I've heard a lot of compliments of Xenogears, but come on. It's "battle system" was hardly a strongpoint. Human battles were okay, but gear battles were just horribly boring. And while XS2's battle system was quite annoying, the other two weren't terrible. I actually liked XS3's system. If Xenosaga had sold enough to last all 6 games, I'm sure you'd see the connection much more closely. Unfortunately, that will never happen.
Not sure I have tried Xenogears game yet. So many. I like the new age RPGs a little more like Fallout 3, Valkyrie Chronicles, and Oblivian.
I was desperately thinking about trying xenosaga when it first came out, as the ps2 was rpg bare in its first few years. I've heard that it really wraps up well by the 3rd game, but you have to endure the much less enjoyable (either bad story, gameplay i don't remember what I read in reviews) first two games.
Fair enough...although I LOVED the human fighting in Xenogears. It's true that it doesn't stand up to the combat in a lot of games today, but back then RPGs with action elements weren't all that common. Being able to do combos (even though they weren't in real time) was a lot of fun (IMO) I think if the Xeno series had shifted more towards that direction and adopted a battle system like the Tales Series or Star Ocean it would've done a lot better.
The problem is they were planning on expanding on those. The original intent was to make 5 games, and it ended up being only 3 because of poor sales. The Fei & Elly references in the 3rd game killed me for what they could've been, and the games that were never made. That's also why the 3rd installment felt so dense and rushed... because it was. They had to improvise 3 games' worth of story into one game. Yep. I will forever remember XS2 as a game with one of the best stories I've ever seen, and unfortunately also the worst combat system I've ever seen in an RPG. XS3 was great all around, and I maintain it would've sold much better if XS2's combat system hadn't put people off the series. Yep, pretty much. Quick guide... XS1: Pretty "meh" mostly. Decent combat, decent graphics, pretty good music. Not a lot of exploration involved. Story doesn't heat up until late in the game but eventually gets very good. Endearing characters. XS2: Awful, awful combat. Tragically horrible music. Another peeve is that they overhauled character appearances to look more realistic, and in the process apparently decided to give some characters a personality transplant, most of all Shion (main character). In the first game she was lovable, in this game she's a whiny b****. But still... best story of all three games, IMO, and a bit more freedom to move around and extras. XS3: Best-in-series and vastly underrated in general. A great game that people didn't give a chance because the first two didn't meet expectations. Overall I really recommend them. Even though it's a bumpy ride, I can't think of another story in a game that had more impact to it than Xenosaga did. It just requires a lot of patience.
I agree with Drexlerfan22 about Xenosaga. After the first game, it might seem a bit disappointing, but as a whole, it is definitely a great experience, and not one to miss if you like this type of stuff. On another note, I believe Xenogears is now up on PSN. Would be interesting to see how many people play it for the first time. Most people in this thread seem to already be fans, but hopefully this release will create some new fans.
Anybody interested in game sharing this? Up to 5 people can share a PSN account and split the costs. While this sounds kind of sketchy, Sony actually endorses this practice... Xenogears Alundra Arc the Lad 1,2, and 3 All great PS1 RPGs, $7 per person (gifted paypal), only 2 shares left
Man, that OP cinema was damn awesome. And probably the only scene where the dubbing wasn't so ******* awful it becomes hilarious.
I just wanted to say "Thank You" in this thread for inspiring me to get PCSX2, a PS2 emulator, and play Xenosaga 2 again. I need to finish 2 and 3. It took some effort to get it to perform decently, but I got it, and it's great!
I really want to get into XS3, but without giving the first two any of my time (huge backlog). Is there some "Last time on xenosaga" type summary out there or maybe the intro on XS3 would fill me in enough? They did something like that for Zone of the Enders 2, making it possible to skip the first and just pick up and play the second.
Xenogears was great, Xenosaga put me to sleep until the end. Never could get into the 2nd and 3rd after XS1. I felt Shion, KOS-MOS, and Momo were weak characters.
MOMO annoys me, but I didn't mind Shion much. KOS-MOS, however, has this innate badassedness in her that I'm waiting to be unleashed. I just started up XS 2 again, but I guess the end of XS 1 was a preview of it. I own all 3 games, just never made it through the second one, so I'm trying once again now. chaos is pretty cool. Ziggy's all right. Albedo is wicked awesome, though. His laugh in XS 1 was one of the most memorable aspects of it. He's not quite as awesome as Krelian from Xenogears, and nowhere close to Id from Xenogears (no one is), but he's a quality villain.
I could never get through Xenosaga I, so needless to say I bought II & III and never even started them. I always said "someday," but I doubt it.
Albedo and Chaos were fine (which is why I didn't list them). But KOS-MOS can't hold a candle to Fei as a developed character, at least not after XS1, which left me not hungering to play the 2nd and 3rd installment. Also just overall characters weren't developed as well in the game, I mean Billy, Bart, Elly, and Citan had entire sections of the game dedicated specifically to them.
On a side note, there's another "Xeno" game from Monolith out in Japan for the Wii: Xenoblade. I haven't located a North American release date though, other than it being on Nintendo's release calendar for 2011.
Actually, you're in luck, if you don't mind spending a little money. http://customdvdcreations.ecrater.com/p/64099/xenosaga-episode-i-der-wille-zur http://customdvdcreations.ecrater.com/p/64100/xenosaga-episode-ii-jenseits-von ...this guy has endeavored to put the cinematics for a bunch of RPGs on DVD so you can just watch them. I actually bought this guy's Chrono set years ago (because I'm just THAT much of a Chrono Cross nut), and no complaints. I would really recommend playing the game or getting those sets, because a summary just won't do the story justice, period. If you're not willing to do either, the third game actually has a backstory database of key terms and such from the first two games. Quite necessary because there are SO MANY events, buzzwords and names referenced constantly, and with no concessions at all to people who want to only play the third game, that it may as well be a foreign language if you didn't know what was going on already. chaos's importance is emphasized in the third game, and I can also say you'll probably think more of Ziggy by the end of the 3rd game as well. And the best part of the 2nd game, of course, is that it greatly expands on Junior, Negredo, and Albedo. And as you say, speaking of Albedo, he is indeed wicked awesome. In fact, he may be my favorite villain of all time. His role gets even more... err... complicated, as time goes on. You'll be seeing a lot more of him.
