The Final Fantasy Network

Just finished Xenosaga III and after the sad second half known as Xenosaga II, I was a little disappointed by everything. I enjoyed the game that is for sure, but it just sank down. It was short, felt shorter than the first, though they were about the same. I also finished it in a day and half. They changed styles and voice acting on important characters. So I was hoping that Xenosaga III would change that.

With it is completed and the saga now finished, I can see for certain that Xenosaga has been redeemed by episode three. They got back the original voice actors, fixed several issues that were in the second, brought back equipment and stories and improved the combat to make it ever better than the original.

Xenosaga III has surpassed my expections and has completed the trilogy without falling short. To begin with the game is nearly as long as the first two put together. I think I finished close to 50 hours, which I definitely was pleased with. I was expecting another 30 hour game that would be over too quickly. But it truly feels epic in a way the first two failed. The first episode did a great job, but episode three succeeds where it failed.

Combat was more enable, with the boost put to more use now. I barely even boost anymore, I just consume it for Special Attacks. Mech and Human fighting was definitely more enjoyable, though not having the same feel that was started by the original and the first two episodes. They were trying to be like Xenogears, and then finally decided to go out on their own. I really did enjoy fighting in the mechs this time, as they made them more useful and better to fight with. Auto-charge is great as well, since it was always painfully difficult to heal them in the past. Also they changed their style more to a traditional RPG, where HP goes into the thousands, which was uncommon for Xenosaga and Xenogears it was always low. While the Mechs were always highly. You now feel like you are not always ready die, though you feel less weak as a human technically, it provides a more enjoyable play experiences.

The story did not disappoint either, there was one big twist that just made my jaw drop. It made the whole game worthwile and did not stop from that point on. It introduce more religious topics. You thought the first one and especially the second was heavy on the religious overtones, Xenosaga III blows them all out of the water in ways you do not even expect. The story does not disappoint and will continue to evolve as the game goes until to finally have all of the answers. One fear I did have was being left clueless after it was all said and done, but it answers everything, sometimes a little too neatly. However, nothing is left hanging, well there are a few things that are left hanging, but there is enough that you are not left wanting more answers. But there is enough to lead to another game.

I expect that one likely possiblity in the future is that Namco will release a Xenosaga game, with all of the episodes included. Hopefully they, Monolith, will go back redo everything other than the story and give you one completely story the way it should have been. The grand epic game of 100 hours that Xenogears was. Only then could it begin to come close to Xenogears.

Xenosaga started as a poor substitute for those wanting more Xenogears, but it ended as a worthly companion to the Xenogears story. While it is not directly related, the now complete Xenosaga will fuel countless theories to connect the two. Xenogears remains the better game, but if Monolith continues to work on the trilogy and story, there is hope that it will become truly worthly of being its equal.