Anyone interested in XENOSAGA here? (1 Viewer)

[Scott_W]

I need to figure out boosting as well, and how to read the turn monitor thingy as well. Fighting is complex, which I really like.

I have a question on getting E Pts and T Pts. Do you have to use ether and tech attacks during the battle to gain E Pts and T Pts, or do you just gain them every fight, similar to overall experience?

I just rescued MOMO, and got off the base. It seems boss fights really are pattern based. You need to figure out a good sound strategy to beat them, more so then other RPGs I've played. The guy with the sword was an incredible fight. I loved the fire absorption spell he used, dragon something.

I'm 6+ hours in and still loving this game!

 

[Woo Jae]

As far as I know, the points you get seems to depend on the enemy rather than your use of attacks.

Boosting is an important tool ESPECIALLY in boss battles.

* To boost, you must have attacked enough to get the boost bar (red bar AP and HP) to read at least 1. It helps to have the gold ring (boost EVENT slot) on to get there, since you get 2-4 X boost effect from an attack.

* Press R1 or R2, and see if your character's portrait pops up around the BOOST gauge. If it is available, then you can press the corresponding Square, Triangle, or Circle button to insert your character into the queue. Generally, you should be able to boost if:

- Currently NOT your turn.
- Won't be your turn for the NEXT turn.

Don't forget to de-equip your accessories so that you can extract skills and set them. Skills from items are stackable. Learning more skills usually allows you to reach the skill level limit (I think it is 200 to get to skill level 2) so that you can extract skills from the second skill level.

Don't forget to learn your ether skills and equip them. You can transfer ethers (not all) to other characters for 1/2 the cost of learning it anew.

Currently at level 5 in the training demo on the Woglinde (Yes, I started Over. I wanted to see what stat increases can do - remember, you can increase stats by spending tech points).

Tips for MArgulis at Pleroma base:Make sure Ziggurat8 has learned the ether skill BODYGUARD and has it equipped. Place MOMO directly behind him BEFORE the battle. Cast "Bodyguard" with Ziggurat8, and have MOMO heal. If you have your techs at HI speed, even better and quicker the battle. :wink: You should be able to beat him pretty easily with this set up..


Also, a "stinker" for this battle isyou didn't have to beat him for the story to advance

 

[Scott_W]

I admit, I haven't played increased any of my skills, ether, etc. That's my goal for tonight, to play around with that stuff before moving on to the next fighting. I'm the type of player that usually doesn't level anything until I absolutely have to, I'm afraid of choosing the wrong path and having to repeat parts of the game. If the levelling system is as deep as it looks, it'll be great.

I did manage to 'beat' Margulis, but went through a lot of heals/ether. He was one tough opponent, and look forward to a rematch.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Romier S]

have a question on getting E Pts and T Pts.

You gain them normally. However if you look at the small indicator box to the left of the turn meter you will see the icons cycle every turn. There is an icon that appears that represents your character will attain more tech/skill points (cant remember the icon off the top of my head, but it is in the manual). When you do attacks on that icon or complete the fight on the icon you are awared more tech/skill points as once again, it signifies that you are in a "tech/skill points +" turn so to speak.
The turn meter is very easy to use. The character/creature to the left is the one whos current turn it is and the character/creature directly to the right is next in line. That is the order in which the turns happen in battle. From left to right. The creatures of course have a letter indicator on thier pics telling you whether they are biological, mechanical or Gnosis. (B, M, G). Which in turn allows you to strategize and use the proper atttacks that will cause the most damage.
Boosts are actually even easier. The more you use attacks the more the boost meter fills (the meter is the red one all the way at the bottom of your characters portraits at the top). Once your boost meter fills you will see a "1" to the right of the meter. If you continue to fill it without using that 1 it will then go to "2". You can have a maximum of two boosts at a time.
For an example of boost usage, lets say you do a Square, Square attack with Shion Uzuki. These two attacks fill her boost meter to "1". You will notice that the turn meter shows that KOS-MOS is next in line to attack and directly after her it will be the enemies turn. When KOS_MOS's turn begins you can hold the R1 button and depending on the formation you have your characters in, hit the button that corresponds to Shion (The buttons coreespond by orders of the pictures above Furthest left=square, middle=Triangle and the characters portrait furthest right=circle.) What that will do is basically put Uzuki next in line to attack right after KOS-MOS. She will for all intents and purposes get a free second turn. Boosting is a great way to continue pounding your enemy with attacks all the while not allowing them to get a turn in.
Also take note of the time when the small icon next next to the turn window changes. As mentioned above there are times when it gives added tech and skill points. There are also other times when an icon appears that will accelarate the the reduce the time it takes to fill the meter. More boost is good.
Hope that helps with boosting and stuff.

 

[Woo Jae]

Hey Romier:
How do you like the game so far??
Let me add that Shion does have a Boost 1 Spell that can be used to increase a character's boost to 1 (or higher, if need be). You can transfer this skill as well.

 

[Woo Jae]

IMO, the safest place to put tech points are first to level up your techs to HI speed by spending points on WAIT and SPEED. This way, you will be able to pull off damaging attacks without wasting a turn to build 6 AP.
But the game GIVES you a lot of choice with the point system, which already makes it better than Xenogears (yes,m I know - a loaded comment.) which forced you to learn deathblows in a not so clear fashion.
The other "safe" place for tech points are HP and EP, which can also be increased via the spending of Tech points. Never hurts to have MORE HP or EP for those pesky boss battles.
There is a known bug on the UTIC ship in the simulator where you can't reach the item, but I haven't gotten there yet to confirm. Got this from that hotbed of rumors and whatnot = www.GameFAQs.com. Here's a link...
http://s2.cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/ge...&topic=6837350
There are certain emails and items that you can't go back for. But you probably won't miss stuff in the dungeon/ships since you have the EVS simulator. Don't forget that you can SKIP scenes in the game by pressing START and TRIANGLE.

 

[Romier S]

But the game GIVES you a lot of choice with the point system, which already makes it better than Xenogears (yes,m I know - a loaded comment.) which forced you to learn deathblows in a not so clear fashion.

Yeah to an extent I agree but at the same time (and mind you this is an early statement as it may change as the game goes moves along) I'm feeling that the deathblows and combo maneuvers in Xenogears offered a bit more attack variety than what I have seen in Saga so far. There just seemed to be a more natural (and that may not be the word Im looking for here) flow of learning maneuvers and skills. Again thats what I've observed early on but that may open up more a bit later.
I do agree totally with Woo though. The sooner you move your tech skills to HI the better of you will be. The increase in damage output (amount and frequency which you cause damage) is more than worth saving the points.
Also I wanted to mention how I really prefer how they handled the mech combat in Xenogears. So far in Saga the mechs are the equivalant of FFX's summon creatures, they replace your character in combat. This is a significant change. Its not one that I dislike mind you but I much prefferred Gears more "structured" way of separating human and mech combat depending on the situation. Admittedly that does come down to personal preference but I wanted to state my own for posterity

 

[Scott_W]

I will pay more attention to the meter, and the bonus segments. I vaguely paid attention so far, but haven't felt the need to really master it yet. From the above, it looks like that time is coming.

I'll second/third the ability to pause during the cutscenes. The game would be almost unplayable for me if not for this. I need to get up to attend to a new baby in the evenings, and the pause feature is a life saver. I haven't minded the length of the scenes so far, as they have been fairly well done. My only complaint is that I wish the characters would speak a little faster. Their speech tends to be slow, with to many pauses. This may just be a personal preference though.

I'm not sure if I like the way the mechs are handled either. They aren't really a focus of a battle, which is a bit disappointing. Even in reviews, it seems the mechs play small roles. I'd rather they were more powerful, dominating entries that you really needed to use. Right now, they are more just an addition to the party. Romier is right that they feel like an FFX summon in a way. I like the fact the rest of the party stays though.

I'm liking Xenosaga a lot more then FFX and the past few Final Fantasy games. The lack of random battles is a huge plus. I like being able to explore a bit without every few steps being a wasted battle. So far, its similar in this regard to Chrono Cross. Good story, fun battle system, and interesting characters. I hope the game keeps up this way. I keep playing to late in the evening to advance the story a bit more, so I know I'm hooked.

Thanks for the extra advice.

 

[Woo Jae]

Good point that the system is NOT as free form as Xenogears, Romier. I did and still enjoy that idea and am a bit sorry that it doesn't exist in Xenosaga.
I too miss the awesome gear battles of Xenogears, and that those who were wishing to STOMP the enemy with a badass gear like in Xenogears will miss that system. (BTW, I am messing with Xenogears - levelling with ELLY and FEI in the Blackmoon forest - collecting Bizfruits from Armored Grubs and frying hobs for Hob Steak and Hob Jerky never gets old. )
OTOH, I like the more strategic boss battles where EVERY turn has to count in Xenosaga. And lack of random battles IS a serious plus for those of us with less time on our hands. Not to mention the Start *pause* button.
THE ONLY complaint? There has been so little news of Xenosaga Episode 2 that I am seriously worried about it. Will IMPORT and buy the DOMESTIC when it arrives.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Stat increases with Tech Points are one very nice way to make your characters rock.
I've been trying to keep EAtk and Edef maxed for all the characters I use a lot, each point adds just a little damage.. however it does so for ALL their Either attacks.
THE key to points is killing enemies on the turn where you can get a multiplyer. It's 60% x2 30% x4 and 10% x10... and trust me on the later mobs x10 is AWESOME. I beat Tiamat on x4 and got 240 tech points per person...
A helpful tip for lvling up points / gold early in the game:
Once you can go back to the UTIC Battleship travel all the way to the far end of the board, there is a room you can duck into and pop out from to get 2 sets of guards to pop along with a mech right there... keel them over and over again for lots of $$, xp and t,e,s points

All my characters but Shion now have at least one attack that affects all the enemies, lots of times now I end combat on my first action, if not before the baddies even have a chance to attack.
Lastly expect to replay the game... I'm discovering lots of stuff I missed out on, heck there's so many ways to do a lot of things this game has an immense amount of replay value, being able to skip the cut scenes helps in that regard.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Clear time of 38:45... lvl 47 and the last boss is a pussy do the Robot Side quest... make the end a piece of cake

but OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG the ending ROCKS! Only bad bad part.. it makes me want the sequal SO BAD!
Xenosaga II is going to OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now to play the game again... do EVERYTHING, max EVERY stat and find out what the max lvl is

 

[Brad Grenz]

Anybody else fought Minutia (I think that's her name). She's in the Foundation

There is a known bug on the UTIC ship in the simulator where you can't reach the item, but I haven't gotten there yet to confirm. Got this from that hotbed of rumors and whatnot = www.GameFAQs.com. Here's a link...

Yeah, I hit that bug. Locks up the game and you have to at least soft reset and load a save. Sucks.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Brad,

It's recommended in the guide you wait till the time later to fight her, you'll be a lot stronger after the Song of Nephlim (sp?) and you will be able to get back to that spot.

What lvl where you at the time? I was low 30s during the rescue...

I didn't bother to fight her, since I've not played Momo much she's very weak in my party (saveing her for time 2)

Note this game is a dual layer DVD and some early PS2s I have heard have issues with Dual Layers (this is supposed to be more common in Japan but who knows if it affects any over here)

 

[JamesH]

Clear time of 38:45... lvl 47 and the last boss is a pussy

Heh. I've played that much and I'm only on Miltia with lvl 20 characters. That card game is addicting.

 

[Brad Grenz]

It's recommended in the guide you wait till the time later to fight her, you'll be a lot stronger after the Song of Nephlim (sp?) and you will be able to get back to that spot.

What lvl where you at the time? I was low 30s during the rescue...

Well, I kept at it and finally killed her last night. My level spread was between 24 and 22. Fight time: 2 hours, 15 minutes, I kid you not. I haven't been leveling very diligently. I missed a lot of stuff in the Encephelon so I plan on going back. Today I spent a good while just playing poker. I read a poker guide for the game and it's pretty easy to win a lot of coins. You can trade coins for resalable goods and make a bunch of money (a simple cash out option sure is missed). I'm up to about 120,000 in cash.

I've heard most of the layer change bugs were related to switches between realtime and prerendered FMV, so I'm not sure that's the root of the bug I hit.

 

[Woo Jae]

Anyone think the boss battles are more memorable at lower levels? I do... they take a huge amt of resources and strategy to win at low levels.

Too busy watching anime to continue. Remember that I restarted. Finished Woglinde with characters in lvl 15 and 4 of Shion's techs up to level 6, hi speed. Now on Pleroma and just leveling Ziggurat8 to a respectable level with some increases to VIT, ETH ATK and ETH DEF. Hoping to get him to tech level 5 as well with all of his techs (prolly 3 - including the awesome Meteor shot). Want to do the same with MOMO, so by the end of Pleroma, the bosses will prolly be too easy for me.

Max level is 99, I believe.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Woo,
I actually think the mid late boss fights are the most memorable. The last 2 bosses in fact are only wimps if you have completed Eide Kaiser (and have the 60 EP Shion needs to cast it)
The 3rd to last boss took me about 30-45 mins to beat... only because the bastard heals him self a TON and had a beam shield up that made Shion and KOS-MOS's uber tech's do no damage (and it never dropped unlike what it's supposed to do)
And the battles in the Song are pretty wicked!
Brian