This trilogy is one of the longest backlog I’ve ever had, I had it since I saw the anime when I was in middle school, 1 decade ago or something, but can’t play it because I only have pirated PS2 and the people that sell the disc couldn’t understand that Xenosaga 1 is a dual-layer DVD, yet they just divide the thing to 2 DVDs instead, resulting in the game not being able to run (the joy of living in a 3rd world country).
Anyway, being in my backlog for so long, I’m 100% sure this trilogy will not be able to exceed my pent up expectation. But I still really love this trilogy, despite having a hard time understanding the complex story.
Xenosaga 3 is the best among the trilogy in terms of gameplay, it’s more streamlined, faster, easier, and more inline with your usual turn-based affair (at the time), this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preference. For me it’s kind of a bad thing, it made the uniqueness from 1 & 2 disappear.
Sure it made the game a lot easier, without you having to combo and chain it with another character to break the enemy and suspend them in the air, after which you pummel them with every special attack you have like in 2, but that’s what I find unique and fun in 2. In 3 all you need is to spam the same skill over and over until the enemy breaks and then pummel them with special attack (no combo needed).
The good thing about 3 is that they got rid of the stupid sidequest from 2, now the game is more linear without much distraction apart from Segment Address which is a staple at this point. But now you can argue that there’s less content in the game overall, which is true, it has only 2 optional bosses and no extra dungeon, unlike 2 which has a lot. (Both optional bosses are very easy too).
Okay, I will not pretend to understand the story. I do get the gist of it but by god I don’t understand a lot of things from 1 to 3. There are so many terms to keep track of and most of them I can barely understand what it means without going to check the wiki, U.M.N, U-DO, URTV, etc. But the character interactions I do like.
Overall, still a very good game, though I prefer 2 (without the sidequest).
Anyway, being in my backlog for so long, I’m 100% sure this trilogy will not be able to exceed my pent up expectation. But I still really love this trilogy, despite having a hard time understanding the complex story.
Xenosaga 3 is the best among the trilogy in terms of gameplay, it’s more streamlined, faster, easier, and more inline with your usual turn-based affair (at the time), this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preference. For me it’s kind of a bad thing, it made the uniqueness from 1 & 2 disappear.
Sure it made the game a lot easier, without you having to combo and chain it with another character to break the enemy and suspend them in the air, after which you pummel them with every special attack you have like in 2, but that’s what I find unique and fun in 2. In 3 all you need is to spam the same skill over and over until the enemy breaks and then pummel them with special attack (no combo needed).
The good thing about 3 is that they got rid of the stupid sidequest from 2, now the game is more linear without much distraction apart from Segment Address which is a staple at this point. But now you can argue that there’s less content in the game overall, which is true, it has only 2 optional bosses and no extra dungeon, unlike 2 which has a lot. (Both optional bosses are very easy too).
Okay, I will not pretend to understand the story. I do get the gist of it but by god I don’t understand a lot of things from 1 to 3. There are so many terms to keep track of and most of them I can barely understand what it means without going to check the wiki, U.M.N, U-DO, URTV, etc. But the character interactions I do like.
Overall, still a very good game, though I prefer 2 (without the sidequest).