Xenosaga II - less of everything - Xenosaga lite?
 

I've been playing it for three days now, and that's pretty much my feeling. For better or worse, there's a lot less of everything. They've toned down on the number of cinematics quite a bit, which was a complaint with a lot of people in the first game, but with the other changes that have been made, it feels like I'm just running from cutscene to cutscene. I'd say that's worse (though, honestly, I liked all the FMV in the first game).

Certain aspects of the game, such as item shops, equipment, email, and personalised special moves have been removed entirely. All in all, this makes it feel bland in between cutscenes. That wouldn't bother me quite as much, if it weren't bloody difficult to get anywhere. Your battle with average grunts is now taking five to ten minutes, and they're sometimes as much of a threat as the bosses. I like it when the grunts are above the level of cannon fodder, but this is getting to be too much. You also can't avoid the battles.

Speaking of the battle system, I do like what they've done with it, for the most part. It seems more streamlined than in the first game, and there a few neat things you can do that allow for some level of strategy, but again, they've taken some things out. For one thing, I'd like my back row back, so my healers have a place to hide. For another, as I said earlier, the personalised special moves have been removed. This is serving to make the characters a lot less cool when they aren't in cutscenes. I just want KOS MOS to be the offensive goddess she was in the first game, but instead, she can just do the same things as everyone else, with a couple of minor differences. She doesn't -feel- like KOS MOS anymore, and it's the same thing with other characters. I -do- like the skill system. I like it a lot actually. I just want the characters to have their cool moves back. This all adds to the fact that....

Dungeons are a pain in the ass. This is my big complaint with the game. There is absolutely nothing even remotely enjoyable about them. The battles are a problem, as is the lack of items, and the puzzles are annoying. They aren't difficult; they're actually very easy to figure out for the most part. However, they mostly involve running from one end of a room or whole dungeon to the other, and either hitting a button, or destroying blocks, so you can get to another button that needs to be pressed. Again, this in itself wouldn't bother me so much, if the puzzles actually made sense, and didn't seem like they'd just been thrown in. What kind of super futuristic society uses a locking mechanism that is actually incredibly easy to break, but just wastes time? For example, in a particular dungeon, there is a door that must be unlocked by going up an elevator, pressing a button, running across a ramp to press another button, running back across the long ramp, down the elevator, pressing another button, then going back up the elevator, across the ramp, down a flight of stairs, and into the door. That's one of the shorter ones. Keycards seem like they would be much more effective at keeping intruders out. Things like this just make the dungeons tedious and boring. It actually reminds me of the labyrinthian laboratories in Phantasy Star II. They were clearly designed simply to be dungeons, not to give one the impression that people actually worked there. This makes the game less immersive. It's harder to feel like you're a part of the unfolding story.

The voice acting is good. Chaos has a much much better voice, but I liked KOS MOS' old one better. Beyond that, I don't think there have been any other changes. Someone needs to rip MOMO's vocal chords out though. I know it would make me happy.

The cutscenes are awesome, especially the sword fights between Margulis and Jin. They're basically the reason I'm enjoying this game. The plot continues to kick ass as well, so that's a plus.

It's basically like Xenosaga I, but with a lot less in it. Xenosaga lite, like I said. I do like it a lot, but I have complaints too.

Anyway, I'm curious to know what others who've tried the game think of it.

Edit: I like the mecha a lot better in this one, but I never went beyond the basic AGWS in Xenosaga I. Still, I think they've improved at least that aspect a fair bit.

Edit 2: And I know the puzzle thing is a staple of older RPGs. I just wish it would stay with the older RPGs. We have the technology now to make believable puzzles that are a little more involved than pushable cubes, so I wish someone would use it.

The only things I don't like are the new voiceovers and the in-game music. The rest is quite good so far, from what I have seen.

The only voices I don't like are MOMO (who I couldn't stand before anyway), and KOS MOS. Her new voice is actually pretty good, but I liked the original quite a bit.

I forgot about the character models. Shion and KOS MOS seem to be the only ones who've experienced a drastic change. I like Shion's, but not KOS MOS' so much. It's not her face that bothers me, but I'm positive she's gotten skinnier. I don't really go for the anorexic Barbie look in fictional characters. Maybe it's just because I'm using the swimsuit item, but then again, her regular model has been compared with a giant tube of toothpaste, or a lava lamp.

I didn't find the dungeons starting to get bad until after MOMO, so you might not have noticed it yet.

Edit: Jin Uzuki is a baddass. That's all I have to say about that.

Based on the first post in this thread, I might not actually get the game. What I heard some very discouraging.

Xenosaga Episode I was the best RPG I'd played up until that point, when it came out. I had the time of my life with it, the apex of the whole experience being the simulated Miltia City.

I hope Episode II isn't really as bad as you say it is, because I'd really like to finish the story, and without it being a pain in the ass.

I'm going to wait on this one, at least until it falls in price; I know Episode I plumetted down to a $20~$15 price tag within a month.

XS Episode I didn't drop for a long time, it was at least between 6 months to a year before it went Greatest Hits.

Anyway, Episode 2 really is a good game. Does it stack up to E1 100%? While that is subjective, most people will probably tell you no. That does not make it a bad game by any stretch, though.

Well, the creators/writers of XenoGears/XenoSaga have officially left the XenoSaga project, which might account for something of XenoSaga II being both very different and possibly not as good. They might have left before XenoSaga II was finished or after, but the key point is they left. I heard this on IGN as well as a number of other smaller gaming sites (the kind that get the same info as all the other bigger sites but actually posts it before checking on it).

I believe most of those people left or were dismissed after the game had already been completed, though I do seem to remember hearing that a number of the original team had been reassigned to a different project before that happened. That was quite a while ago, and my memory is god-awful, so I could be completely wrong, though.

Varius - Rent it. I know some people who've really liked it, but I honestly think a lot of that is rationalization after they bought it. It's not bad, just tedious getting from one awesome cutscene to the next. I think if they had even left the email stuff in, it would have helped a lot. You shouldn't miss some of the stuff that's in this, but you might not want to spend the money on it until you know what you're getting. Just try to play up until a couple of dungeons after MOMO before you make a decision.

I have a small graphical complaint too; the hands. This was actually addressed in another review I read, but I found it rather irritating too. Ever since SOIII came out, companies have been going back to blocky hands rather than animating the individual fingers. At least, SOIII is when I started noticing it. Now, I'm no programmer, but I'm fairly certain we have the technology to do this. The blocky hands take some feeling away from certain scenes. It's hard to think of someone gently laying their hand on another person's face say, when it's stiff and unmoving.

Edit: When I honestly think about it, I believe I would prefer the complete blocks of PS1 RPGs, to these half-done hands. They don't look quite as awkward. With these ones, it seems like everything below the elbows is just petrified, like it were stone.

Edit 2: And while the music isn't bad or anything, I really miss Yasunori Mitsuda's work.

Edit trois: I would like to point out that all of the load time complaints you hear are completely unfounded. I've found that it is actually quite fast.

Damn Straight. Why they EVER dumped Mitsuda is beyond me. He's one of the best game composers I have ever heard. But I think with all that's been going on and how I haven'tseen him for a long time, perhaps he actually hasn't been doing game music for a while. Or at least with Square or Namco.

The truth is that Square has had both him and Nobuo Uematsu cryogenically frozen, only to be thawed when their talents are necessary.

Edit: Ah, screw it. After pissing around in the Proto Omega, I'm done trying to be diplomatic about things. I am very unhappy with this game. The whole thing feels unfinished, like someone just slapped it together the night before it went on sale. Like I said initially, they've cut down on the heavy cutscenes, that were apparently interfering with gameplay before, but they've taken the whole, "play," aspect out, and replaced it with "work." I'm quickly losing interest in the story to the monotony of the game. Still, I'll plod on through, but it's gonna be a "one dungeon at a time," sort of thing, because it's getting to be so that that's all I can stand. I think that's the real problem; all there is, are dungeons and cutscenes. There's a couple of fetch quests you can do, but nothing particularly involved or enjoyable. It's just dungeon-cutscene-dungeon-cutscene.

No one can say I haven't done my damnedest to enjoy this game, but I've about had my fill.