Game Review - originally written by Kitsune Sniper

The most sought-after game in the entire Castlevania series, and the one we should've gotten in the first place (I hate you, Konami), Dracula X: Rondo of Blood had multiple secret stages, CD audio, awesome synth music, and animated cutscenes. And the game rocked too!

It's Castlevania on steroids. You don't have the multiple-direction whip from Castlevania IV, but in its place you have an item crash, which is a super attack which changes depending on your secondary weapon.

I'd write more, but I haven't played much of it. But know that it rocks. And that the SNES version has nothing to do with this game. OK, so the SNES version is a retooling, but this is much better.

In typical Tetsuya Takahashi fashion, Xenosaga proved itself to be one of the most ambitious and over-the-top video games I’ve ever played. This game is filled to the brim with religious symbolism, theological themes, and psychological elements and ideas from Freud, Jung, Nietzche, among plenty of others. These deeper meanings add an almost overwhelming amount of depth to the lore and world building of Xenosaga, however, I find myself craving these implementations; a big reason why I love Xenogears so much.
On top of all this, it’s as if every single character and concept introduced throughout this first part of Xenosaga is a reference to something, which is why the inclusion of an in-game database was a blessing. Despite the constant pauses I would take to read about the influences and definitions of the terms and topics discussed throughout this game, by the end of it I was completely sucked into this world that Monolith Soft had created; a true feat especially considering this was the team’s first solo project. While the gameplay loop overall was kind of slow, I really appreciated the combat system building off of Xenogears’ in some noticeable ways, and I particularly enjoyed the story as it began to unravel heavily in the late parts of the narrative. Regardless of what I’ve heard people say about the second episode of Xenosaga, I am very much looking forward to delving in further to this series to see it through to the end.

The last time I wrote a review for this site was back in 2021, almost three years ago. I got burnt out from writing reviews, I just got tired of doing it from how mentally draining it was, not to mention there's a lot going on in my real life as is which has led to some serious low points in terms of my mental state.. But I decided to give it one more go because this is a game and a series that I finished a while ago and grew a newfound passion for.

Xenosaga Episode I is far from a flawless masterpiece, in fact there are things that other games do significantly better than it. In fact, Xenosaga as a series is incredibly flawed, but also at the same time is one of the most fascinating trilogies of games I've ever played. This is a franchise that is very overlooked when compared to Tetsuya Takahashi's other works (Xenogears and Xenoblade Chronicles). Xenosaga is considered the black sheep of Xeno, the middle child that is often forgotten about.

There are very few games in this genre that have captivated me like Xenosaga has. By the time I finished Episode III, I felt very sad that this series was never given the love and the attention that it deserves.

For all intents and purposes, Episode III is not only my favorite game in the trilogy, but it is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, right up there with the likes of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, it is that good. Episode III is just Episode I but better.

The presentation is stellar, the combat is quicker and more snappy, the soundtrack is one of the greatest I've ever heard period, and being that it's the conclusion to a trilogy, it does not hold its punches when it comes to getting an emotional reaction out of the player.

It has one of the most emotionally powerful endings I've seen in any game. It is unbelievably sad yet hopeful at the same time, it made me cry my ass off almost the entire time, and rarely do I ever cry while playing games.

Episode II on the other hand, while it isn't flat out awful, it's one of the most disappointing sequels I've ever played. Compared to its predecessor and even Episode III, it is a disaster on almost every conceivable level.

It is a game that contains a handful of plot holes, retcons, bad pacing, bad voice acting, undeveloped characters, underwhelming plot twists, and crucial story details that are poorly explained or not explained at all and won't be until Episode III, such as the appearance of the Immigrant Fleet and Shion's past relationship with Febronia, two of the most important details regarding Xenosaga's lore.

There are a bunch of other issues such as the confliction of two different composers resulting in some music that sounds amazing and other tracks terrible which results in a ton of tonal whiplash, the deviation of Episode I’s anime aesthetic and having more realistic looking character models that look god awful, and the battle system is one of my least favorite battle systems I've played in any JRPG.

To summarize, it is insanely drawn out, unnecessarily annoying, stupidly difficult at times, tedious, unbalanced, not explained very well, grindy, and unforgiving towards new players.

But despite all of that, I was willing to finish the game so I could finally move onto Episode III. It wasn't all bad.

The music composed by Yuki Kajira is fantastic, the backstories between Jr., Albedo, Gaignun, and Sakura were very well done, the fight scenes look amazing for the time and were a nice way to show off the game's new graphical engine, and the ending scenes between Jr. and Albedo were genuinely heartbreaking and actually made me hopeful that Episode III would turn everything around. And it did. In spades.

Episode III made it all worth it in the end.

And that is why I wanted to write this review, especially for my best friend SwitSwat. He is currently playing through Episode I and his opinion so far is a bit mixed, his main complaints being the insanely long cutscenes, the lack of music in most dungeons giving the game a bit of a low budget feel, and the cast of characters haven't exactly clicked with him yet.

If you're someone who hasn't finished Episode I for one reason or another, or if you have been thinking about picking it up for the first time, I implore you to give it and this series in general a chance, and I'll do my best to explain why. My ultimate goal of this review is to convince you that this game is worth playing.

Originally this series was supposed to have six games, but because of Episode II and how much it flopped both commercially and with fans, the series had to be cut down to just three games. It is extremely unfortunate that this series is almost doomed to being only playable on the PS2.

Back in 2019 there was a pitch for a Xenosaga HD Collection but it was rejected by Namco Bandai because they said it would be “financially unfeasible”. And that honestly angers me, because you would think that with a company as huge as Namco it would be a pretty easy thing to do. So now Xenosaga is still to this day stuck on a 20 year old console. It's unfair.

Xenosaga walked so that Xenoblade could run, and what we have now is something special.

Episode I is daringly ambitious, with its universe, lore, characters, music, combat, even down to the development of it. I'll give a basic rundown of the plot without any spoilers and talk about the characters, then I'll talk about the game's mechanics among other things.

Plot Summary

Some time in the 21st century in Kenya, an archeological discovery was made that would forever shift the course of mankind. That discovery was the Zohar, a gigantic gold colored monolith that contained an infinite amount of energy. No one knows its true origin, but it seemed to have existed as long as the universe itself.

Fast forward 4000 years in the future and Earth has been abandoned, now known as Lost Jerusalem. Mankind has now colonized space, united under a newfounded government known as the Galaxy Federation, and this federation is bound together by the U.M.N., an interstellar network allowing for faster than light communication and travel.

Despite this insane technology, all is not well in the universe, as it is being overrun by an almost invincible alien species called the Gnosis. No one knows their exact size or origin, so eliminating them is not a simple task whatsoever, and they seem to not be bound by the laws of physics.

In response to this crisis, Vector Industries, the largest tech company in the universe, develops a combat android that is capable of standing up against the Gnosis, who they've named KOS-MOS.

KOS-MOS's designer is the game's protagonist: Shion Uzuki, a very young yet brilliant scientist who leads Vector's First R&D Division. Despite KOS-MOS's incredible combat potential, she still hasn't been fully completed yet, still undergoing simulation training with Shion. And this isn't the first time Shion has been developing KOS-MOS.

A horrible tragedy happened two years prior involving Shion when one day KOS-MOS suddenly goes haywire, which is why Shion has refused to actually finish development resulting in impatient frustration among her co-workers.

The Woglinde, the ship that Shion is boarded on, is suddenly attacked by the Gnosis and with ease starts slaughtering almost everyone, they simply do not stand a chance. KOS-MOS however suddenly activates on her own accord and basically becomes the only thing that can fight back against the Gnosis, as she has an ability called the Hilbert Effect. Essentially, it makes the Gnosis vulnerable to attack.

Shion and her subordinate Allen Ridgley are rescued by KOS-MOS and fend off the Gnosis while the two of them escape. By the end, the entire ship is destroyed by the Gnosis. Shion and Allen inside of their escape pod are again rescued by another ship passing by called the Elsa.

From there on Shion, Allen, KOS-MOS, and the crew of the Elsa are accompanied by even more characters who are all coincidentally going to the same planet: Second Miltia, all for their own reasons, but all come together under one unified goal: the elimination of the Gnosis, led by something known as the Zohar Project.

The first iteration of Militia (Old Miltia) was destroyed 14 years ago in a terrible war called the Miltian Conflict, and a lot of the events that happen in this series traces back to that conflict, as well as how it deeply affected every character, especially Shion. The details of the progenitors of that conflict are also revealed as you keep playing. It's the intrigue, the mystery, and how everyone was involved in one way or another that makes these games that much more interesting to play through.

What I have just written down is only just the bare basics of the plot and even then my explanations won't do it justice. There is a lot to unpack here. If you don't like games with shitloads of worldbuilding, then this might not be your type of game. However, I still say give it a chance because Xenosaga has some of the most incredible worldbuilding I’ve seen in a game, and its cast of characters are among some of the most intricately constructed I've seen in any work of fiction.

I can understand why people may be turned off by this first entry because of the ridiculously long cutscenes, sometimes going over the 10 minute mark. This game is the definition of a slow burn, but it's like that on purpose. It wants to take its time to introduce players to the world and flesh out its characters.

Typically, I loathe insanely long cutscenes in games, as it makes it seem like I am watching the game more than actually playing it, however I can excuse Xenosaga in this aspect because of just how well it fleshes out its lore and characters, and out of the 30 hours it took me to finish my first playthrough, only 7-8 of those hours were cutscenes. There is still plenty of game here. There are even sidequests if that is what you fancy, making this a 50+ hour game.

Many of the cutscenes are driven by said character interactions and dialogue. But what makes this work is that everything is explained naturally to the player, as every scene isn't just a giant text scroll, an awkward narration of what happens, or pointless exposition dumps. Characters will ask questions about something they (and the player) are unfamiliar with. I as a player get more immersed with this method of storytelling.

The game even has a glossary that explains all of the unique terminology that you hear, sometimes explaining in even greater detail than what's in the cutscenes. If you like reading about lore, then you'll definitely love this stuff. But this isn't to say Xenosaga is hard to understand. It's the context clues that makes me appreciate these games that much more.

All of this might seem overwhelming at first, but remember that this game was supposed to be part of a series of six games.

Characters

Sometimes there will just be scenes where nothing substantial happens but instead just have characters talking to each other, both heroes and villains. And you know what, that's okay, because not every scene has to drive the plot forward. The characters have time to breathe and just act like real people, to open up and talk about things other than just saving the world, and therefore you learn why each character is the way that they are.

A world this expansive and with characters this complex needs time and attention to be established properly. Even if your plot is generic, if you have strong characters, they can carry the story. Characterization is one of Xenosaga's biggest strengths just like with games like The Last of Us and Final Fantasy VI. It's not the overall plot that makes them the masterpieces that they are, it's the characters and the writing of each one.

Xenosaga is a series that dives into very dark and sensitive subject matter such as existentialism, nepotism, suicide, and even failure. These games can get really depressing, but there are also lighthearted and funny moments throughout. It has an almost perfect balance between the two.

Even the villains are given insane amounts of screen time and backstory, as there are quite a lot of them and they all belong to certain factions in the universe, which you also get to see the conflicts in between all of these groups of people despite them all sharing a common goal, even often being antagonistic towards each other, and there is no one who embodies this aspect better than Albedo.

Albedo is one of the most memorable villains in the history of RPGs, and I will die on that oath. The man is a total bombastic psychopath even rivaling the likes of Kefka from Final Fantasy VI.

What makes him work so well as a villain is not only the amazing performance done by Crispin Freeman, but this is a guy who literally recites fuckin’ Hamlet while standing in a room full of the corpses of Realians that he just killed, and then proceeds to rip off his own arm and head just for the sole purpose of instilling fear into MOMO, who MOMO has a connection to, and MOMO also plays a huge role in the events that happen later on. But he can do this without killing himself because he has the ability to regenerate his own limbs.

So he literally just does this for his own amusement. What the hell.

And because of Albedo being such a wild card, you never know what he's going to do next and how he's going to interact with the other characters regardless of their moral alignment.

The main characters in this series are all fascinating and are all likable in their own ways, I can't think of a character off the top of my head that I actually dislike. However Episode I doesn't develop them all enough, only until Episodes II and III will you come to fully appreciate just how complex they all are, each having very sad and complicated backstories, Shion being the most tragic out of all of them.

Shion.. is one of my all time favorite protagonists. She is a divisive character to put it mildly, different from most other female JRPG protagonists. She is not a superhero or a fantasy trope. She's just an ordinary person. But that is the reason why she works so well as a protagonist to me.

Despite being a world class scientist working for the largest multinational corporation in the universe, Shion is human. She is also the only human character out of everyone else, and so is bound by the shackles of human suffering. She is someone who has gone through several lifetimes worth of personal trauma and tragedies, and does not do a very good job at all keeping her mental health in check, and everyone around her knows it. Keeping my own mental health in check is something that I don't do a very good job with either.

At first she is very hard to understand as a character. She's very aloof, cold, psychologically distant, dismissive of the details of her past, doesn't have the best relationship with her brother Jin, and uses her work to avoid coming to terms to her profoundly tragic past, being that she is a survivor of the Miltian Conflict.

Shion by all intents and purposes, is a lost in the dark character, and is incredibly flawed and only gets worse as the series goes on.

By Episode III when she learns about who she truly is and what happened to her family and her home, and what caused it to happen, she becomes a completely broken individual who has been beaten down and abused to the point of no return by one of the most despicable human beings I've seen in a game in recent memory which I won't spoil.

Rarely does she ever talk about her feelings, and when she does, she often glosses over a lot of things. Whenever someone asks if there's something wrong with her, she responds like clockwork, saying “it's nothing”.

Ziggy on the other hand is the complete opposite of this, since the player is told immediately who he is and why he is in the position he is in and it is just horrible and very heartbreaking. But even he is more open than Shion ever is.

And compared to other games, Shion doesn't do a whole lot to progress the story and is more passive and reactive to everything that is going on around her. So when she actually does decide to make a more active choice, it's very off-putting. And she doesn't make a whole lot of substantial character growth throughout but there's a reason. It's because she refuses to, and the game itself makes note of this.

Shion resonates with me as a person. I actually do understand and relate to Shion in quite a few ways and maybe that is why I like her so much as a protagonist.

KOS-MOS is also one of my all time favorite characters. Right from the beginning she is a complete badass, annihilating the Gnosis with ease and knowing exactly what to do at all times. From the get go it seems like she could do anything, but being that she is a machine, a manufactured weapon, she is incapable of understanding human emotion.

She is the biggest source of guidance for the party and is the most knowledgeable of the group, but is probably the last person to have a discussion with about personal issues. She is definitely not a therapist.

Very early on, she kills another human in cold blood so that Shion and Allen could escape the Woglinde, and Shion is shocked and horrified as it is reminding her of a similar incident that happened two years ago.

When KOS-MOS gives Shion a detailed explanation as to why she did it because she believes it was the best course of action, Shion snaps at KOS-MOS and asks her how she could say such things and if she even has a conscience.

That right there is the biggest question about KOS-MOS. Can she actually feel human thoughts and feelings knowing that she is the most advanced android in the galaxy? Is she actually capable of change? Does she even have a heart?

She is a machine, just like Realians are machines but they show human emotions like anxiety, fear, and love, even though they don't really understand it. MOMO is also a Realian, but has the appearance and mentality of a child. She shares joy, fear, and grief along with the rest of the party.

Ziggy and Jr. are also not human but share the same thoughts. Jr. also has child-like aspects to him, and Ziggy literally gives off father figure vibes and is very protective of Jr. and MOMO.

chaos, while he isn't a machine, he is not human either, and there is a lot of mystery surrounding him as well, and just like KOS-MOS, has more to him than what he initially leads on. In fact he has a personal connection to KOS-MOS, but we won't get the details of that until Episode III.

So if all of these non-human, otherworldly characters show human thoughts and feelings, why can't KOS-MOS?

That is just something you have to play through these games to get all the answers to, and when you do, she becomes the most fascinating character in the entire trilogy.

She gets some absolutely incredible moments throughout this trilogy, even in Episode II where she plays a significantly smaller role in that game compared to others.

Later on in the game the party see visions of the future in which a terrible calamity will destroy the galaxy, and in that same vision they see KOS-MOS fighting back against said calamity.

So who is KOS-MOS really? Where did she actually come from? And why does it seem like there is much more to her than what she leads on?

I could go on and on about these characters but even all the side characters like Matthews, Hammer, and Tony are all just as memorable.

Matthews, captain of the Elsa, literally likes to call his crewmates morons and wears a goddamn trucker hat that says “Caution I Am a Boozer”. That shit is hilarious.

Commander Cherenkov, even though he is a side character, is just as tragic as any of the main party members. His story is unbelievably sad. But watching him come to terms with how his god awful life turned out for him and finding a place in the world that he can finally feel peaceful in when the world has rejected him so much is so touching that it makes me tear up.

And then there's Allen, the best side character in the entire series, but calling him a side character would be a bit of a disservice. I firmly believe he stands up with the rest of the party even though he never joins it.

To put it mildly, he is a joke character, but a really good one, usually just serving as someone you could laugh at. Second to Shion at Vector's R&D Division, he is the butt of the joke among all of his co-workers, all giving him shit for not being able to tell Shion how he feels about her. In fact it would seem that his most memorable trait is how unremarkable he is.

He can't fight, he can't talk to the girl he likes, and he can barely go a minute without making a fool of himself. Hell, later on in the game there is a beach scene, and the swimsuit he chooses to wear is one of the most ridiculous looking things I’ve ever seen.

But what Allen does have is more powerful than physical prowess and that's a good heart, and that's what matters. Allen is the heart of the party, and without him, none of the party's fighting would matter as much, and he only gets better as the series goes on. In Episode III he gets hands down the most badass scenes in the entire trilogy which again, I won't spoil.

The characters in these games are super strong, they are among some of my most favorite characters in gaming. But what also helps every scene hit that much harder is the game's fantastic presentation and soundtrack.

Presentation and Soundtrack

Xenosaga Episode I has by far one of my most favorite soundtracks in gaming, which is hilarious considering Episode III's is even better.

Although what may be a turn off for some people is that for some reason there is no boss battle music in this game. Instead there are only two battle themes that play throughout the entire game: the standard battle theme and the final boss theme. Even during boss fights, from the beginning to the end of the game, you only get the standard battle theme.

There is also a lack of dungeon music in most areas. But the reason I am fine with this is because not only is the battle theme one of the most addicting pieces of music for me personally, but the dungeon tracks that are in the game are bangers as well, and I actually was shocked that there actually was dungeon music and a final boss theme. I felt like they hit harder in that regard.

And the music that we are left with is also just awesome. The soundtrack for this game was composed by the actual London Philharmonic Orchestra, and it gives the game an epic, sci-fi anime movie appeal. Some of the best moments in the whole game hit harder because of the incredible music. Here is one of my most favorite tracks that perfectly demonstrates the grand epic fantasy sci-fi that is Xenosaga Episode I.

https://youtu.be/iHpvQlYswrA?si=bMctd3Fu6LqyNGDi

And even though the character models are very dated, they still look a lot better than other games at the time. This game came out in 2002, the same year GTA Vice City and Kingdom Hearts I were released.

Hell, Final Fantasy X, GTA III, and Silent Hill 2 all came out the year before, have you seen the character models in those games?

The character models not only have a very nice anime appeal to them, something that Episode II deviates from which I despise because of how everyone looks like plastic blowup dolls, but they also have realistic body movements and proportions, for the time of course. They also have pretty advanced facial expressions for the time. There is a lot more emotion to the characters when you're able to see their facial expressions. It also helps that the voice acting in this game is excellent. Leah Sargent as Shion and Bridget Hoffman as KOS-MOS are the perfect representations of each character, they are irreplaceable in my opinion, they would not be the same without their respective voice actors.

And the battles have some really beautiful particle effects and attack animations, something that the later games lack and something that I miss.

The character models are not perfect, but that's not where the game's presentation shines. It's in the fight scenes. This game has some of the most beautiful looking space battles that still look insane to this day. The CG used pushed the PS2 to its limits and I imagine that's where most of the budget has gone.

The cinematography is excellent, the animations are stellar, and the particle effects and just overall visual flair is complete and utter eye candy. Combined with the amazing music, it is something that is unlike anything else in gaming, and the funny thing is, they look even better in the later games.

Alright so, I have written quite a ton about the characters, the music, etc., and even then I am scratching the surface. It is insane just how much there is to talk about. As I said before, simply just typing it all won't do it justice enough.

So why don't I start talking about the gameplay, since it is a JRPG. Despite its amazing story and characters, a JRPG also needs good gameplay. Episode I has complex mechanics and battles, but I find it really enjoyable. I'll do my best to explain how the gameplay works.

Battles

Xenosaga Episode I doesn't have any random encounters. Instead it's like Chrono Cross where every enemy can be seen on the field and you touch them to initiate the battle. There's even a bit of stealth involved where if there's an enemy you don't want to fight you can just sneak past it, but once it spots you it starts chasing you for a period of time.

You are given a plasma gun and you use this gun to destroy objects lying around, usually containing useful items. There are things like explosive barrels where if you shoot it next to an enemy, it gets stunned, allowing you to either run past it without fighting, or if you do decide to fight you get an advantage in battle since the enemies now have negative status effects.

I'll explain the battles themselves.

Every character starts off the fight with 4 AP with a max of 6, which is how you do actions, think of it like the old Fallout games.

Each attack mapped to the Square and Triangle buttons cost 2 AP, using an item or a magic spell (Ethers) costs 4 AP, and Tech Attacks, more powerful than normal attacks, cost 6 AP.

To get 6 AP you have to Guard, which not only cuts damage given in half but it regenerates 4 AP. You can actually execute Tech Attacks without needing to Guard but I'll get into that.

The command “Move” lets you change the formation of a party member, and moving them to the back row will prevent enemies from attacking them but they can't attack either. This is good for the early game for a character like MOMO because in the beginning she doesn't have a whole lot of utility and is very squishy.

You can also command giant mechs called A.G.W.S. which have their own HP pool and certain attacks. These mechs can be upgraded with stronger weapons and armor at robot shops. Any character except KOS-MOS and Ziggy can pilot one of three A.G.W.S.

However the equipment for these is really expensive and I don't really find them that much more useful than using the characters normally. It also doesn't help that you can play through the whole game without using them even once, because unlike Episodes II and III and even Xenogears, there are no mech dungeons in this game.

Another thing that sucks about the A.G.W.S. is that you can only heal them with items outside of battle. There is something you can buy which will recover 10% HP when Guarding but that's pretty much it.

Also, if a party member dies while piloting an A.G.W.S., they become inactive for the rest of the fight and cannot be revived which is really ass and only gives me even less of a reason to use them.

Then there's the Boost Gauge. Boosting allows a party member to immediately get a turn regardless of the turn order, and timing this correctly can change the tide of battle and even save your life in some cases. Though it fills up depending on what attacks you do. Characters can stack up to three Boosts at once per battle.

However, enemies can also Boost. And they can even Boost after you just activated your own, which is known as Boost Canceling. The shit is, you are never able to Boost Cancel the enemy, and this is the most annoying part about the battles in this game.

I can have a Boost ready and then out of nowhere it gets canceled out and I can't do anything about it. This along with everything I explained about the A.G.W.S. are the biggest downsides to the combat, but it's not game breaking. Most of the time when I lose a fight it is my fault.

There's also the condition icon next to the turn order. Every turn the condition will change and this can be things such as more Criticals for both you and the enemy and extra experience points and ability points after winning a battle.

In order to get money most enemies will drop random loot and junk and then you have to sell it at a shop. In order to recover your party's HP and EP you have to go to a save point and use an item called a Bio Sphere which can be purchased from shops.

To escape from battle you have to either use an item called an Escape Pack or an Ether called Goodbye. Escape Packs are also purchased from a shop and are actually pretty inexpensive.

Tech Attacks

Here's where it gets complex and it's how attacks work. Every attack works differently with each character and with each enemy.

Every attack either does physical or ether damage, some are long and close range. When you have 6 AP you can push Circle to do a Tech Attack but only after you execute a certain two button combo. Stronger Tech Attacks are unlocked as the party levels up.

The game rewards experimentation, figuring out which attacks are effective against each enemy, but it is not advised to spam attacks all willy nilly. Every enemy has a weakness, even the bosses.

You can assign certain Tech Attacks to each of these button combos.

Square, Square
Square, Triangle
Triangle, Triangle
Triangle, Square

However, each slot either has “Near” or “Far” next to it. This means you can only assign “Near” or “Far” Tech Attacks in said slot.

This is what KOS-MOS's slots look like

Square, Square (Near)
Square, Triangle (Near)
Triangle, Triangle (Far)
Triangle, Square (Near)

So in order to use Tech Attacks such as R-BLADE, R-DRILL, and R-HAMMER, they can only be assigned to “Near” slots since all of those attacks are physical close range attacks.

R-CANNON and X-BUSTER are long range attacks and therefore can only be assigned to the Far slot.

However, all of Jr's slots in particular are Far since his primary weapon of choice are guns, and he doesn’t have any close range attacks, which means you can have whatever Tech Attacks you want each slot which makes him an insanely powerful character, one of the best in the game.

Some Tech Attacks can also either attack one enemy or all enemies at once such as MOMO’s Meteor Storm and Jr’s Storm Waltz.

I mentioned earlier that you can actually execute Tech Attacks without needing to spend a turn Guarding to generate the AP, and that's where Tech Points come in.

When you win battles you gain three different types of ability points alongside experience:

Tech Points
Ether Points
Skill Points

I'll talk about Tech Points first. Tech Points are used for upgrading Tech Attacks. There are three different types of upgrades: TECH, SPEED, and WAIT

TECH is for increasing the amount of damage the Tech Attack does.

WAIT means the higher the level, the less time it takes for a character to get another turn after using the Tech Attack.

But SPEED is where it gets really interesting. When you upgrade a Tech Attack's SPEED, you will be able to use it without having to generate 6 AP first. So instead of using up a turn Guarding, and then pushing Square, Square, and Circle to use the Tech Attack, instead you just push Square and Circle in the same turn.

This is very strong and basically crucial for the later portions of the game because you're gonna need to be spamming Tech attacks in order to get through the fights easier, especially the boss fights. They can get really tough.

When you upgrade the Tech Attack's SPEED you then assign it to one of two specific slots, called HI slots. The four other slots are called LW slots and are the ones that require the 6 AP to execute.

Later on in the game KOS-MOS will get her ultimate Tech Attack, the X-BUSTER. It's not only her strongest ether attack, but it's multi-target. It costs a ton of Tech Points to get it to HI SPEED, but it is so worth it. Being able to use it every turn is stupidly powerful, but being that it's her strongest attack, it takes a long time for KOS-MOS to get another turn after using it unless you spend points upgrading the WAIT level.

Another thing you can do with Tech Points is increase your party's stats. As you play through the game you can incrementally spend Tech Points to raise the characters' attributes. Doing this can give you another edge in battle, but I prioritize upgrading Tech Attacks first.

Ethers

Ethers are basically magic spells. Offensive, defensive, healing, etc. Ether Points are used to not only learn new more powerful Ethers via a Skill Tree, but you can also use Ether Points to give a spell to another character. This makes it possible for every character to learn every Ether in the game.

This is what makes Shion very strong in particular since she has an Ether called Medica All. It's the strongest healing magic in the game since it's stronger than other healing Ethers and it heals all party members at once.

However, because Medica All is only learned by Shion, only she can give the Ether to other characters. So she needs to have enough Ether Points to do this.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each character can only equip up to 12 Ethers at once.

Skills

Skills are passive buffs, such as Poison Resistance, Slow Resistance, Physical Defense increases, Search Eyes (displays enemy's HP), etc. To learn Skills you not only need Skill Points but you also have to extract the Skills from accessories. The Skills that can be extracted depend on the accessory, and accessories can be purchased from shops.

Think of it like Final Fantasy IX where abilities are learned from specific weapons and armor.

You are then able to equip up to three Skills at once. And that's basically it. It's very simple, definitely more straightforward than Tech Attacks.

One more thing to keep in mind is that every party member gains experience points and levels up even when they're not fighting in battle which is really nice, however anyone who doesn't fight doesn't gain Tech Points, Ether Points, or Skill Points.

Anything Else To Add?

This might be the longest visual novel type of review I have written thus far and it's been a very long time since I have done so because my mental health has been on a bit of a decline even to this day. Combined with my life taking a drastic change, I was just sick of writing reviews. Though perhaps with this one last hurrah for a game that I love very much it gets the recognition it deserves for anyone who has been on the fence about it.

Give this game a try, you may be surprised. I hate that emulation is the easiest way to play it. I hope that maybe one day things will change. These games deserve an HD Collection, for console and Steam, they should be given the attention that has been given to Xenoblade.

Although considering the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles III's DLC, there is still hope that not only will these games return some day for modern platforms, but we'll finally get Episode IV and beyond, and the saga will get its true conclusion once and for all, since Tetsuya Takahashi himself knows how much love diehard fans like myself have for these games and wish that he would give Xenosaga another go.

If you have a PC and you can run this game, I implore you to play it, or give it another try. You're in for a journey that hopefully won't be forgotten any time soon. If I could rate this game a 9.5/10 on this site I would.

If you actually made it all the way to this end of this, thank you. That means a lot. Stay safe and take care.

What an adventure. I'm reviewing this with the original Japanese voice acting in mind as Episode I Reloaded only has English voices so I'll voice my thoughts about it there. This game is incredible, I loved it, it's my favorite Sci Fi RPG currently but it does suffer from Part 1 syndrome where everything is told to you in pieces. Personally this is a positive for me because it gives you so much room to think about the information the game does give you. In regard to the voice acting, frankly it's great. The voices do sound a little typical if you've played a Japanese games but there are some stand out performances like Jr. and Shion in some cases. Speaking of Shion what an interesting protagonist. I loved seeing her relationship with KOS-MOS and her passionate desire to view everyone as equal, she wants KOS-MOS to have a soul and she's so obviously in love with her. That being said the game didn't focus on Shion and KOS-MOS as much as I thought it would. The game is very centered around your party and all the characters in it so the attention is split between them. Speaking of characters chaos intrigues me the most, where is he from? How does he have those powers? Why isn't the first letter of his name capitalized?? Also the soundtrack, my god what an incredible soundscape. There's nothing I've ever heard that was like the last minute and a half of the Prologue track. And KOS-MOS' theme sounding so hollow with a deep sense of melancholy and despair yet still trying to reach out for something, it's probably my favorite track in the game but it's so hard to choose. I love the use of epic orchestral music like you would hear in Star Wars mixed with the ethereal chanting and religious hymns, it's incredible. The combat is also very good. The use of the turn system with the boost system allows for some really satisfying moments and the fact that you can transfer ether skills and unlock all these tech attacks is great. I really enjoyed the gameplay. This game truly was a journey, but only a part. I'm excited for what comes next.

if you think that evangelion religious themes weren't enough deep for you...

strange/convoluted plot

very cutscene heavy

not for everyone but i love it

amazing vibes, interesting themes, awesome music and gameplay isn't half bad

KOS-MOS is AWESOME