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Xenosaga Episode I left a huge hype for Episode II, and in this day and age it’s not very often that you can say a game really did live up to it’s hype – but in Xenosaga Episode II’s case, it actually did live up to it’s hype. The game is brilliant on all sorts of levels, and in this review we’re going to discuss just what makes Xenosaga Episode II a great game; but nothing comes without it’s faults, so in this review we’ll also be discussing what stops Xenosaga Episode II been the greatest RPG of all time.

The events of Xenosaga Episode II’s storyline unfold in two different timelines, one of which tells the story of the horrific events that occurred in the Militian Star System fourteen years ago – fourteen years ago chaos and Canaan were sent to the planet Militia to pursue a group of U.R.T.V.’s and an anti U-DO squad that were sent into the star system to prevent the events that were about to unfold. Whilst on the planet Militia something went wrong that forced Rubedo to cut the spiritual link that held U-DO securely, this caused everyone around Rubedo to die in an instant, except his two friends Nigredo and Albedo. Moments later the E.S. Asher, the E.S. that chaos and Canaan had arrived in came onto the scene and found both Rubedo and Nigredo who were both seriously injured – however, Albedo was nowhere to be found.

The second storyline takes place just after the events of Xenosaga, in the present day. Shion and KOS-MOS are just landing on Second Militia after just facing off with Albedo who has since become the antagonist of the series. Albedo was after the Y-Data that was entrusted to the 100 Series Observational Type Realian, MOMO. As you can probably imagine, the majority of Xenosaga Episode II’s is based around Shion and KOS-MOS trying to protect that Y-Data that was entrusted to MOMO. Xenosaga Episode II’s storyline proved to be an amazing one, however due to the fact that Xenosaga was never released on the United Kingdom – there was a lot I didn’t understand in Xenosaga Episode II.

As you can expect with any title that was released late into the PlayStation 2’s lifespan, Xenosaga Episode II’s graphics are pretty good – the PlayStation 2 has seen better mind you, but that’s not to knock Xenosaga Episode II’s graphics; as they are some of the best on the console.

Xenosaga Episode II has a pretty amazing battle system; the game brings forth a lot of new elements that add a new level of strategy to the RPG genre. One of the things that Xenosaga Episode II brings to the series is the “Zone Attack” system, the player can attack an enemy in any one of three zones, either A (High), B (Middle) or C (Low) – different enemies are weaker when hit in different zones, so it adds a lot more to think about whilst in combat. The zone system is further expanded in the fact that only some characters can hit in certain zones, for example Ziggy can only hit in zones B and C, whilst Shion can hit in Zone A, and only sometimes in Zone B but never in Zone C. Hitting an enemy with a combo in their weak zone will either cause the Air or Ground status – whilst in the Air or Ground status a character can continue their combo and cause double damage at the same time, again adding a further element of strategy to Xenosaga Episode II’s battle system.

One of my favourite things in Xenosaga Episode II is the combo system, rather than pressing X to simply attack an enemy; instead you press X followed by a series of buttons – failing to press the correct series of buttons will result in your combo been unsuccessful, adding an air of skill to the game. Mind you, it doesn’t involve a lot of skill, but it still prevents you from becoming stuck in that click and wait scenario that’s apparent in ever so many turn based RPG’s.

Xenosaga Episode II also introduces E.S. Units, E.S. Units are essentially giant robots that can be used at certain points of the games storyline – and although their not essential, you do have to fight a couple of boss battles with them, and the battle system is slightly different so it adds a fresh feel to the game play in Xenosaga Episode II.

Without a doubt, Xenosaga Episode II is one of the best RPG’s on the PlayStation 2 – with an amazing battle system, beautiful visuals and a pretty solid storyline, surely there’s nothing to complain about? Well, there are actually a few things. One these is the fact that this game has way too many cut scenes and at times can feel like watching a movie, the game story is also quite difficult to understand at times; as many people won’t be familiar with some of the terms used in Xenosaga Episode II. These points aren’t really bad things – however one thing that does really let Xenosaga Episode II down is the insane difficulty. Xenosaga Episode II is pretty easy up until the last area, this is when things start to get extremely hard – the enemies in the final area are stronger than any boss throughout the games storyline, meaning that before you can actually complete Xenosaga Episode II – you’ll have to spend hours level grinding in the final area, just so that you’re strong enough to defeat the random encounter enemies; let alone the bosses.

Rating: 9/10


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