Greetings, Aerith0530:
Cool review!! Congratulatons and thanks!!
It's too complete!
Xenosaga tv Review
The Xenosaga series is composed of three episodes where all the titles are named after the books of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The story mainly uses the science fiction theme but has frequent allusions to mythology. The Xenosaga world is composed of "columns" and hosts more species aside from humans - they have cyborgs, androids, and more.
Credit: princessmeyrin023
Story & Characters
In the far future, humankind has abandoned Earth and now inhabits the deep space. Shion Uzuki, a top member of Vector, is thrown into a struggle for a mysterious source of power that all started out with a vicious attack on her spaceship by the gnosis, a group of ghostly aliens. However, Shion does not have to face this all alone. She is accompanied by her creation, KOS-MOS, the ultimate gnosis annihilator; MOMO, an observatory realian in the form of a little girl; Ziggy, a human who has given up his body for a robotic life; chaos, a mysterious and kind young man who can destroy the gnosis; Jr, a member of the Kukai Foundation, who aids Shion during her voyage. Shion’s journey leads her towards the powerful Zohar and the key to the lost history of Earth itself.
The story of Xenosaga is quite an interesting one. It manages to combine fantasy, science fiction, and theology all in one. The story starts simple enough, with some of the most common events, like spaceships under attack by aliens and such. But, as the story progresses, the plot's layers get thicker and thicker, developing quite a bunch of questions for the players. This can create some very serious headaches. Being a series, the player must experience quite some impatience and frustration in understanding the plot, since it will take some years for all six games to be developed and released.
So, overall, Xenosaga’s plot is a like a very long, complex but well written novel. But in order for one to fully
appreciate it, a “little” research might be needed, or better, a Master’s Degree in Theology, since the story
reeks of references of the Bible and Kabala.
Rating:
Art
The graphics of Xenosaga is superb. Even though there are only CGs during space scenes and the intro, the in game graphics are just so smooth you almost want to believe it’s real. The movement of the characters is very smooth too. A minus, or plus in the eyes of others, is the anime look of the cast. The characters’ proportions are life-like enough, but their faces have the typical large eyes and small noses of anime characters. But, the anime looks was done very well. In terms of the background and environment, everything is very realistic. The done point is that since most of the game occurs in spaceship, the background tends to be gray and metallic and gets very monotonous. This would be my only complaint.
Rating:
Sound
Xenosaga’s sound is a hard one to judge since there tends to be a lack of it. In many areas, there will only be sound effects, like the sound of helicopters flying by, monsters moving, and the sounds the player character’s footsteps. However, when there is music, they tend to be hauntingly beautiful in their own way, like “the Song of Nephelim”, and “Albedo”.
Like most PS2 RPGs released now, Xenosaga has voiceovers. The voice actors all did a splendid job. They managed to
portrait the characters just as they should be, Shion being worrisome and kind; KOS-MOS being calm and stoic; MOMO being
sweet and caring; Ziggy being calm and somewhat robotic; Jr being energetic and loud; chaos being benevolent and with a
demeanor of holier-than-thou; and Albedo being evil and mad. The voice actors all talk loud and clear, so no one has to
strain their ears to hear clearly. People who watch lots of anime should recognize some of these voices. MOMO being
Sasami from Tenchi Muyo, Jr being Jim from Outlaw Star, and Shion being Clair from Star Ocean 3.
Rating:
Presentation
As far as originality goes, Xenosaga is very good. Nowadays, not much can be original with so many ideas being used and overdone. But, Xenosaga uses this idea of combining theology, science fiction, and fantasy. This is not done often, or not done at all! But in terms of game play, the aspects were all seen at some point, but twicked to fit the story perfectly. The game is pretty serious from beginning to end, but there are moments of lighthearted humor to lighten the mood a bit. While playing, it always tends to be a long cut scene and then a long dungeon rather than a mix. This will be good for story-driven people and people who likes movies, since the cut scenes are pretty much 30 minutes to an hour long anime episodes. But, you will probably not notice the length, since the intricate story will draw you in.
A beginner will probably take a few hours at most to get used to the game. Once getting used to the system, nothing should be too hard. There will be some areas and bosses where the player will have to level up quite a bit, but that exists in every game. The battles are straight forward, having each button being assigned to an attack by the player’s choice, and the options like ether, items, guard, and an option that allows you to summon a robot in your place. Tech attacks can be leveled up through earning Tech Points and Ether Points are used to gain ether abilities, which are somewhat like magic. In dungeons, the monsters can be seen on screen, so looping around them or walking slowly can avoid battles. Areas in the game can be large and will be a pain to explore, but there are many extra things to be discovered. The mini games are fun, but time consuming, and some do waste a lot of money.
Overall, Xenosaga is a very well developed game. But, people who like story driven games will probably enjoy it more
than others.
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.5000 (good)
Reviewed by Aerith0530, Oct 24, 2004
Comments
-
Albiore Oct 25, 2004
-
afan Oct 28, 2004
nooooooo!!! Nevermind ^_^' ...I just thought
you underrated it. I thought Xenosaga would be in
the same calibur as FF games. That's all, but I do agree
with the music. Lack of variety... :sweat:Nice review :)
-
DayBreak Oct 29, 2004
Ah i agree to lack of music but!!!!
the ending of xenosaga a song was going on which
is really good < 3 -
Aerith0530 Oct 30, 2004
Thanks for taking your time to comment on the review I wrote. I really appreciate it, since it did take me a while to write this. :D
Um, just one thing. This review scoring system was meant for animes. So, a lot of the aspects of games are not covered or are really squished together under one. So, the final score is by no means what I really think the game should get. I would give the final score at least a 8.5. The 7.5 is only based on the areas that was included in the review. So, just to make that clear, since I really do love Xenosaga. :nya:
-
nightwolf0079 Feb 15, 2005
as much as people want to pick at xenosaga these days, I still think a good story has a place in most gamer's hearts. Story and characters are some the hardest hitting factors to a game's popularity. if only some gmae companies would take this into mind.
-
Xencresha Nov 18, 2005
*sigh* Xenosaga is picked at alot. I wish people would stop trying to analyze it so much and take a break to watch the story. Good review ^-^ nice job
-
nainoi Sep 27, 2009
Thank you for review.
-
rukasu44 Dec 25, 2010
I have played all the games, I'll watch this anime now ;D
page 1 of 1 8 total items
Only members can post replies, please register.