Recently, I started replaying one of my all time favorite RPGs, Xenogears. After trudging the through the first few hours of the game (fuck that cave and its stupid switches), I was soon sprinting through the story and gameplay. However, in this new gaming market rich with FPS's and shallow casual games, I forgot what a true Role Playing game was like.
The story is so immersive and fun. True, the game had a low production value so the second disc is more like a book than a game. But even still, the game is so elaborate and involved that you can't help but get swept away by its mythos. The characters are all intriguing for their time (aside from Chu-Chu...that pink firby-bitch is so adorable I wanna puke rainbows and sunshine whenever it shows up on screen). Bart with his badassness, Rico with his badassness, Bill with his badassness, Citan with his (post-sword gaining) badassness. There is just a lot of badassness. But, of course, with all this pushing the game toward pure video game excellence, one tugging question remains: is it better than Final Fantasy VII?
After doing some research (i.e. voicing my opinion to see who retaliates), I realized these two games are always compared. And with good reason too. They both have rich, prolific storylines that question faith, religion and morality. They both came out around the same time by the same video game publisher. They both have the emo protagonist with a split personality disorder. And they both have incredible video game soundtracks known to date. But which is really better? I'm still unsure...but when I have more time to blog about it, I'll let you know my opinion. Until next time...
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Also, FFVII isn't that great.
The best part of Xenogears, IMO, is that towards the end of the game, Fei is so powerful he can headbutt gears while on foot and defeat them in one attack.
Final Fantasy 7 was a GOOD game. Not a great game. Not amazing. It had the materia system, which was a very nice idea for skill learning. It had some interesting battles for its time. But really...I played it back in the day, I enjoyed it, I tried it again in the last couple of years, and couldn't even begin to enjoy it like I did before.
A great game will outlive its console. I still play DW3 now and then for the enjoyment I get out of it. FF4 is something I can play anytime and enjoy. Thing is, a 40-60 hour game has to be really good to warrant consistent replays through it. If FF4 got stretched out to that length, I know I'd still play it. FF6 did get stretched to that limit, and I WILL play it again.
As for Xenogears, give me an advancing text version of the game and I'll love it long time. Long game is long, but also compelling.
I think you're confusing the definition of "emo." To me, emo means being a whiny little bitch and complaining about things incessantly. So I don't think Cloud was emo at the beginning of VII. On the contrary, I loved Cloud at the beginning of VII. It was towards the middle and the end and ESPECIALLY in Advent Children that he was an emo bitch.
As for Fei, after the whole Lahan incident he, understandably, became hesitant to fight. I could empathize with that at first, but after a while his nagging and moaning just became more text that I'd hurriedly bypass. So, while he was a man and was more emotionally open than Cloud, he was still, in fact, emo. I mean, wouldn't someone being emotional make them...you know...emo? Hence the name?
Oh yea, as for the avatar, I just joined so I haven't had the chance to get one. And by the looks of my profile not loading, I'd say I'm stuck with the default for a while.
Xenogears was boring and I did not enjoy the game nor have I enjoyed the Xenosaga games either. They are all quite mediocre. Yes, I know *points to username* I like FF7, its my favorite game. But I will even say that FF7 might not even be the best game in the FF series (FF6 is the only one I would say could top FF7). But FF7 is still better than Xenogears.
Hoho i got a quizz for you Sephiroth since it's your favorite game. Who is the true vilain of FF7 and the one who schemes everything? *hint - the answer isn't in your name*
</rant> ^_^
Still, both games are great IMO.
and swearing.
Xenogears is the game Final Fantasy 7 wishes it was.
Xenogears has a fairly unique graphic style (some might say bad, I say fuck you!), Amazing story, Amazing Battle System. The Music, mindblowing.
*SPOILER CITY TIME*
Grahf...How amazing is Grahf?
He first appears and he pops up a worm, after giving his monologue. "Doth thou desire the power?"
Fuck yes I do.
Then he comes and he fucking kicks your arse.
Then he whoops you again, and you still love him.
And then it turns out Grahf is Wiseman and you're like HOLY FUCK!
And then it turns out Wiseman is your dad and your like HOLY FUCKING FUCK!
And then it turns out that Grahf is basically you from 500 years ago (Without elaborations) and you're like HOLY FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!
And then Elly leaves and you're like FUCK! I levelled her up!
And Sephiroth is like, Meh, I'll sit in a crater and destroy the planet in the most time consuming way possible.
Grahf is the pinnacle of Gaming.
*SPOILERS END HERE!*
I do wish both games get released on the EU/US store, so I can experience them both.
I know the "real" plot of FF7. Jenova is the real villain, Hojo starts everything, Sephiroth is dead the entire game, blah blah blah. The game was still awful and the story was still stupid.
The paperwork was going through, until the government said I can't marry a computer game character =/
For all intensive purposes, Final Fantasy VII is more widely recognized by people, so it is the more relevant game. I'm only about halfway through Xenogears right now, and I already enjoy it more than VII (The prerendered backgrounds in VII made my throw up, not even joking). and while the themes and stuff are still in VII, Gears, I feel, is just presented more skillfully (despite the fact that its money got cut due to that stupid Final Fantasy Movie) than VII.
While I would like to see an HD remake of FFVII, every single sequel, prequel, and spinoff has been totally unnecessary.
And Sephiroth is famous because he's pretty and has a "cool" long sword. If you think -anything- else you're wrong. Especially given that the people who actually read the storyline understand that he isn't even the damn villain.
I'm not saying that it was a bad game, and for all I know the latter portions of the game were brilliant-- it just didn't grab me. Things might have been very different if I'd played it when it first came out.
Also, about FFVII-- yes the story is widely misunderstood, but I honestly don't think it makes a huge difference-- the really important parts of the story are fairly clear. IMO it's FFVIII that's the real misunderstood game in the series, and that's for reasons that run deeper than translation errors.
Xenogears is the one truly opened JRPG that combined robots/religion/myth/science/human nature all into one. More of a Inner Zen feel that made you realize "Holy Shit! everything I believed was a LIE!" Then you wake up from the matrix kinda style thinking.
Seriously, whether you have a preference of one vs the other, you can't say one was better than the other. This 2 games was what made Squaresoft so great before their downfall.
The second disk of Xenogears sucks balls though when it goes into that book mode. It's still a phenomenal game though. Shame it was never released in Europe :-(
To make it worse, He's somehow quadruple posted his pretty crappy post, which is unlike Qraze, cos he's normally a pretty good contributor. (no sarcasm)