Xenosaga II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose Review
Posted on June 10, 2006 by Xenosaga episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose (“Between good and evil”) is the sequel to the much-loved Xenosaga Episode I for the Playstation one. Xenosaga Episode I broke the mould in RPG standards with its amazingly rich storytelling - more often than not brought to you in the form of beautiful CG cutscenes. Xenosaga Episode II brings the player the same atmosphere of intense deep, rich storytelling and character development.Xenosaga Episode II continues the story of Episode I and plays host to a familiar set of characters – with MOMO, Shion, KOS-MOS, Ziggurat 8, chaos, and many other characters returning, stunningly rendered in beautiful PS2 graphics. Yes people, its goodbye to the over-sized anime-esque heads of Episode I and a grateful welcome to more realistic, proportional heads and faces of Episode II.
Junior appears quite fascinated by his hand
The game starts with a flashback of a mysterious, 16-year-old looking boy co-piloting a mission with a serious, red-haired realian (android) known as Canaan to a planet known as ‘Miltia’ to investigate why the entire realian population (the majority of Miltia’s population) has gone completely and utterly bonkers. Here, they meet the still-sane Jin Usuki, a federation officer who when introduced to a Samurai Sword, can cut just about anything into more than one piece.
Chaos, Jin, and Canaan set off to find a group of genetically bioengineered teenage boys – called U.R.T.Vs - who were produced to fight off a deadly energy form knows as U-DO, by negating it. Jin encounters an old enemy, things start getting a little spicy, and that’s where the flashback ends. From there, we join the crew of familiar characters as they land on Second Miltia.
Matters heat up as old foes clash yet again
There are a whole load of organisations, factions, and so on battling it out for control of the ultimate power in the universe – an ancient artefact known as the Zohar, which was sealed away on the chaos-plagued Old Miltia. The evil swordsman Margulis is head of his own little faction of ‘baddies’ as is the young-looking Wilhelm, in possession of some very powerful associates. The good side also sports some new additions; Shion’s brother Jin lends his hand as a master Japanese swordsman, and Canaan accompanies the team, however only aids in E.S. (The brand spanking new name for the Episode I A.G.W.S. craft) battles.
ES (formerly AGWS) crafts are giant humanoid-shaped robots used for easy transport and battle. The game begins with Canaan and his co-pilot chaos descending onto Old Miltia in such a craft, and meeting Jin piloting his own ES. The ES have special abilities that can be used in battle – but what they are is dependant on the craft’s pilot and co-pilot. For example, only an ES piloted by MOMO can use Ether (Magic) skills, and so on. Finding the right combination of craft, pilot, and co-pilot can be vital to victory in a number of battles, so it’s worth keeping in mind who can do what.
Metal clashes as two ES craft do battle
Xenosaga Episode II as mentioned before, is phenomenally devoted to its storytelling, character stories, relationships, and so forth. And just like its predecessor, Xenosaga Episode II tells the rich stories mainly in a sequence of ...sequences. A huge part of Xenosaga II is character driven, explaining in depth all the details about Junior’s troubled past, MOMO’s actual past, and so on. This makes a lot of the events in Episode II seem very if not totally focused on developing character relationships and stories. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the players’ tastes – but this IS an RPG site and if you’re here because you enjoy playing RPGs, it is most certainly not a bad thing.
Xenosaga Episode II’s battle system is very different from a lot of mainstream RPGs in circulation. When running around (The whole party is represented by a character of your choice, which is also not so commonplace in other RPGs) the player will actually
| Audio | 6 | |
| Controls | 8 | |
| Gameplay | 8 | |
| Graphics | 9 | |
| Lastability | 7 | |
| Overall | 7.5 |
