[PS2] Xenosaga III: Also Sprach Zarathustra

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!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The last two trailers had new remixes of her themes.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

First English screens:



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Poor Misato...uh, I mean Kevin.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Cobalt Katze

Shiny E3 2k6 Trailer is hyah (here): http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/xeno...de3/media.html

In english~

Great to hear the original voices for Shion and KOS-MOS are back.

And the soundtrack sounds fucking awesome.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

At least tell me if Sherry Lynn is back as MOMO.

Nope.

I'm actually pretty excited for Episode III, which is a little odd considering how much I loathed Episode II.

FELIPE NO

About the changes:

Spoiler:

In Episode I, when Albedo goes digging inside MOMO for the Y Data he actually sticks his hand into her chest and starts feeling around. This was changed to him holding his hand above her head and visibly extracting data for the US version.

In Episode II, when young Albedo is showing Rubedo and Nigerdo his ability to regenerate body parts he shoots himself in the head with a gun in the JP version. For the US release, he conjures a ball of energy and blows his head up.

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?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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?"

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Is it just me or is HaKox the greatest RPG minigame ever?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

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.

Uh, MOMO (and Jr.) were pretty much the focus of things for the first two episodes. I'm glad their finally taking a backseat and Shion, KOS-MOS and Ziggy are taking center stage.

Most amazing jew boots

Finally finished disc 1 the other night (32 hours on the clock). Holy SHIT, this game's awesome.

"I have to put it back.."

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

Did anyone else laugh at the appearance of

Spoiler:

Weltall as a boss? Not only does he use the same moves as before, but once you beat him, he attempts to activate System-Id, only to run out of juice and fly away. Awesome.

Wait'll you get further into Disc 2.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Plus Takahashi made it pretty damn clear from the get-go that XS != XG.

FELIPE NO

Quote:

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.

I didn't much care for Shion in Episode I, and outright hated her in II ("Jr., calm down! Don't you want to make peace with your brother?" Ugh, shut the fuck up.), but I actually found her tolerable for the most part in III, despite fits of idiocy -- the ones you listed, plus her refusal to listen to KOS-MOS whenever she was trying to protect her.

Spoiler:

I thought the reintroduction of Kevin into her life was handled pretty well, and added some depth to her character (until the whole flip-flop sequence),

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:

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.

That's because they really didn't need to focus on Jr. or MOMO anymore. Jr. especially was... overexposed this entire series -- I actually dreaded when the focus briefly shifted to him on disc 2, if only because I was sick of him (still, his part of the story WAS awesome, I'll admit). MOMO's little scene with Mizrahi was actually quite touching, but it was enough for her. She's really nothing more than a secondary character with a cliched character arc, and is only really around for the loli factor.

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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Quote:

MOMO: "Do ANY of you remember what he did to me!?"

No, no, the worst was in the ending:

Spoiler:

MOMO: "Hey, um, will you be sure to say hi to Albedo for me when he wakes up?"
Jr.: "Sure, but he's pretty lazy so I don't know when that'll be."
MOMO: lolz
Me: UM.

Quote:

The scene during the ending sequence was much more embarrasing, but I still laughed.

Yeah, that's what I meant. The first scene was pretty well done.

Quote:

But that's the thing, just because the characters aren't important to the grand scheme of the story anymore doesn't mean you have to chuck them aside.

True, but I can't quite blame XSIII for focusing less on the secondary characters because it had a TON of story to tell -- I'll blame Episode II for not focusing on anything (one more reason to hate that awful drek).

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.

The thing is, I thought the story actually did wrap itself up quite nicely.

Spoiler:

Sure, it'd be fun to continue the story on Lost Jerusalem, but I think it ended nicely enough as is.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Damn, that does sound interesting....

There's nowhere I can't reach.