LogFAQs > #977103521

ive always been a huge xenosaga fan and for years i was told "how can you not have played xenogears? its so much better than xenosaga"
well earlier this year i finally gave in and played it for the first time
now was it actually better than xenosaga? not really. better than xenosaga episode 2 for sure at least.

it had an amazing story. it took awhile for me to get invested but once i was i was hooked
the point the story finally got me into it was when fei fought elly on evil steroids in their gears.
its combat was ok.

but there are 4 main issues i had with the game that held it back for me

ISSUE NUMBER 1 - it has some of the worst dungeons ive ever seen in a game. multiple dungeons were visually unappealing and just long similar looking corridors incredibly easy to get lost in which isnt exactly fun. the worst offenders being the sewers, the mines, the flying city maria lives in, the tower of babel and the final dungeon.

ISSUE NUMBER 2 - underutilized its supporting party members, miang and ramsus were great villains, fei elly and citan were great heroes. but the other party members each had like 20 minutes of relevance and then became part of the background which left them feeling bland. billy and bart got a few more moments ot shine but still fell flat. rico and maria were the worst though. pretty much no reason to actually have them be party members considering they might as well be part of the background after their introductions are over. its shame that such a strong narrative dropped the ball with more than half its central cast.

ISSUE NUMBER 3 - This one is just more of a personal issue but i do not like the mech combat in these games. i never use the AWGS in xenosaga episode 1, the ES sections in xenosaga episode 2 are pure hell. only xenosaga episode 3 really got mech combat right and even there i still prefer the character combat. and i dont think gears mech combat is all that good either only it gets so much focus. even the final boss is in the mechs. i went out of my way to get emerelda's adult form and it didnt matter at all because by that point there are no boss fights left that are fought outside of the gears.

ISSUE NUMBER 4 - Chuchu exists.

so all in all im not going to say its a bad game like that other topic about it because its not
its unfinished and in need of a remake for sure but its not awful
just as a few issues that held it back for me personally and i do not think it lived up to the hype
but then again people acted like this game could heal the blind so it had a lot of expectations to meet.

out of all the xeno titles ive played i would rank them saga3 > saga1 > blade > gears > saga2