Double Agent,

Hi. Let me first of all say that I really enjoy your column. You rock,really.

I'd just like to wonder if there have been any games out there where thereis actually an UNHAPPY ending. Sure, not many people want to play through4959 hours only to find that the world explodes due to the badguy'snefarious schemes, but has there ever been a developer who took a risk andmade a game where there isn't a happy ending? It'd be pretty interestingto see an RPG like that, I think.

Steve

Dear Double Agent,

I am writing to you to tell you about what scam artists the people at Buy Rite Video Games are. In January I purchased the game Grandia for the Saturn. I was really happy to get this game because I have heard what a great game it is. Everything was going fine until I got an e-mail from Buy Rite that said UPS had damaged my package so it was returned to them. Later they told me to resubmit an order and finally to call them. For a month nothing happened. Then I e-mailed them that I wanted a refund, and they sent the package overnight delivery! When I got the game, to my surprise, it didn't work. I returned the game to them, and now they say that I scratched the game up, when I only had it for two days and the disc was safely inside my Saturn for those two days! They also yelled at me that the game worked. Now, why would I return the game if it worked, and I already paid for it? I want you to print this letter because I want to tell everyone what a disreputable business Buy Rite Video Games is. I lost my $65 dollars to this scam business, and I want to make sure nobody else loses their money either. My wish is to remain anonymous if that would be ok.

My contribution to Xenogears'sjust-starting-but-let's-hope-it won't-end-up-as-a-FF7-likedebate.

Of course that will never happen, since most of the criticsfor FF7 were because of comparisons with the other FFs.Enough of FF, let's talk about Xenogears.

I agree on several points with CS. And I'm relieved thatsomeone else on earth is really disappointed with thatgame. I was starting to think that my wife and I werestupid and missed something that would make us likeXenogears.

The biggest flaw to me, is simply the gameplay. I willfirst talk about the most annoying part : the battles. Itdoesn't matter if it's a "character" battle or a gearbattle, I think there's no strategy when you fight. Theworst are, of course, the gear battles. You can't healyourself during most of the game, therefore you have nochoice but attacking. And how can you attack ? You don'teven have the choice there. You could answer me that youhave different basic attacks. But most of the time only theweakest one works, the other ones simply miss. Plus thesebasic attacks quickly don't do any harm to the opponents,because of their defense. Then you could tell me that youhave several levels of attacks. But to use the upper levelattacks you HAVE to use the basic ones. So it ends up thatyou use the same pattern again and again, with at leasthalf the attacks pointless. About the out-of-gear battles,your basic attacks, again, don't stay dangerous for long inthe game. But, again, you have to use them a lot so you cangain special attacks. These special attacks, by the way,are cheaply animated, all have the same look, and you get abig feeling of seeing the same battle again, and again[*].Another annoying thing : each time you do an attack on anopponent, the screen flashes. That's the best way to giveyou a headache.

I don't want to make a too long letter so I will doshorter on the other complains I can give about that game.You don't feel like wandering around, and most of the timethe game doesn't even let you do it. The graphics are ok,as is the 3D engine. The problem is that, since you have notransparency, and since you can't move the camera up anddown, it's hard to see everywhere (and sometimes you NEEDto look everywhere). The FMVs appear out of nowhere, andtheir quality varies from good to really bad. Especiallythe ending animes. Some animes from the end of the 70s lookbetter... It's disappointing after the excellent beginningmovie. The story evolves a lot but each new detail makes itmore complex. You build a theory about what's happening,just to discover that you were wrong. I know it's a usualtrick, especially in movies, but it gets annoying after awhile. I can't really explain why, maybe someone else willdo it better.

This is getting too long, but I really got frustrated bythat game. Luckily it has really good music. Unluckily theonly jukebox in the game doesn't have a lot of tracks.

I will end this letter with my general feeling about thatgame : a gameplay for kids, with a story for adults.

FBI

Hey agent...feeling like debate, eh? :)

I'm not going to comment on all the points made by CS on Xenogearsyesterday (hey, I had some problems with the game myself, esp. with therandom battles)...but I would like to say that I think many of thesesupposed "flaws" that are present in Xenogears are nothing more thangameplay decisions made by Square that don't correspond with CS (and manyothers)'s preconceived notions of how an RPG system should be designed.

For instance, people have gotten used to the idea that boss battles shouldbe long, drawn out, with constant curing. Part of the reason CS dislikesthe gear battle system is because curing can't be done nearly as often andcosts a lot. Who's to say that's wrong? It adds a whole new strategicelement to the gear boss battles. Should you use your booster and try toget more attacks in for each loss of HP you take? Or, should you conservethat precious fuel and use it for curing instead? Should you cure, knowingthat if you do that character will have hardly enough fuel left to attack?I found this all came into play several times in the game.

This is just one of many examples of how older RPGs have implanted ideasin people's heads concerning how and RPG should play, and therefore thesepeople have problems accepting anything that is too different from whatthey're used to, and what they feel is the "right way" to design an RPG. InFF7, everyone complains that the battle system "sucked" because thecharacters lacked individuality. Is there some written rule that RPGcharacters have to be unique in their abilities? The materia system allowedfor a great deal of customization at the expense of individuality incharacter abilities...and though I can see why someone might not like it, Ican't see in the least how it's inherently wrong.

It's okay to dislike how a game works...but to say a game is flawedbecause it's different isn't right. I agree with you, Allan. Square hasthe right to innovate, and if they (and other companies) didn't, RPGs wouldjust become stale. If you don't like Square RPGs, there *are* other RPGsout there, many of them that are very "old-school" in style. Also, can wereally consider Square's RPGs art if Square gives in to every fanboy'sdemands? I'd ask those that have been displeased with Square's latestofferings to think about that for a while....

I usually don't like debate about single video games. People get mad, and it doesn't really get anything accomplished. Like the letter -CS- wrote to everyone. I want to talk about the "highly flawed" game, Xenogears.

First, what is discussed is gameplay. I feel gameplay is generally a gray area when trying to explain it because, like it or not, different people like different kinds of gameplay. You aren't really justified in saying a certain game has bad gameplay, because that's your opinion. Maybe you like checkers, I like chess.

Another thing is when he stated that most RPGs had two major gameplay aspects, exploration/puzzles and battles. Obviously, CS forgot that this game doesn't fit into "standard" majority RPGs. This game focuses more on story, as CS found out. Therefore you can't judge Xenogears on anything really because the developers were trying something new.

As for the attacks on the battle system, again he is judging two DIFFERENT battle systems together. This isn't Final Fantasy 7. You can't just button-mash through it, like he did. I'd give him some merit on the 'ether' system, except that wasn't a requirement for story purposes. If the magic sucked in FF7, where it played a major role in plot, then I'd be angry too. But, like I said before, this is Xenogears. Also on his comment on Omegasols, if you wanted to make the game harder, why'd you buy them? It's like Knights of the Round for FF7. Sure, it makes the game easier, but that doesn't mean you have to use it.

I laughed when CS said that it cost too much to heal your gears because he later said there was no strategy. THAT was the strategy. And think about it, if your gear explodes, you can't use a phoenix down to make it all better. Same goes for leveling up, why would that help gears? Random battles being pointless wasn't really an argument. CS probably complained about gear parts because he didn't have enough money to buy them.

I have to give credit to CS for the problems about the plot, but I really think CS went into the game with the wrong attitude. I went through wondering what the hell went on with that huge spaceship, and then I'm traveling around in the desert. But, Xenogears seems to be like a mystery novel, once you put the pieces together, it makes those twenty hours left in the dark worth it. As with the problem with the scope, I don't buy it. Look at the plot, you can't have Deus just die, he's god to these people. Every game can't end when you kill the wizard and save the princess.

Yes, some of the supporting stories, such as Drive, nanotechnology and such, were "glossed over', but by the end of the game, you couldn't exactly go back and learn about them. I think it would have made CS even more confused with the "complex" storyline. As for the people rambling on for pages, I think that's just whining. People just don't say "Welcome to the castle." and "Save the princess!". I believe the talkitive townsfolk made the game more realisitic. The "big ass lump of story".......eh, you win some, you lose some.

The supporting characters having tiny roles isn't that big of a problem. What exactly is Chu-Chu going to contribute to the story as a whole(execept that one time)? I think CS doesn't like mystery novels, his not liking the main bad characters is proof. Most of those bad guys were killed by other bad guys and/or just the id of a good guy. The "big evil power" that shows up is actually the whole subject for the game. It didn't appear, it woke up. As for the final final boss, I heard that it is supposedly the gene in Elly that makes her sacrifice herself all the time(mistranslated off course. Pun intended.=P)

As this rant is getting as long as CS's I'll streamline it. The anime' was the best stuff I've seen, and I think CS is wanting all non-interactive scenes to be FMV, which would scrunch everything else. More musical themes shouldn't be a factor in being worse than FF7, as FF7 had a million themes but most were less than a minute long, they just repeated. As for the last, "Xenogears could have benefitted from a few more months development," I have a question. What game wouldn't benefit?

I stated earlier that opinions don't really change, and are generally useless to other people. Obviously CS didn't change my opinion and I'm not likely to be able to change his. I wrote this because I consider Xenogears to be the best game I have played to date, and it goes in my record book for having the best storyline I've ever experienced. I can't see someone disliking this game for less than personal reasons, and I hope that maybe this letter lets someone else enjoy Xenoegars, and that, would justify me writing it. Have a nice day.

-redknight1

Hey D.A., this is my first letter but I've been a fan since the beginning. Many times have I seen comments about Xenogears and wished to have written in but feared massive reprisal. On the RPGamer boards I was flamed, cussed out, called a Satan-worshipping bastard, and a PSX loyalist. All because I knocked Zelda. It is for these reasons that I feared speaking about Xenogears but NO MORE!! The line must be drawn here!!!

Xenogears was not that great of a game. I only played it because my friend yelled at me when I said MGS was better hands down. I did it so I could render an opinion FAIRLY. Well, there went 57 hours down the drain! But enough with the background, on with the impressions:

Battles: Encounter rate, length, and difficulty have all been addressed but no one has ever pointed out the biggest problem- you could stand perfectly still, rotate the map and get into a battle. WHAT THE %$&^*!!! That irritated me when I was trying to look for secret areas(HA! Yeah Right!)and all of a sudden I'm in a battle. Additionaly, I think Citan is worse than T.G. Cid once he gets his sword! I was slicing through bosses in like three turns(Sufal Mass I think was the name..). And don't forget that everyone's Deathblows were the same, the Magic, I mean 'Chi', was lame, and EVERYONE took off more than Billy....

Story: How bland is my best description. I kept screaming at the screen "It's a C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R. It is not G-O-D!". I don't understand how smart people (Krelian, Citan) mistook the big intergalactic computer/weapon for God. And I also think Krelian was right and wrong at the end. We should all start over but how was he going to "go back to God" ? It was just the Wave Existence. Everything they believed was a lie. The ending, however, was what cinched it for me. Everything Fei said was wrong and I think what Elly was saying was right. But the game leads you to believe that Fei is right since he is the main character. Not to mention the voice acting SUCKED (Billy's voice was HORRIBLE!!), and the ending didn't answer anything about humanity and some other things. My friend put it best " I didn't even know I beat it. The last boss was easy, the Anime sequence was lame, and nothing relly happened. Then the credits started rolling and I said 'Well, that's good, I guess.'" I usually play games for their story (in games where that is the focus i.e. RPGs) and I believe that the ending to a game should reward you, but in Xenogears it seemed like I was being punished!

Epic fantasy: I was straight up confused when people began saying the game was a good example of 'Epic Fantasy'. This game is all kinds of Sci-Fi (nothing wrong with Sci-Fi, I'm not some lame-ass 'hardcore gamer'); it was not fantasy, much less epic fantasy. Fantasy is just that: Fantastic. What was so fantastic about Xenogears? I don't mean in a literal sense but rather what were the elements of fantasy? It's like how people see Star Wars as a fantasy movie: The Force. The mystical, magical energy that binds us, surrounds us, is the very stuff of Life itself. Am I supposed to buy that that was what Ether was? But even if we consider Xenogears to be a fantasy game it sure wasn't epic. FFVI is an epic. The world was almost ripped asunder, Celes was asleep for a YEAR (right? I'll be real embarassed if it was a week..), people stopped fighting to save the world, people lost HOPE, people were reunited, people found faith. I was on the verge of tears when Celes jumped off the cliff. The sheer thought of utter hopelessness...There was not ONE thing in Xenogears' storyline that moved me. It moved me towards the Playstation's power switch!! All the stuff towards the end was thrown together in a big mish-mash of story. There were tons of elements that could have been fleshed out on another disc or two and EXPLAINED a helluva lot more.

One good thing about Xenogears: The music was awesome. The World Map music and the Lullaby/Main Theme/Music Box music. You know what I mean....

I guess it boils down to this: I think, repeat THINK, MGS was the most moving and best game experience I have ever had. So I may be unfairly criticizing Xeno'Tears'. And now everyone, flame away at me as I reveal my identity: Chooch, the bane of logic and sanity everywhere.

Keep up the good work D.A.!!!

Chooch

All nymphs must die.

The Missing Eye Man