The Xenogears Views, News, and Reviews Page!

XENOGEARS NEWS!

4/28/98: Excellent news for Xenogears fans. If you didn't know already, Square and Electronic Arts have joined together to release each other's games. Square will release EA's sports-based games in Japan, and EA will release Square's hard-to-come-by games in the US. This means (this has been confirmed!) that not only Xenogears, but Parasite Eve (Square's phenomenal venture into horror RPGs), Bushido Blade II, and Brave Fencer Musashiden (an awesome-looking Zelda-killer) will all be released in the US. Look for Xenogears and Parasite Eve (which is already partially translated) to be released in Fall 1998 (I'm thinking more probably Winter 1998 or Spring 1999 for Xenogears).

5/22/98: I don't know where I read it, but someplace had a Xenogears release date for End of 1998. This means it will be released so everyone can get it for the holidays. I feel that EA/Square can probably keep this date a lot better than a Fall 1998 release, although I'm not counting on it (example: FF Tactics. A release date one month after the holidays? We got screwed!!) Anyway, put Xenogears on the top of your wish list, and you'll be hopefully be hearing the sound of Gears clanking, instead of sleigh bells ringing and dreidels spinning.

5/28/98: Ok, Square has set semi-official release dates (in months instead of seasons) for several of their most anticipated games. These first three will be hitting American gamers in a barrage. First, Parasite Eve will hit the shores in September 1998 (reminiscent of FF7's September release date that had thousands of students deciding "FF7...or homework...FF7...or homework?") with a playable demos of XENOGEARS and Brave Fencer Musashiden, and a non-playable demo of FF8. Then in October 1998 XENOGEARS hits us, then Brave Fencer Musashiden comes in November 1998 (with another demo of FF8). Man, straight A's or Square? Parasite Eve, XENOGEARS, or Brave Fencer Musashiden? The choices will be tough, but I'll save for Xenogears and ask for PE and BFM for the holidays. Long live Square!!

7/25/98: I've known this for quite awhile, but Squaresoft claims that Xenogears will hit the US totally unedited. Let's hope this is correct, because without the gore, language, and full frontal nudity, Xenogears just wouldn't be the same. I don't care if it gets a Mature rating, that should not discourage them from releasing the same product Japan got. And if religious fanatics and moms can't deal with it, then just don't buy the game for your kid! Don't ruin it for the people mature enough to handle it, because you obviously are not mature enough! Whew. aggression aside, let's just hope that this is a promise not broken.

8/18/98: What's this? The Xenogears US release date has been pushed back? Say it ain't so! Sadly, this is true. The Xenogears release date has been pushed back four or five weeks in order for EA/Square to give us Americans the best quality translation that they possibly can. This is both bad and good. It's bad for those of us who already couldn't wait for Xenogears to come to the US, but it's also good because this might actually be an RPG that is free from careless grammatical mistakes. This may give my friend hope, because before he was saying he wouldn't buy it because EA was known notoriously for it's horrible translation quality.

9/11/98: Alright, I got Parasite Eve two days ago (the day it was released), and it's a really cool game, so I suggest you all buy it. What you shouldn't buy is the crap all the video game magazines are giving this awesome game. Fine, I guess those idiots just aren't partial to the BEST FMV EVER MADE ON PC OR CONSOLE!! Seriously, these graphics blow away anything ever made. I dare you to find better graphics in a cinematic seen on any platform.
Anyway, back to Xenogears. Oh yeah, I didn't say anything about Xenogears yet. The other cool thing about Parasite Eve is it comes with a demo disk featuring a playable demo of the US version of Xenogears. Ok, here's the lowdown. The story seems intact, and it seems like Square is following through on their promise to keep the game totally unedited in the United States... so far. Even in the demo there are already sexual references popping up (Lee, the village chief talking about his sexual exploits as a child; Dan mentioning to Fei that his sister is "well-endowed.") However, I was looking in the Parasite Eve Instructions Manual and on the back was an ad for the upcoming Square lineup, and Xenogears has a Teen rating right now (Ages 13+). From what I know of the Japanese version, this game totally deserves a Mature rating. There's no but's about it, there's nothing sacred in this game. This has led me to three conclusions:
1) The censors have been extremely lenient, and are letting this game pass with a Teen rating. Likelihood: Slim to none. 2) Square went against their promise and cut the cool stuff from the game. Likelihood: Moderate to High. Square did it with FF7, and they might have just done it again. 3) The censors have not fully decided on a rating for the game, and this is the current rating. Likelihood: High. The game's release date was just postponed for 4-5 weeks, so chances are whatever the censors have seen so far, if anything, is probably not the finsished product. For all we know, they could have only seen the demo, which does deserve a Teen rating. Let's hope this is the case.
Ok, back to the demo. The wording of the text seems a little awkward (everything is "do not" instead of "don't," and "I must" instead of "I have to"), but they held back the game to make the translation better, so they're probably fixing this type of thing. Also, they switched all the buttons around, for reasons that are beyond me (for God's sake, we're not idiots! We can adapt to different controller configurations!) Now Triangle is weak (instead of Square), Square is Strong (instead of Triangle), and X is Fierce (instead of O). They also changed all the Field Screen buttons, too. As someone who has played the Japanese version, I don't understand why they changed the configuration, it was not a problem. However, it won't mess up those who have never played it before so that's good. As my final word, I do say that the game still looks great, and the dialogue, while broken, is hilarious. For those who play the demo, and have also played the Japanese version, look for the hilarious cameo appearances during the trip to Shitan's house!

Why Xenogears is better than FF7

In my humble opinion, Xenogears is the best role-playing game ever. It is so original, so spell-binding that it must be seen to be believed. It is truly amazing that such a game could be created after Final Fantasy VII, the definitive RPG. However, in many ways, Xenogears mops the floor with FF7.

1) Fully rotational 3-D graphics: Yes, FF7 had some of the most amazing graphics ever, and especially the best ever for an RPG, but I like Xenogears' graphics better. FF7 had some of the most amazing background graphics I have ever seen, but the interaction between the characters and background looked too false, because when you moved, the background didn't. It looked like they just projected Cloud and crew onto the backdrop (that's actually what they did). Also, because the view of the whole game was mostly from above or from one direction from the side, the enviroment didn't seem very big. This is where Xenogears takes over. The view of the game is from all angles, like a movie, instead of from 1 or 2. This gives those wide-open spaces even more depth, and makes the small areas as claustrophobic as is possible. This is the first big game I have played. What I mean by big is how huge the areas are. When I entered the sand cave in the first few hours of the game, I was amazed. This place is so big, that just being in the gear alone makes you seem tiny, but then when you must exit your gear, the true size of this place really sinks in. Not even FF7 was able to put me into this state of awe. Furthermore, the characters in Xenogears are hand-drawn sprites instead of polygons like FF7. This gives their appearance a much more realistic look, and thier movement much more fluidity, and you are totally able to understand the situation just through character's actions. FF7's character graphics were good, but looked way too unrealistic. Plus, its character movements were anything but fluid or realistic (while playing the Japanese version, my friends and I thought that one of the guys on the train was masturbating, when he was really trying to access a computer!) This character graphics of Xenogears helps tell the story without words, so you don't even need to know Japanese to understand the basic story.

2) The story: This game is deep! There are so many unsuspected twists, so many great good guys and excellent bad guys, and of course, the underlying, life-changing philosphies thrown in. Of course, this is all to be expected from Squaresoft, but what really riveted me in this game was the perfect mix of science fiction and fantasy. Several of the past Final Fantasy games (FF7 included) have tried to mesh these two, but with rather unrealistic results. The mixture of gears, space stations, and ancient weaponry is excellent, while at the same time, not entirely unbelievable. This is mostly accomplished by the battles. Their are basically two types of enemies: regular enemies, and gear enemies. All mechanical enemies are gear enemies, so if they attack you when you aren't in a gear, you'll most likely die in one hit. This is a great departure from games like FF7, where they expected you to believe that someone would only lose 3 hit points after a barrage of missles hit them. In Xenogears, you would die instantly, as it should be. By making this game realistic, it is easier to get into and relate to.

3) So many characters: There are 60+ characters that are important to the story (ie: have their faces depicted in the dialogue boxes). These characters each have distinct traits and personalities, and they all have interesting pasts. While this is not as many as Suikoden (the reigning king of the characters department), most of the characters in Suikoden didn't have their pasts explained, and usually you didn't care to hear their story anyway! The addition of showing a character's face in the dialogue box gives the character more depth than just a pixelated face could ever do. FF7 did not have this feature, and that really put the focus of the game on only the main characters, with the exception of Sephiroth. Even Vincent, an playable character, didn't get much attention in the game. Unlike FF7, where the main focus of the game is Cloud, Fei (the main character) is not the only person getting attention.

4) The music: FF7 had a great soundtrack, but the quality of the music just was not up to today's standards. Some of the tunes (especially the several chocobo tunes) were abominable, and sounded like the belonged to Final Fantasy 4 (FF2 in the US), not FF7. When composers have the ability to record soundtracks in orchestrated format, they should ditch the old beeps and boops of the early days, something Nobuo Uematsu did not do (with the exception of some of the fight music). Thankfully, most of the Xenogears music is cheese-free and fully orchestrated. The heroic tunes will knock your socks off, and the emotional tunes will make you want to cry. I'll take "Tears of the Planet, Wishes of the People" over "Aeris' Theme" anyday. God, how I hate "Aeris' Theme"...

5) The battle system rocks!: Xenogears has one of the all time coolest battle systems of any RPG. Take elements of a beat-em-up fighter and the point system of a role-playing game and you get what I call "the buttons system." With the buttons system, you have 3 attacks: weak, medium, and strong. This allows for numerous button combos that result in brutal deaths for your unsuspecting opponents. Each character (with the exception of Chu-Chu and Maria) has about 10 or more combos that they can learn during the game. Also, the attacks run on time units. Weak attacks take 1 unit, medium take 2, and strong take 3. By using weak attacks, you can build up your AP (attack points) bar, and depending on the number of APs you have in reserve, can unleash a string of combos, leading to big damage (this is especially helpful on bosses). But that's only the half of it. You can also fight in your gear, which evens the odds when you must fight huge enemies. Depending on the number of combos you have as a regular fighter, you can acquire combos as a gear. Unlike FF7, your ground characters will not have an unbelievable number of HP such as 9999. My highest was about 600, but that's fine, because you wont need 9999 HP while fighting regular fights. However, your gears can get HP up to about 30000 HP, which is not only more reasonable, but absolutely necessary. All I can say is that the ability to use 10+ different combos at any time during the fight is much better than having to wait to use 7 limit breaks.

6) Anime cutscenes: Need I say more? FF7 had its FMVs, but Anime scenes in a video game (done correctly) just look so much cooler. It takes you back to the day when you couldn't draw on a computer. Also, you can't really display the graphic violence that is crucial to the story of Xenogears without anime scenes. We've all seen what Sephiroth did to Aeris, and we all noticed the unrealistic lack of any blood. If you want gore, Xenogears is the game for you. And if you still hate anime, and say that FMVs are better, Xenogears has plenty of those also, and they easily rival (if not beat) the quality done in FF7.

Anyone who latches onto FF7, and still praises it as "the best RPG ever." Either has not seen or played this game, or just can't deal with reality. Face it, people, FF7 had its day, but Xenogears will shatter it into a million pieces. I still credit FF7 for its tremendous ground-breaking in the RPG world, but it is no longer the best. I just hope Xenogears gets the publicity it deserves for killing the game that could not be killed. And only Squaresoft could destroy its own product.

What Xenogears has borrows from others

In this little list, I address all the little bits that Xenogears has taken from other Square and non-Square things.

The three wisemen (CHRONO TRIGGER): The three wisemen from Chrono Trigger (Square) are Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchoir, all wisemen from Enhasa, a city in the clouds. All three were stranded throughout time when Enhasa was destroyed. Melchoir was a metalsmith who was sent to Crono's present, Balthazar was a technological freak sent into the future, and Gaspar was sent to the End of Time. In Xenogears, I have witnessed both Balthazar and Gaspar, and maybe Melchoir (if Wiseman is Melchoir). Both come from Shebat, a flying city in the clouds. Coincidence? I think not!

Enhasa (CHRONO TRIGGER): Enhasa is the city in the sky from Chrono Trigger. Enhasa was home to a group of beings who had magic skills and considered themselves better than the people of the Earth below. Flying City Shebat is very similar. It holds a race who consider themselves superior to those below, and it hovers miles above the Earth, just like Enhasaa.

Blanca (STREET FIGHTER II): Don't you think Rico looks just a little bit like him? (Rico's the one on the left!)

Nikola/Darth Vader (STAR WARS): Nikola's character is very, very similar to Darth Vader from Star Wars. Like Vader, Nikola defected to the "dark side" (Solaris). Then, when he returned to destroy Shebat, Maria, his daughter fought him. She asked what happened to her "real father" and Nikola said "that man died years ago." After she defeated his gear, he told her to kill him. She wouldn't, and he destroyed himself, but said he would always be with her. Anyone who has seen "Return of the Jedi" knows that this is almost exactly similar to the end scene. This is not the first time Square has copied Star Wars. In FF6, Kefka kicked Emperor Gestahl off of the Floating Continent, similar to when Darth Vader throws Emperor Palpatine into the reactor at the end of "Jedi."

Grandia (Sega Saturn): I put this up here because when I first told my friend (a rabid Saturn owner) about Xenogears his comment was "it sounds like an exact copy of Grandia, except with jumping. Square sucks." I am still baffled by this comment and don't know how Xenogears copies it in any way, except that Grandia also has "futuristic" themes. Wow, so does FF6 and FF7! Who's copying who, Square or Saturn?

Character graphics (BEYOND THE BEYOND, SUIKODEN, others): Xenogears is not the first game to have Anime-style images of characters' faces next to the text they are speaking. However, Xenogears is the only game I have seen with clear and crisp images of the characters. All the others I have seen have had images that were fuzzy and dull. Also, the art of the Xenogears characters is far superior to any other character art I have ever seen. Xenogears has taken a good thing and enhanced it ten-fold!

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! I add this comparison and I already get comments! This is the kind of response I'm looking for, guys and gals! Anyway, this response came from Prismic, who has his own XG walkthrough page. As I said, any additions will be given due credit, so here is Prismic's comparison.

Dear General, After reading your Xenogears page, I had a few things that maybe you had known or not :) When your friend referred that it sounded exactly like Grandia, it's because Grandia had fully rotational objects as well, something that's not present in every RPGs now a days as you already know :). It also seemed kind of strange when you compared Enhasa with Shebat. I thought a better one with Solaris might be better. The people of Solaris were to ones who consider themselves higher beings than those of the lambs, while Shebat was against the philosophy of the Solaris. Although if you mention the fact that both Zeal and Shebat were ruled by a Queen then that's true :). Another comparison that I could think of as well was the music from both Xenogears and Chrono Trigger. Some of the themes, in the way they are composed and instruments used share a very similar pattern. Although it shouldn't come as surprise due to the fact that they both had the same composer :). And as a ittle something that's a bit obscure, they both contain heavy anime elements, something that was uncommon with their track record. To praise it a little, their battle system had both been very inventive :). They are both apart from the usual ATB battle system and introduced "combo system" :). I don't know, I am nitpicking, but both games are similar in many ways, including the arranged soundtracks, in which both were arranged in a way that's apart from everyone else. I guess that's what makes Square so popular and brilliant :).

Go to my links page to Prismic's Unofficial XG Walkthrough page.

Here is another opinion from Ying Zhang on the Grandia/Xenogears debate:

I own both games, a while ago, there's a big discussion on one of the "Import Games" Messages Board about Xenogear vs Grandia, I posted a detailed comparisom for both games and here's some information: Note: Grandia is developed by a Japanese company called GameArts, they did the "Lunar" Series on RPGs, they are used to be a Sega only developer, but now they decide to do PSX games as well. A. Similar points 1. Development date: both games started development at end of 1995 (Yep, it took them 2 years to make) 2. Graphic Technique: (notice I said Technique, not Style), Both games uses Polygon Background for field maps, and sprites for character graphic, both have "Speek Portraits" And that's it! Now for the individual points for each game: B. Comparision 1.Storyline >>Xenogears - 9/10 OK, it may sometimes feel a bit like Evangelion or that old anime Orguss 02(nothing wrong with that!), but the overall storyline is very new to RPG, and well written, it holds quite afew emotional moments >>Grandia -7.5/10 VERY Game Arts, which is not a bad thing, it's got that kind of "My first Adventure" charm to it, but kinda loses it after the second disk (charm can only last you for that long), and somepoints in the game are so predicatable you may laugh at them, quite old fashioned story telling as well... Also, playing a bunch of 14 years old kids going on their "Big Adventures", just doesn't cut it like Xeno did to me. 2. Graphics >>Xenogears - 9/10 nice, nice and fast, it's got a more "realistic" looking to the textures and moves at the blazing fast pace (OK, not the fastest graphic routine out there, but 1. It's an RPG, not a racing game, so it doesn't matter much; 2. After playing Grandia, ANYTHING seems fast in comparision). The Sprites are more pixellated than Grandias, but they are animated better and a lot more life like than Grandias. >>Grania - 7/ 10 nice but S-L-O-W, I was quite blown away by some of the locations, and the graphics are more cartoony than Xenogear's (kinka like compare Mana to FF3), but the framrate is PAINFULLY slow, at some large towns, when you running around, it some times drop to 10-15 frams a sec, and the running seems like walking. 3. Music >>Xenogears - 9/10 Great "environment" music, suits each location brilliantly, atmospheric stuff. I especially liked the vocals at the back of some pieces, you cann't hum to most of them, but they sounds just great. One of the best soundtrack of recent years. >>Grandia - 9/10 Full Orcastral bliss! This is a point I can not pick between the two games, both are great, Grandia's being more heroic and majestic, but does not fill with the location as well, it's the kinda music great to listen on it's own though... Hint: Get the CD! 4. Character development >>Xenogears - 9/10 Geart, geart, lots of unexpected turns, and great character development, like all great Square games, you feel like you know the chara as real persons towards the end of the game. >>Grandia - 7/10 OLD fashioned chara potrait, hot blooded youth as the main hero etc, uninspiring, but while thay are at it, did a great job. 5. Battle System? >>Xenogears 9.5/10 Ever wondered what a Beat-em-up/ RPG hybrid will play like? This is it! Great fun in almost every aspects, but can be very long sometimes, that's why it didn't got a 10 >>Grandia 7.5/10 Updated from the system used in Lunar, kinda plays like the first generation of ATB, fun for a while, and learing skills/spells are great, but way to0 slow to do. 6. Small details? >>I take you mean the attention to detail, so in this aspect both game would have got a 9/10 as both companies are masters of this sort of things But I wish to add the following points which are more important than ANY of the ones mentioned above IMHO. 1. Xenogears feels like a complete game, whiles Grandia feels "Bit of story, battle, story, battle, battle, story...." ie, it feels detached, the battles are kind of only there for you to level up, they don't feel like they are an integrated part of the game, ie. a must have thing on your quest, they are... just there. On the other hand, Almost every of Xenogears battle feels like they are essential to your adventure, a part of a whole being. 2. Though the graphicd engine in both games are scarily similar, Grandia's 3D feels they are just there to show you what they can do, while Xenogears actually serves as a function. i.e Almost all of Grandia's dungeon, town terrian is essentially flat (bar a few last dungeon), there maybe some height difference but they don't serve a purpose. In Xenogears, you have to run, jump to alsorts of platforms and THINK which way to go before you can advance. So all in all, if sum up the points listed above, one can see that Xeno IS a better game, not because I'm a PSX or Square fan, but if you be critical, you can see the truth. Xeno compared to Grandia is compare the new school of RPG making to the old school, and a master piece to a good piece. I can see the point of someone may not like Xeno, if they don't read Japanese and just play the game for it's gameplay, then maybe it'll sunk to Grandia's level, but please, for RPGs, one need to understand the story AND complete it before one can make a verdict, I did Grandia in 1 month and Xeno is 4 days, not because Xeno is shoter, but it's more involving and grabs you back. So there you go, we need not to worry Xeno is too similar to Grandia, and it is better! I think your Saturn owner friend is just jealous of such a great game (beaten Saturn's best hands down) will not come out on his system! (Mind you, there'are those Saturn owners who blindly hates Squaresoft for reasons I can't comprehend) On a seperate note : Grandia is rumored to come to the PSX! Hope they improve the speed.