Keep in mind, I'm here for the supposedly balls-deep awesome story, so I won't really be bothered by either answer to this question but: I'm 5 hours into the game, and holy jesus is this gameplay bad. Does that ever get better?
I mean, I can admire that they wanted small elements of platforming, but this wonky fucking camera and the lag between pressing the button and jumping is atrocious (this is a problem in a LOT of platformers, and I really don't know why.) Sure it's milliseconds, but this game is less forgiving than old Megaman when it comes to landing jumps perfectly.
The battle system so far is a pale imitation of the astonishing things that Chrono Cross would achieve in JRPG gameplay a few years later, and it's accompanied by easily the worst battle theme I've ever suffered through in any game in this genre.
Speaking of which: soundtrack. Everything that's not a battle theme? Underwheliming. Certainly not anything close to what Mitsuda would achieve with Chrono Cross, but I'll more than admit I'mm not far enough into this game to be judging the non-battle music as a whole, which has been disappointing.
Battle music? Kill me now I'm so fucking bored. When I'd rather hear the main battle music from Chrono Trigger something has gone wrong. Utterly, horribly wrong.
Silence in dungeons . . . Yasunori Mitsuda can clean the dirtiest part of my ass with his nostrils. It's bullshit here, and it's especially bullshit in Xenosaga Episode I. Seriously Mitsuda, people like music, that's why they hired your over-rated ass because they (for some reason) still like the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger (which has almost all of the same problems except for the fact that dungeons have god damn music.) So put music in the damn dungeons. It's not atmospheric or ambient if there's not a wealth of good sound effects to go with it, and this game cannot possibly deliver on that front, especially when you have to hear the battle theme every once in a while that never changes. At least in XEI the battle music is pretty decent, but hearing one piece of music (especially when it's bad) contrasted with silence is god damned infuriating Mitsuda.
To be fair, what I've gotten of the story so far is pretty cool. The doomed hometown was destroyed by the hero, creating pretense for internal conflict later on. We're getting good hints as to who other characters are, and in general there's not a beat so far that feels out of place. I look forward to when the big philosophical discussions are supposed to happen, especially since this game seems to be taking a big note from Existentialism with "Stand Tall, and Shake The Heavens!", but I just haven't gotten there yet.
I just want to know now, does this gameplay improve at all? The battles get more exciting, the depths of the battle system get mined? Because with these battles I really feel like I'm just trying random things with no idea of how to go about it, and it's working, which makes me feel like I'm going to get fucked by a difficulty spike later on that requires me to know what the fuck I'm doing.
So I guess this is sort of a general Xenogears discussion as well, though I ask that any story elements past the party's capture by Bartholomew the Pirate be kept in a spoiler tag.
I mean, I can admire that they wanted small elements of platforming, but this wonky fucking camera and the lag between pressing the button and jumping is atrocious (this is a problem in a LOT of platformers, and I really don't know why.) Sure it's milliseconds, but this game is less forgiving than old Megaman when it comes to landing jumps perfectly.
The battle system so far is a pale imitation of the astonishing things that Chrono Cross would achieve in JRPG gameplay a few years later, and it's accompanied by easily the worst battle theme I've ever suffered through in any game in this genre.
Speaking of which: soundtrack. Everything that's not a battle theme? Underwheliming. Certainly not anything close to what Mitsuda would achieve with Chrono Cross, but I'll more than admit I'mm not far enough into this game to be judging the non-battle music as a whole, which has been disappointing.
Battle music? Kill me now I'm so fucking bored. When I'd rather hear the main battle music from Chrono Trigger something has gone wrong. Utterly, horribly wrong.
Silence in dungeons . . . Yasunori Mitsuda can clean the dirtiest part of my ass with his nostrils. It's bullshit here, and it's especially bullshit in Xenosaga Episode I. Seriously Mitsuda, people like music, that's why they hired your over-rated ass because they (for some reason) still like the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger (which has almost all of the same problems except for the fact that dungeons have god damn music.) So put music in the damn dungeons. It's not atmospheric or ambient if there's not a wealth of good sound effects to go with it, and this game cannot possibly deliver on that front, especially when you have to hear the battle theme every once in a while that never changes. At least in XEI the battle music is pretty decent, but hearing one piece of music (especially when it's bad) contrasted with silence is god damned infuriating Mitsuda.
To be fair, what I've gotten of the story so far is pretty cool. The doomed hometown was destroyed by the hero, creating pretense for internal conflict later on. We're getting good hints as to who other characters are, and in general there's not a beat so far that feels out of place. I look forward to when the big philosophical discussions are supposed to happen, especially since this game seems to be taking a big note from Existentialism with "Stand Tall, and Shake The Heavens!", but I just haven't gotten there yet.
I just want to know now, does this gameplay improve at all? The battles get more exciting, the depths of the battle system get mined? Because with these battles I really feel like I'm just trying random things with no idea of how to go about it, and it's working, which makes me feel like I'm going to get fucked by a difficulty spike later on that requires me to know what the fuck I'm doing.
So I guess this is sort of a general Xenogears discussion as well, though I ask that any story elements past the party's capture by Bartholomew the Pirate be kept in a spoiler tag.
