Will a playthrough of Xenogears revive the Enix forum!?

[Wolf Kanno]

Now don't you be messing with Bart and his Bromance

[NeoCracker]

...Why exactly do you have this pictures on hand?

[Bolivar]

Yeah I'd really like to know this. I mean, I assume every major RPG has its fair share of yaoi doujin but to even type it in the search bar expecting to come back with something for us, worth it enough to wade through distrubing content speaks volumes...

And I thought the whole Billy thing was one of the many gratuitous plot points that do nothing to add or progress the story, but the developers include just to shock the player and add an artificial layer of maturity to the story.

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly I only found the two pictures, this is a cult classic, it's mot like typing in Sephiroth Yaoi

I disagree Bolivar (SPOILER)because Billy's storyline basically shows you the extent to how much Solaris controls everything. We know about Gebler but to learn that one of the religious orders is also a puppet organization that has it's hands in the pot all over the world just speaks volumes about how thorough and menacing Solaris is. Could we have skipped the obvious Catholic comparison? Yes sure, but technically this game came out before batting the Catholic church was seriously common place so I feel the reveal was a bit more shocking 14 years ago than it is now where its expected to make Catholic wannabe groups into havens of pedophilia and debauchery. Even then, its an off comment made by one of the characters and I feel the bulk of what Stone said around that statement (about Solaris' control and domination, and hints of the Wels program) is more important than picking out the game using an overdone trope.

The Ethos were being slowly built up in the early story archs and Billy's story pretty much is the big reveal about them. It does lead to Zeboim which is one of the cooler segments of the game if you ask me.

[Forsaken Lover]

Billy should have the good grace to not tell his melodramatic backstory full of ridiculous BS until he is on the ground dying.
Or maybe he could just die and let a black man tell us over our magic ear phone that somehow lets him see things.

Yeah, been playing too much MGS. Although, in fairness to Billy, he's still not as terrible as the Beauty and the Beast Corp.
Or Drebin.
Or everything else in MGS4.\

Also, since Halloween is coming up, how about I counter WK's yaoi pic with some pretty cool fanart?
Doth thou desire...THE CANDY?
(SPOILER)

[Bolivar]

I am Bolivar, the seeker of Candy.

And Wolf, I actually agree with you about (SPOILER)the Ethos reveal being a huge part of the story... Up until that point, they seemed like an independent group with their own goals, especially with their relationship with the Kislev gear fighting. The idea that this religious organization that existed for how ever so many years was really just another branch of Solaris' endeavors with its own function was the perfect way to transition the story from the fights of the different nations to the struggle against Solaris itself.

So while I totally enjoyed what an awesome plot twist it was, these are just two of the examples on how poor writing took away from the Xenogears experience, even at the beginning parts of the game as NeoCracker's been pointing out. (SPOILER)Billy being a boy prostitute does nothing to show the extent to which Solaris controls everything. All the lower members of the Ethos who weren't in on the conspiracy being child molesters anyway does nothing to add to the shocking truth of control.

I'm interesting in seeing what happens when this playthrough gets to that... factory.

[Wolf Kanno]

(SPOILER)Billy being a boy prostitute does nothing to show the extent to which Solaris controls everything. All the lower members of the Ethos who weren't in on the conspiracy being child molesters anyway does nothing to add to the shocking truth of control.

(SPOILER) I already concurred that the child molester thing was overblown but the Billy thing tells us about how bad things got for a kid trying to raise his traumatized sister without his parents, it also shows us why he's so grateful to Bishop Stone (SPOILER) which makes it more tragic when we see Billy's world turn upside down, in fact the child molester thing pretty much does that too, where Billy is forced to see that the organization he devoted himself too for the benefit of the children like himself is so thoroughly corrupt. It doesn't need to be said to make the player realize that the Ethos were crappy, but if you think about it, it was really meant for Billy to make his semi-breakdown more realistic for the player. I mean besides Fei and Elly, Billy really got his world thrown upside down more than the rest of the cast.

I'm interesting in seeing what happens when this playthrough gets to that... factory.[/QUOTE]

That's still one of my favorite parts of the game to be honest.

[NeoCracker]

Well, Stone just got a hold of Nano-tech girl.

I fought with ID (Okay, the obvious answer here is that its actually Fei. At the very least they have a very strong connection, otherwise any of this build up with ID is just wasting our god damn time. )

I don't know if that's a fight you are normally suppose to win, but I kicked Id's Ass, and in the process have determined my main party will be Fei, Citan and Billy.

Billy can cast Haste on Citan. This is the sole reason I decided this.

Anyway, as Citan takes Fei back to the infirmary, I am off to fight the Giant Fish Bowl.

Edit: And when the smurf did Stone go Red Skull?

Edit: Okay, the 'I am the Seeker of power, dost though desire power?' Line was stupid the first time, and it continues to be stupid now.

Edit3: Okay, the entire bit with Stone, Billy, and Jessie was awesome. Especialy when Billy Fired the gun, not knowing what happened.

The Bad? Citan makes the first stupid move he has made and tells billy this BEFORE I beat Stone...


Edit4: Okay, That was teh most pathetic fake out death ever.

Oh he's going to die...... NOT!

No build up to his fake death, and immidiately it just didn't happen?

Because he fixed a problem with a thing we learned existed 2 seconds prior?

...I can't even comment further.

Now off to Babel! Here's hoping Jessie's information pays off!

Edit: Likely the last edit on this post, but I just thought to bring up Billy's gear. It has a cape. This is both stupid, and awesome.

And with Gears fully upgraded, I am ready to kick some ass.

[Forsaken Lover]

I think you meant to say Grahf was awesome and the best part of that whole sequence.
Plus his theme music played during the unwinnable part of Stone's boss fight.

Congrats on beating Id. He is probably the hardest on-foot boss. Him or one other fight way down the line.

If you didn't take Elly I think you missed out on some very important stuff when you found the nano-girl. I don't know why they made Citan Party Leader for that dungeon when Elly is far more important.

Also have fun with by far one of the worst dungeons in the history of anything and that includes real dungeons where people were tortured to death. Babel Tower is far more terrible than those.

Also, how about some Xenogears Bingo?

[NeoCracker]

Okay, smurf Babel. I only made it to the first save point, but seriously? smurfing Platforming? This game has no where near the controls necessary to make Platforming anything BUT irritating.

[Bolivar]

Yes. The good news is, while platforming doesn't go away, it will never be as annoying as it is in Babel.

If I Recall Correctly....

[NeoCracker]

Well, Chuchu just turned into a giant gear sized ass kicker to save the day.

I have no Idea how I'm suppose to take this game seriously from this point.

Edit: And Babel is one of the worst designed dungeons I have ever seen in an RPG

Edit2: I really liked the scene with Maria and her father just after that though.
Really, the smurf did Chu Chu even need to be there for? They could have skipped that stupidity entirely and just jumped to this.

[Forsaken Lover]

Chu-Chu needed to be there because of awful executive decisions.

Tetsuya Takahashi: So I've got this great idea for a very complex plot full of interesting characters and an extremely elaborate backstory.

Square Director: Well then we can't make that into Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy and all of those things just don't mix.
Also can you put a cute, cuddly thing in there for merchandising purposes?

Also I hope you noticed that one of the best friggin' songs in the entire game played during those segments with Chu-Chu and Maria.
Yasunori Mitsuda - Flight - Tindeck MP3 Download

[NeoCracker]

Heres the real question, how hard should I start trolling Wolf here? I'm currently in that area you get to after Bart and Margie use their eyes to open the doors.

[Forsaken Lover]