MovieChat Forums > Xenogears (1998) Discussion > Favorite game of all time

Favorite game of all time

posted 18 years ago by Jlonedragon
13 replies | jump to latest

I JUST CAN'T HELP IT I JUST HAVE TO ANNOUNCE IT POINTLESSLY...this game is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, game ever made.

"I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death!"
-Nas, NY State of Mind

[–] Xenomaster 18 years ago

I agree. My absolute favorite video game of all time.

I don't think I'd be good at formal debate. I'm always right.

[–] CloudFall 18 years ago

I still think it's a VERY underrated game. It's nowhere near as popular as it should be if people gave it a chance, I think a lot of people were put off by the religious overtones.

[–] cvasquez311 18 years ago

Just to you let you know CloudFall, it is said that the strong religious undertones would have caused a huge stir here in the US, anywhere outside of Japan for that matter, so you were on the right track :) For that matter it was DELIBERATELY released quitely into the states, as to not catch as much attention. It definately is a shining Gem of a game, and one of my absolute all time favorites alongside Chrono Trigger / Cross as the best RPGs ever made. Yasunori Mitsuda's music in the game, all three games for that matter, are amazing.

[–] Jlonedragon 18 years ago

I still don't understand why they thought people would be put off by religious undertones and what not. I can see that this country is 90% Christian or something, but it's not like this game is 100% against Christianity or somethin like that.

"I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death!"
-Nas, NY State of Mind

[–] MikiYoshiUzuki 18 years ago

This game is so freaking amazing. Ive been playing through it again recently and just got to the end, I love how no matter how many times I play it, I catch something new everytime.

"Discipline feels good!"

[–] Jennyboo513 18 years ago

Best game ever, period. I haven't been able to find a game that even compares to the complexity of this storyline. Absolutely amazing

Jack O'Neill: I hope you like Guinness, sir. It's a perfect substitute for... food.

[–] Druff 18 years ago

For one thing, I think Square had been scared by Nintendo. From 1986 to 1996, Square was practically a Nintendo 2nd party developer, and they were subjected to Nintendo's strict censorship policies for US games. One of Nintendo's rules was "Games released in the US cannot have ANY religious content whatsoever." If there was any religious content in a Japanese game, all of it had to be removed before the game was released in the US. This is why the spell Holy was changed to Fade, White and Pearl in the US versions of FF, FFIV, and FFVI. Nintendo may have gone a little overboard with their policy, but it was mainly because during the early to mid 1980s, conservative religious groups in the US were attacking movies, music and video games. Nintendo was scared to death of offending those groups, so they basically just decided not to take any chances. And Square learned from Nintendo.

I think it's only natural that Square would have been nervous about releasing a game in the US where a church (which is clearly meant to resemble the Catholic church) is completely corrupt, one of the goals in the game is to "kill God," there is talk of "creating God because he doesn't exist," a character talks to God face to face, etc.

[–] zed_self 18 years ago

Yes. Xenogears is also my favorite "game" if I could call it that - of all time. But you know, the truly great things that deserve the most acclaimades - are always not as popular as they should be. Think about it. Anything that was TRULY TRULY gold is always overlooked by everyone. You know why? Because over 50 percent of the world's population are average Joe's and Jane's that don't have the capacity to take in something as deep as Xenogears.

As for the religious overtones... Who cares!? It's not like they were using the NAMES WITHIN religions and naming things in the game after those NAMES. That's it. It's not like they actually made Deus look like God - and made Fei look like the antichrist. It's not like you saw anyone in the game that looked like Jesus or Mary did you? They took the names, and some similarities (like a huge tower and named it Babel) but created their own out of that.

You only see religious overtones if you're really that shallow.

Oh and I forgot to add, these are my other favorite games:

Final Fantasy Tactics (Has almost the same deep plot as Xenogears)
Azure Dreams (Gameply was fantastic, plot not so much, but the gameplay was awesome)
Nights: Into Dreams (Sega Saturn, I just like the fantasy world and the music that came with it)

[–] zed_self 18 years ago

Wait I just realized something... Final Fantasy Tactics had a lot of religious overtones in it, actually even MORE direct overtones than Xenogears... So why wasn't that shunned ? I mean there was an actual spell called "Holy" and a lot of other aspects.

[–] itputsthelotionontheskin 16 years ago

I'm pretty sure Xenogears had more...

Don't point that gun at him, he's an unpaid intern.

[–] Druff (1446) 5 months ago

FFT surely had a good fair bit religious stuff, but let's be real.

The one and only game that might have more religious overtones than Xenogears is 'I Am Jesus Christ' for PC.

[–] Angelic_Arrow 16 years ago

Is not underated is just that the distributors (sp?) apparently decided to keep a low profile due to the religious overtones in the storyline.

It has become a cult classic IMHO nonetheless.

Good gurls are just bad gurls that haven't been caught.

[–] supafly707 16 years ago

My personal favorite video game of all time. I'm a writer, and I can't help but fall in love with the storytelling. Incredibly well written, these games need a novel treatment. Hell, since Xenosaga was canceled after the third part, they should tell this story as six novels!!! Do it!!!