MegaThread for all things Xeno!

Tetsuya Takahashi's (and Soraya Saga's!) long-running and decidedly ambitious - if only tangenially connected - may have been handled by various distributors, but they have enough of common links to at least warrant the term of spiritual sequels. Yes, there is a visible shift in gameplay-to-story proportion between Xenosaga and Xenoblade, but even in the relatively light on plot installments, you can still feel that unmistakable Takahashi flair.

As a reminder, the games include:

Xenogears
The entire Xenosaga series (this includes spin-offs like Pied Piper)
Xenoblade Chronicles
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Xenoblade Chronicles 2


So let's get down to business!

Favorite game:
Favorite story:
Favorite cast:
Favorite battle system:
Favorite mechs (Gears, AGWS, ES, Dolls, Blades?):
Favorite guy:
Favorite gal:
Favorite mascot:
Favorite Gear/ES/etc:
Favorite secret evil organization:
Favorite villain:
Favorite world:
Favorite malevolent collective entity (Wels, Gnosis, Telethia, etc.):
Favorite Miang:

Favorite game: Xenogears, I mean I just did my top ten, you knew this was coming.
Favorite story: Xenogears, still one of my favorite plots in gaming.
Favorite cast: Xenogears, great story means the cast is up to par of course.
Favorite battle system: Xenosaga Episode 1, basically felt like a good improvement of Gears misguided system. Also the Event Slot mechanic is awesome.
Favorite mechs (Gears, AGWS, ES, Dolls, Blades?): Gears, the Agws and E.S. units were poorly implemented in Saga. I haven't played XCX to know how they were.
Favorite guy: Bart Fatima, I feel like he's the first real worthwhile character who sells the grand drama that Xenogears has and he's got the best closure.
Favorite gal: Of the playable casts, Melia from Xenoblade because her introduction is a great turning point in Xenoblade and the point where I felt the plot really starts to take off. Non-Playable, Miang cause she's so cleverly placed in the plot, feeling like a arm candy lackey at first before turning out to be one of the grandmasters of the plot.
Favorite mascot: Either Weltall or Riki. Welltall just has an interesting and underrated design and is easily one of the most recognizable elements from Gears promotional stuff. Chu-Chu is also pretty heavily reviled and I feel Saga made the Zohar it's mascot more-so. KOS-MOS irritates me cause she's just kind of there in the plot to do cool trout but her rushed story arc left for the final game made her feel underwhelming to me and bit too fetishistic. While the Riki hits that nice sweet spot of actually being adorable and funny, while surprisingly likable unlike Chu-Chu. Helps it turns out his goofy persona is a front giving him more layers than Chu-Chu and KOS-MOS.
Favorite Gear/ES/etc: Weltall Id is easily my favorite, but of playable units, I love Brigandier and Heimdal. E.S. Asher is my favorite of the E.S. units and I'm actually fond of most of the AGWS designs to be honest.
Favorite secret evil organization: Solaris, not even a real contest actually.
Favorite villain: Ugh... All of them? I guess if I had to choose just one Grahf is still one of my favorites, just because he's like a hammy cartoony version of Darth Vader and then you learn his backstory and he becomes one of the most sympathetic characters in the series. Second choice would be either Miang for reasons stated above or Albedo cause he is pretty much the real star of Xenosaga though daddy Yuriev gives him a good run for his money.
Favorite world: Xenogears, I mean it has 10,000 years of history. My second choice is Xenoblade because the Bionis is such a clever concept.
Favorite malevolent collective entity (Wels, Gnosis, Telethia, etc.): The Gnosis, while the explanation for them kind of gets lost in the third act and the poorly done supplement materials, they are such an interesting mystery and aspect for Xenosaga. The Telethia were also pretty cool and are my second choice. I'm still wondering if that whole plot angle concerning them and Melia's race was a reused idea from an aborted plot point in Gears concerning the mutants of Kislev.
Favorite Miang: Her 998th incarnation, which is the one you see the most in Gears. Though mad props for her Zeboim Era incarnation considering she wipes out most of the planet by scheming a nuclear holocaust.

I'll add a few...

Favorite Uzuki (Citan, Shion, Jin, Dunban cause we all know he's an expy):
Favorite Demiruge (Deus, Wilhelm, Zanza, etc...):
Favorite Robo Girl (Esmeralda, KOS-MOS, M.O.M.O., Seven, etc...)
Favorite Doomed General (Ramsus, Margulis, Egil):
Favorite "Little Master":
Favorite "Big Guy" (Rico, Ziggy, and Reyn):

Favorite game: Xenoblade Chronicles! One of the most enjoyable gaming experience I've ever had overall.
Favorite story: Xenogears. Probably my favorite story in gaming, actually. Not a lot of games can boast a story that spans 10,000 years and is still immensely satisfying.
Favorite cast: Xenoblade Chronicles.
Favorite battle system: Again, Xenoblade Chronicles. As much as I liked the combos with turn based of Gears, this one has the best synergy with the world.
Favorite mechs (Gears, AGWS, ES, Dolls, Blades?): For now Gears, if only due to their incredible story relevance. Though I'm really itching to try out the Skells in X!
Favorite guy: Dunban! He is just so cool without being hypermasculine about it. Sure, he's got a bitchin' beard, but overall he just feels pretty peaceful and laid back. Maybe it's the voice. Also, his battle cries make up haikus. And that's great.
Favorite gal: Fiora! Though I feel that the childhood friend trope is super overdone to the point of being disgustingly indulgent in recent game and anime history, Fiora does it just right, and the twist with her in the latter part of the game makes for a pretty good cornerstone for the game's anti-revenge message.
Favorite mascot: Riki. Riki sneaky!
Favorite Gear/ES/etc: Few mechs in the series are as iconic as the Weltall.
Favorite secret evil organization: Ormus is fairly interesting, but I always kinda liked the Gazel Ministry with how they resemble SEELE from Eva. Their end is also deliciously ironic.
Favorite villain: Miang. Though, as WK said, there are a lot of villains to love in this entire series.
Favorite world: Xenoblade Chronicles. The backstory is really unique and it's incredibly fun to explore.
Favorite malevolent collective entity (Wels, Gnosis, Telethia, etc.): Wels, though the Gnosis and Telethia are very close. It's one of the most fascinating aspects of Takahashi's work.
Favorite Miang: Like Wolf said, the newest one is the most interesting, but special mention goes to Zeboim!Miang not only because of what WK mentioned, but because she manifests in twin sisters.
Favorite Uzuki (Citan, Shion, Jin, Dunban cause we all know he's an expy): From the looks of it, Lao from X seems to be another expy, though that's only going by what I know from promotional materials. Dunban wins this for me, though. I liked Citan and Jin just fine, even if they did seem to be a tad too all-knowing for their own good. Shion is a very interesting character in that she actually regresses as a character throughout the series and becomes less and less likable - and that was the intention, from what I gather.
Favorite Demiruge (Deus, Wilhelm, Zanza, etc...): Deus did it first and Deus did it best, imo. It helps that it's pretty much Lavos with a more clearly defined purpose, in that you never really talk to it directly - it only uses proxies to keep humanity in line.
Favorite Robo Girl (Esmeralda, KOS-MOS, M.O.M.O., Seven, etc...): Esmeralda was pretty cool, and I like the concept behind her, that she is the child Fei and Elly could never have.
Favorite Doomed General (Ramsus, Margulis, Egil): Ramsus. No contest. I love how his psyche deteriorates over time, even though he's presented as a formidable general who you expect to turn out to be a Sephiroth-type main villain. But then he just keeps losing and losing to Fei and you can't help but feel sympathy for him as he starts to completely loses his mind in his obsession to defeat Fei.
Favorite "Little Master": Not sure if I get this category, but I guess Bart? He had his Alfred and Sig who were so exasperated with all his shenanigans. Bart is easily the most fun character in Xenogears.
Favorite "Big Guy" (Rico, Ziggy, and Reyn): It's Reyn time! Reyn might not be the smartest tool in the shed, but he's the least insufferable representative of this particular type of big guy. His accent is very endearing.

One of these days I’ll actually play through xenogears. Ive never been able to fully get into it though. I’m not sure what it is. I’ve only ever beat the Xenosaga trilogy and Xenoblade Chronicles, and I loved them both. I really enjoyed playing X too despite its shortcomings.

I just got the special edition of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with the cool steel back case. I’m pretty excited to see how it turned out.

I mean, Xenogears is a slow game, especially by today's standards. It's also long. You definitely need to go into it with the right approach if you want to finish it, but it's well worth the effort.

Don't feel too bad, I think Xenoblade Chronicles is a fantastic game. Easily the best game on the Wii and one of the best sci-fi games/rpgs out there, and I've tried 3 times and never finished it. I like to think I'd get through Xenogears again more easily because its only slow points are story related. It doesn't have any town building, missable relationship dialog, any relationship requirements that take forever to build, or gotta-catch-em-all random item collection that REFUSE TO EVER APPEAR

You'd have fun with X with its ten optional, missable playable characters

Part of my problem is I usually have stuff happen that keeps me from playing every time I have tried to play xenogears. I think the very first time I played I got stuck. I think it was a boss battle that was in a Gear, and I may have saved just before it and couldn’t leave the area to grind or anything. It was back when I was a lot worse at these kinds of games.

I've only played ( but have yet to complete ) the Xenosaga trilogy. I like KOS-MOS and T-elos, but I actually created a segregated superhero-themed story inspired by the relationship between the three unique URTVs, Nigredo/Gaignun, Rubedo/Jr, and Albedo. No, I didn't create a character based on Citrine, but I guess one is kinda similar to MOMO.