Smart guns, guns without a market.

I've been fascinated with firearms for as long as I can remember, both on it's impact in history and as a mechanical device. From the precise clockwork of a Colt Single Action Army (the classic cowboy revolver) to the utter simplicity of the AK-47. If I were to make a list of my top inventors, John Moses Browning would be somewhere near the top.

The Browning M1895, the first successful gas-operated machine gun. 

For most of their existence guns have been a purely mechanical device, with some exceptions, like battery-powered, multi-barreled gatling guns. But aside from that, guns ran on springs, locks, gears, pistons and switches. Which brings us to today, with one group or another demanding that computerized locking devices be installed in guns.

Lately politicians have been trying to push so-called smart guns into the market, to the extent of trying to legislate it into the market to no avail. At best the gun owning community in general views smart guns with distrust and suspicion and at worst and attempt a backdoor gun-control via a "kill switch" signal that would permanently disable a smart gun. Basically, what happens in this scene in Metal Gear Solid 4 where the antagonist Liquid Ocelot remotely disables every smart gun on the planet... including those used by the military and police.

Hideo Kojima prediction the potential vulnerabilities of smart guns back in 2008. 

In fact, arms control plays a key role in the game's plot, being used to control populations and steer wars to their most profitable outcomes. The player is actually required to have guns that they find "jailbroken" to be able to use them.

For the most part, the gun owning community not only has no interest in smart guns, but out right shuns them and anyone even in the same room as them. Many on social media will flat out say that they will not trust their life to a computer controlled device, and given the various hacks and glitches we see happen with electronic devices who can blame them? Would you want a fire extinguisher that had an electronic lock instead of just a pin to activate? The more you add to a system the more things that can go wrong.

The other reason, is typical partisan politics. In New Jersey, Democrats had passed a law that would mandate all handguns for sale in the state were required to be smart guns after 3 years of being properly vetted and on the market. What instead happened was this essentially made smart-guns the equivalent of cancer, and the stores that did have plans to stock them were bombarded with protests, threats of boycotts, and old fashioned hate mail, to the point that German smart gun maker Armatix was practically run out of the industry by consumers in the US. The NJ law's days seem to be numbered, but the earth has already been salted. Having seen the Democrats try to unilaterally force this unwanted technology on community has only made the technology shunned even more.

Which brings us to this kid, Kai Kloepfer. For a smart gun symposium co-sponsored by Ron Conway, he created a fingerprint lock for a Glock pistol. Conway has heaped generous portions of praise on Kloepfer calling him "The Mark Zukerburg of guns" (no if anything Mark Zukerburg is the Mikhail Kalashnikov of social media, though even then I'm reluctant to compare Zukerburg to a legend like Kalashnikov). According to the article Kloepfer spend four years working on this, and to a degree I feel bad for him.

Because it's four years of his life he won't get back.

Ron Conway can praise Kloepfer all he wants. Him and the whole tech industry can tell Kloepfer that he'll "save America." But the simple fact of the matter is, this is a gun no one wants. Conway can accuse the industry for not innovating, but the maxim of "necessity is the mother of invention" stands true, and in the gun market there is no demand for smart-guns. No demand = no necessity. The only demand for them you'll find for them beyond politicians are collectors that see them as an oddity. In fact, if a company wants to stay in business and not be treated the equivalent of a Biblical leaper, the necessity is to not develop smart-guns, lest the consumer turn on you and do the economic/market equivalent of a lynching to you they way they did to Armatix.

Napster and Facebook are one thing, the centuries old firearms market is another.

"Kai Kloepfer didn't grow up surrounded by guns."

And that's the thing. He's from outside the gun-owning community, he doesn't why they do what they do, and think what they think. I'm not holding that against him, I'm just making an observation. He's on the outside making assumptions. Industry insiders like gun companies, on the other hand, do understand the community and are more often than not, a part of that community. They know, that the community has no demand for smart-guns, and in fact, the community will turn against you for even thinking about making a smart-gun, thanks to politics.

Being a teenager who grew up in an era of smartphones, battery powered devices might be an extension of his being, and while he might think his method if fail-proof, the fact of the matter is, it's still powered by a battery, it still adds another factor to mechanical device, adding yet another thing to a proven design that can fail. Pump shotguns are still in use for home defense because they are so simple and therefore reliable.

Kloepfer says the market for his invention is a generation of owners who look a lot like him. They’ve grown up in a world where technology and gun violence are both omnipresent. When they shop for a gun, “they’re looking for the same things they look for in a smartphone,” Kloepfer says. 

I don't know where he gets this impression actually. I've been in various gun shops across California and have conversed with shopkeepers and other customers and not once have I seen anyone asking about a "smart-gun", If anything the "owners who look a lot like him" (male teenagers) tend to lean towards the tacticrapped out AR-15s and AK-47s like what they use in Call of Duty or Battlefield, with all the optics, laser sights, and what not. I've had several prospective gun owners and new shooters approach me with questions. Not one had anything to do with smart-guns. Owners and prospective owners "who look a lot like him" are interested in high-tech "tactical" accessories, they want to feel like they're handling a military M-4 in a SOPMOD configuration with things with names like ACOG and EoTech, not feel like they're handling an "Apple iRifle".

Based on personal observations, younger guys are looking for things like this when they shop for a gun. They're not looking for Apple features. 

The other thing, is that "gun violence" is not omnipresent. Well maybe coverage of it is because of said technology. But according to the FBI violent crime has been on a downward trend since the '90s, continuing downward even after the sunset clause kicked in on Bill Clinton's useless Assault Weapon Ban and George W Bush refused to renew it.

“This is a world where a Model T is competitive with a Tesla,” says Kloepfer.

Again, this just tells me that this kid doesn't understand the community, the industry or firearms in general. While no one compares a Model T to something like Porsche Cayman GT4, both cars do run on engines that operate on the same principal, it's V6 385hp engine is just decades worth of refinement on the 4 cylinder 20hp internal combustion engine of the Model T. The analogy would be a French MAS-40 with a direct impingement gas system from 1940, and the SR-25 sniper rifle (think of it as a hot rodded M-16) that went into service in 2000 as the Porsche, no one says a MAS-40 is competitive with an SR-25. They use the same operating principals, but the SR-25 is a much more refined incarnation. If we're going to keep using this car analogy, then the Model T would be the M1895 in the cut-away picture you saw earlier, and the Tesla would be a the electric powered M134 Minigun (think, the big multi-barreled machine gun that Arnold uses in Terminator 2). Nobody is trying to say the M1895 is competitive with an M134.

In short Kloepfer doesn't really know what he's talking about.

At the end of the day though, this is nothing more than a quixotic crusade on Kloepfer's part because market principals still apply. No matter how great something it doesn't mean it's going to be profitable or have market penetration when there is no demand. Given the impressions that he has and statements he's made Klopefer seems to miss the fact that there is little to no demand for this product. Let alone an understanding of why there isn't a demand. Even his company's attempt to get Chris Cheng's endorsement only lead to Cheng pointing out that the community will be slow to embrase something unproven and that smart guns have a bad rap in the community because of politics. All Kloepfer has created is another incarnation of the industry pariah. As far as their target audience, gun-owners and prospective gun-owners, are concerned, the smart-gun industry may as well be a leaper colony, and the people that this device would impress and win praise from, are people who are against owning guns, and therefore have no intention of buying a gun to begin with.

The funny thing is, had Democrats not played fast and easy with other people's constitutional rights and left the matter to the market, there might actually be some smart guns on the market and not be treated like airborne ebola. Due to the fact that Kloepfer and Conway are outsiders to the gun community, and that due to political reasons there simply isn't any demand for their product among their target audience, this product and likely the entire Biofire company will be a bigger bomb than anything the daesh has suicided with. I think it should actually be in the market to let the consumer decide, but whether it lives or dies by it's own merit should be left up to the consumer, not ignorant law makers trying to create an artificial market with artificial demand though legislative fiat to score points with emotionally driven voters.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with a "smart" device on a gun that I was using for purely sporting purposes. Something where if I have a electronic related malfunction I can call "Time" and resolve the issue. But for something like a home defense 12ga pump shotgun? No fucking way.

Triggered: I hate these so called "allies".

The following contains:
- Profanity
- Absolutely no consideration given to feelings.
- Scathing commentary.



Well I keep hearing the term "People of Color" tossed around more and more these days. I look down at my hands and they're brown, so I guess that makes me a person of "color", so let me just toss my 2 cents and a dime into this whole race crap.

Oh great so this guy's pissed off again, what flew up his ass now? Well this bullshit ass video.

OK first off, if you want to cosplay someone who's brown, like Josie Rizal from Tekken 7, and you happen to be White. Go right ahead, even if you need to use make up to get the skin tone right. This "marginalized person" is giving you permission to do so. You have my OK. The only thing I care about is that you get the whole shebang accurate to her design and her character.

You want to cosplay her and you're not brown, go right ahead anyway. Hell I'll even teach you a few Tagalog phrases if you want. All I care about is that you don't half ass the cosplay, because you know, do it right or don't do it at all. 

I'm a marginalized person of color, so therefore my opinions override hers and I'm saying "fuck that" when she says a character "isn't for you". You want to cosplay Josie and you're Irish pale, you go right the fuck ahead and do it, even if you have to do what ever it is those ganguro chicks in Japan do to look like that. I said it's ok, so bitch, don't you dare try to talk over my voice of color and say otherwise.

I'm as baffled about this as the rest of you. But when you consider this is in Japan, it kind of explains things. 

Do I think it's harmful if a White girl wants to be Josie at a convention? No. Because I don't let it be harmful to me. Like I said, the extent of my giving a fuck only goes as far as to the quality of the cosplay itself. I got more important things to worry about like potentially fatal work place hazards at my current employment, you really think a White girl cosplaying is going to be harmful to me?

At any rate, she said it's wrong to speak over marginalized people of color, so I'm automatically right, and she's automatically wrong, moving on.

Secondly no, you're not my ally, there ain't shit you can do that's useful enough for you to be an "ally". Bottom line is, I've been around the block several times, by contrast you look like a well off upper middle class person. That right there leads me to suspect that we already have little to relate over. That being said, how fucking arrogant do you have to be to assume that you have something to bring to the table and are fit to be my "ally"? I've fought my battles in life and took my hits and got back up and not once did I ever need someone like you around as my "ally" to accomplish what I set out to do. Your help was not, is not, and will not ever be needed. I was making my way in this world when you were still riding around in the back of mommy's SUV (or the equivalent of). Most of all though I'm as sure as the Sun is hot, that I will never have a need for anyone's self-serving White guilt driven help to get by. My life and experiences is not something for you to appropriate to soothe your mistakenly guilty conscience.

As you said, Whites like you have to listen to marginalized voices, and this marginalized voice is telling you to shut the hell up so by your own rules, you can stop talking now.

And here we go, the "safe space" bullshit. The only safe space you should need is where you eat, sleep, and shit. Out there, the world can be a real bastard, how do you expect to function if you need to run off to a "safe space" at every triggering act of microaggression? You want to know what my safe space is? My shitter. No one fucks with me when I'm taking a dump.

Now that's a REAL safe space right there, ain't no one messing with me in there when I'm nuking Hiroshima

By the way, assuming that I'm so weak, that I'd need you as an "ally" makes me uncomfortable, so therefore you aren't making a "safe space" according to that definition. Your behavior is upsetting to me, so feel free to change it, like now.

You can give the whole "ally" thing a rest and just worry about you're own shit. Minorities like myself aren't so weak that we'd need a young, upper-middle class, well off individual like yourself to be our "ally" and fight our battles. In fact, I sure as hell can put up a better fight deprived of sleep for three days and completely drunk off my ass, you ever could. If you really want to help, then just treat us like you would anyone else instead of putting us on a pedestal and prostrating yourself before the alter of Minority Worship that the regressive left has built over the graves of people like MLK Jr.

Die Macrossenlied: Macross Delta review

Overall Score: 15/20

C+

Now here's a franchise I've been following since I first saw it in the late '80s as Robotech: The Macross Saga. It was a little tough figuring out how to write this review. Did I want to do it all as a standalone show? Or do I want to do it in relation to other series in the franchise? Ultimately I decided to do a little of both, but in some areas, like the music, score it on it's own.

Also I wish I could give it something higher than a C+, but to be fair, objective, and maintain integrity (unlike, oh I don't know... damn near the entire gaming journalism industry), I had to give it the score it deserved and not the score I wanted to give it.

Oh yes, and naturally, there will be spoilers.


Plot: 4/5
The plot itself is pretty interesting in that it has some close connections to the immediate predecessor in the series Macross Frontier. This is a bit different from prior entries since they're so far removed from each other in some form or another, as to be standalone shows that you didn't need to have seen the show prior to know what's going on. Here on the other hand, it really helps to have seen Macross Frontier to be able to fill in some gaps and make connections.

The plot takes place in 2067 (eight years after Macross Frontier and 55 years after SDF Macross) at a sector on the edge of the galaxy that the New United Nations Government (UNG/NUNG), a galactic government that's suggested to be of a federal nature, sees as a backwater sector. To the point where we don't see any of the New United Nations Space Forces (NUNS) garrisons in the region in possession a Macross type vessel, and still rely on the VF-171 as opposed to the VF-25. As Delta takes places 8 years after Frontier and the VF-25 was in it's final testing phase, just one step away from deployment at the time of Frontier, the VF-25 has presumably been in service for 8 years now, and these garrisons still haven't been reequipped. Not only haven't they been equipped but they haven't even been upgraded to specs on the level of the enhanced VF-171EX. The VF-171 having been rolled out in 2046 has been in service now for 21 years.

You know your posting sucks when your equipment hasn't even been upgraded. 

Around the time of Frontier, there was an independence movement in the sector with the Kingdom of Wind seemingly seceding from the UNG in a bitter conflict that seems reminiscent of the Vietnam War. The show was kind of vague as to this, but it was the catalyst for a power struggle between the UNG and the Kingdom.

Where the tie in to Frontier comes in, is in the form of the Var Syndrome brain disease. After the Vajra left the galaxy at the end of Frontier, their departure some how resulted in the spreading of fold bacteria into the various humanoid species across the galaxy. Whether by his own design or not, Roid, who becomes the main antagonist, continues the work of the Macross Galaxy government in trying to forcibly network everyone together into a massive galactic hive mind.

In Delta, we kind of go back to having a group of idols like we did in Macross 7, though instead of a band with a lead and back up vocalist, we get an idol group.

Why have just a solo act when you can have a whole pop group?

Though here instead of weird "Spiritia" space magic, the abilities behind the singers are now given a scientific explanation. That being the fold bacteria left over from the Vajra, essentially expanding on the ideas used with Ranka and Sheryl's infections. Essentially Delta can be considered a sequel to Frontier.


Storytelling: 2/5
The protagonists are generally portrayed in a generally likable manner. Neither of the three main characters, Hayate Immelman, Freyja Wion, or Mirage Falynna Jenius come off as irritation or otherwise unlikeable to the point that the viewer starts to not care. Both women act as a foil to Hayate in some form or another. When we first meet him he's an aimless drifter taking random jobs here and there and ultimately getting fired from them from not putting in any effort. In contrast he runs into Freyja who knows what she wants and is dead set on it. On the other side there's Mirage who's overly serious about her job (which really works for her since just about the entire galaxy has high expectations for her, given her grandparents are Max and Millia of the original series and in-universe legends) were as Hayate has a carefree demeanor towards just about everything. Their relation at first is almost like a variation of the straight man, funny man combo.

Left to right: Mirage Falynna Jenius, Hayate Immelman, and Freyja Wion. 

Each of the three develop their characters as the story moves forward. Freyja gets her wish but realizes why she wanted that to begin with. Mirage is able to loosen up and move out from under her family's shadow and be her own pilot as opposed to just "Max and Millia's granddaughter", she's also able to express herself more when she starts to be the third wheel in the triangle. Finally, Hayate starts to become more serious about his job as a pilot and becomes more professionally about it as opposed to just being a bum who doesn't take work seriously.

This time around though, they did also do something a bit different in that Hayate could end up with both girls in the end. At the end it is implied that Freyja didn't have long to live so Hayate could very well end up with Mirage after Freyja passes away. I would wouldn't be surprised if we saw a tear jerker on-screen death for her in a movie adaptation.

The supporting characters are also well done and likable characters. At first I was wondering how they would get in enough character development for Walkure on an individual level. But it was accomplished. Each member had their backstories fleshed out, and two members, Reina Prowler and Makina Nakajima are possibly the first same-sex couple to be shown in the franchise. While not explicitly stated, there does seem to be more between them than just friends. I don't know if there was also a joke there with pairing up the members with the biggest and the smallest cup size in the group together, with Makina's breasts being almost as big as Reina's head.

"Boobs..." let me say that again. "Boobs"

Though the other supporting characters, mainly combat role members of Chaos PMC have gotten decreased development in comparison to the other series. The command crew of the Macross Elyssion gets minimal development, to the point you don't even notice the "bridge bunnies" on this ship, and Macross-class bridge bunny crew members have been a staple since SDF Macross. We literally know next to nothing about them. Though the half-breed Captain Ernest Johnson does get enough development to delve into his background and the view learns he's worked as a mercenary and combat instructor and always sided with the underdog faction. Along with Delta Squad leader Arad Mollers, both men have histories with the current Windermere regime, being the military instructors of the Kingdom's military leadership. We also get some development on the brooding war veteran Messer and the more laid back Chuck who runs a restaurant on the side, but in contrast they get much less development than the Walkure members.

...and he's about 7 and a half feet tall. One of his parents was obviously a commander-type Zentraedi. 

Though this might have been the result of having an episode cap and the series ending at 26 episodes. But on the other they could have been fleshed out more instead of having all of these filler episodes.

Which brings us to the villains. This is where I knocked off the majority of the points for storytelling. A good story needs to have good villains, and good villains, Macross Delta doth not has.

Generally, I don't much care for these guys...

OK I've seen every entry into this franchise, and the Kingdom of Wind is easily the most bland and boring villains of this whole franchise. Where as every series saw both the protagonist and antagonist faction on some level of parity (weak in one area but stronger in another) with the exception of Macross Plus, Delta on the other hand simply just gives the Kingdom a pre-pubescent deus ex machina in the form of Heinz the Wind Singer, and the Var Syndrome mind control. And this deus ex machina is all the Kingdom ever does. Attempt to assassinate Walkure? Var. NUNS confrontation? Var. Planetary invasion? Var. More NUNS forces? Var. Acid indigestion? Var. Menstrual cramps? Var. Erectile dysfunction? Var. Var Syndrome is literally their only solution to every single problem. Crummy gas mileage on your car? Yeah I'm sure Var can fix that too.

In Macross Zero, we had the UN and Anti-UN factions racing against each other to secure alien artifacts on the planet. In SDF Macross we had Captain Global and Commander Britai on opposite ends of a cosmic chess board matching wits against each other. In Macross 7, we had had the mind control element but it wasn't the only trick the Protodevin had up their sleeves. 7 had had a strange mix of relentless enemies, vampires and monster of the week elements. Frontier gave us weird enigmatic, hive minded space bugs who would evolve countermeasures against the SMS/NUNS's weapons including evolving carapace that could withstand a nuclear blast after the NUNS used their nukes too often. Frontier also had the conspiracy element that we last saw in VFX2. Macross II was a little different in that the UN forces found themselves up against essentially their Mirror Mirror counterparts, where singers were used not to bring peace the way Minmay had,but rather in the same manner as the Doof Warrior from Mad Max.

As a whole we saw both sides having to adjust to each other. In Zero we had Shin constantly learning and adjusting to Nora and Ivan's styles. In SDF we saw Global over use the Macross's Daedalus Attack and Britai use this to his advantage to get a boarding party into the Macross. 7 had the Fleet having to deal with each Protodevlin and their abilities. Frontier saw their Fleet in a state of constant R&D. But in Delta we see none of that. All we see is the Kingdom just Var'ing everyone each time, and each time the NUNS just falls for it. Their colonial garrisons get Var'ed, and one fleet they send into the sector after another just get's Var'ed. The result just starts to become as predictable in story telling as the use of recycled footage for combat scenes. There's no suspense of drama anymore. Towards the end the NUNS sends another fleet armed with dimensional weapons (think BIG black hole bombs) and they just get predictably Var'ed instead of having a massive do or die fleet battle. To the point where the viewer already knows they're just going to get Var'ed yet again.

Police brutality? There's a solution to that! Var induced rioting. 

The way the Var was used as a literary tool is Delta's weakest point. It's overused to the point of making the Kingdom of Wind a pack of one-trick ponies. Even the accomplishments of their so-called elite Aerial Knights gets watered down when you consider that every accomplishment they've made after Epi.2 came with Var support, after Epi. 2 you hardly ever see them shoot someone down who isn't being Var'ed, so essentially they haven't really done anything a monkey couldn't do. They're starting to remind me of Japanese pilot Warrant Officer Toshiyuki Sueda. This particular one-trick pony racked up 9 kills against F4F Wildcat pilots using the same trick. Over Wake Island he tried the same trick on an F6F Hellcat and paid with his life when it didn't work and the Hellcat lit him up. For half of this series I've just been waiting for the proverbial Hellcat to show up.

The main problem I have with the Var is that we never really see any weakness with it, hence why I call it a deus ex machina. Supposedly to activate it, it causes physical strain to Heinz, and yet we never see him collapse on stage to make that point. Additionally it also seems to be the perfect mind control weapon, in that the infected don't just go completely berserk and attack everyone, they always seem to know who to attack. I would have had one instance where Heinz collapses on stage and the Windermearans are unable to hold off a non-Var'ed NUNS fleet that breaks though and links up with the Macross Elysion with supplies and reinforcements (maybe an elite unit of VF-25s or production YF-27s refined with either manual controls for non-cyborg pilots, or a refined Brain Direct Imaging and Brain Direct Interface systems from the thought controlled YF-21 of Macross Plus, sent from Earth to serve as kind of friendly rivals to Delta Squad, hell even make it the VFX Ravens, that would be an awesome cameo). I would have also had one scene where the Var activation goes wrong and the victims go completely berserk and attack everyone forcing both sides to withdraw from the area. Something to show it's not that perfect and using it needs strategic considerations.

It's clear the NUNS was supposed to look as shady as MS Gundam's Earth Federation Space Forces, the State military, that while technically being on the protagonist's side, has some dirt on it's hands and skeletons in the closet. The problem though with the Var being a deus ex machina we don't really get to see the NUNS acting sinister, all we really get to see is them getting annihilated. That doesn't make them look shady, that just makes them look incompetent.

The ending was also another point where I had to knock off some points. The biggest complaint with the end of Macross Frontier was that while it resolved the main plot, it didn't resolve the love triangle at the end. Delta does the opposite. The triangle gets resolved but the war itself is left ambiguous. Were there peace negotiations? Did both sides attempt at reconciliation, or did things settle into a state or cold war? Or are both sides just gearing up for the next phase of the war? We don't know.

Lastly, is the overall presentation of the story. The pacing feels a bit weird and there are too many filler episodes. There could have been more action oriented scenes but instead we ended up with more narration than needed.

The tie in with Macross Frontier at the end could have been built up more. Roid's goal turned out to be the same as Grace's in the Frontier TV series and the Macross Galaxy colony leaders in the Frontier movies. It would have made it more interesting if Roid had ties to Galaxy in some form or another, Maybe he came across their research and decided to finish their work, or he took in members of the conspiracy sometime between Frontier and Delta.

Instead he just turns out to be yet another Space Hitler. 

Instead we get a relatively weak tie in on the protagonists side to the SDF-02 Megaroad 01's crew, with some hinting that "Lady M", the sort of background manipulator on the protagonists side is possibly Lynn Minmay, but leaves nothing in regards to any of the SDF-02's crew confirmed. Given that this is dropped near the end of the series makes it a complete dick tease, since it happens too close to the end to be able to do anything with it. Its thrown in there, but has little to anything done with it. It's said that they received a signal from subspace from the SDF-02, and that's pretty much it. So what, did the SDF-02 end up in another dimension? Trapped in Fold space? Are they somewhere in the galaxy hiding out from the current New United Nations Government administration for a particular reason? Also if Lady M is indeed Minmay, she would be about 74 years old. Also, if Lady M is Minimay then just what exactly is Chaos? Was it part of the SDF-02 colonial defense fleet at some point in history?

Too many unanswered questions at the end, and is practically begging for a movie or two to resolve these questions.

Sound and visuals: 5/5
Like prior entries into the series, the music gets a lot of emphasis. It was a bit tough to rank the music, on one hand I want to rank it down to a 4, but on the other hand I do really like the music for what it is.

I wanted to rank the music down to a 4 since it follows the same J-pop style music that Macross Frontier had. In contrast each series seemed to have it's own musical theme. Macross 7's music was rock, and Macross Plus went across genres with Yoko Kanno at the helm, but the songs generally had a more electronic style to it. SDF Macross did have pop music but it was '80s pop. Lastly Macross Zero's music had a more tribal feel to it. Just once I'd like to see a Macross series with a hip hop or rap theme, like the viewer is introduced to the series idol destroying people in a underground rap battle like Emimen. Have her be a "tough girl" type like Priss from Bubblegum Crisis. I decided to just look at the music for what it was, divorced from the rest of the series and ultimately didn't think it warranted being knocked down a point.

Then there is visuals and they certainly live up to the visual threshold set by Macross Frontier (which in a sense kind of seemed like Kawamori trying to embarrass Harmony Gold and their Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles) we also see another first in Macross with a sword fight between VFs that felt kind of reminiscent of Escaflowne. Though things do get a little fuzzy, when there is fast action happening, though you'll only really notice it if you pause the video during these segments.




Art style and design: 4/5
The art style and design more or less follows what was established in Macross Frontier. The ships in services with the NUNS are the same as what we saw in Frontier and despite being some nine years later, the VF-171 is still their main fighter. Though that could be because the sector where the series takes places is considered a backwater region and the more "prestigious" postings, like the Earth fleet or New Edwards Base, got the VF-25. The VF-171 we see haven't even been upgraded to the more heavily armed and armored EX variants.

The main protagonist mecha, the VF-31 series is yet another rehash of the YF-24 Evolution. The VF-31 is the production version of the YF-30 Chronos, which itself was based on the YF-24 (in-universe, in actuality it was probably based on the VF-25). The result is a fighter that bears a strong resemblance to the VF-25 (given that the YF-24 was the in-universe progenitor of the VF-25, YF-27, YF-29 and YF-30) and gives the feeling that Kawamori got lazy. On the other hand while the VF-31 is yet another derivative, the Sv-262 is a wholly new design based on the Saab 35 Draken. The paint style of the Windermearan Sv-262s, especially Keith's personal unit have a more flashy design to them, reminiscent of Zeon aces from the MS Gundam franchise. I can easily see it in the red and black with gold trim of the Sinaju in Unicorn Gundam. Though even as a new design, Kawamori seems to have taken a liking to skinny battroid designs as of late, it's been awhile since we've seen a beefy design like the YF-19/VF-19 and YF-21/VF-22 designs. Though on a side note Kawamori seems to have broken with his naming and number conventions on the VF-31, with planes with forward swept wings being named for swords and having a 9 in the model number (VF-9 Cutlass, VF-19 Excalibur, YF-29 Durandal, though to be fair the VF-31A which could be considered the base line model does not have FSW). Though I can see why he would do that here, when you look at the names of the rival VF-31 Siegfried and Sv-262 Draken III, it's more than likely a reference to the Volsung Saga where Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir.

VF-31 Siegfried

Sv-262 Draken III

The SDF/C-108 Macross Elysion herself seems to be an amalgam of design elements from the SDF-01 (TV and Movie variants), the New Macross-class and the Macross Quarter Type. Elysion takes her overall layout and transformation sequence from the Quarter. The design stylings of her legs and the way her Macross Cannon functions is similar to the New Macross-class Battle 25/Frontier, the over all styling of her main hull is reminiscent of the SDF-01 DYRL version, while her "arms" are clearly influenced by the SDF-01 TV version with them being held up in the same pose and having the appearance of maritime vessels. I'd say Elysion is easily my favorite Macross derivative next to the DYRL redesign. Though her in-universe origins are never explored, given her hull number she doesn't seem to be a one-off design having "108" as her hull number indicating she's at least the 8th of her class. One one hand she might be a production version of the Macross Quarter, she also about twice the size of the Quarter. We also see something relatively new with the Elysion's left arm, the Aether, acting independently. While prior Macross types have been considered compound warships with various blocks being separate ships, this is the first time we any of those components carrying out operations on it's own, not counting standalone ARMD-class carriers, except for maybe the Macross 7's gunship (memory fails me on that one) but even then it isn't on the scale that Aether operates on.


Even at the end of the series when the ship is grounded it's in a state similar to the SDF-01 Macross at the end of the TV series, lacking it's right arm and the booms on it's back blown off, and lying in a position similar to the SDF-01 when it was downed in DYRL.

Just chillin'

Though, whereas in Frontier the main civilian section was modeled on San Francisco, here in Delta it's more modeled on a South East Asian style coastal town. Right down to the cuisine being sea food based with the main dishes being fish and jellyfish, and survival rations being a tin of sea spiders. It gives the series a kind of backwater/resort town feel in contrast to the futuristic metropolitan areas we see in Macross Frontier, Macross 7 and Macross Plus. Plus especially since we get to see the UNG capital Macross City with holographic displays across the city.

Overall while the VF-31 is essentially another rehash of a tired design, the Sv-262 does bring something completely new to the table and the Elysion is actually a really nice blending of aspects from all the previous existing Macross-classes into an aesthetically pleasing package. Additionally we also see cameos of classic designs like Zentraedi Regult and Glaug battlepods, as well as a VF-22S serving as a Chekov's Gun in a few episodes.

Final Verdict: Flawed but still has it's high points. 
Macross Delta definitely has it's flaws, it certainly is nowhere near as good as the original SDF Macross was and I wouldn't even considering as good as Macross Frontier was. Despite that, it's flaws at least are largely localized to it's story telling. The plot itself was interesting enough, but it's in the way it was told that has problems. The fight scenes that do happen between the Knights and Delta are still exciting and great to watch. The music, while similar to Frontier's is still enjoyable and the fast tempo of the songs go hand in hand with the frantic combat scenes. While Elysion doesn't really do much compared to the Quarter, when it does do something, it's something to behold.

Overall Macross Delta is still an enjoyable experience and introduces several new elements into Macross canon. The "enemy singer" thing is new to the main canon but it was something we saw in the non-canon AU Macross II. It's a safe bet to say there will be a movie or two to flesh out the loose ends of the series. Pretty much every entry in the franchise got some point of movie or OVA adaptation or accompaniment, and this one needs it.

Triggered: Segregation today! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!

The following contains:
- Scathing socio-political commentary
- Liberal use of Profanity
- Copious amounts of sarcasm
- No giving of fucks for your feelings
- No giving of fucks for you safe space

Segregation today! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!
    - George Wallace

You know, when I was a kid and I saw this asshole saying this bullshit in documentaries, I just laughed at him. Like "haha look at this asshole, Everything's moving away from that kind of ignorant driven racism, and now he's just a kind of social dinosaur from a less enlightened era."

At least that's what I thought when I was a kid back in the '90s (fuck I miss the '90s...).

Fast forward to some 20 something years into the future from my childhood I see this fucking bullshit.

Segregated housing will now be available to black students at California State University Los Angeles as a means of combating “microaggressions” and “racially insensitive remarks.”

Maybe that Wallace asshole wasn't making a declaration, maybe he was making a prediction or a prophesy. That segregation would continue to be implemented rather him perpetuating it from office.
Now before I proverbially wail on Black Lives Matter and the regressive left as a whole once again, let me put it out there that I'm against this kind of thing for every race, unless there's some kind of traditional living aspect to the arrangement. It defeated the whole point of college as an intellectual space unless there's a educational aspect to it rather than yet another bullshit "safe space". Though I could be persuaded to go along with separate housing for students from overseas.

THIS is what I think of your "safe space", I will blast that shit from orbit!

CSU LA did try to justify this fuckery by saying

The Halisi Scholars Black Living-Learning Community is designed to enhance the residential experience for students who are a part of or interested in issues of concern to the black community living on campus by offering the opportunity to connect with faculty and peers, and engage in programs that focus on academic success, cultural awareness, and civic engagement....

...This living-learning community focuses on academic excellence and learning experiences that are inclusive and non-discriminatory. This community is open to all students.

I don't buy this shit and here's why.

WE DEMAND the creation and financial support of a CSLA housing space delegated for Black students and a full time Resident Director who can cater to the needs of Black students.
Many Black CSLA students cannot afford to live in Alhambra or the surrounding area with the high prices of rent. A CSLA housing space delegated for Black students would provide a cheaper alternative housing solution for Black students. This space would also serve as a safe space for Black CSLA students to congregate, connect, and learn from each other. (italics mine)

"Safe space for Black CSLA students". University admin can try to spin it all they want, that this housing project is inclusive and non-discriminatory, but the ones that demanded this housing to begin with have flat out said in their demands that this is to serve as a "safe space". It is a "safe space" for Black students, where Black students can connect and learn from other Black students.

So, translating SJW-speak to contemporary English vernacular, what they really mean is this.

Sure maybe they're du jure non-discriminatory, but I got five on it, that it's de facto segregation. I never though I would ever see this, but we have come full circle to the point now where the "coloreds" are demanding segregation. Doesn't that go against everything that people like Martin Luther King Jr. fought for? These the very people that Malcolm X referred to as "zombies" after his tours in North Africa.

This also goes against what Malcolm X preached in that these Blacks are demanding that the same government he said was unwilling/incapable of protecting it's Black citizens, fix their problems. MLK Jr. dreamed of a world where character mattered not skin color. Malcolm X preached for a strong Black community that stood on it's own strength.

This goes completely against everything the Civil Rights movement of the '60s and '70s were pushing for. Not only that, but it continues to go against the entire point of going to college. The point of going to college is to further develop your views and to refine your skills and pick up new ones. How do you develop your views? You learn from other views and you have your existing views challenged by opposing views. Those challenges come from both the academic sphere, political sphere and social sphere.

But now we have this segment of the population that sees challenge as a "microaggression" (yes I use Urban Dictionary since in many instances, the contemporary social definition is different from the academic definition). Society raised up this fragile society of kids told that they were special from day fucking one, and given awards and trophies just for fucking showing up with a pulse and brain activity. It's kind of like some warp, twisted and fucked up version of when Mr. Rogers would tell children they're special in their own way. That's true and what he meant by that was everyone had something they were good at, everyone had something going for them, and everyone could achieve what they set out to do. Instead we now have this view of "being special" as being put up on a pedestal. The result is this segment of a generation that can't handle being told they're wrong. Instead these people blow everything out of proportion and have to cry about every little fucking thing that does completely conform to their own specific world view (funny enough that's also the same reason why you see regressive leftists frequently eat each other).

Where this particular rabbit hole takes us is to a bizzaro realm where supposed adults in society require "safe spaces" because they are unable to function in society. They can't handle being told they're wrong, and therefore not special, after being put up on a special pedestal all their sheltered lives. But because they've been held up on a pedestal all their lives and told that their feelings matter and constantly asked how something made them feel (giving the false impression that people like me, and the world at large, give a shit about their feelings) they're also not equipped to handle a challenge to their believes, and are unable to think analytically. They are unable (but not incapable, they just don't know how) to form a solid Aristotelian argument, and instead fall back to screaming and running away when confronted with an opposing view.

Ultimately where we end up is here, with these people demanding the return of segregation. Demanding compartmentalization of society to levels unseen since we had feudalism and a class system. The left has gone so far to the left that they have gone full circle and have become the right. Did that asshole George Wallace foresee this? Is this what he meant by "Segregation forever!"

And this is why I hate SJWs so fucking much. This false progressivism does nothing more than to push a weakness of character. A community, a society is only as strong as it's weakest member, and this regressive (I'm not going to dirty the name of Theodore Roosevelt by associating these weak, overly sensitive and generally pathetic people with his Progressive Party.) movement rejects intellectual discourse in exchange for both emotional coddling and this sort of social feudalism with a social classes based, not upon wealth and birth status, but rather on perceived levels of victimhood. Or maybe it's more appropriately called a victimhood based caste system. A system where the more victimhood/oppression points you can tally up, the higher the class/caste you belong to. Rather than being someone who can take on the world, what SJWs push for instead creates people so weak that they demand that the world adjust to their fragile sensibilities. Rather than taking on and overcoming ever challenge life has to throw at them, the regressive leftist expect someone else to make that obstacle go away for them. As someone who's completed a Juris Doctris I would LOVE to see one of these SJWs in the first month of law school, they would literally be eaten alive by their professors and their non-SJW peers. Professors will not let up on you no matter now much you cry "oppression" and "microaggression". NO ONE gives a fuck about feelings in your law school work. You are straight FUCKED if all you can do is spout off SJW buzzwords and can't form an argument advocating for one side.

This whole victimhood thing is nothing more than an extension of the special snowflake mindset. This happened to me, therefore that makes me special. It's the same shit as the self-centered woman who decides to be a mom just to parade around her trophy kid to attract more attention to herself by saying "hey look at ME, I'M a mom!". When people stop treating them special as they grow older, they go find some other reason to make themselves special, and they do this by making themselves a "victim" of something. They're essentially saying "look at ME! Something bad happened to ME so you have to be nice to ME!" Just like that fucktard Bonita Tindle who thought some random White guy with dreadlocks was "oppressing" her. Most people probably wouldn't give two-shits about her if she was just Bonita Tindle, but people will listen to and give special treatment to "Bonita Tindle the victim of racism!" Speaking of that moron, I wonder if she changed her name to something like "Binata Kalejayie" given that "Bonita" is a name of Latin and therefore southern European origins, and the surname of "Tindle" is of Scottish origin, therefore she is appropriating two European cultures with her name.

Worse yet, these same fucktards actively work to roll back the real progress made in society. It took Ike deploying the National Guard to get the dominoes falling to set the stage for Brown v. Board of Education. It took the work of MLK Jr. and all his supporters to bury Jim Crow, and yet here we are, with a minority group, demanding the return of the same Jim Crow segregation, under a softer sounding name. maybe I ought to call it James Crowe?

I mean seriously just look at this shit, look at this shit and just marvel at the sheer madness of this. The regressive left like to constantly harangue the rest of society over what year it is (yeah I know it's two-thousand-fucking-sixteen, I actually paid attention to math class instead of crying over how sexist math is.)  and yet here we are, 20-fucking-16 and the same regressive leftists are calling for segregation like it's 1963 all over again. As a kid and a teenager I never thought I'd see anything other than some of the more psychotic White supremacist fringe elements calling for a return to segregation, and yet here we fucking are, with a minority group that was heavily discriminated under segregation, calling for the return of segregation. Only now they do it under the pretense of establishing a "safe space". Well what in the fuck did you think "Whites Only" places were shit-for-brains?! They were "safe spaces" for White people. What, it's fucked up when White people do it but not for you?

Fuck this shit, this shit gets the blood pressure up, next post will probably be another retro review, maybe Parasite Eve.

"Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong": Retro Review, Xenogears

Overall Score: 4.8

B++

Gameplay: 5
At first glance Xenogears looks like the typical SquareSoft JRPG fare of the time period. Largely menu based gameplay, where you give commands to your characters during battles and what not. It might even seem a little more limited since unlike Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears doesn't have a tower defense style sub-quest, nor does it have Suikoden II's turn-based tactics-style army battles.

Though what is present in Xenosaga that isn't in the other two games I'd mentioned is a platforming element in the towns and dungeons where the player has the ability to jump around, showcasing the game's 3D environment and adding more places where game developers are able to place/hide rare items. On the down side though, expect to get lost more often than you would in the other games, since being able to rotate the camera can be a little bit disorienting in some locations. Additionally this also has some frustrating platforming sections, though nothing that can't be overcome with a little bit of patience.

The main thing that sets Xenogears apart from the other JRPG's of the era are of course, the titular Gears, giant Gundam-like mechs that can be summoned by the player. Though unlike the Summons of Final Fantasy, which up until Final Fantasy X, were largely glorified super-attacks, the player actually takes control of their Gears the same way they would control the character on foot. The Gears even come with their own "limit break" attacks, when their Attack Level reaches Infinity. This system is essentially the forerunner to FFX's Aeon system, and the obvious direct ancestor to Xenosaga's (more on THAT relationship later) AGWS and AMWS combat systems.

Combat also differs from the Final Fantasy and Suikoden line, in that instead of simply selecting an attack to perform from a menu, the player actually has to input commands in the same manner as Tekken or Soul Blade/Caliber, by pressing specific buttons in a particular order (i.e. X,X,[],O), as mentioned this also applies to combat in the Gears.

Exploration is done both on foot and on-board Gears, within "Gear dungeons". Though for the most part there is little difference in terms of gameplay between the on-foot dungeons and the Gear dungeons. The world map can be explored on foot, aboard Gears or aboard the Yggdrasil which evolves from sand cruiser, to submarine, to air-ship.

Along with the regular gameplay, the game also has a few mini-games. One is essentially the card game Speed. This plays a bit clunky, needing to use the D-pad to select the cards. If a remake was ever made on PS4, the PS4's touchpad or motion controls may alleviate this issue. The other mini-game, is 8-way-run (think Soul Caliber) 3D fighting game where you, and even a second player, can select various Gears and monsters from the game and go head to head against each other. For what it is, it's actually pretty impressive. The generic random encounter Gears like the Hatamoto's and Eagles have as high a level of detail as the main character Gears like Weltall. The gameplay in this mode is pretty smooth and the hit detection is pretty spot on. It plays very much like Koei's Destrega, though there's no boundaries, like StarFox 64, the area just kind of loops and you can run "forever", which prompted one of my favorite taunts from an Eminem song, "Don't try to run from me, you'll just make it worse!"

Given that the game plays well on the OG PS1 digital controller, along with the menu based interface, the game will likely play well on a touchscreen interface.

Graphics and visuals: 4.5
On one hand, I wouldn't say the game really pushes what the PS1 can do the way FFVII and FFVIII did in terms of character and environment graphics, but the modeling of the Gears is easily on par with the 3D modeling of the aircraft in Ace Combat 3.

The graphics and visuals are fully 3D, both the character models and the environment, and you can rotate the camera the full 360 degree for the most part. The game does this all in a smooth manner with little graphical tearing, flickering or other glitches. The animation of the Gears doesn't look weird and clunky.

Overall the quality of the graphics is largely what one would expect out of SquareSoft in the mid to late '90s.

I will say this though, of the anime style cut scenes. While visually they were very good for their time (the opening movie still holds up today) the English voice dub was easily the worst I have ever seen (Hell Reba West's butchering of Lynn Minmay is still a better job than this). While the opening movie was done decently, the dubbing for the rest of the cut scenes was badly off sync and sounded like they were phoned in. Given that the same year Xenogears came out, Trigun and Outlaw Star came out, and Macross Plus in 1995, three series with decent English dub work, there's just no excuse for the horrible dubbing done in Xenogears. It would have been better had they left the Japanese audio and just subtitled it.

I have to knock half a point off for the dubbing, because while at first it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it really detracts from the experience, when you have an emotionally heavy event happening in the plot, then a cut scene comes on with the comically bad dubbing, it can affect the overall immersion in the game's plot.


Stability: 5
Playing this game since about 1999, I can't ever recall any major show stoppers. I can't recall encountering any major freezes or crashes, nor any save or load issues. Again, the build quality of the game is what one would have expected from SquareSoft's golden era.


Plot: 4.5
The plot follows the format of "the Hero's journey" (think Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Epi. IV), you have the main protagonist Fei (an amnesiac), who is forced to leave his secluded hometown due to a particular incident, and along his way he's accompanied/looked after by the town doctor who's quite familiar with the ways the outside world works.

As the plot moves on, Fei meets a rather colorful cast of characters that fate had decided to put together on the same road. His companions range from deposed Crown Prince turned sand pirate/rebel Bart, to an AWOL solder from a Waffen-SS like military organization named Elly, to a mutated demi-human "Battling Champion" (think UFC) Rico.

The cast of villains is no less colorful from the enigmatic and manipulative Miang, to the Machiavellian puppet master Krellian, and even the Darth Vader-esque Grahf. And there are certainly plenty of main and minor antagonists.

No... I am your fa- oh wait, wrong sci-fi series. 

As the story goes on, the player will get hit with one plot twist out of nowhere after another, eventually learning that the villains aren't what they seem on the surface. Eventually, the player learns how the events in the opening movie are connected to the game.

The plot of the game is very engaging, and as with Suikoden II it's paced like a well written novel. As mentioned earlier, there's quite a myriad of villains, but the way the plot is done, introduces them and fleshes them all out in a way that it doesn't seem like a "monster of the week" sort of thing. Each villain and their motivations are developed and fleshed out and most of them aren't black and white individuals. Half of them aren't even all that bad when you think about it, as you play though the game. And that's the point where the game's plot shines, as the writers in Suikoden II were able to do, the writers here where also able to integrate elements of human drama without doing it in a heavy handed manner. You as the player will come to sympathize with some of the villains and why they're doing what they're doing (most of them have motivations that have nothing to do with serving/believing in the Big Baddie, aka "God" at the end) while on the same token Fei finds out the hard way that some of his allies haven't been exactly 100% up front with him and keeping him in a sort of "need to know" basis.

Though the plot isn't all dry and serious, there are points of humor sprinkled in. One character, at first appears as nothing more than stuffed animal, but is actually a living creature with a child-like level of intelligence. A minor plot arc that leads to Fei being rescued by a salvage ship with a colorful crew of demi-humans who's half-walrus captain proclaims them to be "Men! Of the Sea!" (yes that's how he says it) starts out with Bart's penchant of shooting first and confirming his target second leading him to shoot down an aircraft that Fei had commandeered. While removed as a playable character, in the Perfect Works Marguerite is shown to have a Gundam-style bazooka, a pair of hand grenades and a sickle-like blade hidden beneath her cloak. There are also less dark but still deep scenes, like one where Fei goes along with Emeralda, an artificial human made from nanomachines, on a walk down memory lane and at the end some systems trigger within her that causes her to age from a young teen to a young adult, she "grows up.

The plot of game draws a lot from Abrahamic mythology with references to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam scattered around the game, with the last boss constantly referred to as "God" (no it's the real God of course). This cause a rather humorous tantrum to be thrown by the Christian Right in the US and an attempt by a segment of them to get the game banned over the fact that you "kill" God at the end.

Where I had to knock off a half a point was in Disk 2. Due to the up coming Final Fantasy VIII, staff and budget were pulled from the Xenogears project and it showed in Disk 2. Where as Disk 1 played like your typical JRPG, being able to go just about anywhere you want and play the game at your own pacing. Disk 2 pretty much got a less butchered treatment than Ace Combat 3's Western release did. In contrast to the previous part of the game, Disk 2 now takes on a linear, episodic format, taking the player's hand and walking them though the rest of the plot, rather than letting the player experience it at their own pace.

Rather than free roaming, the plot of Disk 2 is presented in this narrator segments told by various main characters. 

Most egregious of all though, was the sheer amount of cut content that resulted from this. Two of the playable characters did not get the intended upgrades to their Gears (though the game was coded to boost their parameters to keep up, so this is largely a cosmetic thing) the result being the removal of these quests and therefore less character development for these two. In addition, several locations were either greatly reduced or cut all together. While their removal doesn't have too big of a negative impact on the overall main plot, it does leave the player feeling like something is missing. If Square-Einx really wants to make their fans happy, they'll release an HD update to Xenogears with all the cut content re-introduced. Call it, Xenogears: Definitive Edition or something.


Music and art style: 5
The soundtrack is, again, of the same quality that one would expect out from Square. The music was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, the style is more instrumental and has more of a classical feel to it. In a sense it was pretty common for RPG music of the time period, though that isn't a knock against the music.

The musical tracks are also varied with a 44 track OST. With tracks ranging from festive "Aveh, Ancient Dance" that serves as Bledavik's theme to the foreboding "Grahf, Emperor of Darkness"to the upbeat military march "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong" that serves as Bart's theme. Xenogear's soundtrack certainly stands with the works put forth by Nobuo Uematsu for FFVII and FVIII.

The art style for Xenogears is extremely varied, ranging from characters who wear stereotypical martial arts garb, ones clad in a more roguish and flashy outfit. Landscapes range from ruins that resemble our contemporary Earth, to clean, sterile futuristic structures. One major city Aveh, is located in the middle of the desert and has a kind of Laurence of Arabia feel to it, while it's rival city Nortune has a very gritty and industrial, steam-punk feel to it with various soot belching smoke stacks around the metalic city. While in contrast to both of them, locations in the futuristic city Etrenank look less like a city and more like a lab.

Imperial Capital Nortune, yeah that big red thing in the middle of the city totally isn't some kind of battleship. 

Royal Capital Bledavik market place

Someone's house in the Imperial Capital Etrenank, hey that girl looks familiar...

The designs of all the Gears are varied, with each of the player Gears having their own unique look, with the female characters having Gears with a more feminine look to them. The Gears of the various countries also have their own styling to them. Kislev and Aveh gears are bulkier with a more rounded look to them, where as the more advanced Solaris Gears have a leaner more angular look to them, that make them look like something that could have come out of MS Gundam's Earth Federation Space Force's arsenal. The design variance also take another step up with the more powerful Omnigears. In contrast to the standard Gears which have a clear mechanical styling, the Omnigears instead have an organic look to them.

Citan Uzuki's standard Gear

Citan Uzuki's Omnigear

The Hatamoto Gear of the Kislev Army

The EFSF's RGM-1... oh wait, this is Solaris's Eagle Gear.

Elly's Gear Vierge

Emeralda's Gear Crecents

There are also influences from outside media. The massive Gear Seibzehn bears resemblance to Giant Robo and to a lesser extent Gundam Wing's OZ-00MS Tallgeese mobile suit. The massive battleship sized Gear "Super Dimensional Gear Yggdrasil IV" is an obvious nod to the SDF-01 Macross battleship of SDF Macross. Even the Yggdrasil IV's overall layout is vaguely similar to the Macross, and the Gear is first encountered in a cruiser form, sitting in the middle of a city, the same way the Macross is first seen, as a recently restored battleship, sitting in the middle of a city. Like the Macross, the Yggdrasil IV comes armed with a large scale heavy cannon, and uses it's arms to smash targets.

Super Dimensional Fortress-01 Macross

Though it isn't just the machines and locations that come in a wide variety, the people of this particular planet come in a variety as well. As mentioned it isn't just humans that reside on this planet, but there are also various demi-humans. Ranging from Rico who looks like Blanka from Street Fighter to various other's who seem to be hybrids with other animals.

The "Sea Captain", I always read this guy's dialog in the voice of the Sea Captain from The Simpsons. 

Minor antagonist Seraphita looks to be part rabbit.

Yggdrasil sonar operator Franz is obviously a dolphin demi-human

Overall, the music and the art style make for a varied experience. If the plot and the gameplay are the meat of the Xenogear's gaming experience, then the music and the art style are the prefect mix of seasonings applied to the meat in the perfect amount.


Final Verdict: Must Buy
Despite the game's short-comings, the game itself still provides an experience that post-PS2 has become largely unheard of. Since the PS2 there has been few traditional JRPGs that offer an experience of the same caliber. On Amazon the game can be had used for as low as $35.51 (way less than Suikoden II's $100+ price tag). Or you could go for a digital copy from the PlayStation Store for $9.99.

Spoilers and speculation ahead. 

Like I said, I'd get into the relationship between Xenogears and Xenosaga. 

On a final note with the plot, there is a fan theory going around that Xenogear's relation to Xenosaga is that Xenogears takes place in one of the many timelines that Wilhelm of Xenosaga had rewound with the Zarathustra though Eternal Recurrence.

The relation between Xenogears and the later Xenosaga can pretty much be described as "It's complicated". The staff behind Xenogears has left SquareSoft around '99 or '00, and gone to Namco to form their own development studio MonoSoft, which ended up being bought by Nintendo. 

Xenosaga has been labeled as a "spiritual successor" to Xenogears. But it could be more than just that. There is an argument to be made supporting the theory that Xenogears is a previous timeline. The main idea behind Wilhelm's Eternal Recurrence is that it results in people having to relive their lives with each reset (though think of it less as repeating and more as redoing). The events of Xenosaga appear to parallel the back story of Xenogears presented in the Perfect Works. 

- Xenogears and Xenosaga use the same calendar (Transending Christ). 

- In both games, a mysterious object of unknown origin was found on Earth. 

- After the object was found Earth became inaccessible, forcing humanity off the planet in both games. 

- Both games see a interplanetary federal government (Star Cluster Federation, and the Galactic Federation respectively) with their capitals established on a planet named after Jerusalem. 

-Both games have said Federation mired in a massive war. 

The Perfect Works is unclear as to who the Federation is engaged in war with, but in Xenosaga we see the Federation in conflict with a human faction in the Ormus Church and against the trans-dimensional Gnosis aliens. 

Given that whole planets have been turned into Gnosis in Xenosaga, and given that Deus was constructed as a "planetary invasion weapon" to be used as the Star Cluster Federation's trump card in a war, it's very much a possibility that Deus (the final boss of the Xenogears and a biological super-weapon developed by the Federation) was a strategic level anti-Gnosis weapon to be deployed against Gnosified planets in a previous timeline.

Alternately given that Deus has "living" characteristics, the major role played by a person carrying the Uzuki name in relation to this living weapon, and the very human appearance and characteristics of KOS-MOS along with the fact that KOS-MOS carries Mary Magdeline's soul (therefore KOS-MOS could be considered to be "living" as well), an argument could also be made that KOS-MOS, is the Deus of another timeline. As mentioned earlier, Eternal Recurrence has the effect of making a person re-live their life, but nothing is said of that life being relived in the same way. In Xenogears we have a man named Uzuki, who works closely with an artificial human and extension of the Deus System who takes the form of a man named Cain. Xenosaga sees the advanced weapon system code-named KOS-MOS being completed by a woman by the name of Uzuki, who subsequently works very closely with KOS-MOS. Additionally, both Deus and KOS-MOS went berserk during their initial start-ups and people died as a result, but where as Deus was a strategic weapon that destroyed a whole planet and was shelved, KOS-MOS was a tactical weapon who only destroyed her lab, and since the damage was only small scale, the Federation continued on with the project. 

While the timing of events doesn't seem to line up, with the events of Xenosaga happening in 14,767 TC and Wilhelm making his attempt to once again trigger Eternal Recurrence in 4768 TC. It can be implied that in each instance of Eternal Recurrence that the conscienceness dispersal that prompts Wilhelm to trigger Eternal Recurrence to save the universe makes gets worse and worse, and could mean that Wilhelm is having to trigger the Recurrence sooner and sooner each time. 

Xenogears could even be the "original" timeline. As we see the Wave Existence (Xenogears), a higher dimensional being got pulled into the Zohar during an experiment, and we see U-do (Xenosaga), also a higher dimension wave existence, interested in observing the Lower Domain universe that humans inhabit. It could be that U-Do's interest came about from it's complete or partial, or that of another wave existence, being pulled into Xenogear's Zohar. Additionally, one of the U-do's "observational terminals" in our Lower universe is perceived by humans as a young boy, a young boy who has a suspicious resemblance to an young Fei. This could be explained that because Fei had come in contact with the Wave Existence, that his likeness was the most familiar, or the one imprinted on to U-do and was the form that was used "later". As Recurrence doesn't affect U-do, it would still have knowledge of Fei if it was one and the same as the Wave Existence. 

Xenogears, the Gear, was one of Deus's "mobile terminals" essentially it served the same role as a fighter craft aboard a carrier. In Xenosaga, developed along side the Federation's ultimate weapon Merkaba, was the Gear like AMWS called Omega Universitas, Universitas bears a strong resemblance to Weltall with a face similar to Alpha/True Weltall. Lastly the "Weltall" is German for "universe". 

All this rolled together could be used to argue that the similarities between the two games are more than just homages and cameos, but instead are incarnations and counterparts living their lives over and over, but in a different manner, like making a different decision at the same crossroad.