Xenogears turns 20 today!

[Wolf Kanno]

Twenty years ago this day, Square released the groundbreaking Xenogears for the PlayStation console. Originally conceived as a possible FFVII and even Chrono 2, the game known as Project Noah became it's own cult hit and propelled the careers of Testuya Takahashi and his wife, Soraya Saga, as well as showing off once again the talents of Yasunori Mitsuda, Masato Kato, and Hiromichi Tanaka. The ambitious title began before VII's development but was completed a year after it. The rookie director's ambition overstretched the budget and so the second half of the game had to have several moments cut and the entire second disc was given a more "artistic" design in order to complete the game. Months later, his team would release Perfect Works to help fans fill in the gaps left by the unfinished game. Square's refusal to continue the ambitious series led to key members of the team to leave Square and form Monolith Soft with help from Namco.

Set on the continent of Ignas, where two mighty empires war with each other using ancient giant robots called Gears that are excavated from the ruins of past civilizations, the story follows the tale of Fei Fong Wong, an amnesiac artist with some skill in martial arts and piloting. Accidentally thrust into the war after using an experimental black gear to try and save his home village, Fei wanders the globe and gets involved with sand pirates led by the rightful ruler of Aveh, becomes a prisoner of the industrial Kislev, journeys to the Aquavy islands where a religious order battles monsters called Wels, and even travels to the sky city of Shevat, which was banished from the earth five hundred years ago. He battles the forces of Gebler, a military organization belonging to the mysterious Solaris Empire who secretly control the surface world from behind the scenes. His journey to learn who he is will span both time and space and he will learn why the mysterious masked warrior named Grahf calls him the "Slayer of God".

[Fynn]

It’s only years after playing it that I appreciated just how much of a transformative experience Xenogears was. Yes, it’s clunky and quite ugly by today’s standards, but underneath that is one of the most complete, ambitious, and fulfilling stories I’ve ever seen in a video game, not to mention just bring an exceptional sci fi story in general. It’s influenced my tastes both in consuming and creating stories so much, and yet I didn’t even notice when that happened. It’s definitely an experience like no other.

Now, remake pls

[Jowy]

Adieu, boys.

Time to start over!

[Vyk]

God I need to play this game again. It's been too long

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, I should do another playthrough myself.

[Wolf Kanno]

Gamespot did a cool video to celebrate the game's anniversary.

[Forsaken Lover]

I'm doing my own playthrough to both celebrate this anniversary and to test out a hard mod. I'm about to go get Bart's Omnigear and the mod is forcing me to take the gameplay more seriously than I have ever done before. For instance, learning teh wonky mechanics beyond Wild Smile, Evasion Rings, etc.. They don't do exactly what you think they do.

I'm also using characters i never use, like Bart, Maria and Citan. I'm gonna drop Bart later on but I've used him a lot more in this playthrough than I've ever done before.

It's a shame I used Rico on my last run because although I would not recommend teh mod, it makes Rico a lot better than he is in the vanilla game. But, seeing as I used him last time, he's out.

Mitsuda did a concert for the anniversary I heard. I hope it comes out on CD or DVD soon.

[Wolf Kanno]

Rico was just too slow for me, though his Gears are all worth using due to having better speed with Booster enabled and their high natural damage. I had complacent gaming syndrome using Fei, Elly/Esmerelda, and Citan for most of my playthroughs, but I'll admit on the times I use them, that Bart and Billy are excellent characters as well. Gear battles are often where the leveling field is much better as any team works really well.

[Forsaken Lover]

You gotta wonder why Elly gets away with that trout when Garnet never does. Everyone gets on Dagger's ass for "CAN'T CONCENTRATE" for a short time at the start of Disk 3 but Elly and her random "Sorry...I failed" really pisses me off.

[Wolf Kanno]

You gotta wonder why Elly gets away with that trout when Garnet never does. Everyone gets on Dagger's ass for "CAN'T CONCENTRATE" for a short time at the start of Disk 3 but Elly and her random "Sorry...I failed" really pisses me off.

Likely because Elly doesn't really need her Ether powers in normal combat and if Vierge isn't using Aerods, you're not using her right. Garnet on the other hand has to be used for one of two tedious dungeons and is pretty much a dead weight regardless, not helped by the fact that summons were nerfed for IX, and Eiko is the superior White Mage. I mean as soon as I can control my party set-up in IX, Garnet never joins unless the plot forces her into my team, the rest of the cast is just that much better than her gameplay-wise.

[Forsaken Lover]

Ya know one thing I had forgotten about Xenogears is how much Xenosaga Episode 1 is like it. Right down to the awful dungeons with a total lack of music. Seriously, Mitsuda? I love you, man. You did great work for Chrono Cross' dungeons. Where is the love in these two games I so adore?

[YoshioKST]

Oh wow, this game was a classic. To date Bart Fatima is one of my favorite characters in the history of everything, and the entire combat system was groundbreaking.

to test out a hard mod.

I only ever played this back on the original PS1 release. What are you on for this run?