Beginning of a great Saga.
User Rating: 8.3 | Xenosaga Episode I Reloaded: Chikara e no Ishi PS2
Have you ever wonder what it's like to have an RPG played out like a movie? We've seen a bit of this in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X. Now Xenosaga Episode 1 takes the next step and actually makes an RPG story into a full blown RPG movie. Good or bad? That's for you to decide. Xenosaga Episode I is exactly that. The first episode in a 6 planned series by Namco. You may be wondering…it will never reach Episode 6! But hey, it’s Namco…there a dedicated developer. Mankind has reached the space age where spaceships, robotic humans, and robotic ships are standard things in life. Despite the advancement of mankind, things are not going well. Here we find that mankind is at war with an alien race called Gnosis (silent G). Alien monsters that has attacked the human race for the past decade. Even with the best effort from Federation Fleets to fight against the Gnosis, things don't look good long term. Our story began on a Federation Fleet that has just discovered an important rare artifact called the Zohar out in deep space. Upon this discovery, the Federation Council has ordered the Fleet to secure the Zohar and deliver the Zohar back to them. During the trip back we are introduced to the female head researcher of the fleet name Shion Izuki. Shion and her right hand assistant, Allen, are working on project KOS-MOS. KOS-MOS is a project to create the perfect fighting female android capable of defeating the Gnosis. During the testing of KOS-MOS, the Fleet was attacked by Gnosis. Things looked bad as the Fleet was getting wiped out, including the ship that Shion and Allen are station at. KOS-MOS activated herself and enter the battle to save her creators, Shion and Allen. They were then able to make it into an escape pod. During the attack, the Gnosis took the Zohar artifact. After drifting in space in their escape pod, a ship named Elsa rescued them. After the rescue, KOS-MOS insisted on going to Miltia. A planet that was once Shion’s home. On the journey to Miltia, the Elsa rescued another ship carry two people. A cyborg by the name of Ziggurat 8 (Ziggy) and a 100 series android name MOMO. Ziggy was sent on a mission for the Federation Council to rescue MOMO from a terrorist group called the U-TIC organization and deliver MOMO to Miltia. With a common goal at hand, the entire group heads off for Miltia. On the way there, they learn more about Gnosis, the Zohar, and the conflict ahead at Miltia. It is a journey that is told through an epic story. And an epic story is it. The story plays out like a movie with excellent voice acting and display of graphics. The sheer size of the movie is about 20+ hours long. The drawback is that some of the movie sequence maybe too long. There is a time when you have to sit for 30 minutes (yes I have counted it) of movie sequence alone before you get to a gameplay sequence. That's how much story is put into this game. What is amazing about this story is that is has everything for everyone. Suspense, action, a little bit of romance, and comedy. I had a very good time with this story. There were times when I was laughing out loud and times when I was intrigued by the suspense on what's going to happened next. This is a good episode to kick things off for the whole Saga that is expected. It's not a complete story since it's only Episode I. And the whole game feels more of a plot than a storyline with answers, but just raises tons of questions. The ending wasn't much of a closure that I wanted but it's a good one that left you hanging to find out what happens next. Overall I enjoy this story very much. What makes this story work is the good characters, music, and voice acting blending into one. If I didn't have to play this game, I would just sit back and eat popcorn and watch the story unfold. Xenosaga present to us an exceptional first rate cast of characters from the main characters to the secondary characters. Even the villains are top notch in this game. The main characters are Shion, KOS-MOS, MOMO, Ziggy, Jr. and Chaos. What makes this cast of characters stand out is the voice actors playing them. Each one of these characters is unique from one another and seems to come alive with the excellent voice acting. Whether it's MOMO's innocence to Chaos's compassionate ways. In fact all the characters seem to come alive in this game. It also helps that these main characters background are slowly developed as the story progress further. Ziggy and Chaos are the only two that's a little big less developed when compare to the other characters. I don't know about Ziggy but I fully expect more revelation on Chaos to be revealed in Episode II base on certain hints about him in the game. But overall the presentations of the main characters are superb. Secondary supporting characters are also top notch as well. Each of these characters has unique personalities that make them just as well as the main characters but without the major background developement. Again the main contributing factor is the exceptional voice acting and the realism of the way these characters are portrayed and act in the game. Even the villains in this game are top notch. Case in point of the villain called Albedo. Excellently portray by the voice actor playing this character. You can actually sense the evilness and psychotic ness in him. I haven't seen a villain that had this kind of impact in a game since Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. In a game like this, there's always someone here that gamers can relate to or have a favorite out of the bunch. I give top notch score to the voice actors playing these characters. They did an exceptional job in bringing them to life as real as possible. I had a great time watching these characters interact with one another during the story. Incredible graphics. You're looking at a 3-D rich, colorful background environment. The scenery and character designs are made from a smooth rendering of polygons. The character designs are base on the Japanese anime look. What is amazing about the graphics is the attention to details on the characters faces to the background sceneries. You can see the shadows on their faces and the expression that they make when they talk to the movement of their hair as they walk. Unbelievable. The graphics on the gameplay and some of the story cut scenes are so impressive that you have a very hard time trying to separate the gameplay graphics and the FMV. You would have to look very closely to see the difference. It's not perfect but it's close to it. If you look very carefully, you can see the anti-aliasing that plagues the gameplay graphics and the fact that the gameplay graphic texture is alot softer than the FMV. The colors in the game are also breathtaking. A good balance between the bright colors and the dark colors. The overall design of Xenosaga is imaginative as well. This game really taps into the power of the Playstation 2. If there's a game that can surpass Final Fantasy X in graphics then this game would be it. The closest thing to an RPG game made with full FMV likeness graphics so far. There are video game soundtracks and there are movie soundtracks. This game’s music stands between them, leaning a bit towards the movie soundtrack witch you only normally see in Final Fantasy. The effort on how much Namco put into providing an outstanding soundtrack is very obvious here. One of the strongest reason for the outstanding music is that most of the key musical score is done by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. But a game with an excellent villain in Albedo can't be complete unless that villain has his own musical choir theme. And it's a killer tune that shows the evilness of Albedo beautifully rendered in Opera. Of course if you're not a big fan of Opera Music then you may not like it. Even the last boss fight tune is exceptionally done by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Right now it's an amazing soundtrack. But it there is one problem. It has the same battle theme for every battle throughout the entire game, (except the final battle) which gets totally annoying at times. And the music lacks in terms of quantity as exploring a level doesent really focus on music in the background. A great collection of music that is needed in an RPG like this, none the less. The weak point in Xenosaga the gameplay. The gameplay isn't as impressive as it can be or should be. It's pretty clear that for the most part, Xenosaga is about the epic story and not the gameplay. The gameplay isn't bad but it's not very unique or awe inspiring. Since the game is base in space, most of your exploration and fighting is done through spaceships. This isn't the usual world travel quest but base more on a story driven RPG. Towns are pretty much non-existent. That's not to say you can't explore and talk to various people. Just that it will be done inside of a spaceship most of the time. Weapon and armors you can buy from shops. But for the most part the weapon and armors are kept to a limited number. The accessories are where you see the different varieties. The game is very straight forward. Let's review the battle system quickly. Monsters will be roaming about as you explore the world of Xenosaga. You get into battle once you touch a monster. Note that you cannot run away from battles. However you can only escape from battle with an escape item. Once the battle begins you will have three fighters against whatever monsters. Most of the options in the battle are your usual flare. You can call your A.G.W.S and fight in your robotic ship if you want to if things look bad. However there are a couple of key features to take note. Regular attack is base on a 1-2 combo attack. Each attack burn off 2 AP. In order to get off a special Tech Attack, you need at least 6 AP. Whatever AP you don't use in your round of turn will be carry over to your next turn. Boosting, also known as Boost, is a very important feature. Each time you attack, your Boost gauge goes up. Once a Boost gauge of a character is full, he/she can Boost. Basically boosting is allowing a character to get his/her turn immediately. It's an extra turn where they can perform another action right after finishing their first action instead of waiting till the next round of fight to get their turn. Mastering Boost will the key to defeating your enemies quickly. The last key unique feature in the battle mode is the Event Slot which appears at the bottom of your battle screen. A different event icon will be display at each character and monster turn. These event slot effect the conditions of the batte field during that character turn. There are 4 conditions. No Effect. This means no condition is place on the turn. Critical Rate Up. This means there's a greater chance of doing critical damage. BG increase. This means that your boost gauge will go up faster than normal. Point Bonus. Which means that if you finish a monster with this battle conditional, you get more points totaled to your Tech, Ether, and Skill points. So understanding the event slot is very important. Especially when you are trying to get more points toward your characters. That should wrap everything up. Overall the gameplay is good but has flaws. I find the little combo thing to be annoying at times. But the thing that really hurt the gameplay is the overall game length itself. It takes an average of 40 hours to finish this game. Now half of that is due to the story cut scenes. Which leave us with only 20+ hours of actual gameplay time. So if you're looking for a game that provides long hours of gameplay then you won't find it here. 25 hours of gameplay isn't really enough time to develop all your characters to what you want them to be. There are 6 fighters. Normally 6 fighters would be okay for a game that's 40 hours of gameplay but with just about 25 hours of gameplay, you won't be able to get enough points for all your fighters to develop an all around good party. You might just have to go with your 3 favorite fighters. You can finish the game with your party being an average of just 28 levels. But then again maybe you're not supposed to develop an all around good party in this just one game. Let’s not forget that you need to make a clear save file after finishing the game. So maybe you need to import your fighters’ stats and experience onto Episode II. Who knows? If that's the case then it's not too bad. You can continue to develop an all around good party on then next Xenosaga game. One that I would be looking forward to. In terms of extras and mini games, there's quite alot to do here. The actual side quests are limited though and replay value is non existent. Let's look at the mini games. There's a Drill Game that you can play to win rare items. It's pretty fun. Then you have a Poker Game where you can win items as well. But the main bulk of the mini games come from the Xenogears Card game. This is the most advance and in-depth card game, even more than card games themselves. The main feature of the sidequest is the Segment Address and Decoder. Basically there are doors labeled with a Segment Address. Behind these doors are rare items. You need to find Decoders to be open these doors and gain access to these rare items. Well what about optional bosses? Not to worry. There are optional bosses that you can fight throughout the game. There are also optional A.G.W.S battles as well. So in terms of side quests and extras. The value is there. The only thing disappointing is no real replay value. Other than that. Not bad at all. Even though this game came out in February 2003, iv been rating this game on when it was made, and that was in 2002. So everything in my review has been compensated for its age. But one thing id like to point out, this review has been entirely on my opinion as a hardcore RPG fan. This is not a game for everyone, it has its flaws from its no replay value to its over long cut scenes but in the end, it is a great game, and for me on February 15th 2005, when Xenosaga Episode II comes out, it is a must buy for me. 
