Xenosaga 2 on the other hand not only made quite some boring and unexciting (not to mention even LONGER) cut scenes, but the battle system was so FRUSTRATING that most fans simply stopped playing. Has Xenosaga 3 followed the path of Xenosaga 2 and make it even more unplayable?
Story: Following one year after the events of Xenosaga 2, several other events have happened. Most importantly, a dire event known as the Gnosis Terrorism, during which Shion found out that the religious organization Ormus, her father, and her own company of Vector were involved in. Because of this, Shion has quit Vector and joined a rogue group called Scientia.
Meanwhile, the development team of KOS-MOS has been told that their project is going to be shut down because of an even greater weapon made to replace the Anti-Gnosis android.
Finally, a mysterious landmass has appeared in the reaches of space and upon inspection from Jr., Jin, and the rest of the crew, they are immediately attacked by Ormus fanatics, led by the High-Inquisitor Margulis, himself. Unfortunately, during the attack, the Elsa, a ship that pretty much served as your transportation in the first two games, was sucked into a vortex that appeared and…whew.
If you’re still reading this part of the review, then congratulations to you sir. The story is…complicated to say the least and requires knowledge of the previous two games, and even then, there will be a lot of plot twists that you may or may not quite get.
Luckily for you gamers, there is a database in your menu that provides information about all known elements in the story from summaries of the last two games to character and item information, so if a gamer had the time, they could look through the database and get an idea of what in the world’s going on.
In classic Xenosaga fashion, the tale is told through cut scenes, but differing from the last two, Xenosaga uses a text box for some of the more… boring cut scenes so to say. This actually helps the game in two ways; one – you can just read the text box before the character says it and skip right past it or skip it entirely if you just don’t care for the story, and second – it saves space for the more flashy and high cinematic cut scenes as well as the length of the game.
Is it a good story? Yea, it’s entertaining. And I found myself highly amused at scenes at the end of certain battles where one character charges forward and gets into a Matrix-like fight with the opponent. It’s very cool!
Gameplay: The game play has also earned an improvement over both of the previous games. Battles in the game can be decisively quick and a visual splendor. It’s almost like the developer took a step back from the frustration that was Xenosaga 2 and made the combat from Xenosaga 1 more… well… fun!
You still run around towns, triggering plot devices, and eventually reach your dungeon. From there, you go through it, solving puzzling and battling monsters which occur when you run into the monster right there (no random encounters here, my friends. If you see a monster, you’ll KNOW that you might have to fight).
When you get into a battle, you’ll have a party of three (which can be switched out at any time at the cost of that character’s turn), each with their own skills and specialties. In other words, it a lot like other RPGs, but in Xenosaga terms, the game play is much faster than the complicated versions that the earlier games wanted to be.
If there is something that makes this game differ from other games in the genre, it is probably the break meter, the boosting, and the special attacks.
Boosting isn’t something terribly new in the Xenosaga universe, but it’s been a welcome feature. As you attack, your boost meter fills up to 3 bars (the max can be increased as you find special items) and with that boost you can make one of your characters go next before another unit on the battlefield goes. It adds an element of strategy. For instance, lets say, Jr. is low on health but the current healer in the group, Shion won’t be able to go until after the three enemies before her goes. It’s at moments like these, you Boost Shion and have her heal Jr before the enemies are able to go.
Finally, the special attacks aren’t so much ‘new’ as they are ‘reworked’. In Xenosaga 1, they required inputting the right attack combination as you assigned and having the energy to do it. In Xenosaga 2, it was so much more complicated that I found myself not even using them at all! In Xenosaga 3, all you’re required to do is have a high enough boost gauge to do the desired special attack and these special attacks HURT. Additionally, as a bonus, if you kill an enemy with a special attack, you get bonus experience, money, and skill points. It may not seem like much at first, but when you’re kill a boss with a special attack and what would have 10,000 becomes 15,000 and your characters level up… twice just cause of one battle, then you start appreciating the bonuses.
Ah, but that is only half of the game, my friend. Mechanical battles have come a long way since Xenosaga 1 and it definitely shows. Being in a Mech battle is almost like being in an entire different game and that’s a good thing.
Your mechs have an energy gauge that fills up as you select attacks, each type taking up a different amount of energy and dealing different amounts and types of damage. Combine this with the Anima Drive, another little guage that shows when and what types of special attacks you can deal and if you thought character special attacks did a lot, just you wait for these moves.
Don’t try to find it TOO odd if you end up dealing 10,000 damage in one blow while your normal attacks do only about 1000 damage. Hence, the beginning areas with these might seem a bit too easy, but not to worry, the game provides enough challenge to allow you to thoroughly enjoy the game as both mechs and characters.
In classic RPG fashion, there are many side quests to keep you entertained from the main story quest. However, I found most of them to be relatively simple. For example, you can get the major items for the ending side quests to get everyone’s final weapon early in the beginning of the game. But not to worry, there are STILL plenty of other things to do that don’t just take five minutes to accomplish.
In the end, the gameplay in Xenosaga 3 is a HUGE improvement over Xenosaga 1 and even moreso over Xenosaga 2. While some of the elements of combat aren’t relatively new, it’s still a visual splendor to watch the battle and some of the special attacks.
Graphics: Ah, the graphics. They are most prettiful… yes, it’s a word! While Xenosaga 1 had the major anime look with giant eyes and heads compared to character’s actual body, and Xenosaga 2 had the overly realistic look which ended up just taking away from the game’s beauty, Xenosaga 3 has established its graphics in a spot that isn’t quite anime nor is it entire real. You could say it’s like the Buddha of the series finding a middle way… or was that Hindu? Darn you, Pre-1500s History class!
But seriously, the areas you’ll travel around have a surreal glow, as though that’s how city or a giant facility would actually look. It’s captivating about how gorgeous the settings around and even more so with the characters.
One of the BIGGEST improvements to me with the graphics is that the character’s lips now actually look like they’re going with what they’re saying. Yes, I know that this shouldn’t be a big deal, but when a character’s saying one thing and their lips are flapping off saying something completely different, it irritates the crap out of me! Luckily, Xenosaga 3 has improve this area nicely.
In battle, the graphics aren’t any different. Special attacks each have their own element of awesomeness, but the skills on the other hand, mostly end up using the same character animation, but with different effect overall. Mechs battles on the other hand, are almost reminiscent of anime shows like Gundam Wing, unit will dash around as they close in on their target and then blast them away with visual splendor.
However, the high quality cut scenes seem to suffer a little from data overload as some points lag up or slow down if you don’t know what lag means. It’s not a terribly big deal, but you will notice it.
Other than that, I enjoyed the graphics a lot.
Sound: Xenosaga 2 butchered what I thought was good music by using high techno instruments and simply taking the soul away from what I thought was a decent series along with raping your ears in the process. Thankfully, those in charge of music for Xenosaga 3 made the right decision to go back to an orchestral themed soundtrack and the results are pleasing to ears.
There are quite a few tracks that I found memorable, including the mech boss fight along with some of the special boss music. The music is very nice to listen to and is presented in high quality.
If the music is grand, then the voice acting should be as well, right? For the most part, yes, it is. However, I found that some voices just sounded like someone who wanted to play that character a certain way, but they just didn’t sound right. Also, during the text-box cutscenes, you read a line and think about how they could say it, but then they say the line completely different and you just go “Augh!” in irritation because of it. But for the most part, the voice acting is pretty decent.
Fun Factor: Is Xenosaga 3 good? Oh yes. It’s improved on many problems of the previous games and has an interesting and unique story (albeit with religious undertones). A fan of series will have a blast playing this game, while casual gamers may enjoy it for its good graphics and simple yet fun gameplay. 8.5/10
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