Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse

Somewhere along the line during Monolithsoft's PR junkets and interviews and whatnot, Xenosaga fans came to believe that Episode 2 would wrap up the current plot line involving the characters introduced in Episode 1, and that Episode 3 would jump ahead a few thousand years in the timeline and introduce new characters. Apparently, this is not the case. Episode 2 does resolve some conflicts and bring closure to a few issues, but none that are very major or have much to do with the grand scheme of things. It seems that most of the cast will be returning for Episode 3.

While there are still many fans who stubbornly cling to the hope that Xenosaga will follow a course of events that will eventually lead into a retelling or even a remake of 1998's Xenogears, Episode 2 doesn't do much to bring us any closer to that. Notice that I didn't say that it doesn't do ANYTHING to bring us closer to that. However, I remain firm in my belief that if Xenosaga does have any relation to Xenogears, it will tell the untold stories that took place in episodes 1 and 6 in the Xenogears epic, as these are the only two episodes that weren't completely outlined and fleshed out in either Xenogears the game or the book Xenogears Perfect Works. In other words, these are the two remaining parts of the 15,000+ year story in which the authors still have the opportunity to be as creative as possible without contradicting the events told of Xenogears.

In any case, Xenosaga Episode 2 continues to follow the same path as Episode 1 did: This is a relatively small, sensibly sized RPG. It isn't the grotesquely bloated epic that Xenogears was, and fans who were hoping it would be are bound to be disappointed.

This one has horrible ugly character models, it seriously looks like something from early 2000 and not 2004. The character model are very similar to Phantasy Star online 1 for the Dreamcast. How did this happen when the first game (2001) had great graphics? The models seriously look bad, their mouths barely move, their eyes are just textures, and in a lot of scenes their hands are mittens (think GTA 3). The character faces looks like Kingdom hearts 1 where sometimes they would use a cheaper looking model for short scenes, except in this game they do that to the characters for the entire game. The faces lack any real emotion like it did in the original. The facial animation is just bad this time around. The animations are also downgrades, with all characters having the same robotic running animation, and the walking animation just looks bad.

Also the voice acting is pretty bland, especially main character Shion and Chaos. What happened man?! The sound effects are also worst since everything just sounds bad. The guns have a weak "thud" to them, hits no longer have the same impact that they did during the first game, and the battle music is completely forgettable. The music in general isn't really good, it is this goofy upbeat funny sci-fi "arcade" type music. It just doesn't match the game and story. The battle system is changed, so those who enjoyed the first game's battle system will probably be a little taken back by the new system. There is no more tech points, you can't equip armor or weapons anymore, you can charge attacks or customized your attacks, and for some reason they completely got rid of the money system in the game. You can no longer buy stuff, and there are no stores. You get items by killing enemies so get used to a lot of battles.

It takes a while to get used to the downgraded graphics, music, voice acting, and battle system, but when you do get used to it I guess the game is "alright at best." Seriously the graphics look like a PS2 launch title, and not something from 2004. By 2004 we had God of War, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Fatal Frame 2.

It is disappointing no doubt, but part 3 is good so just know that after Ep2 you will be back to similar Xenosaga with Ep3.

7/10.

The story is okay, but let's face it...I figured some sort of major plot point would be revealed, something groundbreaking would happen. No it doesn't, just some cool action scenes with Jr. being a bit more of the focus this time, although Shion still seems to be the main character. The fighting is also awful, I could not stand it this time. Just to hard to really get the upper hand in some fights. The robots were a tad better though. Playing this one made me almost not get three as the okay, but nothing really going on story and the fighting were drastic steps back from part one. Though it was not all bad as a cool new character was introduced in the form of Shion's brother Jin who made a very brief appearance in part one. Yes at the beginning you see a flashback and there is a very cool cinematic of him and Margulis fighting. This is the highlight of this game for me. The rest is a bit of a letdown. Though they did manage to get some more music in this one.