Xenosaga Ep. III

After more than a year of owning it, I am finally playing the last chapter. I guess I put it off for a number of reasons. Most prominently, I was loathe to see it all end. I mean, I’m used to not playing games as soon as I buy them (hey, grad school is a time consuming endeavor) but a YEAR? It was really starting to bug me, and it was time.

After firing it up a while ago, and playing the first ‘mission,’ I’m honestly wondering why I waited so long. Miyuki is Saga’s Selphie, don’t deny it 🙂 I hope to see a LOT more of her.

I also hope that I don’t feel constricted in what characters I can use, like in Ep. II. I really did love Ep. II, especially the battle system. Yes, people complained, but when you strung together successful assualts you felt ACCOMPLISHED. I did, at any rate. Point being, I use Shion, MOMO, and Jr. In II, they really made me have to level pretty hard since Shion and MOMO had limited ‘control’ over their breaking ability. It was almost as if they were asking you to choose between the two. I DON’T WANT TO 😡

I hope that doesn’t happen in III, I really don’t. I like Jin, but I don’t want to use him over MOMO. MOMO > KOS-MOS. Yeah, fanboys, bring it.

Finally, I don’t quite understand the swimsuits, and the series’s fixation on them. You can actually rewatch FMVs in III in ‘swimsuit mode’ :eye:. Shion looks beautiful in her’s, but I don’t appreciate feeling like a paedo, considering who else I use in my party 😮

YOUR ROLE IN THIS THREAD: Thoughts, opinions, rants, about the series (feel free to include Gears). I don’t mind minor spoilers, but if you feel the need to discuss, say, the connection between Fei/Able and Saga before I figure that out. Yeah, bad times.

Mark major spoilers, plx. If in any doubt, mark it. Like this, perhaps: *****SPOILER*****

No specific spoilers here, but the section marked ‘3’ does deal with a few general ones about how the game is structured that you might want to avoid.

Xenosaga III is great. Definitely one of my favorite JRPGs for the PS2. However, there were three problems with the game that annoyed me a little:

1. Linearity: This is nothing new for the series and fans of the first two games won’t be bothered by it in the slightest. However, I had hoped that by the third game they would at least make SOME effort to fix this by adding in more sidequests, but ultimately Episode III is just as, if not more void of them then Episode I. I’m not overly bothered by linearity in video games, and sometimes I think non-linear games are given more praise then they should have been, but when a RPG could basically have been ‘on-the-rails’ without any significant effect to the gameplay, something is wrong.

2. Cutscenes: Once again, Xenosaga fans probably won’t be bothered by this since it’s just as prominent in the first two games but the cutscene to gameplay balance is still kind of off in Episode III. All three games in the series start with a great opening ‘mission’ that showcases the gameplay (which, apart from episode II, has been some of the best turn-based combat in recent years) but then they all fall into the same ‘walk forward > trigger cutscene > walk forward etc” crap for hours on end. The game does eventually get going, but I don’t see why Monolith Soft made this mistake with EVERY game in the series . Also, the cutscenes themselves aren’t nearly as impressive as in previous games. Or more, the impressive cutcenes are used in far less abundance then the previous games, instead opting to just use the in-game models with character portraits incorporated into the dialog boxes to portray emotion. This is a pretty outdated methodology and just goes to show that Monolith Soft was operating under a much lower budget for this game then the previous 2. I guess we have Episode II to thank for that.

3. Pacing: by far my biggest complaint with the game. It’s very obvious that a lot of content was cut for this game. In fact, it’s very possible that there was supposed to be an entire game between Episode II and III that was cancelled when the project was cut from 6 games down to 3. This ridiculous fuck-load of information is summarized by Shion over the course of a 10 minute monologue near the beginning of the game. This, of course, is pretty unsatisfying and if you want to actually understand any of it, you’ll have to either search through the game’s ocean of a database or hunt down a copy of the flash animation ‘The Missing Year’, which was never translated into English. As if this wasn’t bad enough, when the game hits the 17 hour mark or so, it’s as if the designers thought “Fuck it, let’s just wrap it all up” and systematically rounds off EVERY character arc in the game in one foul swoop. Most of them aren’t dealt with in a satisfactory manner, most notably the past of one of my favorite protagonists.

Now, to be fair, Monolith Soft was posed with an almost impossible task. Not only did they have to cover all the content that had been cut from Episode II, but also come up with a satisfactory conclusion to a story which barely had time to get going. Still, with all that in mind, maybe they should have tried to make the game longer then *23 hours* to compensate. I mean good god, that’s barely longer then Episode II. And the game STILL manages to drag at the beginning due to the aforementioned cutscene/gameplay balance.

At the end of the day though, Episode III has a great battle system, fun dungeons and fantastic characters. It’s not what it should have been, probably not even close, but I doubt there are many fans of the series that will actually be disappointed. Also, I wouldn’t worry about your character choices too much. The game is balanced enough that in general it doesn’t really matter. That being said, I can’t imagine beating the last two bosses without Chaos’ final special attack. It’s…incredibly useful, to say the least.

I can’t imagine beating the last two bosses without Chaos’ final special attack. It’s…incredibly useful, to say the least.

I accept your challenge 🙂

Oh, I’m sure it’s possible. This is a JRPG after all, so pretty much any challenge can be skewed by just leveling up. Only it would probably take more effort then I was willing to put into the game.

imo saga sucks gears is da bomb

Gears is my favorite non-Final Fantasy game. I love it with a passion and I can’t see Xenosaga (any of the eps or even the whole) overtaking it. I do really love Saga, though. I may be the only one (outside of the guy who wrote the most complete FAQ over at Gamefaqs) who actually prefers Ep. II to Ep. I. Albedo steals the show, everytime, without fail.

Rubedo/Albedo/Nigredo, oh man I love the variants and Sakura/MOMO. I also always smile at Shion/Allen. I’m emo like that 🙂

I played some more and I see what you mean about relying on avas and voice work as opposed to FMVs, Throne. It almost mirrors how the second disk of Gears moves to them telling the stories of various events as opposed to actively moving between them.

saga is like bad
gears is a-rod regular season good
suikoden is barry bonds steroid mvp good

Xenogears has a much better story then Xenosaga, but the gameplay is pretty bad at times. At least when you look past the linearity and diminutive length of the Xenosaga games they have a solid battle system that’s entertaining and actually requires some stratagy (except II which is just…urgh). Xenogears’ foot battles are fun to begin with, but pretty quickly it devolves into just using your most powerful deathblows and healing when necessary. There are a few useful support ethers, but you never really need them since the only really challenging enemies all use instant-death attacks. Gear battles are basically the same, except there a little more stratagy in knowing how to use fuel efficiently.

What really annoyed me though was the high random encounter rate and frustrating platforming elements (Urgh @ Tower of Babel). I mean really, is platform jumping really necessary in an RPG? Is it really necessary for the player to be assaulted with enemies during said platform jumping? It’s a good thing the story is so incredible, since I doubt I would have continued with the game otherwise.

I am playing Xenogears again…mostly because I want to relive the beginnings of Emeralda. Like leveling her up again and learning all the skills and making her into a grown up…but I have to go through the Tower of Babel. Which is my next endeavor after barely beating Id.

Saga series is great. I love all the FMVs, but honestly eps II was my least fav. Mainly because it revolved around the more annoyingly voiced characters (ie. MOMO, Jr., that lady that says "LITTLE MASTER!" all too often). Still…Jr.’s voice did grow on me. Anyway, eps III is great…but since it’s less about Momo and Jr. I believe you will disagree Kneg.

Also: I also wished Miyuki had more scenes. Loved her voice and character. There should be more characters like Selphie.

I just got back from the Demonstration. I let out an audible gasp when Abel showed up 🙂 Finished the first world of Hakox. That seems like it’ll be fun, if infuriating, in the later levels 😉

Don’t mind if I say this.I can fight Kevin and the last boss without problem.

The only way to do it is beat all the Segment Files.Beat Omega Universitas/ID.This is for obtaining a very good item.

I forgot the name,but something like ..Pillar or something.

That post contains a pretty massive plot spoiler. Knegative may well have finished the game by now but I would recommend marking it like she said in her first post just in case.

I knew about Kevin already. It’s in the intro to the strategy guide 😯

They have this little table saying who’s who among the Testaments. I knew all of them, except Kevin, but was like that makes sense.

I haven’t played in like a week, I think. School *rasperry noise*

Heh rasperry voice…was that Little Master? Lol

C’mon Kneg, Allen needs to express his feelings already!

Allen needs to express his feelings already!

My god I absolutely eat that shit up. He’s been rather smooth about it up to the point I’m at, though (I’m sneaking in to get KOS-MOS).

Go, Allen, Go.

I had a similar experience with the Testaments actually. One of the original Japanese trailers revealed all their identities. I always thought that was a pretty stupid move and was glad they cut it out of the US trailer. Kind of disappointing to hear they put it at the beginning of the stratagy guide though, unless they clearly marked it for spoiler warnings.

Although now that I think about it, his identity is basically revealed in the opening cinema, so maybe it’s not that big a deal.

I grinded for a good couple of hours, yesterday. I’m now in the temple on the Floating Landmass.

Hakox World 2-8, OMG. 😮

I’ll be using these after my and Ndi’s round in the couples rumble :):

Current Progress: Just cleared the Merkabah, World 4 of Hakox.

I really should be pulling my hair out over Hakox, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t practically a zen experience. Kudos for the Pokemon references (FireRed, LeafGreen :))

Alright, down to business. I’m trying to figure out what is going on with the "dive" into Shion’s subconscious. Kevin needed the energy of both Shions to summon Abel’s Ark. But it was already there, a year ago, in Miltian space, at the end of Ep. II. Is he just lying such that she would act the way he wanted her to (i.e., release the energy needed to summon the Ark by convincing her that it was her who summoned the Gnosis?) But, again, the Ark was already there :eye:

I’m honestly very confused by this entire plot point. If they had just said that it was actually "the past" and that they had to go back to it to make everything exist as it currently does, I would have no problem with it. I know plenty of people have a problem with that kind of ‘retroactive determinism,’ if you will, but I quite fancy it as a Matrix fan and Bill and Ted fan, and you get the idea.

It appeared at the end of Episode II, but it disappeared straight away with the Zohar. Presumably they needed to summon it again.

oic. I still wonder if he was lying just to get her to do it, because even though we found out that Joachim wasn’t (as much) the madman everyone thought, he was still mucking around with the Zohar. Right?

That whole section of the story is pretty poorly explained. Actually, most of the story is poorly explained. I would just forget it and read the database or wikipedia page later.

HaKox is no more.

The infamous 6-4 was probably the hardest. I taped my triangle and square buttons as recommended, but still had trouble coordinating my goals. I ended up just using a group of 4 to get a plus 6 instead of the more elegant plus 1 combos.

6-10 was much more fun than infuriating. It took much fewer tries than many of the levels in worlds 5 and 6.

Easily up there on my list of favorite mini-games with Triple Triad and Blitzball.

This is probably the second to last post I’ll make in here, as I just have to finish my skill lines and the story. Sorry about double posting again, but I have a doozy of a point to make :p

The so-called uber challenges in this game are really rather lame. Especially in comparison to those presented in Ep. II.

Let’s do this in order:

Omega Id: This guy was HORRIBLY predictable. He signals his strongest attack and allows you time to heal for it, EVERYTIME. He’s so predictable that after I figured out his strategy, I was able to take him out with just 2 E.S.s. Maybe I’m slow on the uptake to have let him take 2 of them to begin with, but that I took down 3/4 of his health with just two, and could have easily done all of it with just two is rather banal. *sigh*

Erde Kaiser Sigma: Two of the EK devices come from following the story. The third comes from beating Omega Id. Not only is he predictable, if you have the money to buy the last set of ES equipment, you’ve got Id licked.

As far as I can tell, ES don’t have levels, so as soon as you buy the frames, you’re set for both of them. If I’m wrong and character levels somehow mystically affect ES levels, please let me know.

Basically, I’m saying there really isn’t a horrible amount of challenge to the additional content in this Episode. Now, I know the run-and-fetch quests in Ep. II were beyond insipid, but at least it had 3 optional fights that took a good deal of strategy and luck.

Yeah, the optional bosses in XSIII are pretty pathetic. EK Sigma barely got a turn in due to the insane amount of break damage caused by Dark Erde Kaiser. I actually had a great deal more trouble with the final two story bosses then I did Id and Erde Kaiser. Although I did beat said final bosses before getting any of the EK ethers.

I never attempted any of the optional bosses in XSII. The battle system was just far too trying.

It froze in the middle of the end movie.
It froze in the middle of the end movie?
It froze in the middle of the end movie!

I’m gonna stab someone in the eyes!!!

I don’t have time to watch it again, right now. I’ll try it again tonight (after cleaning the disc, it did have some light smudges). If nothing else, I’ll bring it up on YouTube. When it froze it still allowed me the option to pause it and skip it, so I’ll do that so I can grab Chaos’s robe [I’m guessing it’s the robe he has on Lost Jerusulem but I could be wrong] and Allen’s swimsuit and finally be done.

First and foremost, I have to give them kudos for the final database update. It answered a good 99% of the major questions I had lingering (e.g., why doesn’t Joshua have an Anima vessel? What the hell is the deal with “the maiden?" What do you mean KOS-MOS failed to protect Shion? Why is Mary going into Nephilim? Did Shion really call the Gnosis? What the hell is the deal with the Ark?) I suppose you could argue that that stuff could have been said outright, but hey what are you going to do, the series got cut short.

In regards to this, I know we’ve discussed possible financial limitations (as evidenced by the in-game, dialogue box-driven cutscenes), but I still wish that some events had gotten FMVs. The Gnosis terrorism can stay shrouded in irrelevance. I’m fine with events happening between episodes and not being fleshed out. I would have liked some Chaos/Mary/Shion scenes on Lost Jerusalem, and I really think that the Ziggy/Voyager events on Michtam could have been very powerful. Oh well.

Beat’s concern over this episode’s Lack of focus on MOMO and Jr. in regards to my affinity for it is, I have to say, unfounded. Nigredo’s sacrifice was delightful and I was glad to see Albedo and Rubedo find peace. Canaan’s was pretty great as well (though, seeing the very pink Zebulun blast Voyager was simultaneously hilarious and great). I have to admit that I was foolish in ever calling Jin a Citan rip-off. He is, but in appearance only. He was developed in a much different way and I was glad to see a stoic live out his story.

I was so up in the air right before the final act. Shion siding with Kevin and the whole Mary Magdalen thing. ZOMG, it’s da DaVinci code :p That was blessedly short lived, as Allen, OMG, Allen you are the man. I’m a sucker for unrequieted love. I make no bones about that, and to have Allen resolve that and stand firm against Kevin, and tell Kevin why him, Wilhelm and all the testaments are full of it? LOVE IT.

The ending is without a doubt a mishmash mess of Determinism vs. Free Will, with Shion in essence conceding to what some could call an intermediate position of Free Will within the box of determinism. I prefer to see it as the illusion of Free Will within the ultimate domain of Determinism, but that’s me coloring it with my own views on the matter, I am fully aware. That, as they say, is a matter for another thread.

The final database hints at the possibility that eternal recurrance already occurred a number of times previous and that this was a change, but also that it could simply be a node in a larger circle. This is how I view the events of the Matrix trilogy, so I’m all about it. Again, a matter for another thread 🙂

Abel as a manifestation of U-DO is quite interesting given the events of Xenogears, and is something well worth musing over. I certainly will, at length.

To wrap up my ramblings on the story, I know why, but still WHY did MOMO and Muyuki get left behind?!? MOMO’s entries in the final database are quite revealing, leaving us to infer that Jr. will assume his true form once Albedo reawakens, MOMO will be upgraded to adult form (paralleling Emeralda) and that they will have a child. Oh well, nothing wrong with a nice white picket-fence fantasy even in space, I guess :p

Okay, gameplay. ToO you were right in that I didn’t feel constricted by using Shion, Jr, and MOMO. However, it still left me feeling rather blas� about the gameplay, as they all had SMALL break damage attacks. It always took me forever to break enemies and once they were, boosting through an assault felt like I was barely chipping away at their HP just to leave me with many around to break them again. Rinse and repeat, *sigh*

I like the progression in the series in the importance and connectedness to the mechs. It didn’t reach Gears levels, but it got really close, with me being upset when my favorite (Asher) didn’t have access to its Vessel during the Miltian conflict and when they were robbed of the Vessels and fell off the Zarathustra platform ‘lifeless.’

Interestingly connected to this is Erde Kaiser. I didn’t think it was possible, but Voltron has finally been given a run for his money. Beginning as an unabashed desire by Monolith Soft to have a giant fighting (and combining) robot in the series (hey I can’t blame them) it came to be ingeniously tied to the plot. At first, it appears superficial with the Professor and Scott becoming squatters on the Elsa, then pragmatic as Erde Kaiser’s drive is used to power the Asher during the conflict, and finally ‘fated’ as it allowed Jin to transport the others to safety before allowing Chaos, Nephilim, Mary, Abel and KOS-MOS do their thing.

Erde Kaiser, ftw. The only way he could be cooler is if all his forms combined, which Sigma sorta embodies anyway. Zarathustra using the various parts of the E.S.s was a nice touch as well.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit and I’d have to say it is my favorite story-wise. For gameplay, I have to say Ep. II. Not many people agree with me, but that’s okay. I’m used to it 🙂 It sits beside the Matrix as something I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s good to here that someone actually enjoyed this series besides me.
and on the same note the second one was also my favorite as well. From the begining of the second one I always found it funny how junior seemed to like MOMO. it’s just too bad it wasn’t really meant to be. All the extra battles after game completion though in the second one took me a while.

Through out the third episode I felt a little sorry for shion. I mean finding out your the source of a calamity that’s destroying the world is a lot to take in and finally seeing the not so crazy Dr. Mizrahi’s resolve was kinda cool but really does anyone really think he was crazy? I thought just a tiny. (The whole scene before he falls of the building was pretty crazy I thought.)

lastly I loved the showdown between Jin and Margulis. GO JIN. My only problem why did they have to have Jin die. He was a pretty cool character. although not a to good role model.

To say Jr. and MOMO weren’t meant to be is pretty much patently false. The ending is left up in the air, but the database entry definitely wants you to assume that they will be reunited. If you do or not, hey, that’s up to you.

Jin basically said himself that he had to die. He knew it was what he was supposed to do. The database hints at resurrection based on his status as an Anima ‘affiliate’ but again, you feel about it how you want based on the constraints of the story and how you interpret it.

I think some would argue that the spaces left for interpretation are plot holes but given the heavy-handedly philosophical nature of the story, I’m willing to accept them as points of interpretation, and accept whatever opinion others will have of me because of it 🙂

I agree that the additional fights in Ep. II were time-consuming but that’s exactly why I liked them. See my earlier posts as I’ve already discussed this point.

Unfortunately for me, I haven’t played Episode II yet, and I only got Episode III 2 days ago. I’m at the rescue Shion part of it, but I probably won’t have time to get back on it, since winter break is over (hehe back to the books :smrt:)

But I have played episode I through, and from what I have played into episode III, I do like how the gameplay runs.
And Knegative I have to agree with ya on Momo, she is and will always be greater than Kos-Mos, but of course Chaos rules over them all.:-P

What I probably dislike the most (not even dislike really, more like annoyed by) is Shion. I understand that finding all of what happened with Miltia and the Gnosis Terrorism had her father’s and her fingerprints all over it, but her attitude and rash actions just piss me off sometimes, but that’s just me.

I like to use these teams the most:

Team 1:
Chaos
Momo
Ziggy

Team 2:
Chaos
Shion
Kos-Mos

Team 3:
Chaos
Momo
Jr.

As you can see, I absolutly hate using Jin, he just doesn’t appeal to me, He’s a good guy and all, but I just hate fighting with him…most likely it’s just my personality

I only played ep 1… and I never finished it, I hear 3 summarizes what happened but can anyone vouch for how good the summary is?

if your talking about episode I, tell about the summaries and I can vouch

It’s thorough, UM. Though, I’m kinda biased in thinking that you should play Ep. II. If you really really like Jr./Gaignun/Albedo and MOMO, I say play Ep. II.

It’s do-able, I guess, but there is so much I love about the first two eps that I want to say you should finish them.

I felt really cheated by just having to read about the Ziggy/Voyager saga, and I can’t imagine doing that with two games I adore.

EDIT: I was under the impression that you had finished all 3, Zan. My apologies to you and UM for not marking spoilers myself. I was only worried about them for me and assumed only people who had finished them all would read and comment.

You know what assuming does. My bad 😮

Nah it’s kool, spoilers don’t ruin it for me anyway so no harm done =)

I guess I will get episode II soon then because under Chaos, Momo and Jr. and my favorites

I suppose your right the ending for MOMO and Jr. is reall up in the air. It took me to reread the database on it though to see your point.

plot holes huh? good way to put it knegative. a lot of this series is based on interpretation and heavy philosophical beliefs. Every character seemed to have thier own code of ethics or beliefs. Like Virgil and Shion and realian rights. They were pretty much human after all. And Jin and Margulis they had seperate beliefs on a lot of things. so yes plot holes well put!

if your talking about episode I, tell about the summaries and I can vouch

Since you are playing Episode III you can read them yourself. Just select Data on the start screen and load any of your files. Select the first option–the name escapes me but it’s probably something obvious like Episode Data–and you’ll find the summaries. They’re also in your database under Story.

Seriously Who doesn’t love a cool looking kid with hand-guns?

He’s not a kid, ftr. That’s a spoiler, but hey if you’re going to be cheeky :p

oh my bad I misinterpreted what Magnus was saying, I thought he was saying he’s seen three summaries about the ending of episode 1:-$

indeed, Jr. was a pretty cool character. A URTV too at that.

I love Jr. his attitude reminds me of myself sometimes, especially in III lol

He’s not a kid, ftr. That’s a spoiler, but hey if you’re going to be cheeky :p

indeed, Jr. was a pretty cool character. A URTV too at that.

Yes I know both of that, I said child for the fact that he looks like one and a 12 year old gun-wielding protaganist is way cooler than some Child/cyborg killing machine with a ruptured pituitary gland. Let’s see where did I last finish… I believe it’s after you fight Albedo and after you meet Virgil.

come on now Magnus

Ziggy is the man, although he’s melonchaly about almost everything, he’s still the man

but still Chaos reigns over all:smrt:

lol. this is understandable PirateZan.

I really felt like Jr. was stretching the limits of hell, damn, and bastard sounding ‘hardcore’ in Ep. III. Felt like he really was a 12 yr old trying to act cool.

I like Ziggy as a character, I just don’t prefer to use him in battle. His choke tech in III was quite handy, though.

yea, he would just put hell in his sentence for the hell of it, I’d be sitting there listening to him and be like

"now why in the world did he just cuss right there"

In 1 Chaos barely talks, and I love how he only has a nickname. Zigarot just didn’t do it for me, he so nonchalant it gets on my nerves. Jr.’s spunky, kick ass, has the most configurable weapon system (second only second to KOS-MOS who has some unbelievably strong special attacks). Also he’s so mysterious, does EP 2&3 delve into his whole 666 on his hands thing?

come on now Magnus

Ziggy is the man, although he’s melonchaly about almost everything, he’s still the man

but still Chaos reigns over all:smrt:

UM wasn’t referring to Ziggy, actually, just an alternate way of looking at Rubedo. The ruptured pituitary part is probably tongue-in-cheek, but the cyborg part is inaccurate because while he probably knows that URTVs are experimental anti U-DO weapons, he doesn’t know that they are salvators, yet.

does EP 2&3 delve into his whole 666 on his hands thing?

You’d better believe it. That’s why you need to play Ep. II.

the second one does explain 666 quite a bit. it also explains why albedo is kinda crazy.

UM wasn’t referring to Ziggy, actually, just an alternate way of looking at Rubedo. The ruptured pituitary part is probably tongue-in-cheek, but the cyborg part is inaccurate because while he probably knows that URTVs are experimental anti U-DO weapons, he doesn’t know that they are salvators, yet.

You’d better believe it. That’s why you need to play Ep. II.

Yea, I don’t get a chance to play alot during school due to the fact my grandma is a strict machine drill up my buttocks all day everyday =/

hey at least your own parents don’t limit you to one hour on the vids a day

Guys, I’m graduating from grad school this semester. You’re making me feel old :p

I’m in charge of my own success at this point. I probably play more than I should, but I get the job done. I always have.

grats on graduating (when you do)

and an hour a day is more than I get in a week most of the time

If I said I was in my first year of college would it make you feel better?

Maybe :p

I usually spend more time here than I do gaming, tbh. Though, when I am in the mood (or groove), I can play all day, if I wish. Sentry, you’ll soon learn how to make more effective use of your time. I doubt I do 10 hours of work a semester.

I just put this one off for a long time and wanted the last of the time consuming games off my plate, since I’ll be student teaching in 3 weeks.

Sentry I don’t feel anything by that, but I’d rather be at college than stuck here at home, I think I’m gonna hit the pool house later today

believe me knegative I’ve got time management down pat. I try to play over an hour just to make up for all the time I missed when my parents made there stupid one hour on the vids a day rule. so yeah trust me I definetly manage myself quite well. Although there is an occasional hw sit down.

Good luck one that teaching in three weeks though knegative.

Aww man now I’ve GOT to get a copy.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for making this the place to be, tonight 🙂 I was really just expecting Throne to comment one more time and then call this thread a day.

don’t mention it. I had nothing better to do anyway and probably should work on a vid of choice while I’m at it. So yeah don’t mention it.

Always here to please, and besides it’s Xenosaga, I’d be insulting myself if I didn’t post in here

I hear that

Okay, gameplay. ToO you were right in that I didn’t feel constricted by using Shion, Jr, and MOMO. However, it still left me feeling rather blas� about the gameplay, as they all had SMALL break damage attacks. It always took me forever to break enemies and once they were, boosting through an assault felt like I was barely chipping away at their HP just to leave me with many around to break them again. Rinse and repeat, *sigh*
I stopped trying to break bosses somewhere around the Yuriev battle. Even with characters like Ziggy who actually have decent break techniques, it’s just not worth the trouble. Unless you use Dark Erde Kaiser, of course.

Congrats on beating the game etc. Your assessment of the game in general seems pretty accurate (I…do not understand how anyone could possibly like the combat system in II, but to each their own). In relation to the whole Abel thing though, it’s probably worth noting that Xenosaga and Xenogears have been stated to exist in completely different continuities, so anything revealed in Xenosaga doesn’t really change the context of Xenogears in any way.

The Yuriev battle was the last battle I did it for as well, as after that I had the E.S. equipment, and therefore, Sigma.

In Ep.II you still needed to break enemies before Fury was effective, in III the various Kaisers caused breaks. After Yuriev it was Heaven’s Door + MOMO + Sigma = PAIN.

Heaven’s Door + MOMO + Sigma = PAIN.

that formula sounds about right except I usually swapped ziggy and MOMO once in a while

Heh, Heaven’s Door would make Ziggy an effective Ether Attacker, wouldn’t it?

yes, for the most part. I didn’t find anything wrong with his attacks especially when the enemy was already broke or weak to ether. just kept boosting and using good heavy damaging attacks or ether. worked really well for me

uhhh……I agree? :smrt:

At the very least, it would let him cast enough to be effective, given his paucity of EP. To get around breaking, I really used Ether, much moreso than I normally do in any ‘rpg.’

With Shion being set up as a supporter (until the VERY END of her OPTIONAL skill line), I had to make Jr. into a secondary ether freak. The +EP accessories were very obliging in that, hence my not feeling horribly constricted in character choice.

I know given all the ether boosting items and ep boosting items you could theoretically make even Ziggy into a ether machine. That means his healing would finally help out.

That was another reason I actually like the skill system in Ep. II. You could use the various Skill Upgrades and keys to unlock what you needed to make anyone into what you wanted. It was very much like the license board in FFXII.

I only completed the entire tree for Shion, but was able to unlock the lvl 4 (or was it 5?) skills I needed for the optional bosses for Jin, MOMO, and Jr. without any hassle.

Ep. III took the most time of any of them for me (70+ hours), mainly because I completed the entire skill line for all 7.

yeah the skill system in two wasn’t to difficult though. I will say that three was also my longest one primarily because the awesome mastery skills at the end were so awesome I had to have them all. no questions asked.

but in the second one it took me some time to do those GS campaigns to unlock abilities so I just kinda went through unlocked what was necesary to kick some tale then let em have it. I had to train very little for some reason.

I tried out Phantom Fly and Abyss Walker, but I grinded for those at Abel’s Ark, so I never ended up really using any of them. I completed the skill lines just for completions sake, since they weren’t needed for any super difficult optional fights.

yeah I know that using the final skills was expensive and I’ll even admit I didn’t use them very often I was more curious what each one did so I guess I did it for both my own satisfaction and completion.

As far as I could tell, it was the same animation for all of them. Plus, most were shared by at least two characters each.

that’s about right too.

I actually loved that game, i thought that the battle system was pretty good. Personally tho, the game was 2 short, it took me only 25 hours 2 beat it. and on the first try i managed 2 get everything. but still a good game

Oh, good, you’ve reminded me of a point I wanted to make :p
While the stories are short, I am baffled at my final save times:

Ep. I: 92:37:27
Ep. II: 67:32:05
Ep. III: 76:06:58

I know I was working on skill trees in II&III, but what in the world was I doing in Ep. I for 92 hours?!?

lol, I took me 60 hrs, II took me 40, III took me 25, i all got 2 short, but all was good

huh my finish times weren’t too bad.

Ep I about 73 hours
Ep II about 78 hours (probably cause of my slow pace due to skill chart)
Ep III about 47 hours

the third one probably didn’t take too long bacause I coudn’t put it down. It was just that good!

Oh! I bet it was from playing poker to buy the extra a.w.g.s.!

hmmm…….where they worth it or not?

Not for in-game battles, no. They were fun for the fighting game, though 🙂

lol. I remember that game now it was fun the first couple of times but quickly bored me. I never even bothered to touch the card game and I completed the driller game. that was kinda fun.

I really like Xenocard, but I love Triple Triad and Tetra Master, so that isn’t too surprising.

The only cards you have to win are MOMO’s and Shion’s Bathing suits. You only have to win at most 3 tournaments to do that. That’s only if you win two of the same card in a row. You can only win 2 of each card, so as soon as you win 3 tournaments, you’re done.

now there is something to go back and try to learn. It could have bonuses attached to it to so I’ll try and go back after that.

On another note what did you think of the GS campaign in the second one. I don’t know about you but I had quite a lot of fun. expecially when the water system boss attacked me on the third Gs that I did for the water/sewer company on miltia. how about you any memorable GS’s

Hmm. Memorable ES campaigns. I enjoyed fighting Mikumari and Omega Id. Even if Id was predictable and not a challenge, he was still a Weltall/ID homage 🙂

I really liked Abel’s Ark and Michtam/Archon Cathedral. Though, all of my very favorite ES moments were FMVs. Jin and Margulis going at it, them all falling off the Zarathustra platform (almost heartwrenching), and getting pieceworked together by Zarathustra. Jin coming back in Asher isn’t half bad, either.

WAIT A MINUTE. Do you mean GS, as in those run-and-fetch campaigns? *shudder* The only ones I remember are the ones with the monster in the sewer and Luty’s Flowers Redux.

Those were a couple of my favorites too. accept I really liked momo’s subconscious domain and fighting albedo in the second one. He was so crazy it was a little unnerving. My other favorites were in the third one seeing voyager and Ziggy go at it. Voyager was definetly a good testament.

If we’re talking character battles, I definitely enjoyed every encounter with Albedo.

IMO, all of the testaments were great. Though, I really really wish that the Ziggy/Voyager saga had gotten an FMV. It really deserved it.

I know exactly what you mean and might I add that would have been one seriesly good FMV sequence.

Yea, you can tell there’s a good storyline to the game, when you find your self hating a character…which in my case is Virgil…..bastard lol

and i agree on the FMV between The Zigster (lol) and Voyager, especially with Kos-Mos breaking out of her container

I’d say Jr. was a bit of a self hating person. not as much as virgil but he had some self hate, of course everyone of us do…

I believe your onto something mastershren………

Does regret always = self loathing. I’m inclined to think not.

I was just pointing out that most people have a little self hate or regret. is it so wrong to believe that. you cannot tell me there isn’t something you hate about yourself.

But in a way regret also doesn’t always = self loathing so I see what you mean too.

I love me to the fullest….

cept my ears, there too big….and my face……and body…..and being

….but like i said, i love myself…

we call that vanity….but it’s entirely o.k…..for the most part.

No that is narcissism :smrt:

lol!!!

it’s AMAZING game! plot, characters, music, gameplay – everything is good! i LOVE it so much! and ending of the game, it’s BRILLIANT! XENOSAGA FOREVER!!!

Go KrayZ!

very well put KrayZ

I agree, it is awesome!