All right, let's shatter some taboos here.
It is entirely possible that I hate myself, but I am making another attempt at Xenogears. We will see how long it lasts this time.
Ultimately it's a deeply, but not fundamentally, flawed game with some really good things going for it.
Some quick thoughts:
+ Great music
+ Gorgeous anime cutscenes
- with voice acting which is terrible even by the standards of the day
- Environment graphics are godawful
+ But that's because they allow for 360-degree camera rotation
- Except in the places where they don't
- There is absolutely nothing positive to say about any of the platforming elements
+ Good battle system
+ Sprite-based graphics look pretty good in battle
- But fucking awful on the field
+ Deep, ambitious storyline
- with a lousy translation
- and sloooooooooow text crawl
- Too many twists layered on top of one another, to the point of incomprehensibility
+ Edgy, controversial content for the time
- which today just looks like a bunch of easy shots against the Catholic Church
- which Final Fantasy Tactics did better anyway
- and seriously, my God is this thing fucking pretentious
- and not nearly as smart as it thinks it is
+ Some good, interesting characters
- and Chu Chu
+ who gets crucified
+ Chicks dig giant robots
+ We. Are men. Of the sea!