Game: Xenosaga

[LaZie]

Well it's finally coming to an end (well for the U.S. anyway since it's done in Japan already). Episode 3 comes out on August 29th. I'd have to say it's sad to see such a great series go away although the team really went downhill after Episode 1. It looks like they are giving it their all for Episode 3 as it looks very well done, from trailer perspectives anyway.

Trailer Link

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?fs=1&id=2177

[masamuneehs]

finally... what a horrible trilogy to follow up (or, i guess preclude, since in the story it's supposedly before...) an excellent game.

i consider myself lucky that i managed to sell my XSaga episode 1 for almost market price ($40), and only borrowed the second from a friend. I swear to you that i won't spend a dime on the third one...

I'm still waiting for a remake of Gears

edit to below - i do believe this may be the first time i've ever agreed with mage, on anything

[mage]

It went downhill after Episode 1? Now, I never played Episode 2, but NO rpg could be worse than Episode 1! That was the most boring piece of shit game I ever played.

[Aeon]

Xenosaga 1 was awesome, I loved everything about the gameplay including the long cut scenes(I even downloaded them when they were out). KOS-MOS was so bad ass and Shion and chaos were cool characters(didn't like the other three). I liked it so much that I had ep2 pre ordered and bought it the first day and boy was I disapointed, Shion and KOS-MOS didn't even look like themselves and the fighting system was just bad. I still havent ended it :(. I'll get ep3 to complete the story but no way will I pay 50 for it.

[mage]

I hated the massive amounts of cutscenes. I really don't enjoy movie-games. Xenosaga goes on my top 10 worst games ever list.

[LaZie]

Here is another similarity between Xenogears and Xenosaga :p

http://www.labyrinthos.org/jinx/Xeno3/screenshots/images/up8_event08.jpg

Doesn't that look like Maria and Seibhzen or however u spell it?

[RyougaZell]

Xenogasa, like hack, is not for the common videogamer.
only hardcore gamers enjoy playing them, despite the bad game systems.
Story owns gameplay in both franchises.

[complich8]

Xenosaga's story presentation is hamfisted, melodramatic and poorly presented. The creators are trying to weave a too-large story around a fairly scant thread that could have made a single fairly long standalone game, and to enable them to do so they've created a convoluted universe full of too much trivia, and too many central characters to develop a real empathy with any of them. They've infused this universe with too much divergent cosmology, twisted to the convenience of the moment, and apparently without regard for an overall goal or a sense of real purpose. Not to mention the character animations and voice acting are generally cold and flat.

I can't wait for episode 3 <_<.

[Lefty]

I think these games have been a mix of good and bad, but mostly baaaaad. But I've lost my drive play video games for a while but i might bust out ep 2 to just beat it. I might buy ep 3 when its used and cheap. I want to see the original creators of zenogears come back together and finish the story with the budget it actually diserves and not get cut down to pure exposition and edited down due to budget and poor planing.

[Nai]

Have to agree with complich8. The games are just far too pretentious for their own good. If you want a good and mature story combined with excellent gameplay I suggest you look into the Shin Megami Tensei games instead. Xenosaga should have been a lengthy CG movie from the very start.

So yeah, screw the sub par gameplay and that horrific anime they made which managed to kill off absolutely everything that was good about the games without improving anything.

[Board of Command]

I'm still waiting for a remake of Gears
Or making the prequels would be nice. Too bad Square-Enix is being a dick.

[LaZie]

SquEnix has been a dick since they canceled Chrono Break :p

[LaZie]

Well this thread is way back in the pages so I thought i'd bump it up for the release of Episode 3.

As of right now, I'm playing it. The graphics and music were greatly improved and the battle systems for both character and E.S. are a lot better than its ep 2 counterpart.

[Aeon]

I'm so easily amused that I was playing with the holographic cover when the game came in. I was so amused that I almost bought it, hopefully the cover stays the same when it reaches 20.

[Paulyboy]

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=4222


Sweet music video of Xenogears (taken from cutscenes from the game), man they need to make another one no joke! Watch it from beginning to end. Song matches the music video, dont know the band though.

[mage]

Holy shit, that has to be one of the most boring AMVs ever.

[complich8]

Surprisingly enough, I agree with Mage. Who'd have thought?

Too many repeated cuts, too much left implicit, music too low-key and generally slow. It's nice that they got the tempo right (video sync on beats, etc), but ... yeah, that was pretty boring. Cut scenes were really not Xenogears's strong point, and the choice of music wasn't interesting enough by itself either.

[Paulyboy]

Of course, but its Danzig old rock. But to me its still pretty good.

[RyougaZell]

Finished Xenosaga III yesterday.

The ending was... amazing... breath taking... it managed the parallels with Xenogears exceptionally...

I want a fourth Xenosaga damn it! Oh well.

[LaZie]

Great ending for a great game. It was sad how there was no blood when he died. Now I get to wait for Okami :p

[RyougaZell]

Secret Bosses owned :D

[LaZie]

I wish there were more sidequests like in EP2. The secret bosses were cool, but E.S.Levi rapes them both :]

[shinji777]

Im on bad luck since havent played Xenosaga III yet and im just staring on Xenosaga II, can i ask some pointers on how to make a battle easy since im still having hard time on the battle system.....

[complich8]

Xenosaga 2's battle system, the important bits to be aware of are boosting, attack zones and breaking, the turn gauge, and later on elemental multipliers.

I'd go into detail, but there's a pretty comprehensive battle mechanics faq (http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/xenosaga_ep2_battle_mech.txt) that should get you up to speed pretty quickly.

Most of the earlier part of the game is pretty easy ... if you get the basic mechanics, most of the game as a whole should be pretty straightforward. If you're finding it difficult, when you get to the Dammerung and Shion's walking around alone, find a path that you can walk that gets enemies to respawn and is near a save point, level her up to about level 40-45 (should take maybe an hour, hour and a half, you'd normally leave that area about level 20-25 I think), and the rest of the plot battles will be fairly easy, 'cause all your characters will be 20 levels higher than they should be.

Also, never kill an enemy on a non-green turn if you can avoid it. Skills make a LOT of difference in the fight, and it's best to get the biggest multipliers you can on the SP you get. Nothing like walking into a fight 20 levels higher than you're supposed to be, and with a couple of tier-4 skills waiting to be whoop some ass.

[RyougaZell]

I wish there were more sidequests like in EP2. The secret bosses were cool, but E.S.Levi rapes them both :]

I was very pleased seeing the "ES Extra Boss".

The damn bastard healed over 150,000 hp in one turn... but even so I managed to kick him in my third try (the first 2 were way before ending the game)

The other secret boss was too easy after discovering its "secret".

I never killed any of the secret bosses on Xenosaga II though...

Im only missing Ziggy's secret weapon... but I am too lazy to get it... didn't finishe HaKox level 6 either.

I'll just switch to Disgaea 2 from today on. Valkyrie Profile is coming out in less than a week as well....

[LaZie]

Yeah I beat the ES Boss on my first try. It was a lot easier than E.S.Levi IMO, first tries though. I finished Disgaea 2 already with all the secrets and stuff also. Now dling Okami :]