Xenogears-FanChannel

Synopsis: Backlash!. As you can see, it's very, very strong. And it should be. Square's 1998 RPG entry (released just one year after the landmark Final Fantasy broke the chains barring role-playing games from America) was an experiment in visual and story crafting, a sleeper hit that took chances. It's mature storyline, evocative visuals, and stirring music have amazed and inspired it's devoted supporters. Just to be fair, there were nearly half as many voters who wrote in ridiculing readers who had fallen in love with Xenogears, claiming that it was an experiment that failed. At least three readers voted for half of Xenogears - one disc, but not the other. And in our defense... heck, this isn't our list. Instead, let's turn this over to one of Xenogears' most passionate admirers.

George Bailey's Take: "(FF7, FF8, Chrono Cross) is the Greatest RPG ever made". Just for a change though, I personally wanted to play a PSX RPG with adult, or, at least, college-level, protagonists and themes. What choices are there? One, Xenogears.

Xenogears is clearly one of those "flawed masterpieces" and falls victim to its own ambitions, trying to tell an 8-CD, 200-hour story in only 80 game hours. No one that has played Xenogears forgets or criticizes the game's story: religion, philosophy, love, politics, psychology. Not even dry, stilted translation disguises the excellence of the story. But, because of the "controversial nature" of this story, North American gamers almost didn't even get the chance to play Xenogears at all. Xenogears is difficult. This is a very combat-intensive RPG. And the battle-system, which is sufficiently well-designed as to have been modified for Chrono Cross, does get a little tedious by disk 2. At times, the gamer seemingly must plod thru battles trying to reach the next story exposition. But what is so new about this in a linear Japanese RPG? What about the Barrett and Red13 portions of FF7? What about the Laguna Loire sequences in FF8 that do not tie-in in any way with the "two timelines" theory, which purports to explain the plot holes in FF8? What about having to solve the Fort Dragonia puzzle twice in Chrono Cross? At least the endless fighting in Xenogears ties in with the theme of the story and the characterization of the main protagonist. And there is the satisfaction and reward that comes from playing the Xenogears story thru to the end.

What does Xenogears have aside from story? Xenogears has one of the all-time greatest videogame musical scores. Xenogears has outstanding character design. Xenogears has great villains. Xenogears has beautiful art and a wonderfully organic feel to the gameworld. Xenogears has an overall sense of wonder and adventure and epic grandeur that is only matched by other top RPG's. There are very few ambitious, literate and intelligent videogames, and when one does manage to make the journey from the other side of the world, minor flaws and all, that game should be recognized for what it is: one of the greatest PSX games of all time.

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