Music
Characters
Voice-Acting
Gameplay
Scenes
Anything else


I'll post on this later. But which, all in all, was your favorite game?

All in all: Episode 3 by far. Imo it reached a level that the other 2 episodes aren't even close to.

Music: Though I like Mitsuda's style of music best, Episode 1 had some pretty-dang-boring themes that tried too hard to be good. Like how Margulis' theme is an obvious newer version of Grahf's theme, but just not as good and somehow lacking.

Episode 3 had some good and bad music too, but I must admit themes like Promised Pain/Plan (?), Battle of your Soul, Godsibb, Testament, and some others were so much better than Mitsuda's battle themes (imho). So I guess I'll go with Episode 3 here.

Characters: Episode 3 has Yuriev, Episode 1 does not... Episode 3 wins. (Other than that; as Episode 3 revealed all there was to tell about most of them, it just made the characters in said Episode more interesting *cough* Virgil */cough*).

Voice acting: Both are fine. I have decided that chaos simply has no good voice, gone is the chaos = cool factor. Besides that; Episode 3 has Yuriev's voice, Episode 1 does not... but Kevin sounded so much better in Episode 1 (and only in Episode 1, actually). But all in all, Episode 3 has a very solid cast. Oh, and Wilhelm sounds by far best in Episode 3 as well imo. Plus; Voyager talks... Episode 3 wins.

Gameplay: You're asking me to choose between two quite nice battle systems, but with one being handled so slowly regarding battle animations that you can (almost) go and get a drink in between attacks? Episode 3 wins again.

Scenes: Well, Episode 1 has some nice ones, but Episode 3 just has all the better ones. Think Virgil/Kevin/Testaments/Wilhelm, it just offers a lot of interesting story scenes that reach further than those of Episode 1.

Anything else: Well... did I mention Episode 3 has Yuriev? I did...? Alright then. But seriously, Episode 3 just felt more epic, grand, captivating and all that. I'd say Episode 1 simply pales in comparison, but that's just me.

Kinda hard too compare two games that came out at different times. Xenosaga III would obviously have better things about it than the first, since namco would've tried to improve. But considering the time Xenosaga I came out, it was a great game. So all in all, I choose #I, for it's better gameplay, and rather good cut scenes. Plus it all wasn't mashed up into a fast story, like #III.

Where were you, Xerno? I was away for a bit but I haven't seen you post in a long time.

Music: Eh. Episode 3 has my favorite tune (Testaments) but 1 has songs like Pain, Kokoro, Albedo, and there is no contesting that scene where he removes his own head was made all the better with that amazing theme. 3 had some great songs as well besides Testaments. I quite enjoyed Promised Pain and the theme that plays when Yuriev talks to you in the Durandal and then when he merges with Omega but that still can't match up with the theme that plays when the Gnosis attacks the Woglinde.

I never found Margulis' theme to be anything like Grahf's..this more of your comparing songs that aren't like each other ie. saying Keeper of Time/Garland's theme/Pandemonium is based off NORG's theme in FFVIII?

Characters: 3 had an aweome Voyager but didn't have an awesome Albedo. 3 had an awesome Yuriev but didn't have an awesome Wilhelm. It's difficult to decide. I must say I much prefered Nephilim and Shion in 1. So I'll give it a slight edge.

Voice-Acting: Again, 3 had Voyager who had a terrific VA. But it also had crappY VAS for Hammer and Tony. They honestly couldn't get back the originals? But T-elos and Yuriev both did damn decent jobs. However, Margulis was kinda poor in this showing. Add in Mizrahia nd Sellers being 1000000x better in 1 and I'm gonna say 1.

Gameplay: I liked Episode 1's battle system but it was too plain. I had been playing Final Fantasy and was used to big cinematic and flashy moves. Plus the parts when they would actually talk to you in 3 were sweet. Add in that I loved the break system and equipping more in this game than 1 and 3 wins. Best battle system in the series by far.

Scenes:
Episode 1 has every scene with Albedo (notably meeting MOMO and then meeting Jr.) an actually good voice-actor for Mizrahi quoting the Bible before being taken out, the Woglinde being attacked and a dozen others.

Episode 3 had every scene with Voyager (sadly there weren't many) Most scenes with Yuriev (not the boring ones where he's just conversing with his paraplegic cohort Sellers but doing something) and the epic and totally amazing scene with Febronia dying.

The two endings, while good, really can't even be compared. All 3 had was Jin dying. KOS-MOS's scarifice wa sso blatantly not the end of her it was just sad. MOMO shooting down Gnosis was also pretty lame. I blame it more on the bad music which just can't compare to Pain playing as Shion and the others running to escape Proto Merkabah before it falls apart.

Anything else: Wilhelm is BORING in 3. Dull and completely lame. His voice is supposed to calm and serene but not "eh...." sounding like the guy wasn't even trying.

Xerno! It's great to see you post again... I can honestly say the Xenosaga boards has sucked without you.

I can't really comment much on Episode I VS Episode III because I have not actually played Episode I, I've only watched a DVD with some of the scenes.

Characters: Episode 1 wins for two reasons only... Shion and Albedo. First of all Episode I Shion was a great character who broke most RPG conventions. She was very plain looking, intelligent and assertive... and most of all she didn't need a man to back her up (like every other damn RPG Heroine) though it could be argued that she DID need a woman (KOS-MOS). She was good at what she did as a living and she was willing to get her hands dirty and just get on with it. However in future episodes she did a 180 and become a ditzy girl who showed off her boobs... *Yawn*

Secondly, Albedo... I don't think I have to say too much about him... His character on Episode I was just so damn great... after he became a testament he also had a great character but it was just COMPLETLY different. Episode II revealed his brotherly love for Rubedo which was interesting but Episode I Albedo just doesn't seem to have any remorse, but I think they love was still there, jus clouded by Jealously and U-DO.

Voice Acting: I'm going to have to disagree with you Xerno and say that chaos only sounded good in Episode I but I never heard him in battle so... Episode III's choas just sounds wrong when he is shouting Erde Kaiser. On a whole though, I'm going to have to say Episode III. Although there were some terrible voices replacing old ones, the new voices made up for it... Also Ziggy seemed to be better in Episode III, I remember some lines from Episode I which are just plain terrible.

Scenes: This is a very tough one... There were some truley brilliant scenes in Episode III, I especially like MOMO meeting her father. I'm not a big fan of MOMO's character but that was a perfect scene and a happy ending to her story arc. There were also the scenes between Albedo, Rubedo and Nigrado which I really enjoyed (Though I wish we could have been more Adult Rubedo >.<) and Jin's ending scenes were also good and one of my favourite scenes at the end with Allen... That was just too good.

But Episode I had a fair few brilliant scenes. I liked Allen and chaos talking, the dive scenes and most of all, MOMO and Albedo. However I think Ep3 because although there was a number of boring scenes, there was also a number of plain great and breath taking scenes.

However, my oppinion would probably change if I managed to actually PLAY the game >.<

Music> Episode I hands down, Episode III's music just sucked compared to Mitsuda's brilliance. I remember playing through Ep 3 and suddenly began to notice the music and i just thought it was some serious subpar attempt. And that choir or whatever sounded ok in trailers but on the game it was a huge miss.

Characters: Well Shion got worse than in EP II. Now she is this whiney little whore with an IQ of 10 and no ass, wtf man. Jr. Still Kicked ass, chaos was never much to hope for and Ziggy and Momo I always hated.

Voice-Acting: Both games had great Voice Acting, Ep 2 sucked but both I and III were enjoyable.

Gameplay: Episode I, i liked how it was similar to Xenogears and Break just pisses the ##### out of me. On the plus side, the special attacks were awesome. E.S. battles were awesome aswell, the special attacks, the design of the machines, everything is finally done right about fighting in mechs.

Scenes: Episode III, it really showed how far the team has come and how they showed this great directed fight scenes that just had me glued to the tv.

Anything else: I commend the Database, its a nice little addition and it helps so much. I must have spent at least 5 hours just reading through it during my game time. And what the hell is up with Havok/Hakokc/HaVoKs whatever the ##### its spelled, is downright hard once you get into the higher levels and why is Jr. best weapon there? I take the card and AGWS game from Episode I anyday.

Being busy with other things + only having net access during weekends means I'll still rarely be on for posting.

Anyways; I once made a whole post on how Margulis' and Grahf's theme follow an identical pattern, but true enough they don't sound very similar. (And on a sidenote, as far as I can tell Garland's theme is the same as NORG's, I don't hear a difference...) Either way, Episode 3 has another theme that resembles one from Xenogears; the background music in Abel's Ark sounds like the Urobolus battle theme (One who bares Fangs at God).


Only boring? That still sounds quite positive, because I found him to be highly ANNOYING. A small example: *blabbering in calm, irritating voice with ditto smirk on his face* "Bla, bla, bla~" *arm gets chopped off* "Oh, I knew you'd do that. Now, where was I? Bla, bla, bla~" *KOS-MOS interferes* "You fool... oh well, bla bla bla~" Made me wish he'd just drop dead already.

So needless to say I don't like Wilhelm much as the main villain, I would have liked to see someone a bit more interesting than "Willy with the smirk"...

... but Episode 3 still wins.

Any posting is good posting Xerno...


XD Very True... Wilhelm created a complete anti-climax for the end of the game. I was really excited about our characters coming face to face with him but that whole series of events just seemed quite Lame... especially considering all the business with KOS-MOS, T-elos, Shion, Allen and Kevin... I guess I'm also a little dissapointed because chaos still didn't play much of a role.

Flame is very right. Posting is good. And I've got both Pandemonium and NORG's thema and they don't sound alike to me... but I've been wrong on stuff like this before. I'll ask someone else to confirma nd get back to ya. ^^

Now...what else to say... Oh. I did like the further explanation of what happened to Mai's father you can find in Labrynthos. And you know, I never had any problem witht he lack of background music in EP1 till people pointed it out to me and said that's why EP3's dungeons are somewhat better. But, I loved the original Song of Nephilim you can listen to while in that level and then the theme playing for Proto Merkabah.

And having recently finished the last few levels in Extreme, I got a lousy Brave Heart thingie? I thought you got Rubedo's best weapon after Extreme, I didn't think the gun you get earlier on was the ultimate one. All that trouble for... well, nothing much (Brave Heart... meh).

And it's called Hakox... ... ... horrible translation...

to me, ep. 1 and 3 we really good, just in different aspects.

music-ep.1, hands down. ep.3's soundtrack was good. but compared to ep.1's, it kinda sucked.

graphics-ep.3.....the graphics looked more realistic that ep.1, ep.1 graphics were amazing, but it looked like the characters we pulled out of a sturday cartoon a little bit.

cutscenes-i will have to say ep.3, only because they were'nt as long as ep.1, well to me anyways. and the fightscenes with kos-mos and telios were freakin awesome

gameplay-ep.1, by far. the battle system was simple and striaght to the point. the new systems on ep.1/2 were ok, right up to the part when you fight a really strong enemy, like a boss or something, and when you are about to beat them, the triple thier boost count, and boost in front of themselves, and they reapet that so thier turn never ends, it's annoying.


i'll write more on this later.......in a rush

I can't really say which is better because I don't believe that you can really compare the two. Xenosaga I is legendary because obviously, it's what started it all so it gets lots of credit for that. On top of that, it was also a very good game all in all. I loved every bit of it. Good music, very talented voice actors, cool battle system, and good, easy gameplay.

Episode III was a huge improvement and took all of the good stuff from the previous games plus had a lot of new things that were cool too. It was truly an awesome game and I couldn't see any problems with it. A good ending to the series I'd say.

Episode III was much better to me. Episode I took away a lot of the fun with those weak AWGS battles :/, thus it's one of 2 of the games in the series I've yet to finish. I went all the way in Episode III. I still need to fight Erde Kaiser Sigma and Omega ID.

Music: Both episode I and episode III have brilliant fragging music. On the one hand, Ep. III has Testament, Promised Pain, and Godsibb. On the other hand Ep. I has Albedo's theme, the song that plays when the Gnosis attack the woglinde, and The Song Of Nephilim. I declare this a tie.

Characters: Episode I wins, but only because Ep. I's Shion isn't always going on and on and on about Kevin. That really, really bugged me.

Voice Actors: Ep. I has no voice actors that really annoyed me except for MOMO's. Ep. III has terrible voice actors for Wilhelm, Tony, Hammer, Kevin, and a few others I can't remember. Virgil's voice actor isn't as good as it is in Ep. I either. Episode I for the win.

Gameplay: Ep. III, simply because it flows much smoother.

Scenes: well, Ep. I has the Gnosis attacking the Woglinde, Albedo and MOMO in the Song Of Nephilim, and the Star Warsish bit where they escape Proto Merkabah. Ep. III has Voyager, and scenes with Yuriev trying to kill God. Unfortunately, it also has Wilhelm talking endlessly at the end of the game, which would have been much better with his Ep. I voice actor. Ep. I for the win.

Oh GOD, don't get me started with the "Oh Kevin" crap. I lost all respect for her character when that ##### started. Allen got mad props in episode III and everyone by now should know why .

I'd rather compare Xenosaga Episode III to Xenogears simply because it is an evolution of the first.

Xenogears unlike Xenosaga had world akin to a FF title and was better balanced (even though the second disc was text heavy). The first disc had a balance between quests outside dungeon making it feel grand. Xenosaga spanning different planets should have been more like Xenogears. I know it's a budget issue, but when looking at how limited the budget of Xenosaga was, it's truly a great title. However this title needs to be setup like a Final Fantasy title for its story to truly shine.

Episode 1, MULTIPLAYER!!!! (why isn't there a regular game as good as the multiplayer battles?)
Episode 3...
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the 30 minutes worth of Mech battles were REALLY cool.
also, it was hilarious, KOS-MOS was getting all set to say her name, and I just said, ***SPOILER***"Mary."***SPOILER***. I was a little shocked that I was right.