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Did Xenosaga Episode II live up to its namesake? Review by int on 4 Dec 2004 Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht was a very promising title that entered the RPG arena with a bang. It looked great, had an intricate battle system and sounded great. It also laid the foundation for a potentially epic saga that would span across six episodes. Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose is the second chapter of Monolithsoft's ambitious PlayStation2 space opera RPG series. Rather than bore you with information you are familiar with or repeating excerpts from past Episode II headlines, I will just cut to the chase. :: Story :: The story of Episode II preludes with a flashback which takes the player 14-years back, prior to the events of Episode I. This exposition is of Old Miltia when the esoteric "Miltian Conflict" was at its prime. After the short flashback, the game jumps 14 years ahead of time and picks up where Episode I left off aboard the Elsa. The destination of the Elsa is the autonomous planet of Second Miltia, where the player will begin his/her epic adventure. Like its predecessor, Episode II is filled with pseudo-scientific, philosophical and religious allusions and references. Using Biblical terminology and philosophical ideals is a Xeno trademark, correct? Not with Episode II. Unlike Xenogears where similar terminology usage style streamlined with the plot, goes with the flow, and are pertinent to the term's original definition to a certain extent -- the mere appearances of these references these days seem to be more for show than plot development. In fact, I would be as bold as to say that the application of these references actually felt forced and contrived. In other words, their sole purpose is to give the game-content an aura of pretentious superior intellect. Seriously. It is as if Mr. Takahashi sat on his desk one evening and went through the Bible or his stash of philosophy books fishing for any terms he thought sounded cool, jotted them down in his notebook and then pondered for a few more hours on how to indiscriminately assign them to less than boring aspects of the game. If you could account for all the plot devices in Episode II (and likewise, Episode I), you will come to the realization that their names are actually not original, but are borrowed from Biblical scriptures and philosophy books (and now, CG Jung seems to be under the spotlight); the various names of planets, artifacts, ships and characters; they are all borrowed. And for the most part, these borrowed terms do not even reflect the significance of its original value in their scripture of origin. If you are expecting the mysteries of Episode I to be resolved, don't keep your hopes up too high. Although a handful of Episode I's core mysteries are explained in this chapter, Episode II also introduces a plethora of more convoluted plot devices whose sole integrity and roles are as transparent as glass and as ambiguous as SNL's cartoon duo. It appears to be a trend of Xenosaga to build seemingly significant and integral plot devices up to the point where it has the player on the edge of his/her seat and then only to abolish the suspense with a cliffhanger, or worse, a Deus ex Machina; bland or clinched resolution to a plot device that has branched itself out so far that it has been caught in its own inexplicable web. Unfortunately, the latter seems to be more apparent in Episode II. Take for example, the Anima Containers. The Anima Containers seems to be an underlying focus of Episode II, right? Actually, their appearance in Episode II is comparable to that of Final Fantasy IX's crystal and its associated slogan of "The Crystal Comes Back, 2000"? Despite being an icon used in the official Episode II logo and the source of a multitude of speculation amongst fans, no new explanation was given to these mysterious objects other than the information already given on Xenosaga Episode II's official homepage, located under the wings of Namco's web site. These are the types of convoluted plot devices that run rampant in Episode II. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the URTV trio (i.e. Rubedo, Nigredo, and Albedo), then you are in for a real treat. The URTV sub-plot has been told and closed nicely, using various instruments of flashbacks to explicate their troubled past and their internal conflicts. By the end of the game, the trio's backstory is resolved though it took more than half of the game to reach its conclusion which in turn left all the core essential of Xenosaga's history and mysteries surrounding the Zohar unturned for the most part. At best, the URTV's sub-plot is best told as a side story akin to Xenosaga Pied Piper. Some may argue that Episode II is merely the second chapter of a six part series and that downplaying Episode II due to its inconsistency is downright unfair. Well, if one needs to play through all six games back-to-back just to enjoy Xenosaga and that each episode has to end with a formulaic and abrupt "To be continued" cliffhanger with little or no closure, then someone at Monolithsoft needs to seriously get their act together and rethink their method of narration; contrary to what the creator of Xenosaga had originally claimed, it is quite impossible to enjoy each episode as individual games due to the fragmented plot that chains itself across multiple episodes through discontinuity. According to Famitsu, in a recent interview with Takahashi, Episode III will end the "current story arc". If Monolithsoft holds true to that claim, then Episode III would be a 4-disc 50+ hour game that would answer the mysteries that plagued Episode I and Episode II. If Episode III doesn't effectively answer 75% of the mysteries that were left unanswered, then it is quite evident that Monolithsoft is writing the story of Xenosaga as they progress. :: Characters :: Episode II lacks any essential character development. If you were to compare the character development of Episode II to another game, then it would be comparable to the "Beach flashback" scene found in SquareEnix's Final Fantasy VIII for the original PlayStation. With the exception to Rubedo, Nigredo, and Albedo, the characters of Episode II are very formulaic and static. They either exist to entertain you in boss battles, tell you where to go or what to do, mystify you with more ambiguous "that is to be revealed in future episodes" type mysteries, or they serve seemingly significant roles that could possibly be carried across to the next episode...only to be kicked off the stage at a later part of the game. Pope of the Ormus, Pellegri, Sellers, Orguia, Canaan, Jin, Margulis, etc. anyone? :: Presentation :: The flow of the game is excruciatingly linear. Beat a dungeon, hop onto the next. Done exploring an area? Great! Continue onto the next level. Episode II follows a prescribed path that is very hard to deviate from. And it is because of this prescribed path, the game has almost become a chore to chug through. You may dismiss this claim and say that other games are built the same way, and that may be true to a certain extent. However, with Xenosaga, once you are in a dungeon or a city, there is very little room for the player to do anything else besides run through the focused area and complete the objective. The only impetus keeping you playing, continuously, is finding out what happens next. Episode II suffers the same programming deficiency syndrome found in Episode I. You'd figure that after all the complaints about battle load-times, the people at Monolithsoft would do something to address this issue but they didn't. In fact, if you have an older PlayStation2, it's worse! Yes, the pre-emptive battle load times are back and this time not only does the entire battle begin with a lag, the individual enemies themselves gradually materialize onto the battlefield one by one...v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Despite Final Fantasy X's monsters having very elaborate polygonal models and textures, its battles still load very quickly. Episode II's monsters' polygonal models and textures are not nearly as elaborate, so the load time is truly unfathomable. As if that wasn't bad enough, the HDD support feature which Episode I made liberal use of to alleviate any load-time woes has been, just like the UMN Database from Episode I, completely abolished from this game. The biggest problem with Episode II is its release time-frame. Episode I was full of plot holes and mysteries that were left to be solved in Episode II. However, it took nearly two years for Episode II to become a reality. During this lengthy wait, interest in the game gradually diminished. :: Gameplay :: Sadly, another way in which Episode II has degenerated is gameplay. In Episode I, there were some interesting diversions to the story; we had some subgames, a card game, and the almighty UMN Casino. We also had some subtle side-quests that somewhat enriched the story and its characters, like the flower quest for the mute girl from Ariadne. In Episode II, such diversions are nearly not to be found. Worse yet, in Episode II, there is nothing at all to make you believe that he or she is actually in control of the space-epic unfolding before him or her; you get very little input as to the game's events. For example, in Episode I, up to the Proto-Merkabah, one could still head back to dock-colony and stock up on supplies. Another example can be found in Episode II's battling: in Episode I, one could use characters in a strategic manner and develop their own methods for dispatching their foes; in Episode II, one must actually figure out random button combinations necessary to rack up major damage. The battle system sounded really cool at first, but after dealing with it for eight hours, it gets beyond dull, it becomes tedious and redundant. After figuring out these random "break" combos, one must either "air" or "down" an enemy to rack up even more damage. Only certain characters have moves that can "air" an enemy (KOS-MOS and Jin) while others have the "down" moves (Chaos and Ziggy). Finally, after determining what combo "breaks" the enemy, which way the enemy needs to hit ("air" or "down"), one must figure out which elements the enemy is weak against in order to effectively kill anyone. Possibly sounds like fun, right? Try doing this on a boss who requires two characters to initiate a break, then air or down, and then figure out the elemental damage...this really gets tedious after eight or so hours. And as mentioned earlier in this review, once a player has entered a dungeon, it is seldom possible for him or her to leave without completing the rather large task at hand. However, this may be due to something rather troubling about Episode II: there is no money. While this may strike many players as a rather innovative move the truth of the matter is rather different. In Episode II, you will notice that many things have been downsized and skipped over, for example, there is a "tech" menu in the game which, one assumes, may be used to customize various characters' techniques but this again is far from the truth; the menu is, in fact, useless. It does nothing. You can view various techniques which never change or level up and you can likewise view various dual-techniques (which, likewise, never change or level up). Additionally, because there is no money, there is no armor, there are no item shops, and there are no weapons. Again, some may view this as innovative but many RPGers may find this lack of customization to be irritating. Speaking of customization, gone is the skill tree which gave any character specificity! Sure, now everyone has the same, universal pool to draw from, but that serves to further deaden the gameplay really just makes it look like as little effort as possible went into the game. In fact, due to the reasons mentioned above, the towns of Episode II, which may have previously had some value, are now just eye-candy, really. In effect, Episode II has reduced its gameplay to an absolute minimum, with players just running around the cosmos, entering dungeons, fighting, watching movies, and doing it all over again until the end. :: Cinematics :: Compared to Episode I, the cinematic sequences have been toned down quite a bit and distributed across the game equally. Although the cutscenes are still about the same length, there is more player interaction interspersed between sequences. Perhaps Monolithsoft took into consideration the complaints from fans concerning the imbalanced cut scene/gameplay ratio and upped the ante. In Episode II, more effort has been placed in putting the cinematic scenes together. As opposed to Episode I, whose cinematic scenes were created to blend with the gameplay so that the player couldn't tell if the cinematic scenes were generated by the in-game engine or played as a pre-rendered animation. In Episode II, the cinematic scenes are beefed up with a quality that sets it apart from its predecessor. BTW, the feature that allows you to skip any cutscene at any given time is back. Simply pause the game and press the Triangle button to zip along. :: Graphics :: One of the most noticeable facelifts given to Episode II is its graphics. Changes in the graphical effect can be seen primarily in the characters and their environments. During the Episode 2003 conference that was held back in the summer of 2003, Monolithsoft boasted about Episode II featuring photo-realistic character designs using a side-by-side comparison of Episode II and its predecessor. Once again, Monolithsoft set itself up for high expectations and shot themselves in the foot. The result of their "dramatic" changes is less than sub-par. The only "photo-realistic" upgrades seen in Episode II are the high-quality CG portraits of the characters and a selection of pre-rendered cinematic scenes. The in-game character design is a different story, in Episode I, you have a game whose character designs follow a strict, stylish, anime flavor that naturally flowed with game. In Episode II, however, the designers apparently tried to merge what they dubbed as "photo-realism" with the disproportional traits commonly found in anime. Whether you're a fan of anime or not is irrelevant, the final product is the amalgamation of an anatomically correct body blended with either disproportional or inconsistent characteristics. The environmental representation throughout Episode II is meticulously crafted with details, although there are a few areas that remain just as bland as its predecessor. From water, to trees, buildings, terrains, bookshelves and tables: subtle things were given the subtle details that they were lacking in Episode I. Despite the visual upgrade in environmental textures, Episode II still suffers the lack of explorability. In certain areas, the area map seems large enough to run around and frolic to the player's heart content, right? Not so fast. Like Episode I, the area maps of Episode II are drawn with prescribed paths thatdictate what is explorable. Many a time, I found myself running against an invisible wall as some paths were prematurely cut off due to these "prescribed" paths. It gets annoying, at times, when certain a environment seems so large, lush and vibrant, yet exploration is limited to what the programmers have prescribed. :: Music :: Monolithsoft's second mistake, aside from an inconsistent story, and lack luster programming, is replacing Mitsuda as sole composer of the Xenosaga series. Replacing Mitsuda in Xenosaga's music department is like driving a car with three tires and a flat. It was Mitsuda's music that made both Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode I shine. On the contrary, Episode II only has about 5 cinematic scores that are actually memorable and impressive. The music of Episode II can be summarized as a medley of upbeat, rock, techno and pop. You either absolutely love the individual scores, or you hated it. Unlike Episode I where Mitsuda composed the entire score by himself through many sleepless nights, Episode II's score was compiled by two composers: Yuki Kajiura and Shinji Hosoe. Fans of Episode I complained about the lack of background music in the gameplay. Episode II delivers background music which was composed by Shinji Hosoe. The background music sounds like early 90's techno music and is quite dull, repetitive and generic for the most part. There is nothing spectacular about the background music to comment on. On the flipside, Yuki Kajiura is responsible for composing the music for the cinematic scenes. Though her composition is a lot more attractive to the human ear when compared to Hosoe's work, it still has its irrefutable imbalance. For one, of the entire cinematic scene soundtrack, there are only about five tracks that are memorable and worth listening to. Even still, this handful of comparable cinematic score is then remixed multiple times to create derivative scores which ultimately make up the rest of the Episode II soundtrack. You have the main foundation themes such as "in the beginning, there was", "fatal fight", "Sakura", and "Jr." which are then remixed repeatedly to create derivative themes. Mitsuda was capable of creating a central underlying theme in his previous works with Xeno titles that actually tied the game together coherently as a whole. In Xenogears, it was "Faraway Promise" and in Xenosaga, it was "Shion ~Emotion~". Episode II lacked such a central theme and instead, gives the player a variety of pop and electronic tunes to adjust to on different situations. :: Closing Comments :: From the presentation of Episode II, it appears that the developers were more focused on abolishing the foundation they've set up in Episode I and restarting from scratch. This is evident in the redesigning of the characters, the simplified battle system, and the omission of various key elements that made Episode I a unique game (i.e. UMN database, integral role of the Procurator Expecting a grandiose 45+ hour game? You are better off reading Nietzsche's books to tickle your intellect. Without completing the seemingly useless G2 Campaigns, Episode II tops at 20-25 hours without rushing nor the need to escape from any battles.  | ||||||||||