Timeless RPG masterpiece with unsurpassed story
Xenogears features a complex and thought-provoking story filled with excitement, intrigue, and discovery. The characters in the game have detailed personalities, motives, and history, just like the fully realized world that they live in. The narrative in the game is excellent and has strong character development and meaningful events that will keep you interested, thinking, and wanting to learn more. Even after you beat the game, there is a lot more you can learn about the incredible universe of Xenogears, which has a history dating back 15,000 years ago to the discovery of Zohar and beyond.
The gameplay features original designs and is driven by the story in typical RPG fashion, being somewhat linear to give you structure yet allowing freedom to explore most of the time. You will explore the game's fully rotatable, 3D world and fight random encounters and required story battles as you advance the story. Xenogears uses an original turn-based battle system that includes features such as combo-based normal attacks and character specific special abilities. Classic RPG elements like equipment, items, shops, treasure chests, overworld, towns, NPCs, and leveling are all here. Overall, the gameplay is polished, unique and enjoyable.
Xenogears has one of the best video game soundtracks, with wonderfully composed music by Yasunori Mitsuda, whose other well known works include the soundtracks of Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenosaga Episode I. The sound quality is top-notch for a PlayStation game, and the music is very effective in setting the mood and conveying emotions, as well as evoking emotions from the player. Xenogears' diverse soundtrack not only fits the game, but is an intrinsic part of it. It was the first video game soundtrack I've ever bought and still my favorite.
In terms of presentation, Xenogears was very good at the time of its release and is still solid. The graphics, game mechanics, localization of the game, and sound quality have aged well and the game still has more depth than most current generation RPGs. One flaw with Xenogears is that a lot of the story in disc 2 is told through text in brief scenes, but the rest of the game easily makes up for it.
With strong gameplay, brilliant designs, and a fascinating and complex story with deep characterization, excellent narrative, and rich details, Xenogears is the best RPG I have ever played. I can't recommend this game enough and anyone who's even mildly interested in RPGs or good stories must experience Xenogears themselves to understand why it is widely considered to be one of the best games ever by those who have had the chance to play it. Xenogears is everything that a console RPG should be and much, much more.