Reader Reviews

Star Review: Xenosaga - Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)

by itamae

Dämmerung, Woglinde, Wellgunde, Flosshilde and Rhine Maiden. Wagner would be proud to hear that the dramatis personae of his Ring of the Nibelung made a comeback as humanity's last hope against the Gnosis, a trans-dimensional race of evildoers in Namco's legendary space opera. Said aliens threaten to kill all living beings after a group of archaeologists accidently stumbled across a huge monolith which looks a lot like the monolith of 2001 fame. It is now up to ingenious scientist Shion Uzuki and her unlikely companions to save the day. And by unlikely companions I mean folks like a genuine magical girl, a mysterious philosopher with a terrible fashion sense and a gun-toting teenage playboy who commands a battleship that makes Hugh Hefner's mansion look like a nunnery.

What follows in the next 30-odd hours is an amazing example of wasted potential. The first half of Xenosaga is an incredibly polished RPG, with a complex yet easily accessible battle system, visibly roaming enemies and intriguing characters whose merging storylines suggest an elaborate script. Adding to that cinematic feel are the much talked about cut-scenes that will often take more than half an hour and are sometimes even interrupted by save prompts. And while some of these scenes are a bit cheesy as they are definitely tailored for the Japanese market the overall impression is that this game is only a tiny part of an epic struggle that spans several millennia. The scale of Xenosaga is also reflected in the 'mini-games', which comprise a decent Virtua On rip-off and a trading card game so complex that it comes with a 24-page tutorial.

At some point during the development process the creators of Xenosaga seem to have run out of time, money, disc space and/or ideas though. There a plot twists which make no sense at all. Character development completely grinds to a halt. The enormous cut-scenes are reduced to five-minute snippets. The gameplay boils down to repetitive dungeon crawls. A generic white-haired pretty boy with the silliest evil laughter ever is introduced to take the vacant position as main villain. 'Vacant?' I can hear you ask, what happened to the Gnosis?'. To be honest, I don't have a clue. They appear in some of the cut-scenes later on but don't seem to play a major role anymore. By the time you fight the final battle you will likely be confused, frustrated (also thanks to the remarkably unfair bosses) and most of all glad that it's over.