Xenogears is a 1998 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation. 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 turn-based "Active Time Battle" system. The story follows protagonist Fei Fong Wong and several others as they journey across the world to overthrow the all-powerful rule of Solaris and uncover mysteries concerning their world. The story incorporates Jungian psychology, Freudian thought, and religious symbolism.
Created by Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Kaori Tanaka as a proposal for Final Fantasy VII, it was allowed to be developed as its own project; first as a sequel to Chrono Trigger and then as an original game with a science fiction premise. The characters were designed by Kunihiko Tanaka, while the gears were designed by 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's general inexperience, the second half of the game's plot was primarily told through cutscenes.
The game was almost not localized due to its religious content; its localization was handled by SquareSoft staff and translator Richard Honeywood, who described it as one 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 particularly 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. By 2003, the game had shipped 1.19 million copies worldwide, gaining a cult following and praise as one of the greatest video games of all time. While a direct sequel has not been developed, Takahashi would later found Monolith Soft and develop the Xenosaga trilogy and Xenoblade Chronicles games as spiritual successors.
Gameplay
Xenogears combines traditional role-playing video game structures such as Square's signature Active Time Battle system with new features particular to the game's martial arts combat style. It features two slightly different battle systems: in the first, the player controls human characters in turn-based combat manipulated through the sequencing of learned combos. The second, making use of "gears", introduces different sets of statistics and abilities for each character.[2] Xenogears features both traditional anime and pre-rendered CGI movie clips by Production I.G to illustrate important plot points.[3] The player advances the protagonist and his companions through a three-dimensional fictional world.[4]
Battle system
Battle in Xenogears is a variant of the Active Time Battle system found in games such as Chrono Trigger
Plot
Setting
Xenogears initially takes place on Ignas, the largest continent of the Xenogears world and the site of a centuries-long war between the nations of Aveh and Kislev.[8] A church-like organization known as the Ethos has excavated gears, giant robot suits, for the preservation of the world's culture. Although Kislev originally had the upper hand in the war, a mysterious army known as Gebler appeared and began to assist Aveh. With Gebler's help, the Aveh military recovered its losses and began making its way into Kislev's territory. As the story unfolds, the setting broadens to encompass the entire world and the two floating countries, Shevat and Solaris. Solaris, ruled by Emperor Cain and an AI collective known as 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.[9][10]
Development
Xenogears was produced by Hiromichi Tanaka, who previously worked on the SNES game Secret of Mana. The scenario of the game was written by director Tetsuya Takahashi and by Kaori Tanaka.[33] Yasuyuki Honne served as art director,[3] while Kunihiko Tanaka was responsible for the character designs.[33] Tetsuo Mizuno, Tomoyuki Takechi, and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi were executive producers for Xenogears.[33] Koichi Mashimo, an animation director and his studio Bee Train, was in charge of the anime cut scenes.[34]
Reception
Xenogears was a commercial success in both Japan and North America. It received a "Gold Prize" from Sony in May 1998, indicating sales above 500,000 units in Japan;[83] the game proceeded to sell over 890,000 copies domestically by the end of the year.[84] As of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 1.19 million copies worldwide, with 910,000 of those copies being shipped in Japan and 280,000 abroad.[85] As a result of these sales, it was re-released as a Greatest Hits title in December 2003.[86] In Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Xenogears was voted the 16th best video game of all time by its readers in a poll held in 2006.[87] On a similar poll at GameFAQs, users of the website voted Xenogears the 32nd "Best Game Ever" in 2005.[88]
External links
References
- Interviews retrieved March 16, 2010^
- Harry Negron. Xenogears Overview: The Iconic PS1 RPG That Merged Mechs, Myth, and Philosophy Jivaro, 2025-01-01, retrieved 2025-03-04^
- Peter Bartholow. First Look at Xenogears GameSpot, 1997-09-06, retrieved 2008-08-08