It was decent. Great story, great graphics. The battle engine was vastly improved. What was truly lacking was the skill tree or skill box. In Episode I, each character had their own skills, but in II, they all have the same list to choose from, which kind of eliminates the strategic part of the game. You can try to make classes, but you'll end up giving each character the same spells.

Another thing that was seriously lacking was the lack of stores. There are none. You can't buy anything. All you do is battle, level up, then see the next cut-scene. The dungeons, I'm happy to say, aren't as linear as I's dungeons, at least. You actually have puzzles to do.

Namco had great ideas for Xenosaga II. It had the potential to be the greatest RPG since FFVII, without a drop of a doubt, but they, for some reason, made extremely stupid errors.