Xenogears - Review

Stand Tall and Shake Your Playstation

By: Red Raven

Review Breakdown
Battle System	8
Interface	6
Music/Sound	9
Originality	8
Plot	10
Localization	6
Replay Value	7
Visuals	7
Difficulty	Medium
Time to Complete	60-80 hours
Overall
Criteria

   Considered by many to be the epitome of plot perfection, the little gem known simply as Xenogears came to market October 21st of 1998. Boasted as having both a deep sci-fi plot and heavy religious overtones, it was said that Xenogears almost did not make the cut to come to America. Luckily Square changed its mind and decided that US gamers deserved such an amazing game. It became a cult classic almost overnight.

   The second mode of battle is when the characters pilot their Gears, giant walking battle tanks. In this mode AP is replaced by fuel, which steadily decreases as you perform attacks against your foes. In Gear mode you also have the option of 'boosting' your Gear. That option enables Gears' ATB meter to fill at nearly twice the rate as normal, at a cost of extra fuel each turn. A small amount of Fuel can be replenished during battles but comes at the expense of not attacking. The deathblows remain the same in your giant form however, so it is wise to spend time learning them for the later tough Gear battles. Also noteworthy is that you can use your gears to cast more powerful versions of your regular magic spells, but they too pale in comparison to normal Gear attacks.

   Outside of the battles, your sprite characters roam around in huge 3D environments that can be rotated in any direction. With the added ability to jump, this combines to form an impressive array of dungeons and towns that actually feel like they have depth to them. Moving on, the menus themselves are a tad slow when loading but nothing to get really frustrated with. Your characters and Gears are relatively easy to maintain with their own various screens. The most notable flaw which many people comment about is the lack of control concerning the speed of text within the game. A minor detail in most RPGs, Xenogears takes it to a new level with its mountains of text at just about every event during the game. While I honestly was more interested in what the text was saying, some people seem to not have the patience for its slow pace.

You won't see this kind of stuff in any Final Fantasy.

   The music for this game on the other hand was superb. As with all games made by Square the musical score was epic in nature, yet still captured the emotion of the events in which one was hearing it. Some truly great songs will be had during the course of this adventure and I'd recommend the soundtrack to anyone. The sound effects too were fairly accurate and precise.

   Xenogears borrowed some the best features from the Final Fantasy line of games, and they invented a few of their own. The attack system with its three different power values, the wide range of deathblows you can learn, and the ability to store AP to use toward a long string of deathblows are all fairly unique. I also have never seen two battle modes used quite the same way, with Gears and regular battles fought throughout. And of course you can't say 'Xenogears' without mentioning its big and complex plot. Very original stuff.

   After arguably the coolest video game intro of all time, you are immediately transported into the world of Fei, whose life at the beginning at the game lies in stark contrast to the futuristic anime introduction that you've just finish watching. Truth be told, you will definitely spend half this game being confused, the pace of plot and character development being very swift. All the confusion just adds to the experience and fun, without leaving you too intimidated or left in the dark for long. Xenogears actually plays much like a good science-fiction mystery novel (in more ways than one), for every answer you receive you also come