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Post by Ex on Aug 3, 2022 9:35:57 GMT -5
If you played Xenogears in sixth grade perhaps. I'm struggling to think of any video game I've ever played that was "life changing". I can think of paradigm breaking games. I mean breaking the paradigm of what I thought video games were capable of. But they didn't alter my weltanschauung. In media that would fall within the realm of books for me. I clearly judged Xenogears too quickly back in 1998. That was the same year my daughter was born, so perhaps I was too distracted for complex JRPGs at the time. I certainly intend to give Xenogears another chance eventually. I say "eventually" because there's just so many WRPGs/JRPGs I'd like to play eventually. The RPG genre is one of my top favorites. There are vast quantities of entries in it. But RPG is also the most time-demanding. When coupled with my real life obligations and other hobbies*, finishing even a 20-30 hour RPG can easily take me a month or two nowadays. Sure it was different when I was a twenty-something bachelor, and my only real hobby was video games. I could sink 25 hours into an RPG in a week back then. That much time in one week seems gross and overkill in my forties, though. Not too many RPGs allow the player to utilize mechs, so Xenogears automatically gets a bonus point there. *It's important for a person to have multiple hobbies. Solely focusing on one hobby to an extreme is detrimental to personal development. |
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Post by Sarge on Aug 3, 2022 14:09:56 GMT -5
There's no question you can have a game hit wrong depending on when you play it. I've had a few that I bounced off of before they finally clicked.
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Post by Ex on Aug 3, 2022 14:50:30 GMT -5
Even I didn't like King's Field the first time.  |
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Post by toei on Aug 3, 2022 19:30:20 GMT -5
I won't say Xenogears changed my life, but it did blow my mind when I played it in my 20s. It's the only game I know that's still great with that many flaws.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 3, 2022 20:12:12 GMT -5
If you played Xenogears in sixth grade perhaps. I'm struggling to think of any video game I've ever played that was "life changing". I can think of paradigm breaking games. I mean breaking the paradigm of what I thought video games were capable of. But they didn't alter my weltanschauung. In media that would fall within the realm of books for me. I clearly judged Xenogears too quickly back in 1998. That was the same year my daughter was born, so perhaps I was too distracted for complex JRPGs at the time. I certainly intend to give Xenogears another chance eventually. I say "eventually" because there's just so many WRPGs/JRPGs I'd like to play eventually. The RPG genre is one of my top favorites. There are vast quantities of entries in it. But RPG is also the most time-demanding. When coupled with my real life obligations and other hobbies*, finishing even a 20-30 hour RPG can easily take me a month or two nowadays. Sure it was different when I was a twenty-something bachelor, and my only real hobby was video games. I could sink 25 hours into an RPG in a week back then. That much time in one week seems gross and overkill in my forties, though. Not too many RPGs allow the player to utilize mechs, so Xenogears automatically gets a bonus point there. *It's important for a person to have multiple hobbies. Solely focusing on one hobby to an extreme is detrimental to personal development. Yeah, didn't mean to be TOO overly serious about it changing my life, but it's just a 10/10 lol. I was able to salvage my Xenogears save file and play time (50h 12m), but I must have beaten it before 2012-2013 when I started logging stuff. So I think I'm due for a Xenogears replay someday myself.
Anyways seriously yeah, I seem to be wrong with my recs for you sometimes. But if you want a JRPG with a far richer/complex plot and characters than most, loaded with mecha/sci-fi... Xenogears should be pretty high on your priority list. I know you didn't gel with Xenoblade too. But I say this for everyone out there, if we want to call Tetsuya Takahashi's Xeno line a franchise of its own, it certainly has its different eras and flavors. So someone that doesn't like the Blade's could still certainly like Gears, or Saga, etc and vice versa. Usually goes without saying on a retro gaming board though. Gotta check these things out for yourself! Toei's right though. As I said, the beginning is pretty slow, and it does have this weird sewer arc that seems way too long. But yeah, a few hours into the game and once you meet this character, it was off to the races for me.
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Post by Ex on Aug 3, 2022 20:29:01 GMT -5
I know you didn't gel with Xenoblade too. It wasn't the second coming of the JRPG for me, as it seemed to be for everyone else. I did enjoy XB overall though, gave it a 7/10: Someday I shall. Xenogears is in the top 5 PS1 JRPGs I'm interested in. |
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Post by Sarge on Aug 3, 2022 20:51:29 GMT -5
I think I sit between y'all on Xenoblade - it's great, but too many design decisions that don't align as much with my taste as I'd like. Probably a 8 or 8.5/10 for me.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 3, 2022 21:22:29 GMT -5
Kind of crazy it came out in 2010, so it's totally retro here now.
I bought the Switch release but I do wonder how a replay would go with me. Maybe that version has difficulty selections like the newer ones and I can just cruise through on easy while ignoring all the pointless sidequests and fluff. The combat was pretty dry too, but I remember liking Melia a lot and haven't really played a character quite like her since. The big Mage DPS destroyer if used correctly. Story wise I liked the game plenty though. But XBX and XB2 made the combat a lot more rhythmic, engaging, and waaay more fun to me. It's a good thing I got my FF12 replay in recently too, because I think anything in the vein of this stuff is going to be kind of boring going back to now after XB3. You have dozens of systems to manage in battle and putting the special moves on single button presses from XB2 and on was a game changer.
I don't really want to play through Xenosaga a third time either, gameplay wise it has issues. Maybe Gameshark or codes are easy to emulate in that case though. Ideally I'd like to replay the Xenosaga trilogy undubbed in Japanese to see how that is. Some of the English voice acting was fantastic though, but then some main characters had different actors from game to game (even KOS-MOS in XS2), it's a bit jarring.
I have complaints... but I love these games dearly. Either way, RPG replays have been pretty rare for me lately. Been getting a lot more NEW playthroughs in lately which is awesome. I also guess that PSX fan translation for SMT1 really hit me hard or something, because I really want to play that one now. Definitely on the list for someday.
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Post by toei on Aug 3, 2022 21:44:50 GMT -5
What are the other 4?
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Post by Ex on Aug 3, 2022 21:59:58 GMT -5
Linda Cube AgainMeremanoidNingyo no RakuinZill O'll
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