Xenosaga: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse

Xenosaga: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse is a video game that consists of 1 release

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This second episode in the Xenosaga series expands on the story of Jr. and his relationship with his brothers Albedo and Gaignun. It also introduces Shion's brother, Jin Uzuki, as a playable character.

Story

The second game in the Xenosaga series, is a very typical mid-point of a trilogy, in that while it does advance the main plot of the story a good bit, the main focus of this instalment is to develop the characters and expand on the back story of the main protagonists. The first game talked about many events in the past such as the Miltian Conflict, but very little details were revealed about this pivotal event in the history of the Xenosaga universe. The second game clearly intends to address this as the game opens smack bang in the middle of the conflict by means of a flashback through a new character called Caanan. He is on a mission to rescue any surviving URTV's after their conflict with U-DO and joined by Chaos they set about just doing that. We also get the first proper look at Shions brother Jin who becomes a main protagonist from here on in. The main plot is advanced also and again focuses on Albedo and his attempt to extract the Y-data from MOMO so he can release the seal on Old-Miltia where the mysterious Zohar sleeps. Albedo himself is a main focus on the character development front as a large portion of the game is spent looking at Albedo, Rubedo (Jr.), and Nigredo (Gaignun) back when they were comrades at the Yuriev institute. We see them as comrades and friends and witness some of the events that explain how Albedo could turn so cruel and where his obsession with Rubedo comes from.

Gameplay

The Gameplay in Episode 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. The combat and battle engine has undergone a serious change from the first game and mostly for the better, whereas the character development/customization aspect has been stripped down and removed a lot of control from the player, and for a game that is only ever going to appeal to a hardcore rpg audience this is a very strange design choice.

Battle System

The battle system in the first game felt like it expanded upon Xenogears, in that it was based on AP and the strongest attacks would always use more AP. Rather than expand further on that concept again Monolith have created a brand new engine for this game. Enemies and the party members now have 3 attack zones, ABC, that can be attacked. Hitting any zone will cause damage but every enemy has a specific weak zone that if targeted enough will cause them to enter break status. In this state the enemy cannot attack , and they will receive extra damage, and they can be knocked down to the ground or popped up into the air and it costs them an extra turn to recover from that. The real advantage to breaking an enemy comes from the returning boost feature , which allows one of your party to get in a free attack on an enemy , so for instance you could break an enemy and knock them into the air and use 2-3 boost attacks to hit them while they are still airborne for massive damage. Enemies in this game are seriously difficult especially early one so getting used to this break and boost method of attack is paramount.
Like the first game there is also mech combat and this time the A.G.W.S that you piloted from the first game are replaced with similar looking machines called E.S.'s. Much like the main battle system these battles have been totally changed. Instead of being able to jump into your craft during any battle the game instead has specific areas/missions where you only use these machines.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Xenosaga: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment Europe NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Developer(s)	Monolith Software, Inc.
Genres	Add a new genre Role-Playing (RPG)
Themes	Add a new theme Sci-Fi Cyberpunk
Original US Release	Feb. 15, 2005 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases
ESRB	ESRB: T