Xenosaga III : The Redeeming Light

[Andromeda]

I just finished Xenosaga III and after the sad second half known as Xenosaga II, I was a little disappointed by everything. I enjoyed the game that is for sure, but it just sank down. It was short, felt shorter than the first, though they were about the same. I also finished it in a day and half. They changed styles and voice acting on important characters. So I was hoping that Xenosaga III would change that.

With it is completed and the saga now finished, I can see for certain that Xenosaga has been redeemed by episode three. They got back the original voice actors, fixed several issues that were in the second, brought back equipment and stories and improved the combat to make it ever better than the original.

Xenosaga III has surpassed my expections and has completed the trilogy without falling short. To begin with the game is nearly as long as the first two put together. I think I finished close to 50 hours, which I definitely was pleased with. I was expecting another 30 hour game that would be over too quickly. But it truly feels epic in a way the first two failed. The first episode did a great job, but episode three succeeds where it failed.

Combat was more enable, with the boost put to more use now. I barely even boost anymore, I just consume it for Special Attacks. Mech and Human fighting was definitely more enjoyable, though not having the same feel that was started by the original and the first two episodes. They were trying to be like Xenogears, and then finally decided to go out on their own. I really did enjoy fighting in the mechs this time, as they made them more useful and better to fight with. Auto-charge is great as well, since it was always painfully difficult to heal them in the past. Also they changed their style more to a traditional RPG, where HP goes into the thousands, which was uncommon for Xenosaga and Xenogears it was always low. While the Mechs were always highly. You now feel like you are not always ready die, though you feel less weak as a human technically, it provides a more enjoyable play experiences.

The story did not disappoint either, there was one big twist that just made my jaw drop. It made the whole game worthwile and did not stop from that point on. It introduce more religious topics. You thought the first one and especially the second was heavy on the religious overtones, Xenosaga III blows them all out of the water in ways you do not even expect. The story does not disappoint and will continue to evolve as the game goes until to finally have all of the answers. One fear I did have was being left clueless after it was all said and done, but it answers everything, sometimes a little too neatly. However, nothing is left hanging, well there are a few things that are left hanging, but there is enough that you are not left wanting more answers. But there is enough to lead to another game.

I expect that one likely possiblity in the future is that Namco will release a Xenosaga game, with all of the episodes included. Hopefully they, Monolith, will go back redo everything other than the story and give you one completely story the way it should have been. The grand epic game of 100 hours that Xenogears was. Only then could it begin to come close to Xenogears.

Xenosaga started as a poor substitute for those wanting more Xenogears, but it ended as a worthly companion to the Xenogears story. While it is not directly related, the now complete Xenosaga will fuel countless theories to connect the two. Xenogears remains the better game, but if Monolith continues to work on the trilogy and story, there is hope that it will become truly worthly of being its equal.

[Hildegarde]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

The story does not disappoint and will continue to evolve as the game goes until to finally have all of the answers. One fear I did have was being left clueless after it was all said and done, but it answers everything, sometimes a little too neatly. However, nothing is left hanging, well there are a few things that are left hanging, but there is enough that you are not left wanting more answers. But there is enough to lead to another game.

Haaaa...
*big sigh of relief*
Not having most of the questions answered was one of my biggest fears.
I've heard nothing but good things about Xeno III, I was thinking about buying it next year, when the big wave of new game releases relents a bit, but, I couldn't contain myself and ordered it last night.

I'm wary of Boost, myself, I hope i'll enjoy it as much (or as little) as you did.
A question: what about the Ether Skills (if that is what they were called) are they more like Xeno I or Xeno II and does KOS-MOS gets upgrades, again?

Thanks for the review, by the way.

[Andromeda]

The Ether and Abilities are learned through a hybrid of the past two games. You have to learn a group before moving to the next, like in Xenosaga I, but there are 4 to learn in each group like in Xenosaga II. They are unique to each character though like in Xenosaga I. But it is not just an Ether chart, but everything.

And KOS-MOS does not really upgrade anymore, she did all of that in the first episode. She grows through the Skills Chart like the rest of the characters. But she does have a special abilities she learns due to story based event.

[TheHasteChocobo]

I just finished Xenosaga 1 two days ago. I bought 2 and 3 but I'm still waiting for 2 to arrive in the mail.

Anyways, in Xenosaga 1 you know how you could do that stat maxing thing where you synchronize your party members stats and use tech points to raise their stats more when a character gained a level? Well on the back of Xenosaga 3 it says "you'll be highly rewarded for stratigic party management." Do you know what they mean by that? Is there another stat maxing trick or is it something else?

[Andromeda]

Well there is definitely more to the fighting than simply attacking like in the first game and more RPGs. Every monster and yourself include has a break meter. This meter goes up when you take physical damage or attacks that are break abilities. Break abilities will increase the rate that the meter goes up. Once it is full the target is in break status, they cannot do anything for two turns and will take full damage and often higher critical hit success rates as well. So much of the strategy will revolve around finding the right grouping of characters that can break well and those that can finish the job. You can try to just fight your way through everything, but it will take longer and you will take more hits because of it.

And stats do not return from Xenosaga I. It was unique to that game alone. Though as you use special abilities they do gain experience and level up to become stronger, so it is like putting tech points into them. You just see immediate results this time around.

[LionheartVIII]

I got to the end of Xenosaga 1 and enjoyed it a lot. I finished most of Xenosaga 2 and i thought it wasnt that great. Because of the second one i didnt plan on buying the third. Im reconsidering now because im hearing that it is actually pretty good.

[Andromeda]

While I knew that I was going to buy the game, I was definitely concerned seeing how Xenosaga II was. But Xenosaga III is worth playing for anyone that enjoyed Xenosaga I. I have no idea what made them change all of those things in Xenosaga II, but they changed a lot of back and made things better. So it will feel a lot more like Xenosaga than Xenosaga II.

So do get Xenosaga III, you will not be disappointed.

[Malahk Musashi]

I just have one question:

Does this game get rid of the stupid "bear claw" hands they had in Xenosaga II? Those things made pivotal plot points in it fall flat because I was so busy laughing at their hands.

[Andromeda]

Bear claw hands? I'm not completely sure what you are referring to. Though it has been several months since I cracked open Xenosaga II, so my memory might be a little vague. I do not recall poorly modelly hands, though being that this is a video game, they cannot have all of the polys that they want to make the hands look better, so they probably look like square fingers rather than round, circular fingers. Xenosaga III looks fine to me, nothing abnormal about their hands.

[Malahk Musashi]

Well, round fingers I'm not worried about, since I know the PS2's limitations. I meant separations between the fingers. In Xenosaga I they had finger separations, but in Xenosaga II they made all the fingers stick together with just a poorly angled black pixel line between them.... even PSone games could do that XD.

[Andromeda]

Ah the mitten hands, yeah that is not in Xenosaga III, they all have individual fingers. So you do not have to worry about that. I've forgotten about mitten hands, I'm either used to seeing and understand it's purpose or do not think about it. I naturally will notice them when I see it, but I do not remember it too long afterwards.

[Ultima]

I brought Part III on Saturday and i am on chapter 7 now. The music and grapics are amazing. And about the testaments: the one in the white robe looks and sounds familar, but could the one in the red robe be Kevin??

[Hildegarde]

Spoiler: One of the Testaments is Kevin, for sure, although right now I don't remember what color he is.

xenosaga III is the must-have game for any rpg lover. the battle system and storyline are more in-depth than any current final fantasy game. also, unlike final fantasy, xenosaga is a series of events that all relate. all the songs are just fantastic. and at the price of 39.99, you won't find anything better.

[TomStrife]

Okay, so I beaten Xenogears way back and picked up Xenosaga Episode I. I got to a certain boss in Xenosaga that I could never beat so I stopped.

Unfortunatley, I am still a mental n00b and have no idea how spoiler tags work in this site so:

SPOILER FOR XENOGEARS:

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