Xenosaga III

[hellsassassin]

I heard that Xenosaga III is an excellent game. I haven't played the previous two games yet and am thinking about buying the third one. Do I really need two other games to understand the story in the third one? Will I be able to see the previous stories in the third game? I already downloaded the script for those two previous games but do not want to go through reading them....

[SkyeWelse]

Even though Xenosaga III has an large directory of information about the entirety of the series, reading the script and watching the important cutscenes and dialogue are pretty much a necessity if you want to understand the story as a whole. Fortunately, or not fortunately (depending on how you look at it, since playing the games is great fun) you can view each of the series full dialogue/cutscenes over at bluelaguna.net. It's hours of Xenosaga movie watching fun and they actually pretty much make a lot of sense even without having played the games. If you don't have time for the script, watching the movies should be enough to give you the general idea of what happened in the previous 2... 2 and a half... or rather 2 and three-fourths games that take place before Xenosaga III. Mostly you'll just need to understand the events of Xenosaga I and II, but there are other sources of story that fill in the gaps in between in "Xenosaga II-III: A Missing Year" and Xenosaga: Pied Piper.

But yes, excellent, excellent series and I very recently finished the third game and enjoyed the ending to it all. Also try out Xenogears sometime if you haven't already as Xenogears, while not directly connected to Xenosaga, is pretty much in the same vein in the series as it was the creator's original game having to do with this science-fiction meets theology genre.

-SkyeWelse

[Shigure]

this game was really fantastic, you enjoy every single moment playing it, great graphics and great story and greater conversations

the gameplay is simply amazing, easy and doesn't make you feel bored at all, esp the battle system, the best battle system i have ever seen in an rpg game

the music is done by Yuki Kajiura, a really awesome composer, you should play this game now and anytime soon

[FM-77AV]

Damn, this series seems pretty cool. I'd really like to play all of them, but they're probably 5000 hour adventures like all the other good RPGs. Damn it, why can't they make RPGs a bit shorter?

Kind of like Ys, only a lot longer. Somewhere around 30 hours should be more than enough.

[Shigure]

seldane, you should play this game even if its too long for you, i mean man, this game is just awesome!, buti warn you xenosaga II's gameplay is not as good as the 1st and the 3rd

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Xenosaga III will run about 60 hours if you're mildly completionist and paranoid, could easily go longer if you're doing the sidequests that aren't worth it (like getting 99 of an endgame item for an endgame weapon, or playing the official minigame of frustration).

I loved the Xenosagas to death.

BUT! AND THIS IS A BIG BUT!

I am also a huge Xenogears fan. To the point I made it a point to track down Xenogears Perfect Works, and then find a translation to it. Also used to haunt information sites on it until I had the whole thing figured out.

So I may be biased. But yeah, I love the series, and giggled like a gleeful schoolgirl at some of the connections between XSIII and XG.

[whoomp]

The story is very complex and I don't think that jumping direktly into the third game is such a good Idea. You should atleast play Xenosaga 2 that comes with a movie disk to understand Xenosaga III fully. And since (what I have heard) this game is the last game with Kos mos and shio you should play the other two first so you don't ruin the later.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Yeah. I'm totally in the play the in order camp.

Xenogears, you can play before or after as you like. But before is better, I think. It aids in the giddiness the others bring.

[Mejilan]

Here, I'll help you out:

XenoSaga I was terrible.
XenoSaga II was perhaps the worst RPG on the PS2.
XenoSaga III was the best of the bunch, but it was still XenoSaga.

As a bonus:
XenoGears, for the PSOne, was equally pretentious trash.

XenoSaga is effectively the very definition of pretentious pseudo-religious, hokey-technobabble-y writing, at its worst.
Stick to Star Trek: TNG. It can get lame and hokey too at times, but at least it has Picard in it. And no awful, random religious references. And if you're really dying for an awesome, non-traditional RPG that isn't Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, then stick to the Shin Megami Tensei series, as wyrdwad mentioned. There are a surprising number of them available in English these days, with one more coming out within the next half-year or so. I'd recommend Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 over SMT3 Nocturne.... but barely, and all three are VERY safe, very awesome bets. (And the Devil Summoner adventure spin-off is quite fine too).

[FM-77AV]

I'd more than likely share your opinion on these games, Mejilan!

[Mejilan]

Oh, and to add insult to injury, there's more 'cinematic' than actual 'game' content in this franchise.

Seriously, if you're at all a fan of real RPGs (and your sanity)... avoid.

[SkyeWelse]

Heh, guess I'll jump in and defend the series then. Obviously mejilan doesn't seem to enjoy the Xenogears/Xenosaga series, so I guess it isn't for everyone, but I would have to say that the entirety of the series is one of the higher quality rpg series to date just shy of being called a masterpiece and could most certainly pass for being a "Real RPG".

As for Xenosaga II being one of the worst rpgs on the PS2, I think that's just mejilan blowing off steam, because it seriously isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Sure a lot of people do complain about the battle system of the second game, but that usually stems from the fact that to be good at the system you have to actually learn how to manipulate it to your advantage in combat. Due to the complexity of this system, many people simply struggled with it and feels that it ruins the game. Personally, Xenosaga II was my favorite of the series due to the plot flow, visual and audio voice acting quality and character design as well as the many possibilities and strategies of one of the most unique rpg battle systems.

But I guess it's really up to the person as to whether they'll enjoy this series, but being the fan that I am of this set of rpgs, I'll be the first to jump in and defend it against someone who blatantly attacks it without at least providing a detailed explanation as to why he/she thinks it sucks or could be considered one of the worst rpgs. I mean, having cinematic scenes? Come on, most rpgs these days have cinematic custscenes. At least the ones in Xenosaga are interesting to watch and skippable if you feel like moving on with the game.

But Seldane, if I recall you didn't enjoy the Suikoden series, so perhaps there is a chance you might not enjoy the Xenosaga series afterall. I've not heard of many people playing through 3-4 of the Suikoden games without at least liking one of them. I'm trying to read what you like in games, so I might suggest a few titles going forward. I'm starting to piece it together from games that you do like, (Ys, Rule of Rose).

-SkyeWelse

[Varion]

wyrdwad said:

Just TRY and tell me Shion and Allen aren't the cutest "couple" ever

Okay, I will. They were most definitely weren't. Allen needed to take something large and heavy, or small and forceful (like, say, a bullet) to the head. He was pretty much the epitome of pathetic and I couldn't stand every moment he was on the screen. I'm not much of a Shion fan either, but she deserves better. No woman deserves Allen. I almost thought he got some mystical character improvement in episode 2 (I have it, but due to various circumstances (and not helped by the monotonous dubbing at the start - I played episode 1 by turning my TV's sound off and syncing it with the japanese versions of the cutscenes I had on my laptop) I haven't played it) but seen as you haven't played that either I guess not.

So down with Allen I say, down with him. The series would gain much from it. All things said I admit I enjoyed episode 1 though, much as I agree with all that mejilan said... it just didn't phase me much, somehow. And being a regular anime watcher, the cutscenes didn't really bother me either *shrug* especially as some of them were pretty damn cool looking. Especially near the end of Episode 1, and around when the Gnosis first attack. I'm still mildly annoyed about the editing Episode 3 underwent though (geez guys, it's a bit of blood, no one cares anymore).

[SkyeWelse]

I'd have to say that I'm not much of an Alan fan either, but you have to at least admit that he is a "great human being" and as nice as a man can come and willing to put up with a lot of S*** for the woman he loves. Though if you play through the entirety of Episode III, you'll most likely develop a new respect for Alan's character toward the end. Xenosaga III is where Alan really shines.

As for Shion, well, she's about as close to a "realistic" female character (a.k.a not a Mary Sue character) as one can get in a video game. Meaning she deals with realistic emotianal and perhaps hormonal issues and there are times when she can just be hot or cold and can really just rip in to the other characters. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Hopefully I am not offending any female posters here with this, but I would imagine that most would agree with me in that not every female is happy/go lucky "all the time" for various reasons.

(Note that by the term "Mary Sue" I mean, not from average cookie-cutter mold of the "perfect" female character who is both pretty/perfectly porportioned like a super model/talented/lucky/can eat like noone's business and not gain a pound and end up being the sole object or goal of most or all the male characters around in the immediate vicinity of her. If you've seen Fushigi Yuugi anime series, Miaka is a perfect example of a Mary Sue as well is Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess!)

The blood of Xenosaga III missing (especially in a few "particular" scenes) is a big let down for a lot of the fans and really messes up the overall drama and emotinal power of the game overall. However, the blood being taken out was the sole decision of Monolith Soft mainly due to a European anti-violence/anti-gore campaign/influence that they didn't want to upset. Also, the marketing department made a decision based on other mature rating rpgs (such as Shadow Hearts) selling far less than the estimated sales from it being a teen rating. The good thing is that most of the English vocalized cutscenes have been edited along with the Japanese original video scenes over at Youtube. So you can always see what it should have been. : )

-Thomas

[Slayne]

Loved me some Xenogears

[Mejilan]

No, XSII (IMHO, of course) really IS one of the worst PS2 RPGs. It wasn't me blowing off steam, or hyperbole. I freakin' liked Summoner and its ARPG sequel. XSII was game-breakingly awful.

[Mejilan]

Why do you think I mentioned it? I KNOW that Summoner is a bad game, but I STILL enjoyed it a helluva lot more than Xeno-anything!

[FM-77AV]

What's "Summoner" and its ARPG sequel? I'm intrigued!

[Mejilan]

FFX is awful too. But at least it's inherently playable by nature of it's surprisingly solid combat system and the skill-unlocking mechanic. FFX fell flat in story, exploration, variety, mini-games, music, and character development.

Summoner. Where to begin. Such an ambitious project. Released WELL before it was ready. It started off a a PSOne game, and got re-tuned into a PS2 near-launch title. Developed by Volition Software (IIRC), it was an attempt to adapt PC-RPG-style look, feel, and gameplay onto a console. I'd say it was largely successful at that. It featured ok characters, a VERY huge, interesting, and well-developed world, and some of the most amazingly bad graphics you'll ever see on the system. Truly. Huge environments, tons of loot, nice character-building, engaging combat. It was somewhat of a hardcore PC-RPG experience.

Consequently, the game was also later released in slightly improved form on the PC.

Summoner 2 was initially a PS2 game (though later released in improved form on the GCN, of all systems) that attempts to expand the world and story of the original game, but reinvents it into more of an ARPG experience. Vastly superior graphics and music match a scope that still relatively huge. Game kind of falls apart towards the end, but it was a fun ride. Combat was greatly simplified from the first game (since it switched from a more strategic turn-based system to a real-time ARPG one), but it was fun and fast, whereas the original's was quite plodding (though still engaging in its own way). Exploration was, once again, absolutely awesome. Also developed by Volition, I think.

Both games are heavily flawed and exceedingly niche titles, but perhaps (and I stress this) worth a look if you can find them cheap.