Xenosaga Episode I is sort of a spiritual successor and prequel to
Xenogears, which debuted on the Playstation 1 back in 1998. If you
remember Xenogears, you know it was a Squaresoft title, and Xenosaga is
brough to us via Namco. The reason for this is the creators of
Xenogears left Square in 1998, after the Xenogears project was
completed, in order to make their own company so they could carry out
the Xenosaga Project. Xenosaga consists of six episodes, the first four
of which are everything leading up to Xenogears, which is the fifth
episode, and is followed by the concluding sixth episode. Namco signed
on as the publisher since this project was guaranteed to be a sure fire
winner given Xenogears huge success.
Xenosaga Episode I: Dur Wille zur Macht is told from the perspective of
Shion Uzuki. Shion is an extremely bright girl who is in charge of the
KOS-MOS project. KOS-MOS is a battle android and the ultimate weapon
against the Gnosis. The Gnosis are a mysterious race of phantom like
creatures who appeared during an event called “The Militian Conflict,”
which occurred fifteen years prior to the games opening. No one knows
much about them other than they are hostile to humans, and have been
erasing humanity from the cosmos at lightning speed since they
appeared. There are many other characters in the cast as well, and
while some can get on your nerves at times, over all the cast is very
likeable and will grow on you.
Game play in Xenosaga is much the same as it was in Xenogears. You move
around a series of environments blowing up stuff, collecting stuff,
moving stuff, and killing stuff in order to advance in the games story.
Combat is very similar to how it was Xenogears, but with a few new
added features. Battles still operate as a sort of turn based “Street
Fighter.” You have high, medium, and low range attacks and push the
appropriate buttons for them in order to pull off combo moves, which
are your primary damage dealers. However, unlike in Xenogears, when a
new combo becomes available to you is determined by you characters
level and not unlocking it by randomly punching in the button code at
the desired level like in Xenogears. Also, the button codes for the
combo’s are few, simple, and preset in Xenosaga, and what combo attack
they do when input by the player is determined by what one of your
unlocked combo attacks you choose to equip to that button code. This is
a great addition since you no longer need to charge up forever and
remember long strings of code in order to pull off a devastating
attack. You also have Ether attacks, which serve as the games magic, at
your disposal, along with items. Though these are mostly used for
healing purposes and their damage output is no where near that of your
attack combos. A bar to show attacking order, a la Grandia, has also
been added so you can plan your strategy accordingly. A bonus slot has
also been added, which changes every turn. Based on what you get
determines what bonuses your party has for that turn. These bonuses
work for enemies as well, and range from an increase in earned
experience to increased damage output and a higher chance to get a
critical hit. Overall it works as sort of a double edged sword, and is
an unnecessary addition, but helps keep combat interesting.
The giant robots are back as well, although they are primarily an after
thought. They are called A.G.W.S. (pronounced egg’s) this time around,
and all you can really do with them is hop into them during combat.
There are no giant robot specific dungeons, or sequences, in the game.
Even the battles that are designed for them really have them as more a
strong suggestion than anything else, because you can over come
anything in the game by over leveling your characters. You can
customize your robots, but not nearly to the extent you could in
Xenogears, and combat for them is watered down and bland in comparison
to fighting with your characters. All the A.G.W.S. are capable of is a
few simple moves that are limited by your ammo supply. They can’t do
any death blow combo’s or anything like they could in Xenogears. Still,
it is nice to have them, because they do come in handy.
Xenosaga’s difficulty ranges from very easy to very hard. Most of your
time between cinemas will actually be spent grinding levels in the
environmental simulator. This device lets you replay all the events and
environments you have already played through in the game. It’s a nice
feature since there is very little free roaming in the game, and it
comes in very handy if you missed getting an item you wanted during a
previous level. Unfortunately, because there is such a high emphasis on
this thing, the only way to get through the game is by power leveling,
or over leveling your characters in it. This gets boring fast, and
takes time, which detracts from the games excellent story.
It goes without saying that there has never been a game in the history
of gaming with as much of an emphasis on story and narrative as
Xenosaga has. Players familiar with Xenogears will immediately feel at
home in the games story, as it is loaded with as much religious and
philosophical thought as ever. However, if you don’t have much, or any,
background experience in the material from which Xenosaga’s story is
derived, you are probably going to find yourself in over your head very
quickly, and won’t understand what is going on in the game. The story
is the games main focus, and is told through a series of long winded
cut scenes, and pre-rendered cinemas, which break up the periods of
game play. They are all done using the games engine and look great;
however, it would have been nice if they could have been a little
shorter. The cinemas in Xenosaga are so long that there are save points
within them, which is perfectly understandable since some of them run
for up to a half hour or more. Aside from the cinemas, Xenosaga Episode
I’s graphics range from very impressive for a Playstation 2 title to
very unimpressive, especially for a Playstation 2 title. The character
models and combat graphics are excellent. The space station and space
ship environments are also very impressive. The planetary environments,
sadly, are pretty ugly and look like something found in a Playstation 1
or N64 title. It’s obvious that planetary stuff isn’t the games main
focus, and fortunately there are only a few of these types of
environments in the game. Sadly, they are an eye sore and do detract
from the overall experience when you are playing through them.
Xenosaga’s musical score was performed by the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, and sounds great. Unfortunately, music is only present
during the cut scene and cinema events and not when you are actually
playing the game. That’s right. There is zero background music in
Xenosaga Episode I’s environments. Instead the mood, tone, and feel for
the environments is created by their graphics, sound effects and
background music alone. This isn’t a bad thing the first time you are
playing through the games locals, but does hurt the overall
presentation and feel when you are going back to grind levels and
collect things you missed later on. It should also be noted here that
Xenosaga Episode I’s voice acting cast is excellent. They did a
superior job, and if you are familiar with dubbed Anime, you will find
that practically every great, and major, dub voice actor is lending
his, or her, talents here. Even the narrator from “Outlaw Star” has a
role in Xenosaga, and he is excellent in it.
It goes without saying that Xenosaga Episode I’s strength’s are also
its weaknesses. Simply the fact that it is so focused on story and
narrative isn’t going to make it for everyone. Make no mistake about
it, after spending an hour or so with this game you will know that you
either love it or hate it. Yet, all in all, Xenosaga Episode I is a
real treat for anyone remotely interested in a game with a great story.
The plot and events it unfolds are both interesting and thought
provoking. It will make you think, keep you thinking, and make you
laugh and cry. The overall production quality and value is superb, and
it’s for these reasons Xenosaga Episode I falls into the category of
“must play.” If you are a gamer with a love for games with a good
narrative, you owe it to yourself to play Xenosaga, or check it out for
a weekend rental at the very least.
