SPOILERS!

Well, this is it. The no-holds-barred Xenosaga III discussion thread. Some of us who have been looking forward to the game are picking it up today (and probably going on a non-stop gaming session), so I figure we can talk about it without having to worry about spoilers.

I'll be picking it up and playing it later today, can't wait for it. I'm not asking for much besides a solid ending to this journey. That and for Virgil to never stop being awesome, but I heard some nasty things about the testaments.
zzz. So its the "currently playing" thread. =p

Oh yeah, one thing.
You might want to put out spoiler tags about what the spoiler is concerning (so people can chose whether or not they want to read it) or black out text, because everyone gets through the game in their own pace I guess.

When I'm halfway through, I might still want to discuss something I just saw, but I don't want to read about the ending just yet.

OMG! I'm sooo happy!!! I got one and all my problems are sloved!
I played nonstop since 4pm. I am just soo happy I just wanted to stop by here and then go back and play it! good luck to you guys!!!

It's alright... A few problems and gripes on my part so far:

1. The dialogue system is obviously meant to be somewhat reminiscent of Xenogears'. I didlike it when compared with full cutscenes as in previous games.
2. The crappy MOMO and chaos voices returned from EP2.
3. So did the Hammer and Tony ones...man they were effin' funny in 1 and now they suck.
4. I don't have cheat codes. I was raised with a Gameshark and I haven't hardly gotten all through a game without one in years. I'm currently stuck and very downhearted because I doubt I'll get passed this boss. i'll try again but it's aggrivating because it's not the PWNed kinda boss. You can actually fight for a while and think you're winning. Then the boss takes you out with one move. *sigh* Codebreaker better hurry up if I can't beat T-elos because I want to keep playing!!!!

Ah cheater. haha try playing without Gameshark, it's actually not that hard?
But anyways, I actually like the Choas voice from Ep II more than from Ep 1

Not that hard? You're at T-elos? She kinda kills you in one move? And I don't have any items to revive party members so once they're dead, they're dead.

I'm liking the battle system so far. It's not as straightforward and boring as Ep. I and not as tedious and confusing as Ep. II. The Break system is interesting and is a good way to get the upper hand on a tough boss, but can come back and bite you in the ass. The E.S. battle system looks good as well, almost like fighting with Gears, but not quite.

I've just arrived at the Island after getting KOS-MOS, so now I'm going back to other areas to horde money.

Yes I passed T-elos. The Cutsceen after that was sooooo kool. I'm not gonna say anything though. I don't want to spoil anyone. She didn't kill me in one move she got me to like 200 hp though.

What Coloseum? I fought her and then...well...
I don't know the spoilers tags so...don't read this unless you are at this point in the game.





We went back in time and through a forest and a mine.



I used Ziggy and Jin. Their HP and defense was high enough to just barely survive but it was enough. Loopold and Mai were tough but they just took a long time to beat. Not a severe problem though they took a crapload of my recovery items.

And just for a small note, this isn't really important but there is a little girl you meet named Prim. She's just a NPC you can talk to but it was a nice little addition for people who played Xenogears.

And now I'm stuck on Voyager...pft. Playing games the "right" way is boring and tiresome as all hell.

I'll be facing T-elos very soon now. The fights in the E.S., as well as the first real boss fight in them, was loads of fun. Even if the boss has a real knockout punch of an attack.

Well, time for another dungeon crawl.

No I was talking about the "Cut Sceen" where SPOILER: Kos-Mos and T-elos fights
And I beat Vouager with no problem. I thought T-elos was a harder fight.

It's his poison attack. Poisons everyone and I keep running out of antidotes. I can survive his first big attack but while he is causing hundreds of dmaage plus poisoning everyone plus his high Break level and his 10000 HP makes my 200 HP attacks at best kinda worthless.

So far the music sucks. This is easily some of the worst, and its grating on my nerves quite a bit.
No, I'm not far at all, I just met the white testament and Virgil for the first time, so I'm going about it at a snails pace. Most of my time has been spent crawling through the database. (There were some things I didn't know that I found in there, some I found during the game. I forgot them now, but I thought they were kinda cool looking at them).

Plot is fine so far, just the dialogue is awkward when you have to press O to forward the voiced events, and worded a lot more awkward than it should be too. XD

I've spent several hours with Episode 3 so far. My initial impression of the game is very positive. Enviroments are beautiful, the attention paid to detail is quite impressive. Dungeons and puzzles are enjoyable again, it doesn't feel like you're simply trying to get from beginning to end. The voice overs are done very well, with only a word or two that seems a bit out of place. The cinematics are wonderful and flow very well into the dialouge box conversations. The characters move very lifelike. And the battle system is just a blast. It has seen some nice improvements and added some very cool aspects that work very well. By far the best of the three systems.

All in all, it really seems to have captured all the glory of the first while improving upon the beauty of the second. Most deffinately worth the money and all the hype. It quite possibly could be the best game in the series.

So, seeing as I'll probably (read: hopefully xD ) be getting the game tomorrow, is there anything you'd recommend doing? Like making certain preparations for bosses or certain areas, and whatnot? I'd rather not get stuck for too long in gameplay because I wasn't well prepared, 'cause I'd really like to view the whole story sooner than later (useless sidequests can wait for another playthrough =p ).

I'd say EPII's music was worse but yeah, this score is by no means brilliant. It's brearable, I think. The dialogue also seems a bit off now and then. Also, SPOILERS!




The voice of U-DO blows. How corny is "Shiiiiiiiiiii--------onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"?

Hahaha, It is kinda lame. Same with Abel, really. But you can't expect much less really.
ET PHONE HOME! xD
I'm still wondering wtf about the situation, but hey, wave existences.

I'm hoping this game answers my biggest question of the series, mostly, is this linked to xenogears or not.

Where are you right now? I'm still at this one boss...piece of crap cheat uses 3-4 moves in a row right when I think I have him!! ><

Hmmmm....no special preperations in general, not from as far as I've played. It would be a good idea to think about how you use your boosts, as they are used for both boosting and for using certain attacks. Thankfully, the game tells you about the various commands in detail, so it's easy to catch on. Some of the puzzles require more thought than the others, but it's not anything extremely difficult. My sisters actually played farther than I have, and she hasn't had much trouble. So I think for the most part, just keeping saving in mind as well as keeping everyone healthy, you should be ok.

Code Junkies has ARM codes up. Not gonna use em for Xenosaga or Disgaea myself, but be damn sure I'm using them for Dirge of Cerberus XD I wanna finish it before going on to these other two. If I stop now, I'm not going to want to pick it up again. So I'll be getting to this by Sunday. Hopefully the difficulty level is on par with XS II that was my favorite part of the game.

So far, the only thing that bothers me is the whole text box thing. Other than that, I am really liking the game (even though I have only gotten to the part after you fight the ES Levi for the first time.) And I absolutely love the ES Reuben, and Jin is so much cooler in this game now that he looks like Citan without the weird glasses.

I beat Voyager a bit ago, and now the cheese is ensuing.
##### Christ, I am really disliking the story to this game.
HUGE SPOILERS!

We're going to try to change the past~!? WTF >.<
I bet disc 2 is going to go into right when I'm done with this section too...ARGH.

Yeah, I can see how the text boxes can be a distractor for some people. They don't bother me as I've played RPG's that were strictly done that way.

Yeah, the ES's are quite impressive. I really love the entire battle system as a whole.

SAVE. YOUR. BOOSTS. AND. ANIMA. AWAKENINGS.

Always do so when a boss fight is coming up. You'll thank yourself. Also, pay attention to breaks. They're great when they happen to the boss, but when your healer is eating damage because of one, it's not fun at all.

Yes, I saw the ARM codes...I wish I actually HAD one. I might buy it. It be useful for other games, as well

And yes, that's where I am, too. You may be beyond there by now. I'm stuck with the E.S. Boss battle. God, I HATE the E.S.. I hate that battle system for them and it's all just really really really really gay. I don't want to use these things. I can't win at all. I work my ass off to pump up my characters with the best equipment and get good items and everything and they shove this on me...dammit.

E.S..es suck. AGWS sucked. The whole mech system for Xenosaga blows. I never liked using them and I never will. The added insanity of the opponents counter-attacking you when you go to strike along with how there are like...six enemies per battle and each of them steadily chips away at your HP...it's so crap.

E.S. Battle...? After Voyager? No I'm still trying to get the anime relics in the old miltia timezone thing.
The story is grating on my last nerve, still.

And with Voyager, and the general difficulty. Are we playing the same game? O_o

I would think so. And again, it depends on what attacks he uses. I've been demolished by one boss one time through and breezed past him in the next. If the boss uses a certain number of attacks repeatedly, then it would be harder than say him using one certain attack now and then. Besides, it was weedling down his HP which was the main problem and he repeatedly used this one attack. I swear, it was the one that hit everyone at once and had a chance of Poison. He did it THREE TIMES IN A ROW. As I said, the game decides on a certain level how hard the boss is.

And no, the E.S. battle is coming up. You can probably beat it easy. I am hopelessly inept at the E.S.. I do not like the system and I do not do well at it so overall I'm kinda screwed right now at the fight I'm on.

I'm kind of surprised to hear that anyone is having trouble with the battles. Some of them are long, to be sure, but very few are actually classifiably "hard." And I'm not saying that so I can sound badass or anything; I'm actually not to good at RPGs in general.

Still, the E.S. battles allow for a simple rule-of-thumb strategy that will serve you well 90% of the time: Buy ALL new equipment (Frames, CPU, etc) and, while in battle, don't neglect the anima attacks. Also, when the enemy uses their anima, guard. That's really all there is to it. The worse thing that can happen is that the enemy will use an anima attack on you and straight up kill a party member (if your HP is lower to begin with). Still, if you make sure to guard with close to full health on those occassions, you're fine.

Regular E.S. battles shouldn't be hard. Ever. If they are, I assure you you're doing something very, very wrong. They're easy to a fault :\

I didn't say they were hard. I said they were taxing on both patience and HP. It takes about one hit to destroy most opponents but as the E.S. opponents come in groups of 4-6, that still leaves a couple to lower your HP. As this is a rather long and tedious cycle, the tiny bits of damage get higher and higher.

And no, I am not good at games, either. That's why I don't play them the stupid "right" way. I play them the smart "cheating" way. It allows for far more enjoyment when a battle doesn't take 10 minutes, several items and precise changes to move one party member in or out with calculating what skills that character has, how high their HP is and etc. It is however, enjoyable to have a good time in a battle and just breeze through it to the next part of the game and story.

Playing games without cheat codes is a foolish idea. They didn't invent the Game Genie way the hell back during the NES so we could be here now in 2006 and having a vast number of gamers not even using cheats. It doesn't matter how you play the game - it's whether you win or lose that counts.

Sweet. Just beat the boss I was stuck on. I had bought the new equipment but when I died, I hadn't saved it so I kept going against the boss without the best stuff. Plus the first time I hadn't bought the best of the best but somewhat the best because I wanted to conserve money but oh well. I got passed him this time. The next boss will beat my ass, I'm sure.

Don't expect it too. =p
I'm well past that particular part (now I think I'm heading to the end of disc 1...thank god.) and well, my opinion on this game isn't exactly..."peachy". To be precise, the way they introduced the plot of this particular bit was kind of...annoying, and its continously getting to me.

Luckily, The gameplay is fun enough to overlap it. Its not destroying the game like it did ep 2 for me, but I'll see where this game takes me from here. :/

And I agree with spooge. I haven't gotten one game over, hell, I've barely had any difficulty on any of the game thus far. Not particularly a bad thing either.

SPOILERS




Rescued Shion? I'm at the part where her dad just let her go. Everyone is getting ahead of me. Damn sleeping and going to the bathroom and all this crap with me being stuck where everyone else is not. You're all cheating. That's my broad unproven generalization to justify why I suck.

Depends. Which Shion? XD
I'm facing good ol blueboy now. (Virgil for the record), he did a lovely attack I wasn't expecting and I fell flat on my face. Must've been playing for too long, the game was grating on my nerves. I'm sure I'll have a better impression upon playing it today, but IMO, that was the WORST way to develop Shion's past was by actually going to it and interacting. What crap.

Oh well, Funny how you whine about us cheating when you talk about wanting AR codes. XD

What would be a better alternative to this? Admittedly, it's not the most inventive methodology for character development, but in the land of Xenosaga - that is, the land of neverending cinematics where people talk, and talk, and talk - it's probably better this way than, say, if Shion were to spill her guts about the past on the Elsa over a cup of coffee.

Still, holistically speaking, it didn't seem like a bad idea because the actual location serves various ends, not the least of which being Shion's development, of course.

Effin' hell Pellegri. If she didn't have the two pansies next to her I would have won by now. As is, I keep focussing on her and lose. i attempt to kill the other two and lose. I've gotten fairly close - she's in about 1000HP but then her and the others choose that time to send everyone into Break, use about five attacks in a row and repeatedly kill MOMO who was the healer and mainly keeping us all alive. Ridiculous bitch. Her and Jin being an item is just as retarded as this battle. I want my damn cheats because these fights ruin the game.

Use Shions Fallen Eagle move on her pawns and go crazy. Trust me.

And spooge, maybe an encephalon dive would have been better. I have no idea, but I'm sure people wouldn't mind her spilling her heart out over coffee if she was in that get up during that cutscene with Kevin. (where its implied that they DID IT. xD)
But there may not have been another way, its still quite annoying. :/

AGWS battles in Episode one were terrible, ES battles in 2 were good. ES battles in this game are AWESOME. All the problems have been addressed and it works beautifully. I'm not having any problems with it at all.

Is the XS 3 discussion thread not good enough? Merge.

Well I can't comment on AGWS because I still havn't seen an AGWS battle...

However I wasn't too keen on the ES battles. I think it was just because there wasn't much you could do with them. Aside from MOMO's ES, the ES's couldn't really do too much. They had two basic attacks and two Special attacks (Unless you used the E300 Accessory.) I also disliked how your ES's were dependant upon what Skills the main Pilot had learnt. This means that if I want Rubedo's ES to have the ability that helps me to evade most attacks I'll have to train up with Rubedo.

They didn't ruin the game... but it certainly wasn't something I was looking forward to. Once I had found settings that seemed to work for me I didn't really have to touch the ES's again. I'm curious about the changes made in this episode. Knowing that a lot of the main enemies have an ES of some kind I assume there will be a lot of ES battles.

Well, No. One of them were spoiler free, in this thread we're going crazy with them.
Sorta too late now though.

Yeah....the other was intended to be spoiler free, that way those who hadn't played could read what others think of the game. So no, one isn't enough.

Sorry but that's like saying I need to create two movie threads for a topic I make about that said movie... One with spoilers, and one without.

Everyone was making initial impressions and commenting about the game in here already, and it's not that hard to mark your spoilers and turn the spoilers themselves black so you have to highlight to view.

Most discussions I've ever been a part of tend to have spoilers of some sort, if it's major you can mark it.

Anyway, back on track, if anyone wants to dicuss it further feel free to PM me.

This game so far beats the first two. The only thing I don't like in this game is the "Break" battle system. It's annoying.... I'll have to get used to it. and I kinda miss the stock thing and the Triangle and circle button combos.

Okay its official. I need to STFU and actually play the game.
And simply put HOLY SH-!
Just finished Disc 1, and per xeno style, for every question answered theres a hundred more. Since this is a mixed thread, spoiler and spoiler free, I'll spare from saying it, but people will know what I'm talking about.

But argh...The gameplay is getting better. Anyone who said that the break system is useless needs to shut their mouthes. Its the best way to MULTI-KILL anyone and thing. Its fantastic. Still, I hope theres more ES battles to come. I love owning absolutely everything. XD

And a little note

Your movie you want to make two threads for doesn't have its own forum dedicated for the discussion of the series that movie is in. Moot point.

Though I say just talk about impressions in that pretty "New Scans" thread, and spoilers here. =p

It's the second best for me. Lacks the perfect voice-acting of EP1, the amazing cinematics (there seems to be a slight "dealy" in cutscenes in this game...the camera kinda jerks or shakes slightly for some reason) and yes, the battle system beats all of the first two. Still, EP1 had the atmosphere around it. Kinda like how Godfather is better than Godfather Part II.

Anyway, I'm pissed off. I beat Yuriev after an hour of his stupid Omega attacks and then die in the E.S. battle...and people wonder why I use cheat codes.

I've gotten this game on it's release date, but wasn't able to start playing it until Thursday night. I've already completed most of the game though, but I've been playing it for almost two days straight. I love how it told us more about some character's backstories, and helped explain many things. I still have some questions, but they will most likely be answered, as I am nearing the end of the game where you find the truth about KOS-MOS (at least I hope so, wouldn't want something like THAT to remain unanswered =p). Also, some people complain about the whole text replacing FMV thing, but if you click Select it goes automatically, so it's almost like watching a mini FMV. Do to those taking less space though, the real FMVs are extremely high quality, kind of like (for anyone who's seen it) the ending of Kingdom Hearts 2. Also, a huge in game database, and an FMV replayer will keep me busy for quite a while =). The only small complaint I have, is that ALL the blood was editted out. Of course, I'm glad they did edit it out instead of making the game M rated (must...kill...Jack...Thompson) or else a lot of people wouldn't be able to play it. They could have at least editted a few of the FMVs, such as *small spoilers, although nothing people who played the first games don't know. Highlight to view* When young Shion is in the hospital after her parents are killed, she's just holding her hands in front of her saying something like "Put it back," probably trying to somehow get her mother to come back to life, as though to put the blood back in her somehow I assume her hands were just bloody, but from the looks of it, she went insane staring at her hands O.o

Though this game did have some really good parts. I was really sad at the part where *major spoiler* Nigredo died, as the URTVs in general were my favorite characters. I think Albedo finally found peace at the same time, he said something about being tired and going to sleep And yeah, basically ending the story arc for those characters, I think.

Also, the Testaments are actually really interesting. Although they do take orders from Wilhelm, they seem to have their own wills too, and be able to do what they want, such as *major Xeno3 spoilers* Virgil found peace with Febronia, and left with her. Also, how Albedo helped Rubedo defeat Yuriev, then (I assume) passed onto the afterlife. It seems that each of the Testaments had something they wanted to accomplish before passing on, that's why they became them.

As for the game itself, I really like the battle systems, both ES and normal, and the music. And yes, that annoying 2nd Miltia music is gone =D

The Break system is really cool, but isn't necessary in random battles like it was in Xenosaga 2. Boost and Stock basically combined, so you can use your Boosts to use Special Moves. If you win a battle with a Special Move, you gain 1.5 x the EXP, SP, and money. Besides, since most bosses get agressive when low on health, it's a good idea to unload a good special, especially if it can exploit their weakness, when they are low on health. Of course you can still boost too, I just rarely do unless I have to do some major healing/reviving, or it says that the boss is preparing to use a special attack, be it to heal, guard, or use a special attack in hopes to finish the battle quickly. I like how when using the ES, the EXP and SP is transferred to your normal characters. It's better that way, since you don't have to do all this work to power up your ES's like in the last game, simply buy the latest equipment. Money is also easier to get, as lots of enemies also drop barter items =). Ooh, and what made me really hyper, *small special attack spoilers* RUBEDO CAN USE HIS RED DRAGON MODE AS A SPECIAL ATTACK! =D =p

Well, thanks for wasting some time of your life reading this =p

Err...*posts* XD

Oo btw, FINALLY we have a full length game. Disc 1 itself seemed longer then the entire Xenosaga 2 =p

Okays. Beat the dude second time through. I realized that the "seal" they were talking about was that counter-attack he did so long-range attacks plus Anima 3 got me the victory. But NOW i'M stuck on Richard and Herman. Use ambush to stop his special attack? What the hell does that mean?

SPOILER FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVEN"T PLAYED XSIII:
I think in the Japanese version there was blood on her hands? Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Wow. Looks like your pretty far "Sadistic Angel" (Spoiler for people that haven't gotten this far): I JUST got on the durandal and I'm about to save it from Yuriv. (That A$$. I'm gonna kill him!)
But thats because I have been working for the past two days. T_T