Pierrot le Fou said:
For anyone who's unaware, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" is from the book of Revelation in the Bible... Yes, Xenogears used it too, but that game is such a load of arse. Yes, the story uses lots of vague metaphors and whatnot for religious things, but it just ain't a good game...
Heh. You and I had a bit of an argument in the past over this game.
Between the h...o...r...r...i...b...l...y... ...s...l...o...w... ...t...e...x...t... ...s...p...e...e...d... and the cinematics you couldn't skip (especially before a certain battle with Ramses and Miang or whoever that was nigh impossible in comparison to all the battles leading up to it),
I don't recall a problem with the text speed, but it has been a while since I played it. I enjoy cinematics, but Xenogears didn't have very many by today's standards. Early on they were frequent. I still wonder why they made Fei's first encounter with Elly a cinematic. On the other hand, Disc 2 has hardly any before you get to the end of the game. Anyways, since we play these games on a TV screen, the graphics are very important to me, which is why I like cinematic scenes.
not to mention the drab and utterly useless gameplay system (you didn't need to level up throughout the game as it didn't really help you most of the time),
I thought it was a nice change from the standard "FIGHT/MAGIC/ITEM/RUN" thing which was used in both the FF and DW series, as well as many others. I liked getting new techniques to try out. The only improvement I would have made would be to have had a time limit for entering in the button sequences, so that there would be a chance of pressing the wrong buttons and doing the move wrong (like in Street Fighter 2).
it played like a frickin' movie, not a game.
I think much of our difference in opinion here is that I prefer a good movie to a good game. In other words, I think I would have liked Xenogears even more if it was in fact a very long movie (or a full-length anime series). This is why games that play like great stories are near the top of my list.
What I really liked about the game
- The plotline: Definitely the biggest bonus for it for me. I like a story which is built around what I call "plot subsets" (and since I'm not an English major, I don't know what the correct literary term is, nor do I care much to). I.e. the story begins with some local conflict, and eventually things fall into place to reveal that the original impression of the story is in fact part of something much larger, and in fact the original story may have previously been seen through the wrong light, such that the truth is quite different. Xenogears is built upon many layers of this. Every time you think you have the story figured out, it takes some monumental twist and goes deeper and becomes more complicated.
- The use of religion: I may be atheist, but I recognize that religion makes for a great story, and there's nothing I like more than a science-fiction explanation for modern religion (this is part of why Evangelion is a favorite of mine). Now PLF, I know you are going to say that Xenogears just tossed in catchphrases and references from religion without bothering to tie in the story of the game to the original meanings of what they took, and that Evangelion did a much better job of this and that you even wrote a paper on how the NGE storyline was a retelling of Genesis and all that. I actually agree with you to some extent. I don't think it is completely haphazard, but is very simplified. I think you're looking at it the wrong way, though. While it is true that Xenogears takes from real-world religion, the plotline of the game implies that modern religion takes from the story of Xenogears (or I should say, the distant past of the story of Xenogears as the main Xenogears storyline is supposed to be Earth's future). The simplification is acceptable on one part because there is an implication in the story of the game that mankind has, since the landing of Deus, been sheep-like in following the leader (Miang) towards the eventually reunification with Deus. The specifics of the religion itself are not as important as the notion that there is a religion to follow, because those who would unquestioningly follow their religion (like Billy) could therefore be led to accomplish goals for Miang and Deus. The simplification is also essential, I think, because the average person is
not as well-versed in religion as you are. I already said that I'm a big fan of Evangelion, but one of the things which irked me a little is how much reading about it I had to do online after I had finished watching the series, because I wasn't picking up the tiny details and obscure religious meanings. For example, I honestly had no idea what the "Lance of Longinus" was before reading a NGE spoiler site. Most people I know offline are also very confused by things in that series, even though they enjoy it. Xenogears was a little more friendly in that regard.
- Elly: I like the FF series, but I have to say that I am really glad Xenogears has a character like Elly. The over-use of childish female characters like Aeris/th, Tifa, Yuffie, Terra, Relm, Rinoa, Selphie (the worst), and Dagger/Garnet was getting old really fast. They made Elly to be a strong female character who hardly ever was degraded to being cutesy.
- Sex: No, I'm serious. What's the deal with all these games that have a big emphasis on the relationship, and then you never see the characters even kiss? If the two protagonists don't have the cajones to jump in bed at some point in the storyline, then I'm going to be angry. Xenogears is the only game to date I have played which made any sense in this way.
- Music: I've heard great things about it's successor, Xenosaga, but as I haven't played that yet, I will still say that Xenogears has easily got the most beautiful and emotional music ever written for a video game. Yasunori Mitsuda is brilliant. I'm a music nut, so this is a big deal to me. The only two games which come even remotely close for me are Final Fantasy 4 (Nobuo at his peak), and Chronotrigger (which is also done by Mitsuda).
So yeah. I know we still totally disagree, but at least now you know why I like it so much. ^^
