Xenosaga: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse

Xenosaga Episode II Jenseits von Gut und Böse is the second installment in Namco’s epic Xenosaga series. Jumping into Episode II without having played Episode I isn’t the greatest idea because the game begins during the Miltian Conflict, which takes place fourteen years before the start of Episode I, and then picks up promptly where Episode I left off with the Elsa making planet fall on Second Miltia. Everyone who was present in Episode I is back in Episode II. However, those who had the spot light during Episode I really take more of a backseat role in Episode II. This is because Episode II is primarily told from the perspectives of Jr., Chaos, and Momo. While this is disappointing for the Shion fans, it’s not a bad thing. This is because it allows the games creators to flush out the other characters more, and lets players get to know them better. This is important because in Episode I everyone minus Shion was pretty much a two dimensional background character, and Xenosaga is about the entire cast of characters, not just Shion. There are a couple of new faces added to the cast as well in Episode II. However, overall they are pretty flat since players never learn anything about them beyond the initial reason of why they are joining the team.

Game play in Episode II is very much the same as it was in Episode I, although the combat system has received a complete overhaul. Instead of performing various attack combo’s like you did in Episode I, the attack buttons have been reconfigured to target different zones on the enemy. What you need to do is find their weak zone by attacking their zones in the appropriate order in order to break their guard, knock them into the air, or hit them onto the ground. Once this has been accomplished you can inflict massive amounts of damage onto the enemy, which usually finishes them off. Team attacks have also been added to the combat system. These are devastating combination attacks that can be used once per battle and allow for the combination of your different characters ether and attack skills. They are also how you will primarily be dealing large amounts of damage in the game. How you advance your characters has also seen a complete make over. Rather than buy new weapons and armor, and/or just advance in level, in Episode II you collect points from battles that are used to advance up skill trees. These skill trees have everything from ether attacks, to equip able abilities and passive abilities in them. You can equip three of your unlocked abilities at a time, and that is pretty much your weapons and armor in the game. It’s an interesting idea for character customization, but unfortunately is flawed by the fact that everyone starts at the same location on the skill trees, which means everyone ends at the same location and almost always has the same skills. So in the end there is no difference between who you choose to use minus what enemy zones they can attack.

Giant robots also return in Episode II. They are called E.S.’s this time around and are more advanced than what you had in Episode I. Giant robot specific battles and levels also return in Episode II. This is a mixed blessing, because on the one hand it’s nice to have this feature restored, but on the other hand, the robot customization present in Episode I is completely absent this time around. To overcome this, the E.S.’s level up like individual characters do when you use them, and their stats are determined by the abilities their pilots have equipped. You can swap between pilots at your leisure so it’s not like this is a bad thing, but it’s not entirely a good thing either, given how the giant robot system worked in the previous episode. They feel great to use. Yet they also feel underpowered due to the lack of customization and given the fact that they are supposed to be more powerful than the old A.G.W.S.

The graphics have also been improved and look better than ever. Both space and planetary environments look fantastic, be they indoor or outdoor. The cutscenes and cinemas look better than ever, and have been shortened this time around with more frequent save points between them for player convenience. The games cinema is also largely confined to Episode II’s first disc, which acts as sort of a prelude to the second disc, which is where the majority of the game play is. In addition to everything else the character models have received a complete overhaul and look beautiful. Everyone in the cast looks much older and more mature this time around. Unfortunately, the new look doesn’t really work, given the fact that this game starts right from the very point at which the previous one ended. So overall the new look doesn’t work, despite how visually pleasing it is.

The audio in Episode II is good as well, but not as good as it was in Episode I. Background music has been added to the games environments in order to further set their mood and draw players in. This is a great addition considering background music was entirely absent in Episode I, minus its cinemas. Not everything is hunky dory with the audio though. The biggest problem with it is that not everyone from the original voice cast is present, and the new replacement actors/actresses don’t do nearly as good a job as those whom they are replacing. Episode I’s voiceovers where a joy to listen to. However, Episode II’s are down right painful in places.

All in all, Xenosaga Episode II accomplishes what it set out to do, which is simply to continue the Xenosaga story. It’s not as long as Episode I was. Players can easily clear the first disc in ten hours or less, because it’s mostly cinema, and the second disc only takes a measly twelve or so hours to beat. This brings the games total play time to about twenty hours, which is terribly short by RPG standards. However, short and sweet is definitely Xenosaga Episode II’s objective, and it accomplishes it. The only truly unfortunate thing regarding Episode II is all changes the developers made. These changes aren’t for the better because they either do not work at all for continuity reasons, or because they water down what was great and working before to the point that it doesn’t work now. The developers should have kept the Episode I character models and simply updated them like they did with the rest of the graphics. Also, the combat and character advancement systems should not have been tampered with because they are boring and uninteresting now. Lastly, because Episode II picks up right where Episode I left off and has the same cast of characters, it would have been really nice if you could transfer your Episode I character data over to Episode II like you can with other episodic series such as “Dot Hack.” This is because starting over from level one doesn’t make any sense, and is incredibly annoying given Episode II’s context. With all of that said, if you played Episode I and don’t want to continue the story, then by all means don’t. After all, Episode I works on it’s own without any support perfectly fine. However, if you are a fan and want to continue in order to see what happens next, then by all means pick up Xenosaga Episode II. Just keep in mind the experience won’t be as good as it was with Episode I.