So it has been a month since I wrote my first journal. In that time I finished Xenosaga 1. The game is not bad but it has not captivated me like Xenogears. The were two major weak points in the gameplay. First the Tech-attacks in all aspect. I spent a hell of a lot of time with beating up enemies to get these Tech-points. And the upgrading is not cheap, for the caracters itselfs and the techs. To be honest after about 25 hours Tech-points-hunting I gave up and threw my cheat-CD in. Sorry, but it was too much. I mean the whole xenogears/xenosaga serie was famous for its deep story and that was I wanted really to enjoy.
An other thing concering the Tech was, I'm just allowed to set 2 HIGH-SPEED Tech at the meantime. Which means I had to rearrange the Battle formation or/and Techs if the were differents enemies. Quite annoying and time consuming. If they (Monolith Inc.) didn't set this 2-tech limitation or they allowed to switch caracters during a fight (like FF X), the gameplay would be much smoother.
The second main point I had my difficulties was the formation, the Far/rear range respectively. First I taught if you have a far attack, you can also hit the enemies in the rear and v.v. But you can't. It was a similar problem if you had set up a caracter in the rear formation. He/She couldn't do anything than just in the best case using same weak ether-spells. Especially in Jr. case the gunner was a bit silly.
Also the menu-scrolling and setting was confusing. Especially when I was in the A.G.W.S. Shop, I alway had to switch over and over to find out, if the bought weapon really improves my Gear or not.
Well, to be honest there weren't much positive points in this game. The story was the aspect I enjoyed the most. It is well implemented and these connections and plots between the U-TIC, Vector Ind., and the Federation drives my appetite for more.
"Xenosaga: Der Wille zur Macht" was for myself from the aspect of gameplay...disappointing. I don't like to say that for a game which a so damn god predecessor "Xenogears". I'm now waiting for the second part of this trilogy and I really hope that the designers managed somehow to improve the gameplay.