Jason Love wrote:

Normally, I wouldn't bother with voicing my objections to a particular review, especially on the reviewer's own website. I'd generally just chalk it up to us having different tastes in games and move on. However, I feel you've done the review process itself a disservice with this review, and the only reason I mention it is because you declared you'd "already covered" the review for a website which I generally find to be objective and even-handed.

I believe that the gamer who can legitemately find enjoyment in a game everyone else recognizes as trash is one of the luckiest people in the world, and your review robs people of the chance to be that gamer.

Obviously, as a reviewer it is your job to wave people away from games that will devour their attention just to reward them with a horrible experience, but that can be accomplished without actually poisoning people to the game. Let me give some examples.

"Judging by my senses and perception skills, which are advanced light years beyond any fan of Xenogears or Xenosaga,..." This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Obviously, your site sells itself on its edgy and acerbic humor, often coming at the expense of the readers themselves, but this wasn't especially humorous, nor even particularly relevent to the game.

This was, quite simply, an attempt to vilify people who enjoy this game. However, I contend that it is possible to enjoy Xenosaga even while being cognizant of its shortcomings. Is any fanservice too much fanservice? You bet your ass it is! Are the religious references entirely arbitrary? Pretty much, yeah. Just because I recognize this, should I not be able to enjoy playing Xenosaga? And if I do, does that make you more intelligent and perceptive than me?

"NO, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS, HOW DARE YOU! YOU ARE JUST LIKE AMERICA WHEN PEARL HARBOR ATTACKED OUR FLEET!" There's that hyperbole, again, this time in service to a metaphor I found extremely tenuous at best, completely unsupported at worst. I also find it interesting that you seem to suggest that, because of Japan's immoral past, they aren't capable of moral behavior now.

"The cutscenes in Xenosaga are not really boring, I thought. They're just really really bad. And again, since the game is made up of them, that doesn't exactly give you a lot left to work with." Well, I timed about 8 hours of cutscenes in the 62 hours I've spent playing the game so far. Completely ignoring the fact that you aren't explaining every cutscene is a bad cutscene, that still leaves about 7/8 of the game untouched. It's understood, of course, that you'll play less than me since you aren't enjoying yourself, but even assuming you only played half as much of me, that's still 3/4 of the game undescribed. I think you may have mentioned the gameplay is "boring." Care to elaborate on that?

"Some of the creepiest motherfuckers you could ever regret meeting, even if it's on a message board on the internet." Not only does this blanket statement have nothing to do with the game itself, I would also argue that it's not true. Well, actually, since it's your opinion, who am I to say that it's not true? But I don't much appreciate being labeld a creepy motherfucker, regardless.

"Everything right about this game was stolen from FFX. Everything they brought themselves is fucked up beyond belief, repair, and forgiveness." Really, I just included this part to ask: exactly which successful part did you have in mind as being stolen from FFX?

Personally, I was of the opinion that the two games were enjoyable for entirely different reasons--the main things I liked about FFX being entirely absent from Xenosaga, and vice versa. Would you like to explain that further?

I don't want to judge unfairly, but from the tone of your website it's hard to imagine that I'll get a serious response to my complaints;

I'm going to call that good for now. I'll be very interested to hear your response.

Abundantly obsequious,

Jason Love