Xenosaga
 

Never having been able to play through 'Xenosaga' ep. I, I wondered if anyone else had...

Was it worth it? If so, why? And if so, please explain the game mechanics to me in a way that makes some sense.

The story seemed interesting enough, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the battle system enough to win any major boss fights unless by total accident. I've been raised on FF too long, I know... But as RPGs go, it's really all I know.

Are there any plans for Xenosaga III to come out soon, as II seemed to come without much fuss...?

Can't really help you with the question about quality I just never got into them but there is a third and final game coming out for the PS2

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra will be the third and (as of now) final game of the primary series. It will be released on PlayStation 2. Also sprach Zarathustra, literally "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", is also the title to Nietzsche's most famous work, which introduced the Übermensch and popularised the phrase "God is dead". Originally the game was to be titled "Die fröhliche Wissenschaft" but the name was deemed too difficult to pronounce in German and the translation "The Gay Science" was deemed potentially provocative.

In September 2005, it was officially announced that Episode III would mark the premature end to the series, which was originally planned to span six titles. Episode III will continue the storyline using the current cast of characters, with the addition of several new antagonists and playable characters (Allen Ridgely, Miyuki, and Canaan). The release date for Episode III has been announced to be July 6th, 2006 for Japan, and Fall 2006 for the US.

The battle system has changed back to the original one in Xenosaga Episode I, complete with some old and new Tech Attacks. Some things were kept from Episode II though, such as MOMO's ether bow weapon so her Tech Attacks are different from her original ones.

In conclusion with Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra seems to lead off from where the Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht left off on Shion and KOS-MOS' story. Following with the strange appearance of T-elos (a blueprint is found in Episode I on the U-TIC battle ship of T-elos) and KOS-MOS' mysterious blue-eyed form. It is rumored that T-elos was the arche-type that was destroyed 3 years prior in the Xenosaga series. Shion seems to see both T-elos and KOS-MOS in the form of a dark long haired brunnette in some rare circumstances.

Xenosaga I is on my "too beat" list of games. In fact, it's probably the one I'm going to tackle once I get down with Digital Devil Saga I.

From the few hours I played it, it was fun. I didn't get all that far, however. In fact, I don't remember much about the plot, so I'll probably restart.

how can you not remember the plot. There were like 80 minutes of Movies in the first 90 minutes.

I tried to like Xenosaga. I really truly tried. But the game tested my patience with there half hour long cutscenes. Also, after a long ass cutscene, there were no saves.

I like the battle system and the A.W.G.S. units. However, like others said, you're going to spend more time watching this than playing it. Still entertaining, it's just that there's not a whole lot of action.

Isn't KOS-MOS just a kind of rip-off of the chobits robot thing, only less over-sexed? I'm not really into anime that much, so I'm just curious.

I love how in the instruction guide for Xenosaga, all the charecters have the '...with a mysterious past no one knows about, they are an enigma, torutured soul, not-who-they-appear-to-be' tagline.

I still need to figure out the battle system. When to use the robots and when not to isn't exactly clear atm.

I tried the game, but I got too frustrated trying to run through and find a save point than actually playing it. I can physically play a game for no more than an hour. I must quit and do something else. With 80 minute cinematics and the like, I've given the game the title as "unplayable."

Well, truth be told, the vast majority of playing time was being stuck on one of the first levels you play on...mostly because I was an idiot and never saw the painfully obvious exit. >_>;; It was also a few months back, so I honestly don't remember very much.

I got all the way to the final boss and then sold the game. The battle system was tedious, the characters didn't interest me, and I hear the sequel sucked even more. So, I'd say there is no good reason to beat the game.

All the spells and special fighting skills were cool the first time around, but the battle system is set up so that you want to only use the strongest attacks all the time. The novelty wears off pretty fast imo. The battle take too long, too, so I ended up running past a lot of the enemies at the end of the game and my characters weren't strong enough to push the final boss over, which is why I ended up getting rid of the game (I'll burn in hell before I play this game again)

The AWGS robots tended to be boss-only options, since there are relatively few healing items for them and they cannot be revived from being KO'ed. They're also expensive to upgrade and less versatile than the regular characters. I think they're only supposed to balance out the weak characters' (Shion, chaos, Momo) lack of fighting prowess, but maybe I missed something.

However, I did enjoy the card game. I played it so much I lost track of where I was in the actual game for a while. Good music and decent environments were not enough to overcome the boring story and battle system, though.

The game had so much potential. Unfortuantly it also had to live up to the predecessor Xenogears. But to me, the half hour CutScenes + the dull characters + the boring worlds made it a bad game. So much wasted potential.