Xenogears - Review

Square delivers in a big way with Xenogears

By Ryan Amos, RPGamer Writer

Review Breakdown
Battle System	9.5
Gameplay	9.0
Music	9.0
Originality	9.5
Plot	9.5
Replay Value	8.5
Sound	9.5
Visuals	8.5
Difficulty	Moderate
Time to Complete	50-60 hours
Overall

   If you have so far been undecided on whether to purchase Xenogears, delay no longer. It is a spectacular game whose only downsides are minor aggrivations. You will have one of the longest and most pleasurable RPG experiences you've had in a long time.

   The thing that stuns me is that Square did not originally plan to bring this game to the States. A game of this caliber not coming over would incite riots in the streets. We can only thank fan outcry and the creation of Square EA for the translation of this wonderful game.

   Why is Xenogears so great? Because it does most everything right. The graphics are beautiful, with the exception of the Suikoden-esque character sprites. The 3D is incredible, I never knew a Playstation was capable of some of the things Xenogears does with polygons. The FMV is also great, it's a nice mixture of anime characters in 3D rendered worlds. It looks a lot better than it sounds; Square did a very nice job melding the two together. The only complaint is that the first disc has literally no FMV between the end of the first hour and the end of the disc, an entire 35 to 40 hours, while the second disc has heavy FMV, much like disc three of Final Fantasy VII. The upside to that is there is much more gameplay time, a tradeoff I would take any day.

Gears in combat.

   The battle system is very unique. Instead of the basic "Fight, Magic, Special Skill, Item" menus of just about every other RPG out there, Xenogears does it differently. There are still the menus for magic, items and the like, but if you select the fight command, then a kind of fight menu pops up. Here, you choose to do light, medium or hard attacks. As you progress in levels, you can do more attacks per turn, and you can also string together combos with "Deathskill" moves at the end. As you build up "AP" during a battle, you can put together a Deathskill combo, stringing multiple Deathskill moves together for some high damage totals.

   You also fight in the "Gears," giant humanoid fighting machines. Inside a gear, you will do immense damage to anything smaller than you. Conversely, when you're not in a gear and you fight something much larger, you'll get squished. Fighting in Gears is much the same as fighting normally, except you have to watch your fuel gague. This can be charged during battle, or at a Gear shop. Gear shops provide armor, frame upgrades (which raise the HP of the Gear) and engine upgrades (which raise the attack and fuel tanks of the Gear.) They can get very expensive later in the game, however, so make sure you have enough cash.

   These Gears are very central to the magnificent plot. You really should play through it without being spoiled, so I won't say much about it. If you've played the demo that came with Parasite Eve about 30 million times like I have, you'll probably be a little confused at first. The plot gets very interesting quickly after the demo drops off, so you'll probably be slightly shocked that something actually happens. I was pleased by the fact that it actually stayed interesting, in fact, it only gets better as the game progresses, and you delve deeper and deeper into the characters' pasts..

A Gear in the shop

   The music in Xenogears is nothing less than would be expected of Square. The tunes range from peppy and upbeat to dramatic to sad and lonely sounding. There are several versions of the theme song that reflect the mood of the main character throughout the game.

   The translation, while overall one of the best Square translations in a while, is still not flawless. The voice in the FMV (yes, there is voice. Quite a bit,) is very badly dubbed. It reminded me of the old Godzilla movies. There are also a few words that don't make much sense scattered throughout the dialogue, but they're pretty few and far between. This translation is one of the best Square has done in some time.

   Besides their dubious translations, Square is also famous for putting mini-games in their games, and Xenogears has one of the best I've ever seen. It's so good you could throw it in a jewel case, shrink wrap it and sell it for $39.99. Basically, it's a fully 3D fighter, a la Virtua Fighter and Tekken. You fight other