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So I was just testing out my lovely new ability to use the search function and what did I find? This! Can't describe how happy you've made me ScurvyKip. I am an unashamed fanboy of these games. I played Episode 1 right on the heels of completing my first ever JRPG (FFVII) and I have loved Episode 1 to death ever since. It is easily my favorite in the series, although of course Episode III has some advantages. i guess I would say... Episode 1: I think the English dub was the best in this game. not so noticable now since we've met like four important characters and a bunch of nobodies but later on there will be so much goodness. I also liked combat most in this game as it was too slow in the next gme and too fast in the game after that. Also has my favorite art style. Well, maybe it's more the character designs. Some of the outfits in the late games are just...well, we'll get to it when we get to it. Also I like Shion. Episode 2: Just gonna not talk about this one. Episode 3: Seems to be a lot of people's favorite on here, if Zutaten's LP is anything to go by. Has some definite perks, like Yuki Kajiura's soundtrack, dungeons and environments, and the fact it was the last game in the series so you had the "everything is being answered" bonus. Also the dub is by no means bad in this game - I just prefer 1's. So yeah, I love the plot, I love the characters, I love the music. Overall I'd say I prefer Xenogears for a variety of reasons but Saga still does a few things better than Gears. (namely characters don't just vanish into a Plot Void nearly as often) Now to talk about the LP itself. 1. How many of your group has played this game/he series? I believe it was Unpronounceable who sounded like he knew what was going on? I just really like the dynamic of one group knows about everything and the other is experiencing stuff for the first time. 2. I found AGWs positively useless in this game except for maybe one fight. Are you really gonna be using them a lot? If so that will give me a whole new way of seeing the game played. Anyway, I'm really enjoying you guys and I'm glad someone who enjoys the series is LP'ing it. I mean there are plenty of parts to rip on it but as long as you're actually having fun ya know. As much as I love Episode 1 it sure takes a long time to get rolling.
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# ¿ Jun 1, 2013 14:58 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:54 |
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That's pretty cool. You are all in for a very long and very anime ride then. I hope you come out of it having enjoyed what you saw. I know I'll be enjoying hearing all your reactions to the crazy poo poo to come.
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# ¿ Jun 1, 2013 15:34 |
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ScurvyKip posted:See I've never played Xenogears, so please feel free to point this stuff out. I know a few of the references, for example the Uzuki surname being shared between Shion and Citan. The uniforms the Vector personnel are wearing (excluding Shion's unique outfit 'cuz she's boss lady) is clearly modeled on the uniform of the military of the Sky Nazis in Xenogears. Creepy crosses swinging around in the void is a very bad thing in Xenogears. Although I think this one was just kinda twirling. the pro-wrestler with the X-Face who snuck on the ship and started abusing those poor techies is such a blatant reference that he might as well be a clone. Becomes even more obvious later. ...and I think that's everything so far. I might have to buy a new copy of EP1 just to play along with you. I really miss this game and I still can't figure out how I lost my last copy. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Jun 2, 2013 |
# ¿ Jun 2, 2013 02:15 |
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Mazed posted:The ominous dude Cherenkov was talking to on the monitor is, if nothing else, a deeply entertaining performance by Michael McConnohie. She's also secretly giggling inside. "I bet from this cutscene and some of the trailers that you thought you'd be in this game! Jokes on you, bro!" Aw man, I love this part so much. It's like, the intro is so exceedingly dull but then the Gnosis attack and I remember why I love the game so much. Also, may I direct you all to the actual Gnosis theme. It's easily one of the best songs in teh game. Oh and Mazed mentioned Michael McConnhie earlier - this game will introduce you to almost every prominent English dub voice-actor out there. I played this game before I even knew what an anime was and I have been hearing all of these guys and girls in everything ever since. It's very bizarre that Johnny Yong Bosch only voiced that Woglinde crewman of no importance. Really can't wait for the next episode. Shion is gonna kung-fu the hell out of those space ghosts while employing her inappropriate yet hypnotic swaying battle stance.
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# ¿ Jun 3, 2013 06:38 |
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Well I'm glad to return from my vacation to a whole slew of updates. At this rate the whole Trilogy won't take that long at all. Although of course I'd more than understand if you wanted to take time off before Episode II.... So Mazed is covering music so my thing I think will be voice-actor chat. Dazzling Anime, shame on you. There ain't no Yuri Lowenthal in this game. He won't be around for two whole games yet. I kinda missed Wilhelm's Episode 1 voice actor. It's Richard Cansino who you might recognize as Kenshin HImura or Legato Bluesummers. YOu don't hear him in much but I like him. Episode 1 chaos I can take it or leave it. One voice actor change I want to address is Pellegri. Ya know, Margulis' lady friend who actually has a conscience? A lot of the VAs in this game went uncredited but it's easy enough to tell who most of them are if you watch anime or play other JRPGS. All sites I can find say Kari Wahlgren voiced Pellegri in all three games. Kari Wahlgren voiced Ashe in Final Fantasy XII and she has a very distinct voice. THat's why I knew her immediately in Episode 2. This lady in Episode 1 though? Sounds absolutely nothing like her. And so I say Wikipedia and every other website is wrong and I'm still wondering who actually voiced the lady in this game. A permanent voice change I really did miss was SHerry Lynn as MOMO. The replacement was better by EP3 but Ms. Lynn has a really good girly girl voice. Some people I know say it sounds way too much like a grown women doing a little girl voice but MOMO is such a hyper magic girl anime cliche that kind of voice really fits her. With that out of the way, I think space nerd Shion was handled well. She really isn't bitchy at all in this game. She's kind of...impotently assertive. She really doesn't go off on people who don't deserve it. She has plenty of trauma to deal with and I don't think she was badly characterized. I believe at parts we are supposed to look at Shion and go "what the gently caress is wrong with her?" For example, there was a Japanese only thing released with Episode 1 called Xenosaga Episode 1 Design Materials. Parts of it have been translated and one of those parts was characterr profiles. The relevant passage on Shion's character: quote:Enneagram Type Apparently this Enneagram stuff is a real thing. I've always maintained that the developers of Xenogears and Xenosaga at least did a lot of research before they made their games. Whether or not they used it well is another matter but at least they made the effort. Finally, was that Kuvo in one of the episodes? Has he actually played this game? I remember very distinctly in a previous LP (maybe FFX2) he and Topikal had a very brief argument about Xenogears. I remember this because Topikal actually claimed to like the game. I would have never pegged one of the T40s crew for a fan of any game even vaguely like Xenogears. Maybe it was the nostalgia.
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# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 04:24 |
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ScurvyKip posted:I really like his character arc, unfortunately most of it is in a mobile game that was only released in Japan, I'll cover it when the time comes. Pied PIper was really good and I'm glad that Xenosaga has such a dedicated fanbase that it was translated online. A lot of stuff in Episode III makes a lot more sense if you understand what Ziggurat 8 was up to back then.
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# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 22:04 |
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Mazed posted:I had no idea about the enneagram stuff either. If you've got more of this, it would be cool to hear what the rest of the characters have got going on, as we get to them. Sure thing. Allen quote:*Enneagram Type Virgil quote:According to the Enneagram personality classification, Virgil is classified as Ziggurat 8 quote:Enneagram type Even the villains have them! Pellegri quote:According to Enneagram personality analysis, Pellegri exhibits a Type 6 Margulis and MOMO and a few others we've met have entries too but they contain spoilers. A bit of self-trivia is that I'm totaly Allen. I took an Enneagram test and I'm definitely a Type 6. The guide doesn't go into specifics like if you are a Social, Sexual or Self-Preservation Variant but I think Allen is a Self-pres, just like me.
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# ¿ Jun 19, 2013 18:24 |
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mmj posted:That surprises me. He's been more stressed about Shion always almost dying/ignoring him and he picked up a rifle and fought on the Woglinde. I had the feeling that he was putting himself in more danger than he needed to, mainly to be with Shion. It's Self-Preservation as it relates to their personality and needs, not the typical use of the term. Here's a little link I just found on Google that more or less gets the point across I hope: http://www.enneagramcentral.com/Enneagram/Subtypes/Subtype%20Six%20Self%20Preservation.htm And here's a whole site on the Enneagram system if anyone is interested. http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/typesix.asp#.UcIPbXYWX14 Keeshhound posted:I like how none of these characters exhibit the healthy forms of their assessed personalities. I assume a major part of the series will be them shifting to more positive behavior patterns? Well Virgil is dead but you're on the right track about everyone else.
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# ¿ Jun 19, 2013 21:10 |
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Of the characters we've met so far, those are indeed the only ones who have kept the same voice for all three games. For me personally, one of the major reasons I hated Episode 2 was because they changed Shion's and KOS-MOS' VAs. I also think the fact they brought them back for 3 is part of why a lot of fans came back onboard.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 02:27 |
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I really like Juli Mizrahi and her Ice Bitch attitude. She also has a pretty cool voice, one of the most overlooked in the series. And then there's MOMO. She's adorable. I liked the one area with music. It was a pretty cool song too.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 12:39 |
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Yeah, I don't think challenges are really necessary. I mean, you obviously wouldn't use a certain attack to one shot the final boss in this game or Episode III. I think there a handful of pretty tough bosses in this game as is so there's no need to put limits on. Episode III is a different matter since there is a couple of items in the game that are super easy to get and they ensure you never ever lose. Those should probably be restricted. However that is ages away. I like the idea of being able to vote on party members though.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2013 06:44 |
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What I hated most about XSII's gaeeplay was the skill upgrade system. In order to get more CLass Points you had to finish an entire Sill section. Only the odds are good you'd never get the Secret Key necessary to unlock a certain Sill which means you'd never have enough Class Points to start on another Skill tree. There are a lot of very useful abilities you might want but if you dump all your CP into opening that path, and you don't have the Key to unlock the other two hidden Skills, you are stuck there. There were CLass Upgrade items but they weren't exactly common from what I remember.
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# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 15:30 |
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There was actually an anime made that was based on Episode 1. The irony is that it is actually worse at being an anime than the game. Seriously, it was pretty bad. I'd much rather watch the cutscenes.
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# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 16:59 |
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Hunter Noventa posted:Not only that, but they released a DVD that was JUST the cutscenes from Episode 1, around when Episode 2 came out. I think that also came with preordering Episode II? Whatever the case, I bought just the DVD off ebay years and years ago and it doesn't even contain all the FMVs from the game. It still is over four hours long.
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# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 20:42 |
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I have nothing against this (since I think they're pretty interesting characters) but the Xeno writers aren't exactly subtle about some gender stereotypes. What you just said about MOMO and how she doesn't fit makes me remember how everyone in the Xenogears LP reacted to Elly. She also used a wand in normal battle and what's more her mech was a pink fembot whith a bigger wand. Plus she had some really weird Ether and Deathblow animations. There are rumors Elly was the main writer's idealized women and his wife, who also worked on Xenogears and Xenosaga, was not too happy about this. But yeah, back to this game.... That Margulis fight can take forever. Kinda hoping during some of the later, more iintene boss fights you might not edit them. It just wouldn't convey how difficult some of the fights are in this game. And whenever Mazed posts he can link to the awesome Margulis theme we heard in this update. Tae posted:I've played the trilogy and I don't remember poo poo about any mutants. I'm sure we don't have any mutant party members, either or even see one. So Allen is racist against imaginary things. The Database to the rescue. Uberhumans During the heyday of the Life Recycling Act, many people opted to undergo artificial procedures to enhance physical abilities or to increase brain capacity. This term is used to describe those individuals or their descendants. Although Allen refers to them as "mutants," these gifted ndividuals do not exhibit any external differences when compared to ordinary humans. Current Federation law prohibits any acts of discrimination against such people, yet feelings of hostility still abound in various corners of the galaxy. The Kukai Foundation not only protects these individuals, but also provides them with a means to support themselves.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2013 13:57 |
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U-TIC isn't that bad. Or maybe it's the fact that the Federation is even worse. We've already seen that U-TIC had operatives infiltrating a Federation vessel and said vessel was easily dispatched by a single fleet of Gnosis. This happened because the Feds saw fit not to give them the proper equipment for actually fighting off the space boogeyman that are such a threat that everyone on the ship was constantly talking about running into them. What we saw might as well have been the space equivalent of those Polish guys who tried to fight Nazi tanks on horseback. (did that really happen? Not much of a WWII buff and I've only head about that in passing) Solaris is certainly better than U-TIC But we'll be seeing a lot more from U-TIC and obviously we can't discuss that now. At present, the Feds seem more incompetent.
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2013 07:06 |
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Mazed posted:Though Ziggy has a great victory quote: "The outcome was decided before the battle began." My favorite one of his has always been "don't take it too hard, you didn't stand a chance." I've been waiting to hear it but no luck so far.
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# ¿ Jun 26, 2013 05:09 |
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Archetype KOS-MOS is creepiest KOS-MOS. No wonder they tried to make her prettier. Also U-TIC theme is great. Mazed was spot on when he said the bad guys got some great music in this series. I wonder who Joachim's assistant could have been. Someone in Vector....hm... And that's about it for important Plot in this episode. Well, we got a bit more backstory on Cherenkov. Sure explains why he was so freaked out about KOS-MOS back on the Woglinde. Seems like there's a lot more to his character than you might have expected.
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# ¿ Jun 27, 2013 18:23 |
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I'm pretty sure you're right about that. It would have a little text box open asking if you wanted to go up/down and once you said yes it faded to black and transitioned to you at the top.bottom of the ladder.
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# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 03:02 |
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The reason there are weapons on a cargo ship is because the captain installed them while in a drunken stupor.
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# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 03:15 |
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shion, chaos and MOMO Main characters like Shion just always have to be in the party. It's a weird thing with me. And I remember both chaos and MOMO being especially useful in the upcoming dungeon.
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# ¿ Jul 7, 2013 23:51 |
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TheBystander posted:I'm actually quite glad that Shion doesn't always have to be in the party, as I spent all three games trying to keep her out. The less involvement she had in the game, the more fun I had. So Episode 2 is your favorite?
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# ¿ Jul 8, 2013 01:27 |
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I would say, overall, Xenogears was more rewarding in the use of its symbolism. (the Ethos and a certain scene notwithstanding) Speaking of Xenogears, our good friend Jr. is a physical clone of Billy Lee Black, a playable character in Gears. His personality however is much more like Bartholomew "Bart" Fatima, also a playable character. Bart was called "Young master" to Jr.'s "Little Master." The in-game Database gives the translation of the foreign words used by our evil, cackling friend.
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# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 05:05 |
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I love these games unironically. Azure is right that the plot really does go of the rails even more than Xenogears' and that probably has to do with the series being shortened. Nevertheless, I think all three games have serious moments that are legitimately effective. One of those parts is not far off in the future of this LP. As for Everybody's Favorite Villain, he is very entertaining, and God bless Crispin Freeman, but I've never gotten the massive love for him. I like most of the other villains more. Sadly we won't see my favorite villain until next game. Spiritus Nox posted:Also, the Durandal is the best ship and anyone who disagrees is provably wrong. Not that I disagree, but I've always wondered about the giant, slowly spinning...thing. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jul 16, 2013 |
# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 17:15 |
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I dunno why anyone wouldn't stop to listen to "Ormus" in that chapel area. Not only is it a lovely piece of music, it's the only piece of music in the drat place. It's just so...jarring after the silence and thus it has always stayed in my memory.
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# ¿ Jul 20, 2013 02:14 |
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Oh man, the next dungeon. Unfathomably long, ugly, no music whatsoever - it really is the worst in the game. But for now, more mysterious stuff with Cherenkov and...that's about it. Although the idea of getting a giant metal earing for the AGWS totally made me think of Bart's metal eyepatch he had for his Gear. Jr. really should have something like that.
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2013 00:29 |
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Cangelosi posted:I dunno about you guys, but I've done way too much Dynasty Warriors in the past and I keep confusing Cherenkov with Yuan Shao. I keep on expecting rants about the nobility any time he comes on screen. OH good, Voice-Actor Chat, my area of expertise as an anime nerd. Cherenkov is voiced by this guy who is pretty easy to recognize. He's a decent enough VA. Actually, I was complaining about how much I hate Star Ocean 3 the other day, and I realized a lot of the voices in this game are in that game as well. Cherenkov is Fayt's father, Shion is Nel's lesbian friend, MOMO is Peppita, Allen is Cliff, and probably a few more. And yet the dub in that game is all kinds of terrible.
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2013 04:43 |
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Non-EuclideanCat posted:So is Jr. having 666 on his hand plot-relevant or is his design a bit sillier than I thought? It's plot relevant. It will be addressed once he actually joins the party.
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2013 22:15 |
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I mentioned earlier I thought there was a legitimately well done story bit coming up and this is what I was talking about. Well, the Cherenkov bit, not everything else. He tends to be a favorite side character among the Xeno nerds I've met and for good reason. Also hey there Zutaten, it's good to have you back. Be awesome if you're available for guest commentary for the rest of the series. Also Zutaten you kinda highlighted a decent-sized plot hole and I'm not sure if you did it intentionally. "Cathedral Ship" being known already, as in being listed in KOS-MOS' databanks, doesn't make any sense, considering where it came from.
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# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 08:34 |
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ScurvyKip posted:Oh wow, I never made that connection before. I thought it was just Cherenkov being crazy. Learn something every day i suppose. If it's any consolation, I always thought the same thing. I figured he was just hallucinating the little girl to be his ex-wife. It would certainly fit with how crazy he is. Plus, talk about contrived coincidences, happening upon your clone daughter while out on a stroll.
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# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 12:49 |
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Well I hope you had a good birthday Kip but I do feel sorry for Zutaten. I seem to recall chaos is extremely useful against the Ogres? Like he'd almost always get Criticals for some reason. Maybe I just had the right item on him? It's been a long time since I played this game. And...uh, I got nothing else to say about the video.
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# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 00:45 |
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SSNeoman posted:chaos' Heaven's Wrath is super good here. It's a bit of a grind to get, but it's super worth putting into a high-speed slot. That's why I recommended the party include him when Kip asked the thread. Sadly he didn't get enough votes.
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# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 19:14 |
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Some interesting trivia for the third game that is like, a billion light years away - (I just found this out myself) 8-4 was involved in the English localzation. You might know them as the people responsible for forum favorites such NIeR and Metal Gear Rising, both of which get heaped with praise for how liberally they translated the Japanese to English. Now Kip posted a small excerpt from the XSIII Database earlier and praised it while blasting XSI's. I've always noticed how much more colorful and "fun" the third game's Database is and now it makes a lot of sense.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 21:35 |
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Ya know I never had too much of a problem with it when I actually played the game, but watching your videos really makes the deafening silence in the dungeon that much worse. The lack of background music does the Cathedral Ship no favors. There is indeed a fair amount of padding, and this could be a telltale sign of the old rumor that Xenosaga was supposed to span six games. Of course, a significant bit of what ended up in Episode 2 was supposed to be in 1. This game seems like it was not at all spared the Xeno development curse that afflicts everything except Blade.
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# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 06:48 |
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CmdrKing posted:Yeaaah. While ultimately the way the plot was divided up made XS2 a stronger, more cohesive story with a clear arc unto itself, this still basically meant that in the final analysis, about half the playtime of Xenosaga as a series is spent in the first episode (if you know your way around an RPG, XS1 will take you about 40 hours, while XS2 and 3 will run just over 20 a piece), during which the least advancement to the core plot is made. And a little of this is the series getting more conservative and compact in the cinematics, but not that much. Ehhh, Episode 1 establishes all the characters as well as the universe as a whole. It lays the foundation for pretty much everything that will be addressed in the subsequent games. Episode 2 is a side story that puts the main story out of focus and sidelines the primary heroes. I don't think there's any argument you can make that more is accomplished in Episode 2 in terms of the "main story" than in Episode 1.
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# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 07:51 |
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CmdrKing posted:I disagree, but going into detail would involve spoilers so let's leave it at that. That said it's a bit of a slapfight anyway; if we go by the "Xenosaga was planned as six episodes" idea the creators originally suggested, by necessity XS3 is at least three of them. And frankly how that game turned out leads me to believe the creators weren't full of poo poo and legitimately did divide their original story concept into six parts (well, seven, but anyway). Well the only official quotes on the subject are that the first three games would be "Shion's Arc." The next trilogy would be focused on a mostly new party or something. I don't think it was ever fully planned out. And my apologies if I sounded argumentative. It's just that I love this game and despise Episode 2. You are right though as a serious debate about which game is more important would involve a lot of spoilers. On the bright side, we're about 50-55% through this game and this LP is only 3 months old. If this pace is kept up we can debate about Episode 2 at it's finale sometime in early 2014. Episode 2 is a really short game, especially compared to 1. And yet it's on 2 disks....
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# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 08:33 |
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Well them being quick and easy makes them just as bad as being slow and clunky to some people. Episode III had the best ES battle system but I did find the gameplay lacking simply because it was too fast, too easy and that kinda ruined what might have been otherwise pretty great boss fights. If I'll give Episode 2 any credit at all, it would be for a couple of the boss fights. It has probably my favorite two bosses in the series.
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# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 18:59 |
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Lots to talk about from this update. The scene with Margulis talking to Cherenkov is one of my favorites throughout the whole series. This game makes some questionable uses of its soundtrack but using "Beach of Nothingness" over that sequence was just perfect. I also found it pretty interesting and Margulis has always been my favorite Xeno villain since way back in the day. Asso, now that Cherenkov is done for, I can post Margulis' personality write up: quote:* Enneagram type Also gently caress that boss. I found a couple bosses harder later on but back in the day, he was a nightmare. He seems to be the boss most people remember being the most challenging too, probably because he's the first really challenging one. Cherenkov was a well-done side character though. I felt bad for him. Although his little warning to Shion was a bit ominous... EDIT: Gonna go with the flow and say chaos. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 26, 2013 |
# ¿ Aug 26, 2013 05:37 |
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Oh and the term "Life Recycling Variant" was used to describe Cherenkov, and it will be used again. I think it be best to post the Database's explanation of what it means.quote:A term which encompasses individuals or their descendants who have had their DNA, neural structure, or other bio- logical components heavily modified. Some may display extraordinary physical abilities or superhuman powers depending on the level of modification, but on the other hand many suffer from adverse mental effects. Also, I wanna bring up something I didn't mention earlier. As you might expect, back in the heyday of Xenosaga online discussions and theories and explanations, one aspect of Episode 1 that was looked at closely was the scene right before the Gnosis drag the Elsa out of hyperspace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0m06qHmvk&t=5m19s As you can see, we are specifically shown MOMO's hands along with Shion's going all glowy. This led to a lot of speculation about "what" exactly was the deal with Shion. There had to be a purpose to this little detail. A more blatant hint something is up with Shion can be found in the Datbase, referencing the scene where Shion and Virgil tried to fight off he intangible Gnosis back on the Woglinde: quote:FAE (Fuel Air Explosive)
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# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 21:19 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:54 |
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Glazius posted:I dunno, for my money Grahf pulled it off better. "DOST THOU DESIRE THE POWER" just seems more authentic than the whole "you're the only real person in a world of sheeple" thing. Grahf was a fantastic villain but his theatrics can't really be compared with Margulis' recruitment speech about joining his space religion army. Grahf was certainly better with the drama though, I agree. He's my favorite bad guy in Gears or Saga.
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# ¿ Sep 4, 2013 08:00 |