the camera around and look at the details of the of the environments from every angle. However, the 3D animation, especially in cutscenes and gear combat, can be jarringly blocky. It's very much up to or even above the standards for JRPGs of the PS1 era, but for those going back to play now, the transition can be a shock. As I said before, things definitely look much better when played on a PSP, which does a lot to smooth out some of the rough edges. In any case, the graphics, even when they're not at their best, are perfectly serviceable and aren't anything you can't get used to.

As for exploration, Xenogears uses the tried and true overworld exploration format familiar to just about anyone who's played classic JRPGs. The environments have a fairly varied feel, and to fans who have played Monolith Soft's later Xeno titles, it can be great fun to see the same aesthetics at play here, with a variety of bustling renaissance themed cities, futuristic facilities, and of course the mandatory "ruins of ancient civilizations with still functioning hyper-advanced technologies." If you've played a Xeno game before, you probably know what you're in for. It can be great fun to see the roots of the aesthetic so commonly used in these games (Boy, Takahashi sure does love round rooms and randomly placed circular elevators, doesn't he?) All environments are fully 3D, and feature a rotating camera, which, when used often, can reveal hidden pathways and treasure chests. My one complaint is that the camera has a fixed height, with no way to raise or lower it. After playing the later Xenoblade Chroniclesgames, I found Xenogears camera to be often annoyingly zoomed in, to the point where it sometimes felt claustrophobic, as I couldn't zoom it out to see what was around me.

As the game progresses, however, some environments get pretty tedious. There's a lot of areas with long, branching, identically designed passageways, and it's easy to get disoriented and lost. Meanwhile, a high rate of random encounters can make these areas seem even longer and more tedious than they actually are. As a classic JRPG, there's no option to quicksave and take a break either. You're stuck in the game until you can find a save point. If you're like me and get frustrated easily in situations like this, there's no shame in looking up a walkthrough to get you through these areas. Just make sure to find one that's spoiler-free.

When it comes to story, well, I've said this before, but everything that you may have heard about Xenogears plot, both good and bad, is true. It is both impressively massive and annoyingly broad in scope. It goes in great detail over certain things, while leaving other elements unexplained. There's even a published book, called Perfect Worksthat provides a ton of detail into the background of the story and characters to make up for what was left out of the game. As this is primarily a review of the game itself, I'm not going to go into the now well-known story of the troubled development cycle of this game, but suffice it to say that the development team ran out of time and money, and the second half of the story takes place as massive text dumps, interspersed with the player getting dropped into occasional dungeons and boss fights, with only one final chance to explore the world and finish character builds before facing the final dungeon and boss. Personally, I didn't mind this approach, but it's something new players should be aware of going in. Be prepared to take in large amounts of information that can drastically change how you viewed certain characters or the world of the game, only to have more information revealed shortly after that will change things yet again. It's a lot to process.

I think one of the biggest strengths of the game, that gets somewhat overshadowed by the story everyone loves to talk about, is the music. Xenogears has a variety of memorable scores, ranging from triumphant sweeping orchestral themes to moody, ambient tones that feel like part of the environment you're exploring. As I mentioned earlier in the review, I first played Xenogears a long time ago, probably 15 years ago at this point. I remembered some overall story themes, who the characters were, and some basic plot revelations, but overall I remembered almost nothing about the story. When it came to the music, however, I had the songs running through my head before I even entered areas I hadn't yet been to in my playthrough. Every track was still in my mind as if my last playthrough was only last week and not over a decade ago. This is probably one of the strongest game soundtracks I've had the pleasure of experiencing, and it's up there with the likes of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IX, and Xenoblade Chronicles. This is of course my personal opinion, but I think the strength of a game's soundtrack is more than just the songs themselves, but how well they fit the world that they're set to. Xenogears definitely delivers here.

So, is Xenogears worth revisiting? Well, there's more than one answer to that question. If you're already used to classic PS1 and SNES-era JRPGs, then I'd say yes! If you haven't played this one yet, you're missing out on a standout example from that time period. However, I know a lot of people are now interested in trying out this game after being introduced to modern entries in the series like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and don't necessarily have a lot of experience with these older games. If this describes you, it's worth knowing that this game is a big time commitment, probably between 70 and 80 hours, and it will not be as accessible as the modern entries. With no quicksaves, constant random battles, etc, this can be a hard transition to make. This game is definitely not for everyone, and if you try it out and feel early on that it's too frustrating for you, please don't feel ashamed if you want to look through a walk-through or two, or even just read/watch let's plays if you 're mainly just interested in the story. Games are supposed to be fun. If you're not enjoying this one, it doesn't make you a bad Xeno fan. Don't force yourself.

Well, I hope this review was helpful and at least a little informative. I'm always looking for feedback and comments, so please feel free to leave a comment. I looooove discussing game design and story, and this game has a lot in it to discuss. Please be careful to tag spoilers, as I did my best to keep this review spoiler free for new players. I'm currently working on a review of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and I'm about to replay and review the first Xenoblade Chronicles, so I hope you'll give them a read when they're ready!