Well, good luck, man. Abel's Ark is a long pain in the ass but you can do it.

Anyway...spoilers for who I'm stuck on now.






Voyager in his E.S. I've made it till I'm sure he probably only has like...70,000 HP left but he wipes us out even after I have everyone surive his Anima Awakening... Sigh. I don't want to play fair anymore. I want my cheat codes. I was thinking, ya know, be awesome to beat a game by the books as they say but all it's given me is headaches, cramped fingers from holding the controller so tightly all during boss battles and made me show I have a bad temper when i lose.

I kicked Voyager's ass.

I beat him down in less than a few minutes, without losing anyone. He managed to get Abyss Walker up right before he died, but since everyone had magical enhancements on their weapons, it didn't matter at all.

On another note, Edre Kos-Mos is smoking hot.

Except for Shion's sequence, most of the edits aren't terrible in terms of presentation. That's really the only one that's going to confuse people; all of the others will just make people think "Hmm, there should've been blood for this part!" Sure enough, in the Japanese version, there's PLENTY.

Well, I'm lagging behind a lot of you (I'm only at the Ark, just now), but in a sense, I'm far ahead since I beat the Japanese version a while back

To be honest, I'm totally loving the game. The battle system is great -- I'm still not bored with it, even though this is my second time through. Most of the VAs are -okay-, a few are standout (Shion's VA is very good, and handles a lot of the difficult scenes well) and some are...well, crap. The worst part is that those that are "crap," are absolutely centric characters that get plenty of screen time, and *should* have been good. In this respect, the voice work is a step down from Ep1, and a few steps up from Ep2. The story is great; it's really quite a complex piece of work, and it'll take anyone - even the hardest of the hardcore - some time to let all the new revelations sink in. Going through the enormous database is a big job in and of itself. I'm sad that a few things here and there are still left as mysteries, but then, I guess that's just part of being Xenosaga.

Special mention should be made of XS Ep3's dungeons; they're 'effin' awesome. Not only are they big, well designed, and give you a huge impression of scope and beauty, graphically they're leaps ahead of anything we saw from Ep1 and Ep2. I just love them

Hmm, this almost seems like a mini-review, and it's not meant to be one I'm just impressed with Episode III all over again. Hope you guys are having an equally great time with it.

Well, I have every piece of equipment for my E.S.es that you can buy, really. Well, the stuff that pumps up the power and HP and stuff. The additions, like the additions for characters, that only give you like Absorb Fire or something like that i don't really bother with because I don't want to waste the money. I did beat him, however, and am now pissed off at this puzzle. It's opening some security door with blasting these two shapes (resembling Zohar) on either side of the door so it matches the styling above the door. However, my eyes are bad (I've mentioned I'm legally blind) and squinting at that little picture, figuring out the puzzle and discerning between two shades of the same color is a pain. I'm giving it a shot but it wears my good eye out and this game gets a negative for putting in this puzzle.

So let me get this straight...

T-elos gets to show off against a bunch of no-body gnosis's, while KOS-MOS is forced to fight the 100ft E.S. Zohar powered monster from hell and get her ass kicked. Then scrap her. How FAIR is THAT? I'm also starting to think that U-DO is not the enemy. One other thing..according to the timeline..Shion is OLDER than Kevin o_O.

I knew U-DO wasn't the enemy a long time ago. It's not a malicious entity nor some evil consciousness. it's just something from another dimension that we can't handle. Humans are hardly perfect and coming in contact with such a presence would cause the effect they describe in the game.

And that timeline is WAY off.

I've just watched the ending. They do end off with a cliffhanger, which always happens in Xenosaga games, but I guess they did end it off nicely...before starting something new =p

I'm happy to see that Alby actually has FMV time in the ending, Alby owns you all.

They did leave a few questions unanswered though, such as that whole beach of nothingness and Shion not gnosifying

Well...she did call them...so I would think that she's beyond becoming one.

Anyway, I'm wandering around. Beat Margulis and now the game is screwing me over because I have no idea what to do. Activated the Zohar Lift after beating him and we saw a couple doors open. Sadly, no one said where that door is so I'm looking everywhere and found absolutely nothing. I hate when they do this and it happens in a lot of games. "Press Switch/beat boss. Door opens. Where door is, you figure out." #######.

Right of the save point, IIRC

Yea I thought there was, (in the JPN version ofcourse) they should have lefted the scene a bloody one so it doesn't look cheesy or confuse anyone.

This game is hellbent on making me pissed off. I got to some weird crystal maze where you step on circles to re-arrange the passage you can go to. I got two items and thought "well, there doesn't seem to be a door...maybe that's the only point of this" but there is no other area after the transporter where you can save and Shion has her pendant glow. I was hoping to beat the game tonight but Jesus, if I keep running into this crap I ain't gonna beat it for a year.

As you see, the top cannot be accessed naturally, but you have to go around somehow.

It looks like it's totally blocked off but it isn't


l l
/
lOl

So basically, you have to find a way to go from one of the sides where the chests are, to find the path up

O = switch, / = example of the barrier

Yeah...well, I'll need it a bit more prcisely. Not to sound snappish but wandering around, pressing circle in the areas with the boxes has been my strategy since the beginning. It's not getting me anywhere except making me feel stupider. Getting stuck at a boss is lame. Not finding a door to keep going on in the game is lamer. Stuck on some level where there is no way to continue so you blunder about pressing circle and hoping for a mircale is the epitome of lame.

I have no work tomorrow and I am hoping to beat it before I start school on the 5th. but I don't think I'll be able to, because i will be busy. But I will most likly use up my free time freaking out on the game,while everyone tells me to get a life and live without playing game XD !!!
I just laugh when they say that to me.

Yeah, I have to admit that particular scene is a bit odd without it. However, I think the choice to remove the blood was a good one. Probably shouldn't have taken it all out, but I think they probably went the fast route for a number of reasons:

One, they were eager to get the game out because people were clammering for it like mad dogs. Two, the PS3 is coming out shortly, so they probably wanted to get it out before the big rush to purchase that. And three, it's the quickest way to get a T rating from the ESRB. Simple enough to report that the blood was turned off. Sure, more goes into it than that, but it certainly makes it easier.

Alot of people at other sites seem to be taking great offense in this, saying the game should have been left alone and allowed to be rated M. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit of a selfish attitude?

Granted, even if you are under 17, there are ways to get M rated games. some are legal, others are not. It's the illegal ways that cause alot of problems. And then there's the people that won't bother with it. So you either have a limited audience, or people breaking the law and making the gaming industry look worse. *shrugs* I dunno. That's just my opinion.

Although, there's other good games that should have had blood that didn't, such as Tales of Symphonia. Holy cow, there was numerous spots in it where there should have been blood; people geeting stabbed straight through, hit with axes, ect, ect. But there was none, except for one or two parts. But despite that, it all looked great and didn't really have a huge impact on the gameplay. That's what I'm discovering with Xeno 3

I got spanked by T-elos. LOL. You people should have it seen it! It was a GLORIOUS ASS KICKING.

This happened once she started using 'overtake'. But before that, she was easy to handle. She killed Momo and Shion and KOS-MOS. I won by luck. M-Buster and Jin's Armor pierce were my means of heavy damage. It was a nice battle and a decent BGM. Had me smiling at the end and I don't do that too often after a punked out victory(what I like to call it when I'm not doing the majority of asskicking).

I was not able to finish viewing the fight with KOS-MOS and T-elos afterwards...my PS2 had trouble reading the disc(my aging console) so I had to skip it. Damn T-elos broke KOS-MOS' arm :/. I figured Roth Mantel was Kevin and it seems that he's reverted to his young cocky attitude.

So for me it's Episode II Miltia all over again, but I'm gonna mess around to gain skill points before moving on.

You know, when it comes to the edits, I don't really care. As a Xenosaga fan, I know to expect changes when the game is released in the US. However, the edits for Episode III are totally unique from previous episodes, for a few reasons.

Primarily, the edits are sloppy. Unlike most, my problems with the changes aren't that we're ending up with no blood -- it's that we're ending up with (some) scenes that have no compensation. Consider, for a minute, the amount of work on Monolithsoft's side for Episode I and Episode II; both games have "changed" scenes, but those scenes were given proper treatment. In short, even after being changed, the "message," or meaning of the scene, was still conveyed with the same amount of intensity. Next to nothing was lost in translation and, as players, we were compensated for the changes with a scene of equal or (some might argue) greater value.

In Episode III, this is not the case. People are picking apart Shion's "scene" for a good reason; not only is the blood gone, but we aren't compensated for the loss. The scene remains "as is," and because of that is very confusing, and - in this case - the meaning of the scene is lost.

Shion's bit was not the only bit to be edited. Far from it, really. Regardless, MOST other scenes that were changed remain in fine order. The Durandal scene was edited (with a cut-to-black sequence, and also had a "spark" effect in place of the blood), but it's meaning isn't lost on us; we know what's going on there.

This could all be a result of a product being rushed, or - and I really wonder if this was the case - it could've been a mistake. There is no doubt that Episode III probably could've retained *some* blood, and still have made a T rating. On the other hand, there's the possibility that it was feared the games subject matter might push it over the edge if coupled with the violence in the game; anyone who's played far enough knows that Xenosaga III is definately not a game that would sit well with a lot of people.

I guess that's mostly my take on it. All said and done, Episode III is actually *still* a very violent game. Even without the red stuff, it's a whole lot darker than any of the others before it, and could still be considered a "bloodbath."

The fight with Omega Universitos...WHATEVER it's spells reminds me of Weltall(whatever) from Xenogears. Except this "gear-like" E.S. has a much more resiliant style. Whoever piloted that must be one tough mofo to fight "outside" of it. It was an easy fight, and my fight with Voyager was not easy at all, only because I didn't expect the fight so soon. I had to skip the FMV cause it froze and when I did, boom the boss battle started. While inside Labryinthos, I stayed in there for about 5 levels and 600+ skill points XD, man I hope that place logs into the EVS later.

Yeah, very strange without blood there. I'll openly admit some should have been left in. But in any case, I'm glad we didn't get an un-cut version; I don't know how I'd feel about the game if it had all the blood flying everywhere as the Japanese version does. I mean, I've seen a great deal of the movies of the Jap version and it's really an excessive amount. Some of it is worse than Resident Evil.

In any case, yeah, It's extremely violent anyway.

Ah well. Good game regardless.

CURRENT PROGRESS! 16 hours in. I'm at that place with that person. Seriously, I just began Chapter 5

For the curious... I'm 21 hours on disc 1 with everyone in the range of lvl 30-32. I have no problems with the story or the gameplay. I'm definitly going to do in this game what I didn't do in episode II.



I don't know if this has been edited but there's a certain scene with Feb that I'm glad was you know..not visually painful. It was cool what she did but damn... in any event I completely understand miltian conflict as well as Virgil and why he was the way he was in episode I up until his death.

Very true. THat scene was my favorite int eh entire game so far. It had a great VA, music and atmosphere. Just when he screams and attacks the Relians...the music reaches its peak and it was just awesome.

Oh man. My sister and I were in tears during that part.
But yeah, I finally understand why he was the way he was. I now officially like Virgil.

Which of Virgil's VAs was in there? His Episode 2 one, by the same guy who did Allen, or his Episode 1 one? I think the first could pull off Virgil's final scene better than Allen's VA.

that scene was good too. But I have to give all my votes to the Kos-Mos V.S T-elos cutscene. That was my fave so far. I thought it was sad too, how Kos-Mos would sacrfice herself to help Shion all the time. By the way, Shion is getting on my nerves. What a Dumb girl.

XD Yes, this is where I gained a lot of my SP's too. Actually anywhere there are a lot of ES battles will get you a lot. I'm just at the part where they go rescue Shion, and I'm near fourth tier skills. And YES! The moment I saw Omega Universitas, I was like O___O "Holy Crap! It's Weltall!!" Spoiler!!: And suspiciously there's an extra boss named Omega ID who is a Crimson ES right after you fight another battle with Weltal..err..I mean Omega Universitas...hmmmmm.... End Spoiler. So yeah, I do believe it's a genuine Shout out XD

Anyway, I'm loving this game and will play it none stop for the rest of the night and tomorrow since I'm off work. Hope to catch up with you guys!

Oh....and PS...The only Testament I've really seen in action is Voyager. Do any of the others come off as bad ass as he does? That dude and his distortion powers are just sick. XD

The others are kinda soft hearted and only became testaments to acomplish goals, so far, Virgil and Albedo has done their good deeds and are finished. I don't know about Kevin or the dude with T-elos...

Every Testament has his own goals to accomplish, and even Wilhelm can't control their wills. They probably follow him out of respect

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I don't know about Red and White(you know who they are but yea) but Virgil is pretty active and he's badass simply because he's Virgil.


When Kevin unmasked himself infront of her and the guards got her...screaming "help me Kevin" sparked a nerve. I am SO sick of Kevin and she needs to move on><!. When her an Allen were "out to lunch" he was enjoying the moment until she brought up that bastard -.-. I thought the scene with young Shion shoving the flower pot infront of young Kevin was the cutest thing ever LOL.

^ I couldn't agree more. Kevin is a bastard and always will be. However, Wilhelm is the biggest bastard in the series.



THey follow him because he's their benefactor. Virgil obviously could care less about what Wilhelm really wants.

Oh and Denim, yes, the original Virgil is back. He kicks uber amounts of ass, too.

Voyager is the only other Testament who impressed me. He had one good VA. Albedo did too but he didn't do enough.

Albedo had all his screen time in episode II lol. He did well to be the series best known villian. Wilhelm is doing all this for his own person amusement.



[Spoiler time]



I just saw the scene with Shion's parents being killed. Whoa that looked so weird without well..yeah blood >_>. It looked more fake than anything. Someone said a long time ago when episode I was the big thing, that they believed Shion was a gnosis or something. Man they were half right lol. So Shion brought about the gnosis...this explains her inability to turn into a gnosis upon being touched(she has been touched twice and cystalized once, only to revert back). The pendant doesn't do ##### in this department . Man do I hate her love for Kevin. It makes me sick to my stomach. He's obviously trying to manipulate her. Hard to fool one in love eh Kev? That is incredibly sick though..to put her through all that pain again just to wake up the Dark Durandel Abel's Ark.

The 27-series Asuras, mopped the floor with me. I had to do so much switching against them, hell they were more trouble than T-elos.

The one question I hope gets answered is [b]Who[b] is KOS-MOS. Whoever she is..T-elos is 'beside' her droid self too quite clearly. Sporting the blue eyes and all.

You don't find out exactly who she is for quite some time. And the lack of blood? I really never cared. Adding blood would needlessly make it an M-Rated game. Lots of blood belongs in crappy Animes and Grand Theft Auto. Would it have been better when Seph stabbed Aeris for a gush of blood to spurt out? Would it have been better for when the realians starting eating Feb for fountains of gore to reign out like in some Resident Evil? It doesn't fit at all.

The 27-series weren't that hard for me. I beat 'em no problem. I thought they might be trouble but I got 'em.

If I had to pick my favorite character in the game thus far, it be Voyager followed by Yuriev followed by Shion. Shion dropped a few places for her attitude with Kevin who is a total alme-ass prick and being too "tragic" as seen later on. Gotta feel some emnity towards her and sympathy for Allen. Voyager stays at top because he had a great voice-actor and having read Pied Piper, is badass. Oh wait. Margulis is tied with Yuriev.

Getting ready to make my way through the spheres on Abel's Ark. My E.S's (and Characters) are completely re-equipped with all the newest gear, so I shouldn't have too many troubles. Enjoying the game immensely right now.

As for character favorites, I have to stick with Kos-Mos for my #1. Voyager and Yuriev are tied for second. Shion and the awesome that is Mai are tied for third.

I still never got passed why an android female was built with such large breasts. It's not being a pervert. It's being practical. WHat was Kevin actually building her for, eh? It's simply ridiculous and impractical to me.

I am wondering, though....are the Testaments killable through any physical method? They are like Gnosis in that they do not truly exist fully in our dimension, right? So, unless you use special methods, I wonder if there is a way to destroy them.

Possibly, as Kos-Mos had to use the Hilbert Effect to force Voyager to stay solid. So it's possible to keep them in one dimension for a few moments. But, with Abyss Walker seeming to be a Testament trait, one would assume they can just shift to another plane at will.

In the first one, her breasts were practical in size. They were in proportion to the rest of her body, and therefore it looked believable. But they made them too big in this one. They look as if they're like....almost a D cup. And let's be honest, how many women as thin as they made her, have that big of chest? Not many. But then again, that's just pretty typical of any type of Japanese art. Remember Taki?

Taki?

Err.. XD, thier size in version3 isn't that big to me lol but damn she may as well not had a top on. With version4 I'm now marveled at how freaking awesome she looks. I guess they were proper in proportion to her body in episode II since the design was meant to be on a mature scale, as with Shion.

Yes with the Shion-Kevin BS lately, I've lost a little respect for her, but since some of you have her as a favorite, I'll be holding my breath. I just started disc 2 anyway(thank God; no scratchs which means I can see all scenes wheeee). Shion's obviously been my favorite from the beginning or I would not have bothered 'idolizing' her in such a way. But any others I'm still deciding.



Hahaha. At this point I surmise that U-DO wants to help Shion, but is it aware that it is doing the opposite..

Well, that's true. But I meant just in regard to the voice-acting.

Anyway, what else...hm...the ending..I saw coming.

MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!!!!!


Wilhelm: No Shion. I am your father.





...bad joke..but oh well. I'm gonna keep repeating it till it's funny.



In a more serious note, the Testaments should have just killed us. It would have been very easy for any one of them. But Kevin shared Wilhelm's goals. Albedo and the rest did not. Sigh...Voyager could have owned us all. But I guess using your brains in the absence of uber-braun is good.

So yeah....I'm on my way into Abel's Ark, but I decided to have a bit of fun and Challenge Omega ID Early. Hey, got the card thingy from Citrine, so why not satisfy my curiosity? First fight against Weltall..errr...I mean Omega Universitas was only a little tougher than the first time, but nothing I couldn't handle without trouble. Didn't even use Anima on him. Soooo...then he gets mad and turns into Omega ID. [On a side note, this is definitely a shout out to Xeno Gears] And well....as I expected. He completely warmed my ASS. I mean, I survived for a long while there, but Demon Lord completely wiped me out one by one. It's like...I can just hear ID laughing madly inside the Gear...errr....E.S. Ahh, but it was good to see in action. I'll go back after I beat the game and a lot of leveling XD. On to the Ark.

Yeah, Taki, from Soul Calibur 2. The worst boob offense in video game history. rofl

Uh, anyway. I haven't started disk 2 yet, I just happen to know various things from the second from catching bits and pieces from the Jap version as well as seeing my sister play it.
21 hours in I believe is my time.

Taki. Hah! look at those Dead or Alive girls. And Mai from KOF.
I didn't think that any of the females in Xeno had big boobs.

Yeah, they're pretty disturbing too. But man..... *shudders* Taki's are beyond disturbing.

Anyway, my sis has just entered Planet Michtam. I'm pretty far behind. She gets sooooo much more playtime.

I was waiting for mention of this. I don't know her name but she's the wrestler chick. Double Ws? O_o doesn't that like hurt her back.

OK anyway...moving on lol.

I am considering taking on Erde Kaiser Sigma without getting Dark Erde Kaiser. The decoder you need to reach it means you have to kill a certain E.S. . . . I have Fury and the original and I got MOMO and Shion pretty powerful as ether casters. I don't know about Chaos. . It seems he only shines as a good character in episode I.

chaos is awesome in this game! And I'm not saying that because he's my fave xeno character. He really is as good if not better than he was in Episode 1. He's by far the character that can take the most beating; he's incredibly resilient. Not to mention he's very flexible. I find a use for him in every battle. Maybe you're not using him right or pairing him with the right characters.

Ziggy has the most damage-soak. He always has from what I remember. I like using physical characters more than the magic types which means KOS-MOS, Ziggy and Jin are my main party with Shion now and then stepping in tot give some support magic.

Huh. I'm finding chaos to be able to take the most damage. And his high ether points make him very valuable. I personally never liked using Ziggy in any of the games; where KOS-MOS has physical and ether attacks (like R Cannon in Episode 1), Ziggy lacks them and you're almost always paired with an enemy that's weak to ether. In all three games my party of choice is chaos, JR, and KOS-MOS. They all compensate for each others weaknesses and make an unbeatable team.

I've been tempted to drop one member of the group because there is always one member who lags behind but I'm not sure who it should be...

MOMO - Powerful ethers... she's too useful as a healer and magic attacker to get rid of
Jin - He is amazing in this episode, I didn't like him much in episode II but I like him now.
Ziggy - Powerhouse... I just like having Ziggy around although he isn't as useful as in Episode II
chaos - He is too versatile... I can always find a reason to use chaos, especially in a boss battle. If a boss required physical action then I'll use chaos instead of MOMO because his healing can be just as good.

However that leaves...
Rubedo - He is quite like chaos, but I just find I don't have quite as much use for him without the ability to heal. Attacking ether is good though. I want to keep him but I think I have more use for KOS-MOS and Shion.
KOS-MOS - Powerful, but not as versatile as I'd like her to be. Brilliant attack power but I'm wondering if I have enough physical with Ziggy and Jin... Also a lower level because of events in the game
Shion - I was going to drop her but I found it impossible to beat virgil without the use of Shion. Not as powerful in any way as any other member but her ethers can be quite useful. Even lower level then KOS-MOS because of events in the game.

Bottom line is I'm just not sure. I useually have a team consisting of a strong attacker, a Hybrid (Like Chaos or rubedo) and a magic user... so I guess if I go by that then it should be KOS-MOS I chuck.

Anyway I've just beaten Virgil (the first boss to give me a game over... damn special attack >.<)

Really? I beat him no problem. It seems I find the hard bosses easy and the easy bosses hard. Mostly you just need to guard in character fights and Charge in E.S. fights because you get a good warning of a special attack a few turns in advance. Virgil's fight was fun for me. ^^ Now Pellegri was hard. She wouldn't have been without her lackies.

Ok, I'm not gonna read anything else in here because I've only just started. So far I don't have much to say yet; just like with Episode II the intro portion was boring and failed to catch my interest (but that's fine, I kinda expected that).

The voices seem fine for the most part (though why does Shion sometimes ramble her lines so fast that she might as well have said "habledebabbleblabla"?). Doctus sounds great, after having heard her calm laugh in Japanese I didn't think the English voice would pull it off as well, but I was glad to hear it does. Miyuki... ugh, unlike in the previous games she's just annoying me now. She sounds like she's voiced by the person who did Rikku in FFX/X-2, was that always the case? Either way, in the previous games she was fine, but now she's not. <<''

I'm on the beach as Shion now, so still at the very beginning. I've been browsing through the database, and it looks pretty good (but why's Orgulla not in it, even though my avatar pic is supposed to be from it? *Edit: Never mind, she's been added now).

I've been waiting for you.

Yea, Orgulla was nothing but a cyborg with a sad fate. The database is pretty vast, it updates itself quite a lot and some stuff you can update by finding update files throughout the game. Don't worry about Miyuki, she doesn't have a lot of screen time in the game. Almost none at all.

I'm going to take a break from the game now lol I've played non stop since Tuesday.


It's just that if the enemy isn't a Gnosis, Chaos is ineffective, as is on Episode II when there isn't a whole lot of them(and not having ANY air or down attacks). I don't need his healing capabilities unless I need to switch Shion out for him, cause God forbid that MOMO will last 2 rounds no matter how much HP she has. KOS-MOS is my damage soak, Jin is my buttkicker, with Ziggy being my trump card lol. Shion is all healing/buffing/debuffing/breaker. That said I use Jin/Ziggy, Shion, KOS-MOS. Using Ether attack spells other than Erde Kaiser is a waste of EP that could be used to heal break damage or whatever.

That's what I said to the guy who delivered my game, he almost ran off again in fear (ok, the last part isn't true =P ).

Anyways, so far everything seems fine... except for one thing: "Do you know Dmitri Yuriev, the guy who~ blah blah blah" ... I don't get it. I mean, people actually know the guy is alive and kicking? No-one questions the fact that he was shot to death some years ago? How does that work? oO