Episode 355: Xenogears Revisited (Patreon)

Another patron request this week, and it's a good one. Matthew Salisbury put in a bid to ask us to revisit Xenogears, a topic I briefly touched on yeeeears ago in a Micro episode. But this is the real deal: A full-length episode about the game, featuring not only Matthew and myself, but also former Square.net and Gaming Intelligence Agency boss Andrew Vestal. My thought was, if we're going to talk about a game, why not reach out to its biggest advocate in the U.S. semi-pro media at the time—the guy who started a massively popular petition to get the game localized?!

The three participants in this episode were all at different points in their lives when Xenogears debuted and each had very different reactions to the game... and more than 20 years later, we all find our perspectives on the game colored by experience and maturity. I know I regrettably used the game as a punching bag for so-called comedic effect during a long-ago phase in my writing in which I fell into the trap of thinking that being petty and sarcastic about things other people enjoy is a meaningful form of internet discourse; but after all this time, it's hard to be mean about a game this ambitious (or its fans), despite its glaring flaws. And I think everyone else has undergone a similar sort of journey here as well.

So please enjoy this episode, which is about a video game, and is also about growing the hell up.

Artwork by John Pading, and edits by Greg Leahy. Greg's music selections this episode:

• 11:20 - Dark Dawn
• 25:35 - In a Prison of Remorse and Contentment
• 36:27 - Our Village is Number One / The Wind is Calling, Shevat of the Azure Sky
• 44:31 - Dance of Death
• 58:21 - Premonition
• 1:08:51 - The One Who Bares Fangs at God
• 1:19:46 - The One Who Is Torn Apart
• 1:26:12 - The Beginning and the End
• Closing - Stars of Tears