any new info on xenosaga III?

[Mefisutoferesu]

I just don't understand this. It's not an economy issue since Sorayama indicated that the situation didn't occur because of Namco and that XenoII got the same budget as 1. That means it was internal. Now, I know people can be primadonnas, but for whatever reasons be to throw out a perfectly good AND finished script and replace it with gopher missions (I dunno personally, I'm still on the first disc, but I'm going off what people have said) doesn't make sense. Was there that much bile between members that they actually were willing to throw out what looks literally like 70-80% of the game for the sake of spite? I would think developers pride would kick in saying "no keep the script, but throw 'em out" for something. Yeah, hate can make people do crazy things, but I would think others from the team would step in and say something. It... blessed be, this defies my logic.

PS. I thought the 1st Xenosaga was good and the second one so far is as well... but I haven't gotten to the part where they toss everything out yet... anyway, a total shame. Let's just pray we see Xenogears remade instead... ah, forget it.

 

[Legion]

In my opinion it seems the situation has become quite hostile. I just can't imagine what would drive the parent company to drive off Saga, severly modify her script, and then cancel any further game installments. What greater insult could you serve to Saga and Takahashi than ruining their video game legacy?

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Granted that's all possible, but I would think the company, namely Namco, would go berserk over this. Risking a multi-million dollar product for revenge is craziness. That's the thing I can't compute. I can't imagine a more expensive revenge.

 

[msia2k75]

I'm so mad to see how this series is turning about, that's crazy!
There's no way I'm buying again a single Xenosaga game. I miss the original plot, I miss Mitsuda and his music...

 

[Legion]

I'm so mad to see how this series is turning about, that's crazy!
There's no way I'm buying again a single Xenosaga game. I miss the original plot, I miss Mitsuda and his music...

Then by all means voice your opinions to Monolith Soft and Namco

 

[msia2k75]

Then by all means voice your opinions to Monolith Soft and Namco

Namco really fucked up big time on this. I just saw the trailer of Xenosaga III and sorry it's disappointing at best! Graphics look decent so far but poor dialogues, weak design and bad music (can't stand with Kajiura's style). No really I can't believe what i'm seeing... Anyways, this generation of consoles has seen a big let-down in the quality of jRPG.

 

[Legion]

Namco really fucked up big time on this. I just saw the trailer of Xenosaga III and sorry it's disappointing at best! Graphics look decent so far but poor dialogues, weak design and bad music (can't stand with Kajiura's style). No really I can't believe what i'm seeing... Anyways, this generation of consoles has seen a big let-down in the quality of jRPG.

I don't understand the scene where KOS-MOS is fighting Omega. I'm sorry but she would never have any hopes of winning.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Someone doesn't like Kajiura?

<Stares blankly at screen in disbelief>

You a CRAZY man!!!

Well, it's your opinion, crazy though it may be , but I'm quite happy having Mitsuda and Kajiura do music together; it was a dream come true for me. They're 2 of my top three modern day composers. If I end up hating XenoII as much as you guys are, I can at least comfort myself with the OSTs.

AND, I'll say for a third time. I STILL can't comprehend having the XenoII script thrown out like that. It just DOESN'T make sense. Last I checked greed is greater than hate. I really don't understand... I doubt any of us will.

By the way, I have to agree with the style change... it kinda feels like something out an H-game. I mean, come on, under-boob on Kos-mos? That... meh...

 

[Legion]

For me it isn't about who is truly the better composer, its about consistency. Mitsuda was with the serious from the point of its conception back in the days of Xenogears. Needless to say I'm finding the sudden switch of a musical style difficult to stomach.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Ah, I can appreciate that. It is indeed a bit odd that they would bring Kajiura in all of a sudden. I remember hearing some blurbs about Mitsuda being extremely busy during XenoI and as a result we wound up with a much thinner soundtrack that we would normally have from him. I was under the impression that Kajiura was brought onboard because of the same problem. She did the cutscenes while he did the general background, that way even if Mitsuda didn't have time to compose for the enitre game we would still have a complete soundstrack.

 

[Shark Sandwich]

Actually, I think it might've been a budget issue for why the script was cut so short. True, they had the same budget as Xenosaga 1. However, they revamped the graphics completely, made everything flashier and more polished, WAY better textures, added much better voice acting, more detailed cutscenes, etc. The overall look and feel of Xenosaga II is more polished and definitely suggests a higher budget. It makes sense that they would in turn have to cut many parts out.

Besides, look at the Good Samaritan campaign. It is the definition of filler. They had a 10-hour RPG and needed something to fluff it up. The easiest way to do that is to create a series of fetch quests that have nothing to do with the central plot, require no additional artwork or cutscenes, and consume a lot of time. I can't imagine anybody saying "For the prequel to the most epic RPG ever created, we should make a large part of the game about finding flower seeds for people, delivering love notes, and playing around with valves in a sewer!" There has to be another explanation.

 

[Legion]

IGN posted a better trailer

http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/757/757372/vids_1.html

 

[akira888]

In that vein:

I seem to remember one of the Japanese publicity materials for XS2 had, as one of its "bullet points," something about an "easier to read story" or along those lines. It's not inconceivable that MonoSoft intended to butcher the narrative in order to increase sales. Of course, it didn't quite end up like that as sales figures dropped by more than 50% by some estimates.

 

[akira888]

Ah, I can appreciate that. It is indeed a bit odd that they would bring Kajiura in all of a sudden. I remember hearing some blurbs about Mitsuda being extremely busy during XenoI and as a result we wound up with a much thinner soundtrack that we would normally have from him. I was under the impression that Kajiura was brought onboard because of the same problem. She did the cutscenes while he did the general background, that way even if Mitsuda didn't have time to compose for the enitre game we would still have a complete soundstrack.

The problem I had with the music in XS2 was not so much the compositions themselves (which were fair) but rather with the music direction. In XG, for instance, the BGMs were almost perfectly aligned with the place and time of the story at that given point. Fei's hometown evokes a bucolic cheerfulness and so does its score; the Wels' ghost ship is designed to be creepy, as is its music; Dazil is middle-eastern thus it receives a Klezmerish tune, etc. In XS2 nothing is that well matched, and the music adds little to the ambience of the game whereas it largely created the general atmosphere of XG.

Anyways, this generation of consoles has seen a big let-down in the quality of jRPG.

Agreed. J-RPG's peaked around 1998-1999 and have been in a state of slow death ever since. I think the next group of consoles will be no different than the current crop - the genre is in bad need of some new blood.

It wouldn't be so bad if Western RPGs had better plots and at least non-atrocious art. Gameplaywise they blow J-RPGs clear out of the sky; there is no comparison. How was the battle system of XS2 any better than that of, say, Chrono Trigger or Grandia 1? Was it even better at all? Or much worse? What other genre has been so stagnant (or declining)?

 

[msia2k75]

What other genre has been so stagnant (or declining)?

Fighting games, FPS?

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Action? Racing? Sports? FPS? Fighting?

I dunno, I think we're just being spoiled. It's hard to come up with something new. I'm sure if we looked back to the late 1990s we'd find tons of jRPGs that sucked. People only tend to remember the good things in life.

 

[akira888]

I'll give you guys fighting, but not action (J&D and R&C are miles above Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot in complexity) or even FPS (HL2, FEAR and Battlefield 2 vs. Quake 3). Sports/Racing is a different case because developers have to be faithful to the original real world analogue and this places harsh constraints on innovation, but even then there have been marginal improvements here and there.

I amend my original statement - J-RPG is the only major genre that's in obvious decline. Some of this is structural (J-RPGs require more art assets than almost any other type of game), and some is cultural (people are more attracted to cultural content that's relevant to them).

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Umm, I'm probably being nitpicky, but aren't Jak and Dax platforming?? I was thinking action is more like the games that are Onimusha and so on.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Heres my list of JRPGs that are big and have had an impact (or ARE going to have an impact)

• Dark Cloud

• Dark Cloud 2

• Dragon Quest VIII

• Final Fantasy X

• Final Fantasy X-2

• Final Fantasy XI

• Final Fantasy XII

• Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner

• Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2

• Breath of Fire 5

• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

• Kingdom Heart

• Kindgom Heart 2

• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

• Tales of Symphonia

• Tales of Legendia

• Kings Field: The Ancient City

• Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

• Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose

• Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra

• Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

• Legen of Zelda: Twilight Princess

• Wild Arms: Alter Code F

• Wild Arms: The 4th Detonator

• Shadow Hearts

• Shadow Hearts: Covenant

• Shadow Hearts: From the New World

• Rogue Galaxy

(Can't wait for this game. I'm really anticipating it.)

The list from above has uniquely different JRPGs. They have some similar mechanics but the stories and mechanics are all implimented differently.

I'm sure I missed quite a few, but i'm just pointing out that JRPGs are not as declining as some would think. I would say that the genre thats really on the decline because of lack of innovation is FPS and Fighters. RPGs (in general) can mix and match mechanics, but FPS usually have to stick to a certain getup and the only thing that changes are the weapons or the scenario. Fighters are the same, the only fighter that has really got the Fighter genre good is Virtua Fighter 4.

There was a boom of RPGs in the Playstation days but you can't expect such a boom to last forever. Right now is a cool period where genuine JRPG fans swim in all the games offered to them.

EDIT: Yes I had to "Google" the Xenosaga names

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Cough*Soul Calibur*Cough

I'd actually say Soul Calibur III will probably bring more to the genre than any other fighter in a good while. There's a lot of different modes that bring something new to the Fighting game genre. VF is GOOD, but it's pretty much the same old same old... though VF4 did introduce some new concepts, but SCIII adds so much.

Nice list though... too bad it's maybe 1/10 of what's out there! ^^ So much to do so little time.