Xenogears

[HareBrain]

According to the search function, this 1998 Square Playstation game has been mentioned only ten times on these forums, and four of those were by me. I'm currently working my way through the below video, part review, part walkthrough and part (hopefully) explanation. It's reminded me how ambitious this game was in terms of story. Has anyone else here ever played it?

 

[Toby Frost]

I've never even heard of it! It looks like a strange mixture of genres, perhaps a bit like an early Final Fantasy game. Is it any good?

 

[HareBrain]

Is it any good?

Now there's a question. It has a fascinating plot, though possibly too much of one, which melds sci-fi, religious concepts and philosophy. If it were competently turned into a novel series, it might be my favourite ever story. But it's really confusing to keep track of on a first play-through, and the game-play is variable (and now of course very dated).

Interesting you mention Final Fantasy. The basic idea was mooted as a possibility for FF7, and the reason there's a character called Sephiroth in FF7 is probably down to that. (There's a lot of Kabbalistic stuff in this).

It was never available in the UK, for some reason. I had to order a copy from the US, and use a conversion disc to get it to run on my PS. I found the combat too hard after the halfway point and never finished it, so I missed most of the massive reveals until I found them on the internet.

 

[Toby Frost]

It is a shame that some older games have ropey or weird gameplay, as they were often more inventive than modern ones. I've found the same thing with Morrowind and to a lesser degree Thief 2, which by modern standards have poor graphics and clunky mechanics, but are really impressive in terms of ideas. I think it's not just the technical limitations of the time, but the sense of game makers figuring out what worked and what didn't. There were several Amiga games which I loved at the time, and which would probably be unplayable now.

 

[Foxbat]

I remember another odd game with strange mechanics. It was called Gravity. I was quite fascinated by it for a while but looks a real mess today.
Sometimes nostalgia is left as just that. No point in going back.