Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits Von Gut und Bose - PlayStation 2

After playing Xenosaga: Der Wille Ze Macht (and having quite the cleansing experience after the junk that is Shadow Madness) the only reasonable next course of action would be to play it's immediate sequel.I have heard so many things about this game...mostly bad.(so bad some say to skip it and just play the third game)I have to say that this game is a victim of bad press. Is it as good as the first game? No. The game is far from perfect, but definitely not as bad as 90% of review outlets make it out to be. Could it be better? Yes. It's weakest aspects were in music direction, dungeon design and bits of plot elements. There in an unpolished gem in here though (and when it shines it gleams brightly.) unfortunately marred by disastrous directorial choices, but if you're willing to stick with it through the bad times, I think you'll find a rewarding experience.

This game is what happens when developers run out of money... when desperate people who care nothing about a project are brought on to complete it.This game is a crumbling bridge.If you had played this game right after Episode I and without any warning, your jaw would slacken as you watched in disbelief, wondering what the hell happened. Many voice actors and character designs have been changed (for the worse), making the game seem like the sequel to a remake which should've never been made. The voice acting is incredibly terrible, right from the beginning. There is more music than there was in Episode I, but almost all of it is really, really bad. Even the battle animations are below par.The only good thing about this game is that it is the sequel to Episode I.Alright, alright... the story's pretty good, too.There is nothing to do in this game except fight difficult, tedious battles, solve numerous, tedious puzzles, and watch disappointing cutscenes. Every side mission is a boring, tedious fetch quest that involves tonnes of plodding navigation and next to no battling (thankfully?) for generally worthless (...tedious?) rewards.They even managed to make Giant Robots boring - there are whole segments dedicated to them, but their battles are extremely simplistic and repetitive. Sadly, the battle system in use for these segments is superior to the one in the main game; like Episode III, it's a mix between the systems of Episodes I and II, but it has none of the customisability and variety of the first game, and much of the tedium and rigidity of the second.Battle in this game is extremely cheap. It really leaves you with a sense of powerlessness, as if all the growth your characters underwent in battle in Episode I never even happened. You'll have to deal with enemies that cannot be damaged unless their guard is broken and you kick them while they're down (or trapped in midair, which is even more ridiculous and stupid than it sounds). Thick-skinned grunts heal themselves. Some enemies detonate upon being killed, killing your characters or severely injuring them, making the next battle that much more difficult and frustrating. You have a random chance of beginning battle surrounded by enemies, which naturally leads to being attacked from behind for massive damage. You are encouraged to do the same to your foes. Enemies debuff you frequently, causing your attacks to do EVEN LESS damage, and debuffs can be stacked, meaning you need a super-duper (rare and exhausting) healing spell to remove them.You may have heard that battles in this game take a long time to resolve - five minutes average, often more. This is because there is entirely too much that you MUST do in order to win. Spells do very little damage, and every enemy has an elemental weakness which you MUST exploit to deal NORMAL damage to them. The enemy, on the other hand, does tonnes of damage to YOU, which means you will spend lots of time healing yourself.What this means is that everyone in your party has to be an efficient healer, and maybe even a good buffer. The idiotic character-building system, with all its Classes and Licenses and special boss-killer-points, only therefore offers the *illusion* of choice. There is only one right way to be effective in this game (and it involves grinding). Later on, you'll have to buff to make any attack count for anything AT ALL. All of this might be forgivable (and even fun, somehow) if it weren't for all the damned Stocking.If you want to do any damage at all in this game, you have to hit multiple times per turn, in the proper places, with the proper weapon type and element.In order to do this, you have to Stock. It's like 'Blocking' from Episode I, except that it DOES NOT REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE YOU TAKE from enemy attacks. In order to hit multiple times per turn, you must Stock at least twice.In order to hit in the proper places (high, mid, or low) with the proper weapon, you have to use the right character, and buff him with the right element. If you Stock him AFTER buffing him, you'll also have to worry about the buff wearing off, which it will. If you don't know the proper button combinations, you will fail to hit in the proper places, and fail to break the enemy's 'iron' guard.If you don't 'Boost' in at just the right moment and basically gang-rape your enemies, you will fail to kill them at the proper time, which is key to gaining bonus exp, which you NEED to get through the game faster, so you can SEE what happens next, which you WILL want to do, really, REALLY badly ... The whole situation is just made entirely out of of suck.When you DO finally see what happens next, it will be after taking an extensive detour, as in the middle of nowhere the plot takes an inexplicable turn TO THE LEFT. What follows IS very interesting, but not worth the suffering it will take to get there. The pacing here is made of torture.Every single dungeon is STUFFED TO OVERFLOWING with stupid, frustrating puzzles that you must solve in between stupid, frustrating battles. It feels like the game was designed to weigh you all the way down so you won't discover how little time was spent advancing the plot. (This is like the opposite of Episode I, where the plot itself advances so slowly that you can get lost in it, wondering which little details actually matter.) If the end result didn't feel like it were dripping with PURE HATRED for the Xenosaga fan base, it might be worth enduring.This is the kind of game you might imagine someone working on out of financial and personal obligation, then becoming bitter midway through and deciding to (passively-aggressively) take his problems out on his audience.Remember the countdown timer at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII? Remember how you could make it out alive with several whole minutes to spare? This game has the opposite of that.After initiating the self-destruct sequence, you must navigate a 'maze' of platforms, filled with hard-to-kill enemies, after a cheap boss fight, while a timer ticks angrily down on EVERY SINGLE SCREEN. Then you have to navigate ALL THE WAY BACK to your spaceship - there are no cinematic exchanges to bust up the extreme tension. At least they let you save the game beforehand... if I remember correctly.Even the final boss fight doesn't end when it seems to - the rewards and earned exp screen is ripped down by an angry beast physically demanding a rematch. Which you must give it.If you DO decide to play this game, 'don't'.'But if you do, don't'.'But if you DO', watch the cutscenes first, so you can 'enjoy' the game (as if it were possible...) on its own terms, instead of playing it just to see what happens next. The pacing is just that bad; the story is just that 'good'.If you play this game without watching all (or 90% of) the cutscenes first, the thought that will forever be at the back of your mind is:'But I just want to see what happens next....'*sobs bitterly*'Stupid puzzle...'If you really, really liked Episode I, avoid this game at all costs. Skip it. Episode III begins with a huge chunk of plot missing, and if you want to see what happened you'll have to watch it on a computer anyway. Since you're already there, you might as well watch the cutscenes from this game online while you wisely save your money and spend your gaming time having actual FUN.Unless you're some sort of masochist...

I thought the first game was so-so; the 2nd much better. The combat is simpler to understand but more complicated to use - you start with all the fighting techniques you're going to get. Its up to you to figure out which characters and combinations of attacks work well in a given situation. Its a bit confusing until you get the hang of it. Bosses are a bit more complicated - you need to mix up the attacks of more than one character to be effective. There's always one major weakness to be uncovered.As far as the series - well, the story doesn't end here - if anything, it gets more complicated. Only a few loose ends are resolved, and several new ones are added.After the game ends, be sure to save - then continue using saved data. The game continues with a huge side quest that's not series related but has a story all its own.Over all - there's room for improvement, bt I'd say its better than FFX2.

I purchased this item from the seller Bargain Quest. It arrived long before the estimated date Amazon gave me, 2 days after I ordered it. This item was in such great condition, I was amazed. Like new, complete in box, manual included, discs in perfect condition, not resurfaced. I haven't yet completed xenosaga 1, but I tested out both discs and ran some of the opening cutscene on disc one [ don't want to ruin the plot!] . I recommend the EEEKit Video AV Adapter to output your ps2 in HD, games like the xenosaga series look hella better on new TVs, and I would also recommend checking out bargain quest for any of your game purchases. The xenosaga series isn't for everyone, and if you're reading this review you're likely already familiar with it. I hope to find more jrpgs similar that have been translated into English.

A must play for people who love rpgs. Product was new but pricey

First of all, if you haven't played the first episode, turn around right now and purchase that first. This series is heavily story driven and you will miss out quite a lot if you jump straight into the second one.The combat system has some significant changes from the first game, and in my opinion they are overall changes for the worse. Depending on your style of play, you may or may not agree with me.The voice actors went through some changes as well, also for the worse.Where this game, and the series in general, excels is in the story and depth of plot. You find out more about the past of Junior, and get to play as Jin Uzuki. The cutscenes are still epic both in content and in length.This game is definitely worth playing through to continue with the plot.

Parfait

good story if you can play it

Great Game, I really enjoyed playing it.

good play!!