Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

[Red Dragon]

It seems on this board everyone hates Xenosaga. Everyone has their likes and dislikes but what is with the dislike with Xenosaga.

I found the 20 min cutscenes annoying but not enough to hate the game entirely. Although I DID hate that if you didn't buy enough items before a boss there is no way of going back to get some. AR helped me wit that , but other than that I thought it was a decent game.

[hitogoroshi]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

Yeah, I like it. But I got a mem card wipe, and I don't feel like redoing the 25 hours I logged on it.

[John Mora]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I cut the game a lot of slack initially because I thought, "Hey, it's the first episode in a long line of games, of course it'll take some time to set up. I'm sure it'll get to the good stuff in Episode II." Then Episode II came out and it was a glorified side story. And now Episode III has come out and is supposed to be the final episode in the story, yet it hasn't even touched upon most of the Xeno-timeline. Deus was supposed to have been activated in the year that the first game took place, but Episode III skips forward a few years and it STILL hasn't happened. I signed on for an epic, proper retelling of the story from Xenogears, not to see the faggy misadventures of Shion & Co.

Xenosaga did a bait and switch, and couldn't even tell its own story decently. The models in the first game were creepy and doll-like, the direction of cutscenes was limp and unimaginative, the writing as lifeless as the characters and the story needlessly and excessively used religious, psychoanalytic and philosophical terms and names in order to create the illusion of depth and artistry without actually doing the job of crafting good character development or a decent plot. What do you actually know about Shion's character by the end of Episode I? That she's scared of lightning? Weak. Also, the soundtrack was woefully underused in the game, which was big on humming spaceship engines. And then Yuki Kajiura was brought in. Also, AGWS were useless. Completely, pathetically tangential to the gaming experience.

Tetsuya What's-his-face had his chance to remake the Xeno story in a manner befitting it and he frittered it all away. Almost NO ONE gets a second chance like that and it burns me up that he wasted it so utterly. The series deserves every bit of failure that it gets, at this point.

[highwind]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I cut the game a lot of slack initially because I thought, "Hey, it's the first episode in a long line of games, of course it'll take some time to set up. I'm sure it'll get to the good stuff in Episode II." Then Episode II came out and it was a glorified side story. And now Episode III has come out and is supposed to be the final episode in the story, yet it hasn't even touched upon most of the Xeno-timeline. Deus was supposed to have been activated in the year that the first game took place, but Episode III skips forward a few years and it STILL hasn't happened. I signed on for an epic, proper retelling of the story from Xenogears, not to see the faggy misadventures of Shion & Co.

Xenosaga did a bait and switch, and couldn't even tell its own story decently. The models in the first game were creepy and doll-like, the direction of cutscenes was limp and unimaginative, the writing as lifeless as the characters and the story needlessly and excessively used religious, psychoanalytic and philosophical terms and names in order to create the illusion of depth and artistry without actually doing the job of crafting good character development or a decent plot. What do you actually know about Shion's character by the end of Episode I? That she's scared of lightning? Weak. Also, the soundtrack was woefully underused in the game, which was big on humming spaceship engines. And then Yuki Kajiura was brought in. Also, AGWS were useless. Completely, pathetically tangential to the gaming experience.

Tetsuya What's-his-face had his chance to remake the Xeno story in a manner befitting it and he frittered it all away. Almost NO ONE gets a second chance like that and it burns me up that he wasted it so utterly. The series deserves every bit of failure that it gets, at this point.

Wow.

Yeah.

[Biggie]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

Yeah, I love Xenosaga 1, but 2 sucked. That aint to say it wasn't enjoyable, but it was too short, not very many side quests, load times for battles were ridiculous. Though I did like the battle system in 2. But I have high hopes for 3. I haven't given up on the series yet.

[jvrlopez]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

Xenosaga was alright.

[Magus]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

It was excrement. I wasted 30 hours of my time before I finally figured out I've been had and the game should've been ****ing done by then. Xenosaga is everything that is wrong with Japanese sci-fi anime storytelling to the nth degree. You'd think they'd have learned from their mistakes with Xenogears but it was a colossal, embarrassing bore that begged on its bony, bland knees to be taken seriously. If you think this is hardcore, challenging sci-fi then you're a toddler and you probably enjoyed X3 as well lolz

[Marc M.]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

Take what Mora said, add more swearing and arbitrary references, and you have my thoughts exactly.

[Jamos' Old Account]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I liked Xenosaga Ep.1 okay, I guess. But over all I found it disapointing. All I could say about it has already been said. The only reason I stuck around for the ep.2 was because I liked Albedo. The dude rips off his own limbs, now that's hardcore! All and all, Xenosaga shouldn't even be anywhere near Xenogears shadow. I love Xenogears stay away from her!

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I didn't have a problem with the first one, which I just rebeat thanks to PlayStation magazines holiday demo disc 2005 wiping both my memory cards. Have yet to play the Second though I own it, as I'm still getting back what was wiped (well over 500 hours there). Yeah there was a lot of story, really too much, not well balanced with amount of gameplay. I though the battle system was pretty good, slightly different from the typical mash the X button and hope you don't die. Also I prefer to have the enemies on screen as opposed to random battle, and I think the amount of battle was appopriate to the length of the game. For items I don't think I used them that much, since I made sure to get good Ethers, and always have a healer in my party. I don't think the story is too bad for what it's worth, though this game and Star Ocean 3 have quite a bit in common (except for the whole each planet is a different time period ala Stargate). And most of the scenes with Albedo are pretty cool, definitly one of the creepiest in terms of Console RPGs. The guy did meniacal pretty good. As for Shion yeah she was pretty useless and a terrible main character. KOS-MOS while pretty empty did do a decent job for comic relief (sadly the only one in the game).

The game could have completely did away with AWGS though, unless your characters just sucked, AWGS were totally useless, I don't think I used them in either play through at all, other than to just try them out. But I will agree the game is not really close to the size and scope of most RPGs as it is a light play at best (30-40hours), with little to no real sidequests, except the mandatory card game that was all the rage in RPGs at the time (see FF8, FF9).

I know people are going to hate me for saying it, but I enjoy the battling much better in this game than Xenogears, and at least I knew what to do next so I didn't have to retalk to everyone just to figure out where the hell to go (my main thing against Xenogears). So while it might disappoint as the great 5 game series it started out to be (also see .hack), it's still not a horrible game, and the story isn't all that bad, though it leaves more than a little unresolved at the end of the first one. But then again I also liked FF8, so maybe I just root for the underdog.

[DK]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I don't even remember the story and quit playing after that enchipion jump to Miltia or something.

I think I got the good end of the bargain, can't even remember the game

[Red Dragon]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

I've never played Xenogears (even though, officially, they are not connected) maybe that is why I don't have a huge distaste for it. In 2 I haven't gotten far in (kinda quit when I couldn't beat a boss, yeah I'm dumb like that). I may only have liked it for Ziggy and KOS-MOS though, dunno what it is but I like robots...

[Vonwert]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

The story just plugs away at a snail's pace. And the gameplay is lacking big time.

I never even played the 2nd one. There is no desire to play any more.

[Magus]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

Take what Mora said, add more swearing and arbitrary references, and you have my thoughts exactly.

Ditto. Double ditto. I've been hating Xenosaga for a long, long time. My hate is pure venom that is too deadly for even the most stalwart of warrior-biologists to extract. It is enmity in its most toxic form, able to kill the mightiest of pachyderms. In fact...

maybe I just root for the underdog.

Xenosaga Episode I is NOT an underdog. Observe: http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpage...asp?q=Xenosaga

Those are some damn fine respectable reviews for a game that is, at any angle, a horrible mess. That's why - aside from the apparent-but-now-all-but-void connection to Xenogears - I GOT the game in the FIRST place. Nothing but praise. You'd be hard-pressed to find a review that mentions anything worse than its "long cutscenes" or "complicated story." So I imagine my immense disappointment. Immensappointment. And I spent the whole fifty clams.

I mean, LOOK at those SCORES. You'd think it's an all-time classic. How do you justify that grandstanding? I think those reviewers were out of their MINDS, shoving crystal meth deep in their eyeballs as they beat each other off to KOS-MOS' creepy over-annunciating percentages, while Jeremy Jackson hid in the shadows grabbing whatever crystal shards rolled near his cobwebbed corner. Yeah.

That's what I think.

[John Mora]

Re: Whats with the hate for Xenosaga?

KOS-MOS is an ANDROID. Ziggy is a CYBORG. JEEZ, PEOPLE.