Xenosaga: Episode 1

***Be warned, I'll be reviewing this game as I play it and there will be spoilers to the story. Once I finish the game, I'll write a summary review beneath the specs, but seeing as there is supposedly 80 hours of gameplay, that may take a while since I don't have over 3 full days without sleeping, eating, or going to the bathroom to devote to this game at the moment. As it stands, you can safely read to the next group of astericks (****) without reading any plot spoilers.***

Alright, so I bought this game yesterday and I really enjoy it so far! I said I was going to do some reviews on books, games, and films, so I figured this would be a good place to start. Then I'll see about getting some movies or books done. I might do Baby Mama next, I *adore* that movie. So, first off, I'll just start with the basic specs of the game.

• Works on the Playstation 2 console
• RPG, or role playing game, meaning you pilot the main character (or in this case, main characters, more on that later) through the game
• Like most RPGs, it is only one player
• The case boasts over 80 hours of gameplay and four mini-games
• It's rated Teen for blood and gore and violence
• The animation style is Japanese

Now, I only played it yesterday, so I don't have the best handle on the game yet. I put in about 5 and a half hours of playtime. I'm obsessive and a perfectionist. I like to explore every nook and cranny of a game when I play it the first time through, so I've really only made it to the second stage so far.

I enjoy the battle style, it's fairly complex. I wouldn't recommend this game for very young children. It took me a while to get it down, and I'm still not even sure I'm aware of all the little tips and tricks. It's a very detailed game, which I really enjoy. You can only have 3 members in your battle party which you have to decide before you enter the fight. You can't change companies in the middle. It doesn't matter how many people you have in reserve, if the characters on the battlefield all die, then the game is over and you better hope you saved it recently.

You can employ different tactics while fighting. Magic, or as it's called in this game, ether; items, which is basically where you can just take any items from your inventory that are for medicinal or battle purposes and use them in place of your turn; moving positions; A.G.W.S., which is an automated robotsuit that you can use to improve your attack power and resistance to attacks, more on these later; and the last one besides basic attacks is guard.

Guard actually has quite a few uses in this game. A character can use guard to reduce the amount of damage received from a specific attack. Sometimes the enemy will skip a turn to prepare for it's next attack and it announces this. It might be a good idea to heal your characters with one person, preferably the one in the back, which takes the least damage, and have the others use guard. Also, if you're saving energy to do a high powered attack, you can use guard. Guard saves two Attack Power (AP) points, whereas using an item saves one. Also, you can choose to end your turn early to save points, but unless you're fighting weaker enemies and you only need one hit to kill one, I would not suggest doing this. You may knock off 20 some Hit Points (HP), but you also leave yourself wide open for an attack.

Ether is very useful, as well. It took me a little while to fully understand the system. It's not as in-depth as the skill grid on Final Fantasy XII, but it does have a similar system. You must upgrade one ether skill in order to get to the next, and you can not see what skills are available until you have the means to upgrade to that skill. But these are your basic magic skills. Protect, magic protect, heal, heal all, slight heal, sleep, etc etc. These do of course use Ether Power (EP), so you have to keep an eye on your gauge and the amount of EP used in each skill.

The items I've run in to so far are mainly for medicinal purposes. Raising HP or EP, mainly. Other items can be used for revival, escaping a battle, removing poison, removing ether effects, and so on and so forth. Like I said before, using items only uses 3 AP (out of the given 4 per turn), so if you use an item twice you'll have saved enough AP to perform a special high powered attack, which I'll explain a little more later on.

Moving positions is can actually be a fairly useful thing. As I've already mentioned. The back row receives the least amount of damage from attacks aimed at all party members and cannot be reached for singular attacks. This is a good spot for the designated ether user or perhaps just someone that you'd like to keep alive so they can benefit from the experience points at the end of the battle. The only negative thing about the back row is that you cannot perform normal attacks. The only thing that can perform non-etheral attacks are the A.G.W.S.

The A.G.W.S (Anti-Gnosis Weapon System) is a robot-like shell that you can pilot during a battle. To equip and remove the A.G.W.S takes one full turn (each, two turns total), but it is worth it. The A.G.W.S has a much higher attack and defense power. The A.G.W.S has it's own HP, and if you run out of HP while you're inside the A.G.W.S you cannot be revived. You also cannot use or benefit from items or ether while you're equiping the A.G.W.S. All "repairs" must be made before the battle begins. You only get one attack per turn and with an A.G.W.S you aren't allowed to use a high powered attack unless you have equiped the same weapon on both hands. I haven't done this yet, so I won't talk about it.

Now for the basic attacks. You get two attacks per turn. The attacks do the same amount of damage, so it's nothing special. The level I'm at right now does about 50 damage per hit, so that's a total of 100 per turn. (Excluding Kos-Mos. Kos-Mos does about 150 per turn.) You're given 4 bars of AP at the beginning of each turn. If you save 2 bars of AP, so that you have 6 in total, you can perform a special, high powered attack, or a tech attack as they're called in the game. Sometimes these attacks aren't anything special, sometimes they are. It all depends on who's using the attack and what they're using the attack on. For example, Shion was fighting a robot, her normal attacks were 50 each, and her tech attack was 60. Kos-Mos was fighting a boss, her normal attacks were 80 and her tech attack was 190. It all varies. Also, you have two different types of attacks (including tech attacks). Close range attacks and long range attacks. All of the long range attacks that I've seen so far have been electrical attacks as well. Which work especially well on electrical enemies.

There are mini-games. I've only come across two of them so far. One is basically a search and destroy type game. There are 18 red doors hidden throughout the game, and the keys are hidden somewhere else. The game is to find the doors and then find the keys, or possibly vice-a-versa. Inside the doors are usually just a corridor with something useful at the end. The second is a card game, which I forgot about and haven't really checked it out yet. So, more on that later.

***Storyline***

After an intro of sorts, the game starts with the character Shion Uzuki getting ready to dive into a simulation, this is where you learn all the techniques in a non-battle area. There is no possible chance of death until you request to switch to battle mode. Now, this simulation is where you're first introduced to KOS-MOS.

Kos-mos is an abbreviation for a long name that I can't remember. Basically, Kos-Mos is a super hot android that is wicked strong and can kill just about anything, unless you're controlling her that is. She can die in battle, so don't get cocky. She does have the strongest attack and takes the least damage from a hit in the beginning group, though.

***Also, let my mistakes serve as a warning for everyone else. Never buy used games. I just spent like 3 hours trying to beat this stupid boss and now the damn thing won't load, so even if I restart the fucker it'll just go back to before the boss and then it'll probably skip in the same damn spot. Urgh, I'm so mad right now. Anywho, on with the review.***

After you fight the boss in the simulation, you get to spend some time running around the area. You find that you're on a ship called the Woglinde and there's quite a bit of stuff to explore. Once you're finished exploring you make your way up to the bridge and make a report. All the while there's video clips of the commander talking with someone else, it doesn't really explain anything, but it lays the foundation for a it-all-makes-sense-now kind of moment. Once you give your report, you make your way back to your room and fall asleep.

At this point, the game decides to go into a bit of a movie sequence, which is nice if you're trying to eat something and haven't managed to pull away from the game long enough to take a bit, lol. It explains a few things and then it leads to an attack. The attacking party is an enemy called Gnosis. They're a species, it's not a specific person or anything, but I'm not really sure I understand them. From what I get so far, they're a spirit type entity. You can't defeat them unless they're made real, which is where Kos-Mos comes in. She brings them into reality with something called the Hilbert Effect.