Phineas's Review of

Xenosaga II [Namco] [PS2]

43hr: 44m: 57s

…the amount of time it took me to beat Xenosaga II. My review of Xenosaga II is finally here. My blog started when I picked up this game, and my review is here. Granted I beat this game over a week ago, but I’ve been playing so many other non-time consuming games that this review got put on the back burner.

Let me say something about the Xenosaga series before I get into the review. You either love Xenosaga or you hate it. It is a series that is devoid of the ability to take a middle-ground stance upon. With its LONG cutscenes, deep and sometimes convoluted storyline, and overly dramatic voice acting at times (this not unique to Xenosaga), it can turn many gamers including RPG fans away. That all being said, my review will either ingrain within you a desire to play the game, or make you hate it all the more.

Storyline:

Xenosaga II is a RPG that takes the method of storytelling usually found in RPG’s and throws it out the window. Most RPG’s tend to start with a central hero, develops its plot consistantly, and ends with the hero saving the world and [more often than not] getting the girl. You will not find anything like this in Xenosaga II. Xenosaga II’s storyline is long, drawn out, confusing, touches on many different issues and subjects, and tends to leave you wanting for all the juicy bits that they haphazardly throw your way. It is a series that rewards the faithful in that it has a tendency to throw interesting tidbits of character and storyline info your way while forcing you to play its installments to learn issues surrounding the main story. Xenosaga II [obviously] picks up where the first one left off. You start the game on Second Militia in what seems to be only moments after making an emergency landing there at the end of the first game. You are quickly thrust back into the hunt for the meaning of the Zohar and why everyone seems to want them so much. This time around Shion and KOS-MOS are not the main characters of the storyline. This installment heavily favors MOMO and Jr. as the characters that drive the game. You quickly learn that the information inside MOMO’s head is vital to your mission and that Jr.’s past has just as much to do with your quest as well. Towards the end of the game, the story did just what it did in the first chapter - you find yourself left with questions unanswered and new ones posed. You do learn more relevant information this time around than you did in the first game. However, if you are a gamer that needs black and white storytelling – DO NOT PLAY XENOSAGA. I personally enjoy Xenosaga’s method of storytelling and found the ending to be VERY interesting and will definitely have me longing for chapter 3.

Graphics:

Xenosaga II is definitely no slouch in the graphics department. From the environments, to the battle sequences, to the character design, and the cutscenes, Xenosaga II will impress those who are graphically driven gamers. The character designs have been “matured” in this installment and do not look so anime in style. This change is most notable in Shion and KOS-MOS and hardly noticeable in the others. KOS-MOS looks much more robotic, with a very nice touch in her hair shinning in waves as if made of fiber-optic cables. Shion apparently took some time to develop a fashion sense as she struts through the game in an outfit you’d find in an art gallery opening in SOHO. The look of the game is obviously futuristic with many holograms, and bright energy rich locales. Your attacks are colorful with nice particle effects added to them. The games graphics really shine in the cutscenes [as in most RPG’s], some are in-game engine driven, and some are more highly rendered. There is a particular cutscene involving KOS-MOS about midway through the game that is absolutely amazing to watch.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Xenosaga II is standard procedure for an RPG – for the most part. You wander around the different locales, talk to passersby, and get info on what to do next. The unique gameplay feature of Xenosaga II is its fighting system. The boost system is back, but now it is of greater value to your success in battle. The boost gauge is driven through your physical attacks, the more you do, the faster it fills. Once it fills you can “boost” ahead of an ally or an enemy in the attack queue. Learning when to boost, coupled with Xenosaga II’s new combo-driven attack system, will garner more success than simply plugging away at the enemy. This is especially true in boss battles as the Xenosaga series is known for hard-won boss fights. As I said, the battles are now combo-driven instead of move-based. You now have high, middle, and low attack options available to you. Certain enemies have certain “zone combos” that make them more susceptible to damage. Learn their susceptible zones, exploit it, and battles will be much more easily won. One of the new gameplay features which can be considered both good and bad depending on your viewpoint is that of your character’s skills. In this game, it is entirely possible to have all your characters equipped with the exact same skills. This kills character uniqueness in battle, but can help you out in a pinch in battle if things aren’t going your way. At times, it is really helpful to have all your characters able to heal, buff, and resurrect if need be. However this does kill some of the challenge. Once you learn to zone break, and if all your characters are equipped with similar skills, only boss battles will present a challenge. Another gameplay element is the “Global Samaritan Campaign.” It is essentially a laundry list of side-quests that will probably double the overall length of the game, and the only way to get access to certain high level skills and items. They range from anything from go-from-here-to-there quests to destroy-the-obligatory-mini-boss quests. For the most part, they seem fairly tacked on. You won’t really learn anything relevant to the story from doing these, but you will get some items and skills that are extremely helpful later on. You will also extend your game from the approximate 25 hour critical path needed to complete the game.

Sound:

The sound in this game is really neither good nor bad. It is for the most part standard RPG fare. There is however a substantially larger amount of voice-overs in this game than you’ll find in most RPG games. This goes along with Xenosaga II’s long cutscenes. The voice-acting is decent for the most part. I did notice two issues with it though. One is that a good amount of the voices are very subdued and lacking a lot of emotion in moments where you would expect more audible emotion. The other issue is the syncing of the voices with the characters. It’s pretty off most of the time, but this is a result of localizing a game that came from overseas.

Replayability:

For the most part, RPG’s don’t have much replay value in that most people do not want to sit through a 40-50 hour game all over again. Action-RPG’s are changing that these days, but for more traditional RPG’s you will probably only play it once. However, there is a small amount of replay value in Xenosaga II. There are certain quests, items, and GSC quests that do not become available until you’ve loaded the clear game data from your first playthrough. There is nothing spectacular to be found here, but if you’re the anal-retentive RPG gamer, then you’ll probably want to try these out. If you’re not, then you won’t really miss anything.

Final Verdict:

Xenosaga II [and the series as a whole so far] is a good game. If you like deep stories, and don’t mind watching a good amount of the game go by, you’ll like this game. You may also like the series if you are tired of the dungeons and dragons feel of most RPG’s. The game has its flaws, but non that is too detrimental to the overall experience. If you are an RPG fan, play this game. Aside from that, I really can’t push this game (which I hate saying because I’m a huge fan of the series).

I give Xenosaga II for the PS2 a B.