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Xenosaga III: Also Sprach Zarathustra
During the downtime, some new info has been released:
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RPGamer also offers a bunch of new screenshots. Some general rules: -Any new info containing spoilers for the older games should be placed in spoiler tags. -don't ask for release dates, since general RPG sites much better for that information. -stay on topic |
http://www.famitsu.com/sp/xeno3/
Canaan is apparently playable now as well =o Has anyone seen Chaos in battle at all? If not perhaps he is an npc in this game =O (that would be unfortunate =/). |
Whee, Canaan! And uhm... chaos WAS in battle in the first trailer. So yes, he is playable.
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Concerning Chaos:
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I guess it's not out of possibilty that they just increased the number of playable characters.
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I like how they are adding stuff that actually seems fun. If this truly is the last Xeno game they are making at least it seems like they are going out with a blast. There is one thing thats bothering me though...
http://img331.imageshack.us/img331/7...aga31336yk.jpg Can someone tell me why he's shooting a pile of dirt. Also chaos is obviously in the turn-icons thing so yes he's still playable. |
Yes! They are bringing grown-up Citrine to the stage...
This game is promising. http://www.rpgamer.com/games/xeno/xe...nosaga3149.jpg |
whoa, this looks promising, with characters such as Canaan and Allen playable in battle. And the return of money and shops is definitely great, and hopefully they've gotten rid of those annoying fetch quests, at least not to do them to get important skills and for battle.
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They finally announced a release date. It comes out July 6. There is going to be a playable demo too. Famitsu is giving away 10,000 copies of the demo to people that register for it.
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July 6! I'll probably get the demo somewhere of the net, just to check out the battle system.
Casaubon, the pile looks like some kind of spell effect, with the chains and all. I think one of the stronger ether attacks had it, but I can always be confusing it with another game. And I don't know what to think about Junior's new outfit, I mean, I liked the long jacket, but this is also pretty cool, and somehow makes him look more like an adult. |
WAIT A SECOND... o.O
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0120zeno03.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...cam/wonfei.jpg Does anybody else say they look WAY to much alike to not be eachother o.O Dont get me wrong, i acaulyt havent played any of the games...i was guna wait till i owned them all. to bad they arnt going to make 5 and are going stop at 3....T_T oh well less money i have to pay :p |
You aren't too smart, are you?
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Do some research and come back later once you've made the connection. |
Why don't you read the gamefaq boards for a while aku, they seem to be more on your level. They can also help you with the connections between the games.
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off topic:
composer will be is Kajiura Yuki on Xenosaga III? |
Hasn't been confirmed yet, as far as I know. I really hope so, since her Episode II soundtrack is just <3.
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I just hope Kajiura changes her formula a bit for Episode III. I did find a majority of her tracks on Episode II good, but after hearing Mai Otome and others, I seem to recognize similarities in most of her work.
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That Fei picture was just orgasmic~ anywho I love this news about the whole release date, i have been a fan of xenosaga since i saw Xenosaga 2 trailer after that i started the first one and finished the second one also, as far as i know this is one of the most dramatic games ever, people complain about the game but storywise its superb.
I just hope in Xenosaga 3 they wrap things up and make it at least three disc oh haha and Yuki Kajiura = Communication Breakdown = <3 |
Rydia, that's the main complaint people have about Kaijiura's work, too repetitive. I don't really care, since I only listen to her work for anime/games that I've actually seen/played, so it's limited to Hack and Xenosaga.
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I demand Yasunori Mitsuda and London Symphony Orchestra back! -.-
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I demand a remake of XS2 while you're at it
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Episode III is supposedly in Famitsu this week. It supposedly reveals Spoiler:
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I think Xeno III has got to be my most anticipated console RPG at the moment. An odd statement perhaps, with FFXII also looming, but I've really enjoyed the first 2 games and unlike many it would seem, I enjoy the long cutscenes (go figure).
I'm also a lot more hesitant to spoil things in Xeno III since I care that much about enjoying the story... Well in any case, it's nice to see that it looks like there will be more playable characters, but I hope Jin is still around, he was definitely one of my favorite characters from 2 (I guess I just like Katanas). It's also nice to see that the UI looks like it might be a little larger, it took me a bit to get used to the Xeno2 UI since it was just... so small sometimes. |
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Shion chaos Jin MOMO Jr. Ziggy KOS-MOS Allen Canaan Allen and Canaan are most likely temporary. Jin gets his own mech in the game too. It's called E.S. Rueben. It weilds two katanas as its weapon. |
I just hope that the out of cutscene music will be better this time around. I mean some of the tracks from XSII were alright, but they just didn't fit in comparison to the rest of the music or even the whole Xenosaga/gears feel as a whole.
I'm glad that money and shops will make a return... but I hope that there will also be a return of cool mini games. I thought Xenocard was fun for a while... the casino was fun to buy the artwork and all... the AGWS game was alright... but AGWS didn't really have much use... but the E.S. units on the other hand.... I think its cool that Allen is playable, even if he looks really inept in battle... which is really fitting and will probably add to some fun. I just hope it goes back to the overall story. I mean All Xenosaga II was mostly more backstory for MOMO and Jr. I kind of felt that alot of the other characters didn't get their fair share of screen time. I mean they didn't really do a whole lot with KOS-MOS, Shion (aside from her relationship with Jin), and especially Ziggy (whose backstory is all in Pied Piper). The gnosis and Zohar were also a lot less prevailing as I had hoped. Plus I want to know more about Abel's Ark and such... that's the second time that the game ended with it... and again without much insight. I know that Xenosaga doesn't "technically" relate to Xenogears anymore, but I can't wait for more tie-ins. |
I' m wondering how hyped the game is in Japan. I've heard that the sales for the first two games where below expectations, and that the main reason for continuation was because it did rather good in the US. I don't know about any Japanese reviews though, so it's unsure how hyped that community will be.
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Newest trailer has been released.
WARNING MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS FORMOST BEING ABOUT THE TESTIMENTS http://files.filefront.com/Xenosaga3.../fileinfo.html Spoiler:
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Very nice trailer - hope they replaced Shinji Hosoe in the sound department. =)
One complaint though - even though the release is still quite a bit away, they already spoiled a few important things. Pretty silly, if you ask me. =o |
I think the revelation of the identity of the two other Testaments wasn't needed in a trailer. It didn't seem very well-planned out.
I'm loving the music, though. The second piece of music reminds me strongly of communication breakdown. |
Second piece of music actually takes the melody of "Bitter" from the Xenosaga II Movie Scene Soundtrack.
I do hope Kajiura will be responsible for the in-game music too this time around. Hosoe's OST wasn't horrible, it even had a few gems in it, but it doesn't compare to Kajiura's work. I also hope they'll do a better job at using Kajiura's soundtrack as they did in XSII. I remember getting very angry when I realized they used Communication Breakdown only once. We couldn't hear much because the sound effects were louder, and they cut the choir part. Ridiculous. Other songs were simply left out: Jr., Jr. #4, Bitter, etc. Even the awesome Fatal Fight (Jin & Margulis) wasn't even used in the fight scene it was destined to, for whatever reason. XSI had also suffered from strange music usage, they changed their methods in the 2nd (they actually put background music for dungeons that time around, and boss battle themes), but they failed again for the cutscene musics. I'm really hoping that this improves in Xenosaga III, as I actually really enjoy the other aspects of the series (story, gameplay). And that trailer: awesome! Love the music. |
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I also hope that the music is a little more consistent, XSII's soundtrack felt like there were basically 2 soundtracks, cutscene and normal game. The cutscene music was the orchestral stuff we all know and love, and the "running around" music was very FFX-2 eseque, upbeat songs for the most part which sounded a little out of place even though I liked most of them.
If they'd just use more of the orchestral stuff for combat, especially when it's fitting (you'd think it would be a no-brainer to use Fatal Fight in the Margulis fights for example, but did they? nope..), I'll be a lot happier. The same of course can be said for the numerous combat-appropriate cutscene songs in XS1 which also never appeared in combat, but at least they finally pulled a unique final boss song out of their hat for the final boss. |
Goddamit, that trailer had to go and hook me all over again. And this game probably won't hit the US until summer 2007, if we're lucky.
Anyway, EPIII sure does show a lot of promise. It's established that we will definetely have most of the major questions answered (like you, I'm a bit letdown that they revealed two of the Testaments in this trailer, even though it's obvious who they were. Still, I couldn't help but throw a fanboy smile when they showed Spoiler:
But still, I have serious concerns about Episode III. Again, I'm certain we'll get all the major questions answered, but I'm worried about the pacing that the game will take to answer these questions. The first two games have been notoriously short considering the extensive content of the story, and if EPIII is no better, then we might be treated to a sloppy fastforward of one plot-twist after another, with no breathing room inbetween or character development. The latter is what I fear the most; I adore XS' cast of characters, and if this is their last hurrah, I would absolutely hate to see them get the short end of the character development stick because Monolith is too busy making sure that all the loopholes get filled. Likewise, I don't want certain characters to get little screentime in order to make room to focus on characters like Shion and KOS-MOS. I don't want MOMO, Ziggy, Jr, or anyone else to take a backseat, especially in their final game. I want everyone to get the same amount of screentime and development. Scenes like the crew enjoying a relaxing holographic beach, or when Shion took the time to comfort MOMO in the Durandel park ranked among my favorite moments in the game. They took the time to add in these scenes to have you actually care about the characters, which in turn made the more dramatic scenes (a certain psycho probing an unfortunate Realien) more heartbreaking. I want to make sure that amist all the chaos that will soon occur, we'll still have moments like the ones previously listed to re-establish the family aspect of the characters. It will only make things more dramatic should any of them meet an unfortunate fate in EPIII (and the odds are good). But all this will be impossible to accomplish if EPIII still has a short playtime. It doesn't help that none of the characters have had a real resolution in their story either. Jr still has to deal with his other brother, Ziggy has yet to reveal the story of his wife and kid (for those of us who didn't play Pied Piper, and there's a lot of us), and we still don't know the true nature of MOMO's Y Data (why did Shion and KOS-MOS appear in there?) or how/if she can actually become human. The only way we can get a balance of both the major revelations and a suitable resolution for each character is if EPIII ends up being over 50 hours, and even that is stretching things. I truly hope Monolith can pull off what I'm saying, because I'm too hooked to give up on the story now. |
Considering it seems they are putting in content that got edited out of Episode 2 into Episode 3 we are almost going to be getting 1 1/2 games as it is. I really hope as well they don't take any shortcuts with the plot and character development to wrap the story arc up in this single game. Its always possible they could continue on DS if the other ports did well. Someone was speculating that the scenario writer(don't remember his name off the top of my head) has been given the green light to put in the material that didn't make it in the PS2 versions. Its possible even that it will be very different from what we've played so far. Makes me almost want a DS for that possibility along with them going back to the anime style from Episode 1 i actually preferred over the realistic and growingly sleasy character designs.
I am tempted to see the trailer but having read a few of the recent posts i can see already they are letting too many beans out and spoiling moments I would rather experience having not seen it. Though the identity of the Testaments are hardly any shock. I almost prefer the old days when all we knew of games were the few screenshots magazines would have. They had a much bigger sense of mystery than now with all the trailers and 300 screenshot galleries. A double edged sword i suppose. But everything looks and sounds great. Something to look forward to along with Valkyrie Profile:Silmeria and (crossed fingers) Tales of the Abyss after Final Fantasy XII hits the fan. |
You can't really have anymore relaxing scenes like the one on the beach when there's a rather big war going on with you almost at the center of it.Don't forget that the family mood wasn't really there anymore in XS2, and there will be bound to be some conflicts (Shion and Jin, Chaos). I doubt that we'll see Ziggy's story, since it's explained in Pied Piper. Maybe a quick scene when he confronts Voyager ("why did you kill them?!" or other blabla).
The trailer excited me to no ends, Dimitri and Citrine, Canaan, getting his ass kicked, a flashback of Joachim Mizrahi in all his madness, and the confrontation between KOS-MOS and the other android (who's not Pellegri as said before). This has really gotten me too damn excited. There are a lot of different conflicts left to be resolved, and this game'd better make it worth it. I'll probably be importing a game for the first time with this one. (also, lol at the garbled Shakespeare quote). |
Well, I don't literally mean they need to include scenes like the beach bit, just scenes of dialogue that still re-establish the characters' personalities and relationships. Just don't have them run around most of the time, too busy fighting to even talk to each other. I don't want a fast paced RPG, I want them to take their time before they end things for good.
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If they have the time to lounge on a beach in this episode while the universe is going to pot I would laugh.
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Learn to read.
Also, funny enough, there IS a picture of Shion in what appears to be a beach. :rolleyes: |
I hope MOMO and Jr. DO take a backseat to things this time. They had their time to shine in I and especially II. Give me more Shion and MORE ZIGGY!
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I thought the first two games felt short, so since this is going to be the last one in the series (?), then I agree with at least taking their time here. |
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You are correct. I am sad. |
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http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/...127/ep3_24.jpg |
Wow, after watching the trailer, this really does want me to get the game when it comes out, in the US. I'm excitied to see everything that has been developing so far, with all the characters. It's good that there are fan translations of Pied Piper, but without any Japanese knowledge, I can't see myself enjoying an import version of XS:III. I'll just have to wait until it is decided that they will put the games on US shelves, whenever that may be.
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Was it ever said what the "Beach of Nothingness" exactly was? I do't really recall it anywhere else but during the Cherenkov scene.
I'm also glad that we finally get to see some Gnosis posing a threat again, since their abscence in II was disappointing (except for a few Encephalon missions). |
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I'm interested to see the story conclude in Xenosaga III. I played the other two, so now I'm just waiting for III to answer all of the questions left by I and II.
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I don't think Episode III will answer everything. Xenosaga I&II is supposed to answer some of the questions and it appears that Episode III is following the story of it instead of the PS2 games. Hopefully Namco will release it in America too.
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The only thing this game has going for it is a non-loli M.O.M.O with black hose. I lost interest when the creators went back on their plans for a changing cast with each episode. Sure Albedo's cool, but he alone can't save a game or the series.
Where the hell is "Grahf." These Testaments are poor replacements. |
Who said that there was going to be a different cast each episode? The current story was always going to take at least two games.
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I don't really care about the Xenogears comparison, since I didn't play it until after I finished XSII. I like the Testaments a lot more than Grahf, who was a rather disappointing character imo, except for a few scenes (Solaris mainly). It seems that the testaments will get a lot more background, with Voyager starring in a seperate game, white being covered before, Virgil also seems to be worked out pretty well, and it hasn't ended yet. Red is the only mystery as to what his motivations are, especially since he seems to be second in command in the whole Zarathustra thing.
In the Trailer, there's a glimpse of an Omega weapon attacking. Was it ever explained what it was exactly, or who developed it (I really can't remember)? |
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I'm a little glad that they are ending with episode III on PS2. I like the series, but if it did continue it would probably have jumped to PS3 by episode IV.
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I'd prefer if they at least got back the original english cast. Who the fuck decided to replace Sherry Lynn? What kind of sick, tone deaf fool replaces one of the premiere female talents in the english dub pool? It doesn't matter that they kept Crispin Freeman, it meant that the glass was only half full.
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The trailer looked impressive to me, and they bring back the gnosis. It seemed that ep. 2 all but failed to mention them. Honestly, I hope this isn't the end of the line for the series, the storyline is too good to have it cut to three games.
All and all looks like this is a must get for me this year, can't wait for July 19th now. |
I think it'd really be a shame to end it at three, the story seemed like it was starting to pick up momentum. I was hoping to get much more story in XSII though seeing as it was two discs but I was kind of let down. I really would like to see more games that tied Saga to Gears though, maybe on PS3?
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Has Kajiura made any new compositions for the series yet (I haven't kept up with the trailers)? I'm aching to hear some of the new themes she writing for this installment.
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The last two trailers had new remixes of her themes.
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A new playable character has been revealed. This time,
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I put Shion up there with Aya Brea and Claire Redfield on my list of outstanding female protagonists. |
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1. Soraya noted "Soraya has quit this series. No questions please." in very small fonts on her job history page in this site January 1st, 2005. She used the word "quit" for "to depart from", but not for "to abandon". It was simply her current job status. 2. January 19, 2005 morning (JST), Soraya received some threatening E-mails from upset people. Mails accused Soraya as if she were the traitor, deserter deserved to die. 3. Soraya wondered how the situation suddenly happend. An E-mail from North America has kindly let her know that several game-news sites reported her leaving. Some of those sites brought somewhat misleading views, without any confirmation of the facts. 4. Soraya decided to give answers to most frequently questions. The following are the summary of answers. * Leaving was not Soraya's decision. Soraya was said goodbye same as in the case of other Episode I artists including Mr. Yasunori Mitsuda, Mr. Kunihiko Tanaka, and the Mr. you-know-who. (Please do not ask Soraya who he is.) * Soraya is a freelance artist. * There was no particular reason behind the displacement of old artists. The new director of Xenosaga II/III just wants the saga all new. * The official advertisement says the new saga will have new sounds, new designs (as seen in Epsode II) and more easier story to read (as seen in the disc 2 of the Episode II). * Soraya and Tetsuya Takahashi were marginally involved in the Episode II by contributing the first version of the script. (It was not a plot outline but a complete script including actual characters' lines.) * Soraya's last contribution to the saga was the first version of the script for the Episode II and rewrites of The Pied Piper. (The game for Vodafone sold in Japan 2004) * The shortened/adapted script of the Episode II is by Monolithsoft. * You can see Soraya's mark she left to the Episode II in: o The conversation between Juli and Ziggy o Momo Encephalon (In first version, It was not Juli's idea of destroying Momo's memory, but a subcommitteeman's. Juli hesitated.) o The story about U.R.T.V. (with the exception of the chapters after Momo Encephalon and young Albedo's verbal abuse/violent acts against Sakura. They were added by Monolithsoft.) o Albedo's short speech about the higher dimension. (His last words "You look like you lost your sweetheart ... anyway I hate you both" were added by Monolithsoft.) * Soraya doesn't know what the story of the Episode III will be like. The new writer of the Episode III will write a new story in his style. (The chapters after Momo Encephalon and Disc 2 are his style.) * The new team has the right to change or ignore Takahashi's plot outline. * Soraya wrote approximately half of of the script for the Episode I. She is responsible for: o Ziggy and his family, Voyager, Momo, Mizrahis, Godwins, Yuriev, U.R.T.V.s, and the part of Shion during her stay in Durandal and the Kookai Foundation * Soraya is not an expensive artist. * Soraya has created no delay. * The parent company is not responsible to the changeover. * The first version of the script by Soraya and Takahashi was not religiously or politically sensitive. It had just harmless chapters like: o Ziggy's past history (as seen in The Pied Piper) o U.R.T.V.'s past history (as seen in the Episode II) o Shion's past history with Febronia (removed) o Jr's rapid growing (removed) o Both juvenile and grown-up Jr. available in the battle (removed) o The ghost of the old Miltia (removed) o The death of Sakura (removed) o Brief reunion with grown-up Citrine (removed) o Gaignun vs Zohar emulators (removed) o Jr.'s transformation/overdrive (removed) o Jr. & Albedo vs U-DO vs KOS-MOS 3rd armament (removed) o Shion's spiritual seeking/witnessing/awakening (removed) o The truth about KOS-MOS (removed) o Conversation between chaos and the red cloak man (removed) o Conversation between Nephilim and the boy with the blocks (removed) o An antimatter annihilation of Albedo (removed) * Soraya has no intention of playing for attention. No one has to pay attention to this. * Soraya has no option to come back. And she knows well the saga no longer needs Saga. A message from Soraya Thank you all who sent us heartwarming messages. I loved the Xeno universe and its wonderful fan base, that's what I'll miss the most. Forget about good old days and enjoy whole new saga. Best wishes. |
Oh how I love that they crap out an series because the story is to politically/religious sensetive and plot to hard to understand for some dumb ass kid.
May monolith soft go bankrupt and never be heard from again. |
Why the hell do they keep adding some nobodies as playable characters? What good can those Vector people do? Aside from that, I personally am a bit disappointed with all the removals that were made from the original script; but it looks like some of these things will still be in the final game, which makes me anticipate it even more. Also, I'd be surprised if there would be people who had recognized this woman's touch in those few scenes.
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They can thinker with the A.G.W.S? or something i dont know =p
But yeah ending it at Episode 3 is really disappointing since i love xenosaga 2, heck the story was nice. |
Well you can imagine if Miyuki's playable, she'll probably end up playing exactly like Shion, and in those instances it probably means that she'll be a replacement party member while Shion is gone for some unknown reason.
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I love Xenogears. It is my favorite video game of all time. The story is so long and involved, and nothing scores higher on a game for me than a really cool, complex story. That is why I thought Xenosaga would rock.
And it does for the most part. Xenosaga is nowhere near the level of Xenogears, but it is definitely a worthwhile series, and it got even better with the sequel. I liked the battle system more overall, and I really liked the rise of the E.S. in importance (since the A.G.W.S. was pretty useless). The only thing I really didn't like was the Good Samaritan stuff. It's nice to do sidequests for moves and items, but not so frickin' many of them. I do miss Yasunori Mitsuda as composer, but Yuki Kajiura has some shining spots. Fatal Fight was my favorite tune from XS II, and for a while, I listened to it nonstop. However, some of the music is not so enjoyable and really wears on me after a while. Of all things I really want out of Episode III, I really want to know more about chaos. The first episode raised a plethora of questions, and the second episode almost seemed to ignore him. I would really like more details on him and his history. More information about Ziggy would be nice, too. I heard about the extra game he had, but I never played nor had access to it, so I'd really appreciate some of that spilling over. Like Citan Uzuki, Jin hasn't done anything yet that makes him truly intriguing as a character, but I'm just waiting for them to spring something weird, unexpected, but totally cool about him. I think he's got a lot of potential to be a great character if they get him a little more involved story-wise. Especially if we're going to have more showdowns with Margulis. And I do miss the Grahf quality of evil, but Albedo is a fascinating character. I enjoy his level of psychosis. He seems confident, pure evil at times, but then at others, he seems lonely and upset. It would be cool to get some more information on him without putting too much of the game on him and Rubedo. I'm looking forward to this game. |
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Just on a random note, according to the Wikipedia page on Ep III, it seems that Yuki Kajiura will be the sole composer for this episode, which is the most exciting news, if it is true that is. I really loved her songs for Ep II, and I really want to see how she'll handle battle themes. The remixes for the trailers don't disappoint either.
On a random note, does anyone know more about Scientia? In the first info released for III, it was stated that it was some kind of rebel organization against Vector, but it seems to have existed before that, working against the UMN dominating the world (as read in the Pied Piper script, which is an excellent read for more info on Yuriev, maybe I'll post thoughts later). Was Vector the driving force behind the UMN or what? |
American release CONFIRMED, thanks to RPGfan.
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Wait...it's actually coming this year? We won't have to wait a full year after the release like we did for the last 2 games?
If it's true, then Namco USA finally got it right. Now if only they would hire back the original dub cast... Also, I believe it was also confirmed that the DS game was coming over as well. |
If the DS game does make it over, I'll finally have a reason to buy one.
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Aside from all the other great games, yeah.
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If you knew me well enough, you'd know that I don't think too highly of the DS -- no games I wanna play on it.
Anyway, Soldier I gotta ask -- is it coming out in the States this year, or is that a Japanese release? If memory serves me, the Japanese version of Xenosaga 2 came out a good while before the US version. |
Seems to be coming to America this fall.
http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3149583 Assuming that it doesn't get delayed, this news is quite exciting. |
Whew, already!? Oh yes, this is good... :)
On a side note, 3 hours of cut-scenes to conclude all of this, do you think it will be enough? |
Well let's see, what was the total amount of cutscenes for EPI again? Wasn't it something like 5 hours? It was a lot more then 3. I'm hoping that 3 hours deal isn't official, because that already spells bad news.
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Episode II had just a little under 5 hours, if I have all the movie rips, and I think it would be impossible to put the entire finale in 3 hours, perhaps 3 hours of CG? (wishful thinking)
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I'm impressed; they're actually working on it pretty fast. Take notes, Square.
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Can't believe MOMO has breasts now. :edgartpg: |
Kinda off topic, but I stopped playing XSII after I faced that huge castle thingy (too hard). Approx how many hours do I have left in the game?
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I downloaded nearly every cutscene that appeared in the game, and it was something 4 hours and 45 minutes, that is if I got all of them, because I think I'm still missing some, like the maintenance Yuli Mizrahi performs on Ziggy before the Y-data extraction attempt.
Seraphite, iirc, Cathedral, if that is the boss you're referring to is a boss in Proto Omega, correct? If that's so, you're right before the ending. |
Hmm, interresting, where could I download all the cutscenes from XSII?
Alors, if there is only 3 hours in Episode III and there was 4h45 in Episode II, that's gonna be very condensed... I hope there are just speculating... |
A new trailer has been revealed, mostly gameplay footage but also some cutscenes. Some info I could get out of it:
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The trailer can be found here. The password is xeno. |
I assume the three hours is just for regular cutscenes and not counting the text boxes. I played the demo last night. There were quite a few text boxes in it.
The loading is MUCH better this time. It's almost instantaneous. No more 3-5 second waits like in Episode II. The only loading that I saw was right before the final boss of the demo, but that was only a second or two. I really like how the traps are handled. They're actually going to be useful now that you can set them where you want. One of the best improvements of the battle system is that a character can Boost on their turn. No more waiting for the next character to go before you can Boost. Boost is actually more useful now too. Each character special attacks. These attacks use Boost and are stronger than normal attacks. Characters also have Arts attacks that they can use with EP. It appears that Arts and Ether are gained by raising levels. |
and...
somebody will try the xIII demo? in japanese off course.. |
I'm downloading it as we speak. Expect comments here in a few days.
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I just finished downloading it from BlackCats. I should be able to give the demo a good run either later today or tommorow.
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I just downloaded the Xenosaga III Japanese Demo... and in the beginning (behind the "new game screen") I could swear I saw someone who looked EXACTLY like Fei Wong (from Xenogears)... it was much like a shadow really... I wonder... who knows it might just look like him and nothing more
I'll go take a look again tomorrow morning to confirm this... anyone know though if the new game behind the scenes "movie" can be found on the net... will be easier for me to check this out... Did anyone get the demo or can confirm this? |
Does XS for DS have a lot to do with the story? Basically I'm wondering if several key events of the XS story can be missed if you do not play that game in the series.
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edit: Awesome. I just beat XSII. Did the trailers show who the guy in the white robe is? Albedo? |
That kid is Abel >.<
Dang, got to excited! |
After finishing XSII,
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After reading all these spoilers, I really need to go back and play Xenosaga II to completion. Might as well restart the game though, as I've completely forgotten the story save for what refresher spoilers I've read here.
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http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ic/Albedo2.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...lic/Kevin2.jpg |
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Are each E.S. special or are they simply their individual fighting crafts built by their company? Cause I'm thinking of Relics from Xenogears...
But thanks for the images. Btw, was Kevin (Kelvin? Shion's BF) killed? |
The E.S. are special because they're equipped with the Vessels of Anima.
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Yes, Kevin died. In Episode I, you saw that the KOS-MOS archetype killed him when it went out of control when Cherenkov tried to steal it. |
Oh. I was thinking of A.G.W.S. So, some sort of spinal alienesque body is in there? Like Evangelion?
And KOS-MOS - has it been annouced that that's not the same KOS-MOS as the one that "killed" Kevin? Btw, KOS-MOS is Shion's mom? |
The Anima Vessels are the spine things in the game's logo. We still don't know anything about them.
We don't know what happened to the Archetype. It's never said if the current KOS-MOS is an upgraded version of it or a completely new body. No, KOS-MOS is not Shion's mother. |
Some impressions from IGN have appeared.
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/703/703523p1.html Nothing too notable, aside from them mentioning that the total number of cutscenes is "over 8 hours". That's a far cry more than the previously mentioned 3 hours. I hope IGN is right on this one. |
I think that the three hours mentioned are the actual cutscenes, where as the 8 hours include the cutscenes that als use textboxes, Famitsu mentioned this iirc.
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8 hours of spoken dialogue would quite nice :)
That would much more reasonable than only 3 to conclude all those plot twists. |
http://youtube.com/watch?v=th_EMZez78c&search=xenosaga
Kevin and his mother(?)... on some bizarre planet. o_O |
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Poor Misato...uh, I mean Kevin.
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This in unconfirmed whether the following informaiton is a hoax or not.
Some snooping was done on the XenoIII demo CD and some sploilerific material was found. Here's the post about some of the material: Spoiler:
References: http://www.xenolegacy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3085 http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gen...topic=27901846 Note: I only read the first line of the spoiler material before I had to stop and just blindly copy the whole post for here. So don't ask me for any hints because I haven't read it XD |
A camcorder recording of the English Xenosaga Episode III trailer from E3 is posted at the bottom of this site. The audio quality is pretty shoddy and therefore the voices don't sound as clear as I'd like them to be, but it's a definite that Brianne Siddall is back as Jr. and it even sounds like Lia Sargent is back as Shion.
Even better? The last line at the end sounds like it's spoken either by Bridget Hoffman/Ruby Marlowe/Ellen Wilkinson or a very good Hoffman/Marlowe/Wilkinson impersonator. I can't tell if the line originates from KOS-MOS or T-elos, but the line definitely belongs to one of the two. The dub sounds like it's going to turn out quite well. EDIT: Uploaded the trailer here. |
I do *not* want Mitsuda and the London Symphony Orchestra back. He wastedthat orchestra's time in Xenosaga Ep I, and I was thrilled with the life Shinji Hosoe breathed into Xenosaga II with his music. Great, great stuff. Episode I's soundtrack was so freaking lifeless it killed me. And I love Mitsuda's other work (Chrono, Xeno, Tsugunai) to tears, which made it even more painful.
I'm not sure why you guys are talking about Kaijura Yuki in Episode II. Did she do the cinematic tracks? The meat of the game's actual songs, the ones you heard in towns and dungeons and battles, was all Shinji Hosoe. |
Kajiura was responsible for the music during the cutscenes, and she did a terrific job at it (the OST is one of my personal favourites), and Hosoe did the town and battle music, as some other themes. I can't imagine why anyone thinks that he did a better job than Mitsuda or Kajiura. Monolith apparently thought the same, and now Kajiura's responsible for the entire OST.
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Hosoe did a better job than Mitsuda and Kaijura because he put some actual energy into his work. I can go watch pretty much any Hollywood movie if I want to hear grand sweeping string sections that wash over me and leave me dry. Hosoe's town and area songs were all totally electronic and yet still managed to sound much more human and dramatic than anything in the cutscenes. The theme to Second Miltia is my favorite song from the game. It's the most simplistic song Hosoe wrote for the game, and yet it also has a really soulful melody on top of a killer rhythm.
His work is vastly more interesting than anythg Mitsuda or Kaijura did. It only sucks that they didn't release an album for anything but the cutscenes. However, I am hosting the Xenosaga II Gamerip on my FTP, linked in my sig, if anyone's interested in seeing what I'm talking about. |
Along with X.S Episode III releasing in Japan (July), the soundtrack will be releasing on the 11th of July. So Klondike, you should learn to like Kajiura's works. Because after all, she's also doing the orchestration soundtrack for this finale.
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Hi, sorry for going off-topic, but does anyone know of any website that is selling Xenosaga III? Amazon.co.jp does not wish to ship overseas, so I am seeking alternate options.
Edit: A friend linked me to play-asia.com and it seems that they have it, so I guess this isn't a problem after all. Of course, if someone knows a place with better prices, do let me know. ;) |
I hate Xenosaga IIs soundtrack to bits, I much prefered the soundtrack in I, and am deeply sad they didn't bring Mitsuda back for this one. x.x I want the amazing Xenosaga I battle theme back! >_>
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Is it true that he didn't make the xenosaga 2 soundtrack because he didn't like the "new look" of it?
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I read he refused to compose the next episode because he felt he was losing his touch.
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Am I the only one who feels that maybe just maybe Shion is just a machine like Kos-Mos? I just smell that plot twist coming up!!! :biggrin:
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Has anyone heard anymore about the spoiler leak on the demo cd?
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The year between episode II and III is being told at the following site:
http://www.xenosaga.jp/xenosaga3/download/missing.html Here's the address for the current english translations http://www.labyrinthos.org/jinx/changelog.html |
I've also seen Kouli's spoilers, but I managed to resist. I quickly read over the text, picking up some terms here and there, but nothing to significant, except for the first line in your spoiler box, which only confirmed something that I was expecting.
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Here are a couple magazine scans. It covers Wilhelm, the red, blue, and white Testaments, E.S. Simeon, E.S. Judah, and E.S. Naphtali. If you haven't seen the promo trailers that show the Testaments' identities, you might want to skip these.
http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/8...ni225052jn.jpg http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/1...ni225060qx.jpg |
Hum, this game seems to have fallen off of my radar. Have any, ideally non-spoiler, trailers been released where one can get a sample of the battle and exploration music for this episode?
Also, from what I understand Lia Sargent is back to play Shion (awesome), and Bridget Hoffman will be doing KOS-MOS once again (double awesome.) Unfortunately, Joshua Seth (Ep.2 chaos) will be back. Still up in the air about Sherry Lynn coming back to do Momo, however reports say she's been spotted around the Bandai recording studio working on something. Guess we'll find out soon enough, but I'd be very happy if she made a comeback. |
I really hope so. Lynn was excellent as MOMO, to the point that I felt she did a better job with her than Sasami. She was the one voice change that I regretted the most.
I kind of prefer EPII chaos to the original, though. Has a darker feel to it, which might be necessary once his true origin is revealed. |
Shiny E3 2k6 Trailer is hyah (here): http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/xeno...de3/media.html
In english~ |
The first review of the game is out. Dengeki scored it this week. Don't know what each reviewer said about it yet though.
Xenosaga Episode III: Zarathustra wa Kaku Katariki (PS2, Bandai Namco): 80 / 75 / 85 / 85 |
EB and GameStop have this on their pre-order lists now -- reseved mine a few days ago.
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And the soundtrack sounds fucking awesome. |
ok if epidose III come with a dvd of all the cut-scene and story of Episode II i'm sold!
it's seem that they learn they lesson with the episode and the episode 3 really do start to interest me, but I really doN,t want to play through the episode II >.< |
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Here's more of the review.
Xenosaga Episode III 80/75/85/85 Pros: - Battle engine has good pace, there's some strategy involved, and the balance between character and mecha battles is good. - The minigame "GeMix!?" is so indepth and expansive that it goes far and beyond what a bonus game normally is. - The game systems are pretty simple (in a good way), and the story is advanced in a good pace. - There are many movie sequences that do a good job of showing off the story. The worldview is very refined and is up there with the best. Cons: - If you've never played the previous games in the series, you'll be completely lost. Although there is a story review of the previous games available, it only merely summarizes the core details. - Although you can see the enemy encounters on the maps, unfortunately the camera is fixed. If only the minimap showed enemy positions as well... - While the battles have been simplified, it's also very hard to get much money. |
Man, game reviews these days don't even help. I'd really like to know if the game-to-story sequences flow better. The thing that has always bothered me about Xenosaga I/II is you spend 15 minutes in a story sequence then 30 minutes in a gameplay sequence that offers no story advancement the entire time. Gameplay is pretty much get from point A to point B before you can advance the story.
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I'm personally interested in more details about this "GeMix!?" minigame that the review mentioned. Is it an elaboration on the card game? Or something completely new?
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Ign has two new english battle videos.
I can't post the link though since I apparently don't have enough posts. |
Thanks for the information KNanakase
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There is, it's the three against one and boss battle
http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/757/757372/vids_1.html ^^ |
oh god I really don't like that >.< now it's just a simple rpg battle system with special ability and magic and everything like... most rpg out there.... I really miss the combo system of the first one ; ;
but those gear battle really look better and funnier too... |
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I know that it will still be somewhat good because they stick with the basic rpg battle system, you can't really go wrong with that... it's just not really innovative to just keep the basic. Note that on the video it looked really basic maybe in game it will be different and will have mor variety that we have seen... the gears battle had something interesting with those anima lv or something.
but they should have keep a combo system like in epI it was really fun. and in xenogears too it was like that and I think that they should have took this system as a basis for battle system for the series (with each episode adding somthing new to this and not change it completely) |
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Famitsu gave the game 9/9/8/7.
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This is a great find.
All of the Japanese Xenosaga Episode III trailers can be found subtitled and in HQ here: http://tsukinikawatte.gametrailers.c...og&id=4562&c=1 There's some that are still being worked on, but the real gem here is "trailer 14." Trailer 14 is actually a bunch of scenes from the English localization of the game. For those of you missing Lia Sargent, have fun with trailer 14. |
Game is out and showing up on eBay. But I haven't been able to find anything about the Premium box. Even Namco's site doesn't list anything about it. Did they forgo the idea this time around? ;_;
And what's this I see? Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Namco Bandai Games America 08/29/06 US Holy shit man. I'm so going hyper over all this. (I am getting the Japanese special DVD, if anybody's curious.) |
I for one am a big fan of the Xenogears/Xenosaga series and my copy for the game has already been pre-ordered from the moment it became available for pre-order.
If Famitsu (who are known as being some the harshest video game critics of all time) scored an overall score of 33/40 for this game, I would think that is pretty good in terms of famitsu standards. In response to some of the things that have been said about the series in itself and about the first two games in general I would like to share my opinion about it. I understand and respect the fact that both Xenogears and Xenosaga are two completely different games that follow different storylines, I do disagree with what someone had to say on this forum that Xenosaga has no relevance to Xenogears whatsoever. The slight similarities that both games have are irrelevant to a point but if it wasn't for the success and the following of Xenogears we wouldn't of probably had the Xenosaga series to enjoy in the first place. I personally think that Xenosaga has one of the most detailed plots and controversial religious oriented themes any rpg series has ever seen. I appreciate a detailed story and character development more than anything else. I think its kind of unfortunate that the series is ending after this game, because it kind of adds an extra worry to myself that I hope they can tie up all the loose ends and all the extra questions within this one game. I personally think that they will or at least try their best. To me, I enjoyed the first Xenosaga game much better than the second one. There are many reasons for this. I didn't really appreciate the second one because they changed many of the voice actors from the original. I thought the voice acting from the first game was perfect especially chaos's voice who was done by Derek Stephen Prince. I wasn't nescessarily a fan of the armor break battle system either. Even though Kajiura Yuki did a good job of composing the music for the second game, for me it just doesn't match up to Yasanori Mitsuda did for the first game. It just seems like to me the ending song for any Xeno game should of had the vocals done by Joanne Hogg of Iona because she did beautiful vocals for the ending songs of both Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode 1. I've heard all the complaints of a lot of my friends who aren't particularly fond of the series because its more of a movie than a game in itself. I just loved everything from the first game; the battle system, the music especially the battle theme, the character voices and even the mini-games especially the xeno-card game. I've read all the stories concerning people who were with this project and had abandoned it because of conflicts of interest and its kind of unfortunate this series could of had the potential of doing great things for a fairly long time. Overall, I can't wait for it to come later on this summer, and I hope I enjoy it to the exent of other games in general, and even if this is the last xenosaga game I hope it goes out with a bang. |
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Yep. It's been confirmed by an insider at Namco. The date has a possibility of moving up or down two weeks, but there it is. |
I was looking over Namco JP's site, and I see absolutely no mention of a premium box this time around. I'm upset. I wanted a trilogy of boxes!
Oh well. Got the Japanese game and DVD coming. I wonder what the DVD will include for a bonus extra this time around. |
http://xenosaga3.namco.com/
Namco did something funny to the E3 trailer. They replaced all of the voices. I'm not sure why they did such a thing (especially when the recording should be finished), but eh. It's amusing to hear Allen sound like a foreign old fart. (And Jr.'s gone through puberty!) |
I grew a cold sweat reading your post. I don't have a clue what that means, and I'm too afraid to go look for myself. You might think the chances of all the voices being recast in the last minute to be impossible, even absurd, but this series hasn't had the greatest luck so far. Check my journal entry for further info.
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I'm kind of frightened by the trailer deal... but... I can't seem to get it to play. I click play, and it shows a black screen. Nothing happens, or loads. Tried in both IE and Firefox. Hmm.
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As for the foreign-sounding Allen, seriously, you need to listen to the trailer yourself. There no way they would let Allen have a 60-year old Mexican voice. EDIT: A breakthrough! Quote:
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I managed to get my copy of Xenosaga III and the special DVD. If the special DVD for the US release is like the Japanese version, expect it to be MUCH different than the one that came with Xenosaga II.
No Xenosaga II scene compilation. A bunch of trailers, scenes from big release dates in the history of the series, and some other factoids. However for Mitsuda fans, the man does show up on the DVD. He doesn't look like I expected him to look. Cool to watch him work though. The other big disappointment is that in a misc section about the other games (Xenosaga Freaks and Pied Piper) they have a video about Freaks, but for some reason they seemed to have goofed and instead of covering Pied Piper, there's another XSII video. :( The DVD wasn't even region coded. SL DVD even. >_>;; If anybody wants like the trailers or wants to see the cool video with Mitsuda, let me know and I'll encode. |
A video of Mitsuda taking a shit, I don't care... it's MITSUDA! I WANT!.... Please and thank you =)
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As for the game itself, I've played the first section and I will alleviate some fears. Battle sequences are MUCH MUCH IMPROVED from XSII. They're fast. You're not waiting 30 seconds for the battle to load. Battles themselves are fast as well. Graphics are fantastic. Big expansive levels and much brighter than some of the gloomy levels in XS II. The battle system has changed a bit. It's now one list of commands and also a "break" bar has been added. When your bar (or the enemies) hits full, you (or they) become dizzy, disabling them for a bit. Enemies also have a meter when you select them giving you a rough idea of how much HP they have left (if you've been keeping mental track of what you've done). Battle music is hardly noticable this time around. It's there, but it's really faded into the background. Doesn't bother me though. So far I'm liking this better than XSII. |
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In an unrelated note. Browsed IGN for a bit and saw that Xenosaga I & II for the DS still has not gotten a US release date, and I couldn't find any word of that actually having been confirmed for the US either. How's about an update on that, if anyone has one?
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It's not coming to the US, which is stupid since it's supposed to be the "official" story that they are following.
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Remember how long loading times were in XSII? Cut that in about 1/10th. I also find it interesting (thinking in regards to battles at the beginning) that Miyuki was using Shion's XSI MWS. ^^;; |
Was doing some shopping on YesAsia and stumbled upon these, Xenosaga trading figures. They're called Xenosaga Legend, looks like the star of the set 01 is Kos Mos (appears to be all variants of costumes from the games), with T-elos included. Anyway looks pretty cool, might import me a set (want an X2 Kos Mos).
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/784...smoseo0.th.jpg http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...id-1004464411/ http://animenewsi.com/index.php?itemid=9605 BTW, is there any sort of pre-order bonus for the NA version of X3? If not I might just wait till it drops in price before picking it up. As I still need to beat X2. |
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If you didn't check my journal entry, I've been given impressions from a guy who knows a guy, stating that EPIII's total running time is 30 hours, and almost more than half of that time is due to ridiculously long dungeons (the final dungeon is reportedly 10 hours long. That's a 1/3 of the goddamn game) and battles. The story comes together nicely with the few cutscenes they show, but I'm sure it will confirm my earlier fears in that the story will run on fast-forward, avoiding any additional character development or small touches to hastily tie up all remaining loose ends. I'm really hoping the information I was given proves inaccurate, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Just thinking about how this promising series quickly stumbled is too painful. :edgartpg: |
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I've been hearing quotes of 30-40 hours the main story from Namco US internal play testers and up to 60 hours of gameplay if you do all of the sidequests(there are a ton) and minigames. I really don't know how valid these claims are though. |
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Never trust any company's claims. What did they say for XSI? 80 hrs?
And some Japanese guy beat it in about 6. :tpg: |
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I don't think 6h is possible even if you skip all cutscene, there's problem a 0 missiong in there (like 60)
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Interesting tidbit: the enemy soldiers with the trenchcoats and white/black color scheme are very reminiscent of Killzone's Helghast or Dead to Right's GACs (both of which were apparently inspired by Jin-Roh's 'Panzer Cops'). Pretty cool coincidence, that... and for bonus points, one particular category of these chaps weilds a weapon very similar in appearance to the SPAS-12 (reference).
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http://www.xenosaga.jp/xenosaga3/dow...chapter06.html
GOD FINALLY, someone slapped some sence into Shion's endless crying rampage. Jin +1 , Shion -20325393950 |
Is anyone planning on ripping the in-game music? (Obviously not the cutscene music that was recently released)
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Here's a RAR with 91 songs ripped from the game that aren't on the OST.
http://files.filefront.com/Xeno3unra.../fileinfo.html |
Great find B.K.
Also I've looked at some of the cutscenes from this game and it has a few surprises and confirmations. Has spoilers from end of game ect: Spoiler:
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I am very interested to see how this series ends. I am wondering a few things though, I do not want to know any spoilers, for those who have finished it. Is it final? Does it actually seem like it ends? And finally, is there any linkage at all to Xenogears plot? I thought maybe there were a few things that were starting to make sense in reference to Xenogears in EpII especially as far as religeous references go, but nothing solid. Is all of the plot linking vague, or is there some solid references happening toward the end? Please don't include any spoiler info because I love to be surprized.
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I can't ansver that without spoiling it. I suggest you wait. And yes III is the final episode.
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lol oh well, I was just looking for a yes or a no. Does it link in someway or does it not. Yes or no will do if thats possible. But if not I will wait :)
Oh and thanks for the rip by the way. I love the EP III ost far better than any of the other Saga OSTs. It s nice to hear all the in game music. I just hope Namco releases a full OST. |
I'd say a loose connection is there.
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No, it's
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No it isn't.
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It's not void. I was tying to say that Xenosaga is a retelling of Xenogears Episode I and you didn't even know what happened in Xenogears Episode I. I was just trying to get everything straight.
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Actually, according to the Perfect Works storyline, Xenosaga would be Episode II. Episode I is the prologue, where they discover Zohar on Earth etc.
(I didn't click on the spoiler tags and I don't intend to, just commenting on the last post here.) |
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Here's my spoiler-free review of Xenosaga III: Also sprach Zarathustra. I don't usually write reviews, so this may be awful (in terms of covering what should be covered), so read this post at your own discretion (as it may be a waste of your time).
Before I begin, I'll tell you a little about my experiences with the series so you can gauge this review's bias level. -watched the animation before playing any of the games -purchased Episodes I and II so that I could play it on my cousin's PlayStation 2 -purchased a Japanese PlayStation 2 for the sole purpose of being able to play Episode III in Japanese (I and II were in English) -all three games were played with walkthroughs since I only care about the story -did not play Xenogears Gameplay: For the most part, I liked the gameplay and enjoyed the skills. The system wasn't as open as Episode II's, but it was straightforward. ;) Some of the boss battles were rather tough, but that's probably because I did not spend any time pondering over where to go next (which would in effect cause me to bump into enemies that would net me some experience). The battle system is decent, but I liked II's better personally. Players should be wary of the break gauge and try to make use of it whilst fighting bosses, although I must admit I rarely managed to break the boss before killing them. E.S. battles were a lot of fun, but that may be because they were easier than the character battles. By the end of the game, I'd always use an ether that would break all of my enemies at the start of the battle to move things a little faster. Final encounters could last about 45 to 120 seconds depending on whether the enemy uses Medica or not. Load times are good, but it's been a while since I played I and II, so I can't really compare. There were occasional jolts, but the longest it'd be is probably three or four seconds? This usually happens after an FMV sequence or voiced sequences. Money is back as you may know, which I didn't really enjoy as that'd mean I'd have to use money and gauge who to upgrade and all that. This is probably a personal annoyance since as aforementioned, I only care about the story and only want to move on. Music: I am biased towards Kajiura Yuki, so I don't really have anything to say here. Just go download the Best Tracks Selection from gamemp3s if you want a listen, or check out the rips from a couple of posts above. In terms of comparing this work with her other works, there is a distinct change in style and she's actually using a little bit of brass for once. Story: My knowledge of Japanese is at an okay level, I speak and read Chinese, and have taken four years of Japanese in high school, but that's not really enough to understand everything that's going on. It seems a little rushed at times since you're wrapping up one loose end after another without much pausing. Things are answered for the most part in my opinion. Length: I started playing on Monday night or so, and pretty much kept playing all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and finished on Thursday night. My play time is like 27 or 28 hours, and I was at level 57 before the final boss. This should serve as a helpful reference for those that are wondering what level they need to be to beat the last boss. Again, I used a walkthrough for the game, but the tips for the boss fights were non-existent, so I had to rely on my own for the most part, so it is probably possible to beat it at a lower level with luck, skill, and some cheap tricks (maybe)? |
I've a somewhat odd question for you then, Hiro. You say you liked Episode II & III's battle system, but you didn't mention Ep. I.
I didn't like the battle system in Ep. II, but I loved I's. Knowing that, would someone like me enjoy the battle system from III or not so much? |
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Yeah, that article (and presumeably interview) screams, "IF XSIII DOES GREAT IN THE US AGAIN, WE'LL PROBABLY CONTINUE IT". It also looks like the US will get Missing Year.
I'm curious, what are the numbers for the JP version? |
Probably around 150,000-155,000. Episode III is the worst selling game in the series, not counting I&II for DS. It's too bad too. It's the best in the series.
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It's the curse of episode II the most horrible game in the series. III will sell more when people get wind of it being a better game. Fat chance of it meaning "IV". If that annoying ass battle system from epII is present, EpIII will flop in america, end of story.
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There are a whole lot games out there which where more sucessfull outside japan so I'm not worried about that.
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Is this game really out today? You wouldn't know it with the lack of discussion or hype.
I'm not that much excited for it, either. Sure, the general opinion says this is a far improved sequel, but I didn't like the criticisms that I heard either (1/2 the game dedicated to dungeon crawling, not all questions answered). I just find myself depressed over the Xenosaga series in general. I keep thinking of all the great potential this series had, and how quickly it hit rock bottom in just the second entry. It's not that EPII was terrible, but the story was pathetically short, and they turned Shion from a kind, naive scientist to a major bitch in jeans (I still can't believe she downlplayed the Albedo situation, which involved the destruction of the entire universe, as "a typical spat between brothers.") Well anway, I'll be torrenting this one, since as I mentioned with DoC, I'm on a budget until November. I'm just setting myself up for any likely disappointment regarding the final closure on these characters that grew on me. At least tell me if Sherry Lynn is back as MOMO. |
Unfortunately, it was poor reviews that made me basically stay clear from XSII. The first game I played through and it wasn't anything worth going bananas for, but at least it was worth my time (watching cutscenes, basically). After fighting the gnosis, I really didn't have much of an interest in seeing the continuation and conclusion, so when XSII bombed, then I folded that series, as a matter of fact I think I did trade in XSI. I honestly can't care less that this game is out.
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Eh, I loved Ep II, and I have Ep III shipping today. Should arrive tomorrow.
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Getting XSIII next week hopefully. I hope they have ditched the VA for Chaos in ep. II.
Also Spatula GTFO with Merv. |
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Alright just let me see when more reviews come in... maybe I'll change my mind. Is there some sort of cutscene disc with XSIII so I can see what happened in ep 2? As long as I can get some sort of idea what happened, plus my memory is foggy from the last time I played ep 1. |
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I'm actually pretty excited for Episode III, which is a little odd considering how much I loathed Episode II. |
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Would there be an online reference of basically what happened in a nut shell for XSII besides 1) online reviews, since they generally are spoiler free 2) something besides XSIII encyclopedia since I'd actually have to buy it first - an I'm not too too keen.
Perhaps I'll take another look at Gamefaqs to see any "summary" plots. Gameplay aside, don't mean to be derailing this, but did XSII's story help with progressing the plot left at the end of the first episode? I keep reading from reviews that it actually detracted from the main story and went on it's own little route to expand on other mini plots. [/Idunnoguy] |
Read up on it in Wikipedia. They have some pretty good articles on each of the various characters and plot points. It'll also fill you in on the gist of Pied Piper and the Missing Year.
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it would be fun if someone rip all cutscene of XSII, because playing the game is a real torture >.>
anyway for some reason I also reallly think epIII seem a lot better et pretty good, but I really want all the story in epII before buying it... |
haha I am your savior http://www.datorrents.com/download.a...scenes.torrent I just started getting it yesterday myself cause I wanna play 3 but didnt play 2.
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I agree that XS2 is horrible. I'm "playing" through it now (about half-way through), and unless I'm still missing how to play it properly (although I am stocking, breaking, and boosting), each battle is a long chore and I absolutely hate it. I just want a simple generic battle system where you can xp grind away if you're not doing that well and then smash through the rest of the fights. |
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So now EPIII is going to be a hearing game to figure out which voices return from EPI, which ones remain from EPII, and which ones are all new altogether. Fail, Namco. And where's the torrent for this game already? :/ |
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Who the heck is the English voice actor for MOMO in XSIII? I can't even dig up any information about it on the Internet.
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You said Soldier -- Namco, you fail at LIFE. I admit, I'm very, very cautious about picking this up today. Shion looks like a whore, KOS-MOS, an ANDROID, looks like a whore, T-Elos looks like a whore and the voices are not entirely back to their original cast.
This would've been a much better trilogy if they had stuck with the same formula from the first game, no question. Ah well. I do still plan to pick it up, if only to say "Hey I own all three." However, I don't plan on starting it until much later, as Okami comes out next Wednesday and I am WAY more excited for its release than Xenosaga 3's. |
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EDIT: Just got Episode 3. It looks and sounds alot better than Episode 2 thats for sure. The database is pretty detailed and it even has a summery of 'A Missing Year.' If you still have your Clear Data from Episode 2, it'll unlock Shion's Vector Uniform from Episode 1. It's nice to have the old Shion back . :) Her new outfits look pretty slutty for a 'scientist' to be wearing. |
It'll be nicer if she gets her old attitude back. She was such a bitch in EPII. :(
Blackcats has the torrent up now, a whopping 6.52 GB. I'll be downloading Disgaea 2 first, then this afterwards (zero seeders right now, so it'll take a while). I'll start reading the online reviews to see what I'm getting into. But what would help most of all is if you tell me straight up which characters get proper screentime and resolutions, and which ones get left in the dust, forever. |
One of the girls at Gamestop was dressed up as the main female character from this series and she was not bad lookin' I tell ya. :superhappy:
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Well, I've had my 3-hour sit down of the game. And I gotta say, if nothing else, this is one hell of a beautiful game to look at.
The visuals are absolutely top-notch. Pedea Island is incredibly attractive -- the environment has been designed by someone who has a very clear vision of what the perfect island would look like. I can't even begin to describe the detail. If something like this appeared on the PS3...I could die a happy gamer. I've never been one to put graphics over gameplay, but I gotta say when a game looks this good, you almost forget you're even playing a video game! It's worth mentioning that Namco through in a bit of bragging rights -- there's a cave you can walk through, and at the exit is a cliff you stand on and the camera shifts to give the player that long-distance view over the ocean. Yeah, they knew what they were doin'. Also, the First Business District in Fifth Jerusalem -- more specific, the park. At the very top, there's another overhang. The park itself isn't really anything to woo yourself over, but the view is. You get to see nearly the entire city in all its splendor, and it's truly an amazing sight. Just seeing the visuals in this game make my inner gamer burst with joy and sincerely pray that a Xenosaga is made for the PS3. I would LOVE to see something like this done on the PS3's power. My memory's a bit rusty, but it does sound like the majority of the original cast has returned, although MOMO's voice is in fact brand new (doesn't sound like Ep. 2's, but I could be mistaken. Either way it's not Sherry Lynn) and chaos's VA from Ep. 2 returns as well. Miyuki's migh tbe different, but for such a minor role throughout the trilogy, it doesn't matter. Her VA is pretty good though, so concern should be minor. It's good to hear Shion back to her old self though, I'll admit. I've yet to hear KOS-MOS....I just pray her Ep. 1 actress is back in full-form. So, on to the burning question -- does the battle system suck? No, actually. It's much more reminiscent of Ep. 1's than 2's, thank God, visually as well as mechanically. With the exception of the two ES battle's I was put in, the battles came and went with no load times, but the game itself does contain a few, though nothing harsh. This time, your characters' special attacks consume Boost -- Shion, to this point, is the only one able to use a Special Attack, and hers requires 2 Boost. Boost is acquired by attacking the enemy. ES's have "limit break" style attacks. When they receive damage, their Anima gauge fills up, and they can activate the Anima and use Special Attacks from there. I noticed something odd in the ES battles though -- occasionally, my other party members would join in on my attack. Now, I'm not complaining, but I've yet to determine is this is a random occurrence, or if it's controllable. Also, the game's tutorial says that so long as your Energy Gauge isn't empty, you can attack "consecutively." When I battled, it was just like a regular fight though. I never saw the Energy gauge actually go down, either. So I don't know what to think. Two battles wasn't enough to get everything together. The battle system is much easier though, that's for sure. At least compared to Episode 2. If Okami weren't coming out next Wednesday, I'd continue playing this for sure. As for my own opinion on the game as a whole...I think the Xenosaga trilogy, to date, would have succeeded to a much greater degree if it followed one of two paths -- sticking to the first game's design all the way through, or using the third game's design all the way two. Most people I've spoken with agree that Episode 2 is inherently flawed, but this game is not. It doesn't have that charming quality that Episode 1 had, but it's certainly much better than it's predecessor. This is what Xenosaga 2 should've been, in my opinion. |
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I have to say, it's a damn shame this is going to be the last Xenosaga we'll see. They finally got so much right. Lots of excellent, emotional music, and high quality voice acting once again on the audio side. As SouthJag mentioned, there are next to no load times for most battles, though if there is a direct transition to a battle from a cutscene rather than on the field there is a load time, however it's nothing close to how bad XSII was and this type of transition isn't common.
They also fixed my biggest pet peeve I have with the Xenosaga series. Exploration areas FINALLY have some dialog and plot advancement mixed in making everything flow much better. No more plot ->Start at point A, get to point B ->Plot -> repeat formula for the entire game. Expect to be rewarded with some critical plot information while exploring in XSIII. Battles are also extremely fast paced and character growth is handled much better where each person has a good set of unique abilities setting them apart in more than just aesthetics. The real highlight for me is the ES battles. What a vast improvement in every aspect from style down to battle mechanics. The best way to describe the style of these battles is to think of a turned based ZoE2 game. The clunky Xenosaga mechs are gone, replaced by Anima equipped ES units that are finally on par with the Gears/Omnigears found in Xenogears. I've only played the first few hours, but this is really feeling like the game Xenogears fans were looking for from the start. The strict sci-fi atmosphere has been replaced by one that feels a bit more like Xenogears while the ES units seem to be a critical plot device like the Gears in Xenogears were. Highly recommended to those Xenogears fans that have nearly given up on the Xenosaga series just as I did. You'll enjoy this one for sure. |
That tutorial ES battle. My god, it made me feel like it was xenogears all over again with the flow and all <333333333
I freaked out for a moment when i saw the gauge to the left, I thought it was the fuel meter once again, but it wasnt. The visuals and scenery, HOLY SMOKES... like SouthJag said, the view from the park was so incredible, the island was beautiful, ahhh... But question though, is it just me, or does it lag and slow down during some cutscenes? Ive had it happen to me a few times... |
Well, I finished the Japanese version a couple of weeks ago, and I'd like to post some of my (I have to admit, very longwinded)thoughts. Note that they are based on the Japanese version, so there coul be some useless parts, like voice acting.
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Also Southjag, characters will randomly assist eachother in ES battles, you can't control it, or improve the rate at what they'll do it. |
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Maybe by the time I download and finish the torrent, I'll be able to get hyped up for this, but right now my expectations are so low it's shocking. Maybe I'm just depressed that this is the finale (at least for Shion and company), and I worry that they'll be able to wrap everything up on time without making it look like two stories crammed into one and played on fast forward (see X-Men 3). |
Well considering that I just played for about 6 hours straight, with some copious Database reading, and I just arrived at the first non-tutorial dungeon, I'd say they certainly aren't rushing the storyline :D
I'm really enjoying the hell out of it so far. Agreed on most of the first impressions thus far. I'll add my own Good/Bads: Negatives: - Sample rate on voices is low, mainly because there's a TON. So, "ess"es get smudgy, but it's made up by their quality acting. - However, a few new antagonistic characters have awkward voices - one's a bit too arch in his snideness, the other just has a really bad voice. - "Facetime" cutscenes aren't as immersive as the directed/lipsynched scenes of the past, but given the sheer quantity of them it's forgivable. - The gap between Episodes II and III is pretty vague without the flash animations from the JP website, but it's summarized well in several sources both ingame and in the database. Positives: - Graphics are vastly improved from the previous two titles. Environments in particular are amazing - Dungeon design is top notch. - Battle system is one of the most enjoyable RPG systems I've played in a while. Plus, there is NO loadtime. The transition between field and battle is quite literally instantaneous. (With a few exceptions, but it's nothing to complain about.) - Music is hardfuckingcore, with really nice orchestral battle themes - a FAR cry from Mr. Riiiiidge Racerrrr's Episode II battles. (Just my opinion!) Also, for various BGM, there's some really nice jazz tunes. First dungeon is a great upbeat tune, and several interior locations have some nice downbeat tunes. - Voice acting in general is very solid. Ep. I Shion & KOS-MOS = Happiness. Plus, I liked Ep II's chaos better than I's, so I'm glad he's back too. - Storyline is progressing very well, probably even better in its method of storytelling than the previous two games. And according to IGN, the game has a very explosive and powerful ending. Hence, me literally glued to the screen and forcing myself to put it down to sleep tonight. Can't wait. --- Is there a music rip from this game floating around anywhere? I've come across so many tracks ingame so far that aren't anywhere on the released OST, especially the piano pieces and most non-dungeon BGMs. |
I didn't think about it until after Cetra posted it, but walking around in towns is certainly not a mundane task anymore.
I really like the fact that conversation boxes appear, and that NPCs will speak to each other -- pressing Square when it appears lets Shion butt in on the conversation. Really, it's handled quite nicely. I'd almost say that I've liked checking out the environments and listening to the people more than any other aspect of the game thus far. |
On MOMOs voice actor:
After loading up XSII to check, I'm almost positive her XSII and XSIII voice actor is the same person. I think she actually just took some acting classes between recording the two games. |
Well I'm loving the game so far, the ES battles are really cool as well as the regular on foot battles. The graphics are really nice and the music is good too, I can tell I will like this one the most outa all 3 so far.
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Holy crap. Has anyone played the minigame HaKox very much at all yet? It's insane, and incredibly addicting. I just wasted 2 hours on it haha :D It's like... Lemmings... combined with Chu Chu Rocket... but with blocks, movable things, and lots of death if you aren't careful.
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Yeah, I played in the Merkabah museum. I'm not really too fond of it though. It's fun and all, but it's easy to see that at the harder levels, this is gonna bring frustration-a-plenty.
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Like I need anymore bad news with this game.
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I'm glad this is the final episode. |
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The series came to a very premature end, which is as bad as it gets. But if you're a real fan you won't let something like a little censorship keep you from playing this last game. It's still damn good. |
Not that I'm exactly happy about the censorship, but I hear the press is blowing the issue way out of proportion similar to the Xenosaga censorship. The scenes basically went from "blood fountains" to just "blood" in the censored version.
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yeah they realy took ALL the blood from the game here's some screenshot that shows the JP and NA version
(some may be spoiler so look at your own risk) Spoiler:
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I'm not going to look at the screens as I'd like to avoid spoilers so I'll take your word on it. I was going off of a friend who supposedly has played though both the JP version and was mostly though the English version. Obviously he's mistaken or lying.
Speaking of spoilers. Don't read the damned database as soon as you get new stuff! Jesus, that thing contains plot spoiler information before it happens in the game. When the Abel information is first unlocked is a fine example of this. |
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I was wondering why my Photobucket stats said I already had 5000 hits for the month. ;) |
oh sorry I din't know, I found them on gamefaqs actually :\ I can remove them if you want...
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About the changes:
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Both of those edits made some sense, but removing ALL blood from Episode III is just stupid -- particularly when Episodes I and II had more than there share of it. Were the scenes edited really heavy on the red stuff, moreso than I and II? |
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Spoiler alerts a-plenty would've nice, Motsy. Not really for me, but for some.
I imagine that the Bandai half of Namco-Bandai had something to do with all this censorship. Namco, as a solitary company, might've changed the methods in which they showed such content, but they still showed it. The censorship is that much greater in Episode III though, and I don't think it's merely coincidence that Bandai's a part of the team now. |
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uMRZOSalyQE
Here's the video of that touching scene with Albedo and Momo. Enjoy. |
Maybe they just didn't feel like putting the effort to merely lower the blood count, when it's much easier to remove it entirely.
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I'd actually say that him ripping his arm and twisiting his head off is worse than cutting them off with a knife. And they left his little joygasm in: "Mmm, ahh! This is nice! Don't you want to give it a try?"
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I aggree. Also, I was talking about the expression he makes (where he slowly blinks his eyes, just before Jr loses it) during the.....the "climax"...of the scene. >< In the NA version, his head is cut off halfway.
Ironically, his decapitated head is shown in full in the NA version, while the Japanese version blocked most of it with a shadow. I can't believe they've pussied out now and removed all blood. It's going to take another 3-4 days at this rate to finish the download. Stupid Blackcats seeders. |
Added spoiler tags to Motsy's original post and all other posts that quoted the original.
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Normally I'm a stickler for spoiler tags, but I thought this board had a statute of limitations for games over 1-2 years old.
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Awkward question, but has anyone here tried emulating this game on a PC? I'm away from home for school and unfortunately can't bring my PS2 along, so I'm going to have to find another way to play this.
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there's no ps2 emulation, well I'm pretty sure that it doesn't exist... or they aren't really good...
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Actually there are PS2-emulators out there, not very good ones though.. I tried playing Kingdom Hearts yesterday with PCSX2, and it kinda worked.. cutscenes were slow, and control was sluggish, and it froze just after you beat that big dude in the beginning of the game. The emulator still has a long way to go.
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Just a bit of a testimonial here ;)
I beat the game last night, around 55 hours or so logged, though I have yet to do the sidequests. Missing about 4% on Unknown in the Database, but other'n that pretty complete. Absolutely loved it. All the storyline threads get concluded, character arcs complete, and an ending that Spoiler:
Regarding the blood issues, only one scene made no sense without blood, and I agree that since it was key to the scene should have been left in. The other instances didn't bother me as much, though I'm still not certain why they were cut out considering the ammount of blood that was in Episode I. It's moot at this point, and I'm wondering what happened to the "animated blood" that's allowed to be in Teen games. Regarding the ending: Spoiler:
As a final note, I also wanted to glow about the boss battles. Extremely challenging, but not impossible if you put your mind to it. I loved how possible they could be if you figured out exactly what to do, rather than just solving the problem by grinding out levels. Can't say enough good things about how enjoyable the fights were once I finally won after many frustrating defeats :D |
Yeah I beat this sunday and I must say I was suprsiingly in love with this game.I mean 1 and 2 were GOOD but this one was amazing, I was playing 10 hours a day if not more because I couldn't put the game down. Definitly one of my favorites.
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The tied up all the loose ends, but the amount of characters that get completely ignored or just very little screen time is absurd. That's not to say the story or character development was bad, it's just a lot of characters got pretty much nothing(such as MOMO, who had one, insignificant scene). The Testaments were done well aside from White, who got like 5 minutes which is just ridiculous, but then again, I'm a fanboy so it might just be me. Most of the scenes were done well though, and I wish they had more real cutscenes, since they seemed to last about 2 minutes, excluding the finale. The only thing that really kept me going on a marathon was the battle system. It's so standard it isn't even funny, but it's fun as hell. The E.S. battles are epic since you do like 12 billion damage, and it's easy to just kill everything in one hit with traps and such. None of the bosses gave me any real trouble, which I consider a downside. The final boss was a joke. Other than that it was great. I'd probably have to jump on the bandwagon and say it's the best of the XS games, but still fell short because of several shortcomings on favorite characters. |
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Not sure exactly. I took my time, read through the entire database as things were updated, and had instances of extremely lengthy boss battles. Majority of the 2nd disc battles lasted around 15-30 mins each for me. Final boss was even longer... definately not a joke as per your experience, though my criteria for cakewalk = brainless fight. The fight kept you on your toes, and was doable if you know what to pull off, but going in blind makes you adapt on the fly and keeps you shifting your strategy. Unless I'm just wailing away without a challenge (like many battles in Ep II), I wouldn't consider a fight easy per se :) Not sure if you used a guide for anything, but I pretty much went in cold hence why I missed a few things and didn't finish all the optinal such-and-such. Oh well :D |
I just beat the game today at around 48 hours playtime. The database is still at 98% but I skipped a lot of sidequests. I prefer to beat the game first then go back for the optional bosses later. The database is a huge help to understanding this game's story, which in my opinion surpasses Xenogears by a long shot. However, I feel there was only one thing left unexplained after beating the game.
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I know that I may sound shallow but when I saw Xenosaga III and compare it to FF XII or VP2: Silmeria it was rather like Xeno wouldn't evolved even a bit in graphic design.
I know that it's not the most important part in RPG but since they are releasing it on PS2 that already shown how great the graphic can be on it why do they don't boost it a little? Anyway need to finish Xeno II and then I can start Xeno III. |
Well, if you've been following the news about the game, you'll know that the rest of the series has been cancelled, meaning that they don't really have a large budget to work with for this game. Besides, I suggest that you should play the game and base your opinion on that, instead of the screens and movies, since there are some terrific looking sceneries in the game.
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On the contrary. For a series that has turned little profit, XS's graphics are quite impressive. The character models look a bit out of date (especially the bear-sized hands), but everything else is near-SE quality.
Well, better late than never. I finally finished downloading the game and gave it a whirl today. Impressions will be added as I venture forward. Voices: Good: Lia Seargent is back; returning voices from EP II (Jin, chaos) do a far better job this time, thanks to the lack of ackward pauses between every line. Bad: It's a listening game to see which EPI voices are back (Shion, Virgil), which ones remain from EPII (chaos, Pellegri, Mary, MOMO?), and which ones are entirely new (Canaan, Kevin, Wilhelm). I'm a stickler for consistency between stories, so this is very annoying, and stupid. The decision on which voices to keep and which ones to replace are sporadic as well. Canaan, for example, is now played by Steven Blum, who as Causabon put it, sounds like he's angry 24/7. This is especially jarring since Canaan is supposed to have supressed emotions. I preferred his Episode II VA. Also, the Testaments lack that cool filter voice they had in the previous episodes. This makes it extremely obvious who Red is, even to newbies who are playing this entry before the others. By contrast, the best voices are the ones who have stuck with the characters in all 3 episodes. Margulis, Jr, Ziggy and Gaignun (and you know who by default) have fully immersed themselves into the role. Returning VA's like Shion do a great job too, but they don't sound quite as relaxed as the ones who have remained. Battle: Good: So yeah, everything loads fast. Ultra fast. Even saving, loading, zone switching, just about everything in general is fast, fast, fast. I still can't let go how retarded the lag was in Episode II, though. That's a stench that will never wash out (even the most basic budget RPGs knew how to load battles properly). It's also good that they removed everything from EPII's battle system and stuck with the basics. The break system is a nice touch too, giving you incentive to protect party members before they get dizzy. Also, the battle music is one of the best tracks I've ever heard. It fixes the complaint I've had with RPG battle themes in general; it keeps things subtle. It was always an annoying habit to create big, overplayed music with every random battle, even if the enemy is nothing more than a rabbit or something. But the battle theme in Ep III is not too loud and not too soft. This along with the speedy battles makes fighting a smooth process instead of a chore. Bad: All the battle speech is insanely loud and echoing, to the point that it's hard to make out some lines. This was a problem in Ep I, but it was fixed in Ep II. I guess they wanted to bring back the flaws of the original battle system as well. :/ Canaan: "NOTACHALLENGE!" It wouldn't have hurt to have a minimap in dungeons, either. Mech Battles: Good: Well I'll be damned. It took 3 games to do it, but they've finally found a way to make the robots in Xenosaga both important and fun to use. It's pretty much an exact imitation of the mech battles in Xenogears, and that's a good thing. Plus they finally figured out the obvious; Space Battles=Fun. The robot love extends to cutscenes. The only thing cooler than a sword battle between two rivals is a ROBOT sword battle between two rivals. In space. And there's actual dialogue during the boss fights. Another plus. And Elly's Aerods live on. Zebulon is still the best ES (and not as pink). Bad: Nothing yet, but the one problem the previous games had was that there were barely any mech battles to begin with. It'd be nice if you could switch from character to mech at any time like in XG, but I doubt that'll happen. Story: Good: Things are starting out nice and slow so far, with Shion at least getting some good development time. I was surprised hearing before that she left Vector (and KOS-MOS), but the game did a good job at conveying her reasons and emotions upon doing so. Even though she's still a bit harsh with Miyuki, she's a lot less bitchy, mostly thanks to Sargent's reprised role. And Jr still kicks ass as usual. Bad: Talking heads. I don't like them. For one thing, it feels like the clearest proof that the game has had its budget cut. Even though they're fully voiced, and at least the characters do some sort of animation during these scenes, it's still lame. Even though they're dialogue scenes, bits like the one with Margulis and Pellegri, or conversations in the Durandel would've looked cool if given the full cutscene look. The actual cutscenes, while of course pretty, haven't quite excited me the way the cutscenes in EPI and II have. But of course things are just starting, so we'll see. Small Notes: I don't get why MOMO is still fighting with Jr and the others. You'd think after moving in with Juli, she'd settle into a quiet life. Or at least the others would protest if she wanted to continue helping. Maybe it's because only she can use Zebulon's full power, but Zebulon was never given a story to begin with (they just bypassed all that and before you knew it, MOMO had a pink shiny mech in the next scene). I don't see the urgency in the first dungeon. If it's a virtual network, how can you die? Must be a Matrix thing. Doctus bugs me, and I have no idea why. Maybe it's the "oh ho ho ho!" thing, or the fact that any new characters introduced now will take away time from the previous cast. Merkabah: A pretty big XG reference. If there's one thing I'll be looking forward to, it's if the ending will finally answer whether or not this series is a part of Xenogears' continuity. And don't you dare answer that. |
Actually, the full voice cast is listed in the end credits. If anyone has screen capture abilities, that would be pretty rockin'.
I didn't like the talking heads at first either, but you get used to them as the game goes on, since there's lots of dialogue. It starts to feel like a voiced-over Xenogears after a while what with the dialogue boxes and portraits. Agreed that the battle music is very effective. It gets even better as you proceed, with special boss musics for all sorts of encounters. |
Very Minor Spoiler: It's just the ending credits.
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Very Major Spoiler: This scene almost made me cry. ,_, Spoiler:
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Played about 4-5 hours. Not gonna go into any detail because I'm *gasp* addicted. I'm honestly shocked at how well this game's turned out thus far. Bravo, Monolith.
More detailed impressions and a full review coming whenever I finish it (should be sometime soon -- just got Yakuza and Okami's on the way). |
i find the enviroment awesome, especially in the first city man looking at that city makes me happy.
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Dont compare it to Final Fantasy XII, something this great doesnt need to be compared with something crappy.
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.....Wow.
Anyway, more pluses. + The dialogue system for NPCs. Now you don't have to click every character to get a dialogue window. Instead they start talking as you pass by, and if you want to hear more information, just press Square. This is a great idea, and it could be further implemented for next-gen RPGs by having NPCs talk with realtime voicechat. I hope to see this feature become a standard for future games. + Towns are finally, finally, finally interesting and bustling with effects (speeding trains). + I don't believe it....the game has a cutscene viewer. Fans have been requesting this since the first game, but I thought Namco would never actually listen (at least for NA editions). + A legitimate reason for Shion leaving Vector. - More talking heads. It works fine for a sprite-based game like Xenogears, but these are detailed 3D models with a full range of expressions. Take the first conversation involving Togashi and the other Vector members. In the original game, the standard dialogue was enhanced with the amusing expressions and manerisms of the characters. But now it's just typical RPG dialogue. Also, Margulis' scar shifts from his right eye to his left according to the position of his portrait. Lame. - I wish the whole "Gnosis Terrorism" story wasn't limited to some online story (and in Japanese). It would've served better as a bonus movie or something. Too many details (such as the mysterious Realien) demanded more visual data. |
+ Towns are finally, finally, finally interesting and bustling with effects (speeding trains).
True, i really loved First District, My only complain for now is the fact that its still feels like a dungeon crawler, everytime a good story unfolds you'll be thrown on a dungeon. |
I only have one question for this game :
Does it have any replay value? And is the replay value worthwhile or just a bunch of pointlessness? |
Am I the only one feeling a little remorseful about this being the last game in the series? Xenogears was my favorite game of all time and I remember how upset I was when I found out about Disc 2. What happened to Xenosaga was even worse, prematurely ending the series by three episodes. But at least they did a good job on this last one. There doesn't seem to be much talk about the Episode 3 so I guess it didn't sell many copies. We can thank Episode 2 for that. We probably won't see anymore games except for the already existing prequals.
Anyway, today I finished up all the optional stuff, Omega, Erde Kaiser, 100% database, swimsuits etc. For some reason I want to keep playing but theres nothing left to do besides reading the database. I hate it when you only get to fight optional bosses once and they leave you with some uber item but nothing worth using it on. I really wish developers would stop with the one time only sidequests. It's a shame X3 doesn't have a New Game+ feature. Also, Xenosaga makes Final Fantasy look like a fairy tale. Trying to compare the two is like comparing The Bible with a coloring book. Quote:
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Is it just me or is HaKox the greatest RPG minigame ever?
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Honestly, I don't like HaKox all that much. However, one of the levels -- and perhaps all of them -- had music from Episode 2 playing in the background.
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Well, I thought Namco/Bandai said they MIGHT continue the series, should Xeno3 sell well and get fan praise or something. They just said "We'll see". I'd personally like to see it continue on the PS3, the game's beauty would be portrayed 10 times better.
I loved the VAs for this game, I'm glad they brought Shion and KOS-MOS's Xeno1 VAs back. The guy who played chaos in Xeno2 is back, I hated his voice in Xeno2 but this time he is quite good, along with MOMO (who is also voiced my her Xeno2 actress -who I wasn't all that impressed with in Xeno2, but the actors seem to have improved their skills since then). The story is top notch, Spoiler:
Yuki Kaijura's music is also amazing, not quite Yasunori Mitsuda amazing, but it comes pretty close. Very dramatic and epic in some places. I've also come to love the in-game tracks since I've played the game (I'm at the last boss btw, w00t!), and I'm bummed that no one has ripped a higher quality version (like that of Xeno2's gamerip, which was freakin' amazing) of them. In all of the non text/voice cutscenes, the visuals are great...but it would have been nicer if they used those as the in-game graphics and a better engine for cutscenes, like they did in Xeno1 and 2. Overall, amazing game. Doesn't seem like it has too much replay value unless you loved it so much you just want to play it again, but DEFINATELY worth the buy. P.S. Spoiler:
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chaos:
As for the final boss, just cast Best Ally or that other auto-revive spell and he should be easy. |
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I see, makes sense
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Blitzball gets my vote for best minigame. Followed by the Fairy Colony system from the Breath of Fire series. HaKox reminds me of The Sims.
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Shenmue's multiple mini-games that were made up of gambling, playing classic Sega games and Lucky Hit wins for me... and to this day Shenmue 1 and 2 are my most overplayed RPG styled games... Star Ocean : Till the end of Time as a close second.
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The one scene that really stood out thanks to the music so far is the first conversation with chaos and Nephilim. They play this really haunting violin piece that makes things very foreboding, a sign that the end is coming. Anyway, it's been a good 4 hours since the first dungeon, but now I finally made it to the second dungeon. Looks like they still have a problem balancing the cutscene to gameplay ratio. By a lot. :edgartpg: Just like that you have over 5 party members in your disposal. On the plus side, they all have some really cool special moves (favorite goes to Ziggy's enormous handcannon; looks like something the Major used in GITS). I also found a more major negative than the talking heads; MOMO's role, or lack of, so far. Her prescence so far is so unimportant she might as well not be there. Even when Shion reunites with all the other characters for the first time, MOMO is the ONLY one who doesn't say anything. Would it have been too much to toss in a "Hi, Shion!"? It's good that Shion is finally getting some real development (especially with Allen), but this was never just her story; leaving characters like MOMO with no story, or even dialogue in the final story is just unforgivable. "Miyuki! You screwed up again, didn't you!?" So mean. :edgartpg: |
I just remembered something regarding censorship.
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YouTube doesn't have any out takes from the Japanese version, all I see is a bunch of game trailers. |
Another part I was wondering around censorship...
from chapter 8:
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So, I'm gonna burn a rented copy of this today. Since I didn't play Xenosaga 2, will I still be able to 'enjoy' numero 3? I figure I can just read up on some story FAQs on Gamefaqs or something.
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This problem goes back to Xenogears (and most RPGs in general). You shouldn't have to subtract one character's screentime to focus on another. You need to balance them all out. |
Guest: It was from the gatling gun attack
Cobalt: that scene wasn't censored, it's the same in the JP version, only the blood was edited out in the crappiest way possible. Kurado: Reading the database will get you fully up to date of all the events that happened in the previous games, and if you still think that you are in the dark about certain things, blue laguna has all the cutscenes from episode II. I was rather glad that Momo didn't get enough attention, since her story was pretty much ended in the previous games. She still gets one scene in the first disc, but after that there isn't a lot of room to develop her character even more, unless you want her going into emo-mode or something. Soldier, continue the bloody game before making your judgements will ya? |
This is quite easily the best RPG I've played in 10 years, and you know when was the last. I am so addicted to this game, I play it everyday...all day. A bit dissappointing that this only came about because there was a lot of complaints about episode II.
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Agreed. On the second point that is. My main complaint post-mortum is that there wasn't more E.S. combat. I could've probably played an entire game using that system :)
I'd be tempted to say I enjoyed it much more than Xenogears' gear combat, if only because you didn't have to worry about Fuel constantly... But of course there needed to be a much wider variety of ES and weaponry. Most all of the normal attacks were either Physical, Fire, or Beam. So when bosses put up elemental resistances, there wasn't much to go with for working around that aside from Anima attacks. So yeah, there could've been a bit more depth, but in general very fun combat system versus the big bads. |
I like how i forgot to use spoilers, anywho Yeah the Scene before Chapter 9, was awesome ::radgame:: and lol at those bosses
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And yeah, that boss fight was hilarious. |
By scene before chapter 9 i mean the one with JR and the gang.
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Aka Shion is such a bitch, I seriouly loathe her character at times, Its just awesome how she's not a stereotypical "goody goody" lets face it, she's a bitch.
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Does anyone agree that the ending sort of opens up more of the Xenosaga universe? I seriuosly would love to see Xenosaga go to the next gen of rpg's. Dear lord. We'll go from 8 - 10 of fmv to 18 - 20 hours if we see it come to the PS3 and the Blue Ray disc.
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I for one hope they continue the series more than anything. Before saga was announced, I was so desperate for a Xenogears sequel that I read almost every fanfic on the net. 'The Real Ricdeau' and 'Circles' were the best ones I came across, especially Circles. I haven't read a fanfic in years, but thanks to the way Episode 3 ended, my old hobby will be back in full effect. It'll be interesting to see how some people will tie in Episode 3's ending with Xenogears and make a hybrid, alternative timeline.
If the developers would harness some of those ideas theres no reason to not continue the series. They only said Episode III was the end of Shion's Ark, I want to see one entirely dedicated to KOS-MOS. :D |
Ah, ha ha ha.
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Finally finished disc 1 the other night (32 hours on the clock). Holy SHIT, this game's awesome.
"I have to put it back.." |
Just beat it last night. The ending scenes were so moving and powerful
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Anyone have anything to add onto this? |
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I see :/ I never played Xenogears, though I've heard nothing but good things about it, and also listened to the OST (which was quite nice).
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I was looking on Wikipedia about Xenogears, stumbled across this:
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Now I'm starting to see the connection between stories, but can anyone clarify? |
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Also heres another idea. Spoiler:
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Ok I just started playing this today... I thought the beginning was kind of slow and boring... but I'm going to keep playing to see if it gets me interested like Episode 1 and 2 did.... I just feel it's a step forward with the battle engine and a step back with the amount of gameplay I'm not getting right now...
And that first dungeon you go through is absolutely poorly deisnged... way too much pointless walking around with too few enemies.... |
A question out there, I am not going to be able to get/play the game for awhile, but after seeing it come out, before I get it, will someone please answer one question for me?
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This should clarify shit for you people trying to figure out if there is a direct connection between the two stories.
Which there isn't. Spoiler:
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Huh...that's pretty interesting. So Xenosaga's story might have a chance to continue after all! I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.
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Oh, it was left open ended enough that it could go on. I just don't think it'll turn into Xenogears if it does. Besides the immense amount of rewriting that has to happen and the rather large time gap that has to be covered, Monolith wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
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Fair enough, Mr. Skills :) It's just fun trying to put pieces together, even if they don't fit.
Yeah, lots of re-writing would have to occur, but you do have to wonder what exactly they were going to go for in a 6-episode Xenosaga rather than what we got in 3. |
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At first, there were supposed to be 6 episodes, but with the horrible review of episode 2, and the fact that the budget and time limit were severely overdue, I guess they decided to only make 3 episodes. It doesn't make sense, though. The ending of episode 3 still left so many questions unanswered. Besides that, all the talk about "seeing eachother again" kind of left it open for another game. The one thing that really bothered me about this game was how much they shoved into it in so little time. Granted, I love this game more than the previous 2, I just feel like things were rushed, especially at the end. I had the same problem with episode 2. Why on earth is it 2 discs long when you could seriously beat that game in 1 day (if you didn't complete the sidequests, anyway)? I just don't feel like they delved into the past of some of the key characters enough. Shion, yes. Jr, yes. Momo, yes. But chaos, Mary, and Ziggy all got the shit end of the stick. I realize why they're important but you never got enough of their past lives. Especially chaos. You only got to see him in that one scene Spoiler:
Furthermore, they lead you to believe that chaos IS Jesus because his real name is Yeshua. Seriously, as much as I loved episode 3, I'm still a little confused about everything and I wish they would've spent more time developing the characters more. What I also find strange is how T-elos seemed really important in the very beginning, but then you only see her in one major part at the very end. I feel like I spent a majority of this game taking on bullshit quests that did nothing to further develop the story. |
You got to see plenty of Ziggy's past in Pied Piper.
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Wasn't that only a Japanese text based cell phone game?
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Yes, just go and read the transcripts and summaries of Pied Piper. Just that little bit of backstory goes a long way in Episode III ( the same goes for Xenosaga: The Missing Year transcripts ). |
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If you can't play it, read it! ... And let me know how it turns out, because I haven't yet.. I'm not a big fan of Ziggy.
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It's actually a pretty cool story :) Deals with much more than just Jan.
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Did anyone else laugh at the appearance of
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I didn't laugh, but I went "OH HELL YEAH THIS IS GONNA BE A KICK-ASS BOSS FIGHT". I was real hyped with it's appearence. Fucking nostalgically ingenious. I wish I saved at the part so I can replay it over and over again.
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This is off topic but... Anyone know the name of the regular battle music in Xenosaga Episode II? Too lazy to rip it myself... haha
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Don't think it has a name, since the battle music was never part of a released/named OST.
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ya, i just put it as "Battle" lol
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anyone got it?
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I have almost everything related to Xenogears and Xenosaga. Only thing I'm missing are the cutscenes from Episode 1. I wish there was a torrent with them or something, Blue Laguna's download method sucks..
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Speaking of music, does anyone know the trackname of the ominous cello/violin song playing during chaos and Nephilim's first conversation?
If that song isn't included in the Best Collection, are there plans to release a complete soundtrack? Just finished Disc 1 today, which ended in a very epic bang. I love it when things come full circle, finally bringing meaning to the cutscenes from Episode I. Although I'm most concerned with Shion's lack of common sense, and I'm told she's going to get far, far stupider. :( |
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On my way to the final area -- after stopping to get a few characters' ultimate weapons. Might try and take on Omega-Id and Erde Kaiser Sigma, too. I hope to beat it tonight since Okami arrives tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it all ends. Edit: Just fought both battles. EKS was a joke, but Id was INTENSE -- best fight in the game. Onto the end. |
I just finished the game and I wanted to throw my two sense in about the Xenogears-Xenosaga connections because I think the connections are obvious and more coherent than most seem to think. This could get long to bear with me:
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Okay, deep breath: Spoiler:
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There is another flaw:
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Yes, Cetra, all those similarities are there because the stories are similar, have similar themes, and there are numerous cameo appearances and other fanservice and nods to Gears fans. But the writers and devs have said time and time again that the stories are NOT linked. They can't continue the story. Saga is not meant to be a prequel to Gears. I really don't know how many times people have to say this. It's fun to draw conclusions, sure. But it's just not the case. You're filling in blanks in various places and making wild assumptions here to boot.
Besides, there are too many inconsistenancies like I've previously mentioned, and to link them you need to make many iffy connections that were never there in the games or design materials, and every single theory I've seen has the people making it making wild assumptions and just guessing about things. I will repeat for good measure. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME TIMELINE. IT COULD NOT EVEN WORK. The writers even say so. Yeesh. |
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Let's take a nice example here: Spoiler:
The writers only said Xenosaga isn't a direct prequel to the actual Xenogears game. That is, they were free to make changes as they wanted to in attempts to make a better story. But that doesn't change the fact that the basics of Xenogears were not draw upon and linked upon in Xenosaga. They were planning on REWRITING Xenogears from the beginning. A rewrite still reuses basic plot points. They never said the stories were not linked, not once. |
No, you're wrong.
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And Gears would never once confirmed to be rewritten. It was left out there as a potential maybe, and then the idea was shortly abandoned afterwards, but it was never confirmed that they were going to redo Fei's story. If you read that article I linked you'll see that they say they might do it but don't really confirm it or anything. And yes, I'd say some of your theories about Spoiler:
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Or let us break that quote down just a bit more to make you happy: Quote:
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These quote/spoiler boxes are going to look like hell when all is said and done here. :(
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I have finished the game.
The only thing I failed to do was defeat Erde Kaiser Sigma without having all three Erdes. About 15% HP left and he used this attack that wiped us all out. I can't beat Omega ID so..whatever. The final boss wasn't too hard, but he wasn't easy either. The key to my victory was keeping up Defensive, Quick and Balance, using Shion, KOS-MOS, and Jin, and switching in MOMO for nuking. The boss before the final was way too easy and I made some of the most silly mistakes ever. Mistakes that would normally get you killed. He absorbs fire damage but I didn't know this until I used KOS-MOS's final teck attack, healing him for 5000 points, oops. Allen owned Kevin hahahaha. Guess I'm going to shoot for lvl99 and get payback against Sigma. I want to add that if Spoiler:
My respect for both Kevin and Jin went up during the final moments of game. |
Colonel Skills: I believe we both made our points and I'd rather not argue/discuss it anymore. I just want you to know I do understand and respect your viewpoint.
Winter Storm: Erde Kaiser Sigma Spoiler:
Omega Id Spoiler:
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Now that's very clever. I was level 67 when I fought Sigma. My strat was very much in disarray. He goes into uber mode when he's at half health. It turned into everyone of us having to cast Revert almost every round until only KOS-MOS was left -.-. I will try what you advised above. For ID, I have like 40 All repairs from that insane leveling fest I did on the Merkabah lol and like 99 halfs and mediums :D.
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Simple question on the Xenogears tie-ins:
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Open-ended endings =/= a reason to tie it together. It's open-ended because the ending would have been fucking lame and lost the whole meaning and feel to it if they just spelled out every single thing to you. |
Plus Takahashi made it pretty damn clear from the get-go that XS != XG.
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Is it just me or did they make wilhelm not as powerful as he was set up to be?
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LOL, oh Wilhelm is powerful. The way he used his power at the end was to match his personality no less. I mean damn, nothing really bothered this guy and he shows no anger(mildly at the end).
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lol He really had no impact at the end though. |
He really should have been the final boss.
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... What? |
wilhelm is great an all but
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but other then that i love the music also, my favorite being the one when you enter the ruins in the cave of the floating landmass..of course i like others too.. |
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I managed to finish the game earlier this afternoon.
Just a few thoughts about the final battle and the game in general: Spoiler:
Overall, the game was enjoyable. It seemed that the difficulty in this one decreased compared to the previous two though. Oh, and I also thought the unlocked features after completing the game were a nice addition. |
I started on Disc 2 this week, and I currently just finished the battle with Black. Things are progressing well, but I have some dissappointments that I'll get into when I finish. But I will say right now my biggest dissapointment by far.
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Edit: Just wanted to mention that "Godsibb" is currently my favorite song in the OST. Nobody beats Kajiura when it comes to dramatic battle themes. This game is full of some of the best fight tracks I've heard anywhere. It's nice to see her being used correctly, unlike the previous episode. It'd be reason enough to continue the series just to hear her compose more tracks. |
I don't have the game yet,but the OST is really really great! It's the best of the Xenosaga.
It's ashame I want to see the co-work between Yasunori&Yuji in the last episode. When the beginning and endinng work together :) |
I just finished the game a few minutes ago. Big post coming up, so be ready.
The ending was beautifully well done, in both length and emotion. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I nearly cried when Spoiler:
That being said, I'm afraid to say that I'm still very dissapointed by much of the story. Two things in particular nearly ruined it for me. For one, I hate Shion now. Well not really, but I've seriously lost a lot of my admiration for the character. She was a real bitch in EPII, and while she's less bitchy in this one, her inexcusable stupidty didn't help redeem her. In the first disc, she constantly responds to the villains' comments with "What do you mean? I don't understand!". Then there's her bullshit decision in the 2nd disc. Spoiler:
At least on the upside, Allen has risen high above my list as a real hero. Then again he was always likeable, but it was still fun to watch him grow while his stubborn love interest only got worse. Then there's my second beef with this game; the lack of any real interaction. Pretty much all the supporting characters got shit for dialog, and none of them ever interacted with each other. The reason I've always loved MOMO as a character is the way she seamlessly established a close relationship with all the other characters; Ziggy's like a father, Jr is her love interest, Shion's like her older sister. But these relationships are completely, utterly ignored in this game. MOMO and everyone else only says plot-relavent dialogue, and never anything personal or unique. This becomes a major problem for the major moments in this game. For example, Spoiler:
Basically, things were rushed. It's understandable thanks to EPII's piss-short runtime and the smaller budget, but that doesn't justify things. There are some great scenes here, but they would have benefited much more with extra exposition and dialogue. Well in short, the Xenosaga series was very good in the end, but it had the potential to be fantastic. I feel cheated seeing my favorite characters getting screwed out of the spotlight just because they had to make room for Shion (and it's even worse if you don't like Shion). It's just bad design to cast aside the supporting characters like that, ignoring the relationships and personalities they established. Although despite the apocalyptic finale, there is room for a sequel. I just don't think I'm willing to get my hopes up all over again. I'd prefer if Takahashi started fresh with a new series or setting, and get things right from the start. But even so, I'll always wonder what could've been. And speaking of the possible connection between Xenosaga and Xenogears... Spoiler:
And finally, regarding the big, big revelation on who KOS-MOS finally is... Spoiler:
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Yeah, that's certainly the major problem with XS; it was just too big for its own good. I found the database in EPI nice and informing, but I just sighed sadly in the database in EPIII. It was basically all the leftoever ideas that never came to pass.
Should've stuck with anime. But still, if he sets his sights smaller, and makes sure to make the next game longer, there's a chance he could get things right. Xenogears was unfinished, and that still kicked ass. EDIT: I also forgot to mention that MOMO's Swordfish is the funniest special move I've seen in a while. I know she's a Realien, but damn. Spoiler:
EDIT2: I also just read the post-game database, which sort of hints (or maybe just gives a final resolution) what the characters will do after. MOMO's made me ill. Spoiler:
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I actually found Allen's final scenes to be pretty damn laughable ("I'M GONNA PROTECT SHION RRRAAARRGGGHHHH!"). We all knew it was coming, but the way it was handled was embarrassing. From zero to hero in under 2 minutes? Come on... Quote:
The only character I felt got royally screwed was Ziggy, having most of his story relegated to a damn cellphone game. And from what little we see of it in XSIII, it looked pretty damn awesome. Overall though, I enjoyed the hell out of XSIII and can easily say it's the best of the series. Hell, Xenosaga as a whole >>>>>>>>> Xenogears, despite Episode II being one of the worst RPGs ever. |
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The scene during the ending sequence was much more embarrasing, but I still laughed. Quote:
Nobody talks to anybody here, aside from anything plot-related, or just to tell Shion to calm the fuck down. And aside from the whole "nonhuman longing to be human" angle, I found MOMO's to be one of the best stories in the series, but again because of how she forms a deep connection with the other characters. I didn't much care for Shion's faux-lesbian pining over KOS-MOS, but I always liked the way she would care for MOMO, such as the scene in the Durandal park in EPI. But oh well, none of that exists in this game. It was obvious with the Albedo scene in the first game that they intended MOMO's role to be darker and more serious. But I think somewhere halfway some tightwad put a stop to it, so instead she's put out of harm's way and gets together with her estranged mother. Freaking boo. Quote:
I still found the ending spectacular, but after some thought I'm also disappointed with it. I thought this would give a clear, 100% final story for Shion and company, but instead it leaves room for multiple spinoffs. Spoiler:
It seems there's a few patents, such as Xenosaga X. Wouldn't surprise me if it happens, but it remains whether I'll be suckered in for the third time. |
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To take an example, Rico's screentime in XG pretty much petered out, but they still made sure his dialogue was unique to him ("I've come this far, so there's no point bitchin' about it.") |
So what's the relationship between Shion and Feb?
I still don't get it.:p |
Basically, Feb was like a surrogate mother to little Shion while her real mother was being treated in the hospital (and her dad tending to her). Of course, this would've been more meaningful had it not taken three episodes to explain this simple relationship.
I really wonder how many Spoiler:
Anyone know where I can download scans (scanlated if possible) of the XS manga? All I've seen concerning it were a few covers, but it sounds interesting from this wiki article. Quote:
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Damn, that does sound interesting....
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Because I'm sure we're all tired of religious jargon. I know I've been tired of it for years now. It's nice when characters, you know, talk to each other.
It's very hard to find any images of this manga, though. The best I could do is here. http://www.akadotretail.com/product_...86&cPath=27_7# There's a chance it could get licensed here like Disgaea and Kingdom Hearts, but who knows. I'd love to read it now if it's available. I'd especially like to see how that infamous scene with Albedo was handled. On that note, I also wondered how that scene was handled in the DS version. |
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But it's a bit different after that. In Xenosaga I&II, the Song of Nephilim and Proto Merkabah are one dungeon. You get MOMO back and then fight Virgil. Albedo runs off deeper into the dungeon. You find him and fight him. Then, you have to fight E.S. Simeon. You can't win it. It's impossible. It kills with one hit. When your party is dead, Canaan shows up in E.S. Asher and holds E.S. Simeon back while you go fight Sophie Peithos. |
Whoa.. I just saw The Da Vinci Code and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
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Urge to replay Xenosaga III has increased by 72%. |
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I'm new here, and I just finished Xenosaga Ep. III!
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Anyways, aside from all that. I liked Ep. III a lot. Although some of the Script was kind of lame (maybe due to English Version?) and the reactions were kind of unrealistic, but that wasn't horrible (Wilhelm was excellent in this case). The Music was Brilliant (Great Job By Kajiura for it being one of her first RPG sound tracks, it was good aside from that too). The art and story-line were excellent as well. |
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I'm still interested in checking the manga out. I was hoping B.K. would have some info on it, but if he can't find it, no one will. :(
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I thought the ending was kind of weak... it still left a feeling of incompleteness...
I get the feeling by "this is the last episode of Xenosaga!!" they meant with the next one we're just gonna drop the Saga part off the Xeno and come up with a different name... or maybe they can make an extended version that comes packaged with remakes of Episode 1 and 2 :) Xenosaga Complete Special Edition Plus!!! hahaha |
What's the difference between the revive (forgot what it's called) that costs 600 and the seven moons which cost 300 (heals all the HP/EP), while the other one only heals a majority of the HP.
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I've been experimenting a bit with making a rip for the music that wasn't on the OST. Unless someone else is already making a decent quality one, I might do it.
I however need some opinions. Does this quality satisfy you people? |
What about the ost? Are the song present in miltia from episode 2 ost? Actually i've got all the ost, but somehow i find the miltian song of ep2 a bit different from ep3 ones in miltia. Maybe it's because after each battle the song would restart, and avoid the later boring part of that music. Can you give me some info regarding this? I really loved that music.
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Does anyone know how many hours of cutscenes Episode II is feauturing? Cant get any infos on that.
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I believe Monolithsoft said that Episode II had roughly six hours of cutscenes. Fans complained about how many there were in Episode I, so Monolithsoft said for Episode II, they would have less of them.
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I've just started playing it 8 hours and I love it!
The story made me chilled and the music is the greatest things in the game itself (May be the greatest in the series as well,...well except Xenogears) The battle song is the same one in ost "Battle of your soul",isn't it? It's work really great in game.;) Would you guys mind telling me what does Also Sprach Zarathustra mean? :) |
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Especially this unfortunately. |
Also Sprach Zarathustra = Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Xenosaga III is my personal game of the year. Out of everything else I played this year, it was the least frustrating and most entertaining. |
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Thanks a lot. : ) |
NOOO! My PS2 froze right at the ending... and it took me 45 minutes to beat the last boss. FACK. ;_;
Does anyone know where I could get a rip of the ending? I tried Youtube, there's only one or two short clips. |
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I actually read some of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for an english class, and found it pretty interesting. It was fun to see the correlation between the themes and concepts. The biggest 'plot' problem was the direct relation to Christianity, I'd rather it be a little more subtle, although, the original idea's were amazing, and the overall story still blows me away. Anyways, Xenosaga ep. III, was probably the best game I played this year, that came out this year :-P |
Thanks, but it's in Japanese .___.'' Subtitle files anywhere?
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Personally, i found xenosaga 1 much better, and maybe one of my favourite rpg. When i begun it, i understood there was something incredibly much bigger behind what i saw. I could understand the plot would have folded in such a fantastic way. Yet, it didn't offend me. We could say that it took some Christian elements as inspiration, but nothing that would offend us Christians. Maybe something was bad, but not much. Then, when i played xenosaga 2, i was really offended...of course i had already spent 40 euros for the first 2 episodes, and so i bought the third one too. So, little by little, the game didn't give me anymore the episode one sensation. The story was no more so great, as it was just concentrating in ridiculize Christianity.
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I wouldn't necessarily say Xenosaga was simply bashing Christianity. It is based Friedrich Nietzsche's books. He has lots of beliefs that go against christian beliefs, and he clearly does not like the Christian religion (he did write "The Anti-Christ"), but Xenosaga tended to take the more 'Original' concepts from his books (Biggest example: "The Super-man" or "Over-man", like Evolution). I would have to replay the series again to see the actual flow between the games. Oh well, whatever... |
Do any of yall know the name of the theme playing when....
Jin and the others (in E.S-es) finally finish off Pellegri once and for all in Michtam (in the Archon Spaceport). There's a flute playing. Sad... sad... (not really) |
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the only thing is that you can buy it only on miltia. i guess that probably the designers of the game thought that miltia was accessible only one time, and then they change it. that is my best guess about that.:katamari: |
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Wha...? There's a Seven Moons sidequest? I remember I used Seven Moons after Miltia and nothing happened to my people...
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I'll do it as a spoiler just in case there are those--like me--who couldn't get it until now. Spoiler:
As for the ending. I thought it was a rather neat "trick" by the company. Think about it. People have been speculating about the Xenogears/Xenosaga character connections (not to mention certain building similarities *wink wink*), and reincarnation kept popping up. Living a life over and over and over....So, we can just go back to the beginning and keep playing over and over and over.... And, one last thought. About Allen: About damn time! |
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The ending was quite sad... Why did (blank) have to die?!!! (though it looked pretty cheezy without the blood... -_-) Agh! Of all people... Now I really wish the company would come out with a fourth episode... that'd be... so awesome! |
I don't know how many people don't know about that part of the game (although I knew before I even bought the game), so spoiler tags might be good.
And how else were they going to explain the similarities to Xenogears with the characters? If you think back to what was said during that time, it all makes sense. |
Ok... not really sure what Xenogears is so...
Well, I wouldn't be surprised there were similarities. I mean, just look at the names. Just from that, I know there has to be some relationship. |
Okay....
So you do know what Xenogears is? |
Ermm..... no... heheh... Heard of it. But never actually made sure I knew what it was. Feel free to explain. ^^;
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So who here would pay for a standalone HaKox game with a ton of new levels, featuers, etc?
I totally would, but the opinions on this mini-game seem to vary. |
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http://www.square-enix-usa.com/games/xenogears/ |
Wha?! There's a Citan Uzuki?? He reminds me of Jin...
And on the front page... well there's this robot-thing that looks like an E.S. |
There are a lot of Xenogears cameos in Xenosaga. Xenosaga itself is just a retelling of Xenogears Episode I. If you read Xenogears: Perfect Works, you see a lot of things that are similar.
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BK--huh, wha? What do you mean "retelling?"
MOLD: You found the connection. That's why Jin was where he was at the end of the game. :) |
I meant what I said. Xenosaga is a retelling of Xenogears Episode I. Obviously, they aren't the same. It's a retelling in the way some animes do retellings of stories from previous seasons/series. The very basic story is based off of Xenogears Episode I, but there are a lot of alterations to it that it becomes its own story.
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Okay. I see what you mean now. More of a "based on" approach than an actual retelling.
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Thanks a lot Yamamanama,it's really great song :)
I'm quite disappoint the way they use "KOSMOS~Hepatica", the song itself is really really great but didn't work in battle scene... I really enjoyed it on OST. About Shion and KOSMOS relation Spoiler:
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You really have to play Xenogears to really get it. Seriously, us telling you will just ruin it if you're thinking of playing it. But don't think - play it now! Grr.
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Maybe no direct connection, but in reading the database, the creators sure are hinting at something.
And let me clarify this--I thought about this after I typed the above. Bandai/Namco/Monolith really CAN'T do a direct connection--since Square owns the rights to the Xenogears story. However, they can hint as much as they want--unless Square says: "Hey, let's do a crossover thing." Then the story will be re-written.....(which has already been done. Kevin was wearing the pendant when he died in Episode I, so how did he give it to Shion?) |
I finished it and just one question:
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Guys, am i wrong, or the perfect work is different from what we've seen till now?
Chapter 1, as is described in perfect works, should be strictly linked to xenogears, but xenosaga (all the 3 chapters), where totally different as described. |
Xenosaga is not Xenogears.
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You are fucking stupid. No, it's not. Listen to B.K. He's smarter than you. |
This is what i've heard. Please explain more, and don't get hungry for nothing, as THAT is stupid.
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You heard wrong.
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Tons of people told me that way.
So it's normal i wouldn't look out for info on google, or that i wouldn't know this. |
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I'll have to find a picture of it. |
I said Episode III, not episode I @_@. The scene is epIII is a flashback she had before his death.
Ohhhh wait. I understand what you're saying now. My bad. |
ok someone tell me if I'm wrong but what I heard about the whole thing of Xenosaga vs Xenogears is that Square-Enix still own the right of xenogears and perfect work so Tetsuya Takahashi can't really use them to make the Xenosaga series. He did another story close to that one but it's not the same thing...
that's what I heard, maybe someone can clarified this or tell me that this wrong XD |
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Inhert--that's the problem right there. Square owns the rights to the story, and unless someone buys it from them, they can't do anything directly with it. That's why the Xenosaga series is riddled with "hints" and "clues." It's not a direct connection, but the makers aren't letting anyone forget the work done on Xenogears, either. Now, if Square would re-do Xenogears, so I can actually PLAY disc 2, I'd be very happy. |
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I liked how they completely redid Episode II in Xenosaga I&II. ;) |
Omg... everyone's contradicting themselves... But, I'm afraid I'm not psyched enough to play Xenogears, so I guess I don't have to know this stuff.
So... but I AM planning on playing Xenosaga II. (yeah, I'm playing it backwards). So... how was it? Is the fighting much different from Xenosaga III? |
xenosaga EpII is horrible in all possible way >.>
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So is your English.
It's the weakest of the three episodes, sure, but it's not horrible. The battle system is radically different though and it's a pure love it or hate it kinda thing. It's slow, so random encounters can actually drag on because of it, but I enjoyed it significantly. I am not unbaised though, but I'd recommend checking out some battle vids somewhere first to see if it would be your kind of thing or not. |
I enjoyed the battle system in II immensely, actually. Part of is was the fact that you can completely cheese the system and totally pwn enemies FAST if you're paying attention.
*knocks some enemies up and down, then shoots them with MOMO* |
I always thought I and II should have been one game, but I can understand why they were split up.
I enjoyed II's battle system myself, since the skills you attached made them super strong in many battles (and forget MOMO--use KOSMOS). Don't use Shion, unless you plan on using the combo with Jin...... Anyway, that was another thing I enjoyed--you could also customize the ESes (?) in the game--depending on the co-pilot. That was a nice touch. |
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Oh sweet! Combos! Well, atleast I know now that it even has combos. I "tried" to play the first game after I played the last and it was... not as fun... I'm just hoping II would be somewhat like the third. By the way, is Jin useful as he always is? He ownt in the third game!
Yeah, maybe I will watch some battle videos if I can... Gah! Slow internet!! |
In II, Jin is very useful. Since he doesn't have an ES in II, he's a co-pilot, and some of the combined attacks with others are POWERFUL.
B.K.: That's what I thought even before I saw the trailer. Don't forget, it also shows Spoiler:
So, here's two questions for those who have played all 3 games: Do you think Episodes I and II would have worked better as one game? And do you think the "events" described as happening 6 months prior to the events in Episode III should have been made part of the game? |
I & II worked fine as two games. Yes, the story ending in I was abrupt, at the same time, the arc to the story fit well. And yes, those events should have been playable. Now if only Namco US could get off its ass and deliver the promised "missing time" stories that were on the Japanese XS III website, we could at least get an introduction to Doctus, among other things. I was all like "WHO THE HELL IS THIS BITCH AND WHY IS SHE ONLY IN THE GAME FOR LIKE, 10 MINUTES?"
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Of course, what I really want is an English version of Xenosaga I&II. I managed to stumble through the Japanese version. There are a lot of interesting changes in the Episode II part of the game. Quote:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...Public/dvk.jpg |
LOL! Doctus much be extremely powerful to be able to do that to V4 KOS-MOS. Hmm, yea Missing Year told the story behind a lot of people that is left otherwise vague in XSIII.
I have to say though, the best scene to me is when Spoiler:
Leknaat I think EPII should have never been made if that counts. :) Ok seriously I think it would have been better if the first 2 were all one game. For one thing, EPII was short lol. Albedo's role in EPI would have synched VERY WELL with his role in EPII. He's a great villain but doing that would possibly put him to the top of all villains in the RPG universe ;). |
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Or all three could have been one game split into Episodes. How many of us have played games with "3 months later" popping up on the screen? It could have been done. |
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http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/2...2scan12wx9.jpg |
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Well my bad, it sure looked like version 4 to me.
As for who Doctus is, her name is mentioned in EPIII database, but who knows, could be just another 'code name'. |
Im replaying II, man I remember how much I hate II's battle system.. but I really liked the GS Compaigns.. I wish III had them.. I think i was almost done with 3.. had 28hours at abels ark, I guess id have beaten it in 30ish hours.
One thing, anyone else have problems with III's cutscenes? Some of them stutter quite abit. Could be my ps2 though |
Cool, a thread on XS3.
I'm new in this whole Xenosaga-business, and I'm about three hours into XS3 (thought I might try out the series). I don't know, so far, the game only like a long dialogue, and I don't understand half of what's going on (empires here, armadas there). Jeez. |
wow you are playing episode 3 without having played the first 2 and you are complaining about not understanding anything that is going on?
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hehe, you might want to pick up the first 2.
The first one is only like 9dollars.. 2nd one is about 15 or so. :P |
anyone download fmvs from
BLUE LAGUNA? Im playing xeno2.. and the cathedral boss is just kill me . . i want to just see the rest of the cutscenes so i can move to 3 again. I got 29-33, but the 34 video says file not found :/ |
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It works for me. |
its obviously having issues.. ive tried all 3 severs like 15 times.. all i got was file not found.. now the 2nd mirror is available.. wtf
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XenoGEARS was made by Squaresoft at the same time that FF8 was in production. But, Square said--"No more money for Gears! We're giving it to FF8!" So, the second disc of Gears was full of narration with only a few playable parts. At the end of the game, you see: Chapter V. Well, we got no more XenoGears, but the people who had worked on it at Square had left and formed Monolith--the people who bring you XenoSAGA. As Guest said, it was supposed to be longer, but due to money issues, and personnel changes (one of the main writers went bye-bye), they decided to stop at 3. (I remember speculation that XS3 was actually going to be for the PS3). Now, legally, they can't call the game XenoGEARS since Square owns the rights to it, nor can they come out and outright say: Yes, they ARE connected--again, for legal issues. But, they can leave hints lying around leaving people to come to their own conclusions. But, you TRULY need to have some familiarity with the first two games. There are too many references in 3 that don't make sense without it. |
anyone know other than blue laguna, where i can get the cutscenes from Xeno2? I cannot seem to download anymore from that site.. all i get is 404 - file not found now.
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Try now. It's working for me, too.
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It might not be what you're looking for, but if you're desperate: http://www.youtube.com/user/shokkuweibu Youtube ftw!
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http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-...5sh-43-9k.html
So is anyone else buying this or what? I've got the first Alter KOS-MOS figure, and it's pretty fantastic. This will hopefully be the same way. |
Wow, thats an awesome looking toy. But as much as I love KOS-MOS I never buy anything more than the game itself. I don't even buy strategy guides anymore, thanks to GameFAQs. Maybe if they made a fully functional, life-size model of KOS-MOS.. I could think of some ways to play with her and buy one. >_>
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Why only KOS-MOS? T-ELOS would be cool, too. Not life-size or fully functional, but cool, anyway.
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ya, after pulling my hair out trying to get them from blue laguna.. i just watched them on youtube.. sure the quality wasnt as good.. but least i can start 3 lol
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WOULD SHE BE FULLY FUNCTIONAL AND ANATOMICALLY CORRECT?
sexy data tango |
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The Alter figures are both of a much higher quality and quite a bit larger, but also quite a bit more expensive. so 'eh. I really like the V1 KOS-MOS I bought 7 or so months ago and this should be similarily awesome. |
Apparently someone listens to Lek's suggestions.
Alter is also doing a T-ELOS figure Hurrah, for those of you nerdy enough to buy them. Like me |
Heh. I actually like that figure. I might get it myself. It would look so nice in between Auron and my singing hamster.....
Seriously, I do like it... |
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Since this thread was revived, I want to ask you people something.
I've been a total Xenogears freak since it came out. I absolutely adore that game. My main reason why I bought a Ps2 was because of Xenosaga. I was able to buy all the games (including Freaks) a few months ago. Now, I'm half way Episode 2 and I don't see the story developing that much (a lot of character development though). I overhyped this saga sooo much and I'm starting to think this is not going to be as good as Gears (not better obviously, but at least on the same level). So far, I've enjoyed the games. I'm having mixed feelings about Xenosaga II though. It's nice to see the graphics updated and the story of Rubedo and Albedo is ok, but the game itself looks like fan-service and unpolished. So, for you guys who have already played all the games, what do you think of Xenosaga's story as a whole? Is it really that deep as Gears or is it just a few plot twist here and there? I'm not loosing the faith to the saga though. I just hope that it gets better. |
We discussed this on the previous page, but I personally feel that I and II should have been one game. The second game picks up where the first one leaves off, so there's no gap. That's why there's little story development in II, and more character development.
In III, however, it all makes sense. I would stay with playing Episode II and then go on to III. As for the depth of the story....Let me know when you finish, and I'll talk to you about my impressions of the story then. (It's not a cop-out, I just don't want to give anything away.) |
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Holy Christ.
We just finished Xenosaga iii and I haven't enjoyed an RPG that much for fucking years. Episode 2 was a bit of a dissapointment, I would even recommend people skip it (Episode 3 has a pretty extensive synopsis in the database), although it made me appreciate episode 3 even more <3. Having just played Star Ocean: Till the end of time and Rogue Galaxy (ugh worst ending ever jesus fucking christ) the ending to episode 3 was especially satisfying and nice <3 I don't understand how xenogears ties into all of this shit but whatever ;( MOMO 4 LIEFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF |
^EDITING: Yeah Rogue Galaxy had the "MOST ORIGINAL" story EVER.... and such an amazing ending... made me think I should have sold the game on eBay instead of opening it up... but there's one thing I really liked about that game and it's the factory mini-game!
Heya, Haven't played this game in ages... I loved this game - but seeing this thread reminded me of something that kinda confused me Spoiler:
I'm actually thinking of replaying the saga - after I finish FFVI, Chrono Cross and Xenogears (yeah going for older games recently) LOL... so that's in a while It's just I got a "jolt" of curiosity all of a sudden now... heck I had a lot more questions... just can't remember them now BTW another thing - can someone recommend me games with deep or controversial stories somewhat like Xeno 3? I'm kinda game-starved and none of the games I'm playing recently are really satisfying. |
Since the thread is alive,
This has to be one of my favorite RPGs of all time: the combat, music, story, characters... everything was enjoyed. Sadly, nothing is perfect. And this game ended in a way I didn't expected: Spoiler:
I guess all I want is another game in the Xenosaga universe with Kosmos. |
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If anyone's interested, there's a group translating the Episode I Drama CDs and making a series of Flash movies out of them. Xenosaga OUTER FILE ~ Home |
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Now all I need is a translated version of this "missing year" stuff to be happy. |
I won't be happy until Missing Year and Xenosaga I&II are both translated.
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2 questions:
1. Any dates for that? (I know I'm dreaming) 2. Something new and worthy in Xenosaga I&II? |
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Hmmm. Any relation? |
Hmm that CD sounds interesting... I felt like there is a lot I missed out on - so this may help? Though I do plan on playing the game again... in a while....
BTW anyone know the answer to my spoil-ful question? Thanks |
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http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/3715/xs2fn5hq4.png The Romhacking Aerie |
BK, thanks for the update...
I'll keep an eye for that stuff. (Since an official release seems impossible) |
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