What is your favorite Xeno game and why?

Xenogears/Xenosaga/Xenoblade All-Xeno General Discussion
1

Probably a bit of a basic question, but I’m interested in hearing everyone’s favorite entry from the Xeno series! Please mark spoilers as appropriate (though it’d be preferable to be spoiler free).

My favorite ties between Xenogears and Xenoblade X. Xenogears is one of the most ambitious JRPGs I’ve ever played, I love its heavy usage of religion and philosophy and its darker theme as compared to other JRPGs. While it couldn’t be completed to its fullest potential, I still think it’s a masterpiece of a game. It makes me excited (and a bit disappointed) to think how fleshed out Disc 2 would have been had it been fully developed. (XG remake 2021 anyone?? We can dream ^^)

As for Xenoblade X, I love its rich exploration and world lore. Even after 4 years, I still don’t get tired exploring Planet Mira. The history of the planet, as well as its unexplained mysteries, alien species, and the fate of humankind is so interesting to ponder and theorize about. Its story wasn’t executed strongly (not surprising, given XCX is very exploration heavy) but it also has unused potential that could be expanded upon in a sequel. (Which I also dream will be announced someday lol)

What about you all? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions!

2

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is not only my favorite xeno game, but also my favorite video game of all time. I don’t see that changing anytime soon, due to how special the game is for me.

STORY TIME

So, I’ve been playing Xeno games since about 2015. I fell absolutely in love with Xenoblade 1 (thanks to Chuggaaconroy). I played some of Xenoblade X but ultimately decided that the lack of compelling themes and philosophical content was ultimately a disappointment to me. To this day I find that X is THE game that I think on most negatively, but when I actually sit down to play it I have some of the most fun in any game either. Its a weird dichotomy, but I still greatly respect and love X now that I’ve accepted it for what it is.

ANYWAYS, back to the story, I found Xenogears in a shop in 2016 before I even had a console to play it on, and I eventually got a PS2 in September of 2017, and I played the game over 4 months, ending the game the sunday before Xenoblade 2 came out. 2017 in general was a really rough year for me, as it was the time when I was effectively growing up, and I had a complete lack of purpose, but Xenogears and the anticipation for Xenoblade 2 kept me going. I had a LOT of anticipation for the game, and even though I was tempering my expectations, I was desperate for a life changing game like XC1 and Xenogears were for me. And the game, in my opinion, met every criteria, went beyond that, and ultimately felt like a game that was made for me. I gotta say, after experiencing so much of Takahashi’s stories barely come to fruition, seeing a game that actually was a sequel to the story the man had been trying to tell for 20 years was incredible. There is no doubt that the story pacing is a little on the shabby side, but for my money, the themes and concepts and even some subtleties on the game were far more fascinating than anything seen in the rest of the Blade series, even rivaling Xenogears. Xenoblade 2 effectively consumed my life for about 4 months. I wrote papers instead of studying for finals sometimes, I started to do art on the game, I got engaged in discourse in the community, it was everything to me. Then, when it seemed like everything died down, some sentimental stuff happened. Most notably, I met a girl through Xenoblade 2. We’ve been dating for almost 3 years now and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

So yeah. Sorry to get a little sentimental and longwinded there, but Xenoblade 2 is super special to me. While I need to play Saga 2 and 3 still, I’m so thankful for the experiences I’ve already had

3

I like all of the Xeno games, but I don’t think any of them will mean as much to me as Xenosaga did when I first played it. I just got so into the characters and the lore. I probably spent hours upon hours just doing research and Because of that emotional attachment I’m not sure if any of the others come even close. Xenoblade X is my favorite of the games to go back and play though. I probably have along the lines of 600 hours total in that game.

4

Playing xenogears for the first time in middle school was a mind blowing experience for me. No game id played ever hit me quite as hard, so I knew I had to check out the rest of the series. Xenosaga had already finished by this point, and I remember reading a lot of mixed reviews online saying it doesn’t hold a candle to gears, but seeing Jin wear Citan’s outfit and all the other references like Nephilim and Abel, I knew I had to at least see what its all about, and man was it worth it.
The trilogy are still my favorite games and I just don’t see how any game can really touch me as much as they did after all these years now lol. The blade series is amazing and I love that there’s always more Xeno to look forward to, but I just don’t think anything can top saga for me.

5

That‘s a tough question! I’m honestly torn between the original Xenoblade and Xenoblade X.

I loved the former because it was a truly great experience for me as a first-time JRPG player (aside from Pokémon ofc). I loved the world, characters, and the storyline was really engaging for me at the time.

On the other hand, Xenoblade X is a masterpiece. The sci-fi aesthetic is perfect along with the Skells. The exploration is top-notch and the world feels alive. Even though the main story was less emphasized for this entry, it was still an enjoyable experience. The ending still occupies my mind 5 years later. I absolutely need a sequel.

If I had to pick, Xenoblade X is my answer. It barely edges out the original game.

Xenoblade 2 was a great experience, but not on the same level as the first two Xenoblade games. Torna is an excellent DLC package and truly elevates the base game on a level close to the other games.

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Xenosaga for me. There arent many sci-fi JRPGs or JRPGs with that much detail in their world building and i just love the way it turned out despite the development issues. I just wish i would have been more successful and didnt put a lot of stress on the monolith soft team at the time

7

I really like all of the Xeno games and I tend to cycle out top faves depending on my mood. Usually though, it’s Xenosaga I, Xenogears and Xenoblade 2.

Xenosaga I is the only Xenosaga with my favorite character in it, along with it also catching my fall when I was in a really bad place in 2003. In a few ways, I’m on a bit of a break from Xenosaga but only so I can start to enjoy it anew someday soon.

Xenogears is just massively nostalgic as an old person who played it in their teens. I’m going to be 39 later this year, but this game made an indelible impact on my life when I was 17 in terms of aesthetics and emotion. I will love most of the characters in Xenogears all my life, I feel.

Xenoblade 2’s goodness is just fresh in my mind. I got really attached to Brighid and Morag, and the Architect and Amalthus, though not in the same way. I really love the environmental storytelling in XB2 and its beautiful places, especially the last few areas.

I admit I generally go in trying to find something to like in every Xeno game just because I feel like I’ve been here since the beginning and want to support the Takahashis for as long as I can. I guess that’s all I can really say without getting into major spoiler territory.

8

I’ll be honest: Xenosaga is my jam, and I started this website initially (way back in 2009) because I desperately needed to talk to people about it. I come back to it time after time in my life because no other game series and few other mediums of work have affected my life the way Xenosaga has. III would be the objective ‘best’ in the trilogy but Xenosaga I was just something really special… hell, I have a special place for II as well since it was about the URTV subplot.

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Xenogears as i just love the story,art,characters and its gameplay even if its roughly aged.

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Xenosaga 1 for me. I bought the game way back in 2003, and I’ve never looked back. I remember my young 13 year old brain booting it up for the first time and thinking, “OMG, ITS ANIME BUT VIDEO GAME!”

Ah, good times…
It’s funny, Xenosaga created this strange and peculiar itch in the back of my brain that literally no other game has managed to scratch. I wanna say, Nier:Automata came close? But it’s just not as vibrant or space driven. I wonder if they’ll ever be any game that go toe to toe with majesty of the Xeno trilogy…

11

Wow, now there’s a question! For me, it’s somewhere between Gears and Saga - with the former just being (as several other posters have already put more eloquently than I could) just this amazing bit of creativity and ambition … I kind of see it as the “Evangelion of gaming” and in the most complementary way possible. Saga, on the other hand, by being longer and more (if still not entirely) finished really excels at character development, in a way that Gears can’t manage (other than the central Fei-Elly story) - some of that stuff in Saga is just awesome, especially Shion and Jr’s own arcs and the Ziggy-Momo axis. Shion still feels to me like one of the most real and rounded protagonists of any game I’ve seen. But the Saga games do, for me at least, suffer a bit from the variations in style and quality over the three. Episode III is probably the single “best” game I have ever played - I still can’t get over how good the art style is for a ps2 game - but the fact that it comes at the end of the trilogy does seem to limit the overall accessibility of the series as a whole. Anyhow, sorry for the long post and just to say that really I enjoyed reading everyone else’s thoughts on this too …

12

Hear, hear!

I can’t think of anything that rivals Xenoblade 2 in the area of becoming better and better the more you play, whether that applies to the main story, the postgame, or repeated playthroughs (especially after experiencing Torna). The story, characters, gameplay, environments, and music come together to form an experience I always love reliving and I could gush about it for ages.

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xb3