Games Like Xenogears
Quick Answer
The closest games to Xenogears are Xenosaga Episode I, Xenoblade Chronicles, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy VII and NieR: Automata. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Xenogears, and what does not.
What Made Xenogears Work
Xenogears is a PS1 RPG with combo-input combat, giant mechs with their own fuel economy, and a story far too large for the disc it shipped on. People ask for more of it because almost nothing has been that ambitious since — and because the second half is famously unfinished.
Xenogears is Square's 1998 PlayStation RPG, directed by Tetsuya Takahashi with music by Yasunori Mitsuda. Fei Fong Wong's story moves from a destroyed village to a world-spanning conflict involving giant robots called Gears, religion and memory. Battles use a combo-input system where button presses spend action points, and Gear fights add a fuel meter. It is famous for its ambition and for a second disc told largely through narration. Fans usually want a story-heavy JRPG that takes big ideas seriously.
9 Games Like Xenogears
1.Xenosaga Episode I
The direct spiritual continuation, same director, same themes.
Why it fits: Monolith Soft, founded by Tetsuya Takahashi and former Square staff, released it on PS2 in 2002 in Japan and 2003 in North America, as a spiritual successor with the same philosophical and religious themes.
What is different: Very long cutscenes and slower battles, and it ends mid-story; the trilogy is needed for the whole arc.
Where to play it: PS2.
More about this game →2.Xenoblade Chronicles
Where that team ended up, and the best-realised world of the three series.
Why it fits: Monolith Soft's 2010 Wii RPG, also directed by Takahashi, is set on the bodies of two colossal titans and has a vast open world.
What is different: Real-time combat in huge open areas, and a lighter, more hopeful tone.
Where to play it: Wii, New 3DS and Switch (Definitive Edition).
More about this game →3.Chrono Cross
Same studio and era, and just as strange about its own predecessor.
Why it fits: Squaresoft's 1999 PlayStation RPG, scored by Xenogears composer Yasunori Mitsuda, follows parallel worlds and a large recruitable cast.
What is different: Dozens of recruitable characters but less depth to each, and no giant robots.
Where to play it: PS1; The Radical Dreamers Edition on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
More about this game →4.Final Fantasy VII
The PS1 RPG it sat alongside, and the closest in ambition.
Why it fits: Square's 1997 PlayStation RPG was Xenogears' biggest contemporary, with a story about corporate power, identity and a planet in danger.
What is different: Materia customisation and a lighter tone in places; less theology, and no mechs.
Where to play it: PS1 and PC, since ported to PS4, Xbox One, Switch and mobile.
More about this game →5.NieR: Automata
The modern game most willing to be this philosophical.
Why it fits: PlatinumGames' 2017 action RPG, directed by Yoko Taro, uses multiple playthroughs to reveal a philosophical story about androids and meaning.
What is different: Real-time action instead of turn-based battles, and a far shorter first ending.
Where to play it: PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
Games like this →6.Chrono Trigger
Same studio at its most disciplined.
Why it fits: Square's 1995 SNES RPG, also scored in large part by Yasunori Mitsuda, is Square's time-travel classic with combination techniques in battle.
What is different: Brisk and optimistic; time travel instead of religion and memory, and no mechs.
Where to play it: SNES, DS, PC and mobile.
Games like this →7.Vagrant Story
PS1 Square at its most mechanically unusual.
Why it fits: Square's 2000 PlayStation game, directed by Yasumi Matsuno, uses a chain-attack combat system and an intricate weapon crafting system.
What is different: A lone hero in one dark city, with a heavy weapon-crafting system and little talk of gods.
Where to play it: PS1.
Games like this →8.13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Mechs, timelines and a story that rewards attention.
Why it fits: Vanillaware's 2019 game (PS4, later Switch) follows thirteen teenagers who pilot giant mechs, told across tangled timelines alongside real-time strategy battles.
What is different: Mostly a visual novel with separate real-time strategy battles; no dungeons or towns.
Where to play it: PS4 and Switch.
More about this game →9.Legend of Dragoon
For the timed-input combat in the same generation.
Why it fits: Sony's 1999 PlayStation RPG uses timed button inputs in battle, the Additions system, from the same generation as Xenogears.
What is different: A straighter fantasy story, and every attack is a timed button combo.
Where to play it: PS1.
Games like this →
Where to Start
Xenoblade Chronicles is the best place to start — it is where the same director's team went next, and it is complete. Xenosaga Episode I is the closest in themes and tone. Chrono Cross is the pick if you want another late-1990s Square RPG with a Mitsuda soundtrack.
How We Picked These Games
Picks had to share Xenogears' ambition in story, its creators, or its combat. We included the games Takahashi and his team made next, Square's other RPGs of the same era, and modern games with the same appetite for philosophy and mechs.
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How These Picks Match Xenogears
Xenogears is catalogued here as a Japanese RPG on the PlayStation. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — nine adventures and eight RPGs among them.
Going by the "where to play it" notes, four can be played on PC, seven can be played on a PlayStation, six can be played on a Nintendo system and three can be played on an Xbox.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Xenogears | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xenosaga Episode I | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS2. |
| Xenoblade Chronicles | RPG, Adventure, Action | RPG, Adventure | Wii, New 3DS and Switch (Definitive Edition). |
| Chrono Cross | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS1; The Radical Dreamers Edition on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. |
| Final Fantasy VII | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS1 and PC, since ported to PS4, Xbox One, Switch and mobile. |
| NieR: Automata | Action, RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. |
| Chrono Trigger | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | SNES, DS, PC and mobile. |
| Vagrant Story | RPG, Action, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS1. |
| 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim | Adventure, Strategy | Adventure | PS4 and Switch. |
| Legend of Dragoon | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PS1. |
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