Xenosaga Episode 3: Also Sprach Zarathustra
PS2
Release Date: August 29th, 2006
RPG
Review by Dack
Xenosaga Episode 3: Also Sprach Zarathustra is a masterpiece of a Japanese RPG with a story that does what is needed to make sense of all that happened in the first two games. It also improves on the battle system of the first two games and the new skill and break systems give battles a tactical edge.
To start out with, the story is very well done. I won’t go into any actual details of the story here as every bit is enjoyable. One complaint some people could have is that the cut scenes are too long but as someone who plays my games for the story first, there is no such thing as a cut scene that’s too long. The story is presented in two ways, first off the game has FMVs that tell the story at some of the most important parts of the game. These FMVs are very impressive and some of the action in them is especially fun to watch. There are a few scenes where it is very obvious that there was blood removed in order to keep the game as a T rating, however that is only a minor annoyance.
The other way the story is presented is a bit simpler. Those scenes are played out with in engine characters without moving mouths and everything given to you in text boxes at the top and bottom of the screen. The game cycles through a few avatars for each of the characters to show you who is talking. These scenes are adequate for what they do and still give the story quite well. Some players may find these scenes to be boring because of their pace but the game gives you an option to have them auto advance to make them less tedious and allow you to eat while watching them.
Gameplay is set up with a combination of running around towns, which thankfully doesn’t happen very often, and running through dungeons. While in dungeons you can see the enemy on screen similar to the previous games. Players should be aware that every battle can be started with initiative over the enemies or the enemies having initiative depending on what way you are facing when you contact the enemy. Battles play out in traditional turn based manner although you have a boost meter to spice things up a little bit. Both the player and enemy have boost meters that charge up as they deal damage to the other side. The boost meter can be used to give you multiple turns in a row or to execute special attacks.
Special attacks take a certain amount of the boost meter and for the most part deal major damage to the enemy. Special attacks are a lot more useful for getting finish strike on the enemy most times then dealing damage although this is only true in the battles on foot. When you get finish strike on an enemy, you gain more experience, sp, and gold after the battle. This is helpful both for regular encounters with enemies and bosses to speed up the rate of experience gain and keep you from needing to grind.
In battle both the enemies and player characters have break bars as well. Certain attacks deal break damage and once enough break damage is dealt, the afflicted character goes into break status. When in break status, a character is unable to act for two of their regular turns. They also have a higher chance of being the victim of critical attacks. Break is key to defeating many of the bosses in the game.
Skills in the game are separated into four categories. Special attacks use boost like discussed above, passive skills are always active stat boosts, ethers are like magic and techs are more physical based skills that damage the enemy and break them. Skills are sometimes gained through leveling up although the rest of the skills are learned through the skill tree. Skill points are gained after each battle and through the use of items that can be found in dungeons or bought if you do a certain side quest.
The skill tree basically has two paths for each character. Each path has a mastery skill at the end that is learned once every skill in the path is learned. There are also EX skills that are accessible after you find and use the EX key in a dungeon. EX skills are generally skills that someone else will learn automatically and are used to pimp out your best characters after they have learned every other skill.
Aside from battles on foot, some dungeons have you hopping into your E.S.s to fight larger enemies with amounts of damage getting much larger as well. Battles in your E.S. are a lot simpler because you cant break or boost. The boost bar that is shared by your characters on foot is replaced with individual anima meters for each E.S. in battle. Similar to the boost bar, the anima meter goes up as you damage your enemy. Each E.S. has its own Anima Awakenings that they can use. Anima Awakenings have three levels, each using one bar more then the last. When you awaken you are able to use your special attacks that are able to cause much more damage then a regular attack and also finish strike the enemies you kill.
Aside from Anima Awakenings, the regular attacks in the E.S. battles take endurance. Each turn your endurance is filled up and the number of attacks you can do each turn depends on your endurance. You have to choose between using two large strong attacks and four or five smaller ones. While awakened, your endurance gets a little boost that goes away after a few turns. The graphical effects in E.S. battles are awesome to behold although they get old after a while when you are fighting a boss for half an hour.
The graphics in the game range from good to great with in game engine text box scenes being good while dungeons are great. The dungeons are varied and some have some really good backgrounds to them. The game is light on puzzles which can make the dungeons less frustrating. The soundtrack for the game is one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a game. The soundtrack is composed by my favorite composer, Yuki Kajiura. Fans of her work will recognize her style from the music in the cinematics of episode 2 except now the music is in the game all throughout. The biggest problem with the music is the volume. In pretty much the entire game, the music is a bit quieter then the sound effects or voices and it is especially noticeable during E.S. battles.
When all put together, Xenosaga Episode 3 is a relatively long game, ranging from 30-50 hours, with a great story and one of the best soundtracks around. Fans of Japanese RPGs will find a lot to love with this game. Fans of JRPGs who have not played the first two games are suggested to buy all three for the story although the first game is relatively dull in the gameplay department. I will remember Xenosaga Episode 3 for a long time to come.
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 9
Story: 10
Music: 10
Value: 9
Final Score: 9.5 (not an average)
PS2
Release Date: August 29th, 2006
RPG
Review by Dack
Xenosaga Episode 3: Also Sprach Zarathustra is a masterpiece of a Japanese RPG with a story that does what is needed to make sense of all that happened in the first two games. It also improves on the battle system of the first two games and the new skill and break systems give battles a tactical edge.
To start out with, the story is very well done. I won’t go into any actual details of the story here as every bit is enjoyable. One complaint some people could have is that the cut scenes are too long but as someone who plays my games for the story first, there is no such thing as a cut scene that’s too long. The story is presented in two ways, first off the game has FMVs that tell the story at some of the most important parts of the game. These FMVs are very impressive and some of the action in them is especially fun to watch. There are a few scenes where it is very obvious that there was blood removed in order to keep the game as a T rating, however that is only a minor annoyance.
The other way the story is presented is a bit simpler. Those scenes are played out with in engine characters without moving mouths and everything given to you in text boxes at the top and bottom of the screen. The game cycles through a few avatars for each of the characters to show you who is talking. These scenes are adequate for what they do and still give the story quite well. Some players may find these scenes to be boring because of their pace but the game gives you an option to have them auto advance to make them less tedious and allow you to eat while watching them.
Gameplay is set up with a combination of running around towns, which thankfully doesn’t happen very often, and running through dungeons. While in dungeons you can see the enemy on screen similar to the previous games. Players should be aware that every battle can be started with initiative over the enemies or the enemies having initiative depending on what way you are facing when you contact the enemy. Battles play out in traditional turn based manner although you have a boost meter to spice things up a little bit. Both the player and enemy have boost meters that charge up as they deal damage to the other side. The boost meter can be used to give you multiple turns in a row or to execute special attacks.
Special attacks take a certain amount of the boost meter and for the most part deal major damage to the enemy. Special attacks are a lot more useful for getting finish strike on the enemy most times then dealing damage although this is only true in the battles on foot. When you get finish strike on an enemy, you gain more experience, sp, and gold after the battle. This is helpful both for regular encounters with enemies and bosses to speed up the rate of experience gain and keep you from needing to grind.
In battle both the enemies and player characters have break bars as well. Certain attacks deal break damage and once enough break damage is dealt, the afflicted character goes into break status. When in break status, a character is unable to act for two of their regular turns. They also have a higher chance of being the victim of critical attacks. Break is key to defeating many of the bosses in the game.
Skills in the game are separated into four categories. Special attacks use boost like discussed above, passive skills are always active stat boosts, ethers are like magic and techs are more physical based skills that damage the enemy and break them. Skills are sometimes gained through leveling up although the rest of the skills are learned through the skill tree. Skill points are gained after each battle and through the use of items that can be found in dungeons or bought if you do a certain side quest.
The skill tree basically has two paths for each character. Each path has a mastery skill at the end that is learned once every skill in the path is learned. There are also EX skills that are accessible after you find and use the EX key in a dungeon. EX skills are generally skills that someone else will learn automatically and are used to pimp out your best characters after they have learned every other skill.
Aside from battles on foot, some dungeons have you hopping into your E.S.s to fight larger enemies with amounts of damage getting much larger as well. Battles in your E.S. are a lot simpler because you cant break or boost. The boost bar that is shared by your characters on foot is replaced with individual anima meters for each E.S. in battle. Similar to the boost bar, the anima meter goes up as you damage your enemy. Each E.S. has its own Anima Awakenings that they can use. Anima Awakenings have three levels, each using one bar more then the last. When you awaken you are able to use your special attacks that are able to cause much more damage then a regular attack and also finish strike the enemies you kill.
Aside from Anima Awakenings, the regular attacks in the E.S. battles take endurance. Each turn your endurance is filled up and the number of attacks you can do each turn depends on your endurance. You have to choose between using two large strong attacks and four or five smaller ones. While awakened, your endurance gets a little boost that goes away after a few turns. The graphical effects in E.S. battles are awesome to behold although they get old after a while when you are fighting a boss for half an hour.
The graphics in the game range from good to great with in game engine text box scenes being good while dungeons are great. The dungeons are varied and some have some really good backgrounds to them. The game is light on puzzles which can make the dungeons less frustrating. The soundtrack for the game is one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a game. The soundtrack is composed by my favorite composer, Yuki Kajiura. Fans of her work will recognize her style from the music in the cinematics of episode 2 except now the music is in the game all throughout. The biggest problem with the music is the volume. In pretty much the entire game, the music is a bit quieter then the sound effects or voices and it is especially noticeable during E.S. battles.
When all put together, Xenosaga Episode 3 is a relatively long game, ranging from 30-50 hours, with a great story and one of the best soundtracks around. Fans of Japanese RPGs will find a lot to love with this game. Fans of JRPGs who have not played the first two games are suggested to buy all three for the story although the first game is relatively dull in the gameplay department. I will remember Xenosaga Episode 3 for a long time to come.
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 9
Story: 10
Music: 10
Value: 9
Final Score: 9.5 (not an average)