Somehow, Xenogears is a game that comes off as being very good despite having so many flaws.
The pacing, is bizarre... There are some very very slow moments when nothing seems to happen... like the Sewers for instance.
Dungeons come off as a painful task. Maybe it's because the story is so sweet any pause in it feels bitter. But the Sewers, and the dungeons you go through with Maria... Pain, pain, pain.
The battle system is bland. Gear battles are just a matter of optimizing damage/gas. And normal battles have nice ideas at first... but somehow end up flat. I just could never explain it.
But the characters are so compelling, and the story is so good, it's just a shame so much was cut out for the game (Rico's story, and pretty much all of CD 2)