Xenogears

PlayStation

Squaresoft - 1998

So what is a Xenogear?

Well it is the giant killer robot that the main character, eventually, pilots.

So this is Armored Core wanna be?

Well, no not really. The time you spend in your robots as about equal to the time spent on foot. The combat uses the same time gauge that Square loves so very much, and is pretty well designed. You have the usual options (item, magic, run) but when you fight you are given three type of attacks, fast, medium, and strong. Each uses a different amount of “AP”. So you can choose any combination to pummel your enemies. If you use certain combinations enough you can learn a “Death Blow” which not only does more damage, but can be used in your Giant Killer Robot (called a ‘Gear’) as well. But don’t worry you can take your time picking out attacks and there is no complex Street Fighter like button mashing involved.

It story takes place in the future. The far, far, future. You start out as Fei Fong Wong, a simple painter and marital arts master (of course) who has lost his memory and lives in a small town on the border of two warring nations. Both nations use Gears to fight their war (of course, again). One night, the war is carried into the middle the town. Fei sees an empty Gear, and hopes in. He then blacks out, when he comes to his whole town is destroyed. By him. And he remembers nothing about it.

Bummer.

Some games have plots with wheels in within wheels. Xenogears and a plot with wheels within wheels within wheels! You eventually help end the war only to find out that the two nations are actually being controlled behind the scenes, only to later discover that there is someone even further behind the scenes controlling everything.

Sounds confusing.

Damn it! Voice in my head, shut up! I’m trying to do a game review here!! Yes it is confusing, that is the main bad point about this game. There are several dialog scenes in this game, some up to 20 minutes, that can not be paused, skipped, or saved during.

You have no idea how many times we were late to work because of this game!

Voice, Quite!!!

Some are even in front of boss battles, which means having to watch same scene over and over if you have trouble beating that boss.

Most of the time you have no clue what is going on. This is intentional. And due to bad translation or who knows what, there are a lot of names that start with “sh” and “sol”, which can make the complex plot very difficult to understand. . I personally had a hard time figuring who was doing what to whom the first time I played it. But when I play it again, some time later, everything made sense, and I understood all the things the hints early on in the game.

What I liked: GIANT. KILLER. ROBOTS.

What I disliked: The length of the cut scene. Also the voice acting, what little there was, was not that great.

What to Expect: A long and involved plot with a solid battle engine and characters you can feel for.

What not to Expect: A short and simple, easy to understand game. This game make you think. The first time it took me over 48 hours to beat the game. I don’t mean I finished it in two days. 48 hours is what the game clock said when I was finished.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: First off the Gears. This game IS an RPG, not a shooter. The Gears play a great part in the game without becoming the center of the game. And as characters go Fei is truly one of the most unique characters I have seem in any game. If I say any more I will ruin one of the best parts of the game, but let me say that I have never seen ANY other character EVER with troubles like his.

Ratings on:

Control: 7 - Nothing special, although it gets annoying when you are about to jump, get into a random battle, and fall off the cliff.

Graphics: 9 – The sprites are good looking and the polygons (which include the Gears) are also good looking, if a bit chunky.

Sound: 8 - Except for the voice acting the sound effects are great and there are several memorable songs, though nothing you would really run out and get a CD of.

Style: 10: It is a Giant Killer Robot game like no other. It is an RPG like no other.

1st hour:Oh my god I just blew up my town! What the hell is going on?

5th hour: Come on, hurry up and get back into the cool gear! Wait, what is that in the sky? What the hell is going on?

1st week: I am staring at a 500 year old painting. It is a portrait looks like Elley, the female love interest, and the paint strokes look like Fei’s style, what the hell is going on?

5th week: I just killed god! Now everything makes sense, even the opening cut scene! Man what a game!!!

#1 reason why I hate this game: I’m sorry I’m late boss, but Fei and Billy got into another existential dialog about god and the meaning of life, then had to use their robots to kill a evil weed and a chick in a metal shark. Really!

(Note: The ‘voice’ is a joke about a plot twist in the game, if you play the game you will get it. If you have already played the game, why are you reading this?)

by Banthor