Nomura, you mean, for that last one. Ugh, what a shitty artist. FF7 had good character art.... and then everything else he ever did was utter shit.

If you haven't, you should watch Angel's Egg. Directed by Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, etc).

It's one of the weirdest anime movies I've seen with almost no dialogue,

I'd say Akihiko Yoshida is a good one for some good FF/Square art. He did FFT, Vagrant Story, etc. Cool stuff.

I guess Yasuyuki Honne and Tonny Waiman Koo did Xenoblade? I'm not positive, but I think the game has some incredible art and I personally liked the character designs a lot, probably the best in the Xeno franchise to me.
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/ ... 49ih7s.png

So uh... no discussion about the new Doom?

Have you not played Xenosaga Kahalachan? I know Morrigan and most aren't a fan, but I would argue that the second disc of Xenosaga III is arguably even better than most of Xenogears. But can you get there? lol. The scope of Xenogears is huge enough, but Xenosaga is on another level since it's galactic sized and every single character almost has their own "final villain" antagonist (this is why the final stretch of III was so good to me, it was like 5 final boss confrontations in a chain reaction of final dungeons. And the ending was insane).

There are many things I like more about Xenosaga because it's even more sci-fi. But it can be a battle to get through the actual games. Its greatest issue is that it simply is 3 very different games. It doesn't help that some VA's were changed across the games too, II has some different VA's but some of the originals came back for III. That bugs me.

I replayed 1-2 two years ago and have to say that the first has aged horribly. Many will still claim this might be the best one, but trust me on this. I've got serious questions as to what the hell happened with a few things, namely the music. Where is the music? There is literally almost no BGM whatsoever in a lot of dungeons. And there is ONE battle theme for the ENTIRE game until the final boss. It got old. And this is Mitsuda talking. My only guess is that he had a month to compose the entire score or something. It seems so rushed. The combat wasn't very good because halfway in you have to rely on these combo attacks that hit everything and those animations got really old and dragged. Battles were really stretched out for all the wrong reasons. They also messed up the mecha, you can switch to it in normal battles but the way it works is just really wonky and they're best saved for bosses.

Another big issue to me is that it focuses mostly on the heroes, whereas Xenosaga II-III get more like Xenogears and develop the antagonists and focus on tons of different characters. In the first game the "Gnosis" were a main enemy force... but they are lifeless with no face, so they're just a boring monster force with no personality or character.

This is when you can really see Takahashi's style shine through though with the cutscenes. I've always thought Monolith Soft were really good with them, the action scenes, camera angles, etc, same with Xenoblade, they're just always really captivating.

Then there's Xenosaga II which took me about 10 years and 3 attempts to finally appreciate. Now I've run through it twice so I'm a big fan, but seriously... this game utterly fails at explaining its own battle system. It was a pretty weird and different system where you would "hold" on turns to stock them up, then unleash a chain of combos while knowing the enemies weaknesses to really get them. A friend of mine wrote up a guide about it and once I got the hang of things, the gameplay actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Here, the mecha battles were separate from the main battles like Xenogears again. But you could only have two mechs at once. Still, I was happy to see them separated again.

ALSO THIS IS WHEN CITAN RETURNS. Okay, not literally, but basically. Jin, the main characters brother comes in at this point and is a game changer character. It's awkward as hell going back the first with him not being there, it's such huge void. My only complaint is he wears a kimono in the second game, so it looks kind of hilarious. He's got an outfit and look that's straight up Citan in the third game.

This is when the cutscenes get even better and the game focuses on a villain that eats Kefka for breakfast. The game is a lot shorter than the first, but this story arc is a huge high point for me in the franchise. It also luckily doesn't focus much on the characters that had VA's switched, so that's nice.

Have you ever played Dragon Spirit? lol, this game did away with Mitsuda and brought in an old school composer (with shmup roots) that gave the game a more trance/techno flavor, but I think it fits really well actually. Then they had some anime composer for the cutscenes and story bits, whom takes over completely for episode 3. For better or worse in some parts, I feel like II has a different vibe than the others that actually fit its world best and sets it apart from Xenogears/Mitsuda. All around the music is arguably more "game like" too than the third game, those movie/anime composers don't always work. III's music is still good, but yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgdqBv-KTrQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwl6F1WkM9A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STGNIDZAT8s

Here's a favorite from III, you can easily see a difference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LId8l6Rc6Y

Finally, the third game does everything right. It has a traditional battle system best comparable to FFX (character switching included) and is a lot of fun. The mecha battles are also hands down the coolest in this one and most similar to Xenogears, and you can now have three mecha per battle. The graphics are really damn good and caught me off guard when I revisited it again. The better VA's return. And the entire second half is mind melting. But... who made it to this? Who still cared after the hit or miss first two games? It's a shame, I'd say this is easily my favorite JRPG on the PS2.

Also, despite being under Namco and not Square, Xenosaga III's ties into Xenogears are hilariously point blank. So fanboygasms included.

In the end though, if anything the game does have a Bible sized database written by Takahashi himself that covers the events and history of the games universe probably even more than the first two games even did. So essentially, you could skip the first two if you can't get through them, and still get a lot out of III.

I like how the series also has robots, cyborgs, androids, and clones. It's just chalk full of any sci-fi trope imaginable.

If you really liked Xenogears, Xenoblade, and have a fetish for Takahashi though, then I can't recommend them enough. Xenogears gets nutty with the duality and persona stuff, whereas Xenosaga probably gets a bit crazier with the Bible stuff which I always think is cool in crazy things like this. I loved Xenoblade's story, but it is absolutely childs play in comparison. So if you want something that's equally as complex as Xenogears or even more so, Xenosaga is out there. The world is on the line in Xenogears. In Xenosaga, it's the universe. I'd obviously recommend starting with the first and maybe your experience will be different. But yeah, don't forget III is pretty good on its own.

They aren't insanely long either, I'd say:
Xenosaga ~ 40 hours
Xenosaga II ~ 20-30
Xenosaga III ~30+

It's humorous to imagine Xenoblade took me as long as them combined, but had 95% less plot. lol

I have a hard time saying which I like more between Xenogears and Xenosaga. Xenogears has its budget issues too, though the second disc doesn't bother me... it's insane to imagine what more it could have been. But the one thing it obviously has above Xenosaga, is that it's a one package deal.

I feel like the only one in the world who has enjoyed and beaten every Xeno. Takahashi has stated that the new Xenoblade will be more adult oriented, so I hope the story is crazier again. Seriously he sounds like Xenoblade was an afterthought joke to him with barely any thought put into it. And the story is pretty cliche, but I feel the execution was so damn good, so it was still engaging. Damn I can't wait to see what they do with the next one with him getting crazier with it, bringing back the mecha, a bigger budget, etc fuck yes.

I saw the teaser clip, which doesn't really show anything at all. Some of these discussions are encouraging, but I don't know what I think about the melee 'finishing moves'. That worked for the Brutal DooM mod, but I don't know how it is going to gel in a standalone, modern title.

I only skimmed Xeo's monstrous post, but I recall him mentioning something about the villain putting Kefka to shame. All I'll say in response to that is that the scene between MOMO and Albedo, when you first really get a glimpse of what he's like, I had to sit in complete awe in front of my TV for a few solid minutes, just staring with my jaw agape. It's really not a secret that I love me some over-the-top hot ham and cheese, and holy FUCK did Albedo deliver that. I want to continue the games not out of any real interest in where the story is going or because I care about Shion and the rest of the crew at all, but purely because I just want to watch three full games worth of Albedo losing his shit. I want to see the extent of his crazy.

Tomb Raider is getting better. I wasn't so keen on the beginning bits as it didn't really feel like TR at all. More like a 'Let's inflict as much pain on Lara as we can to get you to care about her!' type of thing. But now that I'm getting some new gear and actually, you know, raiding tombs... it's better.

Pussy. Git gud, scrub

I really enjoyed TR myself. But my biggedt issue was her attitude against having to kill people and making it a big deal in cutscenes, but then you end up brutally slaughtering hundreds of people throughout the course of the game. I hope Rise of the Tomb Raider lays off so much of the mindless slaughter.

Tomb Raider is getting better. I wasn't so keen on the beginning bits as it didn't really feel like TR at all. More like a 'Let's inflict as much pain on Lara as we can to get you to care about her!' type of thing. But now that I'm getting some new gear and actually, you know, raiding tombs... it's better.

Gothic 2: NotR still ranks as one of, if not the finest aRPG I've ever played. Risen 1 was relatively spectacular as well, with quite possibly the best melee combat system I've ever seen in a game (and I've touched on both of the Demon's Souls sequels*),

Beat Xenogears and the ending made me want to cry.

Gothic's combat ruined it but Risen 1&2 fixed that and are still the only cRPGs of their style (modern action RPG?) that have engaged me enough to play to completion. I cannot say why they clicked with me, they just do and the others I've played don't. The lack of generic NPCs (a blight on any cRPG) makes it feel more like an actual world instead of a breeding ground for clones, the gameplay is varied and the writing is actually competent. It's really almost an adventure game with stats & combat, which is probably what makes it not suck.

You mean those optional "secret" areas (marked with bright white markings saying "SECRET TOMB THIS WAY" and the pop-up notification going "SECRET NEARBY!") with puzzles more brain dead than Terri Schiavo? Those tombs?

Yeah, lol. I was just saying that to myself earlier as I passed an obvious tomb entrance. But, I suppose that's modern gaming for you.

I assume you mean "Gothic 3's combat ruined it?" Vanilla G3 is a disaster on almost every concievable gameplay level, but the community patch did wonders for the game. It's still the weakest of the Gothics of course (unless you're also counting its outsourced successors, and I doubt you are).

Yes, the game really, really thinks you're that dumb. It's so modern it hurts.

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"few years ago"?

Alright, I guess there's a few PS2 games I've had for years that I haven't touched yet... hah.

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I love what Telltalle Games are doing nowadays. They've come a looooong way from the awful QTEs of Jurassic Park.

And unfortunately a long way in the opposite direction from when they were making real adventure games...