EoFF RPG Thunderdome 2020 Round 3: Match 4

Match 4 is up and the categories are: Characters, Gameplay, and Art Direction

Xenogears


vs

Final Fantasy X

Xenogears. Definitely, Xenogears.

I would choose FFX over Xenogears on gameplay. I really like the CTB system and wish it had been used in more games. Characters though? FFX doesn't really have one of the better casts among FF games and Xenogears had some all time greats. Art direction? There are good and bad points for both. I'm kind of neutral on this. So this race is a bit closer than I thought when I started off. I still think the discrepancy in Xenogears' category is more than in FFX's though.

I gave characters to Xenogears but the other two to FFX. I also really liked CTB and the ability to switch out members at will. It never made any sense that you had party members just left out of battles. What they hell else are they doing?

I'm decently confident I'd pick FFX even if I had played Xenogears, but I'd still rather this matchup be determined by people who played both.

Probably not helped by the fact you know where I stand on this, having played both? :D

For me, Xenogears wins out on characters easily. My disdain for X's cast is legendary so this comes as no surprise to anyone, and this is not helped by the fact I feel Xenogears beats most games in this category. Fei is one of my favorite characters of all time. I also find that Xenogears' supporting cast work better. Many of them add brevity to a game that can often be too serious whereas X's cast sort of double down on the serious tone, which makes it weird when they do try to be funny to break the tension. I'll take the Yggdrasil crew over the Aurochs, the Thames Captain over Maechen, and the Orphanage kids over "blitball boy" and "stay away from the summoner" girl.

Both games feature a unique art style, but I prefer Xenogears style. Replaying through FFX-2, I forgot that Spira's design is basically colorful Waterworld after Kevin Costner finally foundnd land. I would agree that Spira has more unique locations than Xenogears, but again, the ones Xeno has are more up my alley with cyberpunk and futuristic sci-fi.

Gameplay is a bit tougher here. I like Xenogears' combat, but I am also not in a rush to make it the gold standard for RPGs. It's unique and quaint, but it has a number of issues, the most of which is the balance issues between character and gear combat, the game's general "easy random mob encounters vs. difficult bosses" which gives the game a weird difficulty curve unless you know what you're doing, and the overall lack of good customization options for most of the game. CTB is a system that doesn't shine in the main game. You need to wait until the monster arena before it actually works well, and even then, I don't feel the gameplay ever achieved the potential of its mechanics like it should have. Xenosaga Eps. 1,Bravely Default, and especially Nocturne do CTB better than FFX ever did. Not to mention I've never liked the Sphere Grid. Again, it doesn't really do much until the endgame, and at that point, it becomes an unbearable grind for people wanting perfect stats.

Gears would edge out for the first two categories but if it was just on combat, I may give it a toss up.

I'll pretty much echo what others have said about the characters, I'm not a fan of FFX's characters overall, and Xenogears has great characters.

For art direction, neither of them actually rank that high on my list, but Xenogears does have the edge because of its sci-fi aspects (and mechs, I love mechs)

Which leaves gameplay, where honestly they're pretty even for me. I really like aspects of the Xenogears combat (and the fact you can fight in mechs), but it's still an ATB system, and that part I'm not a fan of. FFX meanwhile has my vastly-preferred turn-based system but doesn't do much with it.

So that's a 2-0 and a draw (or 3-1) for Xenogears :p