I'm a little too late, because apparently Xenogears should have celebrated its 10th Anniversary on February 11th, 2008. But regardless, I think us Xeno fans should come up with a way to celebrate this event. =)

But to be honest, I have no idea what we could do. I was hoping for something more than just posting "Yay, 10th anniversary!" here, but I guess we'll see. Any ideas are welcome, but with the severe lack of Xeno activity on the forum, I'll be surprised if this gets much replies. =S

Well, it is my all-time favourite game, so it does deserve something. But. like you, I have no idea what.

Its both late and early. Feb 11th for Japan and October 21st for the States.

Oh and for Europe a big fat ##### YOU because you didnt get the game. Thats what you get for Hitler #######!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Anyway, Xenogears is my favourtie game of all time of course and its incredible that it has been 10 years since it was released.

Yes I remember playing this game on my computer (cough cough), but this is definitely a GREAT all-time game and was a benchmark for many RPGs, which is why in the thread here about which games we'd like to see have a remake, this was my number 1.

THis game more than anything at LEAST deserves a port. I mean, look at FF7's 10 year anniversary, they EXPLODE and make a movie, a spinoff, a prequel, a cell phone game, and reveal that they're going to continue it for 10 MORE years.

What do we get for Xenogears' 10th anniversary? A post on a forum.

Europeans, don't worry. You're not missing much anyway.

Before a port, I think it first solely needs a total makeover for that tl;dr Disc 2.

If you ask me, they're missing out on one of the greatest RPG's ever made. Disc 2 may not be what it could have been, but that doesn't stop it from presenting a brilliant story.

I agree with Xerno, of course I have to offer a post since I somehow end up bringing Xenogears into a post in this section whether its necessary or not haha. It isn't just the best story in a game I've played but probably one that I've read or heard. Its so massive but somehow manages to put thousands of years of history together into something relevant and current, which at first look, seems to be impossible. I loved the characters, I enjoyed getting new gears and when they 'awakened'. Even though the graphics may not have been so hot, I still really enjoyed the scenes they placed in the game, still looking past the pretty miserable dub job.

Most of the time, when people say that a game is one of the best of the decade, or of all time or whatever, it's made to be a little overrated. They said it about FFVII, a decent game, but not so deserving of the massive fanbase it has. People seem to be talking pretty heavily about Persona 3 as well, a very different game from most RPG's indeed, but I wouldn't quite put it on par with other RPG's I've played. Then again I haven't gotten too far into it, but we'll see. With Xenogears, through my first playthrough, I just felt it had a real epic feel to it.

Disc 2 could have been much more and better, but as Xerno said, it doesn't take away from the story. I think its quite a shame that SE chooses to focus so much on FFVII when really in retrospect, Xenogears beats out FFVII in just about every way. I might get flamed for that, but I don't really care. It's graphics are even more impressive, the sprites look better, the 3D FMV's look significantly better as well, where FFVII's seemed to just be clunky. It isn't like they were even a few years apart, they were released at nearly the same time, give or take a year or so. I'd be happy with Xenogears getting re-released at least. It would be ideal to get like...a ten year anniversary package of the game with say...an english version of Perfect Works? Too much? Maybe.

But really, I wish SE would do something instead of just forgetting about it. It's probably one of SE's most critically acclaimed games along with FFVII and I'd say most people who play it really like it, a better percentage than people who play FFVII I think. I might be a little crabby about it though since I think its unfair, especially since the game is starting to get a little more rare these days. I wish something would be done, but I guess their too busy with doing eighteen FF's at the same time and KH. Irritates me to no end. At the very least, I managed to get the game in good condition, cheap, I'm glad I went with my gut and got it.

you could have a xenogears signature contest?

I should celebrate by actually playing the damn game, I have a mint black label copy sitting on my shelf just begging to be played.

me 2.. well no mint black label copy for me.. i still need to buy the game

Haha!! I struck it lucky, if I remember rightly I only paid about £20 for it on Ebay. The only advantage of living Europe I guess is that the rare NTSC games don't sell for as much here as they do in the states. I had a pretty similar bargain with a NTSC Suikoden 2 not quite as cheap but still only around £30 no scratches or marks. Just keep checking ebay you should get lucky eventually, may even be worth checking for sellers overseas

I’m liking the idea of a sig contest, though not everyone has Photoshop...

their loss than

I WANT to play this game, and yet for some reason I never do. I have a feeling that as the game progresses the story really picks up but so far the game seems pretty standard. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't really felt too compelled to go on. I've only seen one twist so far and it's a pretty standard RPG cliché ("The painting looks familiar"). The battle system is fun but nothing too deep so far, though without a doubt I prefer on foot battles to Mecha battles.

I will persist with the game because I know that it could well turn out to be one of my favourites, but so far it's not there yet.

There is one thing about the hype behind Xenogears that I just simply can't understand... and that's people saying about how good the graphics were when I find them horrendous. I am looking at them in context with other games from it's generation. I think it's a truly ugly game. Of course, it hardly bothers me because it's adequate enough to tell the story (which is all I really care about) and at least there is some really good battle animation with the sprites, but seriously, I can't see how anyone can say the graphics were really that good. Except the animé, those sequences are done very well.

Go to hell Flame.

The thing about xenogears' graphics is not about being pretty or impressive, is about having style. Its really the whole look of the game, how everything just falls in together. Sure the sprites are not that pretty when you look at them alone, nor are the 3d graphics around them, but when you put them together it creates a great atmosphere.

Besides it was 1998, final fantasy characters looked like this



Zelda like this







MGS like this



Ok, maybe MGS is not the best on to prove the point, but it was still a year before we saw this




And it was years away from this



So what I am trying to say Flame is that a) ##### you and You are spoiled and think that Xenogears couldnt have never possibly looked awesome, but it did. Sure it wasnt that impressive but it was enjoyable graphically.

no, I pretty much agree with you, As I said I find the graphics adequate, you can tell what is what and the sprites worked very well for the battle animations, but the graphics are by no means special, or a selling point in any way. Everything else that people rave about Xenogears for I can see and understand, except the graphics. I'm not saying it's bad, I think it suits the game well and especially the engine. It's like I think the graphics on Breath Of Fire IV are really well done but it meant the game had to be isometric which ultimately meant a huge pain in the arse with the camera. Exploring was horrible because half the time you couldn't see where you were going in towns and you had little control over the camera. Also as soon as there is a close up the graphics look awful. I'm sure had Xenogears gone a similar route the graphics might have been better but I prefer the freedom over the camera and seeing close-up movement of the characters.

I'm not complaining about the graphics much, I think they work well with the engine and are more then adequate, I just simply can't see why anyone would say the graphics are particularly that great. Of course, you gotta take into consideration that more and more of Xenogear's budget was being put towards final fantasy games. It's a case of bad timing, I only wish things had turned out differently.

What the f*** has graphics got to do with anything?

This post just screams I'm a complete moron.

I'd love to see a 10th anniversary remake of the game myself however, a next gen version of the series released in all regions.

In a way, I don't know if I'd be so kosher with that. I mean, Xenogears is a classic, usually classics are meant to be left alone. Although SE is demanding that there is no FFVII remake, I won't be surprised when they announce it, whenever that may be. I liked FFVII, didn't love it, but I liked it and would buy a remake probably. I would be happy with a port really, release Xenogears on the PSP or something, I think that would work really well. Of course, there are things about the game that I wish were better. Most of the cutscenes were done well, with the engine the graphics in the CGI were quite good I thought. The anime dubbing is the worst I've ever seen, usually I can look over a not so great dubbing and still enjoy the anime enough, but Xenogears' was really bad. Fei was the only one who seemed to look decent in the anime scenes to me. I thought Elly could have looked a bit more elegant and Citan looked kind of weird. I wouldn't mind for those to be redone, but in a way I think if the game was remade with tricked out graphics and everything else, that it would somehow end up losing its touch in the mix. Plus they'd probably get the voices of Shion and Jin to do Elly and Citan respectively.

Anyway. They did their thing for Final Fantasy with making some PSP ports, even Valkyrie Profile I think. I don't see why not Xenogears. Though they have revamped the graphics on those games in their own ways...that would have me a little worried for some reason. The little revamp worked for the sprites in FFII or whatever, but I dont see that working so well for the sprites in Xenogears.

I hate handheld ports, but that's my own personal gripe with handhelds. It's like little extra systems in order to play some pretty good games. Though if I did get a handheld nowadays I'm not sure what it would be because FF remakes and what not are split on PSP and DS, there's still nothing that totally impresses with either.
My last handheld was the GBA, which I still say was a great handheld with a very strong library.

Anyways Xenogears is one of my favorite RPGs and one of my favorite games, due to its complex story. People complain about the pixelated graphics, but for me that's Xenogears that's how I remember it the pixelation became a character for the game. Plus the graphics could really be overlooked, considering the fun battle system(Xenosaga really didn't use the gear/human thing properly until Xenosaga 3), the great music, great characters and story.
For it's 10 year anniversary maybe I should get the fricking game, this is like FF7 one of those games I beat twice rented so many times, but never just bought.