4/5 ★ – DarkDrawer's review of Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse.

Xenosaga Episode II is a game hanging on by strings and such a banging story. The inital designs of all the female characters and the voice recasts did put me off, but as they get new outfits and get more stirring story development, the voices grow on me. Shion's brother Jin really steals the show as the new party member as he both aura farms and delivers emotionally driving speeches. The combat steps up from Xenosaga Episode 1 by way of allowing you to escape battles, but this does not come up as much as you think unfortunately and ultimately is a step up 3 steps down situation. Additionally, the break system along with boosts are undermined by enemies boosting over the player. This, along with a system of skills that I think should've allowed for more to be filled out naturally, leads to a lot of confusion and difficulty in both facing MOBS and BOSSES. The dungeons are essentially straight lines a lot of time and are there to both battle enemies for experience and to collect items around as those are the only way to get items (other than battling enemies for them). There is no shop in this game to buy essential items, such as revives, so the player has to be very careful on keeping their party alive. Save points restore health and are essential to retaining health in dungeons throughout. Bosses can sometimes feel more like puzzles than a straight forward beatdown. With that being said, this game has some of the most pleasant and emotionally resonating characters I've seen in a jrpg. While some characters in this game clearly don't receive as much love in this title, every playable character as a moment, but the stars of this show are very clearly Jr, Jin, and Momo. Jr has to learn to move on from his tragic past dealing with his psychotic brother and his lost love. Jin's previous actions after being a soldier showed itself that him being idle is no longer an option and so he must step up to stop the enemies' plans. Momo struggles with being a realian (robot-like entities) that is gifted with the plans of her father. She lives in the shadows of her sister which happen to coincide with Jr's story. The characters all play very nicely with each other and the struggles that each character have are very compelling to watch overcome. Shion, although not especially important for much in this story, in particular has to overcome so much and I really feel for her :( This is definitely a game that I'll think more kindly to the farther I get from playing it, but that being said, I think when the gameplay does allow you to take advantage of its systems, it works very nicely. Also, you get to play as mechs some and who doesn't love that?