Aside from the battle engine,
Xenosaga's gameplay isn't anything one
hasn't seen before, in one form or another. That's not to say it isn't good,
or doesn't have some nice innovations, it's just tried and true. The game
more or less flows exactly how you would expect. Your field screen, menu
screen, and battle screen are all here. The fact that several members of
Monolith came from Square definitely shines through with how the game
'feels'.
The field screen (where you walk around and talk to people, find items,
etc.) and the menu screen are pretty typical. One major point on the field
screen is that battles are not random. They wander around and you can try,
and subsequently fail, to get around enemies if you want too. The only other
interesting thing to note on the field screen is the vaporizer. You can
destroy certain objects with a hand held device by pressing the square
button. You can find things this way, block enemies, free enemies, or even
destroy paths by mistake. You can also destroy some objects that will cause
huge explosions, fires, or electrical discharge that will stun enemies,
allowing you to get past. Of course, they also will usually give you some
sort of advantage during battle, so maybe you don't want to run.
Battles are very interesting in Xenosaga. I don't think I've ever
seen anything quite like it; it's even a far cry from Xenogears.
Players use near or far attacks in succession. If they have enough
'AP'(Action Points), they can finish up with a technique which pretty much
amounts to an enhanced version of a normal attack. They can also use Ether
(Magic), and some can call A.G.W.S (Giant robots).
Xenosaga combines Tech Points, Ether Points, and Skill Points with
the usual experience points. TP improves your techniques, EP lets you learn
new Ether spells, and SP allow you to learn skills from items.
Attacks all have different properties, hit, slash, pierce, spirit, or beam,
and enemies have certain strengths and weakness to each. Players also
accumulate 'BP'(Boost Points) which can be used to rush them ahead in the
fight so that they get the next turn. It's all a bit scary at first,
especially the prices on some of those A.G.W.S. parts. Ouch!
What grandiose, high profile RPG is complete without a plot.
Xenosaga's plot is not clichéd, at all. The closet thing I could
compare it to would be something like a cross between Titan: AE,
Star Wars, and AI. The story revolves around a mysterious
golden object called the Zohar. You see several different organizations in
the story interact, each knowing different parts of the mystery, and each
with its own agenda. I hope you don't find cutscenes irritating, because you
will be watching this game almost as much as you play it. Thankfully, you
can pause during cutscenes or choose to skip them, so no worries there.
Also, while Xenosaga is a prequel to Xenogears, I saw little
in common except the inclusion of giant robots; so don't worry if you never
played Xenogears.
I won't lie to you, the plot can get pretty confusing, especially at the
beginning. The game has a nasty habit of showing you something, a person,
event, or word, and not explaining what it is until some hours later. At
that point, you may have forgotten the context of where it showed up in the
first place. At least they give you a nice fat database of key terms so you
don't get totally lost. If I could improve one thing in this game though, it
would be the database. It's adequate, but I would have loved to see it a bit
more structured. Also markers to show what you haven't read yet would have
been wonderful. Whenever new key terms get added (and usually in fair sized
chunks), I had to hunt through the list to find the ones I hadn't read yet,
and sometimes I wasn't sure. That database consumed many hours of my
playtime; it fills out the main story with details very nicely.
The game also contains 4-minigames. Among these is a fun drill game, where
you can earn powerful items, and a card game. However, this is not a simple
Final Fantasy card game. This bad boy is pretty much the nice,
complicated kind you find in your average comic book shop. You even have to
buy starter decks and booster packs.