MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME

I've been playing video games for longer that some people have been alive now, which really shocks me, let me tell you. Your Editor In Chief, Video Gamer X, got his NES in 1987, and discovered the joys of video games and has maintained his affinity for this form of entertainment since day one. I've played hundreds, perhaps thousands of video games by now, across the entire 8-bit, 16-bit, 32/64-bit, Early 3-D, and Current Generations, and I have played all genre's from the core platformers, and adventure games, to shooters, and first person shooters, from Tecmo Bowl to Madden 2004, from The Legend of Zelda to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I remember booting up DOOM in DOS from Floppy discs, and living through the whole PC "multimedia" craze when CD-ROM's first appeared. I've seen a lot of changes in the industry, and have predicted a lot of things that have already come to pass and have yet to occur.

People ask me, what was your favorite video game? And honestly, there are so many that stand out in my mind, so many great experiences, and games where the developer went the extra mile to make the experience enjoyable for the player. In many ways I could easily rattle off a list of about 20 games that I consider great, but there is one game that has always remained for me one of the most enthralling experiences I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in video games.

Now before I continue, I must say that of all the types and genres of games I've played, I've always been partial to Role Playing Games. Why? Well, I personally like to get something from the experience of sitting down for such long periods of time with a controller in my hand. I always seek to come away from my time spent playing with a sense of fulfillment or satisfaction with the effort I made. Console RPG's, not those mind numbing pavlov's response feeder bar MMORPG's, but the linear storyline driven RPGs, have always managed to keep my attention and provide many hours of well spent time. These games in my belief are the closest thing to kind of digital art that video games can create. With some of these RPG's containing storylines fully capable of literary merit, they should go down into history along with works by great writers, composers, and artists of the ages gone by. Few of even these type of games truly go beyond the scope of the ordinary and delve so deeply into the depths of the human psyche, however there are two games that did that most impressively, however of those two games I have chosen one that reigns supreme in my eyes as the best video game I ever had the pleasure of playing.

That game is Xenogears.

You see right after Final Fantasy VII was released in 1997 (which is the other game mentioned in the paragraph above) Xenogears kind of appeared in the shadow of Final Fantasy VII, and in my experience was overlooked by quite a few gamers. Xenogears had some commercials, from what I remember, something about "standing tall and shaking the heavens" and the idea of a game with Anime and Gundam like aspects intrigued me at the time but I wasn't totally stoked about the game figuring it was probably pretty good and you got to fight inside of big mech robots, but other than that, I didn't know much about the game's storyline. At the time I was asked what I wanted for Christmas that year, and it just so happened that there weren't any other games beside Final Fantasy VII that I was interested in. I had also gotten Parasite Eve that year and I do believe Parasite Eve came with a demo disc of Xenogears, and at the time I enjoyed it, as far as I played, so I figured I would ask for that game. Sure enough Xenogears was purchased for Christmas, however I am certain that I didn't start playing the game until almost 3 weeks into January. You see at the time I was still enjoying Final Fantasy VII and then playing Parasite Eve.

Once I finally got around to playing Xenogears, I became entrenched in playing this game for at least a few weeks straight. Now, Xenogears as a game has it's faults, in fact the sprite animated characters are rather poorly rendered and not entirely clear especially when enlarged, and the battle system was in general rather average for an RPG, however Xenogears managed to do things with storyline I never thought possible in a video game. It weaved an entire society, mythology, history, culture, political strata, social class, and religious caste into a role-playing game like never before. The characters in Xenogears were very well planned and their stories each unique and interesting. The events and mystique surrounding Fei, the game's main character kept you involved with the storyline to the very end, much in the same fashion as a popular page turning novel. Xenogears reminds me of the Matrix, it has many levels of philosophy, ranging across religion and society, technology and science, to politics and corporate infrastructure. There are so many interrelated parts in the game that you have to truly reflect on the scenes or things happening on the screen to understand what it all means, as well many events from the very first scene in the game are tied to scenes throughout the game so well, I have never seen a game since that truly weaves the storyline so profoundly and so beautifully. In essense the game amounts to a good 100 hours of gameplay time, especially if you proceed to upgrade your gears or level up characters, however much of that gameplay time is spent engrossed in the dialogue and the storyline.

Xenogears also has probably the best musical score of any RPG I've ever played and sets the tone and mood for the entire experience and setting of the game. Yasunori Mitsuda does an absolutely impressive job in scoring this game, and only a couple games are in the same league, namely Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Cross another Mitsuda composed score. Xenogears manages to blend an entire suite of ethnic and classical styles as well as hard edged emotive themes throughout the game. I would strongly suggest that if you have a file downloading program, like Kazaa, Morpheus, WinAmp, Grokster, etc that you search and download all songs by Mitsuda with the titling "Xenogears Creid" spelled exactly as quoted. There is a set of about 12 pieces performed by what would appear an instrumental ensamble some are vocalized by a singer in either Japanese or English, I have discovered both. As well obtaining the Original SoundTrack from the game is worthwhile. I have created an ultimate Xenogears music disc and I play this periodically from my stereo and never find myself disappointed. I often ask myself WHY this was not released as a mainstream Audio CD here in the United States. This truly is some magnificent music. Some of my favorite tracks are Bond's of Sea and Fire, Two Wings, The One Who Goes Against God, Awakening, and "Shevat."

Now the story of Xenogears doesn't just end with that game. Apparently at the end of the game rolling in the credits it's indicated that Xenogears is actually the fifth installment in some series, kind of the same fashion that when Star Wars first appeared in 1977 it was the forth episode which got people to thinking. As it is, Xenogears is yet a part of some incredibly massive storyline, spanning dozens of centuries of time and future human history. I was afraid that due to the semi obscurity of Xenogears with gamers no sequels or prequels would ever see the light of day, however the developer managed to get a deal with a new producer and the game's storyline has emerged again as Xenosaga Episode 1 which takes place probably tens of thousands of years before Xenogears: Episode V. I have this game, and I reviewed it HERE. As you can see after playing that game I was impressed that the Xenogears experience was revitialized, and at the time of writing this article it has been confirmed that Xenosaga II is under development for release in Japan then internationally. I truly hope that adults and students in colleges give this series a decent look, there is so much to be gained and a lot of provokative thought in these games. These games touch upon may scientific, ethical, religious, and philosophical implications of the future, as well as the psychology of human nature and our constant quest to understand ourselves and our place in the universe. By all means, if you want to sit in front of your TV and have a worthwhile experience that challenges your mind and the way you think about yourself, the future, and spirituality, I strongly recommend playing and observing the storyline in Xenogears. Hey even if you're not entirely that intelligent or maybe dont want your mind challenged the Xenogears game provide a very fun experience as you battle in giant Robots and use magick and martial arts skill to defeat enemies and bosses.

Mind you, just because I have chosen Xenogears/Saga as my favorite video game, doesn't negate that there are some truly incredible ones to be found. I can say that Final Fantasy VII is very close with me to the exultation that I place Xenogears on. Final Fantasy VII is just as worthy of philosophical and literary comparison as Xenogears, and I strongly suggest that you read between the lines and analyze the literary devices and referances being made throught Final Fantasy VII, you'll find many parallels in both religions current and mythological, and some obvious nods to classical authors and poets of the past. The greatest Role Playing Games have managed to go above and beyond being just a "game" and adult gamers should pick up a Playstation and start playing these games again and thinking now that they may be more intelligent or in college. An entire thesis could be written on the philosophy in Xenogears. If you want to play Xenogears until it gets rereleased hopefully in the future, you'll have to get an original Playstation console if you don't already have it. Xenogears crashes and doesn't work on the Playstation 2. It's too bad Xeno wasn't released on the PC, I imagine it would have gained a greater following of adult gamers if this had happened.

I originally wanted badly to devote an entire website just to this video game, however the hubub surrounding Zelda: The Ocarina of Time superceded my ability to create a worthy site for this masterpiece. As well, for the kind of site I would want to make, it would take probably three months or more to develop considering the fact I would have to play through Xenogears a second time, which I have never done, I have only played to finish this game once, and gone through about 60% a second time. It is truly the most epic and lengthy console RPG I've ever played, passing up even the length of Final Fantasy VII and VI. I may yet get the chance to make a site for this game, hopefully that day will come.

BACK TO VIDEO GAMER X