Being a fan of the series I snatched this one up once I found it used at a local Gamestop (even I can’t bring myself to pay the new price for a Warriors game). It had received favorable reviews, which is unusual for a Warriors game, so I figured it must really be rockin’ since I loved the other entries which were panned by critics.

However, as it is with other entertainment mediums, so it is with video games: critical love doesn’t equal a better product. Koei diligently listened to the past criticisms and redid much of what worked in the franchise. Gone are the heavily customizable weapons and characters. The special character tasks of the past which were used to obtain these customizations are gone in favor of map specific tasks of uneven quality and little in-game benefit.

Also trashed is the excellent move-set system that added some depth to the combat. Although it could be done in previous installments, the latest version actively encourages players to run around the map and press square, A LOT. When doing this, a gauge would charge up that allowed me to occasionally use the triangle button as well, but this could be more trouble than it’s worth depending on the character being used.

Another item that grates me is that it’s more difficult to level up characters. In previous installments, the first characters you use in the story mode would have nothing, making survival an ongoing issue until enough power-up items are found to make the character stronger. In turn, subsequent low level characters could use the same items, which shortens the grind level for the back half of the game. Apparently in a bid to pad the playing time, possibly because so many characters were removed from the game, Koei took that ability out.

Not that there weren’t mediocre characters worth removing from the previous games, but taken as a whole it seems like the character removal had more to do with a restrictive development schedule rather than some justified desire to tighten the ranks in order to improve the remaining characters. Another character related knock against the game is that many of the voice actors were dumped and cheaper actors found. The game is devoid of some ham-fisted favorites of the past (“On the chopping block!”, or a character who wears bells who says something like “when you here the bells, you better answer the call!”). This light level of humor provided some padding to what are rather repetitive stories.

Okay, so they took a lot out, they must have put something in, right? Well, the game does look gorgeous. Gone are the pre-rendered videos and everything is handled in-engine, making the game a bit less disjointed. Maps are huge and lushly rendered (which in and of itself is a bit of a detraction since overly large maps don’t seem to be as tightly focused). Players can now climb towers and what not, but since they took the bow out of the game there’s really no reason to do so. In what is probably the strongest gameplay improvement, the method for taking ‘capture points’ finally makes sense and is an interesting challenge to boot.

And then there’s…well…nothing else, there just isn’t all that much in this installment. Part of my disappointment was my expectation that the with all the computing power in the newer consoles, that the developer would be free to take the series in slightly different, open ended direction. Instead of something different though, this game seems to be a throwback to Dynasty Warriors ‘3.5’*. Another layer of frustration set in when I had occasional glitches with the sound in the game and a few lock-ups while saving. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of the series I’d suggest holding out for 7.

*I think it needs to be said that while this game is compartively weak, it proves the point that even bad next-gen titles are still pretty darn good.

Xenosaga II

Hopefully they’ll find a way to cram some numbers and gauges into the boring bottom left corner of the screen on the next episode.

Pluses: The deepest RPG combat system I’ve played to date. Improvements to the story and artwork over Xenosaga I.

Minuses: A deep combat system means that even routine battles turn into drawn out affairs. The skill upgrades (casting magic, etc.) is largely a waste of time.

After assuring that I would play no more of the series, Kid Sandmich picked this one up for me for Christmas. I thought the story from the first one was OK and I loved the set designs as well so I had something to look forward to going in.

First off I was a little disappointed to see the chintzy items given to me by this game as a reward for completing the first game; I was kind of hoping for some additional levels or skill points. However, this iteration has been so completely revamped that it feels like a completely different game so any expected bonuses may not have matched up. Much like the original, this game again is delightfully paced with the play time slipping in at under 40 hours. Some grinding is expected, but probably less so than the typical RPG. This is fortunate since the battles can be rather involved at times.

Early on in the game I was upset to see that copious level grinding wasn’t making the battles any shorter or easier. It was then I learned that the game all but requires a semi-complicated use of chains, combos, and vulnerability exploits in order to easily get through any battle as well as to have any prayer at all of making it through a boss battle. This differed from the previous edition, and all other RPGs I’ve played, as the individual battles here are much more geared toward strategy and peppered with puzzles. I was used to applying differing skills and techniques to difficult boss battles in other roll playing games, but Xenosaga II takes it a step further and is closer to a tactics game than a roll playing game. This setup made individual ‘grind’ battles much more entertaining as a whole and it was fun figuring out how to quickly discharge opponents. This changed into a problem later on in the game though when intricate, yet repetitive five to ten minute minor league battles seemed to exist solely to pad out the playing time. The game does take some mercy on the player though by eliminating around two thirds of the defeated opponents instead of respawning all of them when leaving an area and coming back.

Additionally, one irritating aspect from the first game got ported over to this version is the cheating AI that gets to break your combo at will. As is typical, a combo consists of consecutive hits to a single opponent; the higher the combo, the more damage subsequent hits cause. Combos are much more critical to this game than the first episode since it’s well expected that the only way to defeat most enemies in a prompt fashion is to rack up a large combo by using various forms of chicanery. I can understand bosses getting a little leeway but every peon in the game gets the option of interrupting a strategic execution. It’s as if the developers determined that the easiest way to increase the game’s difficulty was to allow for the field goal posts to get moved when the computer opponent was about to get knocked onto the ropes.

This episode focuses much more on Junior and Momo, two of the genetically engineered, lab grown replicants realians.

Being a Xenosaga game there are a generous number of cut scenes. I should mention that the previous edition piled on hours of disjointed cut scenes that featured spotty voice acting in an effort to cram as many plot points and characters into the story. Don’t get me wrong it was still entertaining, but the story in this second episode corrects many of those missteps and focuses on a handful of well voiced characters and brings some sanity to the first episode’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to storytelling. This cuts back on the game time somewhat, and the wheels do eventually get a little wobbly toward the end in what seems to be an afterthought effort to open up questions for the final installment; but overall it’s an improvement on the first episode.

What wasn’t an improvement was the moderately changed system for acquiring and using “skills”. The game had maybe a half dozen worthwhile “skills”: ‘heal’, ‘super heal’, ‘revive’…and…um…I’m sure some others. The remaining hundred or so abilities had very limited applicability and were difficult to acquire. This whole portion of the game seemed like it got halfway changed from the original, but then was abandoned due to the release schedule. That’s a shame since if it was tightened up (like if you were able to freeze an opponent and actually have it work) that would have turned an already decent strategy sim into an excellent one.

I’ve liked role playing games since I was a wee one, but I’m late to the electronic versions of RPGs since I never really thought that the graphics and limited game play on the early gen stuff could compete with the wide open, albeit imaginary, areas of a traditional RPG like Dungeons and Dragons. That changed when my brother turned me onto Final Fantasy X. If there was ever a gateway drug this was it since FFX is, at least in my very limited experience, one of the best single player RPGs to date.

It’s worth pointing out that computer RPGs work much like their pen and paper ancestors: you start out with a base character(s) that fight monsters so that they can level up and fight harder monsters while gaining special abilities. All this leveling should sit atop a story that makes it worthwhile to spend hours in dungeons and whatnot leveling up your (hopefully) entertaining characters.

With that, let’s take a look at some RPGs that I’ve blown some time on while I wait for Final Fantasy 13….

Xenosaga: Episode I

Synopsis: In the future Japanese anime type characters have to fight aliens and misguided…others, in order to…do….something.

Good points: Logged in at a brief (by RPG scales) 40 hours worth of game play. The game nails the ‘space opera’ motif with gargantuan ships performing feats that might be envisioned by the more pioneering minds. The artwork is quite ‘Star War’-sie with narrow platforms over deep gaps and lots of flashing lights, robots, and all the other appropriate sci-fi stuff. Characters for the most part are entertaining. Oh yeah, did I mention that this series of games is best known for being watched for as long as they’re played due to the length and frequency of their (for the most part excellent) cut scenes?

Bad points: Some enemies are uneven with bosses ridiculously harder than the run of the mill monsters in the dungeon and some bosses much easier than the creatures you had to fight to get to them. Like many newer RPGs you get more characters than you can have in battle at any one time, leading to half your characters sitting ‘on the bench’ and not fighting and thus (for the most part) not leveling up. The number of Characters and skills are wide, but shallow and for the back third of the game I found myself using the same two moves with the same three characters over and over and over again. The plot appears to have a Christian theme that was written by non-Christians (like all these games, it was made in Japan). I found out at the end of the game that ‘Xenosaga 1’ isn’t like the Final Fantasy games wherein Final Fantasy 1-12 have absolutely nothing to do with each other; ‘Xenosaga 1’ is actually the first of a trilogy that I probably won’t get around to playing out, despite the favorable reviews for the final entry.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

Synopsis: Galactic losers assault backwards planets and fourth dimensional near-do-wells.

Good points: Dungeon design is some of the best I’ve seen and the game features a punchy soundtrack. The story for the first half of the game is involving and interesting.

Bad points: The story eventually takes a third rate ‘Matrix’ type turn which elicits groans more than anything else. About the same time, in order to artificially pad the play time, the dungeon monsters get ridiculously overcharged further exposing the game’s absolutely horrid leveling system wherein your characters can only really level up in a rather arbitrary bonus scheme. Fast paced battles are devoid of strategy and are more closely related to a dungeon crawler like Diablo. New abilities seem to be handed out randomly and bench characters don’t level at all, meaning that adding new, irritating level 1 characters halfway through the game is completely pointless. I made it to the final boss, but didn’t make an effort to beat him since I knew there’d be another serving of inane dialog on the other side of the fight. And lastly, and the big rub for me, despite being sold with a sci-fi motif, the game has very little to do with anything remotely ‘sci-fi’.

Final Fantasy VII

Synopsis: Square’s classic RPG where a rebel group of misfits attempts to save the planet.

Good points: I’ve not played an RPG that started as quickly as this one (check out the remade beginning cutscene). Although quite dated (it’s ten years old at this point), someone took the time to re-do the character artwork (via the Reunion Patch) for the PC version, that I obtained completely legally. The characters are all quite entertaining, ‘bench’ characters level up (for the most part), and the story moves along nicely with some unexpected twists. Overdrives, summons, and swappable magic add a great deal of strategic depth to battles.

Bad points: What do you think of an extra large scoop of Japanese ‘Pagan Christianity’? Most aggravating as well is Square’s habit of putting mini-games into a game engine that’s in no way built for action since their character controls are optimized for moving in one of four directions*. The final boss all but required a secret ‘weapon’ that required about four hours worth of one such minigame and everyone in the Sandmich house was ready to murder the man who conceived of the chocobo.

*Apparently those crappy minigames have a draw somewhere since they’ve started making mobile versions of them.