Ok this will be long so bucle up:
- New Graphics/Art Design: is not nearly as bad as everyone says, on the contrary, it's pretty good, the thing that pushes everyone back is that the 3 main female characters has new faces that goes far beyond from her previous dollish/anime faces.
- Gameplay: It's not bad, it's more complex (and fun imo) than the previous gameplay, but there are 2 things that makes it more annoying:
1) Mech combat definitely got way less flexible despite having a new copilot system.
2) It's way buff dependant. If you're not buffing and stocking all the time you won't be doing any damage, this is specially annoying when you're fighting normal enemies (yes, you have to do all those process).
- Game Design: You hated that the previous game was like 65% cutscenes and little to no gameplay? Well, in this secuel YOU HAVE EVEN LESS GAMEPLAY. How much less? the kind of "there is so little gameplay that you have literally no stores and gameplay and dungeon designs are made to extend the game as much as it can" kind of less gameplay.
That's right, there's no weapons or armor to equip, the only buffs (that are obligatory to get if you don't wanna be destroyed by the game) are the skills that you get via sidequests. Are the sidequest any good? They're your typical fetch quest that doesn't expand the story or the universe. Only a few are interesting because they introduce either a unique character or boss...
Also, even tho they thankfully reduced the Ether, Tech, and Skill points to only Skill Points and you can see the abilities to unlock and their descriptions, there is still a point wall. How big? the kind of big that the best way of farming skill points is to kill again and again the final boss and eat the cutsecenes and credits again and again.
Story: I came to the conclution that Xenosaga has cool concepts, but Takahashi definitely doesn't know how to tell his story, Xenosaga just throws at you so many cutscenes, flashbacks, concepts and stuff and they just expect you to care.
I don't hold any hope for Xenosaga 3 to be a master piece or be so good that make playing the 2 previous games and watching a whole video worth it.
Whole video? That's right, because in between chapter 2 and 3 there's a whole missing year... because, maybe, and just maybe Takahashi, it's not a good idea to make the first game of your new company A SIX PART STORY AND START WITH THE EQUIVALENT OF A PROLOGUE... you need to have a sales success in order to plan a game franchise this long, and making games that are like 70% cutscenes with a story poorly told is NOT A VERY GOOD IDEA, WHY WOULD YOU TOLD A STORY IN A GAME FORMAT IF YOU BARELY LET THE PLAYERS PLAY?
- Final Thoughts: despite my rant, I still like Xenosaga, why? I dunno... maybe I like the concepts, maybe it just clicks with me or maybe I'm just blinded by Xenogears or something, but I'm still playing Xenosaga 3.
Still, I can't turn a blind eye to all the problems that these games have, at this point, I can't recommend this series like Xenogears that despite it's problems, the story and concepts are one of the best ever made.
The only way for these games to be worth playing and recommend it, is if the episode 3 is a master piece, and at the moment, that's a very VERY slim and far away chance.
PS: for those of you that still wants to rock the xenosaga boat, here's the video of the missing year, thank you Smartest Moron for taking the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo74bgiHd4&t=9s
- New Graphics/Art Design: is not nearly as bad as everyone says, on the contrary, it's pretty good, the thing that pushes everyone back is that the 3 main female characters has new faces that goes far beyond from her previous dollish/anime faces.
- Gameplay: It's not bad, it's more complex (and fun imo) than the previous gameplay, but there are 2 things that makes it more annoying:
1) Mech combat definitely got way less flexible despite having a new copilot system.
2) It's way buff dependant. If you're not buffing and stocking all the time you won't be doing any damage, this is specially annoying when you're fighting normal enemies (yes, you have to do all those process).
- Game Design: You hated that the previous game was like 65% cutscenes and little to no gameplay? Well, in this secuel YOU HAVE EVEN LESS GAMEPLAY. How much less? the kind of "there is so little gameplay that you have literally no stores and gameplay and dungeon designs are made to extend the game as much as it can" kind of less gameplay.
That's right, there's no weapons or armor to equip, the only buffs (that are obligatory to get if you don't wanna be destroyed by the game) are the skills that you get via sidequests. Are the sidequest any good? They're your typical fetch quest that doesn't expand the story or the universe. Only a few are interesting because they introduce either a unique character or boss...
Also, even tho they thankfully reduced the Ether, Tech, and Skill points to only Skill Points and you can see the abilities to unlock and their descriptions, there is still a point wall. How big? the kind of big that the best way of farming skill points is to kill again and again the final boss and eat the cutsecenes and credits again and again.
Story: I came to the conclution that Xenosaga has cool concepts, but Takahashi definitely doesn't know how to tell his story, Xenosaga just throws at you so many cutscenes, flashbacks, concepts and stuff and they just expect you to care.
I don't hold any hope for Xenosaga 3 to be a master piece or be so good that make playing the 2 previous games and watching a whole video worth it.
Whole video? That's right, because in between chapter 2 and 3 there's a whole missing year... because, maybe, and just maybe Takahashi, it's not a good idea to make the first game of your new company A SIX PART STORY AND START WITH THE EQUIVALENT OF A PROLOGUE... you need to have a sales success in order to plan a game franchise this long, and making games that are like 70% cutscenes with a story poorly told is NOT A VERY GOOD IDEA, WHY WOULD YOU TOLD A STORY IN A GAME FORMAT IF YOU BARELY LET THE PLAYERS PLAY?
- Final Thoughts: despite my rant, I still like Xenosaga, why? I dunno... maybe I like the concepts, maybe it just clicks with me or maybe I'm just blinded by Xenogears or something, but I'm still playing Xenosaga 3.
Still, I can't turn a blind eye to all the problems that these games have, at this point, I can't recommend this series like Xenogears that despite it's problems, the story and concepts are one of the best ever made.
The only way for these games to be worth playing and recommend it, is if the episode 3 is a master piece, and at the moment, that's a very VERY slim and far away chance.
PS: for those of you that still wants to rock the xenosaga boat, here's the video of the missing year, thank you Smartest Moron for taking the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo74bgiHd4&t=9s