Xenogears

[Anonymous No.8226257]

When does it get good?

Preface: I absolutely love the Xenosaga Trilogy and despise Xenoblade. Except XCX on WiiU I think that's a genuinely great game.

But I am just sitting here WAITING for some of the crazy shit I'm used to from the Xenosaga games to happen and it just never does... I just beat Dominia on the Hecht bomber ship and got Elly in the party hopefully for good now, and so far the entire game has just been "Gebler sided with Aveh and attacked Kislev then we tried to take back Aveh from Gebler but they said lolno then Gebler attacked Kislev because Grahf's yet unnamed group has been helping Kislev." I just summed up the first 15 hours of this game in one sentence!

Don't spoil anything for me, but tell me that I have things to look forward to please. Xenosaga was full of philosophical ideas regarding transhumanism, Christianity, and was very entertaining with Gnosis being an ever-looming intangible threat, but this game is just "Fei you're special and your Gear is special but fuck you if you think you should know why." Like, WHY did Gebler choose Aveh in the first place, was it because of the Fatima Jasper supposedly leading to the God Gear/Omnigear? Or was it simply because Grahf's group has been helping Kislev behind the scenes? They said multiple times they don't care who's in charge (Bart vs Shakhan) so why are they helping them? Hopefully this is all expounded upon soon because the game is falling way short of my expectations thus far (those set by Xenosaga). Keep replies as spoiler free as possible I want to just know that I should keep playing and it's all gonna pay off and all my questions will be answered.

[Anonymous No.8226328]

>>8226257
>I absolutely love the Xenosaga Trilogy and despise Xenoblade. Except XCX on WiiU I think that's a genuinely great game.
Why do you like Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) but dislike Xenoblade Chronicles? (Wii/3DS)

If you're already not enjoying Xenogears, nothing about it going forward will make you like it more. That said, I definitely think you should play it through to the end especially since you like the later Xenosaga games. Even though they're obviously very different it still adds to the experience of them to see "where it all started," so to speak. Xenogears is at once an example of exemplary game design and a rushed game. You'll likely be frustrated as it progresses, as not only are a lot of plot-points not explained, but it's infamous for going full-on narrative mode in the last act. Essentially, they planned to properly pace the game with gameplay and story, but running out of time, crammed the remaining story into the end of the game, which still has battles, just no pacing or challenge factor to speak of.

At the same time, even the story, which takes focus, has a lot of flaws and inconsistencies. It's an ambitious, flawed, yet very worthwhile game that has a lot to offer. Frankly, your post sort of reads like complaining that it's different from Xenosaga. It's like someone playing Final Fantasy XII and complaining that Final Fantasy VI is different. (different games that are very different from one another but it gets the point across.)

[Anonymous No.8226347]

You can't really see it as being good anymore. Since shit like Eva, Yamato remake, and Gurren Lagann and some other movies/anime came out it kinda beat the themes to Xenogears to death.

I really thought the game was cool 20+ years ago, but going back to it now it's 100% nostalgia. I don't think you're going to be able to be WOWED by anything in it now a days. You either like to play it or you don't.

[Anonymous No.8226393]

>>8226328
Didn't like Shulk or any of the rest of the cast for that matter, xcx has cool customization, lots and lots of mech exploration, class system was intuitive, what can I say XCX just really gripped me and the original Xenoblade really did not. I don't remember if japanese voices were an option but I definitely should have used them if they were. I won't even touch xb2 unless I can turn off that awful British ear rape.

I am not so unhappy that it "isn't" xenosaga as much as it isn't as epic? As xenosaga? I can play slow games, I can play narrative heavy games, I love final fantasy xiii. But for instance this D Block/Prison sequence I just went through. It took 3 or 4 hours and the entire purpose of it happening was... So Fei could be in Kislev when Gebler attacked. That's literally it. There was no meaningful character development, I literally don't give a shit about Rico, Hammer's ok. Fei had 1 conversation with Wiseman that gave some exposition on his past, kind of. Most of it we already knew from an earlier anime cutscene, except this is the first mention of "shevat" which I'm sure we will go to now. 4 hours to learn 1 thing and stop 1 event. It felt like my time was wasted, honestly.

[Anonymous No.8226505]

>>8226257
>When does it get good?
disc 2
the final 5 hours or so of the first disc are pretty cool too

[Anonymous No.8226528]

>>8226257
It never gets good. Its a bad game.

[Anonymous No.8226641]

>>8226257
stupid bait

[Anonymous No.8226684]

>>8226257
you play xenogears because it has a fun theme and the story has its moments and the graphics/environments and music are great.
the gameplay is just fucking awful, though. it's a slog to get through. there's only a handful of memorable boss fights (18, redrum)

ironically, the action-oriented battle arena is unexpectedly featureful and one of the most fun parts of the game with a friend on P2

[Anonymous No.8226712]

>>8226641
Literally not a word I wrote was bait lol, there are tons of ps1 JRPGS that are much better than xenogears so far in my opinion, breath of fire 3+4, star ocean 1+2, plenty. So I don't see why you think me saying this game that's been boring the entire time I've played it is bait, when there are many more exciting JRPGS just on the same console alone. Or do you honestly think xenogears moves at an exciting breakneck pace that constantly has you on the edge of your seat?

[Anonymous No.8226814]

>>8226712
pathetic.

[Anonymous No.8226884]

I got into the Xeno games pretty late but the people who like Saga the most always fascinate me, I played them after Gears and while I liked them, the story never reached the heights of Gears to me personally. I really liked Episode III but I think Episode I is empty feeling and a little boring. I think just like how I expected Saga to be more of Gears, going into Gears expecting more of Saga is going to lead to a little disappointment.
>>8226347
I played it years after watching Eva and Gurren Lagann and I thought it was great, one of my favorite JRPG plots.

[Anonymous No.8227504]

>>8226257
you probably have about 10 more hours to go before things start making sense. tons of stuff is happening, you just don't know it yet. the first 40% of the game is just world-building and setting up the plot.
and don't expect it to be like Xenosaga or Xenoblade. Xenogears is a completely different game and has nothing in common with them.

[Anonymous No.8227539]

Xenogears is probably the game I most need to replay. I extremely enjoyed it as a 13 year old but also felt like some of it was over my head and focused on the stylized emotional posturing. Last time this happened was with Evangeleon and it turned out that the stylized emotional posturing WAS all there was to it. Which, you know, was something. Especially for a 13 year old boy. But let's see what Xenogears has.

[Anonymous No.8227578]

>>8227539
>Last time this happened was with Evangeleon and it turned out that the stylized emotional posturing WAS all there was to it.
in the sense that it's about mental illness and not a treatise on man's relationship with god?
you could do a lot worse as a 14 year old than being obsessed with evangelion

[Anonymous No.8227609]

>>8227578
Despite the show not focusing on mysticism the kabbalistic themes are honestly pretty well represented, too. At least one person involved with the show probably knew enough about those concepts to depict them creatively, in my opinion

I haven't played any of the Xeno games before, but I got my copy of Xenogears in the mail just the other day. I'm pretty excited to play it.

[Anonymous No.8227652]

>>8227504
Xenogears has quite a lot in common with Xenosaga, what are you talking about, gameplay?

[Anonymous No.8227690]

>>8227652
other than some cameo/reference type stuff and some similar themes, that's about where the similarities end.
Xenogears is a coming of age and love story first and foremost. the tone and atmosphere of the games is very different.

[Anonymous No.8227832]

>>8226712
Have you played any of the following:

Suikoden 2
Persona 2
Legend of Dragoon
Vagrant Story
Valkryie Profile
Ogre Battle
Tactics Ogre
Final Fantasy Tactics

[Anonymous No.8228447]

>>8226257
>When does it get good?
It doesn't. Everyone else here says it is good but take it from me. It is highly overrated and the storytelling more ambitious than good if anything.

[Anonymous No.8228459]

episode 1 is great. amazing music.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o771VShGZfo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hpluvYmlbU4

[Anonymous No.8228472]

>>8226257
If you played Xenosaga of all things, you should absolutely have enough fucking patience to play Xenogears. It's slow, but certainly not NEARLY as slow as its spiritual sequels.

[Anonymous No.8228474]

>>8227832
>starts the list with JRPGs
>ends with turn-based strategy games for some reason
>pretends he knows what he's talking about

[Anonymous No.8228481]

the mech battle arena is fun. too bad the rest of the game is a boring jrpg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_-YemYZTXIE

[Anonymous No.8228621]

>>8226393
>But for instance this D Block/Prison sequence I just went through. It took 3 or 4 hours and the entire purpose of it happening was...
Widely considered to be one of the low points of the game.
>It felt like my time was wasted, honestly.
I will say don't judge the whole game based on the Rico/Prison sequence, it's not great.
>There was no meaningful character development, I literally don't give a shit about Rico
It's not fair to say there's no meaningful character development if the truth is that you just didn't like the development that was there. The prison segment is about Rico. But it's true it doesn't really matter in the end because whatever storyline they had planned for Rico in the long run was dropped so he's never important again.

>>8226257
> When does it get good?
If you're waiting for big reveals and the epic scope of 10,000+ year timeline, yeah you do have to wait for a bit. There are a bunch of big reveals that change the perspective on everything (for better or worse) and some huge changes including some that make a substantial portion of the first part of the game entirely moot.
> beat Dominia on the Hecht bomber ship and got Elly in the party hopefully for good now
This is barely 1/3rd of the game.
> I just summed up the first 15 hours of this game in one sentence!
Personally I have no idea if you'll be satisfied by what XG ultimately brings to the table. The reason I like Xenogears is the characters, in spite of a variety of issues in the plot. I find most of them to be colorful and interesting while still being human and relatable. I like Bart's drive to reclaim his throne, I like seeing Elly's projection onto Fei during their first argument in the forest... which is why I think if you're not enjoying Xenogears already you probably won't ever. It's hard to deny that Xenogears is a storytelling mess if aren't enjoying the characters, setting, and mystery already.

[Anonymous No.8228645]

>>8226257
>>8228621
> "Fei you're special and your Gear is special but fuck you if you think you should know why."
What what it's worth, there have been some clues hinting at at least SOME of the reason why Fei is special, you probably just haven't put 2 and 2 together yet.
> Hopefully this is all expounded upon
Almost everything important is explained eventually
> soon
This I can't say. XG is a slow-as-fuck game until you get to Disc 2 when it becomes rushed instead.
>>8228447
Cynical take but this part is true:
>storytelling more ambitious than good if anything.
The question is whether you enjoy and appreciation the fruits of that ambition or not. Can you enjoy the fact that the game spends 20-30 hours just having your character travel the world while slowly building up conflicts for later? Do you enjoy the willingness to portray subtle and sometimes mundane character interaction like a novel would? Do you mind that many of those big conflicts wind up being explained and resolved very rapidly (in storytelling terms) during the rushed Disc 2 exposition dumps? --that at least one of the major plot twists nullifies almost everything that happens in the first 20 hours?

XG has some really cool characters(both good and evil), dramatic scenes, and imaginative conflicts but taken as a whole it's a huge goddamn mess. And it has themes but stories are rarely ever good because it has "themes."

[Anonymous No.8228823]

>>8228459
Just wish they had Mitsuda do background music in the game, that's some of my favorite stuff from the OSTs of Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. Meanwhile Xenosaga Episode I went for a cinematic feel so you're often walking around in environments with no background music whatsoever. Battle themes and cutscene music are nice, but I would have liked more.

[Anonymous No.8228929]

>>8228474
>T-RPGs aren't J-RPGs
Based autsimochad. I know the only people you communicate with are 4chan anons. "For some reason".

[Anonymous No.8228937]

>>8228459
Dude you left out the best song in the entire game

https://youtu.be/EEVbGNtNtqU

[Anonymous No.8228938]

>>8227504
>you probably have about 10 more hours to go before things start making sense
Are you taking the piss our of OP? The longer you play Xenogears, the LESS sense it makes, not more. It falls completely apart in the altter half.

[Anonymous No.8228940]

>>8228929
Do you really fail to comprehend how Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics belong to completely separate genres?

[Anonymous No.8229035]

>>8228938
you're either trolling or didn't play the game. Disk 2 goes by fast, but everything gets answered then.

[Anonymous No.8229037]

>>8228940
and a wyvern isn't a dragon, right?

[Anonymous No.8229116]

>>8227832
>Suikoden 2
Suikoden games are way too easy for me, I need a challenge and they have literally none
>P2
Yeah I played IS English patch for ps1 and eternal punishment us release
>Legend of Dragoon
Yup it is very long also if that's your point?
>Vagrant Story
I've started it
>Valkyrie Profile
Yes and silmeria on ps2
>Ogre Battle
Nope
>Tactics Ogre
Yes on GBA
>FFT
yes but didn't beat

So what's your point?

[Anonymous No.8229118]

>>8228937
it's okay. I prefer this one.

https://youtu.be/YlSertOUaZ4

[Anonymous No.8229135]

>>8226257
The thing about the entire first disc of Xenogears from the perspective of most of the characters is that their world and the things they are doing actually matter in some way, and they don't. It's basically The Matrix, where you're just living in the world and dealing with it's shit, and then somehow the curtain hiding just how insignificant it all is is suddenly removed. It's the main flaw of the game: when [the characters] finally get to the heart of WHY they even exist and all the shit behind it, you're getting rushed through all that more interesting shit on the unfinished disc 2. From a pacing perspective, they dwelled too long on keeping the character perspectives of the bigger picture in the dark.

THis makes ubsequent playthroughs a fucking slog, because you already know all the meandering journey you do during disc 1 doesn't really amoutn to anything but character development, and most of the characters aren't even all that likeable. (Fei is a whiner, Elly is neurotic, Citan is pedantic faggot, Price Surfer is (90s Tude Bro, etc.)

[Anonymous No.8229451]

>>8229135
fwiw I enjoyed Fei's disc 1 development more on replay since I was better able to recognize it happening and the significance of certain encounters (eg Grahf and Id). Otherwise I agree with your post.

[Anonymous No.8229821]

>>8229135
i disagree. in fewer words, the journey to find the bigger picture, and the growth of the characters along the way, is just as important as getting to the goal.

[Anonymous No.8229856]

why are people here forcing themselves to hate a game like xenogears? on top of that after pretending to have loved the xenosaga trology, it doesn't make sense at all.

[Anonymous No.8229907]

>>8229116

You need a challenge and you're playing JRPGs? Have you considered not playing JRPGs?

[Anonymous No.8230016]

>>8227504
>big titty Elly

[Anonymous No.8230029]

>>8229856
it's kind of like the matrix. 1 is great but 2 and 3 are shit.

[Anonymous No.8230408]

>>8229907
Not him but I really don't understand why people feel the need to posts such inane and lazy jokes.
>haha jrpgs are easy lol
Yeah never heard that one before.
All I can conclude from that is that you are too stupid to understand that there are many degrees of difficulty and people seek wide range of challenge in games, from none at all to moderate to extreme. That guy clearly is interested in something in-between the "none at all" to "moderate" range and doesn't like games where it's dialed all the way down to zero.
In your mind, you're trying to insult someone for caring about challenge in a genre that this board loves to mock, but all you're really doing is proving you're too stupid to understand simple concepts on a board where anyone can lie about anything they want at any time. Seriously get some fucking better material.

[Anonymous No.8230434]

>>8230029
Y'know, I rewatched all of these recently and I actually might like 2 a little bit more than the first one. I like 3 too but certainly not for the same reasons as the first two; it's dumb as hell.

[Anonymous No.8230449]

>>8230408

I didn't insult anybody or want to insult anybody. I asked a clarifying question. Also I like JRPGs. You're defending against nothing like a psycho. It speaks well of OP that you are not him! Good job OP, you could have been this broken creature, but you aren't.

[Anonymous No.8230493]

>>8230449
You asked a retarded question.
You have your answer, now never ask it again.

[Anonymous No.8231810]

>>8228474
It's a type of RPG.

[Anonymous No.8231814]

>>8230493
JRPGs are easy. Cope.

[Anonymous No.8232005]

>>8231814
Yeah that's what I said.

[Anonymous No.8232228]

>>8226257
Gears is the most similar game in the series to XC1 so I think you should know what to expect