A long epic rpg adventure comes to an end for Xenosaga fans as Xenosaga III marks the final chapter in this excellent rpg trilogy from Namco. Combining both game elements from the first two Xenosaga games and a story that promises to bring all plotlines into full circle to close out any loose plots that were left hanging in previous Xenosaga storylines, Xenosaga III promises to deliver what is consider to be the best Xenosaga game to date for fans to experience. Does this game promises to live up to the long awaited hype to the final conclusion of what is consider to be the best rpg series for the Playstation 2? The answer to that is an astonishing yes. While some game areas such as gameplay and music may seem a bit off compare to the other previous games, the overall presentation of Xenosaga III is excellent, promising to deliver one of the best storyline and visual effect around that will move your heart and mind giving you a lasting impression for years to come. There's no doubt that Xenosaga III will be consider one of the great classical rpg game around as time moves on. We'll break down key parts of this game for you to give you a better insight on where Xenosaga III is able to delivers the goods.
STORY
I am the new KOS-MOS.
Is this a final good bye?
Episode III takes place 1 year after the events of Episode II. Of course a lot has happen since that time as well. 6 months after Episode II, Gnosis began attacking major cities within the Federation. This was later called the Gnosis terrorism. While investigating the Gnosis terrorism Shion learned that the interstellar network U.M.N and Vector Industries with her father Suou Uzuki as supervisor may have played a role in the rise of the Gnosis and their attacks on the Federation years back. This possible revelation led Shion to quit Vector and join an anti-U.M.N group known as Scientia lead by Doctus. Leaving Kos-Mos, Allen and all her friends at Vector behind, Shion began an investigation into Vector to learn of its possible secrets and to expose them. Episode III begins 6 months after these events where you see Shion, Canaan, and Doctus as part of the Scientia group infiltrating Vector S-Line Division in hopes of gaining access to their database to see what hidden secrets Vector may have. At the same time back at Vector, it was decided that the Kos-Mos project would be scrapped in favor of a new model named T-Elos. Elsewhere a mysterious land mass known as Rennes-le-Chatea has appeared in space. The Elsa and her crew decided to investigate this new land mass. However the Ormus Organization declared Rennes-le-Chatea under its protection and anyone else that dares to intrude on Rennes-le-Chatea will be consider an enemy. A battle soon followed between Ormus and the Elsa that led the Elsa and some of her crew being trapped in Rennes-le-Chatea as the land mass fell into an unknown space dimension. With the crew of the Elsa being trapped in unknown space, Shion and her friends gathered together once again in an attempt to rescue the Elsa and enter Rennes-le-Chatea. This journey into Rennes-le-Chatea will soon reveal secrets of the past about Chaos, Nephilim, Kos-Mos, Shion, Zohar, U-Do, the Miltian Conflict, and the arrival of the Gnosis that would bring the group into a final confrontation with the Testaments and their master Wilhelm. The final chapter of Xenosaga begins and ends with shocking revelations and a journey of self discovery for the Shion and all her friends.
Xenosaga III is suppose to put closure to the entire storyline but unfortunately there are still some plots that haven't been cleared up while other plots weren't explained clearly enough that gamers can understand. The end result is that you don't feel like this is the last chapter to a storyline like it was suppose to imply. The chapter does give us a lot more insights on the events that lead up to the Miltian Conflict and the arrival of the Gnosis war that led into Xenosaga Episode I. These events also give us more details on Shion background and her importance to the story as well as Kos-Mos. And later into the chapter we start to look into Chaos pass and the history of the Zohar. But along the way things get a bit muddy down to point where you're still not clear about everything. Who Wilhelm really is, what the Testaments are really about, Mary, Nephilim, Abel, Yeshua, Lost Jerusalem, ect are all things that gets muddy down to the point where the story gets too over complicated when it should have just been kept simple. Things always get complicated when you try to make a plot around god and religion. It's nice to have an in-depth story but when it gets too in-depth for its own good than it can turn out to be a bad thing. There are some plots that seem to have been forced into this chapter. A prime example of this is Animas and the Awakening of Animas on E.S crafts. Clearly Animas and the use of Animas was made more as a gameplay key feature but in this chapter they forced it into a key point of the storyline too which doesn't make much sense overall because if Animas were a part of the E.S crafts at the very beginning and were such vital roles in the Xenosaga series than why where there no mention of Animas in the last 2 chapters? Another factor is that at the beginning of the chapter, the story actually skips key events that lead to Shion leaving Vector Industries and joining Scientia. These events are too important to be simply left as a summary in the story instead of actually putting those events as part of the gameplay. You can tell right away that there's this big empty hole that you are missing out on in terms of the story when Episode 3 began because you're still trying to get settle down on what just happened to Shion and the others from Episode II. Giving us nothing more than a plot summary doesn't help fill that void at all. But despite all of these misgivings and certain loop holes in the plots, this is still one of the best stories around. The game does provide a Database Xenosaga bible that sort of helps give us summaries on all the plots and characters but even than it's still not enough to explain everything clearly. But it's there for some of you that actually want to make sense of it all. What makes the story so good however is that within the overall muddy story line of Lost Jerusalem, Zohar, and U-Do, there are great character stories in the chapter that help make this story one of the best emotional heartwarming story around. It's these characters and their personal trials and tribulations are what turn the story into a personal story that will move the hearts and minds of gamers. I guarantee you that you will feel joy, sadness, anger, and disbelief by the time you are done with this chapter. It's really an excellent emotional roller coaster ride. And I truly hope that this isn't the end of everything as I love to see each of these characters again one day in another Xeno story. I hate to say it but I was choked up a few times in this story to the point of nearly shredding some tears.
Score 10/10
CHARACTERS
We're back for a last adventure.
In this final chapter of the series, only one new character is introduced and her name is Doctus, leader of Scientia. Despite the introduction of Doctus, she didn't play much of a role in this chapter. For the rest of the cast of Xenosaga III, all cast members or characters that have been in the previous two Xenosaga games made a return appearance for the final conclusion of Xenosaga III. By now all regular fans of Xenosaga should be familiar with the main casts of Shion, Ziggy, Momo, Jr, Jin, Chaos, and Kos-Mos along with the rest of the supporting casts of characters such as Allen. Each of these characters have already been establish with excellent background development in the last 2 games with the exception of maybe Chaos who's history and secret have yet to be revealed until this Episode. In this Episode the full circle of character development comes to a close with things being focused once again on Shion, Kos-Mos, and the secret past of who Chaos is. Once again with the excellent voice acting and storyline of all the characters, Xenosaga cast of characters is probably one of the best and richest casts of characters in rpg history. When the story is finally over in this game, you've come to realize just how good these characters are and just how much you've come to love them. What makes these characters so special is how the story is able to show the bonds of friendship and chemistry that they have for one. There are so many special moments between each of these characters in this chapter that it's hard to pinpoint which is the best moment of them all. When the Episode was over, I have to say I was very heart broken that I didn't want to say good bye to these characters. They now have an enduring place in my heart as the best cast of rpg characters around and it's going to be sad for me if I'm not able to see them again in any possible new rpg game in the future. It is these characters and their own personal relationship with one another and their own personal storyline is what makes Xenosaga III story and the rest of the series storyline so great. All the plotlines of Zohar, Gnosis, U-Do, ect are mumble jumbo stuff that doesn't make too much sense overall. The heart and soul of the Xenosaga III storyline are the storylines that involve these characters and it's these characters that make playing Xenosaga III so great in the end. Hats off to Namco for producing one of the best cast of characters in an rpg series ever.
Score: 10/10
GRAPHICS
If looks can say it all....
With the Playstation 2 in its last year before the Playstation 3 takes over the reign as the console for gamers for the next year, you would think that most of the Playstation 2 games have already pushed the boundaries of the Playstation 2 graphic engines that there's nothing left to "wow" people with, but Xenosaga III prove that theory wrong. Looking at Xenosaga III graphics, all you can say is "wow". From the environmental background to the 3-D character models, everything looks so realistic that you can't help but be impressed. Sometimes the gameplay graphics looks so good that it's hard to distinguish the difference between the movie scenes and the gameplay scenery. First let's recap how impressive this 3-D environment is. The Xenosaga world is base on a futuristic look of flying vehicles, tall buildings, and spaceships. All of these are designed with exceptional detailed to them that you can't help but be at awe as to how the game designers manage to add details on every single thing that nothing looks dull or unrealistic. I mean glass windows inside buildings have views of the outside world designs with details that the glass window themselves look so realistic. Moving your character to a nearby window, you can actually see the traffic outside the windows with cars moving back and forth and people walking by just like in real life. That's just how realistic the game looks. Walking around a city is just like that as well. You have flashing billboards, vendors, moving vehicles, and people moving around just like a real futuristic city. There's just nothing in the city or in the parks where you would say that doesn't look real at all. One has to be impressed with just how much time and attention the game designers made to ensure that the Xenosaga III world is one that mirrors a real futuristic world as possible. The 3-D character models themselves are also designed with the same care and perfection. Their faces, bodies, and movements are all rendered into a realistic look as possible but maintaining those anime look from the Japanese pop culture. This time around everything is ensure that there are as much detail to them as possible that the character models look almost exactly like those of their counterpart in the movie cut scenes. Even the flaws of characters having big hands with little details to them have been corrected in Xenosaga III. Character hands are now more sharply shaped with details to them that you can see their fingernails. You can say they took the graphics of Xenosaga II and fine tuned it to near perfection. The only minor thing I would like to see are the movie cut scenes being done in 100% pure FMV/CG like those in the Final Fantasy games or FFVII: Advent Children. But that's only a minor thing in what is already an outstanding visually appealing game.
Score: 10/10
MUSIC
It's so quiet in here.
Xenosaga III soundtrack is pretty much on par with Xenosaga II but not as good as the original Xenosaga. In the beginning you don't really notice much on the music as things are moving in a steady pace with nothing too spectacular as the story hasn't picked up speed yet. Now once you reached disk 2, this is where the music start to take center stage and you feel an epic story is taking place. Boss fights start to have excellent orchestrated music that drives the importance of the battle in the storyline and help make the fight more fun as you get into the groove of facing off against the big bosses. But the part where the music shines the most are during the emotional story scenes between the characters interacting with each other. Xenosaga III probably has more sad musical scores than the previous 2 games and it shows here due to the fact that this chapter has the most emotional event scenes around. When you have perfect musical scores playing at exactly the right time, it just makes the story scenes striking an emotional accord with gamer's hearts more easily. And I have to say you must have a heart of stone if you aren't moved by some of the story scenes in this game while listening to the wonderful heartwarming music playing in the background. The music does this game so much justice and it really shows at the ending of the game as you listen to the music playing in the background while seeing the credit role by that you hope this isn't the end of these establish characters that you have grown to love.
The voice acting has been changed around once again as some of the voice actors in the first Xenosaga game made their return appearance here. The end result is still the same regardless of who does what voices in Xenosaga which is a top notch job on voice acting. Thanks to these voice actors, Xenosaga III feels more like an rpg move than an rpg story which is a good thing for yours truly.
Score: 9/10
GAMEPLAY
Let's get naked for a rumble.
Gonna break you down with a choke.
Game Information
Genre: Turn Base Rpg
Publisher: BrandaiNamco
Disc: 2 DVD Discs
Memory: 95 KB
Players: 1 Player Mode
Analog Control: Yes
Digital Control: Yes
Vibration Function: Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: August 2006
The gameplay is a mix component from both Xenosaga I and Xenosaga II with some new updated stuff just for Xenosaga III. The new stuff is the introduction of a Break System and an Anima System. Things that have been change a bit are the use of Boost, Skills, and Special Attacks. Things that have been eliminated are Double Attacks, Event Slots, Stocks, Combos, and Air/Down State. The basic of the overall gameplay minus the key features is the same. The game itself is very linear and story base so the flow of the game is pretty easy to follow. Exploration is held in just a couple of cities with a few dungeons or areas within a base. Your main base of operation is of course the ship, Elsa, where you can save and shop through special color plates. You can also access previous areas through the U.M.N plates as well. Enemy encounters in battle areas work just like before where you can see the enemy moving around. Coming close to them will result in a battle. Prior to engaging them for battle you can set up traps that will give you an advantage prior to fight just like in Xenosaga II. You can find items in dungeons or battle areas by opening up chests or blowing up stuff in those areas. The battle system is broken down into two system base on regular party and E.S party. Both battle systems are turn base systems with the exception that the regular party system has more options and the ability to switch in different party members while the E.S party system is a bit more simplified. For the most part the game is pretty easy to learn and play since it's the standard rpg flare if you take out the key features in the game. The one interesting thing that we should mention before going over the key features is that the game uses a Database system that acts like a Xenosaga bible. As you progress into the game, new storyline, new characters, and even new areas are unlocked, the Database will start to fill up with information on them. The Database acts like a summary of all the people and places that you have met in the game. It's really good and helps give you more insight into events going on in the game that the in-game story fails to cover at times. It's too bad there weren't any Database feature in the last two Xenosaga games. Now onto the key features of Xenosaga III.
Ethers: Nothing has change here in terms of Ether usage. To recap,
Ether is Xenosaga term for magic. One thing to note is that each character will
learn their own set of Ethers as they level up. However due to the Skill Set system,
all characters can learn all available Ethers in the game if you wish by spending
skill points on those Ethers that a character can't learn through the conventional
leveling up method. This allows you to fully customize a character into what sort
of magic user you wish them to be. Skill Sets: The Skill System is broken down into a Skill Set Branch System.
Each character has their own set of Skills that they can learn and those skills
are broken into A and B branches. Within the 2 branches are low to high level
Skills place in groups. You start off by spending your skill points on the lower
groups of skills. Once you have mastered a low level skill group, the next level
skill group becomes unlock for you to spend your skill points on. Now in addition
to having each character with their own set of skill branch, characters can learn
all the broader skills and ethers in the entire game through the EXSkill System.
Skills in the EXSkill groups are unlocked by finding items that can be used to
unlock the EXSkill Groups in the game. Techniques: Character's special techniques are back in Xenosaga III. Characters can learn their special technique through the conventional level up method or they can unlock techniques through the character Skill Branch. Techniques work in the same way as Ethers as they consume EP to be used. Special Attacks: Unlike Special Attacks in Xenosaga II where only Kos-Mos and A.M.W.S are able to have Special Attacks, all characters in Xenosaga III have Special Attacks. Special Attacks are learned through the Skill Branch or by simply reaching a level requirement. The interesting thing here is that Special Attacks consume Boost points or Boots levels and not EP like Ethers and Techniques. Boosting: The use of the Boost System is back in Xenosaga III. To recap,
Boosting allows your characters or a character to cut in line and get ahead in
turn to take an action. This is all familiar territory for all the Xenosaga fans
out there. The only thing new here is that Special Attacks now consume your Boost
Gauge or the levels of your Boost Gauge depending on how many Boost levels are
require for a Special Attack to be used. This actually takes out the effectiveness
of the Boost System in terms of what it was originally intended to be which is
cutting in line to get a turn ahead of time. You'll soon find out that in Xenosaga
III, you don't really use Boost much once you start to find out just how wonderful
and powerful your Special Attacks are. Breaking: A new feature in Xenosaga III is the introduction of the Break
System. All characters and enemies have a Break Gauge in this game. Each time
you are hit or the enemy has been hit, their Break Gauge goes up. Once a Break
Gauge has been filled, the character or monster goes into Break Status. Break
Status is a state where a person is rendered incapable of attacking and defending
for about 2 turns. During Break Status, a character or an enemy is more vulnerable
to possible critical hit attacks and received more damage than normal. Setting
up your fighters to Break an enemy or boss is a great way to set up a massive
amount of damage for a short period of time without having to be on the defensive
side. Note that the enemies can be setting up to Break your fighters too. Using
Ethers can help heal your Break Gauge and Special Techniques are great at Breaking
the enemies. E.S Combat: E.S combat is turn base just like the human party system but
it does lack the luxury of what the human party system has to offer. For instance
you're not able to use magic or items in E.S Combat. And you're not able to switch
E.S in and out with those on the reserve roster like the human party system. What
the E.S does have is the ability to Chain Attacks for extra damage. Each E.S is
equipped with an energy disk that gives out the maximum amount of possible energy
that can be used during one turn of attack. Each weapon cost a certain amount
of energy per usage. Using various different weapons you can attack as many times
as possible until you reach the maximum amount of energy allowed for one turn
of attack. This is known as chaining attacks with different weapons to give off
extra damage and accuracy to your attack on opponents. Each hit actually offers
a 5% damage bonus to each attack. This makes E.S combat easy and fun to do. Team Combos: Team Combos is a feature that is only available in E.S battle
mode. There are two types of Team Combos and they are Co-Op Attack which involves
two E.S doing a combo attack and Ambush Attack which involve all three E.S doing
a combo attack. Team Combos are more like added extra damage than a big powerful
attack like it may sound. The thing about Team Combos is that they are completely
random and can occur at anytime during any situation. Animas: While Team Combos work as added extra damage, Anima Attacks are
the big powerful Special Attacks of E.S. Each E.S has an Anima gauge that gets
filled up with each turn of attack an E.S take. Once the Anima gauge is full,
the E.S can than go into Special Attack mode and do a powerful attack. The type
of Special Attack of course will vary base on the level of the Anima. The maximum
level that an Anima gauge can achieve is level 3.
I consider the gameplay to be a water down version of both previous Xenosaga games. However even if it's consider a water down version, it still deliver a fun experience for gamers all around.
The drawback of the gameplay is that it's mostly too easy at times and too short at time. The too short part is the usual flaw of Xenosaga because the series in itself is very heavily story bases as oppose to gameplay based. The use of boost is very limited in this game due to its connection to Special Attacks now. I also prefer the Air/Down state from Xenosaga II and the combo attacks as well. What the game does improve on is that A.M.W.S battles now known as E.S battles are much better with the introduction of Animas and Team combos. The introduction of the Break System is also very nice as well. I guess you can say it's sort of a trade off. They did some things better while they did other things a bit worst. Xenosaga III is on par with the other previous two games. The final result is that you won't be addicted to the gamplay but you won't be disappointed too.
Score: 8/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
I hate puzzle games.
Things seem to be a bit less in Xenosaga III in terms of extra side quests, boss fights, and mini games. It's been water down to the point where most of the extra features hardly requires you to spend much time or effect into completing them with the exception of the newly introduce Hakox mini game. Now in terms of side quests, there are a few small and we do mean small side quests available for you to do in two cities. The rewards for these side quests aren't great nor do they take much effort to complete that it's almost pointless to do them. It's nothing close to what was seen from the G-Segment quests in Xenosaga II. You do have the swimsuits and ultimate weapon quests for your characters but those have been water down to the point where there's no challenge or even fun in getting them done. There's one bonus dungeon available in the game and this bonus dungeon include no battles and just a few floors of puzzle solving. And the puzzle solving aspect of the bonus dungeon is fairly easy too. I think gamers would prefer a bonus dungeon that has enemies to fight as well as a possible optional boss fight. Speaking of optional bosses there are 2 in this game, one for your E.S crafts to fight and the other in regular party mode involving the giant robot, Erde Kaiser, which is now a staple part of the Xenosaga extra features. Both fights aren't too difficult to handle. The Segment Decoder and Segment Address extra feature are back as usual which all of you Xenosaga fans should be familiar with by now. Finding the decoder and than the address to unlock the treasure chest behind the decoder door. The main and new extra in Xenosaga III is the newly introduce Hakox puzzle mini game. This is where most of your time will be spent on in terms of extra features. The Hakox puzzle game provides various difficulty levels and various worlds in each of those levels for you to play and win a prize. It also provides an Edit mode where you can create your own Hakox puzzle world to play with your friends through a hook up system. It's too complicated to explain on how Hakox works but we can say that Hakox is very challenging to the point where it will frustrate you for many hours but at the same time can be quite addictive. In terms of the extras overall, I didn't find them to be too challenging or engaging since most of them can be completed quite easily in no time flat. I'm not a big fan of puzzle games so Hakox wasn't my taste. Add into the fact you probably need octopus hands to be able to press some of those buttons to complete a level stage in Hakox too.
There's a Save+ game that you can load after completing your first game but the Save+ game doesn't offer you much other than letting you start the game again near the last part of the game so you can have access to a Swim suite mode for cut scenes as well as completing whatever possible side quest you may have missed.
In the end, the extra and replay value wasn't as good as what was feature in Xenosaga II. They are there for sure but it just seems that you don't spend a lot of time with them as you should since everything was a bit too easy to complete with the exception of Hakox.
Score: 8/10
After three years, the Xenosaga Series finally come to a close. But is this really the end of it? I highly doubt it and hope it's not the end. Sure the Xenosaga trilogy is over but it doesn't mean there won't be another Xeno game in the future. The ending of Xenosaga III left a possible doorway to a new adventure with some of the remaining characters. And let's be honest here, I would love to see these characters make a return appearance as I'm not ready to official say good bye to these characters just yet. As for Xenosaga place in rpg history? Well I can safely say that if there was one rpg series that would define the Playstation 2 era, than I would have to say it would be the Xenosaga Series. As good as the Final Fantasy games or the Kingdom Heart games, they don't come close to capturing the hearts and minds of the Playstation 2 rpg fans as the Xenosaga games did. Here's hoping for a new Xeno series in the soon to be new Playstation 3 era.
