Introduction

"A billion mirror fragments... small... light... taken... angel's... singing... voices... zeno... gias...” – A brain-damaged, wheelchair bound Cloud Strife.

What the hell is Xenogears?
Xenogears is a JRPG released in October of 1998 (with a February release the same year in Japan) by Square on the Sony Playstation. You want a sprawling epic with heavy biblical influences and psychological subtext through the distorted lenses of a Japanese writer? You want giant robots doing kung fu? You want furry creatures being crucified? Well, Xenogears is the game for you!

Xenogears is, not unlike Chrono Cross, a very divisive game. Some people will gush all over it like it’s the second coming. Some people act like it murdered and raped their dog. In that order. Me...well, I “liked” it in much of the same way I “liked” Chrono Cross. The art style is pretty good, the music is fantastic (once again composed by Yasunori Mitsuda), it’s got some pretty great characters here and there, and the battle system is a load of fun. But, I also think the plot was very, very silly in places and “clusterfuck” does not even begin to describe the rather batshit, convoluted narrative of Xenogears. But, you know... That’s just fuel for the fire.

All shall be mocked accordingly...

What’s this about heavy biblical influences?
Umm... Well, yes. But, distorted through JRPG plot tropes and Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque “A lot of this is here because it looked/sounded cool”. So yeah... Anime as fuck treatment of religion. Gods may be slain. Churches may or may not become evil. Jesus might kick someone in the dick. Who knows! Read along and find out! Some homework has been done on the subject by the writers. Some has not... You'll see.

Oh yeah, and since this game has a fuck ton of cribbing from Christianity, Catholicism, Gnosticism and several other religions...do refrain from getting into arguments over religion and theology. Even a hint of that shit and I'll lock this thread faster than you can say "goddamn". This is not to say don't discuss any sort of theology. Discussion is good. Just don't state shit that will piss people off like "Odin totally had a bigger schlong than Moses."

I heard this game was pretty lengthy. How long we talking?
LONG! I don’t recall my first playthrough’s total time elapsed. But, this LP is going to be going for a little while... To say the least. Edit From the FUTURE: Exactly five months.

Hey, so where can I pick up this game?
Xenogears was released on the PSN a few months back as one of the PSOne Classics, so that's the easiest way to pick it up. And probably the cheapest, if you don't want a used copy. New ones are going for around $100 on Amazon...

Hey are you going to show off—
YES! I’ll show off everything in my ability. If I completed 100% of fucking Drakengard 2, I think I can do that for a game I sort of enjoyed.

Hey, I read in Perfect Works that...
Neat! I've read it too! I'll get around to it! Also, don't link to that kind of stuff if there's an online resource. In fact, don't link to spoilers ahead of the LP in general. Thanks!

Hey, what’s the deal with spoilers this time?!
Telling people to fuck off with spoilers for a 13 year old game is probably an exercise in futility. So just please use spoiler tags for all spoilers! I will get pissed off otherwise. Though, if every given page could not look like a classified CIA document...that would be great too... But again, USE SPOILER TAGS FOR SPOILERS! DON’T BE A DICK!

Oh and don't pull any "Teehee, the next part is awesome/sad/will give you a boner" or "Just you wait until a certain...*hey I'm being cute with not so vague unmarked spoilers*" NOBODY likes that shit and you're not contributing anything to the thread. So keep it in your pants, yeah?

With that said, let’s begin the long journey…