Xenosaga series

Xenosaga is a great Turn-Based RPG game, first appeared in PS1 as Xenogears by Squaresoft. Then, it is brought to PS2 with the title Xenosaga by Namco. It's a trilogy setting place in the world 6000 years in the future, where Earth doesn't exist anymore and humans live in different planet/colony, particularly Miltia/Second Miltia. To be precise, Xenogear has no relationship in term of story or character, but it has become the inspiration to produce Xenosaga, particularly the mecha and world concept.

The denizen of the universe face the threat of Gnosis, an entity composed of NaCl salt which expose much danger to the humanity. They appear as a result of Miltian Conflict which happened 14 years ago (in the game) and they attract to a power source called "Zohar". Gnosis is virtually impossible to be defeated (even to be touched) because they exist in different dimension but they can come into contact with living things, changing them into salt. The only way to defeat them is by exposing the Gnosis to "Hilbert Effect", an aura which enables the human to come in contact with the gnosis; a feature which only certain android/nanomachine were specialized in.

The protagonist of the series, Shion Uzuki works as a chief in Vector Industry. The story of Xenosaga started with the attack of Gnosis to their spaceship, which awaken an android called "KOS-MOS". KOS-MOS is a special android created to fight against Gnosis, since she can produce Hilbert Effect far greater than the 100-series (those who play the game, you know what I mean). Together with Shion and co-chief Allen, they escape and saved by Elsa, a spaceship belongs to Kukai Foundation.

Many things happened after that. They meet Chaos, the event where Ziggy (Ziggurat 8/Jan Sauer) save MOMO (Multiple Observational Mimetic Organicus), Rubedo/Jr investigating the U-TIC junk ship, and the past event between Rubedo, Albedo, Nigredo and Joachim Mizrahi's daughter, Sakura which died due to incurable diseases. MOMO is the clone/main 100-Series of Sakura, created bu Joachim. All of these event happened in Xenosaga 1: Der Wille Zur Macht, which end with the battle with Albedo and giant Gnosis in Proto Merkabah. Save games, then reload in Xenosaga 2....

In Xenosaga 2: Jensein von Gut und Bose, the story started in Second Miltia, where Shion meet her brother Jin who witnessed Miltian Conflict 14 years ago. Pretty much events happened after that, where they're forced to go into MOMO's subconscious to save the Y-Data and stop Albedo's plan. However, the main villain of the game haven't revealed yet. They're later in the end of the game revealed to be connected with Wilhelm (forgot what's his rank), evil KOS-MOS and Zarathrustra.

Xenosaga 3: Also Sparch Zarathrustra (the final episode) has been released last Sept 2006, and the story continue with even more secrets were revealed, of which the big one is the truth behind Miltian Conflict, and the culprit for the appearance of Gnosis. However, so many things still unanswered even though the seried already ended. This mainly because the story has been compressed from the supposedly 6 episodes, into 3 episodes, so you can guess how much info were cut throughout the processes.

Why I like this game so much...? First, the story. It was pretty well developed, and got nice characters. It is based on Friedrich Nietzsche philosophical work, from Der Will Zur Macht, the latest until Thus Spake Zarathustra (the oldest out of the 3 episode). Many philosophical theory from the books were adapted into the game. For more info about Nietzche work and his philosophy, visit here.

Secondly, the gameplay. I really like the stock/combo/boost feature, as well as the mecha battle. The gameplay is identical to normal rpg games (turn-based), with various enhancement including double/special attacks and critical point point-targeting . The gameplay differs slightly from Xenosaga 1, 2 and 3 but still maintain the basic concept of boost/stock combo. Mastering the battle system is definitely the key of succes in every battle, or else you'll end up spending more than 10 minutes just in a single normal battle.

Third, the sidequest. They have numerous sidequest, some are terribly hard to accomplish (such as finishing the 10,000,000 captain debt), and the crazy hard secret bosses (but not dark erde kaiser battle). And in Xenosaga 3, they come pre-loaded with a mini-game called HakoX game, which is quite addictive and veeery hard toward the end. Just like most rpg, there're ultimate weapon/skill for each characters, and one ultimate skill which is available in all series, Erde Kaiser. Regarded as the strongest offensive skill, it's only usable once per battle in X1 and X2, but in X3, the usage is unlimited, as long as we have the required EP (max 99 EP required). Of course this helps a lot in most battles, but Erde Kaiser isn't that easy to be obtained. It's only acquirable after we go through series of sidequest to unlock some part, before we're able to use it.

Ok, I'm quite sure I've left so many details here, so some basic database about Xenosaga can be acquired here

Xenosaga 2 database

Xenosaga 3 database