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You're right, Omecle, but there's something about me which doesn't like "decent~" games, ya know? I like "this was the best game ever" comments, a bit shallow as a gamer, but that's me, man...personally I thought it was decent from the intro to when I met Jin, so I'll bring it to my dad's today and play some of it...
Aww, I say weak link loosely. It's mostly just that it changed directors and felt different so it turned some people off, but it retains the Xenosaga feel. This is the series that ruined other RPGs for me because I always compare them, after all. I personally liked that they took many chances with the game; the battle system is totally different, there's no shops, there's greater stress on skill learning and stat raising, they redesigned the characters, blah etc. It was nice to see them at least try and make a new game rather than reuse absolutely everything from the first and call it a sequel *cough .hack cough*
My brother and a friend nearly gave up at the part you're coming up to because it gets a little harder and they didn't know a lot of the battle system's smaller intricacies. I had to type out this big thingie explaining how to use double ethers and keep a break going almost indefinitely through boost and what characters weapon attributes mean and all that crap, so if you have any trouble and want a looksie, I will copy paste it for you. :hat:
Thanks for the correction Karellen. So it was actually Monolith Soft? I wonder what happened in the company...
Anyway, I don't believe in "sugar-coating" a game review but to be honest you should theoretically like it more cause you never had a chance to play the original; so much of the changes won't affect you. The game is good, and though I was diappointed (more from a story perspective mind you)the first play through, I went through the game a second time a year later and had to say it was way better than I remmeber. Just remember that Lunar Weaver and I are fans of the series dating back to the original so we have more fanboy gripes than others;) Even though we complain it doesn't mean we don't love this game.
If you want to hear my real gripes with the series... it mostly deals with firing Soraya Saga and changing the script as well as never releasing Pied Piper (one of the best written pieces in the series and Soraya's last writing contribution to the series) and never releasing Xenosaga 1&2 (a remake of the first two games with a more fleshed out plot as well as the official "canon" that Eps 3 is based on) outside of Japan:mad:
As for the "One Disc" comment it mostly deals with the fact that when you really start getting into the story and game it just abruptly ends. Granted Eps.2 has a much better ending and wrap up than Eps. 1 did. Most people got thrown off by the fact that the final dungeon and boss fight in Eps. 1 didn't feel right...It came as a surprise for many fans and felt like the story ended too abruptly. Eps.2 doesn't suffer from this, of anything it was the fact that the game looked like it was going to finally reveal some plot elements and instead gives us a beautiful teaser... It was handled way better in my opinion.
The only real problem with Xenosaga is the fact that since it's episodic it's difficult to judge the games on an individual basis. When you see how the whole story works, the game is a thing of beauty.:love:
Basically it would be better if I had the first episode, or watched the bonus DVD, which I absolutely can't bear. This Soraya Saga, did she relate the game series to her second name by chance or was it intended?
Purely a coincedence I believe. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazzard
And yes you should probably watch the DVD or read up on the plot and cast of Eps.1. Alot of things are not going to make sense really soon...
Yeah, stick with the DVD. Trust me, there's good stuff in there. Just think of it as an anime, because the game is pretty close to that sort of thing. You have to give yourself time to get into it and such. Once Episode I picks you up, then you can't stop. I know people who burned all the cutscenes on a disc and watched it even though they own the game, if that makes you feel better about it all.
Aaaah...it working, it's working. I will watch it, then make my decision on how I feel about the whole "Xenosaga" alignment and see I would be interested to carry on playing the second one, I'll post regular updates about queries or tips, OK, off to play now.
Xenosaga II is a horrible game for the following reasons
- The battle system is like experiencing a quadruple heart attack with a stroke while giving birth. It is that insanely painful and wish you were dead. Not only that but it is also slow and agonizing.
- Music is like playing russian roulette except that there is only one empty chamber. Most of the songs in the game you want the bullet to put you out of your misery but every now and then there is a good song.
- The voice acting you don't get russian roulette. Just take the gun and pain the wall with blood and brains. Talk about huge misstep.
- Story...it doesn't really answer any questions from the previous game and only brings up new things. Most of which is pointless when looked at from the greater overall perspective. Jr. might be an important character but what about this massive whatever that is going on. All the story parts they cut was what I cared about. Thank God most of them made it into episode III.
- Graphics...Jaggy central? With a more realistic and bigger look to the game it suffered big time in the jaggy department. Also what the smurf was up with their hands? Either make them blocks that don't move or give them all 4 fingers. Don't half ass it. :skull::skull::skull::skull: that annoyed me.
Those are the five big points I have against Xenosaga II. Horrible game in all aspects. Probably one of my least favorite games of the last generation.
I just finished playing this earlier this week :p Not a bad game, and I actually liked the slow battle system for some odd reason, but I think it wouldn't have made any sense at all if I hadn't played Episode 1 beforehand. Also, since it's part of a trilogy, the ending was disappointingly anticlimactic, and I'd say you really need to play all 3 to see the full story in all it's glory (though I've not played 3 yet :D )
As ed said though, the voice acting in the english version is a bit bleh for some of the characters, and at times, I think Shion's is comparable to Yuna's from FFX US, it was that cringeworthy :p
My biggest problem with the battle system was that I 'figured it out' very early on. Not in the same way that I eventually figured out how to abuse the system in Xenosaga I. More like I figured out a pattern that would guarantee me a win...pretty much no matter what. All I remember is that I avoided battles as much as I could and I did none of the sidequests which ultimatly hindered the ability to advance higher in the abilities or characters.
Sephex eventually broke down and just used my win tactic because it just works. I have probably outlined it before here and I can't really remember what the hell it was at the moment.
I am happy to say that Xenosaga III fixed all of the problems that the second one had. Everything might not be cinema happy like the first two but it gets that story in there and they wrap it all up.
Good voice acting, music, graphics, battle sytem, story. Hell the battles are even a bit challenging this time around. I tend to be an avoid he battles type player and I found the first two easy(second one really shouldn't count because of its broken battle system) so maybe this one is easy to everyone else. It wasn't hard but I couldn't sleep walk my way through this one either.
Everyone claims the third one was much easier then the first two, but I can't think of a single battle in I or II that where anywhere near as hard as (SPOILER)The Red Testament. Maybe I wasn't trying as hard or something but that's pretty much the only battle in the series where I had to got back and gain a few levels.
Episode III was much better then II, but I'm still kind of disapointed about how short it was. The game was probably only about 3-4 hours longer then II despite having more plot to cover then the first two combined and ended up feeling almost as rushed as the second disk of Xenogears. It doesn't help that a lot of the plot points assume that the player has knowledge of Pied Piper and to a lesser extent Xenosaga I & II which as previously noted never received an English translation.
This was definately the biggest flaw of II's system. There was just one way to kill everything and all other tactics were garbage. The game pressures you to do the same thing in every battle to succeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by edczxcvbnm
To the folks who skipped the first one, you can always go on Blue Laguna and watch all the cutscenes <3 Or Episode III had the grand return of the database, so if you don't mind reading for 10 days you can catch up that way.
Yea and with that you couldn't make a team of you favorite characters and use them the whole time. Well you could, but it'd make it difficult at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by LunarWeaverThis was definately the biggest flaw of II's system. There was just one way to kill everything and all other tactics were garbage. The game pressures you to do the same thing in every battle to succeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by edczxcvbnm