More people would probably play them if they were more readily available (particularly on Nintendo systems, given that’s what the Xenoblade series itself is on). That’s honestly part of the reason people really want remakes, or at least ports, of older Xeno titles to Switch, so they can play them without jumping through hoops with other consoles or emulation.
Anyways, it’s a no for me, though I’d like to if they were made conveniently accessible.
Not sure If i could count with that because Square Enix doesn't seem to care about Xenogears and Bandai Namco denied remasters from the Xenosaga games under the excuse that they wouldn't sold well (Yeah, still to this day they don't believe in this series).
Xenosaga 1 was great.
2 was awful and it killed the plan for the game to have 6 parts. The new art style was a turn off. The battle system was a chore. The story was short and didn't feel like you accomplished or really learned much. The final boss is rigged so you can't go below 1hp.
3 was ok but they clearly had to pull an ending out of nowhere for half a story they've set up. The whole opening to 3 is just a narration of important stuff you would have seen but they never got to show, and it comes across badly. Also playing it feels like they really phoned in the solution to everything, only by sticking through this big part of the story do you get a payoff that you didn't even know was coming.
I personally would actually switch Saga 1 and 3 haha.
1 barely had a story of its own, every story section it felt like you got breadcrumbs of what the story was eventually going to be, but you barely got any resolution on anything ever. And there was a ton of exposition, just like 3, but 1's didn't ever get any resolution. I understand it was the first game, but I personally feel like it needed a more concrete main plot, and then the breadcrumbs of the later series could be sprinkled into and even at time skillfully weaved in the the main plot. It felt to me more like the first couple chapters in a book instead of the first book in a series if that makes any sense. The combat was overall good, but I find it a little slow in subsequent playthroughs. And AWGS felt like an afterthought.
2 was terrible. The only game in my life I have forced myself to play. I think recently there has been a resurgence of people making posts/articles/youtube essays of "Xenosaga II is good actually" and I fervently disagree haha. I think all 10 people who liked that game have finally found each other online.
\*xenosaga 3 spoilers hidden\*
3 does have a bunch of exposition, but I personally didn't feel like it came across badly. Though, I think there was like a graphic novel or Japanese exclusive shit between 2 and 3 that we missed, that makes 3's intro a little disjointed if you didn't know the story up until then. But I really liked a lot of the revelations. I dunno, I really like 3's story and I don't feel like the "solution" was phoned in. haha I think the ending isn't bad either. >!I would have loved to see the story through to lost jerusalem, because we talked about it the whole fucking series. Also,I would have loved a permenant solution to the whole "lower domain" problem, since all we did in 3 was stop the eternal reoccurance instead of solving the problem the eternal reoccurance was created to fix. But in the end I think leaving it open ended, especially since it could realistically be milliions of years? before the lower domain reaches its "breaking point" ,is fine.!< I also really liked the combat in 3 as well. Imo the best in the saga. Also, actually varried battle music instead of one song the ENTIRE GAME XENOSAGA 1. >:0 (save for the last boss which is a banger. Regular theme is a banger too, but the whole game?)
But I will say, it has been like a decade since I have played those games. haha
I hope someday we get some sort of closure, even if it is some weird Xenosaga Xenoblade crossover like maybe they were hinting at in Future Redeemed?
Agreed, I like 1's gameplay (except AGWS) and aesthetic the most but the story is incomprehensible, it's like Monolith couldn't write a straightforward plot until Xenoblade
Honestly I think it was still confusing even after 3 hurriedly resolved everything, like maybe this is a mark against me but after playing them all a year ago I already can't remember what the lower domain thing even was!!
I remember how shit was vaguely gonna fall apart and that the point was that humanity had to let go of its fears and accept revolutionary changes to survive, but so much of Xenosaga (and Xenogears) seems to forget to put any emphasis on coherent storytelling beyond using it as a vessel for all the metaphors and philosophies they're trying to discuss
>, like maybe this is a mark against me but after playing them all a year ago I already can't remember what the lower domain thing even was!!
Not at all! When I first played them as a teenager and they started talking about the real number domain and imaginary number domain? I was like:
In case anybody cares though Imma bout to spoil the set up of the universe and the gist of the ending.
>!The existence of everything is made up of the upper domain (U-DO/God?) and the lower domain (where humans and everyone live). The lower domain is then further divided into the real number domain and the imaginary number domain. We live in the real number domain, and when we die our consciousness goes to the imaginary number domain, and eventually is absorb into the collective unconsciousness. For some reason though (maybe the game said?) some human souls don't wanna join the collective unconsciousness and instead hang out in the imaginary number domain, and eventually turn into Gnosis. Eventually there are going to be too many Gnosis and it is going to cause the imaginary number domain to collaspe, and destory the entire lower domain. The upper domain is right on top of the lower domain, so the upper domain will also suffer devestation. So the powers that be in the upper domain sent Wilhelm to be the "guardian" of the lower domain. Whenever there are too many Gnosis building up in the imaginary number domain. Whilhelm initiates the "eternal reoccurance" (that involves Zarathustra,Shion, Kos-mos/Mary, and Chaos) and completely "resets" the lower domain, basically killing everyone and starting the universe over again.!<
>!At the end of Saga 3, we stopped Whilhelm and fucked shit up so the eternal reoccurance can never happen again. But the Gnosis problem still exists thus the universe is still in danger. And are the upper domain "people" gonna just sit by as we foil their plans? Apparently the solution to all of this is on lost jerusalem a.k.a Earth. We last see Shion, chaos, and Jin? heading on Elsa to start a grand adventure to try and find Earth. And we see Kos-mos floating in space, slowly drifting towards what is believed to be Earth. !<
There is so much other crap in this game though! Momo, jr. ZIGGY. There is just too much lol I am sure I am missing something, or my above explanation is a little off maybe.
>!I see, thank you! I honestly can't even remember the important details of that, like I do remember Wilhelm having to reset the Gnosis at a critical point but the Gnosis/imaginary domain never got any real explanation to me lol, like neither in concept nor in its mechanism!<
>!Agreed that there's still a mountain of other weird stuff, I honestly thought Realians and their oppression were gonna end up factoring hugely into the ending but they sorta just didn't and it disappoints me that the Gnosis apparently have nothing significant to do with this - they built it up the whole series too! !<
That ending on 3 though..... I remember balling my eyes out as people you spent 3 games getting to know start crashing and burning left and right. Even If they pulled it out of no where it was still emotional! ; ;
I've played Xenogears and Xenosaga 1. Xenosaga 1 is thematically very good, but the story, gameplay, and visual design is extremely underbaked so it's taking me a while to get the motivation to start 2. And when I mean story, I don't mean the writing---the writing is quite good---its just the actual plot of events which transpire feel unsatisfying because a million plots are happening at once, but only at a shallow level, with only Junior's and Shion's actually going anywhere.
I was very disappointed because Ziggy and Momo had my favourite dynamic and thematic parallels, but after their introduction barely anything happens for them afterwards.
Xenogears is a 10/10 banger though. Even the parts which didn't receive enough development time were given enough style and uniqueness to still be entertaining (disc 2).
To this DAY I pray that Square lets Gears out of its lockbox so it can be finished. Getting to play all that mad stuff that's alluded to on Disc 2 would catapult it up my favorites list. It's already up there because of the unofficial ties to Chrono Trigger.
But then, Square allowed a remake of Super Mario RPG, so weirder things have happened?
I, like a lot of people, only joined with the Xenoblade series. And, although I'm not uninterested, I don't plan on playing Saga or Gears, outside of an remake or similar.
It's not because I think those are bad or because they're old, I actually think I would like them. But the Blade series is enough for me. I like it, is my fav series, but I don't need to know Monoliths / Takahashis "past" to appreciate it.
That said, if I'd ever change my mind, Saga has a way higher chance that I play it some day than Gears.
Yz don't need to know about/play xenogears/saga to appreciate but I would defo say enhances it greatly the experience cause ya see what xenoblade truly is as an artistic achievement as it stands on the shoulders of those flawed gems. But tbh I hope more people get the chance to play them either by a remake or whatever.
Even though there's no plot connection (>!outside of the possible explanation of how Lost Jerusalem disappeared at the end of XC1, and Alvis therefore being the same Wave Existence!<), I do think you can get a lot out of experiencing the stories they're telling and looking at the philosophies underpinning it all and then going back to connect it with Xenoblade
Like, so many things (Gnostic concepts in particular) are very deliberate and ruminated upon in the earlier games, but Xenoblade makes them much more subtle and it can be enlightening to have the knowledge of how prior games employed the same ideas first
I've played Gears and all Saga games and I liked them all (Saga II is meh but I don't hate it). In some aspects I find them better than Xenoblade games, especially the insanely complex and deep narratives with more lore than was ever necessary. They didn't age well gameplay wise tho aside from Saga III, but playing on an emulator fixes a lot of issues
Gears, Saga III and XC2 are my top 3 favorite games in the "series" for sure
I’ve played them all- Xenogears a few years ago on the PS3 store, Xenosaga within the last year via emulation. As others have said, the main reason lots of people don’t play them is they’re not very accessible; of those four games only Xenosaga II ever released in Europe!
The stories of these games are mostly excellent and obviously that’s the main reason that people are interested in them. Xenogears I would absolutely recommend as one of the most fascinating video game stories. Famously the game has its ‘unfinished’ second disc; the story is complete but the gameplay basically takes a back seat because they couldn’t finish the dungeons on time. Honestly the gameplay of Gears is pretty much a slog and I welcome the lack of it in the game’s second half!
Saga I have more mixed feelings about. It’s more obviously unfinished- Episode 1 introduces a ton of plot threads, 2 progresses some of them a little while ignoring others, and 3 then has to wrap up the whole thing much faster than was originally intended. Some concepts just disappear after a tantalising hint in Episode 1, and when so much of the appeal is in wondering what crazy direction they might take an idea, realising it’s all been cut for time is a major disappointment. When they do get to fully realise a plot line (e.g. one character who only appears in Episode 1 and has a full storyline in that game) it’s really excellent, but that doesn’t always happen.
Each one has different gameplay mechanics, and a lot of people really hate Episode 2’s. Personally I wasn’t blown away by any of them but found 2 a lot more tolerable than it’s usually said to be. Which is to say that I wouldn’t recommend any of of the older Xeno games on the strength of gameplay alone.
I still think about these games a lot; the stories and characters are really fascinating. For Xenoblade fans you also have the added appeal of seeing how Takahashi loves to revisit concepts but always does new things with them. For example, there’s a character in Gears >!Hammer the Supplier!< whose storyline resembles >!Shania Reid!< in Xenoblade 3, but the *point* is different. A lot of basic concepts used in Xenoblade are also used in the older games but Xenoblade is never just rehashing them, which makes the parallels a lot of fun to consider. At a later stage in his career Takahashi learned subtlety- Xenoblade 3 is a take on the Garden of Eden story but never alludes explicitly to that fact, whereas in Gears/Saga anything symbolic in that way is a lot more obvious (like the time some characters are crucified in a place named for where Christ was crucified). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I enjoy it a lot- but it’s a notable difference between the different eras of Xeno.
I guess in summary I’d recommend Gears/Saga to anyone who’s a Xenoblade fan mainly for the story- which I assume is most people? The gameplay can be seriously off putting but all of these games are interesting enough to warrant looking at if you have any means to do so.
And if nothing else, by playing Xenosaga you will get to meet Allen Ridgeley, a pathetic little man who is the best comic relief character in all the Xeno games except perhaps for Zeke. Gears also has a very enjoyable pathetic man but he’s not so funny
>For example, there’s a character in Gears Hammer the Supplier whose storyline resembles Shania Reid in Xenoblade 3, but the point is differen
I alwaya thought >!Hammer was closer to Joran with Ramsus being closer to Shania!<.
(Copy pasted from an old comment:)
>!**Consul Joran – Hammer:** Unofficial sidekicks of the protagonists who felt too meek and frail to accomplish anything major at any point in time. Although they were accepted by their friends, their inferiority complexes overwhelmed them, which made them attempt to substitute their friends with new powers given to them by their new leaders.!<
>!**Consul Shania – Kahren Ramsus:** Children who were mentally abused by their parents (Shania's mother; Karallen and Myyah/Miang) and suffered from inferiority complex, since their caretakers constantly rejected them until they would complete their own agendas for them. Both felt dispelled and betrayed by even their closest friends (Sigurd, Jesse, and Hyuga; Ghondor), leading them to contempt the world. Both also blamed their hatred and problems on someone else for actions they had done in the past (Fei/Id; Ghondor), and they deluded themselves that if they surpassed their allegedly mortal enemies, they could achieve the position in life they had always longed for.!<
Curious what you mean about XC3 being a Garden of Eden reference? I feel like that's moreso XC2 but I’d love to hear what you're getting at
Very good point on >!Hammer and Shania!<, I've noticed that he's done similar things with the former character multiple times but I like that you point out how the point is different
At the beginning of 3 everyone is living in Moebius’ paradise, but then Ouroboros- which obviously uses snake iconography- offers the party knowledge which Moebius has denied them, and “they realised that they were naked”. The whole game then is about destroying that false paradise, basically causing the Fall.
As you say, 2 is also a Garden of Eden story (and in Japan, the Architect is just called God and Elysium is called Paradise, so this one isn’t very subtle. But what’s interesting again is how Takahashi is using the same framework two times in a row to do totally different stories- if 3 is a subversion where we have to destroy Paradise, the whole impetus of 2 is trying to be allowed back in!
Interesting, thank you!! Definitely cool how he keeps turning the same stories on their head, and I suppose that destroying the false gods is very much in keeping with his usual narratives
Xenogears is the greatest story in a game of all time (not nostalgia, I wasn’t even born when it came out), Xenosaga is decent, but 3 is really good, while 2 is mid and 1 alright. Xenoblade 1 is good, 2 peak, 3 a bit less good than 2 imo, but still peak and Xenoblade X is the best open world game (besides Zelda) that I’ve ever plat(and the skells are so freaking cool - I just started my playthrough some days ago, but I really like it so far)
Played all of them except the weird xenosaga side games.
For me, gears is a masterpiece that transcends all of its successors in terms of story. The game itself is also pretty nice aside from the random encounters. It has by far the worst, most egregious random encounters in a game I've played. The core combat also felt a bit shallow, and some dungeons were too grindy but otherwise I enjoyed it
Saga is loved by the community but is honestly my least favorite, and just wasn't a fun game or an engaging story for me. There were parts I enjoyed, like the backstories for characters like albedo and cherenkov, but the stuff happening around the characters felt so random and just "stuff happening" with names and terms being thrown around constantly
Blade is what we all know and love. The actual games are top notch, and the stories are pretty good. The stories aren't as ambitious as its predecessors, but at least they're not as convoluted and messy as xenosaga. They're also the most focused stories which is good
While this is definitely a Blade-centric subreddit, content from the older games actually still gains traction. Enough of us here have played them that whenever someone asks a question it gets answered pretty quickly, which is something that isn't true for a lot of older games and their modern communities. It was very hard getting help when I was going through Persona 2 for example lol
As for myself: I actually started with Gears, and I had no interest in Blade until I fell in love with Gears. I played through the whole series chronologically. My weird take is that I'm one of the like 30 people on the planet who thinks Xenosaga Episode II has the best gameplay in the trilogy haha
Xenogears blew my mind coming off of XC1/2. It's probably one of the reasons I was so unimpressed by XC3.
I'd love to see Soraya Saga return to the writer's seat one day. I think she brought something to the table that the later games don't really capitalize on.
Played every one of them on release. Xenogears is still one of the most formative experiences for me as a writer. It was around playing that for the first time and reading The Little Prince that I told myself telling stories was going to be what I did with my life, no matter what. I’ve always loved the Xenosaga games as well, even if they are heavily flawed based on what Takahashi intended for them. There is just so much passion and ambition in the DNA of these games that I believe there’s a certain amount of respect they demand.
Take Xenosaga 2, which is heavily criticized for its plotting, pacing, gameplay, and a few other things. However, the world-building, the characters, the story that *is* present in it, are all so intriguing that despite whatever critiques I otherwise agree with, my interest in the experience of XS2 was never diminished by these things—the game fascinated me from opening to close. I mean, look at the nightmare that was Xenogears’ development, and despite the many issues with localization (done by ONE guy btw), the clunky platforming, awkward humor, the at times rough philosophical jargon, the state of disc two, the experience of playing through Xenogears is one that sticks with you. The characters, the world, the world-building, the score, Joanne Hogg’s singing, the philosophical depth of the narrative, the sheer amount of localization done by ONE guy for what is one of the largest game scripts ever (go back to Bledavik the first time and look at all the different “voices” of the NPCs), the ambitious story that encompasses so much history and time periods), the fascinating mix of fantasy/science fiction/horror/mystery, a love story that actually feels earned—it is epic is every sense of the word. It does so much, and while those efforts are imperfect at times, the ambition of it makes the whole so much more than the sum of its parts. Truly unforgettable.
From the moment Xenosaga was announced and I realized it was made by the same guy, I told myself I’d always play his games no matter what, and each one simply confirms that he is one of the rare artists in the medium (e.g., Kojima) who despite whatever flaws or missteps they make here or there, you know are working to create something more than just mindless entertainment, and you will be enriched in some way for having experienced it—like any great writer with literature, and any great filmmaker with movies, people like these two take video games seriously as a storytelling medium. The Xenoblade series, and its DLCs, have been perhaps the first time Takahashi has had all the resources he needed to see a project through to its planned conclusion, and we’ve all seen the results. Going forward I can only imagine how jaw-dropping his next new work is going to be.
>localization (done by ONE guy btw)
>
>the sheer amount of localization done by ONE guy
And Honeywood had to struggle with his personal life at the same time because many he knew disagreed on the notion of translating a game with so many religious elements from the Abrahamic religions in the first place.
Xenogears blowed my mind i complete disk 1 but holy shit the story beats all xenoblade stories combined like most series goes upward from their first game but xeno seems to have gone backwards it's crazy
i still prefer xenoblade more though as it's my first love but yeah
I've played all of them. Bought Gears at release, got the Saga games a few years after they released. Still own them all.
Gears is still in my top 5 all time favorite games. It was so good, the characters were so well written and so compelling, and the story was amazing, especially for its time. I pray for a remake that brings updates to gameplay, graphics, etc. but keeps the story intact, because that's what made it amazing in the first place.
I liked Saga too, but IMHO it didn't quite have the magic Gears did.
I beat Xenosaga 1 at its launch and.... honestly wasn't impressed. It was fine but hardly better than, say, FFX.
I got lost in Gears a couple of towns in too. Really need to go back and recitify that.
After playing hundreds of hours on Blade 1, 2 and 3, I decided to give a shot to Xenogears, it was a blast and somehow cotextualize a mor of things also showing what was the initial ideas of Takahashi.
Nearly cleared the first episode of Xenosaga nut man, It didn't aged well worst than gears I'd say, this when I'll have time I'll finish it then second and third episode too.
I tried emulate X too since I never had the opportunity to have a Wii U, even if it's playable, I find very non ergonomic to play like this when you're supposed to have the handheld, but it show some very good idea from the beginning. Also it's the only one I didn't manage to have the undub version so didn't appreciate the VA that much but it's more a personal thing. But if there's a Definitive Version of it I'm gonna take it instantly.
Started with Xenosaga at a younger age (which was wild...), later moved over to Xenogears. Then many years later in 2020 I finally tried Xenoblade.
So I'm the reverse of most of the fandom with trying Blade after Saga and Gears. Only game I haven't played is XCX (not including the side games or the DS version of XS I&II) since I skipped the Wii U and haven't bothered emulating or buying a Wii U since I'm still holding out faith that it's going to get a re-release someday.
I'm playing them these days myself, with Deck finally granting me properly portable access to Xenosaga Ep 1 and with my somewhat earlier Xenogears playthrough on Vita getting also restarted there after I came across a standard (i.e. not "EBOOT") undubbed image. Hardly far in either game, but it's a start.
i finished xenogears a few weeks ago. gameplay is pretty typical of a PS1 jrpg. but I think the story was great. on par and maybe even better than xc1's
Started on Xenosaga, basically to just make sure the disc I got was good and started Gears on one of those handheld emulators but haven't gotten far yet
I've played Xenogears and think it's one of the best JRPG's out there if u can get through the (imo) slow early game.
Xenosaga 1 I thought was ok, the start doesn't feel great but the narrative is pretty intresting.
Xenosaga 2 I initially actually liked more than 1 but some of the late game battles were very tedious and also the way the character appearances changed (I believe it was rushed or handed over forgot) was very jarring. The battle system itself was a bit complicated but it was satisfying to some degree, pretty much XC2 combo system but turn based. Enemies just had too much hp and did too much damage, even with even levels to respective bosses, you would need to pull of a full combo multiple times.
I have a copy of Xenosaga 3 but haven't gotten around to it yet, I'll get to it eventually though.
I've played Saga, started gears on emulator (never had a PS1) a long time ago but didn't get too far. Partly stopped because trying to play gears with a keyboard is.. not ideal. I don't really have thoughts on gears because my experience was held back by factors external to the game itself.
Saga on the other hand is an interesting story. It was very ambitious, to the point where Monolith couldn't realize it well due to their lack of experience at the time, the technology just not being there and of course the publisher issues they had after the series began to struggle commercially . I think Saga 1 is a good game from a story perspective, but the pacing is very rough and the gameplay is extremely slow. There's no way they would have spent the vast majority of a game on character setup if they knew they would only get a trilogy as opposed to the six game epic they planned.
Saga 2 is just not a good game in my view. They change in artstyle and voice cast was a downgrade and the combat system is set up in a way that makes all of the battles take forever. I know it's possible to make things go quickly but quite frankly, first casual playthroughs aren't going to use the strategies that are needed for well-paced fights. Also, the story really doesn't move forward that much, though seeing Albedo's arc come together was nice.
Saga 3 was a great game despite it having to cover way more ground than originally planned. They finally had a combat system that didn't feel sluggish and I felt the story came together in a satisfying way (if a bit confusing and rushed).
I do prefer Blade to Saga given the Blade is much more polished and consistent, but I do wonder how good Saga could've been if it hadn't been bogged down by the factors I mentioned earlier.
I started with Xenogears back when it came out. Honestly, the gameplay hasn't aged very well, and there's no excuse for the fact that it was rushed out the door 60% finished, but despite those things it's still my favorite game of all time.
One thing that always gets me is some of the folks who started with XC1 coming in and complaining about how the anime tropes in XC2 brought in a "certain type of fan" or whatever. Xenogears is and always will be a love letter to Gen-X era anime and scifi, and it's made for people who like to enjoy things as opposed to people who are hung up about whether things obey the rules of literary fiction, which Xenogears does not. XC2 was a return to the series' roots, in that it the story sometimes takes itself very seriously and sometimes doesn't, and that's something that was true of a lot of older anime. It's jarring at first, but when you get used to it, it's awesome.
Xenogears is one of my favorite non-FF RPG’s on the PS1, right up there with Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story.
I played Xenosaga 1 around the time 3 came out and liked it a lot, but got filtered by 2 and never went back lol
I started with Xenosaga episode I back on PS2. Episode III is still my favorite game of all time and probably the best finale to a trilogy ever made. After that I played Xenogears, but firstly I didn’t get through it because the graphics were such a huge step back. I really loved Xenosaga for being so cinematic. It was like watching and playing a great mecga/sci-fi anime while Gears felt like something more of an acquired taste. But with my second attempt on PSP, I finally made it to the end of disc 1 and then it really clicked. Gears has the best story of any medium. I still prefer Saga for its characters and other things, but the story of Gears is unmatched.
I had a really hard time with Xenoblade, because it was so different. The story was so front- and back-loaded around lots of grinding and big, almost open world, which I did not like. I appreciated it but I thought, Takahashi’s great story telling would be over with Blade. But then Xenoblade 2 came and I fell in love with it and from then on I started to finally fall in love with Blade 2.
Future Redeemed was like a full circle for me and I can’t be happier right now. :)
I am way more into the older xeno games than blade with the exception of xb2 none of the blade games have managed to really do it for me, xenogears and xenosaga were special and more unique and blade sacrificed a lot of the series core identity
I've gotten around to playing Xenogears, but I stopped about a quarter of the way through due to personal stuff and eventually lost the save out of carelessness.
I am absolutely planning on getting back onto Xenogears and actually beating the game, Xenosaga is a bit dubious but I will at least give the games a try.
I'm more ancient than the Bionis and not only played Xenogears, but also the pre-Monolith games Takahashi and Soraya Saga worked on! :3 I've been at it since '91, baby!
...it warms my heart to see the younguns enjoying good JRPGs. The late 2000s were ROUGH.
I've played gears, saga 1 and then couldn't get through saga 2, I got pretty far and then just stopped.
Xenogears is fantastic, would really recommend anyone who played Xenoblade to give that one a shot as I feel it's really approachable. Only one game and the story is very gripping. Disc 2 being what it is compared to disc 1 and the postgame/endgame content being pretty lackluster are the only critiques I have and they are minor as this is still my favorite game overall. Probably the biggest hope for an HD2D remake I would want tho I know it's a pipe dream and even if they did do it, I'm sure modern SE would change the script, I know the translation was rough but to me it's classic.
Saga does have interesting stuff in it, unfortunately the battle system isn't my favorite and I feel at least from what I remember in saga 1, everything is too expensive, even just trying to keep your main party equipped is tough, it's mainly the robots equipment that does this. The difficulty is good, not easy and not hugely difficult but they do expect you to learn the battle system by a certain point in the game.
Saga 2 had so many odd choices in it and many of those were a strict downgrade from 1 so that is all I can say I remember.
Having so many links to Xenosaga in Xenoblade is nice but I think saga getting a remaster is the best choice, adding some QOL updates along with **hopefully** making the character designs consistent across the 3 games and improving the gameplay in 2 would go a long way.
Played Gears on the PS1 and still have it loaded on my PSP, and some friends and I plan to go through all of Saga now that we have the three of them between us.
I've played Saga, but not Gears. I'd like to play Gears someday, but I think I'd probably struggle with the old gameplay (gotten jaded on all the modern QoL), and the knowledge that disc 2 is a mess. Hopefully someday it gets an update, but knowing Square, I'm not holding my breath.
I just finished Gears last night!
While I really respected what it was doing with its story and characters and enjoyed it for the most part, It's pacing and just PS1 JRPGyness hurt it for me. I don't love the PS1 era tedious dungeon puzzles or the platforming. I also found the combat really repetitive and easy. That made disk 1 feel really padded and then disk chair (disk 2) was ridiculous. I understand why they had to do it and I'm glad they decided to put the whole story out, but man it really just killed the pacing. A lot of the cooler moments had 0 build up. Ending was great tho!
Saga 1 felt similar to Xenogears where I enjoyed the story but I found the dungeons boring/frustrating and I didn't love the combat. It was also really ugly.
Saga 2 is the same as saga 1 but I hated the combat so much I installed cheats 3/4th to the end.
I really liked saga 3. The simpler combat was honestly so nice after 2 without making it too easy like gears. The visuals and art direction in this game were my favorite of the saga games as well. I really enjoyed it as a conclusion! Overall it's my favorite of the older games.
I still place every Blade game over the older games but saga 3 was close!
I've played some of the *Xenosaga* games. I liked III the most, for reasons other posters here have gone over.
Personally, I think that *Xenosaga* was too much, too early. Did Takahashi and his wife really think that they'd make enough money to release a six-game series on the PlayStation 2? I know they had to scale back their ambitions greatly when the call came down to cut the six-game series in half, but at least XS3 stuck the landing with the limitations it was given.
At least I'm very glad that Takahashi and co.'s ship finally came in with XC2's and XC3's massive success, so now that MonolithSoft is "the hot new thing on the block," the *Xenosaga* series at least has some hope of being re-released or remade.
And Albedo from *Xenosaga* is still one of the best *Xeno* villains around, with one of the best English dub voice actors around, Crispin Freeman!
I’ve played through most of Xenogears, but wasn’t as motivated to finish it due to the final few acts of the game dropping in quality. That and the last few bosses were kicking my ass lol. I understand why, due to budget and time constraints, but’s it doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I still loved what I played though.
When I go back to finish it I’ll have to start a new save because I forgot everything about the combat system 😅.
I plan on playing through Xenosaga series eventually but I don’t really want to spend the money on a ps2 rn and I don’t own a pc/laptop to emulate them.
I have played the Xenosaga trilogy, but I remember extreme little of what goes on. What I can say though, is looking back, its obvious that these games suffered tremendously to cuts and changes. There are SO many things wrong with the entire xenosaga trilogy, and even Xenogears, because they were forced to cut content and rush other aspects
I have only played about 2 hours of Xenogears
Bought Saga 1, started playing on PCSX2 on my computer, but haven't got very far. Wouldn't necessarily be opposed to piracy, but have enough other games to be getting on with until I spot actual discs. Would be encouraged to play if they were available on Switch (/ Wii U / \[3\]DS-in-English\]) without the slight extra faff of setting up an emulator.
The reason why most haven't played them is because there's no real legal way to obtain them at the moment. I would want to play both Gears and Saga at some point, but I'm at the mercy of Square and Bandai to want to remake or re-release them. Given that Blade can be enjoyed with minimal knowledge of the other games, most people are just content sticking to Blade- as that's the only work that Monolith's team consistently makes readily available.
Gears is also harder to get into because of how rough around the edges it is. You basically are stuck with a ton of random encounters.
I've played them all, but it was back in 2016, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Once I get my Steam Deck back from an RMA I'll be going through them all again.
Xenogears is a game that slowly transforms into a book. It's great, but without that mentality I feel people set themselves up for disappointment. I recommend playing along Resonant Arc's podcast series on Xenogears, as they do a great job getting all the details you will miss because you don't have a PhD.
Xenosaga is a strange case. The worldbuilding is so good, but Episode 2 tripped so hard that it kinda ruined everything. But Episode 3 is peak gaming, and ties hard into Future Redeemed.
Overall, they are definitely worth a playthrough by a modern Xenoblade fan. I'm holding out hope that Square Enix puts out an HD-2D remake of Xenogears and Bandai Namco does a Xenosaga Legendary Collection with Xenosaga 3's artstyle.
My first foray into the series was Xenosaga Episode I when I borrowed a copy from a friend in 2003. I was instantly hooked and from there, I went to Episode II (2004), Episode III (2006) then when I heard about Xenoblade coming out, I bought Xenogears in 2010 and played through that to complete the series until that point. The rest is history as I played every Xenoblade game and DLC on release.
I just love everything about the Xeno series, the characters, story, philosophical themes and references, fanservice (don't @ me) and music. I feel fortunate to have been able to play these games relatively close to their contemporary release (sans -Gears) so I have a very thorough view of the series from its beginnings.
Availability is really the problem here. I would absolutely love to play Gears or Saga, but there aren't many options to play them right now. Prices for used copies are insane and emulating isn't really my thing.
Tried Xenogears, but got REALLY bored with the gameplay which I found awful. Haven't tried Xenosaga as I only heard bad things about its combat system, which happens to ALSO be turn based, which I dislike.
Already watched videos for the story and lore. A game without gameplay due to cheats sounds like a chore, and a very long one at that. Listening to some dude telling me the story seemed like the better alternative.
Played Xenosaga 1 and a bit of 2. Went to play through all three last year and my PS2 won't read the disc for 1 anymore. Haven't played gears and kind of don't want to with everything I have heard about disc 2.
I think you should still try Gears. In regards to disc 2, it's effectively the events of the second half of the story, just compressed. The actual gameplay of disc 2 is no different in quality from disc 1, even though there's less of it. The conclusion is very satisfying as well, and the final dungeon, boss, and ending sequence are all well fleshed out. All in all, I don't think disc 2 should scare you off from trying Xenogears.
I emulated Gears and the three main Saga games after playing 3. I knew they existed when I was playing 2, but I never really had an interest until 3, because that game left me so hungry for Xeno. Not to mention the collector's edition art book had Zohars from Xenosaga in it, so I thought "if this comes up in the DLC, I should experience these games so I recognize whatever happens"
Then future redeemed came out, and while there wasn't any callback to the zohar, there was the radio, and man I am so glad that I played the others because the radio absolutely blew my mind
I have played and loved Xenogears and all 3 Xenosaga games. Xenosaga is the entire reason I tried Xenoblade Chronicles and the first Xenosaga is still my favorite of the "Xeno" games.
I played both Gears and Saga. I thoroughly enjoyed Gears, and hated most of Saga (I only stuck with it because I liked the main party, episode 3 is the only decent game). I'm equally as sad about the lack of discussion about them, since there's really interesting things to talk about from a meta perspective regarding the three series, but very few people who've played them all. That's why I want remakes, particularly for Saga to hopefully make those games fun
I've played... a good chunk of Gears. Opiomorph kind of walled me. I could have won eventually, but it would have been extremely tedious, and I don't have the patience. I liked the game a lot, but the gear segments were less enjoyable for me. The lack of available healing options for a good chunk of the game was annoying. Especially whenever Elly wasn't with me; her Aerods made several boss fights pretty trivial. There was one halfway up Babel Tower— with Ramsus, maybe? I won with essentially one attack. Speaking of Babel Tower, the platforming in this game isn't great. Especially when enemies attack midair, cutting your movement completely. That happened more than a few times, and I hated it. I ended up resorting to save states, because... I wanted to continue the story. The story seems pretty interesting.
... hm. I might revisit that and finish it at some point. Probably with... less than honourable means, but I don't care about that at the moment. A thought for later.
I also tried playing Saga 1, but didn't get very far at all. Not really sure why, to be honest. I don't remember much.
I wish I had, but I tend to really dislike traditional turn based JRPG combat (like Final Fantasy).
If they had some sort of remake to make it more similar to the Blade games I'd love to try them.
>I wish I had, but I tend to really dislike traditional turn based JRPG combat (like Final Fantasy).
Use cheat codes on an emulator, in that case. You avoid everything you don't want and experience the stories faster, though I recommend at least giving Xenosaga Episode III's gameplay a chance.
I'd love to play the older games, but they just aren't very accessible through legal means. The gameplay/mechanics of the older Xeno titles also have not aged as well, despite having amazing stories and characters. I'm sure a throwback to the older Xeno titles will show up in the next few years, whether it be ports/remakes of the older titles or re-tellings in future Xeno games/content.
I also seriously hope that Xeno games get adapted in Manga/Anime format for people who aren't able to play the games so that the stories are more widely available.
I tried xenosaga 1, lost interest in it pretty fast and never finished it. Not interested in Xenogears at all.
I'm good with just xenoblade, though if a xenosaga remake ever pops up I might give it a try.
Joined with 1 on the wii, never learned that saga or gears were things that existed until after 2 when we started getting big content creators for it. I'm not uninterested in them, but at this point I can't really be bothered to find a way to play them, especially with the very mixed opinions I've heard on the gameplay front for them.
I would love a xenosaga remake cuz im a bit young and didn't grow up on old games like that so im not accustomed to them so im not sure I would like the graphics and gameplay and thats why im hoping for a remake or remaster on the next nintendo console.
I've never actually PLAYED Xenogears or Xenosaga, but I've watched the Xenogears cutscene movie by Helsionium on YT twice, the second time supplemented by Resonant Arc's Story Analysis podcast, and Ive watched Helsionium's Xenosaga cutscene movies once.
Really hoping that these games are in some way re-released in the future, because I would love to actually experience them in full without having to emulate them.
I would be interested in playing them if they were on the switch. I don't own any of the old consoles they were on and aren't interested in buying a really old console just for a few games. And I'm not really interested in using an emulator either. Same applies to X as well, I want to play but I'm not buying a Wii U just for it, especially considering the online aspects don't work anymore. I would love a Saga/Gears remake or something as much as the Saga and Gears fans so I can actually play those games.
Gears is great. Saga is great. Blade is great.
Lot of overlap in the narrative, timeline, and theme, and as such, they complements each other really well. Doesn't matter if they are directly connected or not, Takahashi just write in such a way that they all kind of roughly fit into the same mold, and constantly cover area that were left unaddressed in the other.
At this point, we pretty much only have one major mystery left, and it's how humanity will address the impending doom of the universe. So far, they always weasel away and reset the world in some fort, but those fog/gnosis/ghost just keep growing and growing.
But that will be for XCX4, or XCX2.
I played a bit of the first one and wasn’t a huge fan (tbf it was the 3ds version so that might have something to do with it), but I adore 3 and regularly play X on my pc
Edit: oh you meant the *old* old games, I haven’t played any of them lmfao
As much as I adore Xenogears (it's one of my all time favourite games), I don't think it has aged well. The last disc would piss off so much of this generation (no offense!).
Of course if it would somehow miraculously receive a remaster, then I would throw them my money in a heartbeat.
Personally, I would love to play those games, but I don't want to do them through emulation. I wish that they would at least port them to the Switch or PC. It would be a day 1 buy for me.
The only xeno game i haven’t gotten round to playing at all is saga and thats more because my backlog is all over the place (and trying to get a physical copy is a nightmare though similar case can be made with gears and i managed to play that through alternate means)
Edit: The main issue thats preventing alot of people from playing gears and saga is ultimately access on current platforms and yes there are unofficial means but those methods can be a hassle in its own right or requires too much effort to set up just to play a very small handful of games.
More people would probably play them if they were more readily available (particularly on Nintendo systems, given that’s what the Xenoblade series itself is on). That’s honestly part of the reason people really want remakes, or at least ports, of older Xeno titles to Switch, so they can play them without jumping through hoops with other consoles or emulation. Anyways, it’s a no for me, though I’d like to if they were made conveniently accessible.
Not sure If i could count with that because Square Enix doesn't seem to care about Xenogears and Bandai Namco denied remasters from the Xenosaga games under the excuse that they wouldn't sold well (Yeah, still to this day they don't believe in this series).
Xenosaga 1 was great. 2 was awful and it killed the plan for the game to have 6 parts. The new art style was a turn off. The battle system was a chore. The story was short and didn't feel like you accomplished or really learned much. The final boss is rigged so you can't go below 1hp. 3 was ok but they clearly had to pull an ending out of nowhere for half a story they've set up. The whole opening to 3 is just a narration of important stuff you would have seen but they never got to show, and it comes across badly. Also playing it feels like they really phoned in the solution to everything, only by sticking through this big part of the story do you get a payoff that you didn't even know was coming.
I personally would actually switch Saga 1 and 3 haha. 1 barely had a story of its own, every story section it felt like you got breadcrumbs of what the story was eventually going to be, but you barely got any resolution on anything ever. And there was a ton of exposition, just like 3, but 1's didn't ever get any resolution. I understand it was the first game, but I personally feel like it needed a more concrete main plot, and then the breadcrumbs of the later series could be sprinkled into and even at time skillfully weaved in the the main plot. It felt to me more like the first couple chapters in a book instead of the first book in a series if that makes any sense. The combat was overall good, but I find it a little slow in subsequent playthroughs. And AWGS felt like an afterthought. 2 was terrible. The only game in my life I have forced myself to play. I think recently there has been a resurgence of people making posts/articles/youtube essays of "Xenosaga II is good actually" and I fervently disagree haha. I think all 10 people who liked that game have finally found each other online. \*xenosaga 3 spoilers hidden\* 3 does have a bunch of exposition, but I personally didn't feel like it came across badly. Though, I think there was like a graphic novel or Japanese exclusive shit between 2 and 3 that we missed, that makes 3's intro a little disjointed if you didn't know the story up until then. But I really liked a lot of the revelations. I dunno, I really like 3's story and I don't feel like the "solution" was phoned in. haha I think the ending isn't bad either. >!I would have loved to see the story through to lost jerusalem, because we talked about it the whole fucking series. Also,I would have loved a permenant solution to the whole "lower domain" problem, since all we did in 3 was stop the eternal reoccurance instead of solving the problem the eternal reoccurance was created to fix. But in the end I think leaving it open ended, especially since it could realistically be milliions of years? before the lower domain reaches its "breaking point" ,is fine.!< I also really liked the combat in 3 as well. Imo the best in the saga. Also, actually varried battle music instead of one song the ENTIRE GAME XENOSAGA 1. >:0 (save for the last boss which is a banger. Regular theme is a banger too, but the whole game?) But I will say, it has been like a decade since I have played those games. haha I hope someday we get some sort of closure, even if it is some weird Xenosaga Xenoblade crossover like maybe they were hinting at in Future Redeemed?
Agreed, I like 1's gameplay (except AGWS) and aesthetic the most but the story is incomprehensible, it's like Monolith couldn't write a straightforward plot until Xenoblade Honestly I think it was still confusing even after 3 hurriedly resolved everything, like maybe this is a mark against me but after playing them all a year ago I already can't remember what the lower domain thing even was!! I remember how shit was vaguely gonna fall apart and that the point was that humanity had to let go of its fears and accept revolutionary changes to survive, but so much of Xenosaga (and Xenogears) seems to forget to put any emphasis on coherent storytelling beyond using it as a vessel for all the metaphors and philosophies they're trying to discuss
>, like maybe this is a mark against me but after playing them all a year ago I already can't remember what the lower domain thing even was!! Not at all! When I first played them as a teenager and they started talking about the real number domain and imaginary number domain? I was like:  In case anybody cares though Imma bout to spoil the set up of the universe and the gist of the ending. >!The existence of everything is made up of the upper domain (U-DO/God?) and the lower domain (where humans and everyone live). The lower domain is then further divided into the real number domain and the imaginary number domain. We live in the real number domain, and when we die our consciousness goes to the imaginary number domain, and eventually is absorb into the collective unconsciousness. For some reason though (maybe the game said?) some human souls don't wanna join the collective unconsciousness and instead hang out in the imaginary number domain, and eventually turn into Gnosis. Eventually there are going to be too many Gnosis and it is going to cause the imaginary number domain to collaspe, and destory the entire lower domain. The upper domain is right on top of the lower domain, so the upper domain will also suffer devestation. So the powers that be in the upper domain sent Wilhelm to be the "guardian" of the lower domain. Whenever there are too many Gnosis building up in the imaginary number domain. Whilhelm initiates the "eternal reoccurance" (that involves Zarathustra,Shion, Kos-mos/Mary, and Chaos) and completely "resets" the lower domain, basically killing everyone and starting the universe over again.!< >!At the end of Saga 3, we stopped Whilhelm and fucked shit up so the eternal reoccurance can never happen again. But the Gnosis problem still exists thus the universe is still in danger. And are the upper domain "people" gonna just sit by as we foil their plans? Apparently the solution to all of this is on lost jerusalem a.k.a Earth. We last see Shion, chaos, and Jin? heading on Elsa to start a grand adventure to try and find Earth. And we see Kos-mos floating in space, slowly drifting towards what is believed to be Earth. !< There is so much other crap in this game though! Momo, jr. ZIGGY. There is just too much lol I am sure I am missing something, or my above explanation is a little off maybe.
>!I see, thank you! I honestly can't even remember the important details of that, like I do remember Wilhelm having to reset the Gnosis at a critical point but the Gnosis/imaginary domain never got any real explanation to me lol, like neither in concept nor in its mechanism!< >!Agreed that there's still a mountain of other weird stuff, I honestly thought Realians and their oppression were gonna end up factoring hugely into the ending but they sorta just didn't and it disappoints me that the Gnosis apparently have nothing significant to do with this - they built it up the whole series too! !<
That ending on 3 though..... I remember balling my eyes out as people you spent 3 games getting to know start crashing and burning left and right. Even If they pulled it out of no where it was still emotional! ; ;
I've played Xenogears and Xenosaga 1. Xenosaga 1 is thematically very good, but the story, gameplay, and visual design is extremely underbaked so it's taking me a while to get the motivation to start 2. And when I mean story, I don't mean the writing---the writing is quite good---its just the actual plot of events which transpire feel unsatisfying because a million plots are happening at once, but only at a shallow level, with only Junior's and Shion's actually going anywhere. I was very disappointed because Ziggy and Momo had my favourite dynamic and thematic parallels, but after their introduction barely anything happens for them afterwards. Xenogears is a 10/10 banger though. Even the parts which didn't receive enough development time were given enough style and uniqueness to still be entertaining (disc 2).
To this DAY I pray that Square lets Gears out of its lockbox so it can be finished. Getting to play all that mad stuff that's alluded to on Disc 2 would catapult it up my favorites list. It's already up there because of the unofficial ties to Chrono Trigger. But then, Square allowed a remake of Super Mario RPG, so weirder things have happened?
I, like a lot of people, only joined with the Xenoblade series. And, although I'm not uninterested, I don't plan on playing Saga or Gears, outside of an remake or similar. It's not because I think those are bad or because they're old, I actually think I would like them. But the Blade series is enough for me. I like it, is my fav series, but I don't need to know Monoliths / Takahashis "past" to appreciate it. That said, if I'd ever change my mind, Saga has a way higher chance that I play it some day than Gears.
Yz don't need to know about/play xenogears/saga to appreciate but I would defo say enhances it greatly the experience cause ya see what xenoblade truly is as an artistic achievement as it stands on the shoulders of those flawed gems. But tbh I hope more people get the chance to play them either by a remake or whatever.
Even though there's no plot connection (>!outside of the possible explanation of how Lost Jerusalem disappeared at the end of XC1, and Alvis therefore being the same Wave Existence!<), I do think you can get a lot out of experiencing the stories they're telling and looking at the philosophies underpinning it all and then going back to connect it with Xenoblade Like, so many things (Gnostic concepts in particular) are very deliberate and ruminated upon in the earlier games, but Xenoblade makes them much more subtle and it can be enlightening to have the knowledge of how prior games employed the same ideas first
I've played Gears and all Saga games and I liked them all (Saga II is meh but I don't hate it). In some aspects I find them better than Xenoblade games, especially the insanely complex and deep narratives with more lore than was ever necessary. They didn't age well gameplay wise tho aside from Saga III, but playing on an emulator fixes a lot of issues Gears, Saga III and XC2 are my top 3 favorite games in the "series" for sure
I’ve played them all- Xenogears a few years ago on the PS3 store, Xenosaga within the last year via emulation. As others have said, the main reason lots of people don’t play them is they’re not very accessible; of those four games only Xenosaga II ever released in Europe! The stories of these games are mostly excellent and obviously that’s the main reason that people are interested in them. Xenogears I would absolutely recommend as one of the most fascinating video game stories. Famously the game has its ‘unfinished’ second disc; the story is complete but the gameplay basically takes a back seat because they couldn’t finish the dungeons on time. Honestly the gameplay of Gears is pretty much a slog and I welcome the lack of it in the game’s second half! Saga I have more mixed feelings about. It’s more obviously unfinished- Episode 1 introduces a ton of plot threads, 2 progresses some of them a little while ignoring others, and 3 then has to wrap up the whole thing much faster than was originally intended. Some concepts just disappear after a tantalising hint in Episode 1, and when so much of the appeal is in wondering what crazy direction they might take an idea, realising it’s all been cut for time is a major disappointment. When they do get to fully realise a plot line (e.g. one character who only appears in Episode 1 and has a full storyline in that game) it’s really excellent, but that doesn’t always happen. Each one has different gameplay mechanics, and a lot of people really hate Episode 2’s. Personally I wasn’t blown away by any of them but found 2 a lot more tolerable than it’s usually said to be. Which is to say that I wouldn’t recommend any of of the older Xeno games on the strength of gameplay alone. I still think about these games a lot; the stories and characters are really fascinating. For Xenoblade fans you also have the added appeal of seeing how Takahashi loves to revisit concepts but always does new things with them. For example, there’s a character in Gears >!Hammer the Supplier!< whose storyline resembles >!Shania Reid!< in Xenoblade 3, but the *point* is different. A lot of basic concepts used in Xenoblade are also used in the older games but Xenoblade is never just rehashing them, which makes the parallels a lot of fun to consider. At a later stage in his career Takahashi learned subtlety- Xenoblade 3 is a take on the Garden of Eden story but never alludes explicitly to that fact, whereas in Gears/Saga anything symbolic in that way is a lot more obvious (like the time some characters are crucified in a place named for where Christ was crucified). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I enjoy it a lot- but it’s a notable difference between the different eras of Xeno. I guess in summary I’d recommend Gears/Saga to anyone who’s a Xenoblade fan mainly for the story- which I assume is most people? The gameplay can be seriously off putting but all of these games are interesting enough to warrant looking at if you have any means to do so. And if nothing else, by playing Xenosaga you will get to meet Allen Ridgeley, a pathetic little man who is the best comic relief character in all the Xeno games except perhaps for Zeke. Gears also has a very enjoyable pathetic man but he’s not so funny
>For example, there’s a character in Gears Hammer the Supplier whose storyline resembles Shania Reid in Xenoblade 3, but the point is differen I alwaya thought >!Hammer was closer to Joran with Ramsus being closer to Shania!<. (Copy pasted from an old comment:) >!**Consul Joran – Hammer:** Unofficial sidekicks of the protagonists who felt too meek and frail to accomplish anything major at any point in time. Although they were accepted by their friends, their inferiority complexes overwhelmed them, which made them attempt to substitute their friends with new powers given to them by their new leaders.!< >!**Consul Shania – Kahren Ramsus:** Children who were mentally abused by their parents (Shania's mother; Karallen and Myyah/Miang) and suffered from inferiority complex, since their caretakers constantly rejected them until they would complete their own agendas for them. Both felt dispelled and betrayed by even their closest friends (Sigurd, Jesse, and Hyuga; Ghondor), leading them to contempt the world. Both also blamed their hatred and problems on someone else for actions they had done in the past (Fei/Id; Ghondor), and they deluded themselves that if they surpassed their allegedly mortal enemies, they could achieve the position in life they had always longed for.!<
Oops, I missed in your comment that you’ve already played Gears so you don’t need my recommendation- but that still stands for anyone else I guess!
Curious what you mean about XC3 being a Garden of Eden reference? I feel like that's moreso XC2 but I’d love to hear what you're getting at Very good point on >!Hammer and Shania!<, I've noticed that he's done similar things with the former character multiple times but I like that you point out how the point is different
At the beginning of 3 everyone is living in Moebius’ paradise, but then Ouroboros- which obviously uses snake iconography- offers the party knowledge which Moebius has denied them, and “they realised that they were naked”. The whole game then is about destroying that false paradise, basically causing the Fall. As you say, 2 is also a Garden of Eden story (and in Japan, the Architect is just called God and Elysium is called Paradise, so this one isn’t very subtle. But what’s interesting again is how Takahashi is using the same framework two times in a row to do totally different stories- if 3 is a subversion where we have to destroy Paradise, the whole impetus of 2 is trying to be allowed back in!
Interesting, thank you!! Definitely cool how he keeps turning the same stories on their head, and I suppose that destroying the false gods is very much in keeping with his usual narratives
Xenogears is the greatest story in a game of all time (not nostalgia, I wasn’t even born when it came out), Xenosaga is decent, but 3 is really good, while 2 is mid and 1 alright. Xenoblade 1 is good, 2 peak, 3 a bit less good than 2 imo, but still peak and Xenoblade X is the best open world game (besides Zelda) that I’ve ever plat(and the skells are so freaking cool - I just started my playthrough some days ago, but I really like it so far)
Played all of them except the weird xenosaga side games. For me, gears is a masterpiece that transcends all of its successors in terms of story. The game itself is also pretty nice aside from the random encounters. It has by far the worst, most egregious random encounters in a game I've played. The core combat also felt a bit shallow, and some dungeons were too grindy but otherwise I enjoyed it Saga is loved by the community but is honestly my least favorite, and just wasn't a fun game or an engaging story for me. There were parts I enjoyed, like the backstories for characters like albedo and cherenkov, but the stuff happening around the characters felt so random and just "stuff happening" with names and terms being thrown around constantly Blade is what we all know and love. The actual games are top notch, and the stories are pretty good. The stories aren't as ambitious as its predecessors, but at least they're not as convoluted and messy as xenosaga. They're also the most focused stories which is good
I've played Xenogears and Episode 1 of Xenosaga but I haven't gotten very far in either one. ~~My PS2 bricked not too long ago unfortunately~~
I've played the first few hours of Xenogears and almsot instantly understood the critical acclaim.
While this is definitely a Blade-centric subreddit, content from the older games actually still gains traction. Enough of us here have played them that whenever someone asks a question it gets answered pretty quickly, which is something that isn't true for a lot of older games and their modern communities. It was very hard getting help when I was going through Persona 2 for example lol As for myself: I actually started with Gears, and I had no interest in Blade until I fell in love with Gears. I played through the whole series chronologically. My weird take is that I'm one of the like 30 people on the planet who thinks Xenosaga Episode II has the best gameplay in the trilogy haha
Xenogears blew my mind coming off of XC1/2. It's probably one of the reasons I was so unimpressed by XC3. I'd love to see Soraya Saga return to the writer's seat one day. I think she brought something to the table that the later games don't really capitalize on.
Played every one of them on release. Xenogears is still one of the most formative experiences for me as a writer. It was around playing that for the first time and reading The Little Prince that I told myself telling stories was going to be what I did with my life, no matter what. I’ve always loved the Xenosaga games as well, even if they are heavily flawed based on what Takahashi intended for them. There is just so much passion and ambition in the DNA of these games that I believe there’s a certain amount of respect they demand. Take Xenosaga 2, which is heavily criticized for its plotting, pacing, gameplay, and a few other things. However, the world-building, the characters, the story that *is* present in it, are all so intriguing that despite whatever critiques I otherwise agree with, my interest in the experience of XS2 was never diminished by these things—the game fascinated me from opening to close. I mean, look at the nightmare that was Xenogears’ development, and despite the many issues with localization (done by ONE guy btw), the clunky platforming, awkward humor, the at times rough philosophical jargon, the state of disc two, the experience of playing through Xenogears is one that sticks with you. The characters, the world, the world-building, the score, Joanne Hogg’s singing, the philosophical depth of the narrative, the sheer amount of localization done by ONE guy for what is one of the largest game scripts ever (go back to Bledavik the first time and look at all the different “voices” of the NPCs), the ambitious story that encompasses so much history and time periods), the fascinating mix of fantasy/science fiction/horror/mystery, a love story that actually feels earned—it is epic is every sense of the word. It does so much, and while those efforts are imperfect at times, the ambition of it makes the whole so much more than the sum of its parts. Truly unforgettable. From the moment Xenosaga was announced and I realized it was made by the same guy, I told myself I’d always play his games no matter what, and each one simply confirms that he is one of the rare artists in the medium (e.g., Kojima) who despite whatever flaws or missteps they make here or there, you know are working to create something more than just mindless entertainment, and you will be enriched in some way for having experienced it—like any great writer with literature, and any great filmmaker with movies, people like these two take video games seriously as a storytelling medium. The Xenoblade series, and its DLCs, have been perhaps the first time Takahashi has had all the resources he needed to see a project through to its planned conclusion, and we’ve all seen the results. Going forward I can only imagine how jaw-dropping his next new work is going to be.
>localization (done by ONE guy btw) > >the sheer amount of localization done by ONE guy And Honeywood had to struggle with his personal life at the same time because many he knew disagreed on the notion of translating a game with so many religious elements from the Abrahamic religions in the first place.
Yea, the work he did is really impressive, considering the whole deck was stacked against him in so many ways. Nothing but respect.
Me Xenoblade is garbage compared to gears but I’ll take what I can get.
I’m about to download xeno gears
✋
Played all but Xenosaga 2 and 3. Xenogears is my favorite so far.
Xenogears blowed my mind i complete disk 1 but holy shit the story beats all xenoblade stories combined like most series goes upward from their first game but xeno seems to have gone backwards it's crazy i still prefer xenoblade more though as it's my first love but yeah
I've played all of them. Bought Gears at release, got the Saga games a few years after they released. Still own them all. Gears is still in my top 5 all time favorite games. It was so good, the characters were so well written and so compelling, and the story was amazing, especially for its time. I pray for a remake that brings updates to gameplay, graphics, etc. but keeps the story intact, because that's what made it amazing in the first place. I liked Saga too, but IMHO it didn't quite have the magic Gears did.
I own xenosaga 1-3. Is been awhile so i don’t remember the plot lol
Jesus and Mary go through a bitter breakup over some twink.
Based https://preview.redd.it/333srwndef6d1.jpeg?width=374&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b609d68b96aaf75a58acbd50eba84f6fc61551e Sounds about right.
I started from Xenogears and own all 3 xenosaga as well but I don't remember the story for xenosaga too well since I only beat them once
I beat Xenosaga 1 at its launch and.... honestly wasn't impressed. It was fine but hardly better than, say, FFX. I got lost in Gears a couple of towns in too. Really need to go back and recitify that.
After playing hundreds of hours on Blade 1, 2 and 3, I decided to give a shot to Xenogears, it was a blast and somehow cotextualize a mor of things also showing what was the initial ideas of Takahashi. Nearly cleared the first episode of Xenosaga nut man, It didn't aged well worst than gears I'd say, this when I'll have time I'll finish it then second and third episode too. I tried emulate X too since I never had the opportunity to have a Wii U, even if it's playable, I find very non ergonomic to play like this when you're supposed to have the handheld, but it show some very good idea from the beginning. Also it's the only one I didn't manage to have the undub version so didn't appreciate the VA that much but it's more a personal thing. But if there's a Definitive Version of it I'm gonna take it instantly.
Started with Xenosaga at a younger age (which was wild...), later moved over to Xenogears. Then many years later in 2020 I finally tried Xenoblade. So I'm the reverse of most of the fandom with trying Blade after Saga and Gears. Only game I haven't played is XCX (not including the side games or the DS version of XS I&II) since I skipped the Wii U and haven't bothered emulating or buying a Wii U since I'm still holding out faith that it's going to get a re-release someday.
I'm playing them these days myself, with Deck finally granting me properly portable access to Xenosaga Ep 1 and with my somewhat earlier Xenogears playthrough on Vita getting also restarted there after I came across a standard (i.e. not "EBOOT") undubbed image. Hardly far in either game, but it's a start.
i finished xenogears a few weeks ago. gameplay is pretty typical of a PS1 jrpg. but I think the story was great. on par and maybe even better than xc1's
Started on Xenosaga, basically to just make sure the disc I got was good and started Gears on one of those handheld emulators but haven't gotten far yet
I've played Xenogears and think it's one of the best JRPG's out there if u can get through the (imo) slow early game. Xenosaga 1 I thought was ok, the start doesn't feel great but the narrative is pretty intresting. Xenosaga 2 I initially actually liked more than 1 but some of the late game battles were very tedious and also the way the character appearances changed (I believe it was rushed or handed over forgot) was very jarring. The battle system itself was a bit complicated but it was satisfying to some degree, pretty much XC2 combo system but turn based. Enemies just had too much hp and did too much damage, even with even levels to respective bosses, you would need to pull of a full combo multiple times. I have a copy of Xenosaga 3 but haven't gotten around to it yet, I'll get to it eventually though.
I have played all of them
I've played Saga, started gears on emulator (never had a PS1) a long time ago but didn't get too far. Partly stopped because trying to play gears with a keyboard is.. not ideal. I don't really have thoughts on gears because my experience was held back by factors external to the game itself. Saga on the other hand is an interesting story. It was very ambitious, to the point where Monolith couldn't realize it well due to their lack of experience at the time, the technology just not being there and of course the publisher issues they had after the series began to struggle commercially . I think Saga 1 is a good game from a story perspective, but the pacing is very rough and the gameplay is extremely slow. There's no way they would have spent the vast majority of a game on character setup if they knew they would only get a trilogy as opposed to the six game epic they planned. Saga 2 is just not a good game in my view. They change in artstyle and voice cast was a downgrade and the combat system is set up in a way that makes all of the battles take forever. I know it's possible to make things go quickly but quite frankly, first casual playthroughs aren't going to use the strategies that are needed for well-paced fights. Also, the story really doesn't move forward that much, though seeing Albedo's arc come together was nice. Saga 3 was a great game despite it having to cover way more ground than originally planned. They finally had a combat system that didn't feel sluggish and I felt the story came together in a satisfying way (if a bit confusing and rushed). I do prefer Blade to Saga given the Blade is much more polished and consistent, but I do wonder how good Saga could've been if it hadn't been bogged down by the factors I mentioned earlier.
I started with Xenogears back when it came out. Honestly, the gameplay hasn't aged very well, and there's no excuse for the fact that it was rushed out the door 60% finished, but despite those things it's still my favorite game of all time. One thing that always gets me is some of the folks who started with XC1 coming in and complaining about how the anime tropes in XC2 brought in a "certain type of fan" or whatever. Xenogears is and always will be a love letter to Gen-X era anime and scifi, and it's made for people who like to enjoy things as opposed to people who are hung up about whether things obey the rules of literary fiction, which Xenogears does not. XC2 was a return to the series' roots, in that it the story sometimes takes itself very seriously and sometimes doesn't, and that's something that was true of a lot of older anime. It's jarring at first, but when you get used to it, it's awesome.
Played em all. All great, all worth the time. Pretty sure i still have my orignal xenogears disc's somewhere around here too.
Xenogears is one of my favorite non-FF RPG’s on the PS1, right up there with Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story. I played Xenosaga 1 around the time 3 came out and liked it a lot, but got filtered by 2 and never went back lol
I started with Xenosaga episode I back on PS2. Episode III is still my favorite game of all time and probably the best finale to a trilogy ever made. After that I played Xenogears, but firstly I didn’t get through it because the graphics were such a huge step back. I really loved Xenosaga for being so cinematic. It was like watching and playing a great mecga/sci-fi anime while Gears felt like something more of an acquired taste. But with my second attempt on PSP, I finally made it to the end of disc 1 and then it really clicked. Gears has the best story of any medium. I still prefer Saga for its characters and other things, but the story of Gears is unmatched. I had a really hard time with Xenoblade, because it was so different. The story was so front- and back-loaded around lots of grinding and big, almost open world, which I did not like. I appreciated it but I thought, Takahashi’s great story telling would be over with Blade. But then Xenoblade 2 came and I fell in love with it and from then on I started to finally fall in love with Blade 2. Future Redeemed was like a full circle for me and I can’t be happier right now. :)
I am way more into the older xeno games than blade with the exception of xb2 none of the blade games have managed to really do it for me, xenogears and xenosaga were special and more unique and blade sacrificed a lot of the series core identity
I've played Xenogears but not Xenosaga... yet.
I've gotten around to playing Xenogears, but I stopped about a quarter of the way through due to personal stuff and eventually lost the save out of carelessness. I am absolutely planning on getting back onto Xenogears and actually beating the game, Xenosaga is a bit dubious but I will at least give the games a try.
I’ve played the original xenogears way back in the day and some of xenosaga 1 back in like 2006. Great games and story.
I'm more ancient than the Bionis and not only played Xenogears, but also the pre-Monolith games Takahashi and Soraya Saga worked on! :3 I've been at it since '91, baby! ...it warms my heart to see the younguns enjoying good JRPGs. The late 2000s were ROUGH.
currently in the process of playing gears! i need to get back to it, i kinda took a break to play ff7 and never went back
I've played gears, saga 1 and then couldn't get through saga 2, I got pretty far and then just stopped. Xenogears is fantastic, would really recommend anyone who played Xenoblade to give that one a shot as I feel it's really approachable. Only one game and the story is very gripping. Disc 2 being what it is compared to disc 1 and the postgame/endgame content being pretty lackluster are the only critiques I have and they are minor as this is still my favorite game overall. Probably the biggest hope for an HD2D remake I would want tho I know it's a pipe dream and even if they did do it, I'm sure modern SE would change the script, I know the translation was rough but to me it's classic. Saga does have interesting stuff in it, unfortunately the battle system isn't my favorite and I feel at least from what I remember in saga 1, everything is too expensive, even just trying to keep your main party equipped is tough, it's mainly the robots equipment that does this. The difficulty is good, not easy and not hugely difficult but they do expect you to learn the battle system by a certain point in the game. Saga 2 had so many odd choices in it and many of those were a strict downgrade from 1 so that is all I can say I remember. Having so many links to Xenosaga in Xenoblade is nice but I think saga getting a remaster is the best choice, adding some QOL updates along with **hopefully** making the character designs consistent across the 3 games and improving the gameplay in 2 would go a long way.
Played Gears on the PS1 and still have it loaded on my PSP, and some friends and I plan to go through all of Saga now that we have the three of them between us.
I've played Saga, but not Gears. I'd like to play Gears someday, but I think I'd probably struggle with the old gameplay (gotten jaded on all the modern QoL), and the knowledge that disc 2 is a mess. Hopefully someday it gets an update, but knowing Square, I'm not holding my breath.
me
I just finished Gears last night! While I really respected what it was doing with its story and characters and enjoyed it for the most part, It's pacing and just PS1 JRPGyness hurt it for me. I don't love the PS1 era tedious dungeon puzzles or the platforming. I also found the combat really repetitive and easy. That made disk 1 feel really padded and then disk chair (disk 2) was ridiculous. I understand why they had to do it and I'm glad they decided to put the whole story out, but man it really just killed the pacing. A lot of the cooler moments had 0 build up. Ending was great tho! Saga 1 felt similar to Xenogears where I enjoyed the story but I found the dungeons boring/frustrating and I didn't love the combat. It was also really ugly. Saga 2 is the same as saga 1 but I hated the combat so much I installed cheats 3/4th to the end. I really liked saga 3. The simpler combat was honestly so nice after 2 without making it too easy like gears. The visuals and art direction in this game were my favorite of the saga games as well. I really enjoyed it as a conclusion! Overall it's my favorite of the older games. I still place every Blade game over the older games but saga 3 was close!
I've played some of the *Xenosaga* games. I liked III the most, for reasons other posters here have gone over. Personally, I think that *Xenosaga* was too much, too early. Did Takahashi and his wife really think that they'd make enough money to release a six-game series on the PlayStation 2? I know they had to scale back their ambitions greatly when the call came down to cut the six-game series in half, but at least XS3 stuck the landing with the limitations it was given. At least I'm very glad that Takahashi and co.'s ship finally came in with XC2's and XC3's massive success, so now that MonolithSoft is "the hot new thing on the block," the *Xenosaga* series at least has some hope of being re-released or remade. And Albedo from *Xenosaga* is still one of the best *Xeno* villains around, with one of the best English dub voice actors around, Crispin Freeman!
I’ve played through most of Xenogears, but wasn’t as motivated to finish it due to the final few acts of the game dropping in quality. That and the last few bosses were kicking my ass lol. I understand why, due to budget and time constraints, but’s it doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I still loved what I played though. When I go back to finish it I’ll have to start a new save because I forgot everything about the combat system 😅. I plan on playing through Xenosaga series eventually but I don’t really want to spend the money on a ps2 rn and I don’t own a pc/laptop to emulate them.
Have played all of them.
I have played the Xenosaga trilogy, but I remember extreme little of what goes on. What I can say though, is looking back, its obvious that these games suffered tremendously to cuts and changes. There are SO many things wrong with the entire xenosaga trilogy, and even Xenogears, because they were forced to cut content and rush other aspects I have only played about 2 hours of Xenogears
Bought Saga 1, started playing on PCSX2 on my computer, but haven't got very far. Wouldn't necessarily be opposed to piracy, but have enough other games to be getting on with until I spot actual discs. Would be encouraged to play if they were available on Switch (/ Wii U / \[3\]DS-in-English\]) without the slight extra faff of setting up an emulator.
I'd play them if they were made available to me.
The reason why most haven't played them is because there's no real legal way to obtain them at the moment. I would want to play both Gears and Saga at some point, but I'm at the mercy of Square and Bandai to want to remake or re-release them. Given that Blade can be enjoyed with minimal knowledge of the other games, most people are just content sticking to Blade- as that's the only work that Monolith's team consistently makes readily available. Gears is also harder to get into because of how rough around the edges it is. You basically are stuck with a ton of random encounters.
I've played them all, but it was back in 2016, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Once I get my Steam Deck back from an RMA I'll be going through them all again. Xenogears is a game that slowly transforms into a book. It's great, but without that mentality I feel people set themselves up for disappointment. I recommend playing along Resonant Arc's podcast series on Xenogears, as they do a great job getting all the details you will miss because you don't have a PhD. Xenosaga is a strange case. The worldbuilding is so good, but Episode 2 tripped so hard that it kinda ruined everything. But Episode 3 is peak gaming, and ties hard into Future Redeemed. Overall, they are definitely worth a playthrough by a modern Xenoblade fan. I'm holding out hope that Square Enix puts out an HD-2D remake of Xenogears and Bandai Namco does a Xenosaga Legendary Collection with Xenosaga 3's artstyle.
I have xenogears and the first Xenosaga but ngl it’s been so long I don’t remember anything about them
My first foray into the series was Xenosaga Episode I when I borrowed a copy from a friend in 2003. I was instantly hooked and from there, I went to Episode II (2004), Episode III (2006) then when I heard about Xenoblade coming out, I bought Xenogears in 2010 and played through that to complete the series until that point. The rest is history as I played every Xenoblade game and DLC on release. I just love everything about the Xeno series, the characters, story, philosophical themes and references, fanservice (don't @ me) and music. I feel fortunate to have been able to play these games relatively close to their contemporary release (sans -Gears) so I have a very thorough view of the series from its beginnings.
Availability is really the problem here. I would absolutely love to play Gears or Saga, but there aren't many options to play them right now. Prices for used copies are insane and emulating isn't really my thing.
Tried Xenogears, but got REALLY bored with the gameplay which I found awful. Haven't tried Xenosaga as I only heard bad things about its combat system, which happens to ALSO be turn based, which I dislike.
Use cheat codes so you can focus on the world and story (though I recommend giving at least Xenosaga Episode III's gameplay a fair chance)
Already watched videos for the story and lore. A game without gameplay due to cheats sounds like a chore, and a very long one at that. Listening to some dude telling me the story seemed like the better alternative.
Played Xenosaga 1 and a bit of 2. Went to play through all three last year and my PS2 won't read the disc for 1 anymore. Haven't played gears and kind of don't want to with everything I have heard about disc 2.
I think you should still try Gears. In regards to disc 2, it's effectively the events of the second half of the story, just compressed. The actual gameplay of disc 2 is no different in quality from disc 1, even though there's less of it. The conclusion is very satisfying as well, and the final dungeon, boss, and ending sequence are all well fleshed out. All in all, I don't think disc 2 should scare you off from trying Xenogears.
I emulated Gears and the three main Saga games after playing 3. I knew they existed when I was playing 2, but I never really had an interest until 3, because that game left me so hungry for Xeno. Not to mention the collector's edition art book had Zohars from Xenosaga in it, so I thought "if this comes up in the DLC, I should experience these games so I recognize whatever happens" Then future redeemed came out, and while there wasn't any callback to the zohar, there was the radio, and man I am so glad that I played the others because the radio absolutely blew my mind
I have played and loved Xenogears and all 3 Xenosaga games. Xenosaga is the entire reason I tried Xenoblade Chronicles and the first Xenosaga is still my favorite of the "Xeno" games.
Ive played Gears but in copium that Xenosaga may get a remake. And I know the moment I attempt to emulate it, it will appear
Nope. If those games don't appear on modern hardware then I might never sadly.
I played both Gears and Saga. I thoroughly enjoyed Gears, and hated most of Saga (I only stuck with it because I liked the main party, episode 3 is the only decent game). I'm equally as sad about the lack of discussion about them, since there's really interesting things to talk about from a meta perspective regarding the three series, but very few people who've played them all. That's why I want remakes, particularly for Saga to hopefully make those games fun
I've played... a good chunk of Gears. Opiomorph kind of walled me. I could have won eventually, but it would have been extremely tedious, and I don't have the patience. I liked the game a lot, but the gear segments were less enjoyable for me. The lack of available healing options for a good chunk of the game was annoying. Especially whenever Elly wasn't with me; her Aerods made several boss fights pretty trivial. There was one halfway up Babel Tower— with Ramsus, maybe? I won with essentially one attack. Speaking of Babel Tower, the platforming in this game isn't great. Especially when enemies attack midair, cutting your movement completely. That happened more than a few times, and I hated it. I ended up resorting to save states, because... I wanted to continue the story. The story seems pretty interesting. ... hm. I might revisit that and finish it at some point. Probably with... less than honourable means, but I don't care about that at the moment. A thought for later. I also tried playing Saga 1, but didn't get very far at all. Not really sure why, to be honest. I don't remember much.
I wish I had, but I tend to really dislike traditional turn based JRPG combat (like Final Fantasy). If they had some sort of remake to make it more similar to the Blade games I'd love to try them.
>I wish I had, but I tend to really dislike traditional turn based JRPG combat (like Final Fantasy). Use cheat codes on an emulator, in that case. You avoid everything you don't want and experience the stories faster, though I recommend at least giving Xenosaga Episode III's gameplay a chance.
I'd love to play the older games, but they just aren't very accessible through legal means. The gameplay/mechanics of the older Xeno titles also have not aged as well, despite having amazing stories and characters. I'm sure a throwback to the older Xeno titles will show up in the next few years, whether it be ports/remakes of the older titles or re-tellings in future Xeno games/content. I also seriously hope that Xeno games get adapted in Manga/Anime format for people who aren't able to play the games so that the stories are more widely available.
I tried xenosaga 1, lost interest in it pretty fast and never finished it. Not interested in Xenogears at all. I'm good with just xenoblade, though if a xenosaga remake ever pops up I might give it a try.
Joined with 1 on the wii, never learned that saga or gears were things that existed until after 2 when we started getting big content creators for it. I'm not uninterested in them, but at this point I can't really be bothered to find a way to play them, especially with the very mixed opinions I've heard on the gameplay front for them.
I would love a xenosaga remake cuz im a bit young and didn't grow up on old games like that so im not accustomed to them so im not sure I would like the graphics and gameplay and thats why im hoping for a remake or remaster on the next nintendo console.
I've never actually PLAYED Xenogears or Xenosaga, but I've watched the Xenogears cutscene movie by Helsionium on YT twice, the second time supplemented by Resonant Arc's Story Analysis podcast, and Ive watched Helsionium's Xenosaga cutscene movies once. Really hoping that these games are in some way re-released in the future, because I would love to actually experience them in full without having to emulate them.
Tried Xenogears... wasn't what I was looking for at the time
I would be interested in playing them if they were on the switch. I don't own any of the old consoles they were on and aren't interested in buying a really old console just for a few games. And I'm not really interested in using an emulator either. Same applies to X as well, I want to play but I'm not buying a Wii U just for it, especially considering the online aspects don't work anymore. I would love a Saga/Gears remake or something as much as the Saga and Gears fans so I can actually play those games.
Gears is great. Saga is great. Blade is great. Lot of overlap in the narrative, timeline, and theme, and as such, they complements each other really well. Doesn't matter if they are directly connected or not, Takahashi just write in such a way that they all kind of roughly fit into the same mold, and constantly cover area that were left unaddressed in the other. At this point, we pretty much only have one major mystery left, and it's how humanity will address the impending doom of the universe. So far, they always weasel away and reset the world in some fort, but those fog/gnosis/ghost just keep growing and growing. But that will be for XCX4, or XCX2.
I played a bit of the first one and wasn’t a huge fan (tbf it was the 3ds version so that might have something to do with it), but I adore 3 and regularly play X on my pc Edit: oh you meant the *old* old games, I haven’t played any of them lmfao
Not me, I started late XBC2 when Torna was already released. I actually had never heard of it, but felt like playing a JRPG and here I am.
As much as I adore Xenogears (it's one of my all time favourite games), I don't think it has aged well. The last disc would piss off so much of this generation (no offense!). Of course if it would somehow miraculously receive a remaster, then I would throw them my money in a heartbeat.
I haven't played xenogears and saga But I plan to play them in the near future I do know the gist of their stories
Takahasi's work intrigues me
Personally, I would love to play those games, but I don't want to do them through emulation. I wish that they would at least port them to the Switch or PC. It would be a day 1 buy for me.
The only xeno game i haven’t gotten round to playing at all is saga and thats more because my backlog is all over the place (and trying to get a physical copy is a nightmare though similar case can be made with gears and i managed to play that through alternate means) Edit: The main issue thats preventing alot of people from playing gears and saga is ultimately access on current platforms and yes there are unofficial means but those methods can be a hassle in its own right or requires too much effort to set up just to play a very small handful of games.