Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

"Xenosaga - The Will to Keep on Playing"

''Der Wille Zur Macht'' translates to ''The Will to Power'', a phrase coined by the Prussian philosopher Friedrich Nietzche. In brief, this theory states that the strongest beings of a particular species desire not only to survive, but to gain further power over others and rule the other, lesser creatures. This is a theme that may not be particularly obvious, but is prevalent in Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht. Knowledge of Nietzche and his writings are not necessary, but they do help gather a background and contextual understanding of the metaphorical situations of the game.

From my understanding, Der Wille Zur Macht is only the first of six planned games in the series, with Episode II releasing in Japan hopefully sometime later this year, during the fall of 2004. If this first game is any indication of the series as a whole, RPG fans have a whole lot of space oriented melodrama to look forward to. And that's a good thing.

I refuse to disclose any elements of the plot that would be considered even a minor spoiler to the player. Frankly, going into this game, I knew absolutely nothing of the storyline or its contents. All I heard prior was that the game was intensely cinematic, and that it involved religious concepts as an underlying plot device. After playing roughly 40 hours of the game, I can't disagree with either of these statements in the least because each of these devices works cooperatively with each other, with pleasant results.

Tying things back together, I feel that the ''will to power'' is the predominant force that drives the plot, questioning the human soul, the role of God, and the influence of Evil and the power therein. To give specifics would be revealing blatant spoilers, so I'll just leave it at that. The plot is laid on thick, with layer upon layer. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, all is not resolved when the credits roll. But that's what Episode II is for, right? And, unlike the .hack series, there's a legit reason for the game spanning more than one disc. As shown in the recently released screenshots of Episode II, the game is getting a graphical overhaul in addition to continuing the already massive mythology of the series.

I feel that Episode I did a fantastic job all around as a game (mostly), but the singular part that shines the brightest would have to be the plot. Frankly, I have never encountered a cast of characters that have been as superbly layered and sub-layered as the group introduced in Xenosaga. As the cinematics play on, the game consistently reveals more and more depth to each of the characters, from chaos to Ziggy and everyone in between. Again, I feel that I shouldn't reveal much information on this topic because I would hate to spoil the story for future players. For lack of better words, the plotline and backstory are the less obvious main attractions to Xenosaga.

However, the immediate attraction would be the graphical prowess of this role playing powerhouse. Although the actual character models seem somewhat ''cartoonish'' in nature, I believe that it rounds off the otherwise sharp edge of an overly serious plot. The models are excellently designed as well, even if the female characters in the game do tend to show a little too much flesh and curves. My main complaint about the characters themselves is that there are often up-the-skirt shots of MOMO, but I can logically understand why that is prevalent in the game. This game did originate in Japan after all, and from my understanding there is a little bit of an undergarment fetish over there. But I digress.

The feeling of awe I experienced while playing Xenosaga was similar to when I played through Rygar: The Legendary Adventure; the environments and visuals were completely captivating. The FMV is top notch, and it is often seamlessly integrated with the in-game cut scenes that the majority of the story is told through. At times there seemed to be some ''jaggies'' in the background, but this is a very minor complaint in comparison to the otherwise excellent graphics. I can't recall how many times I just sat and watched, just thinking, ''Wow''. It's really that beautiful.

And speaking of beautiful, the hauntingly orchestrated soundtrack arranged by Yatsunori Mitsuda is absolutely perfect for the game. I thought it was so amazing I ordered the soundtrack from a official soundtrack website and have been listening to it feverishly over the past couple of weeks. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed the songs, and the depth of the tracks really shines. This is especially enjoyable in tracks such as ''Battling KOS-MOS'', ''Albedo'', and the absolutely awesome final battle music, aptly titled ''Last Battle''. Also of necessary mention are the theme songs, ''Pain'' and ''KOKORO'', sung by no other than Joanne Hoag, who supplied her gorgeous voice to the Xenogears OST for ''Small of Two Pieces''. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I am very much drawn to ''Daily'' and ''U.M.N. Mode'', two lighthearted tracks that just drip their happy moods on you as you listen. It's nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, my gripe with the music is not with the track selection or the quality, both of which are superb. With the exception of a few areas, there is literally no music. This just doesn't make sense to me. While running through the Woglinde at the beginning of the adventure, I first noticed the lack of a background orchestration; all I heard was the humming of machines and Shion's footsteps echoing through the metal corridors. I was raised on Final Fantasy, and almost every scene and location had a different song as the game progressed. But here, the music is employed in cut scenes and important moments only; at least until you get near the end of the game, where the music selection picks up and the last two dungeons have accompanying songs in the background.

Briefly, the voice acting is excellent. Other than Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy X, I haven't really heard better talent behind the scenes.

Something that is very important to realize when thinking about embarking on the quest given in Xenosaga is that there are more cut scenes than there is in-game action. During any given hour of game play there is roughly thirty-five to forty minutes of movies and/or dialogue, and twenty minutes of exploring and/or fighting battles against various enemies. I thought this was one of the game's strong suits, but I can also see the other side of the argument, where it would seem that this is overly pretentious and that the developers just didn't know when ''too much'' is ''too much''. Again, I am 100% behind the decisions Monolith Soft made in creating the game, and I found it ultimately engrossing to put the controller down for a little while and just watch the scenes unfold. Masterfully done, I say.

Of those twenty minutes of game play, there will be plenty of battles for the player to engage in. At first I found the battle system to be really enjoyable and reminiscent of Xenogears for the PS1. Square and Triangle act as near and far attacks, respectively, and Circle is a Tech Attack, or a more powerful attack that can be set and upgraded for maximum damage. Each character has their own set of Techs, but there are a few that I found more powerful and useful than the others, specifically KOS-MOS's ''X Buster''. After a while though, the battle started to wear thin, and it seemed like the fights were more of a chore than anything else. What really matters in this game is the storyline, as I've said before, so trudging through a few not-so-random encounters in any given section of game play is forgivable. Just don't expect this to be the next Chrono Cross in terms of fighting enemies. The A.G.W.S. units can be helpful, but I only used them when I had to. They were really just an optional part of the battle engine to me.

After fights you can accrue Tech Points, Ether Points, Skill Points and G, or currency. Each group of these points can be used to improve their corresponding properties; Tech Points can speed up your Techs or make them stronger; Ether Points allow you to learn new Ether (magic spells) or transfer your spells to other characters; Skill Points allow your individual characters to extract skills from items in your inventory to equip that will give them added abilities, such as higher defense power or immunity to certain status effects. I found it tough to maintain these different points, because the game seems to be very stingy after the battles. For instance, most Techs need at least 300 Tech Points to upgrade for a faster attack, but when the points rewarded are in such small increments it's tough to maintain a high level among all of your Techs. I had trouble managing my G as well, because the amount given was often a little less than the amount needed at any given time, so my characters weren't always given the best equipment as the game progressed.

In retrospect, one of the things I would have done differently when playing would be to LEVEL UP. I definitely did not do this enough, and struggled against powerful bosses in the last half of the game. This is the best advice I can give you, because the amount of Points and G given are very low, and about halfway through the game the difficulty ramps up significantly. It's hard to keep up however, because by the time you start to pick fights to level up you'll most likely be bored with the battle system.

Final Notes

In all due respect, Xenosaga is a very pretentious project that is extremely rewarding if you'll allow it to be. Although the battles can get repetitive and the story can be overly heavy with shady male characters and religious references, there is much more good here than bad. Everything from the music to the characterization is top notch, and most of what is in between as well. If you can manage to look past the few small blemishes on the shiny surface of Der Wille Zur Macht, you will be sure to find something beautiful.

Granted, it may have blue hair and be an android, but it will be beautiful nevertheless.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/04