XENOSAGA EPISODE II Jenseits von Gut und Bose review:3 stars (Didn't live up to its title) - I am one of those people who is addicted to the Xenosaga series. But that is only because I played the first game. This sequel tried to fix everything that was not perfectly mainstream about the first game and ended up ruining almost everything that made the first game worth playing. That might be a bit of an exaggeration since I did enjoy this game, but it's not far off.
The new character designs are not nearly as polished as the first games characters were. The environment graphics are better, but not by much. The changes in voice actors for Shion, KOS-MOS, and MOMO were not welcomed or appreciated. I had a difficult time trying to reconcil the characters I loved in the first game with the new versions.
The game play started out being confusing and ended up being annoying. The way it works is that each enemy has a break code, and you have to figure out that break code and then usually boost a second character to continue your attack after you've entered it to do any real damage to your enemies. This ends up making battles long and drawn out to the point where sometimes I wanted to stop in the middle of them.
This games comes in two discs, the first disc is mostly cut scenes. The second disc is a string of pointless and difficult boss fights.
The only redeeming thing about this game as a Xenosaga installment is its story. Granted, this game was much worse than the first in linear story telling, but those who want some answers from the mysteries proposed in the first game get a small taste of the truth. Even though I think that the developers have forgotten half of the stuff that happened in the first game at this point.
If you loved the first game, I'd recommend playing through this one just to know what the thing was about and to see the ending. Then I'd start hoping that someone with brain is in charge of the third episode.
3 stars (Great sequel, but not too innovative) - While I'm not fan of the series (In my opinion Xenogears is still a better game) this continuation improves in every aspec, visuals, battle depth, and exploration. The game was given a more mature look to the characters, but if you played the first game you'll notice that the graphics are the same. The Sound department is inproved a little bit (The first game to me lacked sound in exploration mode making it a little borred). The story is as deep and intriguing as expected and a lot of unanswered questions from the first game are answered here. If you haven't played the first one you'll feel lost at the begining but you'll catch on soon enough.

Now for the battle system. Its almost the same as the previous installment, except this time the enemy has different zones were you can hit them. With different atacks you hit different zones of your enemy and most enemies have their own weak zone. By hitting the weak zone the enemy breaks his defense and you can inflict more damage. Further more, you can boost ahead and combo the enemy with your party. There are a lot of atributes to consider, for example your attacs can either do piercing or slashing, physical or ether attacks. Since each of your party members have different atributes, that makes everyone usefull. However, once you figure out how to use stocks and boosting toguether some characters become unnecesary in many battles, therefore in time they become weak because you dont use them offten.

The exploration mode is deeper than before, with side missions to complete, thats a welcome adition. Some gamers will find the cut scenes exiting and interesting , but other gamers will preffer more gaming time, Good thing that you can skip the scenes. With upgrades to every aspect this sequel is a decent one, but it doesnt break the innovation barrier. Its a great unique RPG.
4 stars (Playing a movie) - So when I played Episode 1... I was blown away. The graphics were stunning and the storyline was so amazing. Not to mention the extremely thought out and creative characters. So when I heard that the sequal was coming out I was very excited. I wasn't too dissapointed. A lot has changed in this game but I guess we have the new director to blame for that. Lets go over these changes.

Characters: The designs have changed extremely. I won't say improved or not because I love both designs. This game is done more realistically and I must say Shion is a big improvement!

Music: The music has gotten worse in my oppinion. The music, though it fits the game, is nowhere near as powerful and magical as the music in the first game. I was dissapointed but one thing I do love is that there is more fighting music. A bit more varity makes it tolerable to have the volume on when in a dungeon.

Storyline: Still... wonderful! The story is amazing and I can't tell you how much I love it! There is a lot of religious undertones and when you know a thing or two about the references it makes the game that much cooler!

Battles: Ok... the first game all I heard from my friends was that the gameplay was too simple... I agreed. So what happened is they didn't want anyone to complain about the simplicity that they make it so complicated it takes you the entire game to figure it out. I am finally getting the hang of the Zone/Break thing. Double attacks are pretty cool!

Length: This game was way too short! With all the memory it took to load the LONG LONG video sequences it seemed like 2 discs ment longer game. Though... if you want to play for 40 hours like the box advertised... you do all the sidequests, which are annoying, and long, and its the only way you can get cool items, segment addresses, and double attacks. Some of these things you can only get when you play the game a SECOND TIME!!! I don't wanna play the game a second time just to get a new attack when I beat the game without it!

But all in all... this game did a fairly good job. It was good for what it was. I hope that X3 will be better though
XENOSAGA EPISODE II Jenseits von Gut und Bose Features:
Strategy (Strategic)
Video Games
PS2 (PSX2)
Sony Playstation (Play station) 2
Playstation2 (Play station2)
Action
Adventure
Role Playing Games (rpg, rpgs)
PlayStation 2
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Strategy/RPG

XENOSAGA EPISODE II Jenseits von Gut und Bose is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 29.99USD.