So I just finished Xenogears and dove straight into this one. I think I read that this is set in the timeframe before Xenogears? I am sorta assuming the third game will lead into what started the events in Xenogears?

Anyway, just beat the DOMO carrier on the Elsa, and this is the kind of boss fight that I love. It's a boss fight that says: "Did you understand the mechanics of this game properly? Well, show me. You didn't? Then fuck off, asshole!" This is where boosting becomes absolutely crucial to keep shifting the boss away from the slot where he does his OP area attack. Once that clicked for me, the fight was a breeze.

Man, so far it is gruesome, and in a good way. Both the gore factor in the initial battle, and also what goes on inside the head of some of the NPCs. It doesn't rub it in your face either, which I love, it just presents it and lets the player read between the lines and fill in the blanks. Cherenkov is a prime example. Love that character! Also Lt. Virgil and his actions during the battle.

OTOH I am thoroughly creeped out by how the ladies are portrayed here. Shion is bad enough, standing around all sexy sticking her hip out (super out of character) after battle, but KOS-MOS and her panty-shots, and the "external appearance is down 5 %. I need a cleaning" after battle ... WHAT?!?! I mean seriously WTF. She is a goddamned battle android. And the less said about the paedo-bait posing and panty-shots of MOMO, the better. I guess this shit is inevitable in a japanese game from the early aughts. Oh, I forgot: "She's not human, so it's OK!" Yeah right.

Thankfully that's such a small part of the whole. Still I don't think I could bear playing this in front of my girlfriend; thankfully she's out of town for a few days so I can get stuck in. Will have to schedule around her when she comes home :-p

As I recall, Xenosaga is not a direct prequel; probably entirely because of the copyright dispute between Square and Monolith Soft. Instead, it takes place in a universe quite similar to Xenogears, at any earlier point in the timeline, has many of the same themes, and some pretty direct allusions at times. There are some differences in the foundational nature of the universe though.

Its a solid game, but the cutscenes do get excessive. I once timed the ones between when you finish up the first area and when you first take control of Ziggy, and it was over 40 minutes. And that happens a couple more times.

The character designs of the main women get more sexualized in the later games; but I can't remember if the camera shots and poses stay as bad. I think they don't though; its only the first game that I remember seeing MOMO panty-shots that made me super uncomfortable.

Ok thanks. I was sure this was a direct prequel, don't know why.

I don't mind cutscenes, I'm fine even with MGS4 level cutscenes. An exception: where they stand around peacefully chatting while they should be scrambling to escape or attack or something else stressful. And not only that, it's not simply a bit of poor pacing that doesn't impact the story: They in fact get in trouble for being so dense! So the game recognizes it, and still does it! It's happened a couple of times so far, and it drives me up the wall.

hmm, not the thing I remember from this game but I guess it has been many years since I played it. What I remember is KOS-MOS being f-ing savage and a really heavy-handed ambitious story.

I loved the original Xenosaga. Loved it. One hour cutscenes and all. Pity about what happened with the rest of the series.

I mean, name another game where ghosts from the imaginary number dimension attack realspace by turning people into pillars of salt? And can only be fought by robot Mary Magdalene and Space Jesus In Disguise? Because gnosticism, or something.

It's the perfect kind of batshit crazy plot that can only be done with anime.

From what i remember xenogears and saga have little to nothing to do with each other, xenogears is infinitely a better game as well. I did like the first xenosaga when i played it, though not sure if i actually finished it

Man oh man, I am loving Cherenkov's plotline! It's giving me a definitely similar vibe to Stephen Donaldson's GAP series - which is super high praise.

Report back when you see the Ma Belle Peche scene (i.e. the best scene in the history of video games and the censored version is somehow more disturbing than the original); Albedo/Margulis are both top 5 villains ever in games.

I made it through Xenosaga with a positive impression but also a sort of feeling that what I had just experienced was just on the boundary of exceeding my tolerance for anime. I gave up on the sequel very quickly.

Anyone remember the mini cardgame? I used to play hours of that. Good times!

@joques: I'm a bigtime fan of the Xenosaga games, so I'm glad you're enjoying Episode I! Episode II is a bit of a mess, but if you're interested in the story, stick with it. Episode III makes everything better again.

XS is not a direct sequel to XG, I believe it was tout to be more of a retelling/re-imagining of XG, but much like its spritiual predecessor the series is also fairly incomplete :/

Art style goes through some changes with Episode 2 and 3 for better and worse.

The creepiness factor isn't even at maximum yet! Although I think Episode 1 is where it peaks.

I think the game sort of addresses Shion's attention to KOS-MOS' appearance in some early dialog.

@mistzero: Definitely. It was a really well-designed video game card game. I just wish there were more cards. The 150, or whatever it was, meant that there were only a limited number of viable deck builds.

@bleshoo: I will most likely only finish episode 1 this winter. I'm at the 60th parallell, so the days get crazy long and the nights bright - it gets difficult to use my projector. Console gaming is a winter activity for me, with none of this BS sunlight peeking in through the curtains and ruining the image!

Dang this all sounds right up my alley. I remember being interested in the series but I never ended up buying any of em. Gonna keep an eye out for a nice secondhand copy.

I bought mine a couple of years ago, and back then they were among the pricier of the PS2 games I wanted. Hope you find a good deal!

But - look, am I crazy, or is "near"/"far" range on Tech Attacks irrelevant? If I am in the back row of the party, and/or the enemy is in the back row of his party, I can not use any attacks, regardless if they are "near" or "far". What then is the point?

@joques: The near/far just refer to where your character stands when the execute a tech. Near means they'll run up next to the enemy, and far they will attack from a distance. I believe some enemies will counter based on which one you do.

Edit: Also when you upgrade the speed of your techs, near ones can only be set to square and far to triangle.

Played half this game when it released and really enjoyed it, but it was a rental. Always had it on my list of games to go back to, but time moved on, and now that list is impossibly long. The combat mechanics were far and away my favourite part of it. Or at least that's what stuck with me. Guess I erased the creepy factor from my memory...

I think I still own the first two? I have this one for sure. Never really played it thought. To be honest, I never even beat the first Xenogears...though I'm pretty sure my Dad did (Xenogears and Metroid Prime are the only two games he's ever beaten). He said it went some weird places.

If I recall correctly. There are some enemies that can't be hit by near at all. Front row and back row is determine by another parameter line vs air I think?

Honestly tho, the game really isn't all that balance, there are some techs that are more useful than others and some characters who are more useful that others.

Ziggy is kind of bad in general unless you really know all the elemental strengths and weaknesses of enemies. With proper leveling MOMO's Angel Arrow is the kill everything move. chaos Angel Blow is another mostly catch all except for one. Jr. has essentially incremental sets of physical vs ether, attack-one vs attack-all techs which should cover most bases. KOS-MOS and Shion are stuck with only beam based range attack-one/attack-all techs.

Japan has a serious problem with the way they portray and treat women. The institutional and cultural misogyny is really appalling. Think about the way women were treated in the west prior to the influence of radical feminism in the 1960's and you've got a pretty clear picture of how women are treated in Japan today. In my opinion this kind of hypersexualization you see in so many Anime influenced pieces of media is a direct reflection of Japanese culture's attitude toward women.

Aha, just enountered a flying enemy that required "far" attacks to hit. That's me answered, I guess. It's just so unusual not being able to attack with ranged attacks from the back row.

@soimadeanaccount: I hate both Jr. and MOMO as characters, so I don't want them in my party. I know, I know. But it's just the way I am.

Man, the pacing is all over the place. Right now I'm in the middle of a large scale invasion, and I'm sent to round up straggling refugees and get them evacuated to safety. Fair enough. But get this: in what is supposed to be a stressful and fast-paced segment, with the battle music looping constantly, I have to take my time and nose around every nook and cranny and solve these intricate little environmental puzzles to find where all these people are hiding. So jarring. I think this is the most frustrating part of the game so far.

@fredchuckdave: Ma belle peche, indeed. This guy is right up there with Kefka!

Beat it. I have to say, the ending was way weaker than the start. Around the space battle at Kukai it all peaked and then started going to shit for me. The encephalon dive and all the attendant backstory, and then Shion's and Junior's battle with their own psyche, was probably the high point for me. But the bug-hunt for surviving refugees was the start of the long slope down. The regular encounters started getting waaay to bullet-spongey and there was a huge disconnect between story and gameplay. Too many instances of "need to hurry, because people are dying in a space battle by the second, so let's hang around this puzzle dungeon whittling down enemies with way too many hitpoints and figure out these intriguing environmental puzzles". At the end of Merkabah I was just ready for it all to be over - and then they commit the worst RPG sin of all: After two lengthy boss battles with no saves, they spring a party-wipe attack on you that you COULD HAVE avoided if you knew about it beforehand, because you're a good little gamer and have learned the systems, but since it never hinted at it and caught you flat-footed, you had your party wipe out right at the end of the final boss battle. And now have to do it all over again, only this time do it right. It wouldn't have been so bad if thos last two boss battles weren't so bone-achingly boring.

The ending cinematic didn't help either. I feel let down. Good thing that projector season is over, because I need a break before I tackle 2 and 3.