5/5 ★ – DarkDrawer's review of Xenogears.

The start of it all. Playing the Xenoblade series first, you can really see the similarities across games. The evolution of characters presented is a neat detail, but something different that this game does is lean fully on the mechs which is a key component for the majority of the game. Overall, there are some raw mechanics like the Gear fights which can be tricky, like healing being unlocked in the later stages of the game (and even then, it's a double edged sword), but overall a really interesting system. The on foot battles are pretty standard, however, I really enjoyed the deathblow system even if the only ones really needed are the level 3 and level 1 death blows. The level 2 deathblows are just too obsolete. Combat-wise, although there's some frustrating bosses, I would've loved to see another entry further refine this unique gameplay to something new, but for what it its now, it's very fun. The exploration is akin to most of the Xeno games where you can get some pretty neat items sticking your head through places. Being able to uniquely jump and move the camera around allowed for some interesting exploration, however, the random encounters interrupted me too often than I care to mention. Random encounters in general were likely my biggest issue with this game. Story-wise its one of the strongest just due to the sheer amount of stories told here and the density of the good ones are great. Sure, there are some weak characters with some eh storylines (Rico), but none of the bad characters overstay their welcome and take too much of a focus. The highlights character-wise included Billy, Bart, Citan, Elly, and of course Fei. Unfortunately Emeralda's story got mostly cut, but for what she was, she was also good. Fei Fong Wong is a strong amnesiac protagonist that, although he doesn't know what he's doing for most of the game, excels at moving the plot forward and raising some questions are human life. He's a pretty levelheaded guy and when he isn't, it helps characterizes people in his party like Citan. I could go on about the general plot and nitpick some things I thought could be better, but for what it is, Xenogears has some of the most heart and soul in the series. It's a full on JRPG ride that the player is taken on! Even if Disc 2 isn't finished due to financial reasons, the amount of thought that went into this world and its characters cannot be understated. Just beware of the chair...