Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra Reactions

[Necronopticous]

Gamestop was a day late getting my copy in due to a "routing error," so I've been playing ever since I was able to pick it up. Just recently hit disc 2 and I am loving every second of the game so far, as per usual with the Xenosaga series.

I could pretty much watch KOS-MOS and T-ELOS beat each other up every second of every day for the rest of my life and die happy.

Anyone playing? played? thoughts? The usual.

[MecaKane]

I got it today and just started playing. It already seems a lot better than the second one. I don't like how you have to press circle to make the text go especially with the ammount of stuff there's bound to be. I HATED that in Xenogears. I just like to relax an watch when the big long secenes come on.

[Necronopticous]

I agree about the pressing O thing, mainly because it hacks up the continuity of the way the voice acting sounds if you don't press it right. There is too much dialogue and story scenes to put them all into nice fully animated scenes, but they should have just made it so you didn't have to press anything. We've got the start + triangle skip feature anyway. I guess this was to counter all the criticism about the lengthy scenes, so someone can just read through it without actually listening to all the dialogue spoken. I've gotten used to it, but I could definitely do without.

[Rostum]

I really want to get this, but not exactly sure when Australia gets it. I heard sometime around Christmas. <3

[Markus. D]

Xenosage 2 is sooooooooo awesome

Im currently in the thoughts of MOMO.

number 3, play?, certainly.

[Ryushikaze]

I got it today and just started playing. It already seems a lot better than the second one. I don't like how you have to press circle to make the text go especially with the ammount of stuff there's bound to be. I HATED that in Xenogears. I just like to relax an watch when the big long secenes come on.


I agree about the pressing O thing, mainly because it hacks up the continuity of the way the voice acting sounds if you don't press it right. There is too much dialogue and story scenes to put them all into nice fully animated scenes, but they should have just made it so you didn't have to press anything. We've got the start + triangle skip feature anyway. I guess this was to counter all the criticism about the lengthy scenes, so someone can just read through it without actually listening to all the dialogue spoken. I've gotten used to it, but I could definitely do without.

Hit select. Trust me.

And I like it. Though I'm irked that the Zeb doesn't have Ether capabilities any more, everything ELSE about ES combat makes me happy.

[Orophin]

I don't like how you have to press circle to make the text go especially with the ammount of stuff there's bound to be. I HATED that in Xenogears. I just like to relax an watch when the big long secenes come on.

lol, just hit select and the text boxes will change every time the character will stop talking. :p

[Ouch!]

I went right after school to get it on the release date. Which was the shipping date. So I did the same thing again the next day. So far, it's rocking hard.

I'm liking the battle system, and the customization of characters is quickly becoming enjoyable. Throwing Ziggy in with the blocker skill set and tossing up heat makes the battles much easier. On top of that, I find that MOMO is finally relatively useful to me.

The E.S. combat is so much better, too. E.S. Reuben is so freakin' awesome.

[Germ Hamee]

Boy, am I bummed. I hadn't finished XS:II yet, but I was right in the end so I figured I could beat it and head straight into XS:III. -.- My memory slot is gone. Wah, I have to start all over. I didn't find this out until after getting III.

I'm glad to hear everyone's enjoying it, though. So far, I've mostly heard about the battle system. How is the plot doing so far?

[ff7+ff10 gurl 100]

I seriously want to get this game. The only things stopping me are:

1. I have no money.

and

2. The local GameStop doesnt have Xenosaga Episode 2 and I want to play that first.

>.< I hope I can have both by Christmas. Then I'll be a happy camper :bigsmile:

[Ouch!]

The Red Testament is Kevin. I so called that.

[edczxcvbnm]

Xenosaga II sucked so much that I will either wait till this game plummets in price or wait until I have a 100% free weekend and rent the game.

[Ultima Shadow]

Don't have the game yet, but I'll be sure to get it soon.

Just one question though... are the voice actors the same as in Xenosaga 1 or 2?

I really didn't like KOS-MOS's voice in Xenosaga 2. It was much better in Xenosaga 1. But yeah... how are the voices in Xenosaga 3?

[Orophin]

Don't have the game yet, but I'll be sure to get it soon.

Just one question though... are the voice actors the same as in Xenosaga 1 or 2?

I really didn't like KOS-MOS's voice in Xenosaga 2. It was much better in Xenosaga 1. But yeah... how are the voices in Xenosaga 3?

KOS-MOS : Episode I voice (YEAH!)
Shion : Episode I voice
Ziggy : Same as I & II
Jr. : Same as I & II
Chaos : Episode II....
Jin : Same as episode II... I think
MOMO : Same as Episode II

[Erdrick Holmes]

I doubt I'll ever play this since it has tons of story and it's kind of confusing. I neverl iked the battle system of the first game and I heard the second one's more annoying. Plus I really don't like the fact that I'll be spending more time watching the game then actually playing it.

[Shoeberto]

I doubt I'll ever play this since it has tons of story and it's kind of confusing. I neverl iked the battle system of the first game and I heard the second one's more annoying. Plus I really don't like the fact that I'll be spending more time watching the game then actually playing it.
But I thought you liked Metal Gear Solid?

[Ultima Shadow]

KOS-MOS : Episode I voice (YEAH!)

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!! :hyper:

[Erdrick Holmes]

I doubt I'll ever play this since it has tons of story and it's kind of confusing. I neverl iked the battle system of the first game and I heard the second one's more annoying. Plus I really don't like the fact that I'll be spending more time watching the game then actually playing it.
But I thought you liked Metal Gear Solid?

Damn, he's got me there.

Still I don't like Xenosaga. The battle system's too tedius and the plots too confusing.

[Ouch!]

The plot is much easier to follow if you keep up with the additions to the database. It's perhaps the most useful thing I've ever seen in a video game.

The battle system also kicks ass. It's so much better than it was in I and II. I know even regular fights in Episode II could take several minutes, but the longest regular fight I've had lasted maybe only three minutes, and bosses don't take 20-30 minutes to kill anymore. I've also finished fights off in under half a minute. My lowest is 19 seconds. I wouldn't call that tedious.

[MecaKane]

I got it today and just started playing. It already seems a lot better than the second one. I don't like how you have to press circle to make the text go especially with the ammount of stuff there's bound to be. I HATED that in Xenogears. I just like to relax an watch when the big long secenes come on.


I agree about the pressing O thing, mainly because it hacks up the continuity of the way the voice acting sounds if you don't press it right. There is too much dialogue and story scenes to put them all into nice fully animated scenes, but they should have just made it so you didn't have to press anything. We've got the start + triangle skip feature anyway. I guess this was to counter all the criticism about the lengthy scenes, so someone can just read through it without actually listening to all the dialogue spoken. I've gotten used to it, but I could definitely do without.

Hit select. Trust me.

OH THANK YOU JESUS.



Still I don't like Xenosaga. The battle system's too tedius
But I thought you liked Dragon Quest?

[LunarWeaver]

I just finished it today. Completely amazing! My favorite of the three altogether. The battle system is simpler but that actually works in this game's favor. The E.S. battles were also fun for once instead of ridiculous.

I'm happy with the way things wrapped up... However...


Allen didn't die like I've predicted since Episode I, and chaos and Wilhelm never had a big throwdown like I thought they would. Oh well... The end remained sad and happy at the same time. And it even left room for a sequel if they ever feel like it =D

[Markus. D]

yeah... the E.S. battle reallllly suck.

I was so glad to hop out of the E.S thingy and go "wow, this game isnt as crap as it first stated".

MOMO kinda dominated the first Major boss she was in (she was really the only one doing damage, and she wasnt getting the major attacks because of the "dont harm her thing" and only getting minutely damaged by the AoE attacks"

and....... I LOVE THIS GAME ^-^!

some of the voice-overing really really sucks.... like, Tuskies voice didnt suit gunner/pally wannabe Rubedo. cept in the serious parts.

Rubedo is so awesome ^-^!


zomg... Albedo is the greatest villian ever!




<3

:3

[Erdrick Holmes]

But I thought you liked Dragon Quest?

I did, but the battles in Dragon Quest don't require you to sit through turns in combat just so you can do special attacks or cycle through more menus tan you actually need.

[Markus. D]

......... Rubedo! :D

[farplaner]

Oh, for a second there I thought Xenosaga had resurrected Richard Strauss.

[Kefka_Almighty]

The Red Testament is Kevin. I so called that.

No offense, but I'm fairly certain that most of the fans had called that.

Either way, Episode III is easily best of the series, and it makes me sad and irritated that there probably aren't going to be any other games in the series after it. While there is the possibility, which they allude to slightly at the end, I really don't think they will unless the game sells well enough to appease Namco Bandai, which it probably won't. :P

[Forsaken Lover]

All the Testaments' identities were revealed in a pre-release trailer. And I thought the White Testament was Sergeant Swaine.

Anywho, EP1 is still my favorite. It looked better, lacked the editting, a PERFECT voice-cast while EPIII had failings such as some poor dialogue and voice-actors. I also liked Shion more in Episode 1 'cause she was sexy-cute and the anime-style was so much better with her having a slim waist and a big fanny. Albedo was actually "evil" in Episode 1 and you got a decent look at every character. EPIII is a small way behind it but EP1 is still my favorite.

EP1 gets points for a good soundtrack and voice-acting and story and battle system and Voyager.

[Khaotic]

Beat it 2 days ago, along with the "optional bosses", overall i'd give it a 9/10, though I wish the ultimate weapons had alittle more "oomph" to them and were slightly harder to obtain.

[Ouch!]

The Red Testament is Kevin. I so called that.

No offense, but I'm fairly certain that most of the fans had called that.
Of course they did, it was pretty obvious. =P

I finished the game a couple days back, and now I'm on my second playthrough. The ending disappointed me a little, but I can't say that I didn't expect it to be so completely open-ended.

[edczxcvbnm]

http://edczxcvbnm.livejournal.com/2295.html

Those are my thoughts on Xenosaga Episode IV so far. It is painfully obvious that they cancelled the real Xenosaga III.

[MecaKane]

Yeah, I was kind of put off by the fact that a couple of things happened that you could read about in the database that didn't actually happen.
But then I read it all, and it was really like a couple of things that weren't that important over-all or were revealed during the story.

[LunarWeaver]

Hmm some of that I do agree with. But I thought the battle system was rather good... And I don't mind the Dialogue Box scenes, because it's better than cutting it all out due to time like they did in Episode II. With staff members leaving, this being the final one, and only so much time to make it... I still cannot believe they found a way to string everything together in a believable manner while answering everything (ha, well most things) that needed to be.

Unfortunately, the Japanese website got a flash series called A Missing Year, and that explains what Shion was doing prior to Episode III. So they got to actually watch a mini-series concerning Grimoire and Lemageton, and we got stuck reading it in the database. The English website got a whole lot of nothing.

It wasn't a big deal to me though. Later on, all those plot points really aren't that important. It sort of drops off and starts to answer Episode I and II questions.

I love cutscenes, so the beginning did not bother me at all, but for the first 4 hours you do really fight like 8 times :eyebrow: And then after that the pacing becomes much better. I guess they just couldn't get the start packed in with enough playing parts.

[Rostum]

Well, Australian websites have stated with 29th of September, or 15th of October release. I can't wait though. :(

Must. Have. Xenosaga. III.

[edczxcvbnm]

I admit I have not gotten all the way through the game yet so some aspects will improve or get worse for me. This is the close to half way point impressions.

I don't mind the dialog boxes either because they do get the story in there but I think I mentioned that I was probably just spoiled by Xenosaga one. My big grip though is the non-cinematic way they present most of the scenes with a static camera and stock animations in the background. They don't always do it like when Margulis is talking to the head of Ormus but from what I have seen...that is the exception instead of the rule.

ES battles are awesome so far but I will see how it all pans out in the end.

I heard that they were going to be doing those Website cutscene things in english soon as well...or at least subtitled. Don't know when though and stuff.

[LunarWeaver]

By the end of the game I enjoyed E.S. battles even more than characters battles. It's about damn time, they were freakin' horrible in Episode II and the mechs were useless in Episode I.

I heard the English site is going to get some Missing Year stuff as well... I hope it's soon.

And for the most dialogue box scenes the camera really is just static and sitting there =/ I guess they made up for that by making the camera shake non-stop in the actual cutscenes.

[Shion Strife]

xenosaga has the greatest story ever thought up!!!!!!!:D

sure its confusing but its so worth it in the end....its so much more than just a game...its an experience:rolleyes2

[Shadowdust]

It was a nice game overall. I did feel like things were very much rushed over towards the end of the game though. Before and after the final battle, there was just too much information to absorb, not to mention not enough explanation of this information. Though the database helps, it doesn't help enough.

I'm almost finished with my second time through the game and feel I understand things a little better but there are still many questions that need to be answered. Of course, I can't help but blame most of this on Episode II since things that were supposed to happen in that game end up happening in Episode III. Plus, like ed said, it feels like we missed an entire episode.

Despite these faults, it is my second favorite game in the trilogy. The battles are fun yet challenging (assuming you don't bother with Heaven's Door and Erde Kaiser Sigma). The ES battles are much closer to the way they should've been from the beginning. My only beef is the lack of Ether attacks while using the ES's. For once, I actually enjoyed the in-game music as well. It wasn't obnoxious like Episode II.

Overall, I'm happy with the game and welcome it as a finish to the story. Of course, I certainly wouldn't be bothered if they decided to continue the story with a different story arc.

[NeoCracker]

I'm loving every moment of this game. Just saw the face of Heinline. To be honest I Never watched the trailer and predicted that
Kevin was going to be heinline

[Carl the Llama]

As much as id love to be able to review this game it isnt possible as the bas***ds didnt release ANY of the series over in Europe its slightly not possible

[edczxcvbnm]

I have now just finished the game and I was happy with how everything resolved in the end.

Now for my dissappointments. Ziggy and Chaos never really have everything fully explained.

Ziggy and his past with Voyager are touch on but they didn't really explore it and how things went down. I hoped for more of his back story.

Chaos and Wilhelm...they never really explain what they are. It seems like at some point they were human but they don't really go into anything and then the game just kind of ends.

Overall it was quite the awesome game and everything gets wrapped up as nice as can be. But with how things go down it is obviously open ended but I doubt any of the cast will return except for a few if they do make a sequel.

Great game. 1 trillion times better than that /xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gifty game they call Xenosaga II. Now all they have to do is bring over Xenosaga DS and I will be super satified.

[Necronopticous]

I doubt any of the cast will return except for a few if they do make a sequel.The originally planned episodes 4, 5, and 6 were going to have all new characters. It is my understanding that the second half of the six-part series was going to be years, maybe centuries after the events of Shion and co.

I hope that sometime in the future we will see more from the Xenosaga universe. That would make me happy.

[Rostum]

As much as id love to be able to review this game it isnt possible as the bas***ds didnt release ANY of the series over in Europe its slightly not possible

Actually, Xenosaga II was released in PAL format for Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It also came with a 7-8 hour movie that explains what happanes in the first game.

[Markus. D]

does number 3 relieve some of the character battle imbalances that number 2 had?

[LunarWeaver]

Ziggy and his past with Voyager are touch on but they didn't really explore it and how things went down. I hoped for more of his back story.

Yeah, poor Ziggy :( All he got was Pied Piper on the cell phone of all things. He got the short stick big time. His story is actually so interesting too... what a gipped fellow he is.


Chaos and Wilhelm...they never really explain what they are. It seems like at some point they were human but they don't really go into anything and then the game just kind of ends.

chaos has existed since forever as a "failsafe". He literally is "chaos" so to speak. He's the universe's self-destruct button. The database says he may exist because humans themselves want him to exist. When human's destructive nature fills the universe and our destructive consciousness goes into overload, chaos will expunge everything and start it anew. Essentially, this would leave us with order.

chaos didn't want to see that happen, so Mary, or Order, split his power up so that he would never activate. When she did that she lost her body and was sent to the Unus-Mundus.

He basically does live up to his real name Yeshua as being "Jesus". I've been told the Gnostic Christian idea of Jesus is different, to the point it was more of an idea a group carried and not one person. Jesus will end humanity and make us all go to heaven or whatever, so I guess that's his job.

But they show during the flashbacks chaos and Mary listening to a man that looks just like Jesus, which could be chalked up to a different take on the idea of Jesus, but that is still rather confusing to see. And many other things; things that hint he and Mary were a couple and that he died or something something.

I quite agree he was left far too ambiguous. They explained him like 60% of the way and then stopped and just left it a mystery. What the fuck :eyebrow:

Wilhelm I cannot even begin to grasp. He seems similar to Order and chaos...He seems like a tool of the universe. As he said, eternal recurrence is "his job". He reverses time over and over and over to forever stop our universe's destruction and all, and in the database it says conscioussness can still change during this loop and that may be "what he was waiting for all along."

In my opinion, he was reversing time until Shion chose the future (or Allen) instead of the past (Kevin basically).

The problem (or best thing, depending on the person) is that they left so much to personal interpretation. What exactly IS Wilhelm and chaos indeed, eh? Some straight up pure explanation would have been nice too :jess:

Not to say you didn't know all that already... I'm not explaining or something. I'm just...rambling. I get like that with Xenosaga :laugh:

But long and unnecessarily humongous post short: yeah, what the hell Bamco. Explain some things.


The originally planned episodes 4, 5, and 6 were going to have all new characters. It is my understanding that the second half of the six-part series was going to be years, maybe centuries after the events of Shion and co

I did hear this as well. Which, OK, I'm dropping "I heard" sentences :lol:, but just saying. I heard that Shion's story arc would be the first half and then a new one would begin much later, possibly thousands of years later. I also heard only KOS-MOS and chaos would carry over through the entire thing. I really hope they continue it =/ I love this series.

Though to be honest, I wouldn't even want Takahashi directing it if they continued it. He'd just go overbudget on the first Episode and then leave/get fired and in his absence make Episode II,er well, not entirely bad but just...half-assed. Episode II is like putting in disc 2 of Xenogears, except I had to repay 50 dollars for it.

The team apparently knows what the hell they're doing with Episode III finally, so I would much rather they carry it on themselves at this point.


does number 3 relieve some of the character battle imbalances that number 2 had?

It is the most balanced of the three but still not perfectly balanced. There are some characters that are stronger than others, but I have used them all extensively and found you will be alright with any of them if you do the proper Skill Line. Hell I used Shion, chaos, and Jr. my first time, not exactly the perfect team by any means, and I was fine the entire game.

Each character gets two Skill Lines you slowly work down as the game progresses (though play enough and you'll do both anyway), and each is pretty different. For instance, Shion gets a Supporter Skill Line that contains absolute garbage and is useless, whereas her Attacker Skill Line is actually useful. In my opinion, Jin, Kossy, and Ziggy are fine no matter which you do while MOMO, Shion, Jr. and chaos are all better doing one than the other.

[edczxcvbnm]

I gotta watch that ending again. I got out of it what you said but I also got out of other parts that Chaos was human at some point and through Zarathrustra and all that jazz he became what he is and junk.

Had they explained Wilhelm at all then it would have been a bit easier to piece it together.

I know that the next set of games(if that happens) would end up taking place tens of thousands of years in the future as it was alluded to at the end of the game...but those that alluded to it would probably make appearances in the game at some point. I really wish they would make another series. HELL! Just make it on the DS. Super awesome graphics are nice but look what Xenogears did with those horrible sprites and broken 3-D backgrounds. I could easily live with Xenosaga in that form.

I prefered Shion for the Supporter skill line. I needed someone that could heal and have magic next to KOS MOS and Jin. I thought Ziggy and Chaos were garbage. Jr and MOMO were okay and I would switch out with them as needed.

I found the best place to level up was Able's Ark in the ES. 2000 EXP and 30 Skill points on average is awesome!

[LunarWeaver]

I gotta watch that ending again. I got out of it what you said but I also got out of other parts that Chaos was human at some point and through Zarathrustra and all that jazz he became what he is and junk.

Had they explained Wilhelm at all then it would have been a bit easier to piece it together.

Oh my, I should clarify :jess: Most of that came from the database I loaded after I beat the game. They added quite a bit to chaos. Even that was rather vague though, and much of what I said is personal musings on the whole situation. Certainly nobody should take anything I say as fact, I'm always wrong about this stuff :p You could very well be completely correct about him being human and Zarathustra changing him.

And yeah, I've been waiting years to find out what the deal with Wilhelm is. Still waiting, Namco!


I also agree with the DS thing. If Namco doesn't want to divvy out funds to make new console Xenogames, then just make it on a handheld. I won't care as long as I get it. I don't own a DS, but for more Xenoverse I would own a DS.

Square is whoring their franchises to the DS these days, why isn't Namco doing the same goddamnit :mad2:

[edczxcvbnm]

Xenosaga III sales in NA - 73,000...ish.

I would say this is the final nail in the coffin for this game. Curse you Xenosaga II. Curse you forever and then some you PoS GAME!

[Auragaea]

I didn't really find XSIII to be enjoyable. I had much more fun w/ XSII.

[edczxcvbnm]

I didn't really find XSIII to be enjoyable. I had much more fun w/ XSII.

There is no other explaination for this other than you suck.

[Necronopticous]

I liked them both. Unfortunately the technical side of episode 2 was a bit massacred, but the story and characters were just as solid as episode 1 or 3, and that's what I played Xenosaga for. The biggest shame of episode 2 was how butchered the voice acting was, since it was the biggest technical aspect that leaked over a bit, and lessened the quality of the story/character side of the game. The generally awful soundtrack would be runner up.

[Mercen-X]

I got it awhile ago. Actually, I was damned surprised to see on GameStop shelves so early. I picked up then . . . played it a few days later. Damn man, I just haven't been able to get any game time in for anything. So much of life is being usurped by this mysterious entity . . . I call it work . . . and my parents.
I played it for a couple hours last night. Haven't been able to get really far. I don't like to play through anything really fast. I like just sit there and soak up the environment, dialogue, actions, battles, and features. If I tried to play for time's sake, I'd feel rushed, like someone was watching me.
I guess y'all don't care for that info though.

[Rostum]

I didn't really find XSIII to be enjoyable. I had much more fun w/ XSII.

There is no other explaination for this other than you suck.

lol

Anyways, they said it was going to be released on the 15th of October in Australia, they even had it on PlayStation's official website. But when it came to the 16th, it has dissapeared from all lists I can find, and there's been no word from where I pre-ordered it. >.<;

So annoyed.

[XandrewX]

I prefer ES battle system than normal battle system for some reasons...

[Mercen-X]

HaKox. I created a simplistic yet slightly interesting level. Not straight-line easy, but not at all difficult either. I also completed the Basic levels and gained a Decoder. *says in bored tone.* Still not far enough in the story to gain more levels though.
T-elos/Gnosis . . . KOS-MOS/Omega . . . entertaining.