[2] Xenogears follows main protagonist Fei and his friends as they learn about Deus, a powerful, self-aware interplanetary invasion system that crashed onto the planet ten thousand years prior to the game's story.
[6] Fei subconsciously repressed his memories because of his torturous childhood, but his desire to remember his past eventually leads him to discover the truth about his identity and his relationship with Id.
Although not distinctly psychological, the game also contains allusions to the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche,[4] such as the concept of the eternal return, which, in Xenogears, correlates to the recurrences of the Contact and the Antitype.
[6] Afterwards, Fei joins forces with Citan Uzuki and other allies to uncover the web of deception and manipulation surrounding Solaris, and ultimately, Deus.
Fei experiences frequent periods of memory loss and unknowingly has a split personality called Id, which is the product of the pain and anguish he experienced when he was young.
[6] Fei's first incarnation, Abel, grew up along with the original Elehaym ten thousand years prior to the game's story; they were both killed in a rebellion against the world's ruler, Cain.
During the Solaris War, which took place five hundred years prior to the game's events, the Contact appeared as the painter Lacan (ラカン, Rakan).
When Sophia was killed in battle, Lacan decided to destroy the world, turning into Grahf and freeing the Contact to be reincarnated again as Fei.
Within an hour of play Fei has leveled his home village in an act of brutal destruction, killing his best friends – who you were busily helping prepare for their wedding the next day.
As the game's script was written, this was changed, but the design of Fei, which was meant to fit in with the original conception, was not able to be revised in the time allotted and remained wearing a martial arts uniform.
She is known as the -Antitype-, she has been reincarnated several times throughout history along with Fei, her previous incarnation being Sophia (ソフィア, Sofia), the Holy Mother of Nisan.
Bart is the rightful heir to the kingdom of Aveh, with Ethos agent Shakhan having forced his family out of the country years ago.
[13] Ricardo Banderas (リカルド・バンデラス, Rikarudo Banderasu), nicknamed Rico (リコ, Riko), is a massive demi-human and champion Gear fighter in Nortune, the imperial capital of Kislev.
Billy Lee Black (ビリー・リー・ブラック, Birī Rī Burakku) is a young, pacifistic priest of the Ethos religion, who is later revealed to be a member of the Etone branch, which job is to "clean" and "purge" the world from the Reapers, or -Wels-.
Black (ジェシー・B・ブラック, Jeshī B. Burakku), real name Jessiah Blanche (ジェサイア・ブランシュ, Jesaia Buranshu), who abandoned his family for several years after they moved to the surface from Solaris.
[18] At the time, Miang was manipulating the government, and wanted to reset the human evolutionary cycle by starting a worldwide nuclear war.
She initially has the appearance of a child, but an optional side quest late in the game causes her to assume the form of an adult woman, a transformation which greatly improves her stat growth.
Deus (デウス, Deusu) is the core of an interplanetary invasion system, which was built ten thousand years prior to the game's story.
There was a controversy surrounding Fei's goal of killing the god that created mankind, which many believed could have cancelled a North American release of the game.
They were originally among the first human beings born on the planet and half of the core organic component of Deus, known as the 'Animus', and seek to realign with their respective 'Anima', the Anima Relics.
After his defeat, he sacrifices himself to merge with the Zohar and delay Deus' awakening, allowing the party to escape and prepare for the final battle.
Id (イド, Ido) is Fei's split personality, who was created when he tried to repress his traumatic childhood memories of abuse at the hands of scientists and his mother, who was possessed by Miang.
[6] Kahran Ramsus (カーラン・ラムサス, Kāran Ramusasu) commands Gebler alongside Miang and holds a prominent position in Solaris's hierarchy.
He grew up in the Elements, a special Solaris fighting squad, and knew Citan, who was attracted to Ramsus' ideals against class distinctions.
Initially a land dweller, Krelian's scientific knowledge has enabled him to prolong his life and exert power over Emperor Cain and the Gazel Ministry.
[3] The final moments of the Eldridge catastrophe resulted in the creation of the original 'mother' being, which the Deus system tasked with giving birth to a civilization that would provide and gather the biological and mechanical "spare parts" it needed to repair and reactivate.
Her top advisors are Gurus Gaspar (ガスパール, Gasupāru), Taura Melchior (トーラ・メルキオール, Tōra Merukiōru) and Isaac Balthasar (アイザック・バルタザール, Aizakku Barutazāru).
"[6] The staff of Edge felt that Fei's deep backstory and character in general was "a far cry from the simplistic two-dimensional leads of Square’s Super Nintendo RPGs of just a few years earlier.
"As a player, you feel awkward and ashamed in the presence of these NPCs, a guilty confusion and helplessness which perfectly mirrors that felt by your character and justifies his immediate exile", the staff wrote.
A GameSpot reviewer stated that the "game's character sprites are poorly animated and suffer from terrible pixelation, no doubt due to the PlayStation's limited RAM.