Xenogears

A great epic and highly recommended for RPG fans. An awe inspiring and wonderfully complex story. The massive amount of text become rather tiring near the end, especially the part where Fei sits in his rocking chair while he dictates the story at half hour intervals with the only control of the character being returned to the player by a boss battle after which they are returned to Fei in his Chair, talking for another half hour. However flawed, it should still be considered a masterpiece of storyline and should be at least taken under consideration by gamers to add to their collection.

Superb in every sense.

The characters (and character development) are excellent, the music is wonderfully atmospheric, and the storyline was so well-written that it grabbed you and wouldn't let you. I don't think a video game has ever actually made me emotional while playing it until "Xenogears."

I could go on but I would probably exceed the posting limit, hehe. If you can find this game anywhere - GRAB IT! And never let it go.

It's hard to choose between this and Super Metroid as my personal favorite game of all time, but I'm probably leaning towards choosing this game because of its length and for it being one of the few games to actually make me think...

Anyway, this is a perfect game from every angle. The music, the characters, the battles, pretty much anything that you could find flaws in any other game is perfect in this game. The main selling point, of course, is the multi-layered and very convoluted storyline. Though obviously very indebted to Evangelion, the 70 hours or so of story in this game is full of plot twists and shocking revelations about humanity, existence, God, love, death, and everything else in between. Not your typical RPG fare by any stretch of the imagination.

Also, don't listen to people who say disc 2 sucks... there is more than enough gameplay in this game that disc 2 comes as somewhat of a relief after 50 or so hours of disc 1's constant battles.

Just a perfect game... what more can I say?

This is simply one of the best RPGs ever made, if not the best. The story far surpasses FFVII, FFVIII, or even Chrono Trigger. The characters are vividly detailed and believable. The dialogue can be stilted at times, but it only adds to the game's charm. The art design is fantastic, and Yasunori Mitsuda's score is beyond description.

Xenogears is a fairly challenging game even for RPG buffs; expect to attempt some major boss battles 2-3 times and trying different strategies. It's also a long game; my first playthrough was around 50 hours. I've recently started to play through it again, just to relive the experience that nearly consumed my life for a month or two in 1999.

If you somehow missed this one, buy it ASAP. It was hard to get for a while, but a Greatest Hits version was reissued a year or two ago. This is not a game - more like an experience. It probably sounds like hyperbole, but you have to play Xenogears for yourself. After the first hour or two, you won't be able to stop.

The opening of Xenogears is a lavish CGI sequence spliced with anime that begins with the famous biblical line: "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." The cryptic events of the opening scenes (the tragedy of the Eldridge, and the emergence of the woman from the wreckage on the beach) lead into events that take place nearly 10,000 years later.

Following a lengthy exposition in text, the story leads to a small village on the border of the kingdom of Aveh and the Kislev Empire (the two warring nations) named Lahan. And the tale of Fei Fong Wong begins.

The general feeling at the outset of the game is one that is familiar in the realm of RPGs: Young man with amnesia involved somehow in the fate of the world. We've seen it a thousand times. However, the gods at Square turn the tables very early in the game, adding heart-wrenching tragedy to the carefree world Fei inhabits. Very soon, the once two dimensional plot gains a considerable amount of depth. Fei begins to doubt himself and his past as more and more becomes known to him about the truth... of everything.

This game literally has everything: Great villains (Grahf, Id, Ramsus, Miang), memorable characters (Wiseman, Zephyr), a barrage of the most complex plot twists (watch out once the attack against Vanderkaum begins) known in RPG land, and quite possibly the greatest love story a video game has to offer (Fei and Elly were meant to be, and finding out why is one of the most fascinating plot points in RPG history).

True to its tagline ("Stand tall and shake the heavens"), Xenogears delivers a storyline that raises questions about existence, God, and the relevance of religious doctrine. Name-dropping like "Fatima" and "the Magi", backed by inquisition style priests named the Ethos heighten the whole experience to a new, groundbreaking level.

Solidified by a simply sublime soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenogears is one of the best games of all time, and it's a shame that more people don't know that.