Xenosaga 2 turns it's back on several elements of it's predecessor, firstly the battle system is completely overhauled, secondly, the pacing is put into the players hands and thirdly the story is far more self indulgent and dialogue heavy. It's these three alterations that almost make the two games so dissimilar and fractured the fan base. I have to admit, when I first played Xenosaga 2 I didn't like it, can't quite remember why but I know I wasn't gelling with the battle system. Later down the line I tried again and finally completed the main story and since then I've dipped in a couple of times with an aim to explore the endgame content but I often struggle to get past the subconscious domain area which certainly drags on.
"The one gleaming issue with this tactic, is it's not especially exciting and is often fraught with frustration"
Scaling back to the most important bit; gameplay. So strip away the story, skip every cutscene just dive headlong into the dungeons and combat and what sort of experience do you have? In short, a slightly bland journey. To elaborate; Xenosaga 2 is full of interesting mechanics that have no depth to them and ultimately discourage experimentation.
There are multiple options offered to you as you progress towards the second half of the game, you can store boosts to chain attacks, you can stock up additional attacks to extend combos, you can imbue elemental attributes to attacks, you can use offensive spells, you can use double techs and combo spells but all these avenues eventually funnel into this simple tactic. Store up a full boost, max out stocks, use the correct ether sword spell, break the guard and unleash a three member combo attack. This tactic is incredibly effective, there are videos on YouTube of people decimating bosses in one combo.
"Coupled with elements, breaking enemy guards turns 100 to 200 HP damage into 4, 6 even 700 HP points of damage!"
The one gleaming issue with this tactic, is it's not especially exciting and is often fraught with frustration, any mistake and you lose your combo and you'll have to virtually start the time consuming process again, this is doubly more frustrating when you're aiming to deal the finishing blow on the Skill Point multiply slot.
Speaking of the slots, this is a returning mechanic from Xenosaga 1 and just like that game, it's part gift part curse, you are a slave to the skill point multiplier slot and because this slot doesn't appear randomly you can't help but fixate on it.
The other set slots are; critical plus and boost bonus, the fourth slot is on a rotation of nothing, ether boost and reverse boost. The generally high critical hit rate makes this slot redundant and gaining boost isn't as difficult as it was in Xenosaga 2, which is a good thing as it does encourage using the boost bar rather than horde it (Like I did...).
I used to like the slots, it's a layer in the basic complexity of your strategies, but as time has gone on I actually find it's restricting and controls your strategies in a negative manner. Compete randomization would be better and eliminating the skill point boost altogether. Xenosaga 3 did this and it was all the more better for it.
The guard break mechanic is actually pretty good and was dumbed down for Xenosaga 3, each enemy has a guard to break and to do so you must strike that enemy in the correct manner. So an opponent's guard could be AB, which means you need to strike it with an A zone attack (aerial) and a B zone attack (B and C are both ground based attacks). With the enemy guard broken you can now launch an enemy or down them, breaking a guard has a 1.5x multiplier to damage and then when launched or downed it becomes a 2.0x multiplier.
Coupled with elements, breaking enemy guards turns 100 to 200 HP damage into 4, 6 even 700 HP points of damage!
Also, because elemental attacks have a multiplier, you can maximise your damage output by buffing part member's attacks with an element and reach as high as 10x damage. Which is then multiplied by two on a downed enemy and there you have it, thousands of HP damage with a single attack that without modifiers would only do a couple of hundred.
With these sorts of damage figures, it's no wonder no one bothers to try any other tactic, the guard break system is so brokenly unbalanced, there are very few ways you can deal more damage than this and that involves a heavy investment in the endgame content.
" For half the game most of your party will have the same three skills equipped"
Unlike Xenosaga 1, the option to enter an A.G.W.S during battle has been removed, instead there are set locations where you take control of the new E.S's. Combat in the E.S. mechs is effectively a simpler version of the main battle system. The combo system is eliminated, so you cannot stack damage multipliers. You can still boost into linked attacks but there's no real benefit other than to interrupt enemy attacks.
Instead of stock points, you have a stock meter which steadily fills up per turn or you can fill it up by a large amount but sacrifice a turn. The stock meter affords the use of special attacks that have specific elemental affinities, which means there is some method to sacrificing turns.
The stock commands of your craft depend on the which pair of characters you have in each craft. Three characters are classed as pilots with the remainder as co-pilots, by mixing and matching pairs you can produce some unique combinations.
Sadly, you can only have two E.S's in any one battle, which limits strategy and dynamic which the E.S. fights were lacking already, they do make for a pleasant distraction but most of their sections are long and drawn out and oddly enough, any XP you acquire goes directly to leveling up the E.S, not the pilots and skill points aren't awarded either which makes the whole process feel a bit pointless.
Xenosaga 2 also handles party development very oddly as well. There are no shops in Xenosaga 2 and when you enter the menu you can see why; there is no equipment for your standard party. Party member can only equip 3 skills of which you'll obtain by learning them through the skill list.
I understand they wanted to stream line everything, but it reduces options and options generate tactics, strategies and individuality. For half the game most of your party will have the same three skills equipped and it's only really at the endgame that you finally learn some interesting skills to equip.
Speaking of skills, all characters have access to the same skill lists. There are four levels of skill sets, split into eight categories. Each category is cohesive, so all spell attacks are in the same category and so forth, most of the important skills are in the first two levels, as you proceed into the third tier you'll find most categories have missing skills. You need secret keys to unlock these skills for learning and secret keys are obtained by exploring the world and completing side quests (of which there are a ton).
Sounds fine until you learn that in order to unlock a category to learn the skills, you need class points. When you complete a category you get bonus class points to unlock further categories. So, if you unlock a category you cannot master and you just spent all your class points, that character is virtually stuck from progressing any further. The only other way you can get class points is through a boss fight (must be a participant) and some ultra rare consumables. This is so arbitrary and you're not forewarned, with each level the class point costs jump considerably. I know it's technically your own fault if you make yourself stuck, but towards the later third of the game, you have to start mastering lower categories (for skills you'll never use) just to accrue class points. What's the point in that? Other than a massive waste of those precious skill points you've accrued? And once again, eliminating experimentation because everyone needs to master the same categories to gain the class points! It's madness, they should have just stuck with the skill points and leave it up to you to spend them on whatever.
"Is Xenosaga 2 worth your time? I'm split."
Aside from the battle system, dungeons and hours of cutscenes, what else does Xenosaga 2 offer? The G.S. campaign: it's introduced when you're allowed to explore second Miltia and basically you're supposed to be a Samaritan, which means a slew of fetch quests in the name of helping people. I personally hate the system, it's vague, you can waste so much time running back and forth looking for the NPCs you need to complete the quest. They tried to spice it up in a few ways with some arbitrary puzzles and time limited tasks, but the only missions I enjoyed were ones that opened up additional areas for exploration or secret bosses. (sadly, few and far between). Ultimately the G.S. campaign is intertwined with the endgame content so at some point you've got to get your feet wet if you want to get the most out of the game.
G.S. campaign availability expands as you complete chunks of the story, the idea is that you can decide on the pace of the game. Do you finish all the main story and deal with the campaign in the post-game or diligently do them as you play? There are benefits to doing them beforehand and that's for gaining valuable items and also unlocking some skills that you otherwise will never see on a regular playthrough.
Ultimately, I despise the G.S. campaign because it's overall a boring and time consuming process.
The Xenosaga series is one I've looked back very fondly on, but this is the first time in a long while I've gone back and played one and not worn my rose colored glasses, which I've been doing with a lot of old games and it's been a tremendous eye opener. So I'm saddened to see a game that once upon a time redeemed itself to me, only to find itself under criticism again, but I cannot ignore the faults this game has.
Is Xenosaga 2 worth your time? I'm split. Half of me thinks it's something to be experienced at least once and the other half of me knows the average player will lose interest halfway through. I'd hate for this to be someone's first Xenosaga and be put off the entire series, so if you've never played Xenosaga 1, don't play 2. You need some investment in the series before you dive into the second.
The good news is the third game finishes with a flourish, it's the magnum opus of the trilogy. A distilled experience that takes everything good about 1 and 2 and then abolishes everything bad about them.
I know this whole review has been scathing and I hate to be negative, but observing Xenosaga 2 critically, it has too many flaws to be even considered a good game. That's a harsh and damning statement but a true one. It's an OK game, and that drops well below the bar for this franchise.
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