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Philosophy, religion, existence...and video games?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It all started circa 1997, when a team at Squaresoft under the direction of Tetsuya Takahashi began a massive undertaking -- creating a game which took storytelling to a whole new level. A game that would not only redefine the genre which it was molded from, but would force the player to think philosophically - leaving an impression on them that would not go away easily, if at all. That game was Xenogears, and it broke ground in many areas where games wouldn't touch before. So much so, that the game was nearly banned from release on these shores based on some of its religious references and symbolic content. Upon release it never generated much hype from the gaming press, but instead managed to breed a fanatical cult following of hardcore gamers and anime otaku alike. Its science fiction/anime style and darker, more controversial subject matter (compared to most RPGs of the time) made for an interesting game - despite the fact it was blatantly rushed out the door by Squaresoft and it showed horribly in some of the gameplay sequences. Despite this, demand for a sequel was strong. And for years, the fans waited. And waited. And waited.

Enter 2002. Xenosaga finally hits our shores after a year-long hiatus in Namco's localization department...and not a moment too soon. And instead of spending the entire review spoiling the game or debating plot points which infer (or deny) a direct connection with the Xenogears universe, I'd much prefer to focus on the style and gameplay of the game - both of which are unique, especially to those not familiar with Xenogears.

First of all, I would like to confirm something that's been passed around the gaming press for quite some time - the majority of the time you spend experiencing Xenosaga will be watching the events unfold, rather than playing through them. However, it's no more noticeable than in Final Fantasy X, where a cutscene stopped the game before and after any major scene. Xenosaga's cutscenes ARE longer, but they tend to be very interesting and well worth watching. There's also an option to skip them entirely and progress on to the gameplay sections - which is not recommended the first time through the game...besides not knowing what to do next, you'll miss out on the single most incredible aspect of Xenosaga - the storyline. The story of this game plays out naturally...it doesn't feel like the script had been read, reread, and edited by 30 people before the final sequence of events was decided on. It's arguably much less complex than the story of Xenogears but still manages the same kind of "awe factor" that made Xenogears stand out so much from the other Japanese console RPGs on the market in the late 1990's. You'll find yourself often gaping in awe and thinking, "they put THAT in a game?"...yep, they did.

The religious references in Xenosaga are used more as "shock value" symbolism than as major plot points, as they were a much larger focus in Xenogears. The characters are fleshed out just as much as you would hope they would be...I don't want to go into any details about most of them, because that would ruin the game for you. But I will say that they seem just as "real" as those in Square's games - despite their anime-style appearances.

The battle system takes a lot from that of Xenogears. You can attack twice in a turn, cast a spell, guard, use an item, etc. The key is that each action takes a certain amount of AP (or "Action Points"), and if you save up enough of them you can unleash serious hell on the opposition or give some much needed aid to your ailing party members. The system takes a little getting used to, but the variety of attacks and different methods of fighting the enemies makes the game much more interesting than most RPGs. Boss battles are long and difficult, made moreso if you are not familiar with the fact that having certain protection equipped on your characters usually means the difference between life and death. You WILL die at least once in the game. Guaranteed.

The process of character buildup has been improved and become slightly more complicated at the same time. You earn three types of points (aside from EXP that raises levels) from participating in battles. Tech points raise your Tech Attack ("Deathblow" for those familiar with Xenogears) skill power,
speed, and recovery. Power increases damage done, a speed increase allows you to perform a tech attack after only one normal attack (rather than having to "charge up" your Action Points for a turn), and a recovery increase will decrease the "lag time" between the given character's next turn after using the specified Tech Attack. Tech points can also be used to raise character stats like HP, Ether Attack, Ether Defense, Evade, etc. Skill points let you extract various skills from the accessories you pick up - the best thing about doing this is that most skills give the same abilities as the accessories they're extracted from. Therefore, you can (in theory) extract an 1/2 EP consumption skill from an Angel Ring (which decreases EP consumption by half when worn), and then also wear that Angel Ring in battle, meaning that your total EP costs will be 1/4 of what they were without either the Angel Ring or the skill equipped. You can equip up to 3 Skills and 3 Accessories (armor is included in the Accessories category). Ether points give you access to new Ether attacks (magic spells for those new to the Xeno-world). They are learned in a sphere-grid-like tree system, where you have to learn the lower level techs before the high ones (you can't just save for the most powerful techs without spending points on the lower *sometimes useless* ones). One of the coolest parts about the Ether system is the ability to TRANSFER SPELLS TO OTHER CHARACTERS. Kos-Mos needs a healing ability? Just transfer over Ziggy's Recharge skill, or even Shion's Medica-All. It only costs you half of the original cost to learn the spell, and the customization options are endless. One beef I have about the Battle System is the lack of enemies that give up money when you kill them (non-human enemies don't drop money) which is realistic but a bit annoying, particularly later in the game when you want to buy a new Gear...er...A.G.W.S. unit. Oh, and one more thing - no more random battles! Every enemy is visible on screen, so you can choose whether to engage them or try to avoid them, a luxury seen in very few modern RPGs, but a much-appreciated one nonetheless.

The dungeons and "world maps" are much more thought out than those in Xenogears. Anyone who's played Xenogears remembers the anguish of hours spent wandering through dungeon after dungeon where every room is the same or similar, struggling for hours to find a save point just so you could shut off the game and get on with life for a little while. Those days are over, and it's about time. The dungeons (with the exception of the ANNOYINGLY hard Song of Nephilim) are well put-together and the areas differ enough from one another that it's difficult to get lost. There is also a more gratuitous amount of save points spread out among the areas this time around.

Yasunori Mitsuda composed the music for the game and it's very well done - what little there is of it. For some reason, the only scenes with music are cutscenes and also what I like to call "danger zone" scenes, where you're trying to escape from a place which is generally overrun with a massive amount of enemies. Oh, and ironically - the theme that plays during these "danger zone" scenes also happens to be my least favorite tune in the game. I do wish that a few more themes (for things like boss battles, the Kukai Foundation, and the Elsa) would have been composed, because they could have added a lot to a game which is already stellar. It should be noted that the music was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and is of the highest quality yet heard in a video game - so perhaps the reasoning behind the lack of music is the old "quality over quantity" cliche... There are also two "vocal" themes that appear in Xenosaga, both sung by Joanne Hogg. These are extremely well done and make the ending of the game that much more gripping.

Now for the most controversial part of the review...the voice acting. As a student of the Japanese language for a little over two years, I too was dismayed at hearing that there would be no Japanese voice option. More annoying still was the fact that the subtitles during the cutscenes could not be turned off. HOWEVER - a few hours into the game, the voices grew on me. Shion, Albedo, MOMO, and Jr. stand out in my mind as doing an incredible job with their characters, and it's refreshing to know that there are actors out there who take game voicing jobs seriously. A bad voice on a main character in a game like Xenosaga or FFX could tarnish the entire experience, easily. That doesn't happen here. Kos-Mos sounds a little older than she probably should sound (I think she sounds more like a young girl in the Japanese version), but once you get used to it, it's really not that bad. Kudos to the localization team and the actors, thank you for bringing this game to life for a new audience.

There are a few issues with censorship that have been widely covered in the gaming press. I won't describe the scenes because it ruins one of the most powerful moments in the game, but I will say that the changes were for the best, and were made only to preserve the "T" rating. They didn't take anything remotely important out of the story, contrary to what you may hear.

As for extras? There are four completely-optional minigames and two optional bosses to hold interest in the game after beating it...I haven't played many of the minigames at length but a lot of people swear by them - and one thing I can say for certain that they are much more polished than the ones found in most Square RPGs, and much better than the few present in Xenogears as well. The player isn't rewarded very well for excelling at them, though, and no real excuse to play them aside from being curious or bored. I wish they would have integrated more of them into the storyline, like they did with the Xenogears Battle Arena (which makes a comeback in Saga).

The most important point to make about Xenosaga is that most of the gameplay issues with Xenogears have indeed been addressed, and the result is a product that feels both more polished and less "over-done" than a game like Final Fantasy X at the same time. It's got an engrossing story, memorable characters, and an ending that will make you cry out for more. Now if only we didn't have to wait another 1.5+ years for the sequel...

XenoSaga is easily one of the best RPGs out there

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hmm... where to begin? Basically, it's a nicely done RPG with relatively long cinematic sequences. I say relatively long because other adjectives tend to categorize it as a negative, which it's not. I highly enjoyed the cinematics and especially the ending. =]

First off, the gameplay is very solid. While some may complain there are few areas to explore compared to other games, I disagree. The creators were very ingenious when writing out the story as every place in the game is visited much more often than with other games, hence becoming quite memorable. The areas themselves are made much better than other RPGs. Instead of simply walking through a maze with monsters, the explorable areas are filled with puzzles, which aren't stupid and tedious as it usually turns out to be, and various little interactive elements that add to the overall atmosphere.

Battles are another strong point (does it even have a weak point? =] ), instead of easily killed creatures undeserving of your wrath, it's actually very possible to die in regular battles. With the features included in the battles, you gotta make every turn count and it becomes fairly strategic as RPGs go. It's also great how the damage/hit points have been reduced to the hundreds and early thousands. I think it's really getting ridiculous how in Final Fantasy X damages were going 20,000+... There's just really no point in that? ADD ON: Characters are also highly customizable, but not to a point where in the end there's no difference between one and another (again i.e. FFX).

The cinematics are very well done. Camera angles are practically flawless if not perfect. The story unveils like a book. Very nice plot and underlying mysteries. This first episode feels a lot like one book of the Star Wars New Jedi Order books. While it isn't the whole story the portion has enough in it to make the ending seem like a landmark in the tale. The only complaint I have is the dub. This isn't because the dub is bad. I'd say this is comparable to your general anime dub if not better. I'm just not much of a dub person. =]

In addition to the regular stuff, there's of course several mini games you can play. These are VERY GOOD. I can honestly say XenoCards accounted for 25-35% of my total game time. Super super cool, especially when compared to FFX's rather lackluster side quests (I couldn't stand the cactar in the desert..., nor finding 10 of some monster to catch when they appear really rarely).

Finally, there's also some secrets in the game. One big thing that makes this RPG different from the rest is that they're actually doable without a guide! I mean, I'd like to see someone figure out all the side quests in FFX by themselves in under 1000 hours. -_- That's also very cool.

In conclusion, I believe XenoSaga is a refreshing experience for those tired of the generic dregs that the RPG genre have begun to develop. I've played every Final Fantasy from 6(3 in US) up and it does get a little old; this game should prove very different and very fun.

Final Note: Mahou shoujo MOMO is super kawaii! =]

One Epic game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game has an extremely engrossing story that involves a great amount of biblical and theological references. There is also so much detail in character development, we see why characters are the way they are, what events led them to walk the path they did. The graphics are anime style but are so smooth and look great. This review is short, but if you are very much satisfied by an in depth, well written, epic storyline with excellent character development, xenosaga must be given a chance by you. Although episode 2 does stumble and seems to step back a notch in story, the whole series, Episode 1-3, is of the most unique gaming experiences out there. Highly recommended!!

An exercise in mediocrity.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Over the years, the bar for RPGs has been raised and raised and raised, to the point where only a few RPGs could meet the high standards and everything else merely slid under. Unfortunately, Xenosaga is one of those that slid under.

Xenosaga almost isn't really a game in its true right; rather, it's a movie with RPG elements sprinkled in to catch you off-guard after those hours-long cutscenes. I cannot possibly downgrade the story, because it is exceptional and worth playing Xenosaga for alone. This is fortunate, because if Xenosaga did not possess a good story, then it would be a dreadful trainwreck to play.

The gameplay of this game is laughable and the only reason I tolerated it throughout the game is because I wanted to get the dungeons and battles over with so I could be treated with more story. I would've been quite content to merely sit down and watch eight hours of cutscene; however, they had to contaminate this experience with musicless dungeons where all the rooms look nearly the same, and identical, monotonous battles where you must watch everything closely even though your party's power is more than sufficient enough to dispatch the creatures. More often then not, your efforts for a five-minute long normal battle are rewarded with a meager helping of experience points and even fewer points that can be used to upgrade your characters' techniques, skills, and magic.

They tried to counter the boring battle system with interesting elements: namely the Boost system and the slot system where the effects of whoever's turn it is can be changed to do anything from increasing critical hit rate (which is already ridiculously high, I might add) to providing additional tech/ether/skill points at the end of battle if an enemy is defeated in that turn. Unfortunately, your enemies can also take advantage of both systems, and they work for your detriment rather than your benefit most of the time. The Boost system is chronically and systematically abused by the enemy, as they can boost nearly any time they wish through use of a Counter Boost (of which you rarely see on YOUR side and only through certain accessories) which holds precedence over regular boost (so even if one of your characters is boosted, the enemy performing the counter boost will bump in front of them). Even if the enemy does not counter boost, then it takes very, very little for them to increase their boost gauge (assuming they even have one - with how often I was getting boosts performed against me, I wouldn't be surprised if they could literally boost whenever they pleased). Even at an above-average level and with the boost and slot systems working on my side, enemies still took a ridiculous amount of time to defeat and the sparse spoils rewarded were hardly worth battling for.

Horribly-paced battle system aside, the dungeons were excruciatingly painful to play through. To my knowledge, maybe two dungeons in the game had background music, which took a lot of the already-near nonexistent fun out of the game. However, most of the dungeons were blissfully short, with the last few dungeons as exceptions to this.

Speaking of the music, I was sorely disappointed by it. Never once did I find myself humming a theme for the sake of humming it, and - perhaps the most depressing of all - the only music I found myself enjoying was the game over music. The fact that the music was played by the London Symphony Orchestra only irked me more; their talent was wasted on music that was extremely difficult to remember and even harder to enjoy. It left me wondering, how could an incredibly composer like Mitsuda fail so fantastically?

The voice acting was a mixed bag in the truest sense of the phrase; there were times when I was convinced that KOS-MOS was a robot and Shion was a top-notch scientist and Allen was a sidekick there for comedic relief (actually, you never really get unconvinced of that); yet there were others where I wanted to punch any given character in the face because the dialogue was so corny and poorly constructed and executed. Most of the game's voice acting ranges from horrible (Ziggy and Albedo) to average (chaos and Shion) to pretty good (most of the original Elsa crew and Allen), but for such an epic game, it doesn't hold a candle to the voice acting of games like Thief, Metal Gear Solid, and Eternal Darkness. It wasn't as bad as Resident Evil or Dynasty Warriors voice acting, however. I can at least give them credit for not being THAT bad.

So, after all that's mediocre in the game, what's good, you say? The story. I would recommend this game to anyone purely on the story alone. It's innovative and original, and it's very deep without trying to be (Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Cross, anyone?). You'll be scrambling to get through dungeons and menial fetch quests just to get more of that wonderful storyline. The characters are very well characterized, and by the end of the game, you'll more than likely be sympathizing with almost all of them. In a world of RPGs with fantastic graphics but lacking stories (not because they're not trying, poor dears, but because they're really just not that good), Xenosaga definitely blows most of them out of the water.

All in all, this game doesn't quite live up to its expectations. Even the time spent playing it won't live up. With the completion of side quests and time spent playing mini-games and never once skipping a cutscene, this game took me a meager twenty-five hours to complete - a far cry from the original seventy hours promised. However, I do not think that most of my twenty-five hours were wasted: the storyline was good enough for me to sit back and say, "Hey...that [wasn't] really [bad] at all." when I finished the game.

hmmmmm im not quite sure

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: June 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Anybody who plays this and has never played xenogears it's a lot better. unfourtionitly i played xenogears first and it's just not up to fei and elly's standards. First of all it's extremely short, also it's characters are sub-par, and 1 huge problem is it's missing something very important...a love story. Sure there is the creepy relationship between Jr and Momo, but that's just not good enough. If you already played Xenogears please dont compare them that totally will ruin it. fei is would be spinning his grave (if he was dead..hehe).

one of the best rpg's on playstation2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hello
I have played almost every rpg made from the early days of PC games like ultima and etc. This game is a very worthy addition to the rpg lineup. The game has almost no FMV sequences but it basically is one continuous interlude. The graphics for the cutscenes are just not done in the Final Fantasy style FMV but instead are done in the standard game graphics. This is not a bad thing in fact it's perfectly fine. The graphics on this game are top notch rpg type graphics. They stand up to anything else out there. It also DOES NOT have any Freezing Problems. I and my friends have several copies together and none of them freeze at all, or have any other problems. If a game freezes it is probably dut to damaged disks or dirth playstation laser's most certainly not the game code. Anyway the game's plot is very compelling if a little strange and the characters are top notch. Of course I love KOSMOS best but actually it's quite fun to run around with Chaos in a bathing suit later on in the game. It is one of those sequal type games where the stroy doesn't actually wrap up until the other games in the series are over. Also as far as difficulty goes if your scared about it being too hard if you have ever played a Final Fantasy then you shouldn't have any problem at all. It's pretty easy actually.
All and all I think it's a classic.

Not your normal RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I picked up this game I was a little aprehensive about the strong anime elements. I have never been into big eyes and small noses. Only the recomendations of others and the local game shop store clerk helped me overcome my fears.
So I popped in the disc, and completly lost track of time. The graphics are great (only beaten by FFX), the story... WOW! What a story! This is what an RPG should be!
Some people have complained about the length of the cut-scenes. I have never found them to be a problem, in fact I look forward to them. I play a game to be entertained. Some people like hacking and slashing.. I like to be part of a great story, and with Xenosaga I am part in a great one.
My advice to anyone considering this game is to pick it up. I am thankful for every moment I have to play this game. Pick it up, you won't be sorry!

Better than it looks, and that's saying something

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Dur wille zur macht is the first chapter in what could be a truly massive RPG epic...It has great ideas in all the right places. The battle system is more fast paced than many other RPG's, the story takes a massive role in the entire proggresion of the game, and the graphics, espescially that of the gnosis aliens, are simply jaw dropping. Anyone who trys to tell you this is "just another final fantasy game" couldn't tell the difference between an appple and a banana...first off, this game has plot, decent plot. The battle system is awesome, and I can only hope they keep it. It's long, one very lengthy quest indeed. The characters have CHARACTER, even KOS-MOS, a mindless robot anti gnosis weapon...I personally hope this series only gets better, because as it is, only one game I have played even compares to it's complex but devastatingly effective sci fi, horor, religious based nature. And no, it's NOT final fantasy, I can assure you we have all had more than enough of those for a generation...

Where's the other cd?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When the game "ended" at 42 hours I sat there dumbfounded. This is the worst ending for a rpg I've ever seen. I've played all the FF games, Star Ocean, and Suikoden 1 and 2, so I expected Xenosaga to have as good an ending, yet it only left me with questions:
Hey, where's the other cd? I only played it for 42 hours and it said there was over 80 hours of play.
Why did it stop right here? The ending was abrupt, not revealing any of the "secrets" that the characters were holding.
I was just left with a "to be continuted" sign on my screen.

That being said, I enjoyed the game up until that point. I chose to power up only the gals and took them all the way through to the end. Maybe I'll replay the game and have three of the male characters play.
The one exception to liking the game was this demented character who had a demonic laugh and liked to fondle and kill little girls. I don't think having this in the game added anything to it, it just creeped me out. It concerns me because I know that 9 year olds play teen games and that segment should only be for adults (as an adult, I didn't want it at all).
As a personal aside - the character Allen was too whimpy. Yuck.

RPG to grace the PS2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 32
Date: January 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In short to all who wonder what is xenogears..IT IS A PREQUEL BUT It is so far back in the whole story I think Xenogears is around chapter 6 or 7, while this is chapter one. Expect to see some minor details that will make it seam like they are connected. Even thought its a prequel As far as I heard its not linked to Xenogears. I advise anyone who is a die hard RPG fan to buy and play this game. BUT if you are needing a background on this Play Xenogears from the PS1. There are ALOT of hidden meanings in the games so beware and Keep your mind open to everything. Any parent who is worried don't be. This game will make you think more then you may wish but I tend to like games that make me think....see yas

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