Interesting. I've mostly only heard positive things

Anyways, last one for today~ Going to go ahead and post it up because I'll be busy later and its close enough to time

73. Xenogears (PlayStation)
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Xenogears is a story about so many things, so little of which I can tell you without spoiling it. It starts out with our protagonist, Fei, in his peaceful little village, with little memory of when he was young. It doesn't take long before his village is attacked by giant piloted robot things called Gears. Fei then has to make a decision to save his friends lives.

Xenogears has some unique features for an RPG. In battle, there are three types of attacks, each of which uses a certain amount of points to execute. The weaker attacks use less while the stronger ones use more. When all the points are spent, the turn ends. Characters also learn Deathblows by combining the different button combinations. A second aspect of the gameplay is the Gears. The gears follow a similar battle style, but they also use fuel for each action. There are 9 total playable characters with 3 usable in battle at a time.


General impressions:
I'd wanted to play Xenogears since I first heard about it while playing Xenosaga, but at the time I couldn't find it in stores and I didn't have the means to order it online. So I did the next best thing and read the whole game script. It was long, and it was complicated, but the story was very deep and interesting and I very much enjoyed it. So much that I wanted more than ever to play it. Eventually I got it as a very thoughtful birthday present and I got to try it! Unfortunately I was a bit let down. The controls are clunky and I just don't find it fun to play at all. But it was still a great story with good atmosphere and interesting characters, and that's good enough for me.

Story:
By far the best thing about this game and one of my favourite video game stories ever. I enjoy reading psychological theory, one one of my favourites was the ID, Ego, and Super-ego, and here is a game that largely revolves around that. I think it did a good job of exploring different mental issues faced by the characters, it had some interesting religious references, and it had some moments that kept me at the edge of my seat wanting to know more. Excellent story if you enjoy that type of thing, but be prepared to do some reading on the side to fully understand all of it if the subject matter is not something you're familiar with.


Gameplay:
The worst thing about this game to me. I did not enjoy playing it at all. The controls were clunky and awkward, they do a very poor job of explaining some important things you should know for battles, and the gears. Oh gosh the gears. I hated them with a passion. Not only did I not enjoy using the big ugly noisy gears in battle (clunk clunk clunk) but they also have fuel you need to keep an eye on. Not fun for the marathon of bosses they like to throw at you. Oh, limited fuel? Here, fight five bosses in a row. And the jumping. The jumping was tedious. As much as I'm bashing on it, it did have some neat features like the combos and such, but overall it was not a fun game to play.


World:
The world is kind of depressing for the most part, although that's kind of the point, so good job to them on that one. Although I did really love Nisan and the beautiful cathedral Church it had, as well as the music and the atmosphere it provided.


Characters:
My opinion on the characters is a bit odd. I think they're well written, have good depth (well, for the most part) but I don't really like or care about any of them. For me it is important to have at least one character I really like and this game didn't give me that, so it was harder for me to be more invested in their individual stories.

Overall it has a wonderful and interesting story, one of the best I've ever come across, but really bad gameplay. Makes for an excellent book.


And tomorrow we finish off the 70's~~