Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

Written by Matt Partington on February 24, 2003

Full Review: The only bad thing Xenosaga left with me was a deep desire to live in the future. Problem is, I can't do anything about it! And KOS-MOS is really hot...

It's been an awfully long time since the release of Xenogears. Published and developed by the RPG powerhouse Square, it quickly became a cult hit, earning acclaim and recognition for its feats as well as gaining a rabid yet loyal fanbase. Not soon after Xenogears appeared on shelves, nearly 40 Square workers including Xeno' creator Tetsuya Takahashi left the company in search of a smaller and less restricting publisher. Now at Namco, Takahashi and crew plus an addition 30 members are hard at work on another project Ц Xenosaga. Much confusion arose upon the announcing of Xenosaga. Is it a prequel, a sequel, a mere coincidence?

Developed by Monolith Soft, Xenosaga is a six chapter series, mildly directed towards those events taken place in Xenogears (which is said to be the fifth game in the series). Will Xenosaga end the golden reign of Final Fantasy? Read on to find out why Episode I makes a great start to what might turn out to be one of the most elite franchises in the videogame industry.

Trying to explain Xenosaga's story is like trying to cram the entire novel War and Peace into two pages Ц it simply can't be done. What's it about you ask? The question is, what isn't it about? Just to name a few, the game skims over topics such as love, hatred, lust, destiny, destruction, friendship, war, natural rights, fate, and about everything in between. Like Xenogears, СSaga often questions religion and the existence of god. Yet it's one of the most compelling and thought-provoking plots you'll probably ever rest your eyes and ears upon.

Xenosaga is set roughly 4,000 years after the destruction of Earth, now known as Lost Jerusalem. No longer do humans live on one planet, but nearly a half-million scattered throughout the galaxy. Together all these planets are known as the Galaxy Federation. Vector Industries is the largest interstellar conglomerate in the universe; their roots go back to the beginning of the Galaxy Federation. Vector produces nearly every product known to man, from medicines to weapons, software to spacecrafts and Realians Ц or rather, mass-produced artificial human androids. Realians have the personality and emotional traits of humans, therefore they have the same rights as humans. Many companies aside from Vector make Realians, but only Vector creates the basic program (central nervous system in other words).

Vector is also the main partisan of the Unus Mundus Network, who is in charge of teleporting ships from one side of the galaxy to the next with their FTL (faster than light) communication. After paying a fee, the U.M.N. will enter the spacecraft into a wormhole to send them to their desired destination. U.M.N. also supplies Vector employees with services such as e-mail, Gnosis information, Environmental Simulators, keywords and so forth.

As of late, the human race has been under threat of total destruction. The Gnosis, a hostile alien life form, are around every corner. Some even doubt the existence of the Gnosis, and claim it as a mere myth or an old wives' tale. There has been no real proof of Gnosis actually confronting humans, but it's well known that they may be the sparkplug to the destruction of all mankind. Their abilities are practically unknown, but defenses such as Anti-Gnosis Weapon Systems (A.G.W.S) has been developed to fend them off in case of an emergency. The Federation is quick to act when an entire planet mysteriously disappears. There is no trace of the planet, but it's determined that this has something to do with the ancient artifact the Zohar. The Zohar was discovered in the year 20xx, and while its importance is acknowledged, it's true meaning for existence is not known. It's been rumored that the Zohar has dwelled since the beginning of time. Many Vector employees are aboard the Woglinde, the ship in charge of recovering the Zohar and research the planet's arcane disappearence. Even though the motivation behind the Gnosis' belligerent behavior is unknown, they Zohar may have something to do with this. Hundreds of Vector employees including many weapons-grade Realians populate the Woglinde for this mission, as the threat of a Gnosis encounter is very high.

Within Vector Industries is the First, Second, and Third R&D Division. Shion Uzuki, a 22-year old, is in the First R&D Division. She is also one of the head officers in determining what has happened to the missing planet. For some years now, Shion has been in charge of creating and programming an anti-Gnosis android, KOS-MOS. KOS-MOS isn't like any android, which are made out of biological tissues. She is instead constructed with metals, something unheard of in this age of science. Two years ago, the project went awry, and lives were lost under when her basic program became corrupt. Although now more matured and prepared, her true abilities are unknown since she's only been tested in Environmental Simulators, not real life. Vector is rushing the project since the forewarning of Gnosis run-ins are becoming stronger, but Shion is determined to go as slow as possible instead of risking more human lives.

If you played Xenosaga for about four hours, this is the story that you'd see unfold. Throughout the journey you will meet a giant cast of characters, as well as what seems to be hundreds of twists and turns. On the outside, Xenosaga tells the story of humans just trying to live their lives in a time of havoc. But in total it tells the tale of an entire race on the brink of destruction, struggling to clasp their uncertain fate yet constantly being threatened by a life form whose incentive is unknown. It's compelling, wise, and always keeps you on your toes. From the intergalactic setting to the subliminal messages and mind-blowing riddles, you'd be hard-pressed to find something so profound and dazzling.

Not until the ending chapters do things finally tie together; you'll be ensued with limitless questions throughout the journey, so many that I couldn't even possibly begin to list them. Being on alert is almost necessary. Talking to one random person on the streets could foreshadow the next event in your adventure. From every Latin phrase to minuscule symbol and worthless word, the smallest things can reveal more than you could possibly imagine right in front of your face without you even knowing it. And just when you think you have things figured out, Xenosaga flips you upside down and empties your pockets. Prepare to be tossed around like a rag doll, it's a one of a kind fable on infinite levels.

Xenosaga is played out in three different gameplay styles: quest Mode, battles, and cinematic events. Quest consists of the journeying and walking. Battle is what you would expect, it is after all what makes an RPG, and cinematic events are cutscenes that tell the story.

Many games have become famous, or infamous, for their frequent and lengthy cutscenes. Final Fantasy X, The Getaway, and Metal Gear Solid 2 are just to name a few. Take all those games, add their cinemas together, and they still won't equal near the amplitude of Xenosaga's. Some cutscenes even top 45 minutes; watching them for a half-hour straight isn't uncommon. Would one assume this would become overwhelmingly tedious? Yes. Is it at all tedious? Hardly. But how you ask? Simple. The cutscenes drive Xenosaga's story forward, hardly any of the plot is exposed through simply reading text during quest mode; it's all within the cinematic events. With every cutscene comes some sort of twist, some sort of wild unveiling. You want to know what happens next, you want to find out why something occurred for whatever reason.

This is why the cinematic events don't become tedious or boring. Not only do they lay open what you don't already know, but also the visual aspect of them is phenomenal. Everything from the neat camera work to the effects, science-fiction atmosphere and stunning animation makes them so intriguing that some may even find the cutscenes more entertaining then the battles and quest itself Ц I did. It's true, the first ten hours possess about six to seven hours of movies alone, but as you venture more in СSaga this ratio will even out and you'll end playing more than watching the cutscenes, so there's not a need to worry in case you were. Monolith Soft without a doubt took an extreme risk with this formula, if the narrative weren't so intelligent and the story didn't make you so inquisitive, then Tetsuya and company would've shot themselves directly in the face. But they've succeeded, in spades. Cinematic events aren't simply part of Xenosaga, they are Xenosaga.

With all this talk about thirty minute cutscenes, you don't often consider the other side of things such as journeying and combat. Yet somehow, Xenosaga manages to supply the goods when you have the controller in your hands just like in your lap. Yet sometimes these two things Ц cinemas versus gameplay Ц feel a little too disjointed, as if they're in two totally different leagues and the difference between them is pronounce.

Most quest in RPGs doesn't involve much. Walking for hours upon hours, discovering new establishments and towns, fighting the sporadic random battle, and that's about it. Xenosaga puts a spin on the conventional RPG in this sense. First off, there are no random battles. Just like games like Chrono Trigger, every enemy around you will be visible. This lets you literally Уpick your battles.Ф I've never been a fan of random battles, so I was impressed when I found out Episode I didn't have any. Monolith Soft has taken it a step further when they add the element of being able to trick your enemies and avoid them with strategic (well, sort of strategic) maneuvers. Early in the game you earn the Vaporizer, which gives you the ability to blow up certain objects while walking when you press Square (R1 and L1 to cycle through difference articles). Many of them have items such as Med Kits, at times even money.

Occasionally by an enemy will be a generator type object. It's smart to ignite these with the Vaporizer then lure your foes into them; if you're successful then they will become weaker, slower, and so on during battle. If you want, you can even tempt them into traps. Some enemies will engage in combat once they hear your footsteps. When you press R2, you will go into a walking mode so that they won't hear you when you pass by them. If there's a surplus of opponents, the map will commonly have tactical spots for you to rest until they pass by you. Even though it's smart to fight every battle, if you're in desperate need of avoiding opponents for whatever reason then the option is left wide open for you.

Xenosaga has a deep, and oftentimes confusing, turn-based battle system with a fairly heavy learning curve. It holds the same basic nature of Xenogears' battle system. Attacks are based off AP (Action Points). You can have a maximum of three people in any given battle. At the beginning of each turn, a character will have 4 AP. Each normal attack costs 2 AP, so you're granted two moves by pressing either Square of Triangle. Square is for short-range strikes while Triangle is for Ether-type attacks. Each enemy will react differently to attacks, so you have to find out quickly which one they're more susceptible to. If you choose to only do one attack then guard, the next turn you will have 6 AP. When you have 6 AP, you can execute two normal attacks plus a tech attack. Tech attacks are much more powerful than Normal Attacks, so commonly it's worth saving up for them to beat enemies more efficiently.

Ether suffices for magic in Xenosaga. Each character will have a certain amount of EP (Ether Points). Usually the more they have, the better they are at casting. This is especially useful for healing as well as putting effects on foes such as physical attack or defense down and Ether defense down. It actually takes some perseverance till Ether becomes useful, but if you stick with it then it's well worth it.

Just like Xenogears, СSaga has giant mechs for combat (now known as Anti-Gnosis Weapon Systems that we mentioned earlier). Xenogears relied highly upon these machines to fight with, and it was almost uncanny how attached you would become to them. When you lost your gear, it was like losing a main character. Unfortunately, Xenosaga doesn't rely so heavily on them. Not very many characters come equipped with an A.G.W.S., but many of them have the ability to pilot one. If you teleport an A.G.W.S. into battle, you no longer will have the capacity to use Ether or an item, but your onslaughts are much stronger than normal (which is the point, after all).

You can call an A.G.W.S. in or out of combat at any given time, but if its FHP (Frame Hit Points) is taken to zero while you're still in the mech then that character will have no option to be revitalized, you're stuck without them for the remainder of the battle (whereas if they were out of it and died, you could simply use Revive to bring them back). A.G.W.S.' are geared up much similar to the characters but they can have three weapons and three accessories. The occasional stop will have an A.G.W.S. repair center where you can replenish FHP, tune your A.G.W.S., buy new weapons and auxiliaries, and purchase items such as frame repair. If a character doesn't have an A.G.W.S then they have the ability to use sub-weapon, a strong attack that's granted when you have 6 AP.

Xenosaga has a basic leveling up system where experience points are used to determine the next degree, but there's more options left open for you when it comes to tuning up your character the way you want. After every battle and increased level you'll earn a certain amount of Tech Points, Ether Points, and Skill Points. Inside the main menu you will be able to enter different sections where you can use those points to upgrade the characters. For example, when you have a sufficient amount of T.Pts you will be able to fine tune tech attacks and attributes such as boosting your HP amount, strength, vitality, Ether attack, Ether defense, dexterity, and so forth. E.Pts help you evolve and transfer Ether spells. Evolving basically encompasses taking an Ether cast like Medica, a low HP heal for one character, and changing it to Medica All which is a low HP heal for all characters. Lastly is S.Pts, which consists of gathering skills from accessories.

Although most of the advancing takes place when you level up, this makes it much less linear and instead gives you some control of things. Frequently a character is particularly weak in an area, this allows you to change that and hopefully put them on par with the rest. It's no Sphere Grid, but it gets the job done relatively well.

Other elements come into play while in combat. If a character's boost gauge is at one, then you can hold down R1 or R2 while pressing the corresponding button (Square, Triangle, Circle) to give that character a boost, meaning they will skip in front of the enemy for another attack. This is an efficient way of fighting, but it takes some time to really get down the tactics of it. There's also Counter Boost, which prevents the enemy from boosting themselves. The Event Slot is something unique to Xenosaga. On any given turn a small icon will appear next to your currently attacking persona and will have one of four effects: critical hit rate up, boost gauge rate up, point bonus, or nothing. Certain enemies will cast particularly harsh Ether attacks when one of these four shows up on the wheel, so it takes some strategic planning to prevent it and predict which character you want to have what effect.

Battles aren't always easy in Xenosaga. After nearly every skirmish you'll have to do some sort of healing, and numerous times there's a lot of curing to be done. It takes awhile to understand all the creaks and crevices of Xenosaga's battle system Ц not until about fifteen hour in did I realize I could use T.Pts and such to upgrade my characters. СSaga more than often puts up a fight, and you'll typically die in boss battles. There's without a doubt a challenge here, which is just one reason why Xenosaga isn't the best choice for newcomers to RPGs.

XS' battle system has its ups and downs. At one end you have a vast experience full of options. At the other you have an experience that often feels repetitive. After fighting an enemy so many times over, you'll practically know exactly what to do from the beginning in order to prevail. Boss battles are where the battle system really shines, where it requires some strategic thought process and you see things from the enemy that you've never seen before. Luckily, through incredible battle animations and effects as well as consistently altering camera angles, even the dullest of combat can be engrossing. Hardcore gamers will be in bliss, but if you're a newbie to RPGs then be prepared, there's a lot of tasks at hand and a steep learning curve.

It's no easy task to fabricate an entire universe set thousands of years in the future, but XS has passed with flying colors. It's the first RPG to be truly set entirely in future outer space, and the intergalactic atmosphere is as whimsical as it comes. Yet still, the game successfully manages to convince you that this is the future, not many times did I actually doubt it wasn't and commonly I even had to remind myself that it's totally fictionalized. On the technical side of things, Episode I is an excellent looking title. The only real problem might be the shoddy aliasing at times during the cutscenes, but for some reason it's only when there's many objects and layers on the screen. Aside from that the game is full of dimension and realism. One of the best parts of Xenogears was the ability to circle environments 360 degrees by pressing R2 and L2. Xenosaga doesn't feature this, which isn't surprising but it would have been remarkably cool. But where the graphics truly glisten is in the art design.

Xenosaga is without a doubt highly influenced by anime. The art and character design is simply a marvel to watch, and it truly makes Xenosaga stand out among over-populated RPG crowd. The character animation is somewhat cartoony, yet very realistic. Everything from the spacecrafts to the civilizations and alien life forms is pure genius and imagination hard at work. If there is one complaint that I have, it's that some characters are based off anime (such as Shion) while others look like your typical Caucasian male (like Captain Matthews), which means they look fairly quirky next to each other. Regardless, Xenosaga possesses an ambiance absolutely unparalleled by any other RPG you'll find on the market, it's one hell of a spectacle.

Yasunora Mitsuda yet again delivers a grandeur soundtrack. He's done it for games like Chrono Cross, and now he's done it for Xenosaga. The musical score compliments the gameplay and story just like it should, setting the tempo and mood for each and every event. Mitsuda has a tendency to make songs really stand out for their greatness, and when you walk into a new area you are just taken in by its mysticism. Oddly enough, this periodically backfires in Xenosaga and certain tracks stand out a little too much. Sadly enough, it doesn't quite live up to his former work, and it often bewilders me why some gameplay sequences don't have any music at all.

If you're still freaking out about the abysmally long cutscenes, then at least you'll be happy to hear that they're fully voiced over instead of reading text (which would have been absolute torture). Not only is there voice acting, but it's first-rate voice acting. Depending on your take of the characters, it's going to be pure opinion whether you like that particular voice or not. Only a few voice dubs stuck out in my mind as awkward, but overall the voices fit quite well with each character. Some are so distinct and clear cut that you'll be able to identify that character just by simply hearing their voice. This is what voice acting should be, and it's a shame that not all games are on this caliber.

If long adventures are your fancy, Xenosaga hands out enough to pass around the table twice and still have leftovers. Pushing 70 to 80 hours, there's much to be done. Even without the cinemas Xenosaga has more gameplay that most RPGs, and it really does show in the long run. It's somewhat of a slow starter, but once you reach about twenty hours then the game really kicks into gear and you're undeniably hooked. As far as replay value goes, the story is what will drag you back after you're finished. There isn't a overflow of side quests, and unlockables are at a limit, but who needs them when you're trying to worry about things like the devastation of mankind. There's an adequate amount of side quests, but more would have been nice. The Environmental Simulator allows you to go back to the places you've visited, where you can recover items that you didn't pick up the first time around and non-linear ventures are discovered that way as well.