What makes it great: Environment, setting, world, depth of story for its era (1998), some very interesting characters, complex plot, atmosphere, and... well lots of things! Also, despite the main het ship plot it's famous for - if you like slash DEFINITELY check this game out because there's quite a lot of subtext and possibilities for m/m shipping everywhere. Yes, Fei/Elly is canon endgame - but there's plenty of room for everything from Citan/Fei to Bart/Billy to Sigurd/Ramsus and MORE.
That said, this game comes with a heavy TRIGGER WARNING: it deals with lots of heavy issues related to life and death, fantastic racism (which is one of the major conflicts of the plot) and it is a product of its era in some ways. Female character writing sucks as do most of the canon het romances including a secondary romance that's cousin incest (IMO, some people love them, I see them as toxic, it's up to you, and there is SO MUCH SUBTEXT that you can just write fix-it slash all the time hahaha!) AND there's a *horrible* cold take on dissociative identity disorder that is one of the major plots revolving around the protagonist. (I've addressed this in an essay here - spoilers ahoy! - https://archiveofourown.org/works/19290640 )
That said, if you can deal with the triggers and the stuff that is "holy shit Japan" or "holy shit 1990s," you should be fine. Especially if you ARE an adult with some understanding of anthropology and sociology and comparative religions and speculative fiction in general, you'll find a lot of stuff to dive deep into and make you love the world and setting and characters etc, and there's really good, deep commentary about the futility of war and violence vs the need for it, the fantastic racism *is* called out and the racists aren't the "good guys" at all so no worries there.
Where can you find it? Almost anywhere. Original PS1 discs exist, and it was released for the PSP, and it's available on the Playstation Store. That said, due to a couple of intensely aggravating segments (including one of THE worst dungeons in all of JRPGs, Babel Tower), I HIGHLY suggest emulation or another means of play that has savestates unless you REALLY like walking back to repeat the same missed jump over and over again.
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What makes it great: Environment, setting, world, depth of story for its era (1998), some very interesting characters, complex plot, atmosphere, and... well lots of things! Also, despite the main het ship plot it's famous for - if you like slash DEFINITELY check this game out because there's quite a lot of subtext and possibilities for m/m shipping everywhere. Yes, Fei/Elly is canon endgame - but there's plenty of room for everything from Citan/Fei to Bart/Billy to Sigurd/Ramsus and MORE.
See this overview on Fandom Wiki - https://xenosaga.fandom.com/wiki/Xenogears
That said, this game comes with a heavy TRIGGER WARNING: it deals with lots of heavy issues related to life and death, fantastic racism (which is one of the major conflicts of the plot) and it is a product of its era in some ways. Female character writing sucks as do most of the canon het romances including a secondary romance that's cousin incest (IMO, some people love them, I see them as toxic, it's up to you, and there is SO MUCH SUBTEXT that you can just write fix-it slash all the time hahaha!) AND there's a *horrible* cold take on dissociative identity disorder that is one of the major plots revolving around the protagonist. (I've addressed this in an essay here - spoilers ahoy! - https://archiveofourown.org/works/19290640 )
That said, if you can deal with the triggers and the stuff that is "holy shit Japan" or "holy shit 1990s," you should be fine. Especially if you ARE an adult with some understanding of anthropology and sociology and comparative religions and speculative fiction in general, you'll find a lot of stuff to dive deep into and make you love the world and setting and characters etc, and there's really good, deep commentary about the futility of war and violence vs the need for it, the fantastic racism *is* called out and the racists aren't the "good guys" at all so no worries there.
There is an emotional spoilers/TW list (an incomplete one) up on Does The Dog Die here (more spoilers) https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/19253
Where can you find it? Almost anywhere. Original PS1 discs exist, and it was released for the PSP, and it's available on the Playstation Store. That said, due to a couple of intensely aggravating segments (including one of THE worst dungeons in all of JRPGs, Babel Tower), I HIGHLY suggest emulation or another means of play that has savestates unless you REALLY like walking back to repeat the same missed jump over and over again.