Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra is the third and final
episode in Monolith’s epic Xenosaga series. If this sounds strange to
you, you’re right. Xenosaga was originally slated to be six episodes
long. However, due to the overwhelmingly poor sales and response to
Episode II, Namco, Monolith’s publisher, pulled the plug on the
project. The end result is Xenosaga has been cut short, and its
developers have crammed everything they had finished for the later
episodes into Episode III in order to give the saga a conclusion that
is mostly satisfying. If you haven’t played a Xenosaga game prior to
this one, unfortunately, it’s highly not recommended that you start
now. The reason for this is Xenosaga is heavily story driven and a lot
has happened thus far. Episode III’s story picks up anywhere from six
months to a couple years after the end of Episode II depending on whose
information you choose to go by. For the record, everything in the game
suggests that it’s really just six months. A lot has happened in the
gap between Episodes II & III, such as Shion leaving Vector, which
sadly didn’t completely make it into Episode III. The story picks up
with Shion, Canaan, Miyuki, and one of the new characters, Doctus,
raiding Vector for information pertaining to Shion’s Father, the U.M.N.
and the Gnosis Phenomenon. The story is action packed the whole way
through, moves extremely fast, and to say anything more of it would be
spoiling it. All in all, fans of the series should be satisfied with
it; however, it’s important to note that Xenosaga Episode III requires
a keen eye paying attention to detail in order to be completely
followed because it moves so fast. There is a database that all the
information you acquire in the games goes into, which allows you to go
back and revisit it at anytime. This is helpful in counteracting the
information overload problem, but is also a lot of reading. The
database also has summarized information pertaining to everything in
the Xenosaga universe, which acts to bring those who haven’t played
through Episodes I & II up to par in the games beginning. However,
as stated, it’s a lot of reading regardless of what you choose to look
up in it.
The combat system has been changed yet again. This time around it has
been stripped down to a standard menu driven turn based system, much
like what you will find in Final Fantasy or Grandia. You can still
boost and see the attack order though so not everything from the
previous episodes combat system is gone. Break status has been changed
from breaking through the enemies guard to a two turn stun that greatly
increases the character suffering this statuses chance of being hit by
a critical strike. Everything you can do to the enemy they can still do
to you, and for how it operates, the combat system is both satisfying
and rock solid. However, the inputting of fighting game style button
commands to perform attacks is now a thing of the past, and thus, so is
much of what made Xenosaga unique among RPG’s.
The E.S.’s are back in all their overpowered glory and feel better than
ever to use. Episode III makes better use of them than Episode II did,
and provides more E.S. specific levels and battles. The battle system
of the E.S.’s has been noticeably stripped down as well, and it’s worth
mentioning that the none of the E.S. levels or battles feel as
challenging as those you go through with your characters. The main
reason for this is if you keep your E.S.’s up to snuff then they can
one hit pretty much all of the enemies you will face in them, aside
from bosses. They have been given a cool new limit break style ability
called “Anima Awakening.” How this works is you have an anima gauge
that charges based on the amount of damage you are inflicting. Once it
is full you can use your anima awakening, which reduces the fuel cost
for regular attacks allowing you to attack more per round, as well as
perform extremely powerful special attacks. All of this is very
satisfying to use and will be your ticket to getting through the games
tougher E.S. boss battles.
The character customization system has been revamped for the better.
Unlike in Episode II, Episode III’s character customization system will
have each character progressing along a different series of ability and
skill trees, which is very similar to Final Fantasy X’s system, but
much simpler. It doesn’t present much variety for each character, but
each characters tree is different and there is enough difference within
those trees to make you think seriously on how to invest your points.
You can get tech attacks, ether attacks and abilities, as well as
passive stat boosters from the trees, and once you master a tree you
are granted a special “Master” ability, which comes in very handy later
in the game. It doesn’t take much to master a tree, so most players
will probably have one tree mastered and be working toward finishing
their second tree by the end of the game.
The character models have seen yet another makeover. However, this time
their appearance does a good job bridging the gap between Episode I’s
cutesy Anime style and Episode II’s more realistic look. The graphics
for Episode III’s environments look better than ever and don’t leave
anything to complain about. The only downside with Xenosaga Episode
III’s appearance is that for the North American release all of blood
effects were censored out of the game in order to keep it rated “T” for
teen. The result of this is that because Xenosaga Episode III is a
serious game containing a lot blood shed, many of the games more
serious and violent scenes look laughably foolish, or just don’t work
at all. The emotion of these scenes is still able to come across in
most cases, but in the few where it doesn’t, players will be left
shaking their heads wondering what it is they are watching.
Episode III’s sound is fantastic, and does an excellent job setting the
mood for the games environments, scenes, and battles, as well as
heightening the games emotion. Everything from the ambient background
music, to your characters footsteps across different environmental
surfaces, to the crunch of metal against metal in the E.S. battles, to
the choral music of the games big final bosses on disc two is fitting,
and belongs where it is. Everyone’s favorite voice acting cast is back
as well. A few minor yet noticeable changes that are for the better
have been made to the line up, and overall the actors do an excellent
job.
Content wise, Xenosaga Episode III is fairly solid. Most players will
take between 30-40 hours to beat the game, while more experienced
gamers should be able to finish in a little under 30 hours. The
difficulty rises steadily enough that there is no need to grind levels
in the E.V.S this time around. As long as you defeat the majority of
the enemies in each area you go to then you should be able to get
through the boss battles with minimum difficulty. None of the games
main bosses are overly hard; however, it is worth noting that several
of the end game bosses on disc two have extremely powerful attacks that
will simply kill a member of your party outright, even if they are at
full health. Thankfully there is no shortage of items or ether
abilities in this game so it’s not hard to get your guys back up and
kicking after they are knocked down. Also, the over powered anima
abilities of your E.S.’s more than make up for the single over powered
attack of these bosses, especially since you can spam these abilities
more frequently than the boss can spam theirs. There is a ton of extra
stuff to do in Episode III. The game comes packed with mini games,
which are a blast to play, numerous side quests that range from easy to
very challenging, and a dungeon maker. The dungeon maker is the most
interesting added feature since it lets you make your own labyrinths to
explore and share with friends. It’s also very easy to use. Despite all
the good things, Xenosaga Episode III isn’t without its faults. There
are a number of continuity errors present between Episode II and
Episode III. For example, in Episode II one your E.S.’s had the ability
to use Ether attacks. That same E.S. returns and is playable in Episode
III, but can no longer user Ether attacks, and no explanation for this
is ever given. Also, a number of things that happened in Episode II are
rendered obsolete, because of the direction Episode III chooses to take
the story. In fact, because of what happens in Episode III, almost all
of Episode II is rendered obsolete and completely unnecessary. Another
problem with Episode III is that because the Xenosaga project was
canceled and they tried to pack so much into this final episode, there
are several key questions that remain unanswered in the end, despite
the excellent job Episode III does wrapping everything up. Also, there
are many things in the story that weren’t developed enough, or at all,
because of this. As a result, these things really loose their impact
and importance when you come across them. In more than one case they
will make the story fall completely flat on its face, because when you
encounter these things they seem so far fetched and don’t make any
sense.
It’s also worth mentioning here that the long winded cut scenes
Xenosaga is famous for are largely absent in Episode III. This may be a
plus for some, because it means Episode III is more a game and not an
interactive movie. However, on the global scale of things removing the
cut scenes was not a good idea and only hinders the experiences. This
is because there still are several long winded cut scenes in the game
and when you come across them they are extremely inconvenient, despite
how good they are. Also, the long winded narration that the scenes
contained is still present in the game even though the scenes
themselves are largely absent. Now players are treated to spoken
dialogue during the in game play. This wouldn’t be a problem if it
wasn’t two or more figures standing around staring at each other like
statues and lacking the animation for their motions that should be
present with the emotion in their voice for what they are saying. Also,
these sequences really break up the game play, and unlike before where
players could set the controller down and sit back, watch, and be
entertained, now the player has to keep the controller in hand and keep
pushing the circle button over and over in order to get the next bit of
dialogue. This becomes extremely boring and monotonous extremely fast,
and quickly disengages the player from the story taking place on
screen. Also, not to spoil the ending, but it is not one of the games
strong points. In comparison to the endings of the two previous
episodes, Episode III’s ending is neither on par, or a happy one.
Players who go in expecting something more along the lines of what they
received in Episodes I & II will more than likely be disappointed.
Finally, as has been said before, censoring out the blood effect was a
huge mistake. Xenosaga Episode III is a gripping game with a superb
story. However, by removing the blood the censors removed much of the
games seriousness, and several of the games more important scenes
simply do not work as a result, which really hurts the Xenosaga Episode
III experience. All in all, however, Xenosaga Episode III is a must
play for series fans, or anyone who enjoys a good story in an RPG. If
you haven’t played Xenosaga yet, there is no reason for you to abstain
any longer. Xenosaga’s cast of characters is both lovable and
memorable. Xenosaga is thought provoking and engaging, and comes with
enough added content in the form of side quests, mini games, and a
built in dungeon maker to keep you playing long after the adventure is
over. Episode III does a great job overall of wrapping up what is one
of the greatest narrative driven game series of all time. It will keep
you glued to the screen until the very end, and stay with you for a
long time after it is over.
