>> So, what happened to Xenosaga?

[Mirage]

Or an animated series. Not a game, in either case!

[edczxcvbnm]

They made the first Xenosaga game into an adapted series and it was smurfing terrible.

[darkchrono]

They made the first Xenosaga game into an adapted series and it was smurfing terrible.

Yep. Basically all that was was them taking all the cut scenes from the game and putting them together to make a show. It's not spoken in English either. I'm sure there are tons of people who have put the English version of the cut scenes up on you tube to form the same thing.

[Bolivar]

Thread topic aside, I don't think Xenogears would have worked as well if it were a novel, and not a video game with all the artwork, the music, and the overall presentation. I know you can do a lot more with novels, as it taps directly into the imagination, but I think the uniqueness of games as a medium is what made my playthrough of Xenogears so special.

[black orb]

>>> If stuff like Harry Potter became a sucess, anything can..

[Mirage]

No, anything can't become a success because Harry Potter did.

[Del Murder]

Never played Xenosaga. Is it good? It must be to get edczxcvbnm and darkcrono to come out of hiding to post in this thread about it.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I personally love Xenosaga; it is one of my favorite video game series. The shift in graphics and voice acting from game to game kind of stinks with the second game being a low point in that respect. However, I think the story and the characters in all three game were amazing, and that's what I look for most in an rpg. The cutscenes (especially in the first game) are extremely long and frequent, but I personally don't mind that in a game as long as the content is good, and I never felt bored from the cutscenes in the game. I also liked that you could see your enemies wandering the area, and depending on how you walk into them or they walk into you, certain conditions and advantages are set. I can see why many people don't necessarily like the games though.

[Ultima Shadow]

Never played Xenosaga. Is it good? It must be to get edczxcvbnm and darkcrono to come out of hiding to post in this thread about it.

It's one of those "you either love it or hate it" kind of games. Personally, I love it. Episode 2 being the exception - I only endured that game because of the story. The battle system and change in graphics are kinda terrible in episode 2, sadly.

But the series is still playworthy, no doubt, if you ask me. Despite the second game, I can honestly say that it's one of my personal favourite series.

The main factor that will decide whenever you enjoy the series or not, is whenever you can enjoy really long cutscenes or not. Because these games have a lot of them.

[darkchrono]

Never played Xenosaga. Is it good? It must be to get edczxcvbnm and darkcrono to come out of hiding to post in this thread about it.

The Xeno games are 90% story and 10% gameplay for the most part. Those who play rpg's for the gameplay will probably want to pass on the xeno games because the gameplay is average at best.

However if story is what you mainly like to focus on in an rpg than you should definitely check both xenogears and xenosaga out. Both have stories much deeper than pretty much any other rpg out there (though the xenogears story is a little better than the xenosaga story in my opinion).

If both the gameplay and story are important to you in an rpg you should check the games out as well. You may like it or you may not but it is worth a look.

[edczxcvbnm]

Well, I just replayed Xenosaga Episode III a few months ago so I have a fresh brand new perspective on it. I really like the story but the worst part of the game is easily the main protagonist. WTF you might ask? Well let me break it down for you:

Shion is in an eternal abusive relationship. She desparatly seeks the approval of some guy. Why they had a relationship in the first place I couldn't tell you. They clearly explain the motivations of the guy but Shion? No such logic can be found. The fact that he is dead never stops her from pinning over him for YEARS. She wants to make this guy happy. Every motivation she has ever had is to that specific end and it is never anymore complicated than that until literally the final fight of the game. She is so smurfing annoying in this game as well. She plays a vital story role but I can't figure out why we are forced to endure her as the main character. She is everything wrong with how female characters in media are written.

Now that I have that out of the way, the story is awesome and the rest of the characters, secondary characters, antagonists and mythology are all very well developed and likable. Having said that the writing is kind of bad or symbolic for no real reason in an annoying way (I refer to the end as my prime eye rolling example where the ship, Elsa, grew wings making some reference to Wagner's Knight of the Swan which they blatantly tell us for no good reason ruining the intense moment). The writing is probably about average for a game and would have been fine if they didn't speak everything. Somethings are suppose to be internal monologue but there is nothing to indicate that it is...either that or everyone around these characters is deaf.

The first one I have played the first one multiple times (I really enjoyed the battle system for some reason...probably because I could abuse it during leveling). This game is very cinematic in its presentation. It can be a bit long and drawn out at times but over all it was interesting and provided a good set up for the final game.

Skip the second game. It is an abomination. Graphics are a step back from the first game, music is hideous, replaced voice actors with worse ones (they got the episode 1 cast back to do episode 3 because they realized how badly the smurfed up), a terrible battle system that was boring as hell (after about 1/4 of the game you get an ability to where you can win any battle by following a certain pattern...as long as your characters don't die in a hit and even then it would probably work). The story was more like a side character story than anything truly integral to the over arching plot. In episode III they give you a huge encyclopedia to fill you in on things as you go along that were never told in the games because Episode 3 was probably suppose to be more like episode 4 or something and the missing stuff sounded way better that what we got in 2. Skip this game and watch the cutscenes on youtube or something.

Episode II was so bad that Sephex still has never played the third one due to II leaving such a bad taste in his mouth.

Despite the short comings of the games, I thought the story was pretty good and rather engaging. I think the third game is the easiest to get into but they all have a long start up time and by that I mean it is an hour or two before you REALLY get to play the game. I think you also get more out of the series if you really enjoyed Xenogears.

[NeoCracker]

Story wise the biggest issues all came up do to back stage bull trout. So much was going wrong in production, crew kept getting shuffled in and out, and it shows from game to game.

However, despide that, it still delivers an excelent story, and wraps up all that it needs to by the end, (even if there is still a lot to be explored). Episode 2, oddly enough, fixed the worst part of episode 1, it's Boost System for combat, despite the rest of it being pretty damn bad. (For the record, it's a game in which I liked teh story enough to keep going. The main focus is on two of the party members introduced last game, and the back story of one of the three big forces at work in the game, Dmitri Yuriev and the likes.) There is plenty very relevant to the main story of the three games, but on it's own not enough to warrent just that. The end of that game was a bit heart wrenching though.

But yes, spectacular series. At the very least check out 3 and read through their synapsis of the first two games when you have a smurf ton of time on your hands.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Despite the voice changes, I actually really liked Xenosaga 2. I thought the story was still great, and I really didn't mind the battle system. I understand why people don't like it, but I have never understood the utter hate people seem to have for it. I'm pretty sure I have never met anyone else that likes that game. Maybe I'm just easy to please when it comes to rpg's, haha. Oh well.

[Ultima Shadow]

Episode 2, oddly enough, fixed the worst part of episode 1, it's Boost System

But... but I liked the episode 1 boost system! =O



Oh, and before I forget to mention it: Xenosaga 1 has the best and most awesome card game ever. It doesn't get much attention or any big role in the game - you can only play it in one place. But it's much cooler than the FF card games. It's more like an actual TCG.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Oh, and before I forget to mention it: Xenosaga 1 has the best and most awesome card game ever. It doesn't get much attention or any big role in the game - you can only play it in one place. But it's much cooler than the FF card games. It's more like an actual TCG.

This. While I do slightly like Triple Triad more (but more for nostalgia reasons), the Xenosaga card game is really addicting and fun. (I also agree about liking the boost system, though I enjoy exploiting things like that in a game anyways.)