"URTV." "I'm a WHAT!?"
No, I did not stay home from school to play Xenosaga II. I stayed home from school because I've been sick for four days and seeing as it's not getting any better, I decided that dragging myself back and forth from that building when I have a fever, aches and the mother of all sinus headaches is not exactly the best idea.
Xenosaga II is just an extra perk of being home.
And... OMG... this game... is... leaving me breathless. The ENTIRE FREAKING THING SO FAR IS ABOUT JR! AND ALBEDO! AND POOR GUIGNAN CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE! Considering the entire plot is REVOLVING around the URTVs, I don't see how it could GET ANY BETTER! Really. There is NO way. Right now I'm taking a break because I'm going to have a difficult time kicking Albedo's ass after seeing him clinging pathetically to Rubdeo's hand earlier in the game. Plus... fangirl ranting. Yeah. o___O
Okay, so the technical stuff... about half the voice actors changed for no apparent reason. I cannot stand MOMO's new VA, who makes her sound less cute and more stupid. Shion's new VA oddly enough ACTS the lines in the exact same way as the old one, but her voice... just doesn't suit the character NEARLY as well. And KOS-MOS... ugh, don't even talk to me about it. >___< As for good changes- chaos went from being Ken to being Tai. You'd imagine this would be a bad change. It's not- his new voice works. It works really, really well. ^___^ The four character's who voices I appreciated the most have stayed the same. I think I would have taken a coniption fit had Jr.'s voice changed. Ziggy and Allen are also the same and THANK GOODNESS that Albedo hasn't changed. I don't think any other voice actor could quite pull of the Shakespeare/Bible/Paul McCartney quotes with the same flair. Plus the way he says "Rubedo"? Y'know, with the long 'uuu' and the slight roll on the 'R'? I would be enjoying the game less without that. ^___^
On the battle system- MUCH love. I was definitely not a fan of Xenosaga's battle system, but Episode II represents a huge improvement. It's almost like they took the best parts of Xenogears and Xenosaga's battle systems and Jogress Shinka'ed them into a super awesome battle system of DOOM! It's one of those battle systems where the REAL challenge is in figuring out what works against what boss. You have to figure out when to stock, when to save your boosts, when to use your boosts and exactly how to link up the area/range attacks. Oh yes, it's engaging, interesting and, most importantly, A HELL OF A LOT FASTER THAN THE FIRST GAME. My only problem is that Shion and MOMO are a bit limited, considering they can only use circle button attacks. Thusly, I've turned chaos into a super healer and replaced Shion with KOS-MOS. I mean, WTF? I'm using KOS-MOS in my party. KOS-MOS is my least favorite character and once I got Jr. in the last game, I tended to avoid using her unless it was absolutely necessary. I'd replace her with Ziggy, but he really sucks ass at hurting those mutated URTVs I'm fighting right now. T__T
And the music. THE MUSIC!! It's not Yasunori Mitsuada (T___T), but it's worthy. I'm pretty sure the bulk of the tracks are done by the same woman who did the .hack// games and anime. Which would totally explain the goodness. I like the Mitsuada influences that are apparent, however. There's a lot of celtic styled vibes running throughout the soundtrack (and we all know how much Yasunori Mitsuada LOVES his celtic ^___^), and a ton of the music uses what I like to call the "Mitsuada Percussion". That is, more tribal percussion mixed with futuristic music. Oh, and there's a LOT MORE OF IT. As in boss battles now have their own theme! YAY!
Okay, okay. This is the part I really want to rant about, however I'm not certain I have much coherency left in me. The STORY.
*cough* So, I was actually right about a few things. Things I didn't *intend* to be right about. First of all, Jr. DID know Sakura Mizrahi. He knew he quite well and, in fact, seemed to be carrying quite the torch for her. And one of my completely random crack!theories about Jr. And Albedo turned out being true. Conjoined twins? Like OMG. When I said that, like, half a million years ago when the first game came out I was really, honestly joking. I didn't believe it. But...
... but the Rubedo-Albedo relationship totally kills me with it's brilliance. >__< Albedo was a bit of a wussy little kid, but man, even at twelve he was still massively FUCKED UP like no one's business. There are just these scenes... like Albedo figuring out that Nigredo, Rubedo and all the other URTVs actually STAY dead when their head gets blown off. The EXPRESSIONS on Nigredo and Rubedo's face when Albedo just starts giggling and explodes his own head... Albedo freaking out and glomping Rubedo afterwards sobbing about how he doesn't want to be alive if Rubedo is dead... this all makes me fear for how angsty this game is going to get.
The politics among the URTVs weirds me out. The game seems to be doing something with Unit #668 (THANK GOODNESS!), who is female (and, predictably, named 'Citrine'. Cause', y'know, no obvious Charles Jung references here). The "normal" URTVs have a major hate on for the variants for some strange reason, constantly referring to them as "monsters". Nigredo more or less ignores this, Rubedo gets all angsty about it and Albedo gets all: "Leave Rubedo alone! >__<"
And, ugh, I just realized that I wasted THREE paragraphs ranting pointlessly about random URTV stuff. There is so, so, SO much in this game that has me spiraling in mad-FMA-forgetting analyzation. They're only dealing with a few plot threads in this chapter, but I really do appreciate the ones they've decided are worth telling. The whole MOMO-Juli MIzrahi thing is very interesting as Juli's proved to be much less of a bitch than I assumed. And then there's Jin... but not nearly enough of him. He's not as much of a Citan homage as I was expecting, but I think I like that. As much as we all love Citan Uzuki (and do I ever love Citan Uzuki. ^___^), I was hoping that Jin Uzuki would be able to stand on his own as a character. Which I suppose he can, but as I said- there hasn't yet been enough of him. Plus the last three or fours hours have drowned me in so much Jr-themed goodness that I've forgotten about everything else. o__O
Oh, and Ziggy kicks so much ass. I mean, thanks to Caily and Adam I already loved Ziggy, but wow. Ziggy is da man.
Hmm, what else, what else... I should probably stop fangirling and, y'know, go ground Albedo's crazy, rape-happy, pretty-boy face into the ground. I'm sure Jr. would appreciate this, since a few minutes ago Albedo was thoroughly enjoying the act of violating his abdomen.
Shion: "Jr! Don't you want to make peace with your brother?"
Jr: "Um, maybe when he's not trying to RAPE ME, sure. But right now I'd rather yell and flail a bit!"
Okay. I'm done. Return to you regularily schedueled life. o___O
Xenosaga II is just an extra perk of being home.
And... OMG... this game... is... leaving me breathless. The ENTIRE FREAKING THING SO FAR IS ABOUT JR! AND ALBEDO! AND POOR GUIGNAN CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE! Considering the entire plot is REVOLVING around the URTVs, I don't see how it could GET ANY BETTER! Really. There is NO way. Right now I'm taking a break because I'm going to have a difficult time kicking Albedo's ass after seeing him clinging pathetically to Rubdeo's hand earlier in the game. Plus... fangirl ranting. Yeah. o___O
Okay, so the technical stuff... about half the voice actors changed for no apparent reason. I cannot stand MOMO's new VA, who makes her sound less cute and more stupid. Shion's new VA oddly enough ACTS the lines in the exact same way as the old one, but her voice... just doesn't suit the character NEARLY as well. And KOS-MOS... ugh, don't even talk to me about it. >___< As for good changes- chaos went from being Ken to being Tai. You'd imagine this would be a bad change. It's not- his new voice works. It works really, really well. ^___^ The four character's who voices I appreciated the most have stayed the same. I think I would have taken a coniption fit had Jr.'s voice changed. Ziggy and Allen are also the same and THANK GOODNESS that Albedo hasn't changed. I don't think any other voice actor could quite pull of the Shakespeare/Bible/Paul McCartney quotes with the same flair. Plus the way he says "Rubedo"? Y'know, with the long 'uuu' and the slight roll on the 'R'? I would be enjoying the game less without that. ^___^
On the battle system- MUCH love. I was definitely not a fan of Xenosaga's battle system, but Episode II represents a huge improvement. It's almost like they took the best parts of Xenogears and Xenosaga's battle systems and Jogress Shinka'ed them into a super awesome battle system of DOOM! It's one of those battle systems where the REAL challenge is in figuring out what works against what boss. You have to figure out when to stock, when to save your boosts, when to use your boosts and exactly how to link up the area/range attacks. Oh yes, it's engaging, interesting and, most importantly, A HELL OF A LOT FASTER THAN THE FIRST GAME. My only problem is that Shion and MOMO are a bit limited, considering they can only use circle button attacks. Thusly, I've turned chaos into a super healer and replaced Shion with KOS-MOS. I mean, WTF? I'm using KOS-MOS in my party. KOS-MOS is my least favorite character and once I got Jr. in the last game, I tended to avoid using her unless it was absolutely necessary. I'd replace her with Ziggy, but he really sucks ass at hurting those mutated URTVs I'm fighting right now. T__T
And the music. THE MUSIC!! It's not Yasunori Mitsuada (T___T), but it's worthy. I'm pretty sure the bulk of the tracks are done by the same woman who did the .hack// games and anime. Which would totally explain the goodness. I like the Mitsuada influences that are apparent, however. There's a lot of celtic styled vibes running throughout the soundtrack (and we all know how much Yasunori Mitsuada LOVES his celtic ^___^), and a ton of the music uses what I like to call the "Mitsuada Percussion". That is, more tribal percussion mixed with futuristic music. Oh, and there's a LOT MORE OF IT. As in boss battles now have their own theme! YAY!
Okay, okay. This is the part I really want to rant about, however I'm not certain I have much coherency left in me. The STORY.
*cough* So, I was actually right about a few things. Things I didn't *intend* to be right about. First of all, Jr. DID know Sakura Mizrahi. He knew he quite well and, in fact, seemed to be carrying quite the torch for her. And one of my completely random crack!theories about Jr. And Albedo turned out being true. Conjoined twins? Like OMG. When I said that, like, half a million years ago when the first game came out I was really, honestly joking. I didn't believe it. But...
... but the Rubedo-Albedo relationship totally kills me with it's brilliance. >__< Albedo was a bit of a wussy little kid, but man, even at twelve he was still massively FUCKED UP like no one's business. There are just these scenes... like Albedo figuring out that Nigredo, Rubedo and all the other URTVs actually STAY dead when their head gets blown off. The EXPRESSIONS on Nigredo and Rubedo's face when Albedo just starts giggling and explodes his own head... Albedo freaking out and glomping Rubedo afterwards sobbing about how he doesn't want to be alive if Rubedo is dead... this all makes me fear for how angsty this game is going to get.
The politics among the URTVs weirds me out. The game seems to be doing something with Unit #668 (THANK GOODNESS!), who is female (and, predictably, named 'Citrine'. Cause', y'know, no obvious Charles Jung references here). The "normal" URTVs have a major hate on for the variants for some strange reason, constantly referring to them as "monsters". Nigredo more or less ignores this, Rubedo gets all angsty about it and Albedo gets all: "Leave Rubedo alone! >__<"
And, ugh, I just realized that I wasted THREE paragraphs ranting pointlessly about random URTV stuff. There is so, so, SO much in this game that has me spiraling in mad-FMA-forgetting analyzation. They're only dealing with a few plot threads in this chapter, but I really do appreciate the ones they've decided are worth telling. The whole MOMO-Juli MIzrahi thing is very interesting as Juli's proved to be much less of a bitch than I assumed. And then there's Jin... but not nearly enough of him. He's not as much of a Citan homage as I was expecting, but I think I like that. As much as we all love Citan Uzuki (and do I ever love Citan Uzuki. ^___^), I was hoping that Jin Uzuki would be able to stand on his own as a character. Which I suppose he can, but as I said- there hasn't yet been enough of him. Plus the last three or fours hours have drowned me in so much Jr-themed goodness that I've forgotten about everything else. o__O
Oh, and Ziggy kicks so much ass. I mean, thanks to Caily and Adam I already loved Ziggy, but wow. Ziggy is da man.
Hmm, what else, what else... I should probably stop fangirling and, y'know, go ground Albedo's crazy, rape-happy, pretty-boy face into the ground. I'm sure Jr. would appreciate this, since a few minutes ago Albedo was thoroughly enjoying the act of violating his abdomen.
Shion: "Jr! Don't you want to make peace with your brother?"
Jr: "Um, maybe when he's not trying to RAPE ME, sure. But right now I'd rather yell and flail a bit!"
Okay. I'm done. Return to you regularily schedueled life. o___O