The more I think about this game after beating it the more I actually like it more. I'm still not completely over the aesthetic and VA changes (Episode I Shion will ALWAYS be the SUPERIOR version) but I really do think it does everything else quite well. I genuinely found the plot regarding Rubedo more engaging than anything in Episode I for instance and it manages to have on-foot boss fights that aren't complete slogs unlike the other 2 games (if you disagree you got a skill issue, sorry). ALSO fuck everyone who said that this game's music was bad or in any way inferior to Episode III.

I wouldn't actually give it 5 stars but rating it higher than Episode III is the funny contrarian take so there you go. More like Jenseits von Gut und PEAK amirite.

Ok this will be long so bucle up:

- New Graphics/Art Design: is not nearly as bad as everyone says, on the contrary, it's pretty good, the thing that pushes everyone back is that the 3 main female characters has new faces that goes far beyond from her previous dollish/anime faces.

- Gameplay: It's not bad, it's more complex (and fun imo) than the previous gameplay, but there are 2 things that makes it more annoying:
1) Mech combat definitely got way less flexible despite having a new copilot system.
2) It's way buff dependant. If you're not buffing and stocking all the time you won't be doing any damage, this is specially annoying when you're fighting normal enemies (yes, you have to do all those process).

- Game Design: You hated that the previous game was like 65% cutscenes and little to no gameplay? Well, in this secuel YOU HAVE EVEN LESS GAMEPLAY. How much less? the kind of "there is so little gameplay that you have literally no stores and gameplay and dungeon designs are made to extend the game as much as it can" kind of less gameplay.
That's right, there's no weapons or armor to equip, the only buffs (that are obligatory to get if you don't wanna be destroyed by the game) are the skills that you get via sidequests. Are the sidequest any good? They're your typical fetch quest that doesn't expand the story or the universe. Only a few are interesting because they introduce either a unique character or boss...
Also, even tho they thankfully reduced the Ether, Tech, and Skill points to only Skill Points and you can see the abilities to unlock and their descriptions, there is still a point wall. How big? the kind of big that the best way of farming skill points is to kill again and again the final boss and eat the cutsecenes and credits again and again.

Story: I came to the conclution that Xenosaga has cool concepts, but Takahashi definitely doesn't know how to tell his story, Xenosaga just throws at you so many cutscenes, flashbacks, concepts and stuff and they just expect you to care.
I don't hold any hope for Xenosaga 3 to be a master piece or be so good that make playing the 2 previous games and watching a whole video worth it.
Whole video? That's right, because in between chapter 2 and 3 there's a whole missing year... because, maybe, and just maybe Takahashi, it's not a good idea to make the first game of your new company A SIX PART STORY AND START WITH THE EQUIVALENT OF A PROLOGUE... you need to have a sales success in order to plan a game franchise this long, and making games that are like 70% cutscenes with a story poorly told is NOT A VERY GOOD IDEA, WHY WOULD YOU TOLD A STORY IN A GAME FORMAT IF YOU BARELY LET THE PLAYERS PLAY?

- Final Thoughts: despite my rant, I still like Xenosaga, why? I dunno... maybe I like the concepts, maybe it just clicks with me or maybe I'm just blinded by Xenogears or something, but I'm still playing Xenosaga 3.
Still, I can't turn a blind eye to all the problems that these games have, at this point, I can't recommend this series like Xenogears that despite it's problems, the story and concepts are one of the best ever made.
The only way for these games to be worth playing and recommend it, is if the episode 3 is a master piece, and at the moment, that's a very VERY slim and far away chance.

PS: for those of you that still wants to rock the xenosaga boat, here's the video of the missing year, thank you Smartest Moron for taking the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo74bgiHd4&t=9s

10/10 story stuck in a pretty average RPG experience, admittandly used an Action replay to get through some gameplay segments

Xenosaga has a tendancy to have some epic story moments which makes up for alot of the shortcomings of it's gameplay, imeddiatly booted up 3 after finishing this one

Shion and Kos-Mos kind of took a backseat story wise in this one which was kind of a shame but Kos-Mos has a moment that makes up for it in spades, god tier music as well

Not a fan of the voice acting but thought the character designs were ok, some characters looked kind of odd which a more realistic look, all characters as with the first one were great

Worth slogging through the gameplay for the story bits alone

6.5/10

Now that I've actually finished the game - it certainly has some problems. The random encounters can be a bit of a drag to the point where I mostly avoided them in the endgame, the voice acting is kinda worse than Episode I, alongside the ABSOLUTE DESECRATION OF MY BELOVED

But that being said, I think overall it's better than the first game is nearly every other aspect.

I'm still mad about Shion though so it still gets a lower rating than Episode I.