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Chris's Take
Square's RPG opus Xenogears contained what is arguably
the most ambitious story told in the genre. Spanning
the 10,000 year history of the human race on the
game's planet, the story touched on all manner of
subjects, from god, to love, to gun control (Guns
don't kill people, people kill people!!!) to even male
prostitution. It was this ambition that eventually
held the game back, plagued by budget constraints and
strict deadlines, the games second disc contained
almost nothing but textual narration punctuated by
some actual dialogue scenes and dungeons that
resembled the game's massive first disc in very little
regard.
Perhaps it was dissatisfaction on the game's second
half that led Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenogears game director
and story conception) to the grand undertaking
that is Xenosaga; Takahashi himself admitted in
interviews the game did not turn out as he intended.
Now, having founded his own developing house, Monolith
inc., and backed by Namco, Takahashi intends to
restart his original vision as Xenosaga. This time he
will start from the beginning and will follow through
on the complete Saga in six separate chapters (While
Xenogears was chapter V of the original timeline,
Takahashi has stated that Xenosaga episode V will not
be a remake).
Released this past February in Japan, the game has not
quite met Namco's expectations, selling under 400,000
units in it's first month, and still has not passed
the expected 1 million mark. As it is, the only
certain thing in the Saga's future is that episode II
will be made, sales of episode II will determine
whether or not it's financially viable to continue.
Leaving script writer Masato Kato behind (writer of
Xenogears, Writer/Director/CG movie storyboard artist
on Chrono Cross) and taking up the duty himself,
Takahashi has scripted a game every bit as brooding,
portentous and overly-wordy as it's predecessor.
Scenes in the game can be up to 45 minutes long before
a player resumes control, and even then it's usually a
few steps more to trigger another lengthy scene. As it
is, Xenosaga makes Metal Gear Solid 2 look restrained
in cut-scene use. There are however, two things that
make this fact tolerable. One is that the cut-scenes
are of high quality, very well presented with great
voice acting. Second is that cut-scenes can be both
skipped and paused, which is a godsend when a cutscene
lasts 10 minutes before a particularly difficult boss.
The gameplay itself is based off of Xenogears combo system, though instead
of focusing on strength of attack it focuses on the range, short and long
followed by a deathblow if you have enough AP (action points) left. A
character can be assigned six deathblows at a time, which are learned by
leveling up. And this time magic use is a much more involved affair. A
sort of grid system is in place where gaining a certain technique will allow
a path to open for the next one.
Random battles have been eliminated, though it is not
as liberating as one would hope. The game employs a
fixed camera system, meaning you'll be relying more on
the games optional radar system to locate enemies than
actual visual clues. On the plus side, there are traps
that can be set for the enemies that will have varying
effects, such as delaying their attacks, nullifying
elemental effects etc.
Musically the game is of high production value, but
this is only a fair composition by fan favorite
Yasunori Mitsuda, when compared to earlier work. The
London Philharmonic Symphony performed the music the
entire game (save for a few dungeon tunes). But aside
from a few standout tracks (particularly U-TIC, or as
I call it, the operating Russian Drinking song) most
are unremarkable. Joanne Hogg performs two songs for
the game, which is either good or catastrophic news
(as Brandon might suggest), depending on your
tolerance for neo-Celtic inspirational ballads.
The game is graphically polished, but technically
plain. The characters fare the best, with moving hair
and expressive faces (though lip-synching isn't even
attempted) but the environments are plain and textures
blurry.
Takahashi said in an interview that he wished for the
game to viewable as a movie if one were to remove the
gameplay, and unfortunately that is just the case.
There is a simple formula in place, one that is in
place in all RPGs but so much more visible in this
game. Cinema, explore, fight, cinema. Repeat. As it
is, Xenosaga makes FFX look as non-linear as Fallout.
Brandon's Take
Playing this game (rather, watching
the cut scenes, as that is the game), I was
struck by the boring dialogue, and laughable
direction. Gone was the emotional involvement with
characters that one could feel with Xenogears. In
fact, though some of the characters have expressive
faces as Chris mentioned, several are set with one
facial configuration throughout the game. Well
constructed though these faces may be, they don't show
the emotion that the voices do. I will say that the
voice acting is powerful, but the techno babble and
needless (and often non-sequitur) pontificating will
put off the rational minded. If there are aliens
bearing down on you literally a yard away, how do you
have time to stand inert and discuss the ethics of
killing for a full 10 minutes?
The script will be existential enough for most Xeno
fans, but those who enjoy actually playing games
should steer clear. Whereas a game like MGS2 had "too
many cut scenes" but very interesting gameplay,
Xenogears has (in my opinion) poorly scripted,
sparsely directed cut scenes interspersed with a bit
of walking. Several times in the game your task is to
walk back and forth between two places talking to
certain people. This is your taste of "play" between
extremely long cut scenes. And while the Battle
system is certainly flashier this time around, it's
not nearly as engaging. This is not gameplay for
gameplay's sake, it's used more as a vehicle to
advance/return to the story. You'll notice that we
included no movies of actual play. The reason is that
playing the game is totally superfluous. It's as
though Takahashi wanted to make a feature film, but
was stuck with the game genre. It should be noted
that I am incredibly critical of movies, and thus
anything that attempts to be cinematic. So perhaps
I'm judging Takahashi too harshly; perhaps you will
find the dialogue inspiring where I find it trite.
But heed my words; this game is only for those who
appreciate representational rather than visual or
functional art.
Chris Woodard / Brandon Sheffield
Thanks to William C. T. Van Hecke for several fixes...
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