23. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PlayStation 2)
jFKRFPc.jpg

It's thousands of years in to the future and humanity is now in space somewhere, a log way from Earth. The story follows Shion, a young engineer, her android KOS-MOS, and some other peeps as they have an absurdly long journey through space trying to get to one planet. Along the way they're attacked by alien type creatures known as Gnosis and in some cases have to face up to their past to move forward.

Xenosaga is a pretty unique RPG in terms of gameplay. It would take a while to explain it all. Basically to attack, you press triangle or square and to open the menu for ether (magic) and items and such you press X. Depending on certain conditions, you can also press O for a stronger attack, known as a Tech Attack. Characters also have boost gauges which when used will give them the next turn, unless the enemy boosts over that. You can also fight in big mechs called A.G.W.S. if you so choose. There are 6 playable characters and two temporarily playable characters.


General impressions:
I wasn't expecting to like Xenosaga as much as I did. My mom bought it shortly after I moved back in with her, a few years after it came out. She figured I would like it because there were a lot of girls on the cover, and even at 12 I've always preferred female characters. The funny part was we thought chaos was a girl looking at it. Anyways, it looked way too sci-fi for my tastes but I gave it a try and I'm really glad I did. It's one of my favourite game series ever and I think that it tells an amazing story and it does it better than most games. As an added bonus, I learned a lot playing the games, because I constantly had to look up references (like Albedo, Nigredo, Rubedo) and what they really meant. It also prompted me to start looking at things differently and notice deeper meanings in certain stories, something which also applies to video games, and if I'd never started doing that thanks to this game then my games list would look a whole lot different today.

Story:
The story is the bread and butter of this game. It tells an amazingly complex and interesting story, it presents it beautifully, and it always leaves me wanting to know more. The cliffhangers were annoying because I wanted to know what would happen so much. The whole game keeps you on your toes and guessing, and it really sucks you in and leaves you at the edge of your seat. A lot of people complain about the hours of cinematics, which I can see be annoying for some, but for me it made the game that much better. Sometimes I didn't care about playing the game, I wanted to watch this amazing story unfold. There are some beautiful and touching moments, and the ending still makes me cry. It also allows you to go back and play after you finish the series and look at things in a different light. The story is amazing, one of the best I've ever come across in a video game.


Gameplay:
The gameplay was the weak point for me. If you enjoy more unique systems then awesome, but not so much for me. I've gotten used to it over the years, but especially at first it was hard. The tutorials aren't super clear, leaving you to figure some stuff out on your own, stuff like why you need to switch your techs to Hi ASAP because it will make a world of difference. I made it almost the whole way through the game the first time without realizing that and I gotta tell ya, it made it a massive challenge. And I am not a fan of challenging games. I found the combat system to be unnecessarily complicated, basically. It also has a very big difficulty spike around the Song of Nephilim and some absurdly difficult bosses to fight. I couldn't comment on the A.G.W.S. Because I never used them. The game is also very linear but I honestly never felt it because the story was so interesting. I only noticed after it was pointed out to me and I thought about it for a while. The mini games, especially poker, were super fun.


World:
You're in space. Honestly while some of the cinematics are stunning, the world itself is generally not. You get some nice places here and there, but most of it is grey corridor, inside of giant space whale alien, more grey corridors, some white corridors, aaaand some more grey corridors. But although they may not have been visually appealing, a lot of areas had interesting stories behind them, which I really liked.


Characters:
On the whole I like the characters. I'd say this game is more story driven than character driven, but that doesn't mean the characters don't get a fair amount of attention. Their personalities are varied, their backstories are interesting and mostly heartbreaking. The biggest fault would be just how much the game focuses on Shion, leaving the others to almost always take a backseat, although Shion is actually pretty likeable in this game.

Favourite character: MOMO SC8jdBx.jpg
Honourable mentions: Jr. JwuNxqy.jpg

MOMO was my favourite because I mean come on. She's a sweet robot girl who whose father is widely regarded as a psycho and whose mother can barely even look at her. Despite this she still tries so hard to make friends and be useful. And she's incredibly smart, which is to be expected. Jr. got better in the sequels but even in this game he has an interesting story. And he's got some of my favourite tech attacks.

Overall this is not a game for everybody. Both the plot and the gameplay are convoluted and complicated, but if you enjoy sci-fi fantasy with psychology and religious references and deeper hidden plot points and some robots then I'd definitely say give it a try. Really the story is glorious if you get in to it.