Well, here I am.... 45 hours 17 minutes of game time and I just finished the game. Wow. That pretty much sums up this game.... one little word: wow.

http://www.namco-xenosaga.com
Official site

The game starts off on a bit of a drag, things going slowly, but as the game progresses, things start to speed up really really quickly, until the point where the story is so involving I actually accidentally stayed up a whole night, JUST to see what would happen next. This game takes you by the ears and rips you into its world, delving deeper and deeper into a disturbing world and story.

This is the first episode of a massive, six game epic Saga (hence, XenoSaga) that will take, as reports go, 10 years to release all the games. While related to Squaresofts massive XenoGears of 1998, it is an entirely different story. The team that worked for Squaresoft on XenoGears were expecting a 6 game epic that way, but Square cut their funding and they formed their own company, Monolith. Now funded by Namco, they spent a damned good deal of time making the game (3 years) and it was released in Japan a year ago. It was released in the USA on the 25th of February, in Canada on the 28th

Characters:

Holy shit. Final Fantasy, eat your heart out. The character's in this game are simply incredible. Shion, KOS-MOS, Chaos, Ziggurat 8, MOMO, Junior, Allen, Captain Matthews, Hammer, Tony, Commander Cherenkov, Commander Margulis, Albedo, the Kirchwassers, the Gnosis (evil baddie aliens).... wow... too many to list. Throughout the game, each character (minus the Kirchwassers) develops along their own storyline, finding out truths and hidden pasts and uncomfortable futures. This is so far the ***ONLY*** game to make me literally shake with anger at what a character onscreen was doing, because the characters become so familiar to you, like a sort of digital extended family. I know that sounds like I'm an RPG addict with no life, but I have heard at least 25 other people tell the same story, of the same part of the game. (For reference, it's the Albedo scene near the end)


Gameplay:

Excellent. Controls are smooth (except in the AGWS mini-game) and the characters on screen react instantly, no control lag. THere are three distinct modes to the game: cinema, quest, and batttle. Xenosaga has over 8 hours alone worth of cinemas and in-game cutscenes, telling the story and developing the characters. I personally love this way of doing things, as it allows a lot of information to be passed on in a shorter amount of time. Also, the cutscenes are in-engine, not FMV. There are very few FMV sequences in the game, and they are superb quality at that.

In the quest mode, as with all RPGs, you run or walk around the game map, searching for items, enemies, switches and destructible objects to blow up with the vaporizer . The game has some tiny areas (Dock Platform) and some areas that took me a good 5+ hours to get through (Cathedral Ship). This variance of size is great as it adds variety and challenge (play the Cathedral Ship level and you will understand). As well, the final level is HUGE, which is to be expected ^_^

Battle mode is where Xenosaga gets to show off its graphics power. EVERY attack has a little rendered flash or artsy effect to it that adds to the visual flair of battle. The combat system is bloody brilliant as well. Taking a cue from XenoGears, XenoSaga uses a combo system vs the regular button pushing excercises (Final Fantasy). Using ability points (AP, you get 4 per turn) and the ability to save them up (ie attack for 2 ap, then guard to save the other 2 and gain the 4 the next turn to have 6 total) your characters can unleash two or three attack combos. For KOS-MOS, for example, Square-Triangle-Circle with 6 ap, in the way I have her customized, will unleash a kick/gun combo, followed by a "tech attack," sort of like an overdrive from Final Fantasy. It is a massively powerful attack, and are pulled of very smoothly. THen there are the AGWS, giant mecha you can hop into in battle to cause some serious damage. The thing is, they take forever to recharge for a turn, allowing the enemy to get a hit in unless you improve their statsI could go on for ages about the combo and battle systems, but all I need to say is 10/10

Another thing to mention is the upgrade system. Instead of a linear system like the Final Fantasy series or an indirect system like FFX, Xenosaga gives you Tech Points, Ether Points and Skill points and lets you decide how you want to upgrade you characters skills (you can have 3 active at a time, effects such as boosted speed, higher evade rates, some types of attacks don't damage you, etc), tech attacks (you can upgrade your attacks plus make them high speed and faster recharge here) and ether points (sort of like the magic system for Xenosaga)


Music:

It's Yasunori Mitsuda... nuff said. While the music doesn't play very much in the game (the ONLY downside), when it does, it is absolutely spectacular. THe London Symphony Orchestra worked with Yasunori Mitsuda to create a dreamy, creepy, and emotional score

(Full soundtrack in MP3 format here )


Overall impression:


Buy this game if you love RPGs or anime, or both. Stop reading and buy it now.

One warning, though. Like XenoGears, this game is getting quite unpopular with the highly religious folk of the world, as it deals with religious references throughout the game. A small example that isn't a spoiler is that one character has the sign of Abel on his forehead, a hebrew letter. Plus, one character seems almost angelic, but I won't say any more than that. It'd ruin the shocker of an ending.

And so I leave you with the last words the game leaves you with:

"To be continued...."


PICTURES SECTION!!!

KOS-MOS leaning against the torso of an A.G.W.S. (Anti-Gnosis Weapon System)


The actual game itself, hiding my semi-sexy mug


That's KOS-MOS on the left, Shion and KOS-MOS in the center with the Zohar (play the game to find out what it is) floating above them in the background (sorta faint) and then, from top to bottom, left to right, on the right side: Albedo, Ziggurat 8 (Ziggy), Shion Uzuki, MOMO and various A.G.W.S. interspersed



KOS-MOS *in-game* model talk about detailed

 

Of all places you could post this, you insist on posting in an S2000 forum. Why not post the review on www.gamefaqs.com? Anyway, I am playing this game right now also and it's pretty damn good. The game just came out last week and you spent 45 hours on it?

 

Hey... I posted it here because there is a games part of the board that no one goes to. So I posted it in the public section so as to allow more people to know about this utterly awesome game. And besides, I know that you, SteveUCI and a few others are RPG fans, so I decided to post here. I've done the same with Gran Turismo 3 and Final Fantasy X and no one complained ^__^

I have no job right now, so I had some free time ^__^ 45 hours isn't THAT long, ya know... I know some people who are right now pushing 80 hours and I'm telling them to get a life ^__^ hehe

Again, the reason I posted this here was for the public to see, and it has. Besides, I don't like GameFaqs... you post a review, instantly all the haters and posting bad comments, you get screwed over, etc etc etc.

Also, please note the "for anyone who cares" in the title

 

Hey LordVagabond,
How does this game compare to Dark Cloud 2? I was trying to choose between the two and ended up with DC2, which is a decent game so far (although I am only 1 hour into it, don't have the time on my hands like you do! ).

 

Yep.. I need to get this game.. Good review.. I know that there are a bunch of gamers on this board so I think we should keep up the reviews.. Just for us S2000 owners..

 

Well, I'm gonna go through again and see if I can find all the secrets and watch for the hidden things and then rate that, but so far, if you love a good story with a very snazzy battle system and really believable characters, XenoSaga is for you.

Compared to Dark Cloud 2... well, I'm biased towards XenoSaga cuz I haven't played DC2 yet ^__^