Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

"One of the Best RPGs I've Played in a Long Time"

Admittedly, it has been a while since I've been totally satisfied with an RPG. The last relatively recent one I've played was Final Fantasy X, and it really just felt to me as though it was missing something. I have a lot of respect for Square, and considering how they had disappointed me, I was at first hesitant to give Xenosaga a try; after all, why should I spend money only to be disappointed again? As luck would have it though, I saw Xenosaga for sale used in a Gamestop for 12 bucks. I bought the game not expecting much, but it really turned out to be one of the best games I've come across in a long while.

Like I said, I've been out of the RPG market for a while, so a lot of Xenosaga's gameplay was relatively new to me. Battles are essentially turn based, although the programmers have added the concept of "boosting" to add a little variety. Basically, each character has a boost meter that increases as they execute commands. Once the meter is full, the character can then "boost" which allows them to act immediately and out of turn. It's an interesting concept and adds some strategy to every fight, whether it be a random encounter or a boss battle.

Leveling is also done in a relatively traditional way with a few small twists. Every character gains experience at the end of the battle, gaining levels as those points accumulate. They also gain skill, tech, and ether points, which are used by the player to increase specific characteristics of the character. Ether points are used to learn new spells or transfer them to other characters; skill points are used to extract specific skills (such as immunity to poison) from equipment; tactic points are used to improve powerful special techniques or manually improve the stats of the characters. Careful management of these points is crucial to developing powerful warriors.

In battle there is also a bonus wheel of sorts that changes positions every time an enemy or hero acts. This wheel either increases the chance of scoring a critical hit, greatly increases the boost gauge, or adds a multiplier for the tech, skill, and ether points gained for enemies dispatched that turn. By carefully planning attacks in advance, it becomes possible to greatly increase the points awarded at the end of the battle. All of these factors add a great amount of variety to enemy encounters throughout the game.

Another factor of interest in the battles are the Anti Gnosis Weapons Systems (or A.G.W.S.). All but two of the characters in the game can pilot these giant robots capable of inflicting some rather high damage (well, at least early on). These robots are fairly interesting, although it seems as though they are rarely necessary in the early parts of the game, and relatively weak later in the game when your characters become more powerful. I like the idea of having these machines in the game, but it feels as though the designers could have put more of an emphasis on them.

There are also several mini games that you can play as you collect certain items throughout the game. These include a drilling game (relatively similar to the carnival game where you control a crane that picks up stuffed animals or prizes), a card game (similar to magic, I guess), a poker/slots casino game, and a an A.G.W.S. game. The back of the box describes these as "exhilarating," but that is a rather large overstatement. The only game that really has any depth at all seems to be the card game, in which I admittedly was not terribly interested. To its defense, however, it is clear from the little that I played around with the card game that the designers did put a great deal of time into it. I suppose if someone was more interested in that style of game they might be more inclined to enjoy it.

On a more general note, the gameplay does have more variety than I'm accustomed to. Every character has 4 different basic attacks, as well as a variety of special tech attacks that can be linked with the other moves. This yields many different possible combos to fool around with, although I tended to use what seemed to be the most effective most of the time. There are also more status effects, both good and bad, than are in most games. I also liked how the characters remained unique throughout the game, as opposed to other games where the characters start off unique but ultimately end up being essentially the same.

Overall, the game played very smoothly throughout. There were a lot of cut scenes, but thankfully there was no time during the course of the game that I was forced to level my characters, so it was still possible to move through at a tolerable pace. Some of the dungeons border on perhaps being a little too long, but other than that I was more than satisfied as I played through the game.

The story is also one of the game's strongest points. The game generally follows the story of Shion, a leader on project to develop a powerful weapon called KOS-MOS for the Vector Corporation. While working on the project out in space aboard a government ship, an alien race called the Gnosis attack and the story more or less takes off from there, following Shion and her cohorts along the way.

Admittedly, there are a lot of cutscenes, and some of them are so long that they have save points in the middle so that you don't have to replay them. There is the option to skip them, but really the only legitimate reason I can see to do this is if you are simply escaping having to watch the same cutscene over and over again if you can't beat a boss on your first try.

The voice acting in the cutscenes, if not the best I've seen in a video game, is pretty darn close. There are of course times when it sounds as though the emotion is a little bit forced, but other than that it is really top notch. It was a little annoying that the lips of the characters rarely matched up with their speech, but this really does not take much at all away from the acting itself. I am rarely satisfied with voice acting in video games (I was more or less appalled with Final Fantasy X's) but this game was a pleasant surprise.

Generally, the progression of the story is also more or less reasonable. The character's paths cross together in a coherent and reasonable way, and all of the characters more or less have believable personalities. Still, the story plays very much as though you are playing the first game in a long series, and there were times that I was confused about what some of the characters were saying. These times were far enough between not to detract too much from the experience, and, in all honesty, they very well might be necessary if you consider the overall project the developers are undertaking in such a long series.

Perhaps what impressed me the most about the story was the ending, which managed to leave within me the feeling both of one game ending and another game about to begin. It had a very cinematic feeling, and it really made me want to play the next version as soon as possible so I could see where the designers were going to go with all the characters.

A final note to mention is that there is a great deal of different religious symbolism throughout the title. A few other reviewers have criticized this imagery as either being too transparent, too illusory, or both. Really, however, it is nice to see a video game that has a story deep enough to handle as much imagery as is present in Xenosaga, and it really seems to add something to the story that is simply not present in other games. And, in the end, I think it manages to do it in a legitimate way that escapes the two former criticisms.

Graphically, the game is also quite solid, although admittedly probably not quite as impressive as Final Fantasy X. The characters more or less all look top notch, especially in the FMV scenes. Much of the game takes place in space, and the spacecraft in the game are also among the best graphical works I've seen in a while. There are, however, times when jagged edges plague some of the graphics. The times when this is really noticeable is admittedly rare, but make the game look less impressive considering the standard that other games have set.

Overall, the environments were fairly good, but not exactly the best I've seen either. None of them are especially memorable, but they do the job nicely. The camera angle though at times can be a pain, just because it does not adjust enough as you move around. It's survivable, just somewhat of an occasional annoyance.

My biggest complaint with the graphics is a stylistic one, and that is because the game's graphics really have an anime feel to them. I personally am not a big fan of anime, and thus the graphics, while technically good, were not really my favorite style of presentation. Fans of anime, of course, will likely love the graphics, which are colorful and well animated. I also could have done without the up-the-skirt shots of the very, very young female character. I don't mean to say I didn't like the anime-styled graphics, I just mean to say that they might not have necessarily been my first choice. On the other hand of course, the way the story plays out perhaps only anime would have done it justice. It really is a matter of taste.

There are ups and downs as far as the sound is concerned. As I mentioned before, the voice acting is excellent. Also, for the most part, the music during the cutscenes is also excellent and pretty much perfect for setting the right mood. Really the biggest problem with the music is that they don't play any at all while walking around exploring dungeons - all there is to hear are the footsteps of the lead character rapping against the ground. Admittedly, they did a great job with the miscellaneous sound effects such as the characters' footsteps, but who doesn't want to hear some music while exploring a dungeon. This problem is only compounded further by the length of dungeons.

In battle, the music is solid, but, again, suffers due to lack of variety. There is no separate boss theme music, nor is there actually any different music for any battle besides the last boss. That's right, every single battle except the final one has the same exact music. This theme isn't bad, but I just wish they had made a few more to add some variety.

Is the game worth another playthrough? Almost certainly yes. The story itself is deep enough to warrant a second run through just so that you can fully appreciate it. There are also enough secret items and hidden extras that you will miss the first time (unless, of course, you are playing with a guide) to make it worth finishing it again. The ability to skip cutscenes can also add to it, especially if you are of the variety that tires quickly of such things.

In the end, Xenosaga is a very good game that has some peripheral faults. Fortunately for the designers, they managed to come up with a game that plays well enough and has such a good story that the minor faults in graphics and sound can be forgiven, if not forgotten. I got this game for twelve bucks, and I must admit it was among my best video game purchases in many years of gaming. Definitely pick this one up if you haven't already.

9/10 Great.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04