Nothing short of sad is the fact that this beautiful, engrossing game has been passed up by many a potential fan.
Let's get it out of the way and just talk about the shortcomings right from the start. The dreaded "second disc." Anyone who has played Xenogears all the way through will know what you mean when you say, "What an awesome game... what's up with the second disc?" What is up with that second disc? When funding was cut short, the developers were forced to tell a significant portion of the story through narrative with only sporadic boss fights, effectively reducing entire portions of the script into a few minutes time. As the main character merely relates what happened, all you do is fight a boss, and then the story progresses on to the next boss, told only through text and still photos. It does add an element of intrigue, but in the end you just wished you were playing through the whole thing and not reading about it. That's only the second disc, the first disc is full of awesomeness.
Xenogears is otherwise a wonderful piece of gaming history, and it's nothing but sad that so many potential Xenogears fans missed out on this under-appreciated and somewhat obscure title.
Xenogears is the story of Fei and Elly, two people whose destinies are destined to be intertwined. You'll find the story to be so deep, so intriguing, so massive, that you're simply not going to understand it all even after multiple play throughs. Make no mistake, either -- a play through of this game takes a long time, upwards of 60+ hours. It's worth every minute of it, despite a few seriously annoying jumping scenes.
Battles are divided into the characters and the gears. Playing as the characters is a lot more fun for me because you have a variety of options, whereas with the gears, you simply cannot heal them most of the time and have limited attacks. Gears are still a vital part of the game, and although there are times where you can switch them in and out, battles are clearly either designed for the characters or for gears. Fighting a gear battle with the characters alone is almost certain death. Fighting character battles with gears will make for no competition. Gear battles are definitely the harder part of this game, since once you've upgraded them as much as you can, you are forced to use technique alone to beat enemies. No amount of leveling will improve your gears much. Some gear battles can be so difficult, you might just put the game down and come back later.
The story... all I can say is that it's just too massive to even give a synopsis. You will discover a history to the people of the game world that goes back tens of thousands of years, where intergalactic events from eons ago have prolonged, lasting effects on the people you interact with in the present. The ramifications of what you do go beyond even the world you live in, and by the time it's all over, you'll be left wondering exactly what is left worth fighting for. Despite all of this, you can't help but keep going, excitedly waiting for the next turn of events.
The way that the writers of this story started with such humble beginnings, and then later managed to link these simple events to a much larger, broader, and deep story is truly mind-blowing. You absolutely will not be able to anticipate the depth of the fantasy that is about to be laid out before you. Take it from me: what you are about to discover (and uncover, literally in some cases) is exactly what an epic RPG storyline should be. Despite having owned the Perfect Works book detailing the story and world, I still engage in debates with myself over who and what everything in the story was and meant. You too will find yourself wondering to yourself, "How exactly are these two things connected? Who exactly is this person, and what is their true connection to so-and-so?"
Everything else I could say about this game is eclipsed by its masterful story and beautiful presentation, despite some flaws with 2D sprite scaling. Don't read any more reviews, don't watch any more videos, don't even bring up one more website unless it is to order this game.
Play it. NOW.