Xenogears 1998

Is it still worth playing?

Square's 1998 role playing game for the PlayStation, directed by Tetsuya Takahashi with music by Yasunori Mitsuda, and never released in Europe. It began as a Final Fantasy VII concept. Fei Fong Wong and his companions travel the world, on foot and in giant mechs called Gears, to overthrow the rule of Solaris. Combat combines Active Time Battle with martial arts: characters start with 4 Action Points, attacks cost 1 to 3, and repeated inputs unlock Deathblow combos, while mech battles use fuel. Magic is called Ether. The story mixes religious allegory with death, trauma and resurrection. Takahashi later founded Monolith Soft, which developed the Xenosaga and Xenoblade games as spiritual successors. Deathblow combos built by saving Action Points, and mech battles that run on fuel, still give its combat two different rhythms today.