I got Xenosaga a couple of months ago when I found it at a gamestop for only 17 dollars and after hearing all the hype I decided to get it. Well this is probably the only RPG I have played in a while that I stopped in the middle and didn’t want to get into it again. It defiantly goes right up there with the original Metroid in the most over hyped video game category.

Story.
Several thousand years in the future humanity has left earth a long time ago and have forgotten even where it was in the first place (it is refereed in the game has lost Jerusalem). Attacks of vampire type creatures called Gnosis have been destroying federation ship. Anyone who touches a Gnosis either dies or becomes one of them.

Shion Uzuki is lead scientist on board the Woglinde and is in charge of KOS-MOS project, KOS-MOS is a female terminator robot build to specifically fight and kill the Gnosis. The Woglinde is attack by the Gnosis and is destroyed, luckily KOS-MOS is activated by the trouble and with her help Shion and some of the crew escape the destroyed ship and are picked up by a scavenger ship filled with misfit. Meanwhile a cyborg called Ziggy has just rescued a young Realiean (genetically alter fake humans) girl named Momo and is being chased by the evil U-tic organization when they bump into Shion and KOS-MOS.

The story is not what I called entertaining. It tries to go into cyber punk with are realieans consider human or are they merely dolls used in wars. Add in that everything has about a ton of techno babble in it the story gets confusing even for the biggest trekie. Also if you hated the cut scenes in Final Fantasy X, you’re going to loath the scenes in Xenosaga. Some going on over half an hour, I like cut scenes but come on I want to play a game here.

I should also note that I have visited a few right wing Christian web sites (I like to do that just to read there reviews on Pokemon and laugh at there ignorance). They have been upset about this game to; well for once I have to agree they might have something that is actually offensive to them. There are some parts that mock Christian dogma and add in a few Christian hymns playing in the background in a few stages and I could understand how they could be offended.

Graphics.
The graphics are the best thing this game has going for it. The graphics are quite good with a mix of anime and a real life look. The character designs are great and the animation in the cut scenes move smoothly.

The scenery in each stage is also varied and also filled with eye candy.

Sound.
We get some good sci fi music on all the stages, has well has some typical RPG type battle music for boss fights. Has for VA’s these are all from Ocean and a lot of them have been in popular animes before. So there are going to be plenty of voices that you have heard on the CN before. They all do a good job of acting so you won’t get bored because of flat VA’s, bored because you lost place in the story because of the techno babble yes.

Gameplay.
The gameplay is a mix bag has well. The stages and the game are entirely linear. You go through a story part and battle through a level complete your objectives and battle a boss. Watch a cinema scene that seems to take forever and then go through another stage. You can go back through previous stages by linking up to special save places and using a special device Shion has.

Rather then the usual random encounter Xenosaga offer a bit of a stealth system instead. You can see the enemies move across the screen. Your whole goal is to find ways to sneak past them if you don’t want to battle. There are things that can also be shot at that will immobilize enemies or weaken them in the battle if there hit by them. If you get caught a battle will occur.

The battle goes on using combos. Each move there is a blue meter right below your character health meter. The blue meter fills up for two moves. But if you do only one move in the combo you can hold over for a 3 part super attack. You can equip different super attacks for what button you press and these attacks can be supped up by points you get from battle.

Another aspect that can be a bit confusing there are little icons at the bottom of the screen that changes position, the icons go on wheatear you’re going to do greater damage or get more exp. This is good in ordinary battles but some bosses use these to there advantage so it keeps you on the toes. But I am not to where the game really stinks and that comes in the boosts.

By filling up a meter you can boost a character and get them to move up in the move meter at the bottom corner of the screen. It’s a useful technique to have if you need to have a character that has a heal move to move ahead of the enemies. The problem is that the enemies have it to. And not only can the enemies do it but there are no indications or warnings when there going to do it. Add in to the fact that there boosts can over ride your boosts, but never can vice versa happen. In other words you notice your in trouble so you use a boost, only to have the bad guy boost over ride yours and then get attack by a super move that kills all your team mates. This happens a lot and it can get frustrating fast.

Worst comes with the level up system, it tries to go into a complete customization of your characters but it gets confusing and frustrating. Every time you win a battle you get EXP points but has well has ether points used to up grade magic, and t points to upgrade skills. Ether points can be used to gain new magic abilities and skills that are called either in the game. They can also be used to transfer magic abilities to different members of the crew. This would be useful but it seems like most of the either skills seem to be learned by the wrong crew members that have no use for them. Shion gets most of the cure spells and she is a lousy healer, Chaos and Momo on the other hand seem to learn weaker cure spells so you’ll have to drop major ether points in order to transfer the right skills to the right person. T. Points are used in the same manner you can equip these to combos so they pack a bigger punch or upgrade stats with them. If that’s not confusing the worst part is that there are no auto’s for those of us who just want to level up our characters and move on to the next technobabble scene.

Add in the fact that you can actually get stuck in missions. If you find yourself with a character that needs the right move but isn’t level up enough you’ll have to go back and battle. So what that is common in every RPG. Well add in the fact that you can’t run away from the battle but you have to use escape packs. And since you can’t visit a store often when a mission begins if you run out escape packs your screwed and it’s hard enough to go through a lot of missions with out using a couple of dozens of these when you get injured. Having to go back means you have none at all to level up said character and you can get stuck and even more frustrated.

Another factor that’s in the game that isn’t frustrating but laughably idiotic is the use of mechas and how money is gained. There are things called A.G.W.S which are huge mechas some characters can use. There hugely powerful and are able to whack large enemies in a single blast. But there slower then a snail and are often turned to scrap before they even get a chance to move. To upgrade these you have to expensive parts with money you earned up. Ok so your going typical RPG stuff, in till the game decides only human enemies can hold money. And only a few missions have human enemies and they don’t carry much. This makes the game even more ridiculous.

Final recommendation.
Xenosaga was a disappointing game for me. I found the story and all the techno babble really boring. I found the battles and a lot of the ideas not implemented has well has they should and they wound up being just frustrating. There are a lot better games on the PS2 then Xenosaga (or I should say by rename Xenosuck) for the PS2.


Recommended: No