Xenosaga: Episode I - Der Wille zur Macht

[Philosopher1701]

I finished XS: Episode I yesterday.

What a wonderful game (or movie?). What else should I have expected from the guys behind the Chrono series and Xenogears (which is my favorite game of all time). The presentation was incredible, the best I've ever seen in a video game, with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater being the only rival.

I enjoyed the experience so much that I'm going to go out and buy XS: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Bose later today. I can't wait!

[DarkEpoch7]

I thought it was a great game too until I got stuck. Not until it was too late did I realize you could upgrade your mech things(AGWS, I think?), so I was stuck in some place on a boss that you pretty much need your AGWS to kill, but mine were still the same level of strength and everything as when you get them, so I got annihilated. And I couldn't go back either. I tried starting again from the beginning but the interest was never the same. Also, Xenosaga wasn't made by Square Enix(Who made Chrono and Xenogears), but by Moniloth Soft and Namco.

[Shadow_Dragon]

I borrowed it from a friend a while ago and played it; I liked it, but not nearly as much as Xenogears
I found the AGWS pretty useless... I upgraded them even though I never used them in battle; I probably used them in one of the final battles, but I don't really remember. I was expecting something more along the lines of Xenogears (and, from what I heard, Xenosaga Ep. 2) where certain battles are much more difficult and visibly require the use of AGWS (like in Xenogears, any battle where you're supposed to be in a gear would have enemies that were like 50 times as tall as the characters since gears were so much taller, but AGWS are only like twice the height of the characters)

I guess the plotline was cool, but I never really got into it for some reason... Anyway, I'll probably buy (instead of borrowing, cuz the person I borrowed it from is moving to Georgia ) and replay Ep.1 as well as play Ep.2 & 3 once Ep. 3 comes out

I'm really pissed, because last that I heard Xenosaga Ep. 3 was going ot be the last of Xenosaga even though there were originally supposed to be 6 episodes (excluding episode 5 technically, which is Xenogears)

[Magus068]

It's big, it's slow & pretty much useless... Heck, I finish the game without using them(except the battle inside Elsa.) But you can still use them in the minigame.

[Chrono'99]

Also, Xenosaga wasn't made by Square Enix(Who made Chrono and Xenogears), but by Moniloth Soft and Namco.

It's not that simple. Xenogears was made by Tetsuya Takahashi, his wife and his development team, who were Square's employees. Tetsuya and most of the Xenogears artists eventually left Square to create Monolith Soft. So Xenosaga Episode I is basically made by the same artists who worked on Xenogears (including Yasunori Mitsuda who did the music for both Chrono and Xenogears). The only problem is that they're artists. Some skilled programmers didn't leave Square to follow them so that explains why Xenosaga Ep. I is sometimes a bit awkward as a video game (though it'd be a great book or movie...). As for Namco, they're just the publisher, they give cash to Monolith Soft and don't actually make the game.

For some reasons, many important artists didn't continue after Episode I (including Mitsuda, Takahashi's wife... and Takahashi himself), so I wonder how "canon" Episodes II and III are to be considered. Imagine a Chrono game not made with Mitsuda and Kato... That's a shame really, Takahashi tried to do with Monolith Soft what he wasn't able to do with Square, but it looks like he still didn't manage to do what he wanted.

[Radical_Dreamer]

For my money, I'd rather they'd have updated Xenogears to PS2 quality graphics (maintaining the same style, of course) and finished the game. The first disc of Xenogears deserved better than to be followed by the second, and the resources spent on Xenosaga (which is not nearly as good a game) I think would have found a better use fixing Xenogears.

[Silvercry]

Ahh, Xenosaga I.  Still the best game I ever watched.

Although, if it was the presentation you liked the most, Philosopher1701, prepare to experience a Xenogears disc 2 level of disappointment.  Pretty much all the aspects that made Ep1 awesome were watered down or changed entirety for Ep2.  Shion and KOS-MOS obtain a level of OOC-ness that not even fan fiction would dare to reach, MOMO's cuteness is decreased by 75% which just hurt as she was my favorite character (thankfully though, her numerous panty shots have been removed.  I mean really, I counted 50 of them in the first game before I quite counting, being quite disgusted with myself), and Jin and Caanan are damn near irrelevant (save for two scenes), but they’re constantly hanging around.  Fortunately Jr, Ziggy, and chaos are still true to form.  Battle system is completely different, faster in some ways, painfully slow in others.  But hey, at least there are combo attacks.  I take issue with the fact that my "all girl team of death" (Shion, MOMO and KOS-MOS) party is seriously crippled due to the new system limiting Shion and MOMO's power.  They still have their strengths, to be sure, but its just not the same.

The plot does thicken considerably though, and it remains one of the best RPG plots of this generation.

[Philosopher1701]

Ahh, Xenosaga I.  Still the best game I ever watched.

Although, if it was the presentation you liked the most, Philosopher1701, prepare to experience a Xenogears disc 2 level of disappointment.  Pretty much all the aspects that made Ep1 awesome were watered down or changed entirety for Ep2.  Shion and KOS-MOS obtain a level of OOC-ness that not even fan fiction would dare to reach, MOMO's cuteness is decreased by 75% which just hurt as she was my favorite character (thankfully though, her numerous panty shots have been removed.  I mean really, I counted 50 of them in the first game before I quite counting, being quite disgusted with myself), and Jin and Caanan are damn near irrelevant (save for two scenes), but they’re constantly hanging around.  Fortunately Jr, Ziggy, and chaos are still true to form.  Battle system is completely different, faster in some ways, painfully slow in others.  But hey, at least there are combo attacks.  I take issue with the fact that my "all girl team of death" (Shion, MOMO and KOS-MOS) party is seriously crippled due to the new system limiting Shion and MOMO's power.  They still have their strengths, to be sure, but its just not the same.

The plot does thicken considerably though, and it remains one of the best RPG plots of this generation.

Well, though gameplay on disc 2 of Xenogears was almost non-existent, I was very satisfied with the story.

So, as long as Episode II still does justice to the overall Xenosaga story, I should be fine. I'm one of those people who care more about story than anything else, so if Episode II lacks something, hopefully it won't be story.

P.S. - Completely irrelevant, but I just wanted to point out that my favorite character is chaos. 

[Magus22]

I've never played Xenogears or the Xenosaga episodes for PS2.

How are they? Are they really that good?

[Radical_Dreamer]

I've never played Xenogears or the Xenosaga episodes for PS2.

How are they? Are they really that good?

Xenogears is in the class with Chrono Trigger. I do not believe this to be the case with either Xenosaga.

[ZeaLitY]

Hah, and I think I accidentally caused his wife to stop answering fan mail after we ran the huge MASATO KATO IS BACK WITH SE post.

[Shadow_Dragon]

Does anyone know if the presence of gears in Xenogears is ever fully explained in Xenosaga Ep. 2 and 3? That's the one thing that I'm really looking forward to and will be really pissed off at if left out

[Chrono'99]

I've never played Xenogears or the Xenosaga episodes for PS2.

How are they? Are they really that good?

Xenogears has one of the richest and most complex story ever seen in a novel-- er, in a video game.

[Hadriel]

What the hell does Der Wille zur Macht even mean?

[DarkEpoch7]

I looked it up quick yesterday, and this is the first translation I found so if it's wrong, sorry. It said Der Wille zur Macht means "The Will to Power". I think it's German.