Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra

"The verdict is in: Xenosaga III is without a doubt the best of the series"

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra marks the end of the trilogy. Episode III had to be the last one due to unfortunate sales. As a result, this game was cram-packed with nonstop action. Of course this led to the omission of much of the potential plot but that's okay. This game was intense from the very beginning. Xenosaga is not connected to Xenogears, a great PSX RPG by Square-Enix. However, there are a few similarities. There are references to the Zohar and the main character, Shion Uzuki, shares a last name with a character from Xenogears (Citan Uzuki) though I doubt they are related. So don't get this game thinking it to be a sequel or spinoff to Xenogears, because it's not. Homage, and nothing more.

To be honest, you really should play Episode I and Episode II before playing this. You don't watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi without seeing the other Star Wars movies do you? If you don't want to play Episode I and II, at the very least you should read the script for those games. If you don't, I will assure you, you will get lost. The Xenosaga series is one of the most complex stories in gaming. In addition to the complex storyline, there are MANY characters in this game and this game does not take the time to re-explain them. This game simply doesn't have the time for that. If you intend to play Xenosaga III, you should know the storyline and characters because Xenosaga III essentially expects you to.

The storyline in Episode I was mostly to introduce the characters, episode II resolved mostly around MOMO and Jr. Episode III resolves a lot around Shion and KOS-MOS. Jr. isn't left in the dust as there is still more story time with him. Jin and chaos are revealed but Ziggy, who was always just there, has limited story time. I wish he'd develop a little more. Oh, and MOMO was completely done from Episode II so she was just there with no development except for one little scene. However, it isn't just the characters that are revealed, many villains are also revealed. I found myself liking more characters from this game/series than any other video game I've played. The villains in this game were brilliant compared to shallow villains like Ganondorf and Sephiroth.

The game play in this game is different from Episode I and II but it is more similar to Episode I. There were a lot of complaints about the battle system in Episode II that I quite frankly don't condone the complaints. The battle system was rather slow. It's MUCH better in this game. There are many aspects to the game play. This is an RPG, so HP, experience, levels and ether points are of course present. The main system in this game is the skill line. If you've played Final Fantasy X, you should know that the Skill Line is similar to the sphere grid but not quite as intricate. In addition to getting experience from battle, you also acquire skill points. After stockpiling enough skill points, you can then use this to “purchase” skills. Some of these skills offer passive improvements to your characters like more HP, improved strength and better ether attack. To go to the next “level” in the skill line, you must “purchase” all four of the items in a given block using the skill points you've earned. Each character can advance along two paths which are different. It's up to you, so this game does offer some customization. You can go on one path or the other or do a mixture of both. For the best overall parameters at a given level, it's wise to take both lines somewhat. However, if you want a particular ability then it doesn't hurt to focus on that one particular line.

There are no stupid random encounters in this game like previous Xenosagas. Enemies will be running around in areas though and sometimes you really can't avoid them. However, there a few things you can do. If you run at them from behind you get a preemptive strike and you can now use traps. If you use a trap, the enemy is stunned. However, if they run up on your back, they get the preemptive strike. All's fair in love and war. There are elemental properties in this game as well. It's a little weird but the five types are Fire, Ice, Lightning, Physical and Beam. There are also once again three enemy types. Biological, Mechanical and Gnosis. There are also two other important aspects your characters can use in addition to attacking. Tech Attacks and Ether Abilities. Tech attacks are usually more powerful attacks than regular attacks but the drawback is EP consumption. Ether abilities are the magic spells, healing spells, stat enhancement as well as other abilities such as stealing. Both are very important and both are implemented very well into the game.

Now onto the most important part of the game play. Boosting and breaking. Don't worry, it isn't as hard as Episode I. First, boosting. There is a gauge in the upper-right corner of the screen. Whenever you deal damage, the gauge will increase. Initially, the maximum is three boosts to have but as you move on in the game, you will get items that allow you to have more. The more damage you deal, the more the gauge fills up. Scoring critical hits really helps too. For once boost point, a character can get an extra turn. I found that this isn't that useful in the beginning but it was indispensable at the end. The other benefit of having boost points is Special Attacks. Special Attacks take at least 2 boost points depending on how powerful it is.. These do a great deal of damage and if you kill an enemy through this, you get 50% more experience, skill points and gold. Now for breaking. Every enemy can be broken. In addition to an HP gauge, there is a break gauge. This applies to enemies and your characters alike. The effects of break status is that you can't act for two turns, you can't evade, you can't boost and you're vulnerable to critical hits. Many attacks don't do much damage but do a lot of break damage. Breaking is very important because it sorely weakens the enemy. Using powerful attacks and break attacks in harmony is something you as a player have to work out. Personally, I did get annoyed at how often my characters got broken but it was a fairly good concept overall.

Ho ho ho. Game Play is not done yet! This is only the tip of the iceberg! E.S.'s are back in this game but they don't suck like in Episode II. They're just like they were in Xenogears – Epic. You have energy depending on your engine power and you can use as much attacks as you can each turn to use up your engine. The engine recharges each turn. You can also charge to recover HP and if you have weapons with a high team rating, you can do co-operative attacks which dish out some nice damage. The vast majority of the damage will come from Anima attacks. When you do attacks, your gauge will fill up. There are 3 levels but getting s higher animal level is story-based. Anima attacks do a lot of damage and if you follow up afterwards, you can do an ambush which uses your whole party of three E.S. units. Personally, my favorite battles come from the E.S. battles. They were very fun.

The graphics of this game are just as amazing as before with hours of cut scene fun! A lot of people did not like the excessive amount of cut scenes in Episode I or II. Personally, I kind of like them but it is easy to understand why people wouldn't like them and thus get turned off from the Xenosaga series. This game still has a lot of cut scenes but there isn't nearly as much as in Xenosaga I. Rather, we now get a lot of dialogue box scenes which I hated at first but didn't mind them in the least at the end. One of my biggest complaints about Episode I was the soundtrack and how the boss music and regular battle music was the same as well as dungeons often lacking in any type of music. Xenosaga II fixed this pretty much but Xenosaga III perfected it. Xenosaga III has an amazing soundtrack. There is now dungeon music in pretty much all of the dungeons and the boss music is different from the regular battle music. Xenosaga III has an amazing, diverse soundtrack. Certainly an achievement from the original. The voice acting in this game is not horrible contrary to some unintelligent complaints. KOS-MOS's original voice actor was back and many characters got perfect voice actors.. It doesn't take long to get used to them and it's really good news that most of the cast was able to retain the original voice actors.

In conclusion, Xenosaga III was easily the best of the trilogy and a great way to end the series. I must admit I'm a little sad that the series is done but that's how it goes. Really, the game is almost perfect. A few gripes I had was a few dungeons got really annoying and some boss battles still take too long. But Xenosaga II kept the amazing graphics, produced an awesome and memorable soundtrack, created by far the best game play in the series and finished up the story. Seriously, it was once major big boss after one major big boss. Especially at the end, it was epic battle after epic battle after epic battle. There was very little filler… there was no time for filler. Looking back at the series, there were some plot aspects that just simply didn't have time to get elaborated upon. Some characters like Ziggy got kinda screwed but overall, it wasn't too bad. Xenosaga III is my game of the year.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/15/06, Updated 09/18/06