60. Xenoaga II
Xenosaga Episode II takes place immediately after the conclusion of Episode I, so I would not recommend playing it before I. This episode largely explores the Miltian Conflict, an event that happened over a decade prior to the story and had a large effect on the events. It also focuses a lot on the character Jr. And his past. A good portion of the game is exploring the past and as such there is only a little actual story progression for the series.
This game switched things up a bit from the first one. Characters now have different types of attacks by pressing different buttons that are targeted at a certain “zone”. By finding a “break zone” the player will have an advantage in battle and be able to do things like knock the enemy in the air or on to the ground. Players are free to teach their characters any ability so long as they have the correct points, meaning character roles will vary greatly depending on you you customize them. The big A.G.W.S. mechs have been replaced by the even bigger mechs, the E.S., which are used at certain set points in the game. This game also has combo attacks between the characters, and a large number of sidequests called the G.S. Campaign (Global Samaritan Campaign) where you go around helping those who ask. There are 7 total playable characters with 1 kind of guest character and 3 usable in battle at a time.
General impressions:
I absolutely loved the first Xenosaga game, so needless to say, I was pumped for this one. I watched the trailers so many times. In the end, I was more impressed with it than most people seemed to be. The character design changes were pretty jarring and I was not really a fan of them at all. Also some voice changes to. Especially when a game is supposed to take place right after the first one, those changes have a big impact. But overall I still liked it. I enjoyed the gameplay much more as it wasn't as needlessly complicated as the original, I loved the G.S. Campaign, and it had some wonderfully told story moments. Not as good as the rest of the series, but still a very good game that I've replayed more than once.
Story:
My main complaint about the story is how little it did to progress things overall. Very little happens to move things along and advance things, and that was pretty frustrating because I had left with a bunch of mysteries and questions and this game didn't answer very many of them. But it did a great job of telling some back story for two of my favourite characters, and my favourite antagonist, and some of the moments were really touching and captivating.
Gameplay:
I actually am probably the only person who prefers II's gameplay to I. I liked being able to customize my characters how I wanted them, I liked the simpler battle system, and the sidequests in this game were much more involving and interesting. It had some downsides to it, but overall I thought it was really fun.
World:
There's a few interesting locations but this game is pretty hit or miss for me. Some spots were great and I loved exploring them. Others were drab and boring and I was happy when it was time to move on. Overall I think the world was pretty decent and I really liked Second Miltia because it was so bright and lively and busy, something not all that common in the series. I also really liked the subconscious domain in both spring and winter.
Characters:
The cast is pretty strong I think and pretty unique. They all bring something different to the table and I enjoy their interactions with each other. Unfortunately this game does give a lot of them the backseat for this story, focusing more on a select few.
Favourite character: MOMO l53TTy3.jpg
Honourable mention: Jr. iWP6mIz.jpg
MOMO was my favourite in I and archer characters are my favourite to use in RPGs, so imagine how happy I was when they took my favourite character and made her an archer! From an objective standpoint it was weird for her to go from using a rod to a bow in a matter of hours, but from a personal standpoint I was like HECK YEAH ARCHER MOMO. She was just a very sweet girl and we get to learn a bit more about her... let's say family life in this game. I found Jr. to be one of the more interesting characters and some of his scenes in this game were just really great and helped me like him even more.
Overall this game is quite a change from the first, but it's still a good game, it's fun to play, and it gives some wonderfully told back story for some of the characters. But the changes can be pretty jarring for fans of the first game so it might not be for everybody.
And that is the end of the 60's! Next entry kicks off the 50's! almost halfway done, whoooo~
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Master of the Fork
