What Happened?!?
Sound: I miss you Yasunori Mitsuda! Unfortunately the second episode of Xenosaga marked the end of famed composer Yasunori Mitsuda's involvement with the game. The music that is in the game is not bad, but the difference in styling is very noticeable, and they changed some of the voice actors which makes it a little jarring to listen to a familiar character after hearing a different voice for about 40 hours in episode 1. Overall, like the graphics, the sound is decent but it doesn't quite live up to the game's predecessor.
Gameplay: This is the area that I think the development team really screwed up on. The first Xenosaga had a wonderful battle system, simple yet deep. In the sequel, this system was chucked out to make room for the "new and improved" one now being implemented, which, as the sarcastic quote marks imply, isn't very "improved" at all. Instead, its is overly complex to the point of convolution. Simply put, this game isn't very fun to play. I only hope that they learn from their mistakes in time for the next game in the series.
Story: The game is a continuation of Episode 1, picking up when the crew lands on Second Miltia after the conclusion of the first game. Xenosaga's famous (or infamous) storytelling continues with this game, and I don't wish to spoil anything for the fans, but I believe the story will make fans of some and turn off others, similar to the first game.
Value: It's an RPG, so expect a fair amount of length in the game, but Xenosaga 2 doesn't offer much replay value. Maybe die hard fans will see a reason to play through another time, but the rest of us will be lucky to make it to the ending once.
Overall: To me this game is a prime example of poor decision making during a game's development cycle. Too many bad choices were made here to make this game close to as good as Xenosaga and Xenogears were. Fans of the genre and in particular the series should give it a chance, but everyone should approach this game with caution.