Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose is the second entry in Namco's sci-fi role-playing game trilogy on the PlayStation 2. We got our hands on the just-released Japanese import of the game to find out just what happens in this new entry in the series. If you want to see for yourself, take a look at some brand-new footage of the game in action.

Xenosaga Episode II is just as story-driven as its predecessor.

Episode II starts out with a flashback scene taking place 14 years prior to the first game, where the synthetic humans called realians have suddenly gone out of control. In this sequence, you control Chaos--who should be a familiar character from Episode I--and a new character named Canaan, who's a special realian that's immune to things that affect normal realians. During your short jaunt through this flashback, in which you're on a top secret mission for the government, you meet up with a samurai named Jin Uzuki, who's the big brother of Episode I main character Shion Uzuki.

With the appearance of Jin, you find out about a document called the Y-data, which holds the key to uncovering what's going on with the realians, as well as the identity of the person or persons who are behind it all. While your party goes on to find the Y-data, your mission gets cut short by the appearance of Margulis, who Episode I fans will remember as an unbeatable boss. Things are a bit different now, thankfully, since you can actually defeat him this time around. In any event, Chaos and Canaan return home with only a fraction of the Y-data, which Jin uploads to Canaan's memory (he disposes of the hard copy). But before they safely make their way to home base, Canaan gets assaulted by an unknown black cloud that damages the data that he's just received.

The game's scene then switches to the planet of Second Miltia, 14 years later, which is where refugees from the original Miltia escaped after their land became uninhabitable. After a short cutscene in which Canaan is seen being examined due to yet another data blackout, the scene changes to the familiar characters from Episode I and their cargo ship. Arriving on Second Miltia directly after their intense adventures in Episode I, the party splits up into two groups, since the blue-haired android Kos-Mos needs to go through an equipment change in Vector Corporation's lab, and the girlish realian Momo needs to have her own Y-data deciphered at the U.M.N. center. However, things on Second Miltia are not as safe as they may seem, and Momo once again almost gets kidnapped by henchmen who have been sent by Margulis. Further on in the storyline, we learned that Margulis is planning to excavate the original Zohar--an ancient artifact with mysterious powers--from the first Miltia. The Zohar is also known to have some connection to the deadly, unidentified alien life-forms called the gnosis, which have been one of the key elements in Xenosaga's storyline.

Similar to Xenosaga Episode I, Episode II is extremely story-driven, with multiple plot threads occurring concurrently and even more characters appearing in the scenarios this time around. You'll be watching noninteractive 3D cutscenes for hours during the game, but the well-developed battle system and various side games help to make up for the short span of actual gameplay time. One change that helps to give you more freedom is that Episode II features a walk-able map from the early stages of the game, which in Episode I wasn't available until later on at the Kukai Foundation.

Familiar characters like Shion and Kos-Mos will be joined by a new cast in Episode II.

The most noticeable change in the graphics in Xenosaga Episode II is the styling of the characters, which no longer have their animelike look. The characters all have a more grown-up look to them, which may seem a bit unnatural at first because of the sudden change but shouldn't be too difficult to get used to after some time with the game. Some of the characters have gone though additional cosmetic changes, most notably the female characters such as Shion, with her new costume, and Momo, who now fights with a bow and arrow. To accommodate the taller and more-mature look of the characters, it seems that the field maps have also become roomier in comparison to Episode I. Some areas of the Kukai Foundation and its city are definitely larger than they were portrayed in the first game, for instance.

The field system in Xenosaga Episode II plays identically to that in Episode I. You walk from area to area, solving puzzles if necessary and destroying objects to uncover new paths and hidden items. You'll transition into battle when you encounter enemies that are visible on the screen, but these can often be weakened beforehand by blasting trap objects that are usually found close to their locations. The enemies in Episode II seem to have an easier time catching you than in the first game, and it doesn't seem to be as easy to evade them by simply maneuvering around them. Fortunately, two of the party members--Shion and Momo--come equipped with the escape command by default. So if you want to skip the fighting and go on to the next movie, you can escape from a battle and use an invincibility ability on the field screen afterward to run away from the enemy. You can get experience points even if you escape from a battle as long as you've defeated at least one enemy, which gives you a good reason to make a tactical retreat if you think you're in a dangerous situation.