"The best RPG of the current console generation."

I went into this game expecting a lot, and to say that I didn't come out of the other end disappointed is to say a lot. I expected the game to be a prequel to Xenogears, but instead I was treated to an excellent game (that will hopefully shape into an excellent series) of its own. While the story may disappoint some (because it doesn't tie in with Xenogears overtly), I believe the story to easily be one of the best I've experienced.

It is interesting to note that Monolith Soft, the developer, is made up of many ex-Square employees. These same people were the key figures behind such games as Chrono Trigger, its superior sequel Chrono Cross, and more obviously Xenogears.

Game-Play: 9/10
Xenosaga's game-play is at first glance nothing new. It follows the traditional RPG format: you have your “quest” mode, your “battle” mode and your various menus to manage items and so forth. You gain levels and earn money by fighting a variety of monsters and typically face a “boss” enemy towards the end of any given dungeon or area. However, there are enough interesting quirks throughout the game that'll keep you there for the (roughly) 40-hour journey.

The most important part of any console RPG is unquestionably the battle system. Over half of your time spent playing a typical RPG will be spent in battle, and so its very important that the battle system be interesting enough (yet simple enough) to last the length of the game. Fortunately, Xenosaga has just that kind of battle system. Though turn based, it does not rely on the infinitely cloned Active Time Battle system that the Final Fantasy series birthed. Rather, a character or enemy's speed decides the order of the turns. Pressing the square button performs physical attacks, and ether (magical) attacks are performed with the triangle button, with the exception of Jr. (Jr. only has physical attacks, so pressing triangle performs only more physical attacks.) Tech attacks are performed with the circle button, but only if you have enough AP to use one. You're allotted 4 AP a turn, and Tech attacks require 6 AP to activate (unless you've upgraded the “speed” of your tech attack).

AP adds a little strategy to the battle system: do you attack once, saving your extra AP for a tech but leaving yourself vulnerable to attack? Do you guard, wasting 2 AP but defending from attacks and saving for a tech? Do you go all-out and use every bit of AP you can to damage the enemy? However, the real strategy (and innovation) comes in the form of the battle event system. In Xenosaga, every turn has a special property as dictated by an image shown in the bottom-right corner of the screen. These properties repeat in the same order infinitely, and are as follows: No effect, critical hit chance up, boost up, and the point multiplier event. The two most important events are the boost and the point multiplier events. The boost up allows for your boost gauge to fill rapidly. When your boost gauge is full, you're allowed to have that character “boost,” which basically equates to a free, immediate (following the current character/enemy's) turn. While there are obvious advantages to this (such as being able to kill an enemy before it gets to attack) the subtle advantage is that it upsets the order of the battle events, quite possibly in your favor. Generally speaking, the turn order does not change much (because it is decided by character/enemy speed) so the same characters will always receive the same battle event. By boosting, you can change the event order so that the point multiplier lands on your turn, for example.

The last notable feature of battles comes in the form of giant robots called Anti-Gnosis Weapons Systems (or AGWS, for short). Your AGWS can be equipped with various weapons and items to boost their stats, and can be piloted by any of your 4 pilot characters. AGWS are a lukewarm feature of the game, however. For the casual player, who doesn't spend much time leveling, they can be a vital part of boss fights. However, the more serious player will find them a waste of time and money. Properly upgraded, your characters are far more lethal than AGWS ever will be.

The point multiplier is by far the most important event, however. If you kill an enemy on this event, you will receive 2x, 4x or 10x the amount of skill, tech and ether points that you would have normally received from that enemy. The coefficient is randomly selected. Skill points are used for teaching characters skills gleaned from items (such as STR + 2), ether skills are used for acquiring or transferring ethers (which are pretty much magic spells) and tech points are used to upgrade your character stats or your tech attacks.

An admirable quality of Xenosaga is that it expertly handles character management. Too many RPGs these are released these days that ruin character individuality in battle (see also Final Fantasy 7,8 or 10). While Xenosaga allows for you to have characters that are clones of each other in battle, it takes a lot of work and a lot of tech and ether points to get there. While characters can learn all the same ethers in theory, it requires you to transfer an ether from one character to another, which takes half the amount of ether points it took to learn the ether. You can see how transferring ethers between your 6 characters will call for a ton of ether points if you want to keep all the characters the same. Likewise, keeping everyone's stats the same (or even similar) requires an exponential amount of tech points. For the average player, this will be far too much work. Thankfully, the game can be completed without such hassle; but for hardcore players who like to have parties that can decimate anything, the taking advantage of the point multiplier battle event can be the difference between 1 hour of leveling and 2, 4 and even 10 hours!

There are 4 main mini-games in Xenosaga, and 1 main side-quest. The first side-quest is introduced rather early into the game. It requires you to find special red doors throughout the game world, and then the code keys that correspond to these doors. Inside the doors are useful items, and five of these items are required for another side quest. Because these items are found in the primary side quest, however, I don't think the other part qualifies for a side quest. The four mini-games include a card game, a casino, an interesting fighting game, and a quirky drilling mini game.

The fighting game is probably the most “fun,” but fairly pointless. You take your AGWS and pilot them either against your friends (in a 2 player mode) or against computer controlled AGWS in a game style similar to the Armored Core series. The casino offers you various prizes for doing well, and features slots and blackjack. It's the best way to make money in the game, if you play your cards right. The card game is interesting, if you're into that kind of the thing, but ultimately pointless. I don't remember if it has 2-player functionality, but as I recall it did not. Lastly, the drilling game requires you to move a drill vertically and horizontally to drill through boxes full of goodies; but you're on a time limit and the camera is against you (meaning you have to view the drill from all angles to be sure that you're drilling where you want to). The drill game is fairly annoying but yields some valuable prizes.

Xenosaga features a much appreciated database system. It records the different types of Gnosis (alien enemies) that you encounter, stores all of your email, and defines all confusing words or terms encountered in the plot. The last feature is easily the best. Xenosaga's story throws a ton of crazy acronyms, characters, place names and philosophical/theological terms at you, so the developers get a huge thank-you for recording and defining them in the database. As new stuff is revealed about certain characters/terms/what have you, the database will be updated with subsequent entries for that term. For example, in the beginning the game you might see Term (1) in the database, and later you'll see Term (2) and finally Term (3) in there.

Running around in the dungeons is fairly unremarkable, except for a nifty little device you get early in the game. By pressing the square button, you can destroy certain objects around you. This allows for elementary puzzles, but also has a (slight) tactical use. Throughout the game, you'll find barrels of different properties scattered around. If you blow one up and catch an enemy in the blast (did I mention that Xenosaga's battles are all initiated by running into enemies during quest mode, as opposed to randomly like other RPGs?), they'll be hampered in two different ways. One way affects how they move around in quest mode, and one way affects the enemy should you choose to battle them. Occasionally, these effects can be very helpful (and much more so for the casual gamer who neglects leveling up).

So while Xenosaga does a lot of stuff that's already been done before, there's plenty to like, and enough of a new spin on the battle system to keep the game interesting.

Sound: 7/10
This is the worst part of the game. While the soundtrack is excellent (gets a 10/10 from me), the sounds effects are superb, and the majority of the voice-overs are very well done, the use of music is disappointing. The soundtrack features 50+ songs, but you'll hear the majority of them only once. The areas that you quest in do not have music, and there is only one battle theme for the whole game (until the last boss). That means that the other 48+ tracks are used during cut-scenes. So, for the majority of the time you're playing the game, you're either hearing nothing or you're hearing the battle music (which, while good for the first couple of hours, quickly becomes boring). It is really disappointing that the developers didn't put more thought into the use of music.

Thankfully, the voice-overs are mostly good. Some characters are slightly annoying (Jr., Momo and Albedo mostly), the other ones have pretty good voices. So, no there are complaints from me there.

Graphics: 8/10
Even (almost) 3 years later, Xenosaga is an impressive looking game. Few PS2 games have matched its graphical quality, and only a handful of Xbox games look any better. The models are all excellent, as are their animations. Battles look spectacular, between all the particle effects and imaginative attack designs. The most disappointing feature of the graphics is that a lot of the areas look the same. While you are on ships for most of the game (being as you're in space), it would've been nice to see more imaginative ship designs. As it is, the interior of every ship seems to have the same dull-gray wall and floor texture, which gets as annoying as the lack of music.

Cut-scene graphics are gorgeous, however. Where the graphics really shine, though, are in the “full motion videos,” or FMVs. While few and far between, these graphics are incredibly gorgeous. You even get treated to one for one of the character's battle techs. The opening cinema to the game is an example of the FMV graphics...it's a testament to the excellence of the in game graphics, however, to say that it's difficult to tell when FMVs are playing, until they zoom in on a character.

Story: 10/10
The story of Xenosaga is easily its best feature. And while other reviews whine about the amount of time you spend watching cut-scenes, their claims are exaggerated. Xenosaga features about 8 hours of cinema, but for a 40-hour game and a story of this caliber, that amount is fine by me.

Xenosaga is set some 7,000 years in the future. Mankind exists only in space, and have long since forgotten the location of Earth. Constantly besieged by an aggressive alien enemy known as the Gnosis, their very survival is endangered.

This is the backdrop of the game, but the story is far more complex than a mere struggle against an alien race. It deals with everything from science and philosophy to racism and family (subtlety). It's rather impossible for me to summarize, but it is brilliantly told and incredibly memorable. The ending in particular is fantastic, and only leaves you wanting the sequel.

Overall: 9/10
I refuse to give any game a perfect score, but Xenosaga comes close. An epic story, engaging game-play, excellent graphics and a masterfully composed soundtrack (thanks to Yasunori Mitsuda, who also did Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and Xenogears' excellent soundtracks) all combine to make one of the best RPGs of the current console generation. And at the “Greatest Hits” price of $20, this is one game that you can't afford to miss.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/05