Xenosaga: Was mi�riert

OK, but what does the German in the thread title mean? I can't seem to find a translation for it.

Don't ask me, I just work here.

WARNING: I tried to limit it, but there is at least one shot towards the end of this update that is absolutely horrid. It is supposed to be disgusting, and I feel like it would be doing the story a disservice to not include it. Just, I don’t know, be aware, NSFW and trigger warning for mutilation and all that. I’ll link it so it doesn't even wind up in your cache.

Previously on Xenosaga: Orgulla’s long, sad story came to a close as she fell in battle attempting to repel invaders on behalf of her beloved Patriarch. Orgulla may no longer be with us, but The Brews ventured on to Old Miltia, each party member doing their best to deal with the blood now on their collective hands.



Ziggy is here because he’s never been to Old Miltia before, and thought it might be neat.



Alright, so this is the big lie everyone is going to tell over and over again this update. If you recall, the introductory dungeon of Xenosaga Episode 2 took place during the Miltian Conflict, at the capital, roughly hours before Old Miltia plinked out of existence. Remember what that looked like.



Super duper wrong.



chaos hasn’t said… anything… in a while, so he decides to wax philosophical about the mythical land of Mu, an area best known for appearing in the prequel to Xenosaga, Ducktales 2.



This is a lot more accurate than this whole “it looks exactly the same” thing.



chaos makes reference to Mu being “sacrificed”, and Shion agrees that that’s the general gist of this area. She’s more right than she knows…



“You guys leave, we’ll just chill in this defenseless ship that already had to be rescued once. Don’t worry, we’ve got Allen on guard duty.”



Hey, that’s what I say every time I start writing an update!



In case you missed the recap, Junior confirms that he’s looking for the Zohar, Jin wants to suck the data out of Canaan (remember that plot point?)…



And Shion has to satisfy her robot ghost mom or whatever.



Despite the fact that you’re participating in an intergalactic race to the Zohar, you can quit and return to do whatever sidequests you’d like if you ask Captain Matthews nicely. Note that this is the first dungeon in the game that allowed for an exit.



“Wow, this place looks exactly the same! Remember twenty years ago when the Old Miltia Chamber of Commerce had all the buildings tilted to a 45 degree angle?”



Technically, Old Miltia is two different dungeons, one (Submerged City) entirely ES based , and one “on foot”. Though you’ll visit them consecutively initially, on revisits, you may choose to enter one or the other at your leisure.



12:08 to start. If this timer seems an hour ahead of my last count, it’s because I futzed around with a few sidequests between updates, because I needed a breather after the parade of dungeons tracing back to MOMO Land.



So we’ll be traversing Old Miltia on what’s left of its roadways, which is a fine excuse for a dungeon that is mostly following straight lines. Note that some of these roads are partially submerged, which must have been to promote Old Miltia’s bustling amphibious car business, because Old Miltia “looks just like it used to”.



Ormus made it here ahead of us, so there are plenty of sentry robots and piloted AMWS along the way. These little flying dorks will occasionally hang out on top of a broken section of road, and you’ll have to use a long range attack to nail ‘em.



Like the exterior of the Ormus Stronghold, this dungeon is mostly a straight line with a few forks. Treasure one way, more dungeon the other.



It is literally impossible to capture in a picture, but the enemy AMWS units “talk” during battle, presumably just to remind you that you are destroying piloted crafts, and not just drones. I wonder how low a rank you have to be to get stuck with “wander around an abandoned city in a mech” duty.



While there are giant treasure chests about, Red Segment Doors only come in person sizes, so, for the couple of doors around, you have to temporarily exit the ES. It’s not like there is any danger in walking around “unprotected”, and there are no “little” enemies in this area, so… seems like this could have been a little less clunky.



Anybody want to explain to me how getting sucked into two different black holes causes a planet to flood and get generally demolished… but is otherwise okay? Like, yeah, real estate values are at an all time low, but I feel like this planet should not be in any pieces larger than a jujube at this point.



Xenosaga Episode 2 is actually pretty good about modifying battle arenas to match your surroundings. If you encounter a monster while wading through a flood zone, you’re going to be damp the entire battle. It doesn’t have an effect on the combat, but it’s a neat detail.



Here’s one of those giant treasure chests.



Quick Charge is a great ES accessory that allows the ES of your choice to start with 100 special points. This means you can start a battle with a special attack, which can really speed things along. It’s not so useful for boss encounters, but it sure does make dungeons move a teeny bit faster.



Here’s another Segment Door, but we actually have the key for this one.



This unlocks the ability “First Combo”, which allows a character to start a battle with one stock already stocked. Like Quick Charge, this can be a major boon for random encounters, particularly on a character like KOS-MOS that has additional moves available with extra stock. Between these two items, we’re finally starting to get the “good equipment”.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Anyone else getting a Zanarkand vibe from this place?



Our first save point for the area is guarded by a mandatory miniboss.



Delphinus is actually a color swap of that miniboss (Libra) we faced sans mechs back during the “fleeing across Second Miltia” segment earlier in the game. This guy uses many of the same attacks, and is primarily a threat thanks to its ability to inflict the status effect Blind.



This pairs poorly (for you) with the fact that it absorbs pretty much all elemental abilities (except Jesus Christ element, the damned unholy abomination), so you must use physical attacks. Absolutely avoid healing the heck out of it with an ether based special.



Like with Libra, it will start abusing its Sonic Boom attack as its health descends, so do everything you can to make quick work of the beast. Remember, there’s free healing in that save point right after the battle, so go nuts.



Delphinus is del-finished. Let’s save and move on.



Aw, blasting this wall to move forward has created a rainbow. Old Miltia is currently populated exclusively by leprechauns.



Next area gives us a little sense of place. Remember that giant star? Yes, this is the toy store we passed during the introductory area. No, it didn’t look like this at the time, Hammer.



Like during the opening area, you can attempt to enter the toy store… but the door is locked. Also, just for the hell of it, I’ve included a pic of this location fifteen years back.



Up the ramp is another Delphinus fight. This one is optional, and you’re not that far from the last save point, so feel free to unload and then book it back for the healing if you’re at all worried.



Defeating Delphinus #2 will score you Decoder #9. Totally worth it.



Our last save point for this area is within sight, and we’ve got another Delphinus guarding it. #3 is exactly the same as the other two, so you should be getting pretty good at this by this point.



Despite the fact that we’ve been wading through lakes to get here (and our ESes can fly!), this measly “waterfall” is impeding our progress.



But knock a few tankers into the water behind the area…



And blow ‘em the heck up! We’ve got another exit point for that water.



No more waterfall, and time to trudge forward.



Our final ES obstacle appears to be some kind of dry-docked battleship.



And we can hear it talking?



Completely inexplicably, this battleship is commanded by Vanderkamp, aka Strickland (since he was barely named in the first game), aka that dork with the purple cross on his face.



I’ve included his visage from XS1 as a reference, but you don’t actually see his (iconic?) face in this game. His speech pattern is unmistakable, so I’ve included it here for all you folks at home. Get ready to get yelled at!



Junior is not impressed.



This is the Naglfar, and I literally cannot imagine its intended use. It kinda looks like some of the Immigrant Fleet spaceships, so maybe it’s just a docked version of one of those?



This is a combination “goofy” and “gimmick” battle. The gimmick section asks that you attack the main turret when a specific event slot is active.



To give you some other targets, you’ve got four of those floaty dorks to handle in addition to the “main” boss. At this point, the dorks probably go down in a hit or two, so feel free to eliminate as many as possible before the boss respawns them.



At first, it seems almost impossible to outpace the respawns, but once you have some boost, it’s really not that difficult.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Once you’ve got a clear shot, feel free to gang up on the turret area.



And here’s the goofy bit. Once you mangle the shield…



The majority of the boss’s actions will simply be a running commentary of the crew attempting repairs and… utterly failing. Assuming you’ve taken out the support dorks, at this point you can just fire away and call it a day.



Post battle… nothing really changes. Like, it really doesn’t look like this thing is moving either way… could we have just walked past it in the first place?



Oh, fine.



Still kind of a far way away, guys…



F L Y



Ugh, even though we’re clearly a few blocks away, it appears our only choice is…



Another stupid sewer level! BOOOOOOOO!



Here’s part two of Old Miltia. Sorry, ESes, we’re leaving you parked for the rest of this adventure.



For those of you keeping track, this is our third sewer. Ziggy and MOMO crept through U-TIC’s sewer during their escape sequence, and the whole party already hit a virtual Old Miltia sewer during their Encephalon Dive. Oddly, this won’t even be the last sewer in this game.



Of course we’ve got monsters down here. There are plenty of security droids and soldiers lurking about. Come to think of it, a lot of these droids are upgrades of creatures we saw during the introductory Old Miltia area. Nice continuity.



I earned Jin’s swimsuit between updates. Get ready to see a whole lot Jin skin. Hey, at least this model doesn’t have any clipping issues.



The first sewer area is basically just running around hitting switches. Since enemies don’t respawn, you’re free to explore what there is here and get lost at will.



The next area is a math puzzle. Algebraic!



The left side starts at -3, and the right side is at +3. Each button will add to one side and subtract from the other, so, say, hitting the “6” button will take the left side to +3, and the right to -3. The idea is to hit the buttons in the proper sequence to get them both at an even 0. Can you solve this basic math problem?



I can! Incidentally, this entire puzzle is predicated on the concept that your party doesn’t want to get their feet wet.



No, sneaking up on your enemies doesn’t offer any benefits. Lame.



The sewer area ends with the party encountering giant spiderweb thingys.



The rest of the city is a tomb, but Labyrinthos underground is happenin’.



Ziggy comments that he’s “heard of nanomachines” building stuff. Newsflash, guys, where do you think these Segment Doors keep coming from? This was explained to you! Twice!



But Shion thinks it’s more… deliberate than bored nanomachines.



Oh, that’ll do it.



But Junior doesn’t elaborate on that much. I guess U-DO was bored being trapped here, so He spun some spiderwebs? Sure, whatever.



So… U-DO kinda inconveniences public works with spiderwebs? U-DO: THREAT OR MENACE!?

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Anyway, the next area seems to start Labyrinthos proper, and those U-DOwebs are easily obliterated.



Guys, maybe this place feels livelier than the rest of Old Miltia because it is swarmed with enemy soldiers and bots. Ya know, just a thought.



U-DO will never stop the nanomachines and their inconsequential doors!



Well, sir, there's nothing on Miltia like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, one-car monorail! What'd I say?



I like that there was that train, because that closes the gap that was so blatantly obvious when we disembarked the ESes. Now we appear to be at Labyrinthos proper, complete with a deactivated security checkpoint. This might be a generally boring dungeon “dungeon-wise”, but, like a lot of Xenosaga areas, there are some neat touches to make you think that this is a “real” place.



The next spot is this big circular area that looks a lot like that spot where Junior and Albedo had their kiddy freakout. There’s an elevator in the center, but you have to pull a couple of switches on the east and west sides to unlock it.



The east side starts with a random ladder/box “puzzle”. Grab that ladder, pick a floor, and blow up the boxes. You might find treasure, monsters, or a passageway to the next ladder. Find the passage three times and this room is done.



Meanwhile, this puzzle is pretty fun. It’s difficult to properly explain, but you can rotate the walls from above, and each rotator can “grab” a wall and take it into its rotation. Rotate the walls properly to proceed, or rotate to access the parallel corners for treasure.



East side is all wrapped up. One switch down.



The west side starts with a basic traversal puzzle that is based on lowering and raising passageways. It’s pretty straightforward.



This area introduces some upgraded versions of those weird Realians from the Ormus Stronghold. They’re easily the most annoying monsters in this dungeon, so be advised.



The next room features a puzzle with a new twist on block pushing. Each “stack” of blocks contains a certain number of blocks, and when you “push” the stack, the blocks will tumble and make a bridge that number of blocks long. Your goal is to push the blocks in the right directions to form a continuous path. Do it perfectly, and you can even grab a little treasure.



West side represent.



Going down? Incidentally, there’s a save point right there by the elevator, so if the monsters here are a pain, there’s easy restoration.



If this giant elevator descending to a large door reminds you of anything, good news, it’s supposed to. This area very deliberately is evocative of the Zohar chamber back on the Cathedral Ship.



Finally, we’re at Canaan’s goal. One silly puzzle to go.



Great leadership, Shion!



In what can only be described as the worst security measure in history, you have to run around this room flipping switches and raising and lowering the entire damn room to unlock one stupid door. I cannot imagine how this would work during a normal day’s business, or what it would cost to repair the hydraulics that raise and lower an entire room.



There aren’t any enemies in this area, so it should be a pretty quick jaunt to get in there and move this plot along.



Damn straight. Recall that Canaan has been waiting fifteen years for this.



This would probably mean more if Canaan was a little more present for the last… entire game.



Ha ha ha, classic Canaan.



Shion, expert scientist, finally asks a question.



Considering Jin stole this data from U-TIC in the first place… I want to say that’s a lead.



Everyone blames MOMO’s dad, but Jin isn't so conformist.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

“Aren’t we standing in their home base? I know I’ve seen that logo somewhere…”



"Canaan and i fought them fifteen years ago."
“They tried to kill us a bunch of times.”
“Hired my brother to kill us all.”
“Kidnapped me!”
“I killed an entire base full of ‘em.”



Okay, Jin? That’s not exactly a tick in the “Mizrahi ain’t crazy” column.



Ah-ha, so Mizrahi was being paid off to make U-TIC into U-TIC. Crazy cult leader was basically just his day job.



“Hyams” was the mastermind. Or at least owned a controlling interest.



Heinlein, you may recall, is the cardinal within the Immigrant Fleet that The Patriarch seems to distrust.



Crazy religious nuts were funding crazy scientists this whole time!



Well, I mean, if they were funding him…



Smartest guy in the galaxy didn’t ask where the money was coming from. Sure, let’s go with that.



We’ve now shifted the blame for the entire Miltian Conflict from Mizrahi to the Immigrant Fleet, conveniently led by The Space Pope. Anybody want to guess the identity of the final boss at this point?



So the Immigrant Fleet’s plan was to use Mizrahi, the Miltian Conflict, and the Zohar to do… something. Whatever that something was, though, got interrupted when U-DO awoke and things started to suck (into a black hole).



Yay!



Mizrahi was responsible for “sealing” Old Miltia, because he knew that the Immigrant Fleet’s Zohar plans and U-DO couldn’t be unleashed on the universe. One galactic crisis at a time, guys!



And then he dove off a building. Err… I guess that’s an option.



But first he entrusted the Y-Data to his robo daughter, MOMO. That was sweet, but has proven to be a terrible plan.



But, hey, makes MOMO happy. Between the Y-Data getting off her back, Mama Mizrahi accepting her into her real family, and Dr. Mizrahi being exonerated, MOMO has pretty much completed all of her emotional arcs. At least someone is making out well in this story.



Shion is just now realizing that handing the unlimited source of all power in this universe to a bunch of religious zealots might be a bad idea. Shion, why do you think we’re here? Don’t say angry ghosts…



And Jin… leaves the party. He’s got to stick to Canaan and send this data back to Helmer, and I guess we can’t wait for him. Bye, Jin! Hope this turns out all right!



So we’re now Jinless, but we’ve got the rest of the party to head on to the Zohar.



One last elevator and we’ll be there.



The absolute last bit of this dungeon is a series of battles. The monsters don’t move, and there’s a save point nearby, but if you’re having problems with these random battles… you might want to grind to get ready for the inevitable boss fight. Unless your only problem is the absent Jin. Come on, you have six other fighters, you can do this!



Last stop, gas up and get ready for a climax.



You knew this was coming, right? Like, we fought every one of his underlings last update, it was either this or another stupid Richard and Hermann fight.



Let’s see… he fought chaos and Jin fifteen years ago, Ziggy and MOMO a couple days back, and he’s been working closely with Junior’s brother. It’s entirely possible that Shion and KOS-MOS have no idea who they’re looking at.



I guess that’s a compliment for… MOMO? She is built for navigation.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Or it’s a dig on Junior? Whatever.



I swear Junior hasn’t stopped shouting since the last time we saw Albedo.



“Why thank you.”
“I was being sarcastic!”



Hey, an explanation of what U-TIC stands for in the background. Unknown Territory Interventing and Creation. Makes sense, these guys have been interventing all over the galaxy.



Anyway, typical bad guy banter about you can’t handle the truth/Zohar.



The party tries to tell Margulis that he can’t do this, oh no. Margulis retorts that he knows exactly what he’s doing, and it’s going to eliminate people and gnosis. Well, that’s not so bad!



Oh, wait, that’s terrible. We do not need another Cathedral Ship.



And Margulis attacks! Note that chaos takes the position to shield Shion and the party, but…



Oh, snap, Jin is here to save us! … So I guess the data transfer took a whole extra two minutes.



You should see the twitter feuds between these guys.



Shion is shocked that that guy who has been fighting with the party through two whole dungeons has decided to unveil his fighting prowess. … Or maybe she’s just confused about how he got up there.



“Like, there’s seven people trying to stop me, and you’re one of them? What are the odds?”



“And I stole ‘em. Sucks to be you.”



“Hey, remember when I sent you crashing through a building? Good times.”



Guess, you know what this means…



Time to d-d-d-d-duel!



This battle goes on longer than the previous Margulis/Jin battle, and I don’t think it repeats the same beats, either. Somebody really put some time into this choreography.



He… already has? Like, he’s probably killed a bunch of dudes in the last fifteen years. He tried to kill Ziggy.



Aaaaanyway



Boss fight time. Jin is back in the party! Our ten minute, Jinless nightmare is over! First of all, neat thing, we start surrounding Margulis, which will allow the battle party to damage Margulis a lot more easily. Also, like all the big bosses so far, steal an Awakening III from the big jerk, and you’ll gain a double tech for Jin and Shion.



Margulis has some neat, painful looking attacks. What you’re looking at here is probably the worst party for this fight: Margulis is weak to piercing (aka bullets, aka Junior) and ether (aka MOMO) attacks. Eventually, Margulis will summon a double that is only vulnerable to Jesus Christ element, so drag out chaos for that bit. After that, you have four turns before Margulis uses an ultimate (completely fatal) attack, so pile on the damage while you can. Also, Jin must land the final blow.



Of course, I didn’t go through all this, because my Jin has max strength, and like two back attacks ended this battle.



Yep! Hey, this fight doesn’t end with Jin bleeding all over the place. Win!



Just can’t be a gracious loser, can you?

It’s blink and you miss it, but I think Margulis leaps on Hermann’s AMWS to make his retreat. I guess that’s the confirmation that at least Hermann survived the Ormus explosion… or it could just be a mass produced AMWS anyway.



So Margulis fled like a coward, time to finally hit the Zohar room. Uh… did anyone bring a hand truck? Not sure how we’re gonna get this out of here.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

If we don’t know this by now…



I guess this is the first Shion is really telling about The Brews about how she was summoned here by a ghostly ginger. Come to think of it, everyone but Jin & KOS-MOS went through that Encephalon Dive that included Feb and Nephilim explaining how important it was to swing by the Zohar…



Speaking of which.



Yep, those two pods have a pair of occupants.



Cecilia and Catherine. How good of U-TIC to label their victims.



Everyone involved is shocked by this. I want to remind you that Junior is keeping a woman named Betty alive inside a similar tube.



I have to assume that Ziggy has a similar reaction to all this, too.

(image linked because mutilated children)

This is absolutely gross, and I feel like the breathing adds an extra level of horror to the situation. Yes, they are alive, mutilated, and partially rotting for the sake of whatever mad experiment is going on here. Xenosaga hangs a lot on its “these aren’t humans, but they’re still human” thinking, and this is arguably the pinnacle of that. If you don’t feel bad for these Realians, I don’t know what to tell you.



Shion wouldn’t be able to tolerate this on a good day.



chaos, I thought you were on Team Omnipotent Ghost. You know the answer here.



Sorry, Shion, they have to die.



And a voice bellows to explain why such a thing had to happen.



“It was necessary to isolate their consciousness from the outside world.”

Oh, good, the Space Pope is here, and he brought his lighting crew.



Jin stays up on intergalactic politics, so he knows who he’s looking at.



“There's really no need for me to answer questions from the likes of you.”

But what is a villain without his monologue?



“That object originally belonged to us -- to Ormus. Yes, since the dawn of recorded history, we have been its guardians. In turn, we use it in any way we see fit. That is the way of things.”

So… you guys have been doing a piss poor job guarding the most powerful object in the universe.



Yeah, you would think the whole Ormus Stronghold thing would have given it away.




“That's right. Ormus has existed in the shadows since ancient times. Indeed, since before the crucifixion of the messiah. Human beings...no...all life throughout the universe must be guided forward by Ormus and the Zohar. And they shall be led unto a higher plane of existence. That is the mission that god has entrusted to us.”

Yeah, alright, typical Evil Space Pope nonsense.




Lightning wouldn’t stand for this, and neither will Shion.



You ever get on a stage, have the spotlight on ya, and completely lose sight of the entire audience? I have no idea how The Patriarch can even see the party right now.



I guess The Patriarch is summoning U-DO. Because he can do that. I guess.



Shion is told that Cecily and Cathe have to be put down, or U-DO is going to wake up again. That… could destroy us all.



KOS-MOS got this, Shion. You can chill.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Shion has one move for stopping KOS-MOS. Hasn’t failed yet!



Legitimately, KOS-MOS could just leap over Shion before the poor scientist could even pivot, so this isn’t much of a threat.



And time stops for a ghost to swing by.



“All I’ve asked of you for two games and you’re going to stall out at the finish line? Come on, Shion.”



Shion is pretty much done at this point.



Like, this is the emotional limit for her. Shion, lover of all life, has to kill a pair of children to save the universe.



And, again, I have to give the directors/animators/whoever credit for this scene. The “acting” here is great: Shion almost wordlessly comes to the conclusion that she has to do this, stands aside, and commands KOS-MOS to do the deed. … Okay, I’m just impressed anytime Xenosaga does anything without seven paragraphs of exposition.



I miss XS1’s chainguns…



So Cecily and Cathe are killed, and The Patriarch’s link to U-DO is eliminated. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have the Zohar, though.



And he’s got a humongous mech that closes around the Zohar. You’d think someone would have noticed that before now.



Oh no! It’s Proto Omega!... What the hell is Proto Omega?



“Oh? You know of it. I'm impressed. It seems I may have underestimated you slightly. These past fourteen years have been of great help to us. As has the data from the conflict. As a result, we now have a symbol of overwhelming power. With this, we will wipe the Gnosis from the cosmos and place the entire star cluster under the jurisdiction of Ormus.”

Oh, so this is what Ormus/The Immigrant Fleet was tricking Mizrahi into building. Good to know.



“Of course, we hardly need anything this overwhelming now, thanks to the U.M.N. and the Federation. They've managed to reduce the people to a simple mass of spineless weaklings.”

Man, even in another couple of millennia, there are still going to be people whining about how the internet has made us all a bunch of pansies. Make Miltia great again!



The whole place starts to collapse, Proto Omega flies off, and the party escapes back to the Elsa. At least we don’t have to participate in the escape this time.



We now rejoin the Elsa’s ascent already in progress.



And a huge structure erupts from Old Miltia.



Let’s see… the scale of this place… Yes, someone carved gigantic angel (?) statues that are roughly ten stories tall. Guess that’s why U-TIC has interns.



Kind of an unhealthy amount of lava erupting from Old Miltia. Not a good sign.



And whatever it is that is coming out of Miltia is absolutely destroying all the local ships. The Federation Fleet is destroyed yet again. Bring out the F Team.



Hey, it’s that thing Junior foresaw fifteen years ago! Looks like a giant wing bisecting the planet.



And what will be called The Omega System erupts from Old Miltia.



Well, we got out all right. Everyone else is dead, though. Oh, and the entire freaking planet.



Yep, lost Old Miltia.

Let’s talk about what happened here.

First of all, taking the narrative as what is presented by Xenosaga, Shion just singlehandedly averted a “bad future”. Nephilim and Feb spent the last two games getting Shion to the point that she’d let Cecily and Cathe die, because if Shion didn’t let them go, U-DO would awaken, KOS-MOS would upgrade to eliminate U-DO, and Old Miltia would be destroyed. That future was avoided when Shion forced herself to acknowledge that death may be a kindness for the suffering, and, with U-DO dormant again, we’re no longer in danger of the KOS-MOS showdown. Good job, Shion!

Bad news: Old Miltia got destroyed anyway. So… uh… huh.

But what could have been…

This is the other item I mentioned that Soraya Saga said was cut when she got canned. Originally, this “event” was supposed to be a gigantic battle between U-DO, KOS-MOS, Albedo, and an “awakened” adult version of Junior. As I understand it, U-DO would be seemingly out of control, KOS-MOS would be in full “kill it with fire” mode, and Junior and Albedo would team up to suppress U-DO and hopefully calm KOS-MOS down. It would be the finale of the emotional arc of the two brothers reconciling, and KOS-MOS finally clearing herself of that potential planet killer rep she picked up during the Encephalon Dive. And, hey, we might have even gotten a good idea of what this U-DO is all about, too.

I’m also guessing it’s the reason Soraya Saga was fired.

Seriously, I have nothing to back this up, but I can totally see the writer of this whole story claiming that such an event was completely necessary to the story, as it really seems to be where a lot of plot points leading up to this hypothetical event were going. On the other hand, this event would have to be huge, require a whole new model for Junior (yes, he would look a lot like Albedo, but a man needs clothes), and, presumably, it would be an “ending” for the story that has nothing to do with player input. The three-way battle sounds like an amazing way to end a movie or book, but it’s kind of crap for an interactive game (with a budget).

So, yeah, without any real evidence, I’m guessing that Soraya Saga really wanted the “real” ending to occur, and management did not approve. And we’re left with an event that is “huge” (we just lost an entire planet!), but a lot less emotionally interesting. And KOS-MOS didn’t even get to try out her new weapons system! Lame.

And the villain of the piece awakening a Proto gigantic interplanetary weapon that comes with its own dungeon? That sounds familiar.



Anyway, save prompt. 14:32, about two and a half hours for that dungeon.



And here’s the double tech we scored off Margulis. Phoenix Blade proves that Shion might have a few more offensive skills up her sleeve. Speaking of Shion, guess we’ll see how she deals with all of this next update.

Next time on Xenosaga: Resignations.

I like the BGM for the Submerged City, but I like the BGM for Labyrinthos a lot more. Between these two tracks and the two for the Ormus Stronghold the non-Kajiura side of the soundtrack might be holding up better than I thought!

(note: I will not praise the non-Kajiura soundtrack again until the last update)

And I guess while we're talking music, Kajiura this time, I always like the track for the big emotional scene. I guess the staff liked it a lot too, on top of being used for one of the trailers it's also one of the tracks from Episode II that returns in Episode III, the U-DO part of it anyway.

And wow, yeah, Cecily and Cathe's condition is just grim. In-game it only flashes on-screen for a moment, but when you have it in a repeating gif like that, yeeeeeeesh.

On a lighter note, I'm disappointed you didn't mention the sound the Elsa made as it was flying away from the exploding planet. (Something like 0:10 in this video) It's such a recognizable stock sound effect, I cracked up when I first heard it in one of the trailers and the fact that they kept it in the actual game is just beautiful.

So, this update reminded me of one of the things this game does that I wish XS3 did.

If y'all recall(RHYMING OMG), I actually like the gameplay of XS3 despite how low my opinion of the writing is. It did do one fuck up, though.

It copied how you upgrade and power up your ESs from Xenogears. I.E. you have to buy upgrades that are gated by story progress rather than leveling up and getting stuff gated off by game progress als XS2 and almost every turn based rpg everist.

The XS2 method of enhancing your ESs is so much fucking better, IMO. It allows you to grind if needed or wanted. Instead, you have a set power level at any time. It forces you to strategize(BTW, Firefox did not think that was a word. What the fuck Firefox) more I suppose, but it also makes the game harder for people who aren't very good at the game. Definitely not good when you're a kid and playing XG... >_>

I say this as someone who has beaten XS2 and XG legit. I like grinding at times, and I hate having options cut off from me.

There was a robot named the Delphinus and now all I can think about is Skies of Arcadia.

Dam...

Skies of Arcadia is the shit.

Yeah, I'm due to replay Skies of Arcadia any month now.

One of these days I need to actually finish a playthrough of it, but I got ADHD like a fuck and long games that aren't action based are hard to focus on.

First world problem: There are too many tourists, and I'm afraid to leave my house.

Previously on Xenosaga: The Brews visited Old Miltia. Then Old Miltia exploded. These two events are only marginally related.



Cecily and Cathe are dead, and their sacrifice meant very little. Got it.



We now resume our story at Galactic Federation HQ, home of the government that has accomplished nothing for two consecutive games.



You may recall this weasely fellow as the U-TIC mole within the Galactic Federation. He’s the reason Allen has a criminal record.



And then he gets shot (the weasel, not Allen).



Weasel was talking to Pellegri, who is a touch concerned.



And our killer is…



Me? No… I mean… uh… stop looking at me like that.



Oh ho, someone has taken control of the Federation and… How is that going to affect anything? Did he bring a bunch of Skill Upgrades for the entire Galactic Armed Forces?



Dr. Mizrahi? Feb? …. Shion’s parents?



Oh, Yuriev. So I guess Villain #5 decided to make his move while everyone else was out of town.



So Yuriev is against U-TIC and the Immigrant Fleet/Ormus? Does that make him our buddy? We could use an army right about now.



Speaking of which, here’s The Patriarch chilling in the Omega System.



He’s pretty damn confident that he’ll destroy the Federation Fleet. Of course, he’s only confident because every single thing that has happened during this story has destroyed the Federation Fleet.



“Hey, U-TIC Guy, do your job!”



But Margulis sounds… unreceptive.



“Hey, if you’re so smart, why don’t you do my job?!”



Yeah, I’m pretty sure Margulis is not the kind of guy you can sway with “I’m your master.”




Seemingly out of nowhere, Margulis quits, and leaves The Patriarch to his own devices. If you’ve been paying attention, there have been repeated clues that Margulis owed his allegiance to someone else. The Patriarch, unfortunately, hasn’t been paying enough attention.



Okay, he might have been paying a little attention. The scene closes as Padre identifies the man that is his undoing. Damn you, Heinlein!



And now it’s time for an Uzuki family chat.



What? Did you think she was going to cheer herself up with Professor and Assistant Scott?



She’s no Talking Tim.



Presumably she’s referring to the death of her parents. Unless she watched some other Realian die during the fall of Old Miltia. Nah, that would be a crazy coincidence.



Nevermind!

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Well, technically, this time you literally ordered their deaths, so you did do something. Uh… not helping? Sorry.



Oh, so watching your fiancée die in your arms doesn’t count now? Actually, I’m starting to see why Shion’s best friend is a robot…



Jin, how do you understand what Feb wanted? Could you see her ghost, too?



… Virgil? What, no. Why did I think of him just now?



Oh, Shion, right. This is a loose definition of “save” here.



“I would like to help you get over my death by killing my sisters. … That made more sense in my head.”



“Me? I run a bookstore.”



It is nice that Jin reminds Shion that she’s somehow amassed an eclectic support group over the last two episodes. I bet MOMO would be down for eating ice cream and watching a Pretty Cure marathon.



Shion, in her own “never admit my sibling is right about anything” way, appreciates it.



A planet just exploded. Now, more than ever, The Brews need the immaculate leadership of Shion.



So Shion gets up and heads off to randomly tagalong on another suicide mission.




Break her?



I dunno, you could fight Margulis again. That sounds like fun.

Let’s talk about Jin for a second. Was Jin supposed to be in the party all this time? This is more random conjecture on my part, but consider Jin’s clunky as hell “I’m leaving now” and his triumphant “surprise” entrance all of ten minutes later. And consider this scene, which would be the first time Shion and Jin are actually canon interacting after fighting together through two dungeons. I really want to say that the original intention for Jin was to have him be a badass member of the prologue party, reintroduce him as “a retired man of peace” (recall the scene of Helmer convincing Jin to join the mission), and then have the previous update’s Margulis battle as his “oh my gosh he’s still got it!” reintroduction to the battle party (and make it a “surprise” when he’s suddenly part of your party for the boss battle itself).

Of course, that would have been terrible from a gameplay perspective, because then he’d only be active for one boss battle and one (final) dungeon. It’s bad enough that he spends all of present disc one on the bench, we don’t need a Gogo situation where there’s a lot of catching up to do.

But I feel like the script for this section of the story was still written around the idea that Jin wouldn’t be active until the destruction of Old Miltia. Here, finally, the siblings talk for the first time since Second Miltia, even though, potentially, they just fought together through approximately a billion random skirmishes. Seems like they might have a little more to talk about than just Feb fallout…

Again, this is all random conjecture… it just feels really weird, particularly for such a talky series.



And now we switch over to the bridge of the Durandal, where Junior is receiving an important message from…



Daddy dearest. Yes, I guess it’s time the actual protagonists found out Yuriev is up and running around.



She didn’t recognize the Space Pope, but she’s right on top of a guy that died fifteen years… oh, wait, the whole party met this guy in MOMO’s brain. Right.



Yuriev… has had a lot to catch up on. Somebody tell him about that whole Proto Merkabah thing. I want to see his face.



“Why, Papa, why?”



This is a touching father/son reunion.



He… has a point. And Old Miltia wound up getting lost and then destroyed anyway…



Shion remarks that she’s not a fan of the idea, though. There’s a shocker.



Welp, he could be talking about practically any section of this Gordian knot of a story…



Have you been hanging out with a creepy little ginger? Use some names, Yuriev!



What?

CONTINUED NEXT POST

I guess Albedo is alive again? And Junior is adamant that he won’t kill him? Um, Junior, you nearly tore reality a new space hole just looking at the guy like two days ago.



“I’ll be right here, quietly taking over the universe.”



And we can’t even hunt Clone Daddy down. Lame.



But Yuriev might be closer to Junior than he thinks! Bum bum buuuuum!



“Jr… Don’t trust… my… words.”

Well, at least Gaignun isn’t gone forever. Good luck sharing a body, guys, we’ve got a planet buster to destroy! See ya next game!



We regain control back on the bridge of the Durandal. Your options are complete every available sidequest in the universe, or fly off to the final dungeon. Considering half the sidequests don’t unlock until you have a completed save file…



No! No time for NPCs!



Yes, back to the Elsa, where even the most tertiary of characters have identified Allen as useless.



And you can see why.



Alright, time to fly into the face of danger and boop Death right in the nose. Obviously, Proto Omega, the giant mech we saw in the Zohar room last update, is our main goal, but “The Omega System”, a gigantic structure that just happened to form around the thing, will be our dungeon du jour.



Like the previous two dungeons, we’ll start this one in our ESes.



Like the Ormus Stronghold, this is one big dungeon, and… it’s pretty shiny. Nice.



14:47 at the start, and I won’t be providing a final count for a while…



If you tithe a portion of your paycheck to the Immigrant Fleet, bad news, they’ve been blowing your offerings on a solid gold Death Star.



After the pomp wears off, the first real area is a series of elevator stops. You can scoot right to the base of the elevator, but why miss all the fun combat on each floor?



Our last generic AMWS enemies are nothing to write home about. If you told me these were the exact same random mooks we fought back on the Ormus Stronghold, I’d believe you.



Still some Red Segment Doors to find, though.



The base of the elevator is our goal. Oh, a save point, how useful.



There’s a small bridge here that we cannot access. Why we can’t just climb out of the ESes here is anybody’s guess.



We’ve got a big door barring our progress, and what appears to be a switch above.



Yeah, sure, here we can exit the ES.



Hey, Ormus Inquisitors. I was not expecting that.



These Ormus Knights are the strongest “soldier” type enemy in the game. Amusingly enough, their in-battle dialogue seems to imply they’re all brainwashed: their attack quotes are stuff like, “Die heretic!” and when they perish, they query, “What am I doing?” Just wouldn’t be an evil religion without mind control.



Our first pit stop isn’t all that interesting.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

We can hop onto a catwalk that appears to be above the next ES area, though. Oh boy, looks like we’ll be fighting more generic AMWS.



We can actually unlock “Door #2” before “Door #1”. I guess we’ve gotten good at multitasking.



And there’s treasure! This unlocks the Curse status effect, which, like pretty much all status effects in PS2 RPGs, is really a pain when you’re afflicted, but absolutely never works on a boss. Lame.



A little more walking, and we’ve unlocked that door. Back to the ESes!



Progress!



See, now we’re destroying barracks and taking out AMWS. It must suck to be an anonymous toady attempting to repel a JRPG party.



Now let’s see where Door #2 goes.



More pointless battles! Who would have guessed?



Our next ES stop appears to be on some kind of elevator. Either that, or the giant X is a trap, and Albedo is about to drop an anvil on the party.



Nope, elevator.



So we’ve got to climb down this completely empty series of stairs to power up a giant elevator.



Why would they put the elevator power switch all the way at the bottom of the stairs!?



Now we have to go all the way back up to hit that switch to run the damn thing!



You might think that operating an elevator isn’t the most annoying mandatory “minigame” in Xenosaga Episode 2, and you’d be wrong.



There are two elevator gates along the way down, and you have to press the release switches with perfect timing to grant your ESes safe passage downward. If you’re too slow to a switch, or press it too quickly, the elevator will bump, and then go aaaaaall the way back up, and you’ll have to start again. It’s not the hardest thing in the world, you just have to have great timing, else you’re stuck literally waiting for an elevator. Old Miltia exploding was sad; playing a game based on waiting for an elevator is a tragedy.



Eventually, everyone’s favorite mechs make it to the bottom.



Time to save. Trust me.



Boarding the ESes in a giant, nondescript, square room. Want to take a guess what’s going to happen?



Yep, time to fight some enormous Gallsaberry monster.



Inversion is the last mandatory boss you’ll fight in ES mode, and it’s a doozy. This thing will literally watch and gauge your attacks to put up defenses against them. It will also cast Quick (Haste) when it starts losing HP, and is not shy about boosting. In short, this thing will destroy your party if you let it.



See? This stupid thing hates me. Note that, even though this thing resembles what you might expect from a gnosis, it is technically a mech.



The best way to counter this is stick Ziggy in the copilot seat of your most offensive ES, and then constantly boost to use his special attacks. Inversion is very weak against fire attacks, so it will be toast in no time.



Boss fight complete. Moving on.



Next room is vaguely puzzleish. You may only destroy these blocks from a particular angle, and I suppose the challenge lies in wandering around the parameter of the room and blasting stuff before you’d just walk up to it like normal.



This would be more challenging in a game where you have true random encounters, or are otherwise punished for “wasting” your steps. As it is, I’m pretty sure you could sleepwalk through this area.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Now here’s a puzzle.



The idea is to reduce this stack of blocks to a two-block high bridge. The trick is that if a block is directly touching another block of the same color, all those blocks will be destroyed simultaneously. The solution is to plan about sixty steps ahead at all times.



Or do what you see here.



This puzzle is, technically, optional. If you solve the puzzle, you can access a unique treasure (not this one), and leave your ESes behind for the remainder of the dungeon. If you don’t solve the puzzle, you can at least get a breather and gain this Skill Upgrade.



Just because this is the “bonus” route doesn’t mean there aren’t enemies.



This is that unique treasure. This key unlocks ST Double, which doubles the length of status up skills. This is great for any battle where you’re using the elemental sword abilities, or any sort of strength/defense/ether up skills. So… every battle.



The other side of this door will bar entry if you’re not good at colored block puzzles.



The absolute last area features a bunch of weird crystals that may contain treasure…



Or completely unique monsters that could qualify as mini-bosses.



We’ve got this knightly looking fellow.



And some kind of angelish dude.



And an Iron Giant. All of these creatures are pretty tough, and, if you don’t do enough damage in a couple of rounds, they’ll restore all lost health. Not easy fights.



And just to make things fun, the Iron Giant looking fellows will explode after sustaining enough damage. Ouch.



If you stay in your ES and don’t solve the block puzzle, you’ll venture thought a couple more boring hallways and fight a few more boring AMWS. You can imagine why I didn’t capture that thrilling adventure. Both routes will eventually culminate at this… thing.



Blow it to Hell and we have the final Xenosaga Episode 2 save point. Feel free to heal up and double back to show those miniboss creatures a good time.



This certainly looks ominous.



Lot of blue neon going on here. Hope we don’t have to fight the Master Control Program next.



This does not look like fun.



A… church? Those are never fun!



Yep, in what is easily the most literal metaphor to ever happen in a JRPG, the final sub boss of XS2 is just a cathedral. We are fighting a church.



Cathedral, like most churches, is kinda sexist. It starts out with pretty basic attacks, but it will eventually switch into a different mode. What determines this mode is the gender of the character with the last attack: Cry of the Rapture is triggered by a woman, and it has strong ether attacks, while Call to Arms is triggered by a man, and it has strong physical attacks. You know your own defenses, so try to steer the church into whatever you’re comfortable with. Note that XS2 allows for parties that are completely female (Shion, MOMO, KOS-MOS) or male (Junior, Ziggy, chaos, Jin).



However it goes, Cathedral isn’t all that tough, and it will go down pretty quickly. It’s just a palette cleanser before the real battle ahead.



Aaaaaand we’re gonna say no.

This is the last stop before the final battle, and I’m going to save that for another update. As you might expect, the ending of Xenosaga Episode 2 is pretty verbose, so we’ll pick up that thread a little later.

In the meanwhile, we’re going to skip around a little bit. I’d like the “last” XS2 update to be the actual ending of XS2, but there is a whole lot of content in XS2 that isn’t accessible until after clearing the game. However, none of that content relies on the player actually knowing what happens during the ending, it’s just a simple flag condition. So, with that said, the next two updates will be the “extra” Xenosaga Episode 2 missions, and then we’ll circle back to the ending proper. See? Simple.



Let’s get a little taste, though. After completing Xenosgaga Episode 2, you can access the final dungeon through an Encephalon Dive. Why would you do that?



Well, because you can access Omega System sans ES. Can you see lil’ tiny Shion on that giant elevator?

CONTINUED NEXT POST

Now we can use that bridge that was previously inaccessible. And, look, the save point shrank to match our teeny tiny size.



Eventually, this path leads to a treasure room with those “only destructible from one side” blocks.



This puzzle is a little more complicated, and, obviously, you’ll want to clear a path that allows access to the treasure chests around the room.



The treasures here are a wealth of Skill and Class Upgrades that will really help the party on its quest to conquer all the bonus content in this game.



And the secret key to unlock Focus 2, an ability that allows you to restore EP every time you stock. Useful!

And that’s everything you’d ever need to see in the Omega System. Let’s see what the rest of the universe has to offer!

Next time on Xenosaga: The long awaited “every sidequest ever” post! Will I go insane? Almost certainly!

Just wanting to comment on one thing from the previous update(s):
Labyrinthos!?

I mean come on, Monolith Soft.

Is it just me or its the pacing in XS2... weird. It really doesn't feel like you should be at the end of the game now, it feels kind of empty.

I just like reading my own words.

Anyway, yeah, if you think XS2 is weirdly paced... there's an entire post dedicated to that a-comin'!

.... In a few weeks, probably...

Going insane is predicated on not currently being insane.

Yeah, that (star)ship has set sail a long time ago. (I think it was when GoggleBob first decided to do this LP series.)

It happened before that.

Long, loooooong before that.

SYMBOLISM!


Anyway. Here's the BGM for the Omega System, it uh, sure is there. It's not really bad per say, but it's kind of subdued for a final dungeon. I think it's trying to be all ominous, but I dunno, it doesn't really work for me. Past few dungeons had better music.

I think knocking out all the sidequests and postgame stuff first is the best way to do it, it would be distracting as hell to go through all the everything in the ending and then be all "And now the party navigates a desert and a factory".

The pacing is weird, but not really in that way. It was the same for ep1 where reading the let's play I'm just thinking "hell there's no way that this is already the end" but because a lp doesn't really convey all the monotonous downtime spent in safe zones or long stretches of dungeons (but we still have the sidequest post) it just kind of highlights that even though you spend a lot of time in dungeons you don't do much.

The only thing that really stands out to me is that I remember a whole bunch of the post-omega pre-ending portion and it's striking me as completely insane that it doesn't contain a save point. I guess it is mostly story stuff but there's still a lot of story to be had.

Also there's an entire plotline that I couldn't remember if it happened in ep 2 or 3 and now it's just making me realize how many curveballs there are in 3. This trilogy really is such a mess of what could have been (and occasionally is in my experience but ymmv) a really interesting and impacting story.

One save point.



So it's not completely insane.

But yeah, mapping it out now, it appears that XS2 will be 15 updates, while XS1 was 20. I want to say that both games have their own separate pacing problems, but XS2 definitely seems to go faster. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing!

You know, I did not do most of the XS3 side content.