Xenosaga: Episode II Review

Plot & Characterisation
For Xenosaga these two areas of discussion are more important to it than any other game you’re likely to play for a while, let alone the oft-story/character driven genre of RPG. Xenosaga relishes in its cut scenes and this is the key area of Xenosaga 2 where you’ll gain most of your enjoyment, or not, of course, depending on your preference. The line between being a player and a viewer is never as blurred as it is with Xenosaga, so I’ll take this moment to flash that familiar warning of ‘if you don’t like cut-scenes, don’t play this [bloody] game!’ (parenthesis to empathise).

Now assuming you who continue to read are in the ‘don’t mind’ camp onwards, there’s some good news: the cut scenes are f*cking ace. The direction is professional, emotive, downright exciting during the two sword fight scenes (standing up with anything you might’ve seen on the screen, big or small) and they generally push the sophisticated plot along excellently. The biggest complement I think you can level at a game where you spend as many hours watching as you do playing is that you don’t care; time spent watching is time well-spent.

Of course, none of this would have a leg to stand on if the characters lacked the necessary credentials for you to care. And in the key cases of Jr., Shion, and MOMO (the formers being the consistent protagonists throughout and the latter having a decent chunk dedicated to her) they do. While suffering from much of the issues number twos in trilogies tend to have, this game does feature a lot expedition and heavy exploration of its main characters respective histories, but again it’s all so damn interesting and appropriate to the bigger picture. Granted, the characters don’t reach Evangelion levels of complexity or really deviate from the kind of archetypes you might expect from Japanese sci-fi, but they definitely warrant enough pathos and likeability to be a success.

But don’t let these generally positive points gloss over the problems Xenosaga 2’s story. The game really could’ve done with being another twenty hours longer (average gamers getting about 30 or so hours from it), if only to provide more explanation of the context in which everyone is acting the way they are. It just doesn’t feel like people and situations are developed enough for things to flow smoothly from one event to the next. And Jr. definitely dominates the plot, leaving other characters neglected; even the series’ figurehead KOS-MOS isn’t much more than the muscle in this episode, and after the amount of intrigue and mystery whipped around her in the first game this grates slightly.

No doubt you have to consider there’s one more game to come and much of the remaining questions may be resolved in that final instalment, but there’s definitely a feeling of resolution lacking rather than purposefully excluded here. There are questions that would’ve made much more sense to answer now and would’ve gone a long way to improving the comprehensibility of the story. Plus with the revelation of Xenosaga/Xenogear creator and writer Tetsuya Takahashi with his co-writer wife Soraya Saga leaving the project, it causes an uneasy feeling of turmoil over the resolution of the series.

Gameplay
Perhaps the weakest area of Xenosaga 2 is its gameplay. Yet, it’d be unfair to describe it as ‘the bits between the movies’, because there’s a comprehensive battle system that is often challenging and entertaining, but still there are many problems with it and elsewhere that detracts from the experience. First let’s consider the two methods of battle in the game:

The first is the variety that is character-based with a combo system designated to the square, triangle and circle keys of the PS2 joypad. With this there’s zones associated with each button and each variety of enemy has a weakness to a certain combination of buttons. Hit the enemy with this winning combo enough and you’ll be able to ‘break’ them, afflicting either an air or ground status (i.e. you either flick ‘em up into the air or pound them into the ground).

This leaves them vulnerable to a whole new world of damage that can further be supplemented with the ability to stock attacks for the cost of a turn, providing that character with three extra attacks once full. On top of this there’s also a boost system that, with the tap of an R button and the corresponding button-to-character, can cause an ally to interrupt the next turn and join in with unloading their stock onto the incapacitated foe. Sounds pretty filthy, don’t it? There’s a definite sense of satisfaction when you pull off an epic joint smack down with all your characters on a particularly infuriating boss. But as I’ve said, there are problems.

First is the matter of guesswork involved trying to find an enemy’s weak zone and corresponding combination. This doesn’t irritate so much with normal enemies, and there is a skill that allows you to memorise the combos and have them show up on the information screen in-battle, but with boss battles it can often be make or break (pardon the pun). The bizarre status affects of each turn are more confusing than useful, it frequently being chance that you do a certain action in relation to them that will benefit you.

The second method of battle involves two of your character’s E.S – large, elaborate-looking mecha that explore environments too hazardous for your characters to tread. This system is much less sophisticated than the first, often requiring you to simply stock (charge) then attack, stock then attack, etc etc. These charged attacks vary depending which combination of characters you assign to pilot each E.S, which provides a degree of tactics in your style of play but not much. Luckily E.S. battles are much less common than the character-based but still, it feels like an underdeveloped aspect of the game.

‘Undeveloped’ is a word that dogs Xenosaga 2’s gameplay in general. The skill system is basic and directionless, the same sets available for every character reducing their individuality in battle. Really, the only thing that differentiates them is the kind of attack their weapon has (be it piecing, slashing, aura-based etc.) and what they have equipped. The in-game puzzles are unchallenging and tedious.

The ‘Global Samaritan Campaign’ that provides most of the side quests is just as bad. Apart from the battle system, which is fundamentally quite fun and challenging (especially with the numerous boss battles), there isn’t much to motivate you from one exciting cut-scene to the next apart from the promise of the fantastic cut-scenes themselves.

Graphics and Sound
The graphics of Xenosaga 2 are above par, acceptable for this generation of RPG on the PS2 but not dazzling. The character models are attractive and expressive, more realistic than their predecessors and better for it in my opinion.

The sense of design is quite unified and well realised without really pushing the boat out – it’s all quite typically sci-fi. In contrast, sadly, the environments that you interact with commonly feel sterile and bland, sometimes even feeling like independent set pieces rather than a cohesive whole or appropriate to the situation. The issue of character model’s hands being manikin-like during the in-game cut-scenes is a fair criticism as well, as they play a key role in the body language of the cast and there’s really no reason why Namco couldn’t animate them properly.

However, in fairness, there are moments when the in-game graphics impress. The wind farms spinning serenely in the background of a rare pastoral setting; the slick, cleanly metallic look of New-Miltia; the hugely intimidating feel of the E.S. and their foes. Still, most of the wow-factor of Xenosaga 2’s visuals lies in the motion capture cut-scenes. And there are some truly mind-bending moments throughout the game that I won’t spoil here, but trust me when I say they’re worth the effort to see. Again while some areas graphically remain simply quite good, the FMV stand-out as excellent.

The voice acting of the game is of decent quality. I recognise Jr.’s voice from a lot anime (usually the generically irritating young boy) and for some reason it doesn’t bother me here as it usually does. Shion’s voice actor has a number of impressive moments and the rest of the cast remaining appropriate to their characters. Albedo may get on your nerves with his hysterical squealing voice, but he only appears for a small amount of time. Music-wise there’s nothing that stands out. The sweeping orchestral score from the first game is gone in favour for a low-key, predominantly synth-based soundtrack. It’s not especially bad, just disappointingly mediocre.

Conclusion
As a cinematic RPG Xenosaga 2 is definitely enjoyable, verging on brilliant at times with an intriguing story and likable characters. However, as you might imagine, because it’s such a story-driven piece of work the gameplay suffers and has a number of issues. The battle system has many things going for it, however, and provides an interesting challenge that will probably result in more Game Overs than you’re used to with RPGs. The presentation is quite uneven at times, but respectable voice acting and some truly excellent FMV make up for its faults. Personally I enjoyed this game and if you’re a fan of RPGs and don’t mind a cut-scene bonanzas then it’s certainly worth your time.

-- Hige vs. Otaku, December 23, 2005