Why Do Humans Like Music Domain_10

1998 video game

1998 video game

Xenogears
N American box art
Developer(s)	Square Product Development Division iii[1]
Publisher(s)	JP: Squaresoft NA: Square Electronic Arts
Manager(s)	Tetsuya Takahashi
Producer(southward)	Hiromichi Tanaka
Programmer(southward)	Kiyoshi Yoshii
Artist(southward)	Kunihiko Tanaka Yasuyuki Honne
Writer(s)	Tetsuya Takahashi Kaori Tanaka Masato Kato
Composer(s)	Yasunori Mitsuda
Series	Xeno
Platform(due south)	PlayStation
Release	JP: Feb 11, 1998 NA: Oct 20, 1998
Genre(southward)	Role-playing
Way(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Xenogears

^[a]
is a 1998 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the debut entry in the larger
Xeno
franchise. The gameplay of
Xenogears
revolves around navigating 3D environments both on-foot and using humanoid mecha dubbed “Gears”. Combat is governed by a version of the plough-based “Active Time Battle” organisation. The story follows protagonist Fei Fong Wong and several others as they journey beyond the world to overthrow the all-powerful rule of Solaris and uncover mysteries concerning their world. The story incorporates Jungian psychology, Freudian idea, and religious symbolism.

Created past Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Kaori Tanaka as a proposal for
Last Fantasy VII, information technology was allowed to be adult equally its own project; outset as a sequel to
Chrono Trigger
so as an original game with a scientific discipline fiction premise. Information technology was developed under the working title “Project Noah”. The characters were designed by Kunihiko Tanaka, while the gears were designed past Junya Ishigaki and Yoshinori Ogura. The designs were portrayed during in-game cinematics through the use of anime cutscenes. Due to time constraints and the team’south general inexperience, the second half of the game’s plot was primarily told through cutscenes.

The game was virtually not localized due to its religious content; its localization was handled past Square Electronic Arts staff and translator Richard Honeywood, who described it every bit ane of the most troublesome games of his career. Xenogears received critical acclaim, with many calling it a work of art due to its heavy religious themes and elements of Jungian psychology. Praises specially went towards the storyline, gameplay, characters, and psychological and religious themes, but received criticism for the rushed pace of the second disc, due to a lack of gameplay and excessive narration. Past 2003, the game had shipped 1.nineteen one thousand thousand copies worldwide, gaining a cult following. While a directly sequel has non been developed, Takahashi would later on found Monolith Soft and develop the
Xenosaga
trilogy and
Xenoblade Chronicles
games as spiritual successors.

Gameplay

[edit]

Xenogears
combines traditional role-playing video game structures such every bit Square’s signature Active Time Boxing arrangement with new features particular to the game’s martial arts combat way. It features two slightly different boxing systems: in the first, the player controls human characters in turn-based gainsay manipulated through the sequencing of learned combos. The second, making utilise of “gears”, introduces unlike sets of statistics and abilities for each grapheme.^[two]
Xenogears
features both traditional anime and pre-rendered CGI movie clips by Production I.Yard to illustrate of import plot points.^[three]

The player advances the protagonist and his companions through a three-dimensional fictional earth^[iv]
with visitable cities, geographical sites, and other locations spread out across several continents. Some locations exist not on the original world map, but in the sky. At first, the party only travels on foot, but can eventually employ a variety of vehicles, including their gears and the “sand submarine” Yggdrasil.

Battle system

[edit]

Boxing in
Xenogears
is a variant of the Active Time Boxing organisation found in games such equally
Chrono Trigger
and the
Final Fantasy
series.^[5]
Most enemy encounters in
Xenogears
are random. When a boxing begins, there is a transition to a separate screen with a combat interface. Player-characters use a combination of martial arts moves, “Ether” (magical) attacks, and special “Deathblow” combinations, which are learned through the repetition of specific proportions of strong, moderate, and weak hits. All offensive deportment employ Activity Points (AP), costing either three points, two points, or one signal, corresponding to the intensity of the attack.^[six]
Each character can initially utilize only iii AP per turn, simply at higher levels, they tin can somewhen use up to seven AP per turn. At a certain betoken in the game, characters can employ “Elemental Deathblows”, which attach elemental attributes to physical combos. In add-on to being used for attacks, AP may be saved and allocated to Assault Points for combo attacks during later turns. A total of 28 AP may exist accumulated for combo attacks.

Characters can utilise a variety of magical abilities for both offense and marry-support. These abilities are express past the number of available Ether Points (EP), which must be replenished using items during exploration (non-combat) sequences. For well-nigh characters, these abilities are attributed to “Ether”, a mysterious ability to which (presumably) all humans have admission. Some characters’ magical abilities are referred to by unlike names, implying differences in their origins. For example, Fei’s magic is chosen “Chi” and Citan’s is called “Arcane”. While fighting in gears, human Ether abilities are amplified, though some change or get unavailable during this blazon of combat.^[five]

Gear battle

[edit]

In addition to mitt-to-hand combat, the characters sometimes fight from within giant robots called gears.^[7]
In gear combat, the limiting factor of AP is replaced by fuel, with each set on consuming an corporeality corresponding to its ability.^[7]
For these battles, “deathblows” may simply exist executed after first building upward the “Attack Level”—represented by a number in the bottom-left of the gear combat interface—through the execution of potent, moderate, or weak attacks. One deathblow is allowed per point on the Assail Level judge. There are iii levels for normal gear deathblows and, beyond the third level, an “infinite” level with its own set of deathblows. To attain “Infinity Mode”, a character must stay at assault level 3 while performing any other action. With each turn, there is a take chances that Infinity Mode volition be reached. Having a duration of iii turns, Infinity Mode allows fuel to be recharged in much larger quantities and, while in this style, gears have admission to “Infinity” attacks.^[8]
Gears can regain fuel with a “Charge” command. The gears can activate “Boosters” which enable them to human activity faster at a toll of actress fuel per turn.^[7]
The “Special Option” command allows for gear HP restoration abilities and special, fuel-consuming attacks. When a gear has no fuel left, it can no longer execute attacks, use special options, or utilize boosters. They can, however, Charge to regain fuel and use Ether abilities. Gear fuel, parts, and upgrades may be purchased in shops or from certain private vendors.

Plot

[edit]

Setting

[edit]

Xenogears
initially takes place on Ignas, the largest continent of the
Xenogears
earth and the site of a centuries-long war between the nations of Aveh and Kislev.^[9]
A church-similar organization known as the Ethos has excavated gears, giant robot suits, for the preservation of the world’s civilization. Although Kislev originally had the upper hand in the war, a mysterious regular army known every bit Gebler appeared and began to assistance Aveh. With Gebler’s aid, the Aveh armed forces recovered its losses and began making its way into Kislev’southward territory. Equally the story unfolds, the setting broadens to comprehend the entire world and the two floating countries, Shevat and Solaris. Solaris, ruled by Emperor Cain and an AI collective known every bit the Gazel Ministry, commands the Gebler army and the Ethos and secretly uses both to dominate the land-dwellers. Shevat has been the only country to evade the control of Solaris.

Much of the
Xenogears
plot and backstory is detailed in the Japanese-only book
Xenogears Perfect Works. Produced by DigiCube, it details the history of the
Xenogears
universe from the discovery of the Zohar to the start of the game.^[ten]
[xi]
According to the
Perfect Works
schematic (as well as the game’s cease credits),
Xenogears
is the 5th episode in a series of six, with events spanning multiple millennia.^[12]

Characters

[edit]

Xenogears
‘
nine playable characters come from different areas of the game’southward world. The game begins on Ignas, a continent with two countries, Aveh and Kislev. Fei and Citan at starting time announced to be from this state, although it is afterward learned that they originate from the upper-case letter cities Aphel Aura and Etrenank of the floating countries of Shevat and Solaris, respectively. Fei is the story’due south protagonist, and has initially lost his memories of his past. Elly, a cute Gebler officer of Solaris, is destined to be near Fei and falls in love with him past the cease of the game. Citan is a man whose knowledge of the world and technology often aids in the party’south quest. Bart, a desert pirate, is also from Ignas and is the rightful heir to the throne of Aveh. Rico, a demi-homo with incredible forcefulness, lives in a Kislev prison, spending his days as a gear-battling champion. Solaris, a hidden city of advanced technology, is abode to several characters in the game. Baton, a pious worker for the Ethos religious group, was originally from Solaris. Maria and Chu-Chu are both from Shevat, the floating city and the only place resisting Solaris’ domination. Emeralda is a humanoid being constructed by an aboriginal civilization from a colony of nanomachines, and was retrieved from the ruins of the ancient civilization Zeboim.^[13]
Pregnant non-playable characters include Krelian and Miang, both leaders of Solaris who seek to revive Deus, a mechanical weapon that barbarous to earth thousands of years ago. They serve as the game’s main antagonists. Grahf, a mysterious homo with immense ability, serves equally a major adversary; he follows Fei and his group and often fights them, though his goals remain a mystery until very late in the game. Equally beingness
the Contact,
the Anti-type
and
the Complement, Fei, Elly, and Miang have been reincarnated several times throughout the game’s history.^[14]

Story

[edit]

Xenogears
centers around the protagonist Fei Fong Wong, an adopted young male person in the village of Lahan, brought by a mysterious “masked man” iii years ago.^[fifteen]
The events surrounding Fei’s arrival at the village cause him to have retrograde amnesia. During an attack on Lahan from Gebler, Fei pilots an empty gear and fights the enemy, accidentally destroying the village. Equally a result, Fei and Citan, the village’due south doctor, leave with the abandoned gear to get it abroad from the village.^[16]
Fei meets Elly, a Gebler officer, and and so Grahf, who claims to know most Fei’south past and admits to spearheading the attack on Lahan to unlock Fei’s abilities. Eventually, Fei and Citan are picked up by Bart, a desert pirate and heir to the throne of Aveh. Fei once again loses command of himself inside his gear while Bart and Citan are attacked by an unknown red gear. Fei wakes upwards in a Kislev prison and meets Wiseman, a mysterious masked man, who originally brought Fei to Lahan.^[17]
Fei is able to escape with the aid of his friends, including a new 1, prisoner Rico, but he and Elly are separated from the rest of the political party and accidentally shot down past Bart.^[eighteen]

They are rescued by the Thames, a mobile floating city. Afterwards learning Elly’southward whereabouts, Gebler attacks Thames to kidnap Elly and Miang, a Gebler officeholder, unsuccessfully attempts to educate her. Gebler leader Ramsus, who holds a vendetta confronting Fei, attacks Thames, searching for him.^[xix]
Afterward, Billy, an Ethos worker onboard Thames, allows Fei to use the Ethos’ avant-garde medical technology. Bishop Stone, Ethos’ leader, reveals to the party Ethos’s true purpose of controlling the country dwellers, or “Lambs”, for Solaris.^[20]
The group follows Stone to Zeboim, an digging site. They detect a immature girl composed of nanomachines, which is what Solarian leader Krelian seeks. Stone takes the daughter while the grouping fights Id, the mysterious cherry-red gear’s pilot, who wants the daughter, but is stopped past Wiseman.^[21]
The group returns and finds Fei awake and standing at his gear with a case of anterograde amnesia.^[22]
Fei and his friends decide to ally themselves with the floating city of Shevat, the but remaining urban center capable of resisting Solaris, joined by Shevat locals Maria and Chu-Chu. During this time, Bart regains his throne and initiates peace between the ii countries and Rock is destroyed. Upon entering Solaris, they encounter Emeralda, the nanomachine colony. She attacks at first, but recognizes Fei, referring to him as “Kim”, much to Fei’s confusion.^[23]
In Solaris, Fei learns that Citan has been working for Emperor Cain and that Solaris has been producing food and medicine out of mutated humans in the Soylent Arrangement facility.^[24]
The party as well learns that the Gazel Ministry seeks to revive God and accomplish eternal life, while Krelian seeks to possess Elly. They escape from Solaris before Id destroys it equally Citan was actually a double agent on their side because Cain was actually against the Ministry. Dorsum at Shevat, Citan informs his friends that Id is actually Fei’s divide personality, with Fei’s gear turning blood-red when he switches to Id due to their connection.^[25]

Subsequently Krelian manipulates Ramsus into assassinating the Emperor, the Gazel Ministry uses the Gaetia Primal, an antiquity that manipulates the Dna of massive numbers of humans effectually the world, turning them into mutants called Wels to collect flesh to reconstruct their god, an all-powerful state of war machine called Deus that crash-landed on the planet ten 1000 years ago.^[26]
During this time, Elly and Fei become romantically involved with each other^[27]
and learn that they are the reincarnations of Sophia and Lacan. Lacan was a painter while Sophia was the Holy Female parent of Nisan effectually the time of the state of war between Shevat and Solaris five hundred years before. Lacan blamed himself for Sophia’due south death during the war and, with the help of Miang, became Grahf and sought to destroy the world. Although defeated, he and Miang take transmigrated their minds into other humans since. Krelian disposes the Gazel Ministry building considering they are no longer necessary and kidnaps Elly, the
Mother, with Miang who must be sacrificed in lodge to revive Deus. Miang is killed past an enraged Ramsus as he realizes he has been used, and Elly turns into Miang. Before becoming captivated by Deus with Krelian, Miang revealed that Deus is actually the cadre of an interplanetary invasion system created by a federation of spacefaring humans, ane that was deemed far besides unsafe for use and was therefore dismantled.^[14]
Fei, as Id, attempts to brand contact with the Zohar. Wiseman, who reveals himself to be Fei’southward father, stops him, giving peace to Fei’s other personalities. At this time, Fei makes contact with the Wave Being—an extra-dimensional being who is trapped inside Deus and is the source of ability for all gears—and learns that he must destroy Deus to costless humanity. Fei’southward gear transforms into the Xenogears and Grahf appears, revealing that he had been within Fei’south father’s body.^[28]
Grahf tries to merge with Fei merely is defeated and sacrifices himself.

Fei had discovered that he is a descendant of Abel, a immature boy who was a passenger on board the Eldridge, a spaceship that was being used to transport Deus, who had become cocky-enlightened and took over the Eldridge. Among the confusion, Abel was separated from his mother and accidentally fabricated contact with the Moving ridge Existence through the Zohar, Deus’ power source. Information technology gave him the power to i mean solar day destroy Deus and the Zohar in order to gratuitous itself. The Wave Existence too sensed Abel’due south longing for his mother and used the biological computer Kadomony to create a woman for a companion.^[29]
When Deus gained total control over the Eldridge, the captain decided to initiate the self-destruct sequence in an attempt to destroy it. Both Deus and the Zohar survived the explosion and landed on a nearby planet along with Abel, under the protection of the Wave Being. He was the sole survivor, only was soon united with the woman that the Wave Existence had created for him equally a companion, Elly. Abel and Elly, at first, led a happy life, merely Deus had as well created Miang, Cain, and the Gazel Ministry building to begin a human civilization on the planet, one which would be under their control to i twenty-four hour period be turned into Wels and be captivated into Deus to recover its strength. When the now-adult Abel and Elly discovered this, they openly challenged Cain and the Gazel Ministry, but lost and were both killed. Still, through the power of the Wave Being, they are able to exist reincarnated in afterwards eras to combat Deus.^[14]
One of these incarnations lived during an ancient technologically avant-garde era in Zeboim, where Abel’s incarnation went by the name Kim and created Emeralda. Ramsus, revealed to be a biologically engineered clone of Emperor Cain, who had a change of center overtime subsequently killing Abel, created by Krelian and Miang as a means of decision-making Deus who was rejected in favor of Fei, hence his hatred of the latter, attacks one more time and is finally defeated. He is subsequently rescued during an attack and convinced to let go of his anger and aid the group.

Fei sets out to destroy Deus and gratis the Moving ridge Existence and Elly. In Merkaba, the party defeats Deus, but they realize that the energy released from the Moving ridge Existence’s shift volition destroy the planet.^[xxx]
Elly, inside Deus, tries to move it away from the planet and Fei, in his Xenogears, follows to save her, only both disappear in the rift. Krelian confronts them, telling Fei he only sought to stop the pain and suffering that comes with man existence by reverting everything back to when information technology all began, when all was one, to ascend to the realm of God. Fei rejects Krelian’s credo with his love for Elly, merely Krelian challenges Fei, telling him to prove this love that could make him independent of God, and calls forth Urobolus, a gigantic serpentine incarnation of Miang. Xenogears appears and Fei uses information technology to defeat Urobolus, destroying Miang for proficient. Krelian releases Elly and reveals to Fei that he had planned to get i with God along with Elly. During her time with Krelian, Elly had seen inside his heart and realized it was full of sadness and despair for all the atrocities he had committed. Despite everything, Elly says that Krelian truly loved people more than anyone else.^[31]
Because no 1 volition forgive his sins, he declines Fei’south offer to return and ascends to a higher plane of existence along with the Wave Existence, telling Fei and Elly that he envies them. Fei and Elly then return to their planet forth with Xenogears and reunite with the rest of the party.^[32]

Development

[edit]

Xenogears
was produced past Hiromichi Tanaka, who previously worked on the SNES game
Undercover of Mana. The scenario of the game was written by director Tetsuya Takahashi and by Kaori Tanaka.^[33]
[34]
Yasuyuki Honne served every bit art director,^[3]
while Kunihiko Tanaka was responsible for the character designs.^[35]
Tetsuo Mizuno, Tomoyuki Takechi, and
Terminal Fantasy
creator Hironobu Sakaguchi were executive producers for
Xenogears.^[35]
Koichi Mashimo, an animation managing director and his studio Bee Train, was in charge of the anime cut scenes.^[36]
The CGI sequences were created past Shirogumi.^[33]
Xenogears
started out equally an early concept conceived by Takahashi and Tanaka for the Foursquare game
Terminal Fantasy 7.^[34]
Their superior in the company deemed it “too night and complicated for a fantasy”, only Takahashi was immune to develop it equally a split project.^[34]
The project began nether the working title “Project Noah”.^[37]
The main impetus for Takahashi was that he was growing frustrated with the
Final Fantasy
series.^[38]
The initial concept was to brand
Xenogears
a sequel to
Chrono Trigger, but after multiple clashes with the company over this and unspecified practical difficulties, it was decided to go far a completely original title. Due to this initial evolution idea, in that location were concepts unsuited for a fantasy world, so a compromise was made by incorporating both fantasy and science fiction into the game’s world.^[38]

Development took approximately two years, and included a staff of thirty developers. Preliminary planning and creation of the backstory extended to several years before that.^[38]
[39]
The discussion “Xeno” had been decided betwixt staff from an early stage, with its pregnant being “something strange or conflicting”. “Gears” was called from multiple suggested words. The game’s Gears were not present during early stages, with their places being filled by traditional summoned monsters. The game’s apply of anime cutscenes was chosen as it was hard to properly recreate Tanaka’southward Gear artwork into 3D CGI. The game’southward engine was also designed to be all-time suited for the 3D map displays and battle arenas.^[xl]
Takahashi had wanted to create the game in full 3D, merely the PlayStation’south capacities meant this could not be managed, resulting in the current mesh of 2nd sprites against 3D backgrounds.^[38]
The themes and story were profoundly influenced by the works and philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, also as dystopian science fiction films such as THX 1138 and Soylent Green. According to Tanaka, the reason for this correlation was merely due to a common interest with her married man. According to her, the story revolved effectually “where do we come from, what are we, where are nosotros going”. In that location was a large portion of story and artwork that did not make it into the last game.^[34]
The game’s 2d disc consisted mainly of narration past Fei and Elly of events following the party’s escape from Solaris. While it was popularly causeless to be due to upkeep constraints, Takahashi later revealed the full reason; as his team was inexperienced they were unable to create the unabridged proposed game in the expected two-year development time, and then instead of catastrophe prematurely with the finish of the first disc, Takahashi offered up a compromise which became the second disc’southward content, allowing the staff to terminate the game inside time and upkeep deadlines.^[41]

Square had announced that
Xenogears
may not have come out in the United states of america due to “sensitive religious problems”.^[42]
[43]
The English translation of
Xenogears
was the beginning instance in which an English localization team worked directly with Square developers. It was the first major project of Square translator Richard Honeywood. Co-ordinate to Honeywood, translating the game was a especially hard task due to it containing numerous scientific concepts and philosophies. He came into contact with it considering its previously assigned translators quit or asked for reassignment due to its challenge.^[44]
In a later interview, Honeywood stated that the biggest issue was with the multiple religious references, and the concept at the end of “killing God”, which needed to be adapted so that it remained faithful to the original premise while stepping effectually some content that might offend. Honeywood may also accept had a hand in the Japanese naming of Deus: the staff were originally going to phone call it Yahweh, and during his argument against information technology he said “It’s dangerous” (ヤベーよ,
yabē yo). The Japanese staff constitute the similarity betwixt Yahweh and
yabē
agreeable, and, according to Honeywood, decided to call the boss Yabeh in Japanese.^[45]
Still, in the last Japanese release of Xenogears, the boss is called Deus (デウス,
deusu), and so either the proper noun was changed again at a after point or Honeywood’southward account is inaccurate.

Foursquare Enix released
Xenogears
on the Japanese PlayStation Network on June 25, 2008, and in North America on Feb 22, 2011.^[46]

Music

[edit]

The music in
Xenogears
was composed, arranged, and produced by Yasunori Mitsuda, his showtime major projection since the 1995 Super NES title
Chrono Trigger.^[47]
The
Xenogears Original Soundtrack
was released on two discs and published by DigiCube in Japan in 1998. The score contains 41 instrumental tracks, in addition to a choral track and 2 songs. Co-ordinate to Mitsuda, the music of
Xenogears
belongs to the traditional music genre.^[48]
Though he first described it as stemming from “a world of [his] own imagining” rather than whatsoever specific country,^[48]
he has also claimed a strong Irish gaelic or Celtic music influence.^[49]
At that place are ii vocal tracks included on the OST, and both are sung past Joanne Hogg.^[50]
One of the tracks, “Stars of Tears”, did non appear in the terminal version of the game. Information technology was originally intended to play in a cutting scene at the start of the game along with the main staff credits. The scene, however, was removed for pacing issues, as it would have fabricated the combined opening picture and introduction scenes last roughly ten minutes.^[51]
The other, “Small Ii of Pieces ~Screeching Shards~”, was the showtime ending theme with lyrics to ever announced in a game developed past Square.^[52]
[53]

An arranged soundtrack of
Xenogears
equanimous and arranged by Mitsuda was released equally
Creid. For
Creid, he expanded on the theme from the original anthology of having Celtic influences in “like shooting fish in a barrel-to-heed-to” pop tracks to create an album of bundled
Xenogears
music with a more prominent Celtic mode.^[52]
[54]
The album contains a mixture of vocal and instrumental tracks, and combines Japanese and Celtic music together in its pieces.^[55]
[56]
The album features 5 vocal tracks and five instrumental tracks.^[57]
The main lyricist, Junko Kudo, wrote the lyrics to four of the 5 vocal tracks, while Mitsuda wrote the lyrics to the title track, which were so translated from Japanese to Gaelic for the recording.^[58]
Celtic singer Joanne Hogg did non reprise her role in
Creid.^[fifty]
Instead, Tetsuko Honma sang the 4 tracks written past Kudo, while Eimear Quinn sang “Creid”.^[59]
Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album, an album of music from the game bundled orchestrally by Mitsuda’due south own music company Procyon Studio, was released on CD and vinyl in Feb 2011.^[60]
[61]

A Blu-ray album entitled
Xenogears Original Soundtrack Revival Disc – the start and the last –
was released in Japan on April 4, 2018. The album is a remaster of the original soundtrack, plus outtakes and other content.^[62]
A 20th ceremony concert was held in Tokyo, Japan on April vii and 8, 2018.^[63]

Merchandise

[edit]

There have been several Japanese books and comics published concerning the
Xenogears
franchise.
Xenogears God Slaying Story, a series past Masatoshi Kusakabe, was published by Shueisha in 1998.^[64]
DigiCube published both
Xenogears Perfect Works
and a memorial album named
Thousands of Daggers, which contains the unabridged script to the game in Japanese, along with screenshots.^[65]
Two manga books,
Xenogears Comic Anthology
and
Xenogears 4koma Comic, were released by Movic. Movic released wallscrolls, notebooks, pins, keychains, stickers, and postcards depicting the
Xenogears
bandage.^[66]
[67]

Reception

[edit]

Xenogears
was a commercial success in both Nippon and North America.^[87]
It received a “Gold Prize” from Sony in May 1998, indicating sales to a higher place 500,000 units in Japan,^[88]
and proceeded to sell over 890,000 copies domestically by the cease of the year.^[89]
Equally of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 1.xix million copies worldwide, with 910,000 of those copies existence shipped in Japan and 280,000 abroad.^[90]
As a result of these sales, it was re-released every bit a Greatest Hits title in December 2003.^[91]
In Japanese gaming mag
Famitsu,
Xenogears
was voted the 16th all-time video game of all time past its readers in a poll held in 2006.^[92]
On a similar poll at GameFAQs, users of the website voted
Xenogears
the 32nd “All-time Game Ever” in 2005.^[93]
It was placed in the aforementioned position in IGN’due south “Top 100 Games – Readers Choice” feature in 2006,^[94]
and equally number 28 in 2008.^[95]

Critical response

[edit]

Xenogears
was met with critical acclaim.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
praised the story, characters, gameplay, graphics, and soundtrack.^[72]
IGN described it as the “hands-downwards all-time RPG” of the year, praising the storyline, gameplay, graphics, presentation, and soundtrack.^[43]
GameSpot described it as one of Squaresoft’s best role-playing games, praising the story, gameplay, and audio, but criticized the lack of graphical polish.^[7]
Allgame pointed out in a positive lite that the character battles are “unlike near office-playing games from this company”.^[70]

The game’south story and characters were well received.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
said information technology is “rich in story and character development.”^[72]
Game Informer
and
Next Generation
agreed that the plot was ane of the game’south highlights, the former drawing comparisons to
Star Wars,
Star Blazers, the Quondam Testament, and many other Foursquare games, making information technology “a game every RPG fanatic must play.”^[42]
[74]
IGN said the storyline is intricate, engrossing, “deep, circuitous, and once in a while even confusing, until more of the real underlying plotline is uncovered.”^[43]
GameSpot said the story is “excellent” and “thought-provoking” but said it can be “a little preachy at times”, but went on to say that the religious and existential themes “enhance the story and [our] agreement of the game’southward deep characterizations”.^[7]
Game Revolution described the storyline as “epic” and “fabulous” with “many twists and turns” and a big cast of characters.^[75]
RPGFan said “the story is unique and probably the most complex and interesting of whatever RPG”, giving it a 99% rating for the story.^[78]
Retrospectively,
Edge
praised the plot’south scope and ambition and the protagonist equally the “most complicated Freudian hero” in video games, only said it has a “flawed” script and “muddied” translation, equally well as too many cutting scenes, specially on the second disc, where the use of the earth map is restricted for an extended period and the number of cut scenes increases.^[96]
Years after the game’s release, Jeremy Parish of
Electronic Gaming Monthly
called the game’s plot “one of the wackiest game plotlines ever”, but said that it “actually makes sense” if the player ignores all of the sideplots.^[14]
IGN, even so, stated that despite having too many cut scenes and a sometimes confusing plot, “immersion is a cardinal gene in
Xenogears
and the questions you may have about the storyline are all answered at some signal in the game.”^[43]
Post-obit the PSN release, RPGFan’southward James Quentin Clark said
Xenogears
has “easily down the best single story I have seen in any video game,” giving it a 100% rating for the story.^[79]

Reviewers largely praised
Xenogears’
gameplay.
Next Generation
praised Square’due south Agile Time Boxing gauge and said that inclusion of the AP meter and philharmonic attacks “is non only refreshing in a turn-based RPG, simply gives players a higher level of interaction during battle.”^[42]
IGN claimed that “the nigh impressive feature in gainsay is the power to use massive “Gears” or mechs”, noting that Square’s attention to programming these battles is fabricated evident by how “visually satisfying” they are.^[43]
IGN praised the game’s exploration, saying that the ability to spring and climb “adds fifty-fifty more depth to exploration of different environments and distances Xenogears from being too straightforward of a traditional RPG”, the merely complaint being that the rotating photographic camera is sometimes “clumsy”.^[43]

The soundtrack was well received.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
said the game sounds as “beautiful” as it looks.^[72]
GameSpot said information technology “expertly uses audio to push button the story forth” and noted that many of the games’ tracks “include voice or chanting and all are accordingly uppity or low with the game’s mood”, just said there were many areas with silence or ambience making the “game’s soundtrack a tad thin.”^[7]
Xenogears
was the showtime Foursquare game to feature voice overs and anime cut scenes.^[7]
Electronic Gaming Monthly
said they are “some of the slickest animation cinemas” they take seen.^[72]
Game Revolution praised the “absolutely spectacular and stunning” hand-drawn anime cut-scenes, but stated that they were sparse and poorly synched with the vocalisation acting.^[75]

Retrospectively,
Edge
commented that although it is “considered by some to exist a multimillion-yen, convoluted scientific discipline-fiction vanity project,
Xenogears
nevertheless remains one of the nearly keenly eulogized PlayStation RPGs.”^[96]
The magazine too noted that it was Takahashi’southward “most challenging and pure work” and that the
Xenosaga
series never quite matched up to
Xenogears.^[96]

Legacy

[edit]

Before long after
Xenogears
was released, there was speculation of a sequel beingness released, although this never occurred.^[87]
In 1999, Tanaka said that a project related to
Xenogears
was being developed. He as well revealed that a sequel to
Xenogears
was initially planned, only never came to be.^[97]
In June 2000, Sugiura Hirohide, president of Monolith Soft, said that a sequel was being considered before beingness cancelled due to the company’s picture show investments at the fourth dimension with
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Inside.^[98]

While
Xenogears
has never had an official sequel or prequel, there was speculation that Namco and Monolith Soft’s
Xenosaga
was a prequel when it was first appear. Tetsuya Takahashi was the director and writer for both
Xenogears
and
Xenosaga
and noted that “with our relation between Foursquare, I think it is difficult for us to say it is a direct sequel or prequel”. Approximately twenty members of the
Xenosaga
development staff had previously worked on
Xenogears.^[99]

On the connection between
Xenogears
and
Xenosaga, Takahashi has stated:

It’s probably more than suitable to say that information technology follows the direction and mode of
Xenogears. […] At present that we are under a dissimilar visitor, we figured we should start everything from scratch all over again. Though there are familiar faces that serve every bit of import characters in
Xenosaga, others are more like cocky-parodies, so we don’t really want
Xenogears
fans to overreact. Like movies, sometimes yous have the director of the movie or friend of the leading thespian appearing equally cameos, then it’s similar to that.^[99]

Xenogears
has occasionally been featured in other Foursquare Enix properties. On 21 Oct 2016, information technology was revealed that Xenogears would be featured in
World of Final Fantasy
as a delusion.^[100]
In 2017, gears from the game, along with avatars of Fei and Bart, were included as pre-club cosmetic bonuses in Square Enix’s mecha shooting game,
Figureheads.^[101]
On 11 February 2018, in celebration of Xenogears’ 20th Anniversary, Kunihiko Tanaka and Junya Ishigaki collaborated with Square Enix to release Xenogears Bring Arts figures of Fei, Elly and Welltall.^[102]
The cast of Xenogears were too featured in
Final Fantasy Dauntless Exvius
for a express time equally part of a collaboration event.^[103]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]

External links

[edit]

• Official website