Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 245: Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

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Todays game is Xenosaga Episode I. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name><rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them. Games need at least four votes to count for the list.

Previous Results:
Planescape: Torment - 9.85 (13 votes)
Clannad - 9.75 (4 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.61 (22 votes)
Silent Hill 2 - 9.5 (20 votes)
Higurashi When They Cry - 9.5 (9 votes)
Deus Ex - 9.32 (12 votes)
428: Shibuya Scramble - 9.27 (9 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 9.2 (20 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.19 (35 votes)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West - 9.15 (10 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.06 (11 votes)
Yakuza 0 - 9.03 (13 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 8.95 (31 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Mother 3 - 8.91 (15 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.89 (14 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.88 (21 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Suikoden II - 8.8 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.76 (22 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.75 (14 votes)
Xenogears - 8.73 (24 votes)
Tales of Berseria - 8.71 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.67 (27 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (28 votes)
Pyre - 8.64 (7 votes)
Portal 2 - 8.64 (19 votes)
Bastion - 8.63 (12 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.63 (32 votes)
Dragon Quest V - 8.6 (15 votes)
AI: The Somnium Files - 8.59 (13 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.58 (6 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.57 (28 votes)
Persona 4 - 8.56 (32 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (17 votes)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 8.53 (18 votes)
SOMA - 8.5 (6 votes)
Fate/Stay Night - 8.48 (12 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.47 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.44 (29 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 8.43 (12 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice - 8.42 (17 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.4 (41 votes)
Snatcher - 8.33 (6 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.31 (56 votes)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - 8.31 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.29 (38 votes)
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 8.25 (18 votes)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - 8.23 (6 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 8.21 (19 votes)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - 8.2 (10 votes)
Parasite Eve - 8.19 (9 votes)
Dragon Quest XI - 8.19 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VI - 8.19 (43 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.19 (43 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.16 (22 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 8.15 (17 votes)
Wolfenstein: The New Order - 8.14 (7 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Conkers Bad Fur Day - 8.11 (9 votes)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - 8.11 (9 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.11 (15 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
Silent Hill - 8.04 (14 votes)
Portal - 8 (26 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 8 (18 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.98 (28 votes)
Hades - 7.96 (22 votes)
Tsukihime - 7.94 (7 votes)
Persona 5 - 7.92 (27 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.92 (32 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Kid Icarus: Uprising - 7.86 (13 votes)
Psychonauts - 7.79 (7 votes)
Deadly Premonition - 7.77 (11 votes)
Final Fantasy IX - 7.77 (26 votes)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - 7.75 (14 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story - 7.75 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 3 - 7.75 (8 votes)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - 7.75 (6 votes)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 7.75 (4 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.73 (32 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.7 (5 votes)
Bioshock - 7.65 (24 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.63 (15 votes)
Paper Mario: The Origami King - 7.63 (6 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.61 (28 votes)
Celeste - 7.56 (26 votes)
Half-Life 2 - 7.55 (10 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.51 (31 votes)
The Last Story - 7.47 (6 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Marvels Spider-Man - 7.43 (16 votes)
Tales of Symphonia - 7.42 (30 votes)
Earthbound - 7.37 (20 votes)
Ghost of Tsushima - 7.36 (7 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.33 (29 votes)
Batman: Arkham Asylum - 7.33 (23 votes)
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - 7.27 (20 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.25 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.21 (30 votes)
Devil May Cry 3: Dantes Awakening - 7.21 (12 votes)
Resident Evil 4 - 7.19 (25 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (25 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 7.11 (23 votes)
The Stanley Parable - 7.11 (14 votes)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.1 (30 votes)
Broken Age - 7.1 (5 votes)
The Last of Us Part II - 7.09 (16 votes)
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 7.08 (6 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
INSIDE - 7.06 (16 votes)
Warcraft III (overall) - 7.06 (8 votes)
Assassins Creed II - 7.04 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy VIII - 7.01 (31 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (6 votes)

6

An example of what happens when execution doesn't live up to ambition

6/10

Ziggy and Albedo are both great. Everything else is hit or miss.

6

5.5/10

Very underwhelming, but decent enough that I finished it.

This is a tricky one. It really depends on how much I want to punish it for setting up interesting plotlines that the rest of the trilogy makes absolutely no attempt to follow through on.

Eh.

7/10

I didn't get far enough to rate it because I didn't like the gameplay, but as of about 6-10 hours in I thought the story was really good.

8/10

Great worldbuilding, characters, battle system, ending. Still look back on it fondly and keep meaning to give it (and rest of trilogy) a replay.

8

Nominate Eternal Darkness

6

9

I haven't played it in like 10 years but I still love it I wonder how I'd feel about it these days though

5

7

I so wanted this to succeed. However, the game goes to EVA school of naming everything after the Bible (DYA GET IT, IT"S DEEP AND EMOTIONAL...it really isn't). Margulis and Albedo are amazing villains though. It really makes you want to beat the shit out of them (especially what Albedo does). The main issue is something they couldn't control. The main character is obviously Shion, but her plotline...doesn't really go anywhere. Once Jr gets involved, it becomes his game, and the second half becomes his way too fucking much. Shion gets left to twist in the wind and remind you, "Wasn't I introduced first, what the fuck?" Maybe if Jr. didn't have the, "I look like a little kid" thing, I'd probably hate it less.

So many good things make up for a lot of shortcomings.

• Shion trying to be a bastion of peace while Virgil goes, "Fuck you, weapons are weapons, try to survive you stupid bitch!"
• Margulis and Cherenkov story (though the dungeon Cherenkov gets is very...VERY fucking boring. God, I wish dungeons in this game weren't so fucking long.
• Albedo...um...just look up "the Albedo scene." You'll know it when you see it. Jesus fucking christ.

Again, the first game had so much promise. It's a shame 2 and 3 suffered for many different reasons. I still prefer Xenosaga to stuff like Xenoblade (turn based is always going to be my combat preference). I really hold that trilogy in high regard, despite its fault. The first game is just...so fucking good. But those good points are bogged down either by business decisions, story problems, or trying way too fucking hard to be "insightful."

Seriously, it's a game about people in space fighting aliens and other space people. All the biblical subtext gets in the goddamn way.

*Also says EVA isn't as great as everyone says it is before running away*

4/10

didn't make it very far admittedly, but I gave it around five hours

Up.

8/10.

I am surprised that I am on the high end of a PS2-era JRPG topic, but it is what it is I guess. This game (and 3 for that matter) never released in Europe, but I heard so much high praise for the story in my early Board 8 days I watched it all, and I have to say that it paid off. Yes some of the writing is clunky, most of the characters arent great and it has a total lack of subtlety, but it deals with such a striking world and so many interesting themes that I still really liked it at the time. I am a sucker for the serious, ambitious space opera with weighty themes, see also Dune. So yeah, I like this one, the sequels less so.

Xenosaga's story almost certainly comes off better as a cutscene watch than actually playing the game.

I don't think I'd describe Xenosaga as a serious space opera, but maybe I just spent too much time riffing on it while playing it and now I can't see it as anything other than goofy as hell.

Well, serious as in self-serious, which doesnt mean it fant be goofy!

It takes itself way more seriously than Chronicles 2 does anyway...

Fucking superecha doll and Nopons and MEH MEH MEH, and well...Rex. the worst Xenosaga has for stupid comedy is Allen trying to get laid and almost always failing...poor guy.