Xenosaga II (first thoughts)

The US version of this game finally arrived at my door this week, with perfect timing as I come down from a massive crunch at work and consequent feelings of reluctance to sit in front of my PC, even for a game.

If you haven't played the first game in this series, go find a copy (it's been rereleased in "classics" format). The combat system is satisfying, and there are significant strategic choices to make in character development which made the game very satisfying overall. It also has an extremely well-developed story, though in the first installment you will find yourself with many many unanswered questions even after you finish the game.

On the downside, much of the story depth comes from long dramatic cutscenes. A couple are over ten minutes long. This is only an extreme case of the traditional console RPG concept, where you play fights between story segments and have no real control over the overall story, but it's not for every player. The game art is also a bit more anime-styled than purely realistic, which turns some folks off.

In any event, even if you don't like it, the original is a seminal game and worthy of a place on a collector's or historian's shelf.


So, what about the new installment?

First, they have clearly paid attention to players' comments about the game. The ratio of cutscenes to playtime is still a bit high, but not as dramatically as before. So far, the longest cutscene was only a couple of minutes, and the historical narratives (of which there are necessarily quite a few in a story this complex) have been done as voiceovers on action footage instead of talking heads in the present.

The combat system has been made more complex, with a couple more variables to juggle, even as they drastically simplified the character development system. Instead of tracking money/equipment, experience, "tech points", "ether points", and "skill points" outside of combat you have only the skill points plus regular experience. The downside is that characters are much less customizable (MOMO will always be low on hitpoints, Ziggy will never be able to get much use from spell...I mean "ethers", etc.), but the upside is that you spend a lot less playtime on logistics (buying and selling equipment, upgrading mechs, "farming" specific enemies for the type of development points you need, etc.).

The visuals have been completely redone in a much more realistic mode. This is gorgeous by PS2 standards, really pushing the limits of the platform. Along the way they made many of the characters more distinctive - KOS-MOS is more human-looking, Chaos more boyish, Jr. easier to mistake for a child at first glance, and especially Shion is now a believable-if-pretty young woman instead of a half-girl half-stereotypical-professor mismatch.

And Monolith clearly realized that they left a few too many unanswered questions in the first game. This time around we seem to be getting a bit more context on things (especially in flashbacks) so we the players are not scratching our heads about things that the characters in the world take for granted. Many of the mysteries of that annoying type from the first game are clarified in the first few hours of this one, leaving you much more room to appreciate the mysteries that are central to the story.


So far, I do have one concern about the new combat system. Despite the slightly richer mechanics and options, it appears that there is a "best" approach to combat that works better than any other options. The way the "guard break" mechanics work, if a fight is any sort of challenge you pretty much have to spend the first few turns stocking up "stock" (read action points) for all your characters so they can deliver maximally effective guard-breaking attacks. Lather, rinse, repeat once per foe in the combat and things get pretty boring pretty fast. I'm hoping that as I advance further and open up more of the character skills there will be equally effective approaches to choose from. Maybe have MOMO or Shion blast with ethers matched to the enemy elemental weaknesses while the other characters support them, or something.

I also really miss the "tech attacks" from the first game. The replacement, special combo attacks available when specific pairs of characters are in the fight, looks like it will eventually be as cool and powerful. But because each attack must be opened individually, you don't start with any to use. And more annoying, these attacks require both characters to have "stock" saved up, so you will still have to open each fight the same old way.

The other combat annoyance is that they've added just enough of a realtime element to get on my nerves. When FFX-2 backtracked on true TB combat it was a dirty shame, and the biggest reason I never bought the game. This isn't that much of a killer, but it's damn annoying. Both optimal use of the "break" mechanics and any use at all of the duo-combo attacks require you to carefully synchronize two PC's combat turns via use of Boost. But here's the annoyance: If you stop to think longer than about 2 seconds during your turn, one of the enemies will automatically Boost. As in the first game, enemy Boost overrides yours, so the very act of trying to plan something makes it impossible. I haven't gotten pissed enough at this to quit playing, but it is certainly contributing to an overall feeling that they've managed to dumb down the combat despite adding extra mechanics to it.