XenoGears is the story of a young man driven to the brink of insanity and beyond by circumstances and a destiny beyond his control. XenoGears is the story of a romance that makes Cloud and Aeris (and Tifa...) look like kindergarteners on the playground. XenoGears is the story of- well, it's the story of a lot of things. In fact, the intricately woven tapestry of plots, sub-plots, and even sub-sub-plots (yes, it goes that far) gets a little confusing as you progress through the game. The story of the game has so many wild twists, so many changes happening at such a rapid pace, so many names to remember, that it can get a little confusing. I withheld my review and opinions of this game from RPGFan thus far so that I could play the game a second time through, and come to appreciate every aspect of what has become my favorite RPG.

The first thing to talk about is the plot; the strongest aspect of XenoGears. You begin the game with a beautiful and impressive anime/CG FMV sequence. A ship floats through space peacefully, until something destroys it from the inside. The ship crash-lands, leaving one sole survivor of the human crew. Nothing seemingly related to this event will happen for a long time. Enter the main character, Fei Fong Wong, a young painter who lives in the small village of Lahan. Fei cannot remember anything before four years ago, when he was left with the village chief by a dark and mysterious man. He lives a quiet life and is content to spend his days painting and teaching the local children martial arts. Meanwhile, a brutal war rages between three large powers with huge human-esque robots called "gears" (basicly Mechs) as the main line of defense. This seems very distant to Fei, and he knows almost nothing of it, until the fateful day on which two opposing powers set down in Lahan Village with Gears and start fighting.

To defend the village, Fei hops in a Gear. The events which ensue will change Fei and his life forever, shoving you off on an adventure like no other.

Along the way in your journey, you'll meet a large cast of well thought out (and mostly well developed) characters, such as Citan Uzuki, a mysterious intellectual who often seems to know more than he lets on; Barthalomew Fatima, a young pirate captain who is trying to take back his rightful place on the throne of Aveh; Ellhaym (Elly) VanHouten, a beautiful young soldier who has yet to realize her full potential, and develops a more than professional relation ship with Fei; Rico Banderas, a demi-human who fights furiously with his own two fists; Billy Black, a young priest full of vengeance who works for the organization/church known as the "Ethos"; Emerelda, a nano-machine colony in the form of a little girl, who fights like a demon and seems to have ties to Fei and Elly; Maria Balthazar, a little girl who is weak in hand to hand combat but commands the awesome power of the gear "Seibzhen"; and Chu-Chu, a pink fuzzball with little to no value to any part of the game except a small strategic value during gear battles.

And those are just the playable characters. The cast of villains, friends, and goofy villagers is huge. Most characters you see are bubbling over with personality of some sort or another, making you laugh or depressing you. Unluckily, aside from Fei, Elly, Citan, and Bart, most of the playable characters are poorly developed. In classic Square form, the rest will have a character development half hour, and then just kind of fade into the background for almost the entirety of what remains of the game. It's not as bad as FF7, mind you, but it'll do. Also, XenoGears adds to the interest by making numerous references to Christianity (and other assorted religions, though those are less common) . Overall, I'd give the story a 95%.

Game play has something for every body. Outside of battles, control is very basic. There is a run button and an examine button. The only thing that seems at all innovative while you explore towns, maps, and dungeons is the jump button. The menu system is relatively well designed, though short of FF7-like glory. The conventionalism ends there though. There are two types of battles you can get into: character battles, in which you use your characters to fight monsters of relatively the same size, and gear battles, in which you use the gigantic gears to battle gargantuan beasts and other gears.

In character battles, you have the normal options like item, magic, defend, and run. However, the attack command is completely different from any RPG made before (that I am aware of). Rather than have your characters simply run up and swat a monster then return to their place, you have a number of choices in hand to hand combat. There are three attack buttons (triangle, square, and X), each of which takes up a certain amount of AP (action points). The amount of damage done by that attack button is relative to the amount of AP that it takes to use it. You can string a number of attacks together for extra damage. Also, if you repeat the right attack button combinations enough, you can learn deathblow skills. Deathblow skills are the most useful abilities in the game, so it's wise to learn as many as possible. By not using all your AP up during an attack turn, you save it in a reserve bar. Once you have enough AP stored, the "Combo" command will allow you to string deathblow skills together into a deadly combination. Unluckily, the "Combo" command is relatively useless through out the game. Magic will also see little practical use, aside from Billy Black's impressive healing spells.

During gear battles, gameplay is very similar, with these exceptions: you may not string together attacks, the "Combo" command is not there, and the amount of times you use a deathblow skill has no effect on how you learn them for your Gears. Also, fuel is substituted for AP, except that it is NOT renewed every turn. Some players may also be confused by the fact that your gears have to be improved by upgrading them in shops, and will not gain levels like your characters. Rather, the experience points accumulated in gear battles are given to your characters instead. Over all, I'd give game play 70%.

Then, there's the music. There's not much I can say to describe the music in XenoGears, except that it's all extremely well composed, and is the only music I have heard from a game yet that could really bend me emotionally to fit with what was happening to the characters. Also, there is limited voice acting in and out of the anime FMVs, most of which is good enough, but not as good as I'd like. Aside from Elly's voice actor, there seems to be a good deal of emotion missing. Sound is also impressive, and used very well. The only thing that stops the sound/music from getting a 100% rating from me is the weakness of the sounds used in gear battles. The sound FX people decided to use wimpy "chink"s instead of the huge "clang"s the gears deserved. I'd say the sound/music deserve a nice 97%.

As for graphics, XenoGears has something for everybody. The characters are smoothly animated (for the most part) 2D sprites. Rather than going with the crowd and being Super Deformed (where the proportions are all very different from real life) the sprites in XenoGears are proportioned like people in real life. I personally liked this approach, as I didn't want to laugh at the characters every thirty seconds and, rather, was able to take them seriously. The environments you traverse are entirely 3D polygonal models. While normally I would have preferred some nice 2D hand drawn backgrounds, the polygonal environments are beautiful to behold and allow for a lot more exploration than in games such as FF7.

XenoGears continues this split personality by making the gears polygonal during battles and cut-scenes. FMV sequences involving the characters are great looking Animes, whereas those depicting only technology (like gears) are CG FMVs which look even more impressive than those of FF7. Once more, though, XenoGears is just barely stopped before reaching the 100% mark, this time because the 2D characters pixilate really badly when zoomed in on by the camera, as well as the uninspired polygonal spells used in battles. Don't expect anything in the caliber of FF7's monster summons, the magic in this game is nothing short of dull. So, in the end, XenoGears gets a graphical 80%.

Lastly, the little details which can make or break a game, but don't fall into any of the other categories. The camera is used extremely well during the cut-scenes (yet another advantage of polygonal environments). Humor is thrown in by NPCs (non-player-characters), lightening the mood of this otherwise melancholy game. There are also two mini-games, both of which are well made and very fun. One of them will even allow you to go head to head with a friend in a Gear to Gear battle! XenoGears isn't as full of secrets as the materia-rich world of FF7, however they are there and quite fun to find.

In closing, I suggest buying XenoGears to any RPG fan. While, like every other game it does have its quirks, the qualities far outweigh the bad. I give XenoGears an overall rating of 90%.