[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/vr/ - Retro Games

View post   
File: 67 KB, 512x695, 1389558149542.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1333825 No.1333825[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I'm a yuro kid born in the mid-80s. The first time I heard of Xenogears was in late 2000, maybe, and it fascinated me to no end. The first time I got to actually play and complete it must have been around 2009.

I want to know if there are Americans in here who were there for the pre-release hype (?) and the subsequent release back in 1998. Care to share your impressions and thoughts of that time?

Xenogears is a 7/10 game at best, all things considered, but I keep coming back to it. It's still a fascinating thing, warts and all.

>> No.1333843

Oh, and if you have them: I'm also interested in good write-ups and reviews. I've enjoyed this one here on the revived GIA:
http://www.thegia.com/2013/10/02/alpha-and-omega/

>> No.1333861

How's the translation? Always wanted to pick up Xenogears, but it was released during a time when Square's translation team consisted of monkeys, so I'm afraid of experiencing Final Fantasy Tactics mumbo-jumbo all over again.

>> No.1333876

>>1333861
It's not -bad-, I guess, but there are some -weird decisions- like putting some -words- in -dashes- for -emphasis- so it reads like -this-.

It's definitely not a jumbled mess like FF7/FF8. It IS obtuse but I imagine the Japanese script was obtuse as fuck, too. Solid effort.

>> No.1333891

I don't really remember there being a whole lot of hype about this game, but there was the reference to it in Final Fantasy VII that made me want to play it before it had even been released. It came out when I was in high school back when I actually liked anime.
Now that I'm an oldfag with very specific tastes, I don't think I could play it again.

>> No.1333889

I'm Russian and I played it on release, got it as a birthday present. It had been hyped as the next big Squaresoft masterpiece, and, compared to the previous "masterpiece", yeah, sure, it was.

My own personal verdict was that it's incompatable to my back-then favs FFVII and Parasite Eve, but still one of the greatest games, like, ever. Today consider it a laughable mess, though.

>> No.1333894

>>1333889
>incompatable
>today I consider it
fuck my Android keyboard, fuck it

>> No.1334371

>>1333825
>I want to know if there are Americans in here who were there for the pre-release hype (?) and the subsequent release back in 1998.

Eh, sort of. I don't remember how far before release I first heard of it, but a guy I talked to on AOL knew about it and linked me to some of the music. For some reason I thought it was a space shooter, then I looked it up and saw some pics of the cutscenes. This could've been right after its release, I'm not sure, because I have a gap in my memory and the next thing I remember is buying it at Toys R Us. I can't really say it had a lot of hype since that one guy is the only person I knew who even had heard of it, but then again this was back before /v/, gamefaqs, or any other major online community. People at my school were clueless.

>> No.1334416

>>1333825
American here got the game in 1998 and I was in 7th grade. I don't remember ANY hype for it at all. N64 was still all the rage and the ps1 still going strong. I actually had a N64 on it's relese but stopped playing it for ps1 that I bought after I swapped systems for a week with a buddy. I had then got a ps1 and FF7 ( talk about hype) I remember same buddy lent me his copy of xenogears and I fell in love with it right away. I was into anime as well at the time loved the cutscenes and just remember the themes being so adult and mature for someone my age. I bought my copy of xenogears shortly after and played it to completion right after I beat FF7. Wouldn't of known about it at all if it werent for my friend.

>> No.1334840

Not sure why people are talking about the game aging poorly. I'm playing it for the first time (skipped over JRPGs in my youth). I'm at Thames and loving every second. It's not without it's issues but it does look to be one of the best RPGs for the PS1,

>> No.1334960

>>1334840
Another Anon here who played Xenogears for the first time a couple of years ago. The second disc is really as bad as people say it is, but only for about half of it. Then, 5 hours later, you get access to the world map again and it's ALL worth it.

Also, boo to the Xenogears naysayers.

>> No.1334962

The first disc is one of the best jrpg for the ps1

The second disc......it's good

>> No.1335531

>>1334416
So, how was it to play FF7 and Xenogears back to back in the late 1990s? I mean, JRPGs as a thing had a totally different reputation to them.

I always imagine like suddenly seeing and witnessing a completely new step in the evolution of games, all of a sudden. Like playing history in the making.

>> No.1335536

>>1335531
Not the poster you're replying to, but being 13 was the most important thing. Today I wouldn't be able to stomach something like FFVII, the silliness and the writing and all the non-gameplay would make it impossible to enjoy the art, music and the sparse good segments of gameplay.

>> No.1335553

>>1335536
The silliness is what makes it the best FF though

>> No.1335559

>>1335553
I don't mean the purposeful silliness, that indeed was the best (Gold Saucer in particular), I mean Sephiroth et al.

>> No.1335570
File: 308 KB, 650x650, xenogears son of a bitch.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1335570

Played it for the first time last year and I really liked it.

Except for that fucking Tower of Babel.

>> No.1335574

I wish more JPRG's went in the direction of Xenogears.

The type and scope of the story is just unseen these days in both the East and the West.

>> No.1335581

>>1335574
Hell, in quick succession we got FF VI, Chrono Trigger FF VII, Parasite Eve and Xenogears.

Each game was a step up, in my opinion and I believed we would reach the stars.

>> No.1335585

>>1335570 the tower of Babel had me stumped for like 3 months. I would get so posses off and quit playing for a week or so then pick it back up.

>> No.1335595

I don't know. People seem to stop loving all this "deep" bullshit in their games as they get older. I'm kind of same. Enjoyed it at first but now it looks like a fucking mess especially second CD.

>> No.1335602

I knew about the game before release. It got a page preview in the gaming mag I read called gamers republic. There was also a kick ass demo disk included with parasite eve I believe. It let you play up until the attack on his village and included Elly and Bart during the wilderness scene before you meet citan. Me and my friend used to play that disk alot. Got the game when it came out. Took me awhile to beat it as I tend to play rpgs in bursts.

>> No.1335624

It's story is the strong point of the game even though the gameplay is mediocre. I still consider it as the best game ever made since for me the story trumps every other fault the game suffers from. JRPGs aren't known for their gameplay anyway... they are known for telling stories.

I lived in europe back in 1998 (and still do) and I imported the game at release. There wasn't any hype here whatsoever.

>> No.1335635

Xenogears disc 1 is a thrill ride and everything good about pacing sci-fi tropes. Game play is solid. Then you get to disc 2 where the delivery of everything is changed dramatically and instead ofenjoying myself I was instead reminded that games are a business.

>> No.1335638

Also... I'm pretty much appalled by the people saying that they consider Xenogears shallow in hindsight. I'm a well read person and read the script of Xenogears again and again from time to time... maybe I'm an immature person or just simply unintelligent, but neither now nor in the past even a hint of the thought that the plot is shallow crossed my mind.

From my perspective it's probably something like the "I want to be considered as especially mature"-syndrome. First they wanted to be mature by experience mature-themed stories... and now they want to appear mature by ridiculing plots with philosophical themes. People should just lose their insecurity. All this stems from the wish to be considered as something special. It's pretty sad.

>> No.1335642

I enjoyed disc 2, too. Is something wrong with me? It could've been better if Squaresoft wasn't so stingy with the budget (worst decision Squaresoft made before merging with Enix), but the plot is still excellent.

>> No.1335649

>>1335595
>People seem to stop loving all this "deep" bullshit in their games as they get older.
Because they weren't deep, they just sounded cool and intellectual when we were teenagers. Once you grow up you realize it's just pretentious nonsense.

>> No.1335657

>>1335531

Completely new? There had been many JRPGs at that point already.... FF7 was, you know, the seventh in a series of them.

How about this: I played Dragon Warrior as a kid and thereby got introduced to JRPGs by one of the earliest ones, and it was AMAZING. It really was. (But as others in this thread have said, this is of course partly because I was a kid at the time.)

>> No.1335659

>>1335570
>>1335585
Babel Tower wasn't that bad, I think I managed to scale it in what, two sittings or so. Also its top portion (if I remember correctly?) was pretty ace, one of the best RPG vistas ever. It was a fucking ancient spaceship turned sideways? Awesome shit right there.

>>1335574
Yeah I keep wondering about the other five Xenogears episodes we never got to see. Xenosaga doesn't count. This shit could have legit been the Star Wars of JRPGs (Star Wars sucks balls but it's significance can't be discounted).

>> No.1335660

>>1335657
Reading comprehension, dude. JRPGs have existed before, but the double impact of the PSX and FF7 did change the landscape of gaming.

>> No.1335669

>>1335660

The PSX? That person didn't say anything about the PSX. Reading comprehension, dude.

Maybe FF7 changed things a lot, but it didn't change things by being "completely new" as that person said it did with their words that you didn't read and comprehend.

>> No.1335674

>>1335669
I was that person.

You must be pretty intent to mistead "a new step in the evolution of games" as "FF7 is the first JRPG ever". JRPGs have changed in the mid-to-late 90s, games like FF7 and XG were at the nucleus of that evolutionary process, and I wonder what people who were there and witnessed it felt about it.

>> No.1335679

>>1335674
Ff7 did one thing
1. Expanded the market for rpg's in the west

That's a blessing and a curse.

>> No.1337140

>>1335574
What direction would that be? Anime style? Mecha themed? What are you wanting exactly?