What did you think of the xenosaga trilogy? I was honestly

also the dub is surprisingly good. Lip syncing is bad but the VAs do a fine job.

>>15598621
you can find undubs for the games that restore the jap voices.

I would definitely agree that 3 > 1 > 2.

3 was a remarkably solid game. Very few complaints with it, aside from Shion being a shit at times and the ending being somewhat underwhelming.

>>15598636
The original voices are indeed quite good. Plus, it has Jesus being voiced by Jesus.

Ironically 3 was good largely because the series being cancelled forced them to accelerate the pacing. The game has great themes, but it's kind of hard to find them without looking back years afterwards. There's a forlorn desire to return to a more idyllic time before a common tragedy (Miltia), a sense of a humanity that's well-off but stagnant and discontent (the party are essentially forgotten, one-off supermen thought to be no longer necessary for general humanity), and the idea of finding the courage to move forward into an uncertain future.

It's Takahashi's most ambitious story, but it's also where he ended up realizing that he had no idea how to make a game and didn't have Square to lean on anymore.

I love Episode 1. 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played. 3 is okay, but felt like more of a generic jrpg and lacked the charm and uniqueness of the first one. All in all, I'm just disappointed the series didn't pan out the way it was intended to.

I miss KOSMOS

I got too bored by Episode 1 to play Episode 2 and 3. The slow pacing, slow combat and all the unskippable cutscenes compounded with the slow loading times of early PS2 games just made me want to stop playing video games all together when I finished it.

And instead of making each episode stand-alone with an intro, body, climax, ending, etc. contained within, it felt like just the intro, with no payoff at the end of the game. It's just all teasers for upcoming games with nothing resolved. It also didn't help that there is a two-year interval between each episode.

I dunno if I should catch up on episode 2 and 3, it's been more than a decade since I played ep1.

>>15601185
If you think Episode 1 has slow combat, you will absolutely hate Episode 2.

>>15601249
Yeah relatively slow compared to Xenogears. It's actually quite similar from what I remember, just that the longer animations and transition bogged it down. Is Episode 2 that much worse? What about 3?

They lost me in the first game where the bad guy fingered the little girl.

>>15601260
Not that Anon, but personally, it felt like Episode 2's combat was faster than Episode 1's. The animations seemed to be more brief, anyway.

Something about 2's just felt kind of bland, and sometimes confusing.

Episode 3's combat was a much more standard menu-based combat. You just select "attack," and that's it. No strings of attack combos or anything. Then there's item/defend/ether/etc. as other menu options too.
But 3 did have what I felt was a really fun version of mech combat, even if it was fairly similar to regular combat.

>>15601260
In 2, every random encounter feels like a boss fight, with how long it takes. It's been a while, so I can't remember the specifics of how it works, but you can only really damage enemies after you've knocked them down with a special attack or something. The system is just really needlessly convoluted. 3 is much more streamlined and simple.

Is there a hack for the third game that removes the heavy censorship but keeps the dub?

>>15601185
>unskippable cutscenes
?

You press start and triangle

I only played 3 but didn't finish it. I really should.

>>15601412
1, I meant

>>15601276
>But 3 did have what I felt was a really fun version of mech combat, even if it was fairly similar to regular combat.
It was extremely simple and more than a little repetitive.

But damn if it didn't manage to be fun as hell despite that. I'm still trying to figure out what I liked so much about 3's ES combat, because on the face of things it seems like it should be terrible.

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KOS-MOS is perfection.

>>15598608
So far, I've only played the first and was terribly bored by it, but I see some potential in the story. It's certainly rather unusual. And so, I feel like I must play 2 in spite of how shit I know it's supposed to be, because the series doesn't seem like it's the type that will allow people to skip any bit of information whatsoever. It's that confusing

>>15601278
You boost boost boost, break and repeat. It's tedious and boring and nothing about it is good. It also feels like a B-plot since it's focused on Jr and Momo. KOS-MOS and Shion are barely even relevant in it so the story is just boring. Those long awful scenes of Mizrahi talking about Momo and Sakura were the fucking worst.

The only good thing to come out of it is Jin.

>>15601991
>The only good thing to come out of it is Jin.
And he's only cool because he's a knockoff of Citan.

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>>15602017
I'd say Jin is more of a reverse of Citan. Citan is a fair-weather ally who switches sides the minute it's more convenient for him while Jin is relentlessly loyal and self-sacrificing to both his family and the Federation. There's a reversal in fortune as well; Jin is forced to kill his friend Margulis and love interest Pellegri while Citan gets everything he wanted.

Does anyone know if Takahashi was inspired by Lord of Light when writing Xenogears? The more I compare the two the more it makes sense. It feels like when I found out that Nihei was inspired by Feersum Endjin when writing Blame!.

>>15601917
That ain't Telos

The drastic art style changes between games was really jarring.

>>15603396
From what I understand Xenosaga did better in the west than in Japan so they decided to try and change the art style to match our tastes only for sales to drop since they decided to alienate the weeb audience the first game had found.

I love Episode I. II was awful, III had solid game play and great graphics, and was an okay way to finish it up. But we never got the great space opera we were supposed to have.

About Episode II. She had to remove this from site.

Soraya decided to give answers to most frequently questions. The following are the summary of answers.

* Leaving was not Soraya's decision. Soraya was said goodbye same as in the case of other Episode I artists including
Mr. Yasunori Mitsuda, Mr. Kunihiko Tanaka, and the Mr. you-know-who. (Please do not ask Soraya who he is.)
* Soraya is a freelance artist.
* There was no particular reason behind the displacement of old artists. The new director of Xenosaga II/III just wants
the saga all new.
* The official advertisement says the new saga will have new sounds, new designs (as seen in Epsode II) and more easier
story to read (as seen in the disc 2 of the Episode II).
* Soraya and Tetsuya Takahashi were marginally involved in the Episode II by contributing the first version of the
script. (It was not a plot outline but a complete script including actual characters' lines.)
* Soraya's last contribution to the saga was the first version of the script for the Episode II and rewrites of The
Pied Piper. (The game for Vodafone sold in Japan 2004)
* The shortened/adapted script of the Episode II is by Monolithsoft.
* You can see Soraya's mark she left to the Episode II in:
o The conversation between Juli and Ziggy
o Momo Encephalon (In first version, It was not Juli's idea of destroying Momo's memory, but a subcommitteeman's.
Juli hesitated.)
o The story about U.R.T.V. (with the exception of the chapters after Momo Encephalon and young Albedo's verbal
abuse/violent acts against Sakura. They were added by Monolithsoft.)
o Albedo's short speech about the higher dimension. (His last words "You look like you lost your sweetheart ...
anyway I hate you both" were added by Monolithsoft.)

>>15603603
>cont
* Soraya doesn't know what the story of the Episode III will be like. The new writer of the Episode III will write a
new story in his style. (The chapters after Momo Encephalon and Disc 2 are his style.)
* The new team has the right to change or ignore Takahashi's plot outline.
* Soraya wrote approximately half of of the script for the Episode I. She is responsible for:
o Ziggy and his family, Voyager, Momo, Mizrahis, Godwins, Yuriev, U.R.T.V.s, and the part of Shion during her
stay in Durandal and the Kookai Foundation
* Soraya is not an expensive artist.
* Soraya has created no delay.
* The parent company is not responsible to the changeover.
* The first version of the script by Soraya and Takahashi was not religiously or politically sensitive. It had just
harmless chapters like:
o Ziggy's past history (as seen in The Pied Piper)
o U.R.T.V.'s past history (as seen in the Episode II)
o Shion's past history with Febronia (removed)
o Jr's rapid growing (removed)
o Both juvenile and grown-up Jr. available in the battle (removed)
o The ghost of the old Miltia (removed)
o The death of Sakura (removed)
o Brief reunion with grown-up Citrine (removed)
o Gaignun vs Zohar emulators (removed)
o Jr.'s transformation/overdrive (removed)
o Jr. & Albedo vs U-DO vs KOS-MOS 3rd armament (removed)
o Shion's spiritual seeking/witnessing/awakening (removed)
o The truth about KOS-MOS (removed)
o Conversation between chaos and the red cloak man (removed)
o Conversation between Nephilim and the boy with the blocks (removed)
o An antimatter annihilation of Albedo (removed)
* Soraya has no intention of playing for attention. No one has to pay attention to this.
* Soraya has no option to come back. And she knows well the saga no longer needs Saga.