Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra
The saga concludes.
Please bear with this. While a review of the finale to a three-part epic J-RPG science-fiction saga might seem irredeemably tedious to all but the most unflinchingly geekish consumer, there are lessons herein that are important to the rest of gaming. Ideas that should and shouldn't be repeated and, remarkably, beneath the rubble of this prematurely destroyed series, the pleading whisper of a good game trapped in a fallen framework.
Originally intended as a six-part run of games that would be released over no less than three console generations spanning a decade, the Xenosaga vision has been mercilessly downsized in recent times. Indeed, with declining sales as the story has progressed it was perhaps debateable as to whether we'd see any form of conclusion to this, Tetsuya Takahashi's lovingly crafted universe. So, there's some sense of relief for fans in this, the final (foreseeable) Xenosaga game: they at least made it to an end.
But first, a brief history of time.