Xenosaga

Undoubtedly the most hyped and anticipated game of 2003, Xenosaga had its fans, the gamers who had physical withdrawals in wait for the game, and its skeptics, the gamers who thought too much FMV too little RPG. Well now that the game has been released, I believe the skeptics who had once thought so little of Xenosaga were silenced, if of course they played the game. Xenosaga is anything and everything except just an eye candy game, as some said, and some still say.

The problem many gamers have with Xenosaga is the “endless” amount of full motion videos. That is completely untrue. However, do not mistake me for saying this game does not have a lot of cinemas. It certainly does. The cinema amount is high but it is not all BOOM BANG KAPOW as some may think. Every cinema is not explosions and wars as the misconception so oftenly is. The high amount of hours of cinema comes from the fact that the normal verbal sequences of the characters verbalizing is a cinema rather than just the normal graphics that are usually seen with the average RPG. The bottom line with the cinemas being, regardless to what you think, the cinemas are not your average cinemas, usually only consisting of explosions, fighting and war scenes, and the like. There certainly are those kind of scenes, more than your average RPG consists of but all of the cinemas are not like that. Most cinemas in the game are simply conversation between the characters. For that reason the game is said to have all this cinema, when it really doesn’t have an exorbitant amount.

Xenosaga is commonly referred to as an interactive movie. Hearing this comment conjures a dissonance in me. In my honest opinion that description of the game is entirely false. An interactive movie? I don’t know how was the first to describe it as that but whoever that is, is wrong. An interactive movie, what is it? Quite obviously, an interactive movie is what it infers, something that is easy on the eyes and involves a lot of watching with very few parts in which you can control. Xenosaga in itself is one of the most challenging RPGs out there. So how can a challenging RPG be an interactive movie? Sure in the first ten or so hours you do a lot of watching and reading but there are quite a few dungeons some of which take two or so hours to complete. How is that an interactive movie? An interactive movie is not an RPG with good graphics.

Now anyone who has played Xenosaga also knows about the storyline. Xenosaga holds the most in depth storyline I have played in an RPG yet. Every character has an in depth past except for Ziggurat who in your average RPG would have a large background. Anyway the storyline, in attempts to not give spoilers is extremely in depth and will require at least two play throughs to get everything in Episode I. The storyline was too large to be concluded (joke) but the storyline in extremely in depth and anyone who has played it will see that they storyline and characters most definitely shines over the graphics.

Another misconception I hear is from Namco, Gamepro and the like which turns gamers off from Xenosaga. This is that Xenosaga ranges over 80 hours of gameplay, 30 hours of that being cinemas. This also is entirely untrue. I wish it lasted that one but unfortunately it does not. I spent a total of about 37 hours 30 minutes on Xenosaga, all cinema, talking included did not range over 9 hours. So less that a third of the game is cinema, talking included.

All in all, Xenosaga is in no way just eye candy. Sure it is easy on the eyes, but if anyone who thought it was a graphic whore game cared to play it they would realize that is has extremely in depth characters all with their own personality, a great villain, and an in depth storyline that will make your head spin.

When on the box of xenosaga i think it means over 80 hours of gamplay and 30 of cinema, with all of the episoids combined

I'm so glad someone finally understands this. When I bought it almost everyone told me that I had "wasted my money" and "Xenosaga sucks" etc. I started playing it and I discovered that it was really, really great. It's one of my favorites now. I love the depth of the characters and storyline and I like how each one has a diverse, interesting personality and background.

I even told a few of the people I talked to to get it even though they thought it sucked. Behold, a little while after they got it they wound up liking it.

Xenosaga really is one of the deepest games I've played. I just wish they'd release the chapters closer together.

Yes I am glad some one else noticed that too.
I don't understand people not liking this game.
It has great characters not to mention great voice actors.
And the story is very deep and unlike Xenogears, not everything is predictable and shallow although XG is a very good game also.

The way they present the story in Xenosaga is great and I enjoyed every cinema there was in the game. I even made 12 different savefiles to be able to see them over again (It's killing my Memory card space though)

The music is amazing and I didn't even notice it when I played the game but afterwards when I found some on the Internet, here on dreamers for example.

Spirit/Kokoro and Pain are some of my favorite songs ever.
Pain is obviously about Kos-mos and chaos and how she needs pain to be more alive.

And as for spirit...I wonder. Maybe it is Allen's love for Shion?
It is never the less very sad and I like that there is a new "one winged angel/Sephiroth" song in the game.
It's called The miracle!!

Like I said the story is very deep and very complex and that's what I like about it.

yeah.. i like xenosaga as a matter of fact im still playin it.. many i know that have it either say "its too long" or "too many damn cinemas" etc etc with some stupid lame remarks and excuses for not playin

I've lived on this Earth long enough to know, DON'T TRUST CRITICS!!! Listen to your best friends, forums, magazines ONLY!!! Cause Xenosaga is the sh**. Period.

Xenosaga was good, i jut hated the fact i watched more than played. The extreme violence was surprising but it was cool after awhile. Anyway, i think xenosaga should get out of being a stupid anime (really) and starts being a game. I love the fact its an anime, but i dont want to watch it, i want to play it and I think many would agree that was xenosagas downfall among others.
Anyway, theres a second xenosaga, if Namco follows tradition, this problem will be fixed...if not, the xenosaga would be just another game for me.

-Broken (walks around)

The hell?
Isn't this editorial stating that there is much more gameplay in this RPG.
I love this RPG.
Hence Vector Industries(a clan) and my chaos sig.;
I think Xenosaga ranks among the top 3 best ps2 rpgs. Best part was, I wasn't expecting what I got. The gameplay goes so unnoticed, I swear it.
This game is not an interactive f**king move.

I love XS... I kept hearing people talk about it months after it was released and I finally bought it. I beat it a few weeks ago. Great story and characters, and despite what people say about it being an interactive movie, (while it does have a lot of cutscenes) the gameplay is still great.

Woah I wonder how and why xenosaga got so famous in so little time. i liked the game, the fac that it had blood suprised me, and in such great amount. I found it to be surprisingly good, but it missed that little flavour of a great rpg like final fantasy X or others.
The sequel looks good and it looks like its becoming less of and anime game as time goes by.

I mean seriously, as Vins said. Did you even read the topic of just post your stupidity. I went into detail explaining to laymens like you that it wasnt an action movie and it had many great gameplay components, and how there arent even that many cinemas in the game.

Xenosaga kicks ass, accept it.

As Val once told me, never trust a review on a RPG. Or was that LunarMaster?
Honestly I disliked XenoSaga.
Not because of the Gameplay or the story. Those were all great, but I don't like scfi-RPG's. Just the way I am. XenoSaga always involved a lot of training and a well thought out stratgey on the bosses. I have no problems with a well planned out stratgey. That is always easy, in fact I always beat most RPG's several levels under the normal amount. Training is something I like to do only a few times during a game. Sure I will train if I have to, but when I did it in XenoSaga, I never felt I became any stronger.
Sometimes Training my characters is fun, very fun like in Disgaea

I complete agree, This game goes huge in depth but at the same time you still don't know alot about all the characters except ziggy like you said. after i played this game i could careless about FFX-2 i want part two to this game now more than ever. This game leave you geussing like no other i'm just glad when they did this in Xenogears you found everything out at the end(well most things) This game isn't that long unless you stop and do everything like if you play the card game that is one long card game took me awhile to fully figure out and is one of the best card mini games i've played yet. The gear battle thing is great also i have alot of fun with that stuff, I think if you stop and smell the roses in this game it's alot longer of a game thiers lots of mini's to do. also getting to lvl 50 and seeing everybody's last moves i loved this game and i love talking about whats going to happen sense this game left you questioning almost everybody and i can't wait to get my hands on part 2

Hey Mr. Risktaker. Its morons that you that we turn around and laugh at. Xenosaga is a steaming pile of #####? Why? We provided our reasons, you provide yours, but no, You just flame a game and people with it.
Moron.

The main reason these people flame the game is that they flamed it before they knew everything aout it and are now not willing to admit they are wrong. Many people also heard that it was bad and then judged it without ever playing it for themselves, and then there are also Xenogears fanboys who will never like the game just because it isnt the same as "their" game. Similar to what happened to the Final Fantasy series after 7 was released. Everyone flamed 8 and 9 even though they were great games because they were so attatched to 7. Gamers need to be more open minded and actually try the games for themselves instead of blindly believing reviews. Xenogears suffered the "its not 7 so we dont want it" fate when it came out, but now that people cant get their hands on a copy very easily it's considered to be one of the playstations greatest rpg's. I have a feeling that peoples non-acceptance of Xenosaga will fade later on, and people will begin to give it a chance and see how great this sleep hit really was, but by that time there is a good chance that the game will be quite rare and valuable. Instead of missing out on the great games that dont get as much hype, people should stop wasting their money on crappy games like the Matrix and Tomb Raider and invest in some of the cult classics. In my opinion Xenosaga was a far more enjoyable game than even Final Fantasy X on story basis, and is one of the greatest rpg's ive ever played. Im not saying its perfect, but i hope that if you havent played it, you wont dismiss it because its not as hyped as X-2. Hype doesnt make a great game.

That described me right there. After playing Xenogears the anticipation of Xenosaga nearly drove me insane. Also people complaining about the cinemas kind of bugs me, while i respect their opinions and i do relize not everyone has the same tastes, the cinemas were as equally important as playing the game itself. I dont know about you guys but a game with all just random battles and absolutely no storyline would only be half as fun but thats IMO.

i like the game, and risktaker doesnt know how to respect opinions

Few things I'd like to say about this game, and what it is that you people are saying about it.

1. It's a very nice game.

2. The 80 hours of gameplay/30 hours of cinema can't refer to all of the episodes because the xeno series is 6 episodes long, including xenogears (most believe at least.) as episode 5.

3. Think of the time frame, Xenosaga is something about 15000 years BEFORE Xenogears, technology is not going to be as advanced as in Xenogears (I hear people not liking the A.G.W.S. because they arn't as much of the game as gears were in Xenogears (also think of the name of that game, I think it would imply things centering around gears.)

4. Xenosaga is by Namco as someone said, but it's not really by Namco, Xenosaga is by Monolith Soft who is a seperate group who'd left Squaresoft + Enix when the FF:TSW movie bombed (which I thought was a good movie.). Who is Monolith Soft??? Monolith Soft is the same exact people who worked on Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, and Chrono Cross (and the scrapped Chrono Break.) So do not think that anything that might happen to be somewhat known with the Namco name (besides the endless ads for Namco Games.) will appear through the Xenosaga series.

5. Monolith Soft are shortly going to be released by Namco to be picked up by whatever company wishes, hopefully the small group of Monolith Soft will return to Square-Enix and fix everything that Enix has screwed up (FFX-2) while also getting Squaresoft on the right track again (Chrono, Xeno, FFXIII and beyond.)

6. Xenosaga is not an interactive movie in anyway, it has alot of FMV's but depending upon how you play the game, it will take up no more than 1/3 of the game time, and for many people even less. (also you can skip them if you want using start then triangle.)

7. I think Ziggy is going to be the toughest character for them to give a full history upon, considering he is 128 years old (died at 30, at what would have been around 32 was ressurected and became a cyborg, so two years dead.) But I think that with the amount of time that was allowed due to the storyline, that they did fairly well at least giving us some of his long history. (Note: The Ziggulator is my favorite character in the Xeno series so far.)

8. Oh yes, something I forgot to mention was the use of A.G.W.S., I've heard alot of people complain about only four of the six characters being able to use them, the reason why not everyone in the world can use A.G.W.S. (Ziggy and KOS MOS mainly.) I believe at least, is their body structure, there is supposed to be a gel-like substance inside the cockpit of the A.G.W.S. which is supposed to mold to the shape of the pilots body, but when you are made of metal like Ziggy and KOS MOS, the gel wouldn't respond very well, also consider the fact that KOS MOS and Ziggy are the tallest characters (in the whole game, it seems.) (Ziggy being 6'3" seems a little low, but probabally taller than most in the Xeno world) might have something to do with it, because the A.G.W.S. are not exactly huge themselves (especially the VX4000 (MOMO's A.G.W.S.)) Also another reason could be due to nerves systems being used to control the A.G.W.S. we havn't gotten a good look at the inside of A.G.W.S. so it's unknown if they are using controls physically with thier hands and legs, or if the gel or some other substance (or technology) responds to the pilots movements to move the A.G.W.S.

9. I believe that the Xeno world (which is actually supposed to be our own world, just many years into the future. (realistic thinking on the technology though, those types of things not available for 2767 years to 4096 into the future.) Which is one thing I'm a little lost on. The year of Episode 1 is 4767, but the game started sometime in the 21st century, and then said 4000 years later, 4000 years later would be anywhere from 6000 - 6099 unless something happened to make it so that the years changed so that they were based off of some event back between 1233 A.D. and 1332 A.D. (years obtained by taking the year it should be (anywhere from 2000 and 2099 + 4000, being anywhere between 6000 and 6099) subtracting the year it gives (4767)) This would mean that sometime in the future it would be decided to throw away the years based upon the birth of Christ, and base them instead upon another even which happened sometime between 1233 and 1332 A.D.) (Sorry for the tangent, but it also makes a point to what I'm about to write.) will end up being a heavily studied world considering there will be six episodes in all for the Xeno series (seven maybe if they have to re-make or make a new episode 5. In which Xenogears would be irrelevant. But I think they will link it to Xenogears, probabally with just a re-release of Xenogears, saying it is Episode 5 of the Xenosaga series in the title, to make it official (if Square lets them, or if they [Monolith Soft] return to Square.))

10. Anyone with ideas on the possible event let me know would ya? DolEldHelIstTirVex@hotmail.com thank you.

Hi, I just read this editorial on the main site, and have decided to comment. Sorry if it shows me as a "guest," as these boards seem to "no longer be accepting registration." I think your article was very well written, but like all articles of opinion (editorials), there will be people who's assessment of the game differs from your own. I happen to be among the "camp" that feels that Xenosaga is not as great of a game as its "die hard" fans will say. I will try to briefly explain why here.

Now, I will agree that Xenosaga is a good game and definitely worth the money, but it has some glaring flaws that keep it from excellence. One of the main things I didn't care much for was the ability system in general. It seems like a great concept at first, but as long as I can just "upgrade" my current attacks and make them stronger, then there is never really much change in the way I am fighting. For example, in say a Final Fantasy game, I learn new spells as the game goes a long, and they look bigger and more destructive then the ones I had in lower levels. Sure the battles are still as repetitve as ever, but at least something "feels" different. Now In Xenosaga, I was actually using the very same spells and attacks on the last boss that I used in the games begining, and causing more damage with them than with my "ultimate spells." In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with an RPG if I can beat the last boss with my early game attacks. Could you imaging beating Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth with Fire 1? Now I am aware that I could have put my skill points into a higher ability, if just for variation, but I didn't really needed to with the character buildment system as it was; it rewarded me for using the same attack over and over.

The battles themselves were fun enough, except of course when you actually get into an A.G.W.S. The idea is a good one, get into "super robots" in order to annihilate your enemies, but when you actually try it out you find that your robot of doom is causing far less damage than your characters would outside of them. So then why bother using the A.W.G.S at all? Monsters, bosses, etc fall faster if you don't waste a turn getting into your robot. It kind of bothers me though... How exactly can my characters cause more damage to a creature with just their fists than they can with a huge steel robot!?

Now another thing that annoyed me about this game, was the liberal useage of cutscenes (that everyone seems to either hate or love). Nearly every single bit of dialog in this game is done it a voiced cutscene... Why exactly is this necessary? I can understand having cinemas for everything that actually moved along the plot, but I'd rather just read the "banter" between the characters as they go about their activities. Sure I can just "skip" the scenes, but the first time through the game, I had no idea which cutscenes would actually advance the plot somehow, and so I didn't want to miss those.

Now the actuall plot itself is worth watching through, but I don't think it's as "awesome" as people say it is. It is a very typical "sci-fi" anime plot, complete with giant robots, androids, an alien menace, etc. Not to mention the Dragon Ball-esque "attack energy fields" used by Junior and Albedo. Now all of these ellements are set up in a compelling way, and put a little flare into an otherwise tapped genre, but they don't make the story "supremely good." Now for those people who really dig anime, this storyline might be great for you, even if you have seen parts of it in other animes... But as I am not much of an anime fan, this plot didn't do that much for me.

This is about all I can find that keeps this game from being a "really good" RPG. I'm sure it sold very well, as it seems many game players these days would rather watch their game then play it.

The other aspects of the game are done really well, especially the music. Mitsuda has composed another brilliant soundtrack. Oh, and let us not forget the "really amazing graphics," as that seems to be another selling point in games these days... (notice how the Gran Theft Auto series never got really huge until the graphics got more realistic).

Well i adore this game and i think that should be released a second game! The chars are good, the graphics rox and the story too. However i prefer yet Xenogears... I like Fei and ID a lot.. both rox!! AND BY THE WAY WHO THE HECK IS USING MY NAME TO SAY SUCH-A CRAPS ABOUT XENOSAGA!!