Gaming Xenosaga Episode II

[SteelAngle Somi]

is any one else edge about how much they changed the artwork on Xeno Saga?!?... it took them like a year of confusion to change it or keep it the same and so they changed it

but don?t get me wrong I still love Xeno Saga and I am going to buy the 2nd one though i still have not bet the 1st game in facted i deleted all my files of it in rage :mad:.... ~tear~

dose any one really know why they changed it so much? Like its not even cartoony or animeish at all they look like real people Kos-Mos just dosn't look right. Might any one maybe know where I could find runable clips or maybe some good screen shots of it

[Dagger]

Are you referring to the new Xenosaga anime? If so, then I could probably take some screencaps for you. I assume you want them in order to show other members what you're talking about in regards to the artwork.

Generally speaking, even game-based anime should be discussed [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27][u]here[/u][/url], rather than in Play It.

If, on the other hand, you're referring to another Xenosaga game or something, I can't really help you.

~Dagger~

[SteelAngle Somi]

oh well i just thought that the fact it was a vedio game it should be in the game area but oh well

[Dagger]

Nah, if you're talking about the game, the thread should stay here. But there's a Xenosaga television series running in Japan right now, and from your original post it wasn't clear whether you meant the game or the anime. My bad. ^_^

~Dagger~

[Shinmaru]

They're talking about the next Xenosaga game. Namco changed the faces of the characters from more anime-esque faces to more realistic faces, ala the change in character design from Final Fantasy VII to Final Fantasy VIII.

This topic's fine in Play It, as long as it remains a discussion thread on the next Xenosaga game. I don't know if there's already a thread on it, so I'll search it out, and if there is, I'll merge the two threads.

EDIT: Quick search, no Xenosaga II thread, so this thread's okay. Though it may get closed if it continues on its current path...lol.

[SteelAngle Somi]

..... ~sweet~ really thats jawsome i didnt not know that do you know any thing about it or what its like

[Shinmaru]

I played the original Xenosaga for five minutes, maybe, so I'm not really that familiar with it, honestly lol. My knowledge on Xenosaga: Episode II is limited, but I do know that it's known as Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose at the moment (loosely translated as Xenosaga Episode II: Beyond Good and Evil). The IGN page for the game is [url=http://ps2.ign.com/objects/545/545819.html][b]here[/b][/url] if you want to look at that. I'd guess that most of the information that's known about it at the moment is on there lol.

*goes off to change title of thread*

[SteelAngle Somi]

arnt the titles of XenoSaga in german or some thing like that i just know that it was not in japanese thats for sure.

EDIT: and whos the new guy with the sword

[dragonandante]

Hmm... can't wait for next game... although I'm not sure why they changed the artwork around. Well, as long as the game is good... it doesn't really matter much to me...

[SteelAngle Somi]

some of the new artwork of the people is nice and i like it like Jr. and Ziggy well Ziggy didn't change much but they went over kill on Shion and Kos-Mos

they darkend shions hair witch is ok but i think they took away her glasses and that made her look cute like nerdy cute and i liked that but Kos-Mos is a little off (Edited): i just found out they changed Kos-Mos's eyes to blue :( i like them red

i dont want to diss the game but i think they could have done better on her....~pause~ oh yeah i dont like MoMo's new hat the rest is fine to the most part

[AzureWolf]

[FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]I personally think the loss of the anime look is going to remove fans rather than add them. But whatever, it's a matter of preference. But even then, I have to say there's a certain degree of slutty-ness with the new Kos-Mos design that didn't seem too bad when she was in anime form.

Anyway, I read a review. They unfortunately didn't mention the music (gasp!), but it's apparently a huge flop. Ironically, it's relatively short. Can't really confirm if any of that is true, but I thought fans would like to know how the reviews are coming out.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[SteelAngle Somi]

im just hopeing they keep the style of 2 hr. clips i love just sitting their and watching a movie i wonder how long the ending is in the game....

thats it affter i bet all the onimusha games im betting Xenosaga ~slames head in to desk~ why did i have to delete all of my files on it :nope:

[Drizzt Do'urden]

Note: If there is already a thread to discuss this game, I'd like the mod to please delete it. I'll apologize in advance if I missed it.

I just really began playing Xenosaga II and as I expected [spoiler] The first 40mins of the game were CG animation scenes and loads upon loads of dialouge. But aside from that the game hasn't been bad. I finally got to control Shion for the first time since I've started playing (Which she's deffinateally a hottie in the sequal like she was in the first) But I asm sort've disappointed in the fact that with the new skill system everycharacter can be the same as any other, I mean it seems like everyone could relatively be the same as KOS-MOS which will #%$$ me off. [/spoiler] I didn't open this thread to complain as much as open it up for people to discuss likes/dislikes as they progress through the game.

So as of how far I am, the game hasn't been the great phenom I expected. But its been worth the $60.00 I paid for it( $73.00) with the Strategy guide

[color=#4B0082]Merged this with the original Xenosaga: Episode II thread. If you don't know whether a thread's already been made about a game or not, the search function makes it easy to find out. Especially if you do an advanced search, and search only in thread titles. - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color]

[GTK]

The change in styles from Xenosaga one to episode two totally freaked me out O_o mostly, I just miss MOMO's really big pink hair T_T and Shion's glasses... some of the new outfits are weird too (like KOS-MOS and MOMO... but Jr and chaos have pretty cool new costumes XD) but I still like Xenosaga.

New system of picking skills for everyone is kinda yuck though T_T Makes everyone mostly the same, like already mentioned.

I really like some of the new characters~ (like Canaan and Jin) I also really like one of the songs from the new game (it's the one they play in all the trailers XD but I don't know the name of it)

I'm still really early in the game though (haha, only 8 hours in XD) But I loved the [spoiler]URTVs[/spoiler] so it's really sorta cool to learn that [spoiler] Jr/Rubedo and Albedo were conjoined twins and that Albedo was super whiney ^^; and that they all have totally different abilities... like Albedo being able to regenerate and no one else can. But much love for Gaignun/Nigredo~ He was always so serious *laughs* and I'm sure I'm spelling his name wrong T_T [/spoiler]

Note to SteelAngle Somi- KOS-MOS did not have her eyes changed to blue, they are still red. [spoiler] They turn blue during certain events... mostly when she seems sort of "human" ... like in the first game when she "swallowed" the gnosis and asked Shion if feeling pain would make her human [/spoiler]


*coughs* so anyway... yeah, I like the game... not sure if it's gonna be as good as I thought it was yet.

Randomly... I recomend people DO NOT buy the limited edition guide with the soundtrack. Mine fell apart the moment I opened it ~_~ pages everywhere. And the CD, while it does have that song on it I like so much, isn't that great. Lucky for me, I know a guy who knows the guys at Brady and they're gonna try and get me another guide that hopefully won't die on me (which is sorta cool of them)

and someone asked about the german titles? I believe they mean "The way we were made" (according to my bro who took German in highschool) and the 2nd one is something like "Beyond good and evil"... there's a second translation that's a bit different but mostly the same that sounds cooler XD; but I can't remember it at the moment.

[Dagger]

I started playing this almost immediately after finishing Episode I, although I haven't been going through it as quickly (I just reached [spoiler]Sakura's World,[/spoiler] to be more specific). There are some things I like about it and some that I don't. The modified battle system has a pretty steep learning curve, but once you get a feel for it--and all you really need for that is to pore over the manual or read a FAQ on the nitty-gritty of how it works--it's awesome. It just feels great to find out an enemy's weak zones and get rid of it so much faster by targeting that & elemental weaknesses & whatever else.

I miss tech attacks, but I guess double attacks are a decent (and less repetitive) replacement. I also appreciate how the skill/ether-learning process has been streamlined, although it's extremely annoying that [spoiler]you don't know what skills you'll be getting ahead of time.[/spoiler] I thought about just trying to obtain all of them methodically, but my resolve didn't last very long, haha. I would die so much more often if I hadn't gotten the [spoiler]element-Sword[/spoiler] ethers ASAP.

The stuff I dislike is mostly related to the character design and cast changes. Most of the characters look acceptably similar to the way they did in Episode I--except, bafflingly, for poor Shion. That combined with the different actress makes me feel as if she's some totally new character. It was really jarring to hear the new actresses for her and MOMO (and in both cases, I prefer their predecessors; MOMO's "Mystical powers, grant me a miracle!" sounds like rubbish now). I also thought KOS-MOS' Episode I actress was better than her Episode II actress, but the discrepancy isn't as bad in her case.

The only one I won't complain about is chaos. While the change between VAs is arguably most noticeable with him, his new VA nails the character while making him sound about 1000x cooler, haha, so I don't have any problems with his performance. Which is not to say that I disliked chaos' original actor, because I didn't.

I hope Shion's orange hair returns in Episode III. :animedepr

~Dagger~

[JT Darkfire]

I've been playing this game on and off (mostly off) since it came out. It has its goods and bads. The new combat system, I have to admit, was very well thought out, and if you take the time to learn the great ether abilities, the game is a lot easier.

There is one major complaint I have about the game, though...and I think it's a perfectly legitimate complaint. There are no shops. That's it. You play the whole game without ever buying curative items or even new equipment, and there's not even a form of currency. And curative items are semi-rare drops as it is. You have to think too hard about whether or not to use a Med Kit, because you don't know if it'll be a half hour till you find another one. Let me tell you, that gets aggravating. But this is easily ignored, because ether skills are really all you need to survive a fight.

[Tekkaman]

[font=Palatino Linotype][size=2][color=darkgreen][color=darkred]SteelAngle Somi[/color], I totally agree with your first post. And adding to that, I dislike [color=darkred]Xenosaga: Episode II[/color] entirely. Though i'm thankful that the introduction of the gameplay revolved around a certain uber bad*ss by the name of [color=darkred]chaos[/color], the game was still dissapointing to me when I saw [my favorite character] [color=darkred]KOS-MOS[/color] looking totally different in the game. Ugly even. [color=navy]*Shudders*[/color] Talk about heartbroken. I couldn't play the game anymore afterwards from the downgrade of the game compared to the original. I stuck to my roots, in terms of gameplay, with [color=darkred]Xenosaga: Episode I[/color].[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype][size=2][color=darkgreen][color=darkred]Xenosaga: Episode I[/color] will always be the best. 10 out of 10, period. [color=darkred]Episode II[/color] [in my eyes] was like putting out [color=darkred]Devil May Cry I[/color] (A great game still, by the way) and then releasing [color=darkred]Devil May Cry II[/color]. [color=navy]*Cries to self from thinking about DMCII*[/color] ...We all know how bad THAT game was, don't we?[/color][/size][/font]

[Dagger]

Despite the character design changes and its comparative shortness, Xenosaga II does a great job of continuing & deepening the plot of Xeno I. I was especially impressed by how it fleshed out the character of [spoiler]Albedo, making him a sympathetic and tragic figure without turning him all gushy and gooey, as some stories are wont to do. He's deliciously unrepentant--but viewed in the light of his past, his very murderousness becomes poignant.[/spoiler]

In general, my favorite part of the game was [spoiler]running around in Sakura's memory.[/spoiler] Which is not to say that I've finished yet--as in Xenosaga I, one of my main complaints about it is that although it's easy to breeze through while barely leveling up, the normal enemies become quite frustrating toward the end. What's irritating is that this doesn't show that you're unprepared to fight the bosses--it just means you'll have a harder and more annoying time getting to them. I'm sort of stalled right now, in part because of that, but also because I want to get more skills before the end.

My favorite party is chaos, KOS-MOS and MOMO; although MOMO's low HP results in her dying more often than the other characters, she's absurdly powerful after Break/Down/Air if you remember to cast the right elemental attribute on her. Being able to change characters in the middle of a battle is a real godsend, though.

On the whole, I just wish Xeno II were longer. The ES campaigns are fun, but I'd like them better if I also had more opportunities to run around with my characters and rack up those skill points.

~Dagger~

[Veritas]

[size=1][color=dimgray]I haven't played too much of Xenosaga II yet, still wandering around in [spoiler]Sakura's memory[/spoiler] like Dagger. It was a slight shock at first because I switched to Episode II as soon as I finished I. The character design I think was an effort to add a more serious tone to the game, because the shading in general seems darker, more realistic. The battle system was different to get used to, and I miss the tech attachs, the new system seems alittle more speedy, but I missed the visuals from Episode I even if they did become repeatitive. I'm still not quite used to the battle system, I have to experiment more, though lately I have been playing other games over Episode II.[/color][/size]
[size=1][color=dimgray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=dimgray]As far as the Character changes, and Voice Actor switching. I didn't really have a problem with Scion's changes. I like her with brown hair, and the reason for not having glasses is [spoiler]Allen broke them I beleive.[/spoiler]. I have to agree with most of you I liked Kos-Mos's old design better, but still I think she looks good, just not Kos-Mos good. I was jumping for joy with chaos's changes, I like his new outfit, appearance, and Voice Actor, alot better, and I liked them alot before, well maybe not the outfit. Jr.'s outfit is alot better in my opinion as well.[/color][/size]
[size=1][color=dimgray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=dimgray]I really like how they are exploring more into chaos's character, since he such an unknown in the series. It's crazy that he, Jin, Canaan and Jr. kinda go back. They really add alot to character development and backround story.[/color][/size]

[Dagger]

About character exploration and so forth... (you may not want to read this if you haven't finished; it's just about the general direction the game takes, but some might consider that a spoiler.)

If Xenosaga were still going to be spread out over six games, I would have absolutely no problems with the fact that the second game, and even the first game as well (to a lesser extent), [spoiler]takes Junior as its main character.[/spoiler] Because there's only one game left to wrap up the story, I'm a little worried about [spoiler]the other characters getting shafted in comparison.[/spoiler]

That said, though, the storytelling in Episode II was fantastic, especially toward the end (which was, as far as I'm concerned, phenomenal). They really plumbed the relationship between [spoiler]Junior and Albedo,[/spoiler] and the latter went from being one of the most annoying characters in the series to one of the coolest and most likeable. Granted, the [spoiler]twincest[/spoiler] vibes were a little weird, haha, and so was the final scene [spoiler]with Albedo being lifted away by Realian angels,[/spoiler] but I'm not really complaining. It was good stuff all around, and [strike]I might even have teared up a little. Just a little[/strike].

Anyway, back to the ending. I loved how, in the scenes during the credits, the characters totally ignored the [spoiler]GIANT FRICKING GNOSIS that just swallowed the original Zohar.[/spoiler] But whatever. Overall, the last few scenes were supremely exciting, not to mention a huge tease for [spoiler]chaos fans like myself. I did appreciate how they began and ended the game with him, though.[/spoiler]

The second to last battle is a lot quicker and easier than the final battle in Episode I--[i]if[/i] you have [spoiler]Last Revenge[/spoiler] equipped on at least two of your party members. I certainly wouldn't have been able to manage without it. As for the last battle... [spoiler]yeah, I don't know why they went through the motions of making that an actual fight in the first place, but it was kind of fun to play with Junior, since I didn't use him very much in the rest of the game.[/spoiler]

I'll be starting Episode III first thing tomorrow, that's for sure. I cannot wait to find out [spoiler]who the hell chaos is.[/spoiler] Plus, I want [spoiler]Virgil and the rest of his hooded buddies[/spoiler] to start showing their faces.

~Dagger~