Xenogears

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Zenogears..Xenogears..Zenogais..whatever..

Now THIS is the Square I know and love. Despite the polygonal pleasure that was Final Fantasy VII, I will always treasure most the sprite-based 8 & 16-bit RPG's I grew up with. Xenogears is such an RPG, an old-fashioned deep and involving quest, filled with twice as many questions as FFVII, but with far more intriguing, thought provoking, and suprising answers. I won't spoil the details for you, save it is an epic quest, with an innovative battle system, characters you can identify with, and a storyline that moves along at a smooth clip. Best of all, it isn't bogged down by those trademark Square 10-hours-of-leveling-up-before-the-final-battle. Oh YES indeedy!

GRAPHICS: Beautifully animated sprite graphics set in a fully rotating 3-d world. Very detailed polygons used in spectacular mech battles, however.

SOUND: Its Square..its an RPG..need I say more? I WANT the soundtrack.

CONTROL: Buttons can be pressed in certain orders to use correpsonding combo attacks in battle scenes, which are learned while experimenting in battle and leveling up. Innovative, but not overly complicated, giving a wide range of attack options. Controls outside of battle are standard RPG fare.

GAMEPLAY: With its aformentioned battle system, great graphics, phenomenal soundtrack, and an incredible soundtrack, Xenogears is THE RPG of 1998. Thank you to Square and EA for porting this gem Stateside, and respecting our intelligence in handling the most deep and real RPG storyline to date.

GRAPHICS: 9 SOUND: 10 CONTROL: 9 GAMEPLAY: 10 OVERALL: 9

Gentlemen (and women) start your mechs!

SMUG: Tee-hee

RtR: Who let you in here?

-Ragnarok the Red

Madgrad's Review Well, my quest to find game that contains ever single RPG cliche known to man may have come to an end with this game. From Communist choices to SMUG to OPEC machines, this game has it all baby! Yeah! Ahem... For those of you who don't know, Zenogears is the latest RPG from Squaresoft. Its a combination of 2-d characters and 3-d backgrounds. I must warn you, despite the teen rating, the game has a very mature story, more so than FF7, or even PE in some cases. Part of this is due to the religious issues that are raised. In my view point, nothing is offensive, just thought provoking.

GRAPHICS What can I say here? This truly reminds me of old school RPGs. The graphics are a mix of 2d sprites on full 3-d backgrounds. The style is different from Saga Frontier, FF7, PE, or any other Square game, so it is very hard to explain. Since the game is not full 3d alot of graphics whores will be turned off, but they will be missing an excellent title. I will admit, that the style took alot of time for me to get used to, but this may be due to the fact that I am playing PE along with this game too. But, the presentation does grow on you. THe only complaint that I have about the towns is that the doors to get into buildings are sometimes hard to spot, so you have to keep rotating the camera. And when you leave the town, you are treated to a world map that looks like it was ripped out of an NES, not SNES, game. It really does suck. Then there are the battles. Admittedly, I haven't gotten to the full Mech battles yet. But, the plain battles do look a little flat. No 3d spells or summonings here. The best way to describe the battles is to compare them to SUikoden. Both games look very similar in that regard. Still, despite the dated look, the battles are very fun, and the enemies are unique.

SOUND

Its an RPG, so don't expect a friggin White Zombie soundtrack okay? The game has excellent classical music, which sets the mood nicely. And the attack music is okay too. The music serves the purpose well.

CONTROL

Okay, despite the fact that this is an RPG control is an important part here. The battle scheme is interesting, with three types of attacks, managed by the X, /\, and O keys. Each type of attack takes up a different number of action points, so you can link attacks together. You must choose between one ass kickin attack that may not work, or a few puny attacks that always land, or a mix thereof. So, control here is important, and it works quite well.

GAMEPLAY

Okay, here is where the game shines. Forget the sh@tty Saga, forget the too short PE, this game is big! You will face a huge convuluted story line, with murder. death, religious issues, and hot monkey sex. Well, maybe not so much of the sex part[although Fei will be solicited by hookers]. Forget FF7 whining lines, this game kicks butt! And when you combine a great story with a unique battle system with a graphics system that grows on you, and you will have another instant Square classic. I can't wait to get back to playing the game!

-Madgrad

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