RyaNtheSlayA wrote:How long would you guys say it takes to complete? My save file is sitting right at 7 hours right now.
And yeah, the game has problems that are becoming more apparent, but I'm actually really enjoying it regardless. The story is carrying the game for sure.
I'd say all three games are around 30-40 hours a piece, but once again it has been a while. The story is definitely the main draw to the series. It certainly gets kinda crazy and even a little convoluted so prepare yourself. ;D
One either thing that I liked, is that the battle systems are completely different between each game so that makes the gameplay itself fresh every time you begin the next game.
Just to give you a fair warning for Ep. II, it is not the best, as combat and character leveling system are the worst. Otherwise Xenosaga Ep. I and III are worth playing, the bare minimum to finish each Ep shouldn't take more than 40 hours, unless you want to do the other mini games in the first one. Unlike the SMT series, which can take up to 60 hours to finish.
I got a copy of Genji and the official strategy guide available, if anyone is interested.
skyknight wrote:Just to give you a fair warning for Ep. II, it is not the best, as combat and character leveling system are the worst. Otherwise Xenosaga Ep. I and III are worth playing, the bare minimum to finish each Ep shouldn't take more than 40 hours, unless you want to do the other mini games in the first one. Unlike the SMT series, which can take up to 60 hours to finish.
I got a copy of Genji and the official strategy guide available, if anyone is interested.
Yeah II is the worst of the trilogy by far. But if you plan on playing III then I'd make sure you go through II as well.
You just have to understand II's battle system, which the game utterly fails to even explain itself.
Analyze Memory (manipulating the zones) Elemental Swords
That's it in a nutshell, and then it's a cakewalk really (but still a fun challenge at points). I can link some videos later of a friend who gave me the strategies and all. Otherwise yeah, if you don't handle the boosting/zone breaking well, or take the insane advantage of enemies weaknesses, the game can be a royal drag. Also laugh at the thought of Momo being one of the best characters, because she flat out is in that one. Her Ether Attack stats are the highest in the game, which is the exact same thing as Physical Attack numbers pretty much. When you have enemies airborne after being broken and boosted up a combo for her, topped off with an Ether or Elemental Sword on her, it's Knights of the Round damage.
When you're solo with Shion, it's also a good idea to grind a bit there so when you get everyone back, they're at that level too. It's definitely worth it.
So I wouldn't knock on II much. Again like I said, I played both I-II back to back last year and I thought the first one aged way worse and wasn't really fun at all after awhile, but still good for a first run... II's battle system is fine once you get the hang of it. I would easily take that over having to sit through those long attack animation/combos (targeting everyone) you have to completely rely on later on in the first game. II's battle system is weird, but it's better than dull repetition with the same battle theme throughout the entire game. lol
You guys should replay II, I don't think it's bad at all. I'd say it easily has one of the best arcs in the entire thing too (Jr and Albedo). Albedo eats Kefka for breakfast!
So honestly that's kind of another nice thing about the series, the games aren't insanely long really. It's funny to think my combined time on them is probably how much I put into Xenoblade alone. Which really had a lot of fluff, gameplay wise, and again the story doesn't even scratch the surface of how crazy Gears/Saga are.
Also worth noting that like Gears, Xenosaga II-III separate the mecha battles from the foot action, unlike the first game which weirdly combined them and it was just awkward. II's system is alright, but I think III's is the best by far with the mecha battles.
Any point in leveling Shion in the 1st game? She's lagging behind pretty far (8 hours in, almost everyone else is at least a level 10 and she's 8.) Even when she was equal level she seemed a bit poor...
I'm still not sure whether I'm a kid or a squid now.
She's middle of the road in that one. Pretty useful for mechanical enemies, but yeah. The characters don't stand out much on their own in that one. She was definitely average, a good healer though.
Shion - average, good for M types and healing chaos - never a super hard hitter, but good for any party with the variety of skills and attacks KOS-MOS - awesome in every game, huge HP, hard hitter and decent crowd control in the first, but very limited spell wise Ziggy - think he was really good but only against some enemies, and completely sucked against the rest. Lots of HP usually though so good to have around sometimes Jr - Kind of balanced like Shion/chaos Momo - utterly worthless in the first game, at least I thought so
Shion and chaos in the same party can be pretty solid, bring in KOS-MOS or Ziggy and they can take the hard hits and deal some heavy damage. But yeah, not a whole lot to say, there's not a ton of variety in the first one. I probably used chaos and KOS-MOS the most, while rotating Shion, Jr, and Ziggy. I think later towards the end Shion's healing started surpassing chaos', but I still liked his variety with his ether skills and everything.
Hard to say, I remember rotating the characters out a lot in the first game. In II going with the strategy my friend came up with I just stuck with Jr, Momo, and KOS-MOS for the entire thing once they were available. III is when things are finally fun and characters stand out more, plus it's got the instant character switch out in-battle so that's awesome too. Rather than struggling to figure out which characters are simply best, it becomes hard deciding on who you want around because they're all fun to use heh.
I didn't really have any issue with the battle system of II.It gets a little tedious after a while on the normal enemy encounters but the boss fights were good. I just didn't like the rest of what that game had to offer when compared to the other games.
I agree about the mech implementation of II&III being way better than the first game.
Last edited by CavZee on Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I will respect others' opinion on Ep.II, and everyone should at least try to beat it, especially if they want the whole story on Jr., Albedo, and MOMO/Sakura. Shion's storyline in Ep.II is the weakest, but gets lay out nicely in Ep.III.
As for Shion throughout the series, she is the main protagonist of the storyline, but I will agree in combat, she is in the middle - not your heavy-hitter, nor super healer. She and chaos are the support characters that you will need for most battles.
Xenosaga does require you to change up your team (based on skills) accordingly to the enemy types, so there is no need to stick with a certain party throughout the game.
skyknight wrote:I will respect others' opinion on Ep.II, and everyone should at least try to beat it, especially if they want the whole story on Jr., Albedo, and MOMO/Sakura. Shion's storyline in Ep.II is the weakest, but gets lay out nicely in Ep.III.
As for Shion throughout the series, she is the main protagonist of the storyline, but I will agree in combat, she is in the middle - not your heavy-hitter, nor super healer. She and chaos are the support characters that you will need for most battles.
Xenosaga does require you to change up your team (based on skills) accordingly to the enemy types, so there is no need to stick with a certain party throughout the game.
Yeah, if you plan on playing the trilogy then absolutely, play II. It's not a bad game or anything, it just doesn't feel as polished as the others.
