Xenosaga

[Sheamon]

Ah... I've been waiting for this game for years, ever since completing Xenogears :D Has anyone picked it up yet? Beautiful graphics, alright music (although I'll have to admit I've had the soundtrack for months :p, this isn't my first time hearing the stuff) and I love the dub so far (Ruby Marlowe's performance is even better than Lain and Mima). As a hardcore Xenogears fan I'd definately recommend it, although the gameplay is VERY limited thus far...

[ohmrbill]

I haven't gotten it yet (still in the mail), but I'm definitely looking forward to it, seeing as Xenogears was one of my top RPG's.

Oh, and since the subject always seems to come up when discussing new games, I'll just post IGN's scores for it right now :p :

Presentation
Xenosaga's cinematography and style is so illustriously presented that few mediums (be it movie or videogame) have ever come close to capturing the space opera this finitely. 9.5

Graphics
Already a year old in Japan, the game definitely shows its polygonal age. Aliasing problems and occasional camera gripes aside, Monolith has still delivered a solid effort. 7.5

Sound
Hard to evaluate really. Ranging levels of vocal quality combined with one of the best soundtracks on PS2, there's still a lack of continuous music in almost the entire game. 8.0

Gameplay
Dominated by cut scenes, there may not be as much action as you'd like. Once you get involved though, the battle system is among the premiere RPGs of this generation. 8.5

Lasting Appeal
Plenty of mini-games and hidden items add a strong bonus to what can only be described as the best RPG plot of the last couple of years. One of the few we could see playing through for a second time. 8.0

OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 8.8

[moreysurf8]

I pre-ordered my copy from amazon. I'm a huge RPG fan and this seems to be the next "big" RPG. Haven't gotten it yet but I am eagerly waiting. I don't really mind a lot of cutscenes as long as the game tells a good story. I'll post a review (so far) when I get my copy. :D

[Beat]

This isn't a game. It's a big movie. Be warned.

[Poser Wannabe]

Originally posted by Beatdigga
This isn't a game. It's a big movie. Be warned. But wasn't the first one too if I remember correctly? It had large cut scenes, but it did have a lot of gameplay as well. So Xenosaga is even worse I take it?? Is there anime cutscenes like in the Xenogears, or is it CG now?

I'm still debating between picking up Xenosaga or Dark Cloud 2... :/

[Mr. Obsession]

According to amazon my copy will be shipped tomorrow, so if I seemingly disappear of the face of the Earth for about a week at some point in the near future... well you'll know where I really am. ;)

At any rate I am really looking forward to this one, despite it being a huge movie. I do wonder how close Episode V is going to be to Xenogears though.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Poser Wannabe
But wasn't the first one too if I remember correctly? It had large cut scenes, but it did have a lot of gameplay as well. So Xenosaga is even worse I take it?? Is there anime cutscenes like in the Xenogears, or is it CG now?


It's pretty much all CG.

Think of it like those "point and click" adventure games for the PC back in the day. You play pretty much to get to the next cinema.

[Opaque]

my friend got it and I watched the beggining through the first boss fight... now I wanna get it... and what do you know I'm leaving in an hour to go pick it up...the cutscenes are just so high quality and the battle system is neat enough...

[BlackCat]

I have no doubt about the quality of this game overall, but I am worried about the minimal amount of gameplay that I hear about. After reading some of PS2IGN's Q & A of the game, some cutscenes can be half an hour or an hour long. :eek:

The story, music, and gameplay sound great, but I don't like the idea of watching the game more than actually playing it.

[Robin2099]

I have no doubt about the quality of this game overall, but I am worried about the minimal amount of gameplay that I hear about. After reading some of PS2IGN's Q & A of the game, some cutscenes can be half an hour or an hour long. Yeah that is true. But lots of the sites that havee reviewed the game also say that there is also a very good amount of actual gameplay in the game too. So it's not like The Bouncer which was a game that all you did was watch it.

[Opaque]

ok... i got it, and I've been playing it... and in three hours o play I've had well over an hour and a half of cut scenes and only about ten minutes of battles... the rest was spent running around and talking to rndom people... but I have never had more fun playing a movie... :p

[Jowy Blight]

I've also been waiting for this game since I finished Xenogears myself, but I won't be able to pick it up until the weekend. Even though I heard it's mostly movie with a few battle tossed in, I still know I'm going to like it. After all, remember all that story in Xenogears you had to deal with (especially on the 2nd disc)? It just made me want to finish even more. It makes me wonder if we ever get to play as Lacan or Krelian since they seem to be going down the line.

I wonder if this will mean when we get to episode 5 that they'll remake or port Xenogears.

[Opaque]

I bet they would remake it... this is definately a franchise totop all franchises... and with the level of detail they put into Xenosaga I doubt they would be pleased with episode 5 the way it is...

[Clayface]

I've picked it up and I'm about 10 hours in so far. The first 6 hours are almost solid CGI (fantastic, interesting CGI though) - I must have had maybe an hour at most of game play. But, the in the past few hours its gone to a lot more gameplay, and shorter cinemas.

Anyone get to that Mothership battle yet? I'm stuck! The first 4 or 5 times I took it on, it wiped out all my characters in the first few rounds using that dang Tremor. And the one time I was able to keep my people alive, it just wouldn't die! 6 times it self-repaired to get 600 health back! 6 times! How do you defeat this thing??

[ohmrbill]

Originally posted by Jowy Blight
I wonder if this will mean when we get to episode 5 that they'll remake or port Xenogears.

I wonder if it’s even legally possible for them to remake Xenogears. As far as I know, Namco never bought the Xenogears rights from Squaresoft. Xenosaga seems to be just different enough from what's outlined in Perfect Works to prevent them from getting sued, but how are they going to mask it when they get to episode V. Maybe they'll have the rights to it then? Or maybe it'll be completely different?

Well either way, I'm certainly intrigued to see what they're going to do.

[Opaque]

Clayface... yeah I died the first time I tried it because of the tremor thing... but as luck would have it the second time I played through it didn't use tremor even once and I easily defeated it... i recommend you dont boost, because when you do you mix the slots a little and he has teh chance to use tremor more often...

[Clayface]

Hey Box Drink: how do you keep it from healing itself again? Every time I beat it down to a certain point, it heals itself, gaining back 600 points, and I can never finish it off.

[Beat]

On the cutscenes- There's an option to save in the middle of a cutscene. Nuff said.

[Opaque]

Clayface - Well I haven't found a way to keep it from healing but It will only heal itself that way once, until you damage it more that is. there for you must use tech attacks and such to do more than 600 damage in a round before it gets another turn... kinda tricky... just charge all your characters up to 6ap or wait till they ALL have a boost available, then pound away at it really quick...

[Clayface]

Ah, ok. So I'm just not beating him down quick enough. Thanks for the info! Hopefully I can finally beat it tonight!

[Opaque]

exactly... you just need to be faster...

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by ohmrbill
I wonder if it’s even legally possible for them to remake Xenogears. As far as I know, Namco never bought the Xenogears rights from Squaresoft. Xenosaga seems to be just different enough from what's outlined in Perfect Works to prevent them from getting sued, but how are they going to mask it when they get to episode V. Maybe they'll have the rights to it then? Or maybe it'll be completely different?

Well either way, I'm certainly intrigued to see what they're going to do. I'm pretty sure that Monolith actually has the rights to everything from Xenogears, except for the game's title.


As for episode V, who knows. Apparently if you do the math Saga ep 1 takes place a few years prior to when Gears episode 2 takes place according to the Perfect Works. So if they're skipping Gears ep 1 completely then who knows. Maybe Saga eps 1 & 2 will take place back to back in order to set up the character archetypes that will show up repeatedly for the rest of the series. From everything I've read and seen Fei's first incarnation appears at the end of episode 1.

I do suspect that if Xenosaga ep 5 turns out to be a re-make of Xenogears, the first have of the game will be nearly identical (perhaps with a few name changes here and there) while the second half will probably include the same overall plot, just better thought out gameplay.

[ohmrbill]

I'm pretty sure that Monolith actually has the rights to everything from Xenogears, except for the game's title.

Do you know for sure, or is that just an educated guess? I’m guessing based on the fact that the creator keeps denying (officially) that Xenosaga has any relation to Xenogears at all, but if you have proof of otherwise, please show me.


I do suspect that if Xenosaga ep 5 turns out to be a re-make of Xenogears, the first have of the game will be nearly identical (perhaps with a few name changes here and there) while the second half will probably include the same overall plot, just better thought out gameplay.

That's a possibility. I do remember the creator (what was his name, again?) saying he was disappointed with the way Xenogears turned out (I'm sure Square's budget cuts on the project and the fact that they kicked it out the door before it was finished had a lot to do with that). I think it will be more or less basically the same story (maybe some name-changes or re-arranging of events if Monolith actually doesn't have any Xenogears rights), but with either what you suggested (putting the gameplay in to the 2nd half) or cutting enough of the story out so that it can all fit within the allocated time and budget this time around.