Do I need to play Xenogears before playing Xenosaga?

[Tek7]

I'm trying out Xenosaga for the PS2 and I was wondering: Do I need to play Xenogears (for the PSX) first to understand what's going on in Xenosaga?

Can someone who's played both games provide some insight?

 

[kraniac]

Everyone I know that's played both has either said that you need to play both to get the full effect, or that it doesn't matter since neither game makes sense at all, regardless of which ones you play in what order.

But that's like two guys, so don't take my word for it.

 

[ajmucha]

If you plan on playing the whole saga, i'd advise so..just find it on ebay, tha's what i did...btw, Xenosaga episode3 has a 10-year old or seomthing that swears like a spacer (the future equivilant of a sailor)

 

[Tek7]

btw, Xenosaga episode3 has a 10-year old or seomthing that swears like a spacer (the future equivilant of a sailor)

I don't doubt it. Xenosaga is known for being a RPG for more mature gamers, complete with controversial content.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

From the oracle of all useless RPG knowledge of ten years ago

I've played Xenogears, but, not the Xenosaga series. Xenosaga was supposed to be a prequel to Xenogears ergo I don't think Xenogears should effect the plot since Xenosaga occurs before Xenogears (but I read that a long while back so I guess I could have it backwards). Xenogears was supposed to be controversial in it's day for "religious themes" personally I think it was just plain fruity and will hurt your brain given the convoluted plot, for a SIMPLIFIED idea...

Spoiler

The main character "Fei" is an amnesiac, reincarnating, split personality, who's reincarnating lover was apparently his mother at the beginning... blech. In addition, in a earlier life he transferred his mind into the body of the current Fei's father making himself his own worst enemy and Father . Other content includes a few thousand year old people (whom you are never clear on who they are) being killed, a typical world destroying superweapon plot, the occasional cross pictures that have nothing to do with anything and a rather explicit love scene for games of that time.

It does have a few things going for it. It feels different from other rpgs, it has a decent battle system (although rather easy), some mechs thrown in, it avoids the Taoist flavored ending (compared to other games) and the storyline is so convoluted you won't be able to predict everything that happens (you can predict a few things though). To compare, Final Fantasy (any one), Lunar (any one), Grandia 1, Final Fantasy Tactics were all better and lets say Legend of Dragoon was worse (although not on a moral level). My bottom line is I used to play a decent amount of rpgs, Xenogears was one I wish I had never played and there are better ones out there to play.

On a side note anyone played "Saga Frontier 2" that game was good and a lot of people missed it because of "Saga frontier 1" being so bad (FYI the Saga Frontier plots are not connected in any way).

 

[Blkstones]

xenogears was one of my fave games back when i was younger and still owned a psx.

the storylines and characters have NOTHING in common. the only thing that is the same is the battle system. mechs that can only be healed at shops or with items, and a relativley unique fighting style. xenosaga is a good game, can be harder at times if u dont take the time to lvl ur players up. its an average rpg (at least EP1 is), with the more then occasional times of not being able to pick which characters u take into battle. so you end up playing with 3 people who you never played with before and totally suck, in a rlly hard zone.

personally i liked xenogears better, never played thru it all though, long game if i remember correctly, AWESOME mini-games