The End of Xenosaga Episode One.

[leene_chan]

I finished with Xenosaga Episode One at 3 am. I wasn't following a FAQ that closely so the end came as quite a surprise! ^_^ Anyway, here are my thoughts on the game:

I finished the game with Shion, chaos and KOS-MOS. I was around level 47. The last boss was as easy as hell.

Honestly speaking, I didn't think the game was that great. Too bad, huh? I can't give a full opinion because it's only the first part of a series and felt very much like it. I finished the game in 67 hours and I would've liked it if more happened. I mean, Xenogears was around the same length, wasn't it?

The battle system was much better than in Xenogears. The gameplay was pretty good if you don't mind running around in pitch-dark dungeons with barely an idea of where you're going. I lost my temper a few times there, but there were some parts that were quite fun. So, the game mechanics were polished. Still...

The Japanese voice cast was not that great. Shion and M.O.M.O's voice actresses have next to no talent, and KOS-MOS wasn't much better. Ziggy's voice also sounded weird and strangled. chaos was a-okay, which is odd considering how annoying I found Fate in Star Ocean 3. Jr. was...well....there were some bad scenes, but what can you do? Overall, I think the worst acting belonged to M.O.M.O. Albedo did a little too much scenery chewing considering that he was played by a pretty well-known voice actor. o_o Hm Hm. But mediocre voice talent is common in video games, even in the original Japanese versions.

I didn't hate the game. I didn't even dislike it that much. I walked away liking Ziggy and chaos, tolerating KOS-MOS and Jr.(he lost points for his affection for M.O.M.O), and hating Shion and M.O.M.O. More than anything, the fact that the game had NO MUSIC throughout most of the player-controlled sequences was unforgivable. What a waste of a great composer! Even though Episode Two has a different composer if it has more music that would be a huge improvement. There wasn't even a separate boss theme, except for the last one (which I liked a lot). What are these programmers thinking, sticking the player in pitch-dark dungeon after pitch-dark dungeon with dead silence except for the enemies yelling and the sound of the PS2 loading? ::kicks Monolith::

All in all, I'd give the game a 7/10. Nice battle system, nice-looking cut scenes, NO MUSIC, too many cut scenes, Shion's annoying, Shion's annoying. I hope that Episode 2 is more enjoyable.