Having spent many years of being jealous of you americans, and wishing I could play many of the critically acclaimed rpgs of the ps1 era that never came to Europe, or came in such little numbers, their prices were unacceptable, the day has came; I've finally bit the bullet, came up with the means to play these games, and my first will be Xenogears. I'm really excited to finally be playing it, and although I'm only just leaving the first town, I'm enjoying the game already. I plan to play the game without guides or whatever, and save all that fror a second playthrough, but is there anything critical that i should know as i start out? That will really ruin he game if i don't know?

On a side-note, i've got dragon warrior VII, chrono cross and star ocean 2 all lined up for once i'm done here. Today is a day to celebrate!

Just be mentally prepared that the 2nd disc is drastically different from the 1st; with 85% cutscenes and only about 15% of gameplay (rumor has it the development team's budget was cut short). If you know that in advance, it won't seem as disappointing (disc 2 really isn't that bad, but many think so nonetheless).

Other than that, Xenogears isn't big on optional quests, so just go along with the story and you're in for a real treat. Xenogears is imo still the best RPG out there.

Yeah its not that big on secondary quests but near it end it helps a lot to spend a couple hours getting money to buy the latest equipment. It is not absolutely necessary but it helps you with the final bosses a lot.

Either way, enjoy it Mush, is my favourite game of all time, the thing even beat OoT, disc 2 and all, as my favourite.

Also, dont use guides, and if you are totally stuck, do your bests to find a spoiler free walkthrough, then again Xenogears is pretty linear and the only thing that can set you back are bosses. The thing is, Xenogears is probably the most story heavy rpg ever, it is its biggest selling point.

Out of curiosity, how much did it cost?

I managed to grab a hold of this game too, I picked up the Greatest Hits version of from VGplus brand new for £18 before delivery so I think that's about $37 give or take.

Its excellent from what i have played so far, but i'm going to save it for after I finally complete the Xenosaga trilogy.

(Have fun playing on of the greatest games ever made)

Damn, it cost me 14.99 (plus 7% tax) like three years ago after my original copy stopped working, it was the Greatest hits one and used but the previous owner really took care of it. It even had the the sticker on top of the game, the white one that you rip or cut through but this guy had it barely peeled. I had to take it.

Nice find Mush. About having to know stuff you can miss, I don't think theres much to worry about. There is one boss though... I won't mention any names due to spoilers but he is half machine and half... person. You will recognise this boss by his self destruct sequence. You have a limited amount of turns to kill him before he self destructs.
Now this is the part I don't remember. Either you have to steal an item from him while he is trying to self destruct, or you have to kill him before he does to get it.
That item, which I think was a "luck card" or something, is needed to find... something else? Could someone fill in the blanks for me? I can't seem to remember anymore. I think it was used to find shoes with Auto-haste but I'm not sure.

If I recall, the card you can get from the boss mentioned in the post above gives you a higher chance of getting rare items from enemies and bosses. I only got it once, but on my other playthroughs I moved on without it. But I guess it's still quite good to get a hold of it.

Wonderful game and I why I don't own a copy yet is beyond me. I praise this game like crazy. The story really does make the game standout, believe me it has plenty of other outstanding features but the story and plot are HUGE!!! Love this game, on another note, does anyone find Xenogears to be a lot darker than some of the other RPGs? especially Squares. I think this is also due to the game being made during Playstation's free censorship period in which games like FF7, Xenogears, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, and some others I can't think of were made.

I dont think that FF7, MGS and RE had such controversial issues as Xenogears man (What is controversial about FF7 anyway? damn thing seems like it was written by a 14 year old yaoi fanatic girl). And it wasnt that free, I still wonder how the hell Xenogears got released in America, with a Teen rating.

MGS... 2 and 3 dealt with controversial topics. And MGS1 was on a certain scale. However, MGS1 had the plot of your an average Hollywood action flick + shamanism and telepathy. RE2 was controversial like the first RE game because it had a lot of blood and gore. RE2 much more so than RE1.

But Xenogears is like "KILL GOD".

And that just screams controversy.

I too now have Xenogears... but don't ask how much I paid... *Looks around for FBI*

Anyway... I'm in the underground caves stuck with Bart. Citan REEKS of awesome and I'm basically just excited to find out more about him instead of really caring about Fei and his plight. Killing God has been mentioned and sadly I know a lot of spoilers about xenogears but I think I'll still enjoy it. Terrible in-game graphics but the overly cool deathblows make up for it. I'm not overly keen on the battle system but it isn't bad or anything. It is just story that I'm playing it for, and I'm pretty certain that I won't be dissapointed. I just have to get out of this bloody cave <.<

Flame, to get out of that cave you need to activate 2 sensors (as old man Bal should have mentioned). Starting from Bal's living place, go NW, climb up the rocky platforms and go NE to a passage that leads to a large tunnel. Keep following that tunnel to the other side, where you'll find the first sensor on the next screen.

Backtrack to Bal's cave afterwards. Go east, jump up and over the rocky platform and go back to the previous area where that service robot is. Starting from the robot, go west and when you reach the wall head north. Jump up on the rocky platform, and from there jump over towards the platform with the second sensor.

Return to Bal and talk with him; he'll now open the gate for you. That's all you need to do. =p

I seriously want to know, what the ##### is wrong with Xenogears' graphics?

Back in 1998 that was actually a pretty game compared to other stuff out at the moment. I mean, look at how the gears look, they look pretty bad ass for 1998.

I have only had a quick go of Xenogears I plan on playing it properly after Xenosaga 2 and 3, and I really like the graphics I generally love the RPGs from that era and I definitely think it looks good, i'm looking forward to playing it.

While the graphics are certainly not that great, I feel they look quite a bit better than FFVII. I'm glad the characters have distinguishable faces and not massive heads. I probably would have liked FFVII more if they had dialogue boxes with the art faces. I also like the cinema scenes in Xenogears better. The dubbing is by far the worst I have seen, but using anime to display it was a cool idea.

But I wouldn't worry about playing the game even if you know some spoilers about it. I know all about the game's story but I keep playing the game and love it just as much as the first time. First I was blown away when I didn't completely understand all of the story elements, but when you do, you get a better appreciation for the game. Especially with enjoying to write myself, I'm jealous they came up with some a fantastic story.

And Citan is definitely very good. You can tell from the beginning, even with Fei and Citan lined up at the same level, Citan's HP and EP is enormous. His defense and attack are around the same as Fei's, maybe a bit less when I had him in the beginning But I leveled Fei and Bart up quite a bit while in the caves. With how they used Citan in the story made me love him even more. Fantastic HP and EP, good defense and attack on par with Fei, insanely fast and your resident healer until Billy comes along. And then he gets a certain added bonus to his attack and its just game over for whoever you face.

As for getting that certain item, I believe it is called the Trader's Card, which as Xerno said, gets you more rare items. I've read walkthroughs and they say its worth it, but I've never gotten it. When the boss starts to glow red, you have to kill him before he self destructs. It's mostly luck really or good timing. I imagine if you can activate that system on Weltall and then get Citan into infinity mode, that's your best bet. He only lasts for two or three turns though, but I've never beaten him that way myself.

I, definitely recommend playing Star Ocean 2 afterwards, that game is just ever so awesome. And, also one of the few to actually having actual voices in it.



Infinity mode is your friend, along with Fei's infinity mode system.



Yeah, and not understanding why that Xenogears has worser graphics and that it is the fifth episode of the Xeno series and that it was made before the first four episodes is beyond me.

The other 5 episodes of Xenogears were never made, and to be perfectly clear; Xenosaga 1-3 are not the 3 first episodes of Xenogears. Xenogears, being episode 5 of the Xenogears story, most likely was made first because it simply covers the most of the entire story. It was a smart move to make episode 5 first for that reason, because if for some reason the other episodes wouldn't be made, people could still grasp the entire story (and the Perfect Works story guide adds to explaining everything).

The only episode we know zip about is the 6th episode, which wasn't even in Perfect Works either. But it would probably deal with the aftermath, and show us how things would go for the survivors of the story. Shame we'll never get to see any of that.

I saw some incredibly indepth fanfiction of that episode. He doctored up the pictures for all of the characters to make them look older. It only took place a couple years after Xenogears though and Citan had grey hair. I didn't like that. The person who made it had Yui marry Sigurd or something and Fei was dead. I...no I did not like it at all. It was good in that it messed with my head and then made me incredibly angry, but it was an interesting look on things, especially with Ramsus and the female Elements somehow surviving out in Elru.

I found an excellent translation of Perfect Works on gamefaqs though, I only read a small chunk of it but I was surprised when I recognized certain names and planets, such as Michtam. I was actually planning on learning japanese just so I could find a copy and read it, but I suppose translations are a lot easier. I'll have to read that again sometime, but I imagine it will take me some time.