Xenosaga or Xenogears?

Xenogears

Both are slow-paced, story-first games, so I'll focus on the differences.

• Xenogears is rougher. Its graphics and platforming have not aged well, on the whole. 2D sprites explore a 3D world. Anime cutscenes.
• Xenosaga looks pretty good by PS2 standards. Areas are in 3D. Cutscenes are in a crisper rendering of 3D.
• Xenogears has a radical storytelling shift in its second disc. Almost all of the world exploration drops away, and the game turns mainly to direct storytelling with the occasional boss fight or dungeon. To some, this feels unfinished. To others, it's *sips coffee* fine.
• Xenosaga is consistently linear. You go from one ship / dungeon / event to another, with the occasional ability to explore an individual ship or area.
• Xenogears does it all in one game. One game, one complete story and setting.
• Xenosaga does it over three games, and the quality of the games is not the same. Many people would rank them 3 > 1 > 2 or maybe 3 = 1 > 2. I still liked 2, but can agree that it's an odd duckling in the trilogy.

I'd just go in chronological order by release. They're all worth playing.

Xenogears is very unique in terms of gameplay and story but it really has not aged well. Graphically it may be a bit weird but more noteworthy is the entire second half of the game is basically incomplete since development troubles hurt it pretty badly.

Xenosaga is a bit more standard but is very noticeably an early PS2 RPG. It's cutscene heavy but that shouldn't be a problem, and the gameplay is more traditional I'd say. It's not talked about as much because it's good but not really as noteworthy in anyway as other Xeno games.

Xenogears without a doubt. Xenosaga is great too, but it has a lot more flaws with its gameplay and story. The third entry was the best but holy crap has it gotten expensive over the years.

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Yes

I prefer Xenosaga, but I'd recommend Xenogears because it's a single entry. There's more investment needed for the Xenosaga games.

I would do Xenogears first. There are references to Xenogears in Xenosaga that you won't get if you do them in the opposite order.

Xenosaga was definitely the more interesting game to me, and is certainly much more modern-feeling in terms of presentation, UI, and mechanics. Xenogears is definitely much more rough-around-the-edges in either respect.

But as for which to play "first," with the assumption that you'll eventually play all three... I suppose it's ultimately down to how well you tolerate games of that particular era, what platforms you have available to you, and how you prefer to play. It's hard to beat playing through Xenogears on a Vita while lying in bed, ya' know?

I'd say play them in release order. They're all great.

I'd say Xenogears personally.

If you have a bunch of free time, Xenogears. Its a great game with a great story, but it is just so damn long lol. Others have mentioned the 'unfinished' second disc of the game but I'd say it is fine. It is true the story telling changes quite a bit but really the game is already very long in the tooth by that point, if they stuck to the establish method of story telling it would be insanely long, like 100+ hours. Only real downside is the date graphics and mechanics. Expect sssssloooooow text crawls you can't skip.

Xenosaga is much better than Xenogears imo.

If you’re coming over from Xenoblade, be prepared for some major differences. Rather than open world-ish games with story segments in between, Gears and Saga are both extremely linear and exceptionally story-heavy games in the traditional “town/dungeon/town/dungeon” JRPG format. Combat is turn-based, optional objectives or sidequests are relatively few, and game environments are typically corridors, mazes or industrial interiors rather than wide-open areas. The storylines are also a great deal more complicated, go to darker and more adult places, are heavier on explicit references to religion, psychology and philosophy, and are set in “harder” sci-fi worlds compared to the first and third Xenoblade’s heavy mix of fantasy elements.

Also, Xenogears is probably the one you should play first. It has its own major flaws, but Saga is a huge mess and really only worth actually playing (as opposed to just watching the cutscenes on Youtube or reading a plot summary) if you’re a serious diehard.

The real question is, would you like to watch a movie or play a game? This will inform your decision.

Hey they're both great. Gears feels more mainstream, even though it's relatively niche. Saga feels more like a hidden gem that got more and more hidden.

Gears is easier to get into imo just because it's only 1 game and available on Vita and ps3 PSN The story is insanely epic and is more comparable to the scope of Xenoblade. The second half of the game takes a more cutscenes heavy approach with sparse gameplay sections, which leads to rumors that the game wasn't finished, but it's still an insanely good story with a great battle system and some of the coolest presentation on the ps1.

Saga is divided into 3 games which are only playable on PS2 and are much harder to come by. The games are also of varying quality, with the first and third being generally loved and the second hated. The story is also insanely epic, but the game environments are much smaller and less epic in comparison. Combat is great in 1 and 3, and pretty bad in 2. The gameplay is way closer to the second half of Xenogears in that it's extremely cutscenes heavy. At times you will be sitting and watching a movie with occasional gameplay sections to let you pause. If you can handle the waiting and watching, you may just fall in love with it. If that's too intimidating for you, then go with Gears, no doubt

TL;DR, Both are pretty great. Gears is more accessible and Saga is more story hardcore. Starting with Gears is probably a good idea unless you enjoy watching just as much as playing

I never played Xenosaga, but I would recommend Xenogears. It only has one game in the series, so it is much easier to get into. The game has a lot of themes that would be used in the later in Takahashi games. It has decent gameplay, but the story is what most people play the game for.

I'd recommend chronological order myself. Gear is full of a lot allusions to mythology, physchology, and philosophy. There is a huge amount of information and references on top of the main plot. If that game gets too much or too complicated, you can skip to the Xenosaga series without missing anything too important, but knowing gears will provide some added understanding of the references in saga

I think that Xenogears is better to play first. If you end up liking it, then you'll appreciate Xenosaga more after having played Gears.