Just done with Xenosaga Ep 1 (Spoilers and extensive gratuitous rant).

The Core Video Games Forum
1

That was a lot better than I expected, to tell you the truth. There was ONLY one nerve-wreckingly long and boring dungeon (Song of Nephilim), the battle system is a hundred times better than Xenogears, none of the moves took forever to finish their animations, the graphic part was awesome and I have very few complaints about the voice actors (It’s more about me not liking Shion, the voice fitted just fine).

I loved most of the characters. Jr. and KOS-MOS had the vest voices by far, but Ziggy, chaos and MOMO were right behind them (In no particular order). I loved chaos’ Old Wise Dude act even though I’m slightly annoyed by the fact that he tends to spurt out all sorts of obscure information and nobody asks him HOW he knows those things. For some unknown reason, MOMO’s entire Magical Girl act (All the way down to the Sailor-Moonish transformation) did not repel me in the least and I even chuckled some times and Ziggy was… well, I didn’t use him that much mainly because he was a bit too much like Rico on the fighting department (Slow and heavy), but what I saw was really cool. Shion I didn’t like so much, but I guess that was what she was supposed to be for plot reasons. Nephilim’s voice was quite lousy, sounding forced in a lot of lines.

Albedo fucking owns. The best way I can describe him is to say he’s a bishonen Kefka, but nevertheless that was the best absolute crackpot act I’ve ever seen.

Yasunori Mitsuda impressed me this time with a not completely horrible battle theme, but the fact that it’s not really noisy and can fade into the background of the fighting sounds might have helped. Still, Kokoro, Pain, Omega, Last Battle, Albedo and The Miracle were all amazing themes, nothing that toppled his previous works but I did add two new track to my favorites (Kokoro and Pain). Kudos.

I was a bit angry when I discovered that once again all but the healing/status Ethers were nearly useless in general combat, but then KOS-MOS got those three great attack Ethers and I cheered up. I still think it was a waste because the system offered so much customization capabilities it could have been used better. I didn’t really get to use all the characters, sticking with chaos, KOS-MOS and Jr. for a big chunk of the game, but I did like the fact that they all seemed very balanced (KOS-MOS included, chaos was behind her on the damage dealing just by a bit).

I would appreciated if the didn’t make me read every single explanation on the Database to understand what’s going on, but I have to give them the fact that explaining real theories and all the techno babble (Which was perfectly understandable without Googling anything, I might add) in the actual game would have taken forever. I was a bit surprised when I started getting Spam on my fictional E-Mail though, but I have to send big kudos for the E.V.S. Simulator, being such an avid hater of “One time only” opportunities to get X item, or do X side-quest (Of which admittedly, should have been a bit more). A bit disappointed with the difficulty, especially the secret bosses being pansies, but it wasn’t overly easy either.

The A.G.W.S… no. The only thing in which they are better than Gears is being able to get down from the things at will, but they were so clumsy, slow and weak that I opted from leaving my character to fight on floor and use the mechas as damage sponges for the first rounds.

I’m pretty sure someone was watching Cowboy Bebop while planning the U-TIC/Ziggy/Elsa Hyperspace battle.

Plot related: Well, there’s not much to talk since 99% of everything is basically foreshadowing (Again, chaos) but there were some interesting bits like the Proto Merkabah or Nephilim’s resemblance to Sophia. One thing I noticed in the ending: While the Elsa is entering the atmosphere, the camera switches to Nephilim, Wilheim and one brunette kid that looks a lot like the young Abel…

All in all, I liked it very much. Now to Ep 2…

2

I enjoyed this game also… I finished it at least a year or so ago, I think. :smiley: I know I missed at least one optional boss, but I don’t know if I feel like looking for a save for me to go for it.
I’m looking forward to playing the next one, but I’m waiting for a price drop first.

3

Sounds like you had pretty much the same experience I did. A warning about episode II, though: the battles are even better, but almost everything else isn’t. 8-\ A lot of the voices have changed, the story is almost entirely backstory, and while very few questions are answered, a whole lot more are asked. The music is also pretty awful. So… a lot of the stuff you liked isn’t there anymore. 8-\ Still, it’s worth one playthrough, at least.

But I should note that Albedo gets a whole lot of screen-time. :sunglasses:

4

Yeah I heard about it, I’m bracing myself for Episode II but I’ll be playing this saga until the end no matter how crappy it becomes. [STRIKE]One thing I forgot to mention: BIG KUDOS on the New Game+. Every game should come with the feature by now, but knowing I can pick it up anytime and see the story again without training is awesome. Now if only Xenogears had something like that -_-[/STRIKE] Screw you Monolith.

5

Um, neither XS1 nor XS2 have what you might call a New Game+. The save data for XS1 just gets you some very piddling rewards in XS2, and in XS2 all you get to do is post-game bonus material, you can’t restart with all your goodies. 8-\ Sorry.

6

Yeah, I just checked that. And also, one of the Ep 2 disks isn’t working. Damn, I’ll have to go change it tomorrow morning >_<

7

I wish they’d include Japanese voices as an option. I LOVED the voices in the Xenosaga anime, I’d like to keep them the same. (Although, the voices for Episode 1 were remarkably similar)

But ahh, yes, ‘tis a good game. Wish I had time to play Episode II, though :’(

8

I thought the voices in Episode I were amazing, frankly. Episode II weren’t quite as good except for the biggie (Albedo). But in any case, if I recall correctly you were the one who hates any English voice regardless of its quality.

9

Another warning about X2’s battle system: normal battles are HARD. I actually stopped the game 'cause the monsters in the second dungeon-style thing were absolutely wiping the floor with me (a shame, because I’m really into the game otherwise).

10

Seraphim Ephyon, so you liked the game? Excellent. I played Xeno I last year and your review is pretty accurate and reflects a lot how I feel about the game. You didn’t mind the long, sometimes slightly annoying cinematics?
Albedo?!!! Oh Yah! Ma peche.
Ha-ha-ha! Perfect French accent.

Cidofas, your review of Xeno II scared the hell out of me. I’ve got the game over a month ago and it’s still wrapped in the box. I don’t want to be disappointed. Does it have as much cinematics as Xeno I? I love the in game movies (FMVs) most of the time, but in Xeno case i amost fell asleep once. The funniest thing, it happened duiring a cutscene when Shion was dreaming.

11

Well… there’s a lot more gameplay than the original. There are still half-hour-long cinematics, but they’re overshadowed by the exploration and battles. And as RPT said, the normal battles are hard, although I like to use the word “challenging”. :sunglasses: Once you get your strategies right-way-up they’re not that bad.

Also, note that I gave the game a 6.5 in my review, meaning it’s not amazing, but it isn’t what I’d call a bad game.

12

From what I’ve seen (And I just got to the third savepoint in Old Miltia which is like five minutes into it), the cinematics look a lot better than before, especially the sexy design on the new mechas.

Jin’s intro was a bit ridiculous. I don’t CARE how good a swordsman you are, there is no “split in half an objective thrice the length of the sword’s range, esp. when said objective is made of reinforced metal” technique in Iajutsu and don’t think I didn’t notice his A.G.W.S. was a remade Heimdal. I’m getting used to chaos’ new voice, which sounds a bit moody and unnatural when he repeats the same clips from the previous game like “May your souls rest in peace”, but he doesn’t sound TOO bad either.

BTW, what’s the name of that… chant that you hear on the start screen? It sounded pretty good.

13

That’s not completely true. Yes, I have a bias against English voices, but that doesn’t mean I hate every english dub automatically. I think Xenosaga’s dub was quite good, actually. However, I do believe they should have included that option. Namco did it with Soul Calibur II, why not with Xenosaga?

14

Frankly, it’s often not included because there simply isn’t enough space on the DVD. FFX, for example, was completely crammed packed full. XS has WAY more voice acting than Soul Calibur did.

15

True. And I suppose they wouldn’t be all that willing to skew their profits by making two versions, eh? One with Japanese and one with English.

Besides, if I wanted the Japanese voices that bad I could import the original, right?

16

Holy CRAP, this thing is HARD. I just started in Second Miltia and I almost died already.

WHAT. DID. THEY. DO. TO. MOMO?!? Arghhhh, everyone looks a lot less expressive, but her face looks even less alive than KOS-MOS’! Not to mention she looks older and sounds like a baby on some end-battle clips…