Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose

"Um, no..."

Talk about missing the mark.

Xenosaga Episode I wasn't a particularly groundbreaking game but it was rather enjoyable. The story didn't woo me as much as it wooed some other people and the gameplay was simplistic. Yet it was compelling… and, yet>, it severely lacked. To me, if the Xenosaga team had any hope of making a stellar RPG they were in for the long haul. It seemed like a suitable challenge, though, something these guys were up to.

Now comes along the second Episode II and I'm appalled. They screwed up, big time, and the worse thing is that the game is still highly “Episode I flavored”. Thus, they didn't even bother with new, flawed ideas. They mis-executed the old ones! Really pathetic. Jenseits von Gute und Bose is a mediocre RPG, with little substance and (kill me for this) terrible narrative.

Graphically speaking there's an indubitable flair to the models of the game: ships, characters, zohars… they all look highly detailed, shined and very polished. Neat is a word I'd use. But that's about it, because the stuff that's around these people/things is really bland looking. The game is made out of mostly dull-colored corridors, passageways and doors. The whole thing looks highly rectangular and very insipid, with simple textures. Game worlds had never been this lame and unappealing! It doesn't absorb you, it doesn't make you “breathe” the experience, doesn't make your mind fly… for that you need vibrant colors, crazy worlds, unconventional architecture, uneven terrain… slopes, bridges, flying houses, elevators concealed in the background… not “made with a rule and a pencil” kind of stuff!

Soundwise the game is very unremarkable. Some nice, “filling tunes” here and there ( a big change from the mostly mute Episode I), the occasional explosion, sound effect and what-have-you. The voice acting sucks, but that's mainly because of the terrible dialogue. I didn't expect to see this “RPG guidebook” sort of uninspired jargon, clichèd to insane limits. Hearing the game I pictured a bunch of bewildered voice actors, embarrassed at what they were reading… and thus delivering their lines flatly and awkwardly.

¿Gameplay? Pfft. The game starts to fall apart here, real bad. RPGs —the Japanese ones— are mostly exploring —some sort of euphemism for running around dungeons doing nothing— and battling. The exploring part of the game is terrible. There are only a few places you'd call cities, and they're small and lacking any sort of spark. Dungeons suffer of the same “I'm dull” syndrome, made out of straight corridors —hey, curves help you know, they give the illusion of creativity—, a staircase and high walls. THESE PLACES ARE BORING!!! Episode II worsened the first game's unappealing locales. There's no incentive to explore the world, to stare at it. There's no great feeling of being in a magical place you'd like to be at, to explore, to know. You don't stare at the game and feel rejoiced. Your mind doesn't fly to places. There's no magic, absolutely no magic, to this game. There are no cities (only a handful of interconnected screens passing as “capital cities”) that suggest you're in a living, breathing world brimming with people who're at the mercy of a great evil…

And the battle system? Well, sure, there's ingenuity to it. Basically, you issue commands to your attackers via certain buttons. These attacks damage specific zones of your enemies' bodies. Combining these “zone hits” can lead to a break, after which attacks will be more damaging and you'll be able to “air” or “down” your enemy for further damage multiplication! Since characters only have one turn, and breaking takes more than a few, you'll have to “boost” your mates ¬—which means speeding them up so they can attack in the same turn as your currently attacking character. Breaking can only be done in a single turn, and bonuses only stack up in the same fashion, and this boosting is very important! And since boost uses up the “boost bar”, which is hard to fill —hammer your enemies relentlessly—, you'd rather use up those speed bonuses rather well! For that you can “stock” to unleash multiple attacks in a single turn. All of this added structures a rather fine battle system with a couple of problems!

The whole “break, air, pummel away with stocked attacks” routine is played out during the whole game, which is no problem. It's not tiresome, really, and kind of cool. The problem is that in too many instances the game puts you against a whole bunch of enemies and JESUS CHRIST, man, is it ever tough to beat these guys! When there are various enemies, they attack very often—all of them are faster than you, trust me— and hit really hard… while you hit really softly. The only way to make some decent damage is too obtain boost, stock, figure out the break zone and begin the routine… all while soaking up insane damage, which means LOTS of healing from your part. So, you can't do a whole lot of stocking before having to heal for two turns. And when you unleash the apocalyptic combo you barely dent your enemy, so you have to keep doing this.
What's the problem in general? Your enemies are too strong and you're too weak!

Boss battles, on the other hand, are rather fine, as it's usually against few enemies. They're tough sometimes, but since it's a boss fight, and close to a save point, it rocks. No prob there.

One thing Monolith strangely pulled off the game were stores and equipment. Healing items can only be found on chests and as enemy droppings (eww…), but, strangely, are never too scarce. I was always short of them (duh) but that seemed to be enough! I didn't obsessively save the stronger items, and it all worked out rather fine. So I guess them japs fellas struck balance, which is rather remarkable! As for the equipment thing, it's been replaced with equipable skills which are rather pedestrian.

Now, skills… the previous game had a cool skill system, with “trees” for each character. You spent a good deal of points to learn ‘em. Same here, except there's only one big, branched out tree that everyone shares. This kind of kills the individuality factor, but not insanely, as the “raw” characters are still differentiated enough.

Now that I talked about ‘em characters, I was surprised at how balanced they're (kudos to ‘em japs once again, mate!). You can use mostly everybody depending on the situation, very effectively, without forgetting about those typical “suck-ass” characters. MOMO, for instance, got an overhaulin' of epic proportions, to the point that she's become a potential “main damager” for a couple of fights! Only chaos sucks, for me at least, which is not too bad. The game is close to Tales of Symphonia sort of “play with anybody, no prob, dude” kind of thing, although in that game it was because the scarce differences between characters.

Oh, the game is short. Very short. And certainly not sweet. And without much replay. Not very old-school.

What else is there to discuss? Oh, yes, yes… the story. The bleedin' story.

What to say…? The game is poorly paced. The story is badly fleshed out. The dialogue is very bad. The narrative uses too many “weird jargon” cards… uh? Think of it like this… some character comes along, says “Luciferi, owner of Ushboolba… just like that day, when Ushif called forth Trygeria”. WHAT? Exactly!!! A time too many characters are spewing out weird stuff just for the sake of putting some suspense into the tale… and it doesn't work, it annoys me!

Anyway… the game is too enthusiastic about its Nietzsche pedigree. Philosophy is fine and entertaining. Nietzsche is a cool dude; never read him. But that's beside the point… the thing is, it's throwing out a bunch of concepts and ideas around for the sake —I think— of added complexity, and it's not working. It's flying over people's heads! Nobody —trust me— is getting the stuff that —to add insult to injury— shouldn't be there in the first place! Giving your character a bunch of godly names, basing the main story around x-author's theories and whatnot doesn't make the story the more interesting! It's beyond pointless in this game. What's with the philosophical concepts? It's not like they're proving anything. I mean, having a character ramble on about stuff to sound mysterious is pointless and boring.

Oh, yeah… let me recap the ideas I first mentioned. Poorly paced? Uh-uh. There's not enough momentum never in the tale, as rarely do you find yourself wishing to keep playing just to see more of the story. You're treated with a series of uninteresting sub-plots while the really interesting stuff is kept concealed for yet another game. I guess it's a necessary ill, since this is a six game saga…

Badly fleshed out? Yep. Through non-dynamic scenes, badly spoken dialogue. I think the main problem here is the dialogue. Characters speak in such an uninteresting way, very cryptically, with lame, run of the mill lines. There are too many “seen it before” personas here: the arrogant fool who thinks very lowly of you, with classical lines such as “Vermin like you can't possible beat me” (not verbatim) —pfft. Then there's the sweet, frail gal who always has her hand at her chest. And the goody-goody, ready to save everyone no matter what the cost!… just before somebody talks some sense into her, as usual Things are never veering towards the unexpected, you see.

I'd like Monolith to release the third game on PS2. I'd like them to make a game very similar to this, but with more inspired dungeons, more cities, less clichèd dialogue —start brainstorming outside the box— and more interesting stuff going on. The exploring would still be lacking, but it'd seldom show sparks of genius. I'd be a very solid-7.5-opener for the totally reworked, outstanding, inspired and lively Episode IV, for the PS3. That'd work for me!

All in all, Jenseits… is a game that runs short. Xenosaga needs some work… desperately. The series is going down a path that's been trodden a time too many in the past and I'm sure lots of RPGs players are growing tired of it. The main core of the game, the story, is lame and badly told… and that's something to worry about. I don't have too many hopes for the saga, as it is not usual for a developer to tinker with what's apparently a working formula… we'll wait and see.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/05