Xenosaga 1 all grown up and not as fun
User Rating: 8 | Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose PS2
I really enjoyed Xenosaga and of course it predecessor Xenogears, clearly the grandfather being the best of the bunch. I was initially turned of by the more realistic look of the characters and prefered the cartoony look of the first game. Battles are long events and require a bit of strategy. Each turn has a particular event that can boost criticals, build up your reserve to either attack more quickly or attack with more force. The type of your characters attacks, ether or physical, has a huge impact on the damage you can deal to the enemy, making one or two members of the party your go to guys for putting the smack down. Developing your characters abilities involves completing Global Samaritan Quests, tracking down people and items, besically fetch quests. While both battle systems were complex, I felt the first game was more fun, and its story more interesting and less disjointed. The Xeno series has always had overly complex and drawn out narratives so while I thought the game was well done, it could be skipped without missing anything of particular value. If you're looking for a good RPG, I recommend this title, but there are probably better games to invest your chunk of hours into.
