Customer Reviews

Xenosaga Episode II

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The story is Good. The movies are always entertaining, and the story is always interesting. It never reaches the emotional depths that the last game did. There seems to be a greater emphasis on making the whole thing more...unrealistic. The first game presented a believable future - all the technology was explained, things behaved realistically, etc. That's all thrown out in this game...it might sound strange, but it seems to be more "Japanese" than Episode 1. Characters now swordfight in a Samurai style and shout things in what sounds very similar to Japanese. They shoot lasers out of their swords (and it's never explained why). There's even a character that wears samurai-ish robes. It destroys any believability this universe had.

Also, I'm personally disappointed that the game focused so much on Jr. (couldn't stand him from the first game), and not so much on wonderful KOS-MOS, who's not even present in the first half, and barely says two words in the second. And this is a Very Good Thing, because some of the voice actor changes were not for the better. Shion's VA is improved, but KOS-MOS's was a huge downgrade.

The music is also terrible compared to last game's. Episode 1 marked the first time I ran out and bought the soundtrack to a game. The beautiful orchestra and haunting chorus from that game have been replaced by forgettable boppy tunes, with maybe one decent melody in the whole thing.

Now, one to Dark One's taint = the gameplay. The battle system is easily the worst I have ever seen in any RPG. Ever. They aren't random - the enemies are onscreen. This is the One and Only Good thing. When you do touch an enemy, it takes a strangely long time to load. Your characters appear, one-by one. Then the monsters appear, one-by one. Sometimes, you'll be surrounded by the enemy. Other times, you'll surround the enemy yourself. This is Completely Random. Even if you attack an enemy from behind, you won't start the battle at the enemy's back. Which is too bad, as Back Attacks do more damage, and every time you enter a battle, you'll be desperate to scrape up as much damage as possible.

There's no such things as Powerful Moves here. You're forced to hit an enemy in specific "zones", which you do by hitting Triangle or Circle (did I mention the moves you do have no titles? Bye-bye, Moonlight Serenade or Spell Ray). Hit Triangle/Circle in the right order, and you get what's called a Zone Break. Now, you have to Boost your other characters in so they can damage the enemy while it's in this "break" stage. You boost the other characters by having them sit there and Not Attack during their own attack phase.

You are FORCED to do this - while some enemies do have special weaknesses, they're not exactly mind-blowing helpful for the majority of enemy types. Instead, you have to do the Zone Break, or all of your moves will do about 20 damage...to a creature that has 5,000 HP. And there's still 3 other creatures in the battle, all with 10,000 HP each.

Sound fun to you? Admittedly, once you DO get an enemy's weakness down, and get a Zone Break in, then Boost all of your characters in a row to take advantage of the enemy's weakness and the zone break, you can rack up huge damage. Sometimes it's even enough to take a single enemy down - and it only took 10 minutes to build up!

So, yes, the battle system will corrode your soul. Expect every battle to last at least 5 minutes, and that's if you're quick and know what you're doing. Meaning that you've already fought this enemy before and have either memorized it's Zone Break and weaknesses, or you've taught one of your characters a Memory skill.

And here's another embarassing part of the game. Every single character can learn every single skill. This completely destroys any individuality the characters had. KOS-MOS still has a couple special skills only she can use, but they're not nearly as impressive as the classics from the first game. Instead of being awed by what your characters are capable of, you cooly assign specific skills to each character based on what attributes you want in each battle. If that sounds fun to you, it's not. Many of these skills are useless, and characters will repeat skills that are helpful.

It's possible to "unlock" new skills and Double Attacks (two characters team up to attack) by undergoing the torture that is the game's sidequests. You run around, doing good deeds for people. These good deeds are very loosely explained, and very often involve playing fetch from place to place. I didn't even attempt it.

Other things that will leave you a blackened husk inside when the game is done: The puzzles in the dungeons. Oh how I wish my mind could let me forget them so I could live again. Unfortunately I can't, and so I will always remember shooting boxes to form a bridge, shooting boxes to clear a bridge, and shooting boxes of a specific color that explode other boxes of the same color around them. To form a bridge.

In conclusion, let me just say that I hope Episode 3 is better, or I will go insane. Or the Red Ajah will come for me in the form of Final Fantasy XII.

...... I'm going to assume the reader has played episode 1, if you haven't this might not explain much. For those of you who have ....

This is a nice sequel. It picks up right where the last one left off. The new look is great, though I didn't mind the old anime look either. The cutscenes are beautiful and usually action packed. However all's not well. They changed the battle system. It took me a lil while to figure just how it works. Gone are the flashy tech moves that made the battles awesome. {I hate that} Tech moves won't catch your eye at all this time around. The battles are harder and much more strategic, but duller. There is however a nice selection of ether and support skills that you can learn to build the charcters the way you see fit. The story thus far makes sense and explains alot of things you might {or might not} care to know. The only other promblem is that the cutscenes take so long. You can pay attention for only so long before your mind wanders. The first had this promblem so I'm not surprised. They don't have an ecyclopedia this time around ..... on episode 1 that thing was vital to understanding the story {at least for me} Fans will love it. Just thought I'd warn you and soften the blow of the new battle system.

The Xenosaga series is truly the most amazing and enthralling RPG that I have ever played. The size and scope of the story being told here is nothing short of epic. The game play is very good, with a fine balance between solving puzzles, fighting, and cinematics.

You can complete this game in less amount of time than the previous game. However, the battles in this second installment in the series are much harder and much more strategic than in Episode I. Even minor enemies possess high amounts of HP, and they can also inflict various status effects that must be properly dealt with if you want your battle party to survive. The pace of the battles are faster though. Because some of the battles must be completed within a certain time limit, there is an additional surge of adrenaline rush in trying to plan and execute your moves. The concept of boosting your characters is carried over from the previous game. However, in this one, there are some tricks involved in using boost. Four of your characters have the ability to either "air" (send an opponent flying in the air) or "down" (knock the enemy down). While the enemy is in such a state, more damage can be inflicted by the next battle character. But, you would need to boost properly and at the right time in order to put this chain of events together. Anyway, do not let that discourage you. The battle system has been simplified. Also, the character development system has also been greatly simplified. You do not have the multitude of weapons and armor options here that you had in Episode I. The types of attacks at your disposal have been narrowed down. In other words, the learning curve will be less steep. It seems like the game developers might have wanted to attract a broader range of RPG players to the game. This may be for the good; however, there are some of us who really enjoy the ability to customize our characters to our specifications.

The Mechs play a vital role in this episode. You must use your mechs (or Gears, for those who have played Xenogears) for certain battles. The design of the mechs themselves are quite interesting. It seems that the artists might have taken quite a bit of liberty with their artwork. Throughout the game, you will have three at your disposal.

A new playable character has been added to the main party. You might recall seeing Jin Uzuki during the ending credits to episode I. Here, he joins the party for reasons of his own.

The cinemas and scenes in the game have really gravitated more towards "serious" and "powerful". Yes, there were plenty of powerful and emotional scenes in episode I. However, here you have a couple of scenes that were just downright heartbreaking. Definitely, this is a game for a more mature and intelligent crowd. Our friend Allen is not quite as funny in this one. You do have plenty of lighthearted moments, however, that soon gives way to the very serious themes that dominate the plot.

The sidequests are optional, however, the best features of the game can only be experienced by engaging in them. The much talked-about Cooperative Attacks (where two characters work together to put a very devastating chain of attacks) can only be earned through the sidequests. I suspect that you can easily lose 50+ hours in this game, if you engage in a few of those optional sidequests. I also suspect that there are excellent side stories and adventures to go along with these adventures. I chose to pursue a couple of them and found them to be worthwhile and entertaining. Some of these adventures can only be played after you have beaten the game once and saved. You can then reload your save data and pursue a variety of side stories and quests.

A lot of the questions from episode I are answered here for you. However, most of these answers come towards the end. All I can say is be prepared for one grand story to unfold.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in RPGs. Particularly, for those who have an interest in watching a great story unfold. You will appreciate the story more if you play Episode I first, however, there is a DVD out there with some of the more important and pivotal scenes from episode I. If you are short on time, perhaps you can locate one of these DVDs and spend a few hours watching them, prior to playing episode II. Is Xenosaga II: Beyond Good and Evil as good a game as Xenosaga I: Will to Power? That is a hard question to answer. That would really have to depend on what you look for in an RPG. However, let me state that both games are great. My only wish is that someday, this story will be released in the form of a novel. The story is just too good.

It used to be one of those adages that the second novel was always worse than the first. This is no longer true, possibly because great first novels have become rarer. But games, on the other hand, generally get better with each sequel. Or that was the way it was before 2005. I wasn't particularily happy with Suikoden IV, but it is Xenosaga 2 that is the current holder of my 'disappointment' award. For which I will no doubt get blasted.

Imagine that your production staff spent so much on improved character graphics that when the smoke cleared, there was only time to put together a core story with about 20 hours of play. What would you do to inflate the story? How about a set of 50+ mini-quests that send the player shuttling back and forth across known space. How about a couple of record length cut scenes? Throw in a battle system so complicated it takes hours to figure it out. And to add insult to injury, make everyone move very slowly. And there you have Xenosaga 2. A game that really could have been great, drilled into the ground because of the wrong priorities.

There's nothing really wrong with the story arc that a couple of additional 'missions' wouldn't have solved. Instead some relatively trivial bonus dungeons are your reward for finishing the game. Most of the side quest time is spent traveling, not solving or fighting. They would have been more enjoyable if the player didn't have to keep flying back and forth between New Militia and the Foundation. The battle system, which was complicated before now has too many intricacies to count. Yet once you level up enough, brute force is just as effective as finesse.

I have to concede that the character graphics are amazing. Facial expressions are perfect and the effects are often lifelike. But the overall graphic level is still pretty much the same as Xeno 1. I like what they did, but I would happily have sacrificed the new, sexy Shion for more hours of play time. Even the thrill of having the entire team play in bathing suits wears thin after a while.

Hopefully this is just a one game slump. The producers leave no question that there will be a Xenosaga 3, and I hope they put more emphasis on the story and less on Shion's designer outfit (well, MOMO and KOS-MOS look good, but Shion is always a bit frumpy). At least this game has filled out the character roster and explained some of the mysteries of Zeno 1. Hopefully, things will get better again.

Good things come to those who wait. Or at least that is how the adage goes. Unfortunately my two year wait for the second installment in the Xenosaga series has been rewarded with disappointment. The previous game having ended on a cliffhanger I was eager to see what happened next. My eagerness was quickly replaced by disbelief and later by sheer frustration. With different character designs and new voice actors it was at first difficult to get into the game however I was not about to let my two year wait be in vain so I pressed on, only to be rewarded with the most frustrating battle system that I have ever encountered.

"Normal" battles now take at least 5-7 minutes and gone are the days when you could actually avoid the enemies. No matter who my lead character was I couldn't outrun anyone and thus ended up in many long drawn out battles. As for the boss battles I found myself in the throes of agony whenever one came up. After wasting a number of turns in an attempt to find out their "break zone" you then have to stock up in order to do any serious damage. This mind numbing battle system in conjunction with some of the worst in game music that I have ever heard was enough to convince me that something had gone horribly wrong at Namco. It was as if Xenosaga 2 was playing dress up in an attempt to pass itself off as a relative of the original. It had the same characters and the same locations but some how it failed to convince that it even lived in the same neighborhood.

The pacing of the game at times was enough to make me want to quit. After finally beating a boss that took thirty minutes am I rewarded with a cut scene, or anything to move the plot along? No. I am instead forced to solve an out of place puzzle that completely distracts me from the story at hand. Frustrating game play aside the one thing that Xenosaga 2 did halfway right was the story. Now don't get me wrong I feel that Xenosaga has one of the most epic storylines ever set forth in a videogame, however this time it seemed to fall flat in a number of places due to poor voice acting (or directing) and badly misplaced music. Scenes that you knew were supposed to be dramatic came off as cliche and in some cases humorous. There were however some very unexpected plot twists and some scenes that shone with the originality of the first and those are what kept me in the game.

I found myself trudging through the tedious game play just to make it to the next cut scene, the oasis of this otherwise dry game. If it wasn't for the fact that Xenosaga is such a story driven game I would have given up on this before I even finished the first disc. I am a person however who plays RPGs for the express purpose of the story being told and for that Xenosaga 2 has an epic story that is unfortunately trapped in a now generic RPG. In spite of my disappointment I still have hope for this series and hopefully the developers will learn from their mistakes instead of continuing to build on them.

Alot of reviews have been given for this game as "REALLY BAD." I'm one of those people who lets things slide. I'm a big RPG gamer. If you're just looking for fighting in a game. Stay away from this one. This needs alot of role playing consciousness. It has a FANTASTIC storyline (surperior to alot of other RPGs), but the game should have been a movie if you ask me. This game goes back to the past, alot of flashing back and forth and alot of surprises. On "The Trio" as I would say. Jr. Albedo and Gaignun. Don't worry about other characters. They're not as important here. But don't let that get you down.

It summerizes everytime I turn the game on to back where I left off, (loading from memory card) so that should help people who dooesn't game much. I couldn't understand why people wouldn't get the storyline if the UMN at the beginning of the game allows a feature to review what has already happened. I'm guessing people are giving irks about that.

I would probably complain about the voice actors and battle system, alot of people would probably say the same thing. I do not mind KOS-MOS' voice actor as much as Shion and chaos. chaos (Yes no caps) is too stoic for me, after playing Xenosaga I (over and over in order to get his character down, hey he's not human!), I'd say he doesn't add much to the action in the beginning where all the cool fight scenes are. The beginning of this game, IS AWESOME. Yes AWESOME. (Voice actors killed it.)

Shion, I would say, is a mess, her attitudes and momentum throws me off everytime a new situation becomes bad. How can she sound so perky all the time? I would definately go with the voice actor in Xenosaga I if I were to choose between the two. And the old voice actors are wonderful as always, Albedo, Jr., Gaignun, and Captain Matthews. Yar they're the same.

The battle system, yes it's a pain. You're not actually fighting. You spend most of your time "stocking up" and letting your enemies rag doll you most of the time. Stocks are like AP in Xenosaga I, except you can only add one stock each turn, or use an ether "Stock 1" to add a stock to another character. After you attain a certain amount of stocks you are presented a number of combo options. The more stocks, the better combo. It becomes an issue because I would have to run around and train in the same area in order to get enough levels or TM points (in order to get Medica All, it becomes valuable, trust me.) I was hoping that this game system would take a tiny bit from Final Fantasy X (because you can to switch characters in battle) however, unlike FFX, this only allows share of spoils (TM points EXP etc.) to the remaining three characters standing in battle. It becomes a real disadvantage if you have characters that have some abilities, but not others. (Medica, Revert, Refresh, etc. although they all have the same abilities to learn, such as Psycho Pocket.) I would suggest picking three main characters and if you do have a strategy guide, ignore the character reccomendations. I chose to maintain Jr., KOS-MOS, MOMO, or Ziggy. (Robotics addict.) Unlike Xenosaga I, tech attacks are only avalible with doubles. So say you have KOS-MOS and Shion, if you have the key for the ability Double X-Buster with a boost and a certain amount of stocks, you can do a tech a attack. Once per battle.

Also, alot of people are confused about "break zones." It's hard to explain in words, there are tutorials in the game. But it's something so that you think you'll always have to rely on combos. It's like suppose you have an enemy with a break zone of B, A.
On your controller there's a:

O which represents "A" or "B" (Some characters such as Shion and MOMO have only B as combos so you press O all throughout for a "B")
Triangle which represents "C"
Square which represents "B"

Those buttons represent letters. Characters have combos accordingly to the buttons you press. So you attack with Square and O. Then their zone is broken. You give more heavy damage by following the character with O buttons for "break bonus" this just means you successfuly broken through their break zone and you are currantly giving more than average damage.
This all comes down to your characters. Characters have different combos. It's much more simple to play it rather than explain it. There's more to it though. Battle slots are still there, and a few more quirks.

A few notes:
Jr. - A bit weak. He doesn't have a lot of enemies that has a weakness for him. But I use alot of skill upgrades so that he gets to make quick work of Albedo.
KOS-MOS - She's super strong against Gnosis. (Fitting of course.)
MOMO - She's a super valuable asset. I use her ALOT. Her ether bow kills.
Ziggy - He's good against anything. Like bosses.

Another battle system irk is the "Move" command. I use that command to do efficient back shots. But the stupid thing is that if I move to the other side, my character is facing his/her back towards the enemy. Then I'll have to wait next term to attack in order to make her face the enemy. (Confusing ya.)

Speaking of areas, the maps are smaller compared to other games I played, so there's fewer enemies to bash. A bit convienient but gets tiresome if you're trying to get treasures around the block. The UMN encephalon has changed. Now you don't have to worry about exiting through a plate. Just start menu and exit. But I really hate knowing that two disks can only contain about 30 maps. It goes by fast. I mean, really fast. Before the first disk was over I was halfway through the stradegy guide. (And I don't usually buy stradegy guides.) The only things that are making the game longer are the GS campaigns, I'd totally reccommend that you do it or else you won't get all the nifty stuff that would make gameplay a bit more "exhilerating." Like double tech attacks and all those other cool items. (Believe or not I haven't used any item in the game yet, not even a Med Kit.) I'm a thrifty person, knowing that there is no currency = no shops. And I hate the puzzles in this game. It gets on your nerves eventually. Even little tiny puzzles.

The maps are beautifully rendered. One thing I'm ticked off about is that there's no radar. You just have to wait to be ambushed unless you memorize every quirk in the area (which doesn't take a lot since you eventually visit the maps over and over.) Sometimes you can't even smash the traps before the enemy ambushes you.

Although I can't say the same for the characters, even though it's become all realistic, it's become too femme for me. KOS-MOS' new design throws me off, and that's why I put the bathing suit on her for battle, Shion is also a bit femme for me. But I would totally think guy gamers would fall for them eh.

I would also say the same for the guys, they grown cuter, but I still am not pleased with the new character design after I played it.

E.S.s I almost forgot about that. (I was reading other reviews.) Piloting the E.S. is like the A.G.W.S. only more bulky and cooler. The thing that pissed me off for the E.S. is that it's slow on the maps. No matter which E.S. you chose, Dinah, Zebulan, Asher. It's slow. Pathetically slower than the human lead characters. I would love it if they had more abilities and hope that they STOP STOCKING UP. I almost died because half-way I did not have Zebulan (that's the only E.S. that can use ether = heal). But I love the E.S. Much more detailed and beautiful things than the A.G.W.S.

Music is a bit more techy. Very techy. I don't like most of the soundtrack. Gives me a headache. I love orchestra, but that's me. (like Chrono Cross, FFX, and Xenosaga I etc.)

Three stars, it's not the living saga, there's not a "true game" thing going on. Not enough for me to play over and over. If you're into SCI-Fi storyline, random philosophies, techy mechas. (Like me) This game would probably love you. But not as much for me. (And I ain't no star wars fan but I'm loyal enough to keep Xenosaga as my favorite RPGs)

The reviews given by Amazon authors Joe Juba and Matt Miller are spot-on. Xenosaga Episode II is very short for an RPG. And yes, the gameplay has been altered in a negative way. However, any fan of Xenosaga is obligated to play this game. Episode II contains exciting and emotional cut scenes, offers further development of the main characters and continues a deep yet interesting storyline. Just be prepared for a few inferior modifications.

I, too, was disappointed with the change in voice actors, but I saw it coming and therefore wasn't overly bothered by it. Not everyone sounds different; I only noticed Shion and KOS-MOS with different voices. Thankfully, the characters' mannerisms and speech patterns have been left intact. To me, that's what's important.

Another noteworthy downgrade is the music. Episode I had a full symphony orchestra (with chorus) for it's soundtrack! Not so with Episode II. The music isn't bad by any means, but it's nothing that makes me want to buy the soundtrack CD, unlike the first game. The sound effects are pretty much unchanged.

If you want to collect everything the game has to offer you must take on the optional sub-missions, called GS (Good Samaritan) Campaigns. There are 36 of them, some of which are quite lengthy. The time spent on these sub-missions is equal to, if not longer, than the main quest! There's also Segment Files to discover, which Xenosaga veterans are familiar with. They should have named this game's title Side-Questsaga.

Also, can anyone tell me why Episode II comprises two disks? Episode I is only ONE disk, yet it has more cut scenes and is twice as long! I suppose Episode III will comprise THREE disks and only be 1/3 as long as the first game..! It's puzzling...

Oh, and why no database in this Xenosaga? Episode I had a useful database of facts the player could access any time to keep track of all the terms, items and significant events in the game. It was stupid to drop that feature. There IS a brief recap of the events from Episode I available to read, but it doesn't make up for a missing database.

The one, single improvement over the first game is the removal of the mail/plug-in module system. I found it annoying trying not to miss any of the items and information offered by the mail system attachments. I was glad to see it go in Episode II.

Despite all the negatives, Xenosaga Episode II is still worth playing, at least for fans of Episode I. Let's just hope for a grander epic in Episode III. There's plenty to improve at this point.

I am one of those people who is addicted to the Xenosaga series. But that is only because I played the first game. This sequel tried to fix everything that was not perfectly mainstream about the first game and ended up ruining almost everything that made the first game worth playing. That might be a bit of an exaggeration since I did enjoy this game, but it's not far off.
The new character designs are not nearly as polished as the first games characters were. The environment graphics are better, but not by much. The changes in voice actors for Shion, KOS-MOS, and MOMO were not welcomed or appreciated. I had a difficult time trying to reconcil the characters I loved in the first game with the new versions.
The game play started out being confusing and ended up being annoying. The way it works is that each enemy has a break code, and you have to figure out that break code and then usually boost a second character to continue your attack after you've entered it to do any real damage to your enemies. This ends up making battles long and drawn out to the point where sometimes I wanted to stop in the middle of them.
This games comes in two discs, the first disc is mostly cut scenes. The second disc is a string of pointless and difficult boss fights.
The only redeeming thing about this game as a Xenosaga installment is its story. Granted, this game was much worse than the first in linear story telling, but those who want some answers from the mysteries proposed in the first game get a small taste of the truth. Even though I think that the developers have forgotten half of the stuff that happened in the first game at this point.
If you loved the first game, I'd recommend playing through this one just to know what the thing was about and to see the ending. Then I'd start hoping that someone with brain is in charge of the third episode.

If you enjoyed the first Xenosaga and are as curious about the story and where it was headed as I was, then go out and buy this right now.

The story in Xenosaga II answers a lot of the questsion and issues raised in the first Xenosaga involving Jr., Albedo and Gaignan. In fact, their story compromises the first 1/2 or so of the game. However, their story is immensely interesting and their conflict is very important to the current struggle. This makes the game very interesting as it raises new questions and digs a little deeper into some subtle religious moments. As an example and THIS IS A SPOILER: look at the color of Rubedo, Albedo and Negrido's hair and look up on the internet (try Wikipedia, I found the information there particularly useful) the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. You will find some very interesting connections. I would also recommend taking some character's names (Canaan, Nephilim, as an example) and do some searching.

The game also continues the first's of using Friedrich Nietzche's works of philosphy to shape the current story (particularly his idea of not looking at things in the dichotomy of good and evil, black and white, heaven and hell, etc). Overall, the story in Episode II is at least as good if not better (I'm torn at the moment) than the first game. It is exciting, the cutscenes are well directed, and the plot moves quickly.

Which brings me to the title of my review. While the plot is great and continues the Xenosaga tradition, the gameplay is worse than the original. The gameplay is made up for cutscenes and dungeons (with a very very seldom trip to Miltia or the Kukai foundation, and the ships). The dungeons are long and boring, filled with mind-numbing puzzles that involve pushing boxes, setting water levels, making sure bomb detonation flares stike at the same time, going down the right "light path," etc etc. They have all been done before and frankly they are boring.

The battles are equally long and boring. Each enemy has a hit zone that is connected to the buttons of the PS2 controller. You have to figure out which areas will "break" the opponent's defenses, then boost other characters right after to actually do substantial damage. While interesting on paper, the game takes it too far. When each battle becomes a game of stocking your character's moves, building up a boost bar, then unleashing combos on an enemy, it becomes boring and redundant. It's just used too much and often. Every battle became a struggle of this. I can see merit in having to do it with big important boss battles, but fighting the same white drone over and over and having to do the same zone hits just so I can hit him? Some normal battles took upwards of 10 minutes to complete. That is rare, granted, but these aren't boss battles I'm talking about.

Another huge change is that every character learns the same skills. This is a double edged sword for me. On one hand, you're entire group can learn cure spells which eliminates the need to have a "healer, fighter, mage" combo all the time. However, it also means that all characters are alike. The only way they differ is by "double" attacks and their own regular attacks. As it is, the best strategy in the latter half of the game was to have all of the "tank" characters in a group because they could take damage while stocking their turns.

Another interesting change was that there are no shops. You don't buy weapon upgrades and you don't buy healing items. The only items you get are dropped from creatures or found in the environment. Because there is no need to buy items, you hardly need to go to towns, and the game becomes a dungeon crawl, albeit one with an extraordinary story.

Along with the greatness of the cutscenes and the boredom of the game play comes the music. The musical director of the first game is gone replaced by two directors: one for the cutscenes and one for the game play. The cutscene director has some really excellent songs and some forgetable songs. Overall not as good as the previous director, IMO. The gameplay director's music is horrible; it's jazzy, j-pop that is very very incongrous with what's happening the in the game. You don't want to be creeping around some huge evil base while elevator music is playing in the background...

The Gear battles...er...AGWS battles...er....ES Battles are much better and more utilized in this game than the last. It more closely represents Xenogears. It's a welcome change. In fact, because you don't have to stock your turns just to do damage (though it is an option for doing some neat attacks), the ES battles play better than the on foot battles.

Finally, the length. Apparently people took 40-60 hours beating Xenosaga I. I took 35 and mostly got everything I needed. It took me about 23-25 hours to beat Xenosaga II. I was shocked when at the 9 hour mark I was flipping to the second disk.

Overall, this is a 4 star game. The cutscenes (presented in 5.1 if you have the ability to run it) are superbly directed and have a wonderful sound quality. The voice work is really well done (except for MOMO, I liked her voice from the first game), and they are usually filled with eye candy. The plot is excellent, with wonderful pacing, it makes you want to know what's going to happen next and see how it all ties together. It doesn't tie up all loose ends and the third Xenosaga will probably feature the same cast. The gameplay is a bore. I longed for the cutscenes. I really hope they 1) make the gameplay more fun or 2) make the series into an anime series (which they've done with the first episode) in the future. So, my rating is a 3 for the fun, but the story (5 star) pulls it up to an overall of a 4.

If the original Xenosaga left you wanting so much more, then you should definitely buy this game (especially from a website that still offers the preorder bonus, a VERY awesome dvd that has 4.5 hours of cutscenes from the first game). If you're looking for fun gameplay, this game, unfortunately does not do it for me.

Please know that for every bad quality I've mentioned in the game, I really really enjoyed it from a story view. My friends and I have spent a lot of time discussing it outside of playing because it really is a rich game. I really wanted to give it the 5 star review. Unfortunately, it's a game, not a movie and I have to review it as such.

The first Xenosaga, while not as epic or involving as the original Xenogears, was still an incredible RPG by any standards. What made it so great was not just the story, but an extremely entertaining combat model, strong voice acting, character designs with faces which could display a full range of emotions, and excellent cut-scene direction. This latter was especially important because of the dozen or so hours players spent watching them. Xenosaga: Episode II has simply removed all of the above-mentioned things and replaced them with mediocrity.
First off, I like the new character designs in theory. What I mean is, I disliked the huge-eyed anime style of the first game because the characters didn't look human, so it was harder to empathize. However, the new characters are almost incapable of emoting. In truth, the technology is apparantly there, since faces do show emotion in a handful of scenes (such as Jr. and Shion's tearful reminisinces or Albedo's disturbing rage). But most scenes are, of course, filled with more subtle and nuanced character interaction, which falls flat due to the placid death-masks most characters seem to wear.
Character dialogue also falters in a number of other areas, including the voice-acting itself. It should be mentioned that all of the voices are different this time around. In some cases (Chaos, Jin) the change is good; in some (KOS-MOS, MOMO) bad; and in some barely noticeable (Ziggy, Jr.). This happens in the game industry, and is nothing to complain about. The only problem comes from Shion. Her voice and voice-acting are fine, but her character is so different from the previous game as to be unrecognizable. I'm not merely speaking of her new penchant for low-rider jeans- her entire personality is different from top to bottom. The old Shion was in control, but slightly geeky and had, frankly, more maturity. She was not "cool", but she was endearing. The new one is bossy and sometimes obnoxious (in the way she treats Allen- "Be a man!"), far, far more 'empowered' and 'liberated', and too hip. In short, they are complete opposites. Whichever one the designers want to use in the story is fine, but it needs to be consistent. When Shion was designed one way for Episode I, it's too late to make a change. She should stay the same throughout the series. This is especially true when, as in Episode II, the new game takes place literally 5 minutes after the end of the first, hardly leaving time for experience to have drastically changed the character.
Next, the scenes are very poorly directed this time out, with a bit of the meaningless dialogue seen in the Star Ocean series. This is limited and wouldn't be a problem but for two things: First, we learn almost nothing in this game. The few 'revelations' were either already obvious, or covered before, in Episode I, making most of the dialogue extraneous. Second, like in so many other games, the actors' lines were clearly recorded separately and one at a time, leaving them to be spliced together by the editors. This may make it easier on game designers but it is an awful and jarring way to produce a cut-scene. Due to load times, every character has unnaturally long pauses before reacting to others, generally killing the drama and making the game appear unprofessional. Because this is so common in games I normally don't think about it, but Xenosaga: Episode I had excellent cut-scenes, obviously recorded in chunks, to avoid this problem.
Finally, the music was poor. The original had a sweeping, epic, orchestral soundtrack. Now, when a designer has the London Philharmonic Orchestra recording for his game (Xenosaga: Episode I), he normally doesn't tell them "No thanks, we've decided to go a different way" when making the sequel. This is exactly what happened with Namco, unfortunately. Instead, Episode II has an abundance of bouncy retro-techno-style music filling every scene. When I first heard the soundtrack in the city of Second Miltia (on of the first locations in the game) I immediately thought of Mega Man for the NES. That feeling didn't go away for the rest of the game. Furthermore, most of this upbeat music is grossly inappropriate for the locations the characters visit and the mood of the story. When the heroes are about to enter the final dungeon, we still hear the grating, fast-paced techno-beat of the Elsa in the background.
Now to the actual gameplay:
The battle system is entirely new and far more complicated. This is both good and bad. The good side is that, for once, an RPG actually has an element of strategy to it. The player MUST have a firm grip of the battle system to be victorious, even when they grossly out-level the enemy. The down-side is that it takes a long time for even minor battles, and most can't be avoided, despite seeing the enemies on the map-screen. This is because the enemies tend to stand on narrow pathways, blocking the entire thing. By the end of the game I was really tired of the fights and just couldn't wait to get it over with. I missed the addictive battle system from the first game, but I nonetheless think this one has some real promise. Perhaps future installments can mix the two, or use a more strategy-oriented approach only for bosses.
Otherwise, the gameplay should be familiar to veterans of the first game. There is still no world map, but the Elsa can fly to any friendly location (of which there are only two) during the second half of the game. The Encephalon also reappears and is quite a bit more useful, even necessary, this time because of the side-quests.
Speaking of side-quests, there are countless extra jobs to complete, and no intuitive way for figuring out where to get them or how to complete them in most cases. I just used an online guide to save myself some frustration. Even if you know how to do them perfectly, they still take a long time, mostly spent backtracking across the urban areas trying to find some obscure citizen or other.
In short, the only improvement in this game is the art style- and even that doesn't extend to the animation, which is much poorer than in the original. The game is short. I completed everything (including all side-quests, segment doors, and optional bosses) in less than 40 game-clocked hours. Going straight through to the final boss with a minimal amount of side-quests wouldn't take even 20. Frankly, I'd like to see a much bigger game. This one took two DVDs, and I can't figure out what used all that space.
Xenosaga: Episode II is only part of a much larger series. Since Xenogears was billed as episode 5 of 6, it's possible (despite Namco not having the rights to Xenogears) that these series are one in the same. If that's the case, at this rate, it will take all 5 additional episodes to match the size, scope and theme of the original Xenogears. Here's hoping they pick up the pace.