Xenosaga II was, as I said, a learning period for Monolith. If it weren’t for Xenosaga II, Xenosaga III wouldn’t be what it is. This game is abused more than it should be. As far as overall value goes, I liked it better than Final Fantasy XII. FFXII was an utter disaster, and Xenosaga II was…awkward, but still good because of the story and characters. FFXII didn’t have a good story or characters. The story of XSII didn’t interest me as much as XSI, because my favorite characters were given very little spot-light, and the passive animation was highly disappointing, but XSII explained the half of Xenosaga that XSI didn’t get much time to go into. I didn’t like Rubedo / Jr. at all in Xenosaga I. In fact, I couldn’t stand him. After XSII, Shion never saw light in my combat party again…in any of the installments. :D A lot happens in XSII, which I liked. However, it felt like the first disc ending far too quickly. I liked XSII better upon replaying it, because when I burst into XSII immediately after finished XSI, I couldn’t remember the difference between the Kukai Foundation, Ormus, and U-TIC, because I was so confused from XSI. Sad, no? As I said earlier, the best thing about the story in XSII was making the other half of your party more likable. It’s also an important stepping stone in the Xenosaga series. For the animation…eh, I got the feeling they were trying to be like Final Fantasy. You know, super-realistic looking characters. But, unlike most of the FFs the characters look pretty much…terrible in the normal animation. As far as body-structure they looked pretty good, and in the good animation most of them look great (just exclude KOS-MOS and chaos) but most of the game isn’t in that really nice animation. If only they’d made it three discs…then again, I don’t think there is a PS2 game that’s so many discs. Combat is disappointing. The replaced Tech Attacks with Double Attacks, and it just didn’t come out very good. You have to do side-quests for steal from enemies to Awaken these attacks, and that’s a bit of a pain. However, even in combat it’s a stepping stone to lead to the greatness that is Xenosaga III. Side-quests are sometimes easy, and some times hellish. They did make the mecha combat more appealing with the E.S.s, because I never used the A.G.W.S. in XSI, and the E.S. combat in XSIII is completely perfect. Once again, XSII proves its role as a stepping stone. Let’s see…what else is there to go over? Ah yes, sound. How could I forget the only thing that made me dislike XSII to this day? I suppose since I’m replaying XSIII, and haven’t played XSII in nearly a year, I suppose I’ve kinda forgotten… They changed all the voices! Only, like, two characters kept their old voices in XSII. KOS-MOS suffered the most. chaos’ new voice I really hated at first, but it was the same in XSIII so it didn’t bother me as much. Other than chaos, you can find peace in knowing the rest of the main cast gets all their old voices back. The background music is great, but the ending song didn’t seem all that fitting, The last line was, “I’m still signing your sweet song, of love” and the romance in Xenosaga is…well, there’s Shion in Kevin before XSI started. But there isn’t any real romance in the game. There are the Rubedo and Sakura flashbacks, so I suppose if I look at in a different light I suppose it’s a little relevant… The “blood and gore” rating of XSII was a little overboard, I thought. There was hardly any blood at all, compared to XSI. There was puddle of blood in the end, the blood that soldiers emit in combat, but still nothing that bad. Okay, so didn’t do much for Xenosaga Episode II Jenseits von Gut und Bose in this review to make it sound good, but if you can get past the draw-backs the story of this game truly is “Beyond Good and Evil” as the title implies. My review of Xenosaga III is coming soon, so by the time you read this it’s probably already posted. J *Japanese-style bow* I hope I was helpful.
Other Helpful Reviews for Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose
The first Xenosaga was a unique RPG experience for me. I had never played a game that featured so many cut scenes, most of which were considerably long. Fortunately the scenes were done very well, and it made for an en... Read Full Review
Xenosaga is an RPG series split into episodes. Episode 2 starts where the first game left off, however if you do not know the story from the first game, you will be lost throughout most of this episode wondering what’s ... Read Full Review
