Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose

"The most epic video game saga continues"

Japanese Role Playing Games in general are highly renowned for the intriguing and complex stories they´re telling, with the Final Fantasy saga always being brought up as the prime example for masterful storytelling ("Final Fantasy VII" comes to mind instantly...). However, true RPG experts know only too well that another series deserves this honor: Monolith Soft´s Xenosaga franchise that originally started on Sony´s PlayStation with the groundbreaking "Xenogears", a game some still consider to have the finest, most complex and most intriguing storyline ever to grace in any video game. After Monolith Soft´s departure from Squaresoft, the company continued their amazing work under the new publisher Namco, and beyond all probability, the unofficial prequel "Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht" pushed the envelope even further as far as grand storytelling is concerned. Seldom have I seen a story as refined, insanely complex and intriguing as the one found in Episode I, and the ending made me long for the continuation in Episode II. And indeed, in this regard, "Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose" does not disappoint at all, I can already say that - but what about the actual gameplay?

But let´s start with the outline of the story first. In case you are not familiar with the events of "Xenosaga Episode I", then I advise you not to read this section, and in fact, I advise you not to play Episode II in the first place. Playing Episode II without any knowledge of the complex story of Episode I would be like starting to read a 1000 page novel on page 350, which means that you´d be completely lost in all these events. After all, the game starts directly after the ending of Episode I. Right after Shion Uzuki and her friends destroyed the gigantic space station Proto Merkabah and saving the planet Second Miltia from destruction, the group lands on the planet in order to deliver the female android KOS-MOS to Vector Industries. However, things don´t transpire as planned, as the group´s nemesis Albedo enters the final phase of his plans to uncover the mysterious Y-Data within MOMO as well as to open the path to the sealed off Old Miltia. Describing the story of Episode II in only a few words is a nearly impossible task, since the sheer scope of the storyline is far too big. While Episode II is indeed a consequent continuation of Episode I, the focus does not lie on Shion Uzuki and her backgroundstory as much as before. Instead, we find out more about the past of Rubedo as well as his relationship with his brother Albedo, and the two of them are practically the stars of the game. That´s actually the highlight of the game: the awesome character development. Each character received a lot of background information, and chances are that you will care about each and every single one of them, especially with your knowledge from the first game that already established these characters, so Episode II can delve deeper into their personalities. However, there are a few new characters as well, and they fit into the Xenosaga universe perfectly: Shion´s brother Jin Uzuki, a noble samurai, the Realian Canaan, whose emotions are being suppressed artificially, the patriarch of the mysterious ORMUS organization and Dr. Dimitri Yuriev, the biological father of Rubedo, Nigredo and Albedo whose past is shrouded in mystery. Another great aspect is that the villains receive a lot of development as well, with the outstanding example being Albedo, of course, who easily is the most brilliant villain in any RPG as far as dialogue, appearance and background story are concerned. He also is a prime example for the villains in this game not necessarily being evil - their objectives and motivations are only slowly being revealed, and in some cases, you have to wait until Episode III. Episode II once again excels in the presentation of the story: the cutscenes are utterly brilliant and perfectly executed, easily rivaling the Final Fantasy series, with lots of impressive scenes, dramatic cuts and great voice acting. European gamers are also quite lucky to receive a bonus DVD with this game that contains the most important cutscenes from Episode I, which sadly never saw a release in Europe. If you don´t mind lots of LONG cutscenes, then you will definitely enjoy the story here. It simply doesn´t get better than in Xenosaga when it comes to the storyline, and Episode II is indeed a worthy successor to Episode I in that regard.

The gameplay of Episode II features some changes in comparison to its predecessor, especially when it comes to the battle system. First of all, you can now make use of the so called boost-command, which allows you to get an extra turn before your enemy gets the chance, and in order to fill the boost-gauge, you have to attack your enemies with normal attacks or special attacks, and depending on the power of said attack, the gauge will fill up faster or slower. Then you also have the stock command. Instead of attacking an enemy, you can instead stock your turn (up to three times), which allows you to deal even more damage in a later turn, as you can combine your stocked up turns to some devastating attacks. The stocked up turns can also be used for the execution of some impressive double tech skills, depending on the characters in your battle party (consisting of three members). Just like in "Final Fantasy X", you´re free to interchange your characters whenever you want in battle, which can at times be extremely helpful, especially when one of your characters is low on HP. Apart from the normal character battles, there are also independent E.S. battles during which you control you giant mech, and you can even guide your E.S. through some dungeons (some of them even require the clever change between on-foot exploration and E.S. exploration). As for the ability system, Episode II is rather disappointing, since each and every character in your party can learn the same spells, and there are no individual spells only one of them can use, which makes it a little tedious to level up the abilities of your characters. As for one last aspect concerning the battles, you´ll be delighted to hear that there are no random encounters in Episode II, as you can see each enemy. However, you have to be careful in order to avoid them, as they can rush toward you once they see you, so sometimes, you have to use special trap-fields in order to paralyze the enemy party for a couple of seconds. In a weird twist, the game doesn´t feature any shops or equipment whatsoever, with the only means of powering them up being the good, old method of levelling up. Unfortunately, there also isn´t a whole lot to do outside the battles, either. Apart from making your way through the clever and puzzle-filled dungeons, you can optionally take part in the Global Samaritan Campaign, in which you solve the problems of several NPCs you encounter and receive some considerable reward depending on the mission. As a whole, "Xenosaga Episode II" is quite a demanding game due to its complex battle system, and there definitely are no easy battles. You always have to rely on good tactics and strategy, and on some occasions, the battles might take you more than 30 minutes to beat - if you are not afraid of a challenge, then you´ll definitely love the gameplay in Episode II.

Graphically, the Episode II has received a major overhaul from Episode I. The characters no longer feature an overly obvious anime look; instead, their models - and especially their facial features - sport a more realistic look in combination with some slight anime influences. And they look absolutely gorgeous in most cases - save for their blocky hands. The surroundings might seem a tad sterile at times, but they nevertheless astound with their fantastic designs. The real eyecandy in this game are of course the cutscenes. Let me just say that they are absolutely gorgeous and cinematic and an absolute treat to look at. While the visuals are not quite on par with "Final Fantasy X", they´re still outstanding for a PlayStation 2 game.

Unfortunately, the music is somewhat disappointing in Episode II. Sure, the cutscenes still abound with some dramatic tunes, but the normal areas feature rather boring and unexciting musical pieces. On a whole, it is indeed noticeable that Yasunori Mitsuda no longer was being involved in the creation of the soundtrack, and there are less memorable pieces than in Episode I (at least the Image Theme for Episode II is excellent). The voice acting already was a strong point of Episode I, and nothing has changed in that regard. The voice acting still is among the best in any video game, fully convincing and full of emotion too, with the standout actor being Crispin Freeman as the voice of Albedo...words fail me to properly applaud his incredible performance. The only downside is that the voice actresses for Shion, MOMO and KOS-MOS have been changed, and they are less convincing than their predecessors. Nevertheless, the voice acting is far above anything else heard in any other video game.

Despite the high expectations "Xenosaga Episode II" had to live up to, Monolith Soft succeeded in delivering a worthy sequel to the brilliant "Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht". While it´s a bit weaker than part 1 in terms of storyline and gameplay, it´s still one of the best RPGs the PlayStation 2 has to offer, and the game also manages to make you feel excited about the events in Episode III, since Episode II naturally leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It´s a great experience no serious RPG fan should miss, but I urge you to play Episode I first. Only with the entire trilogy can you fully embrace the true Xenosaga experience Monolith Soft has been providing gamers with.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/07