DC,

All I have to say is that Xenosaga's story better be DAMN good.

-Red Raven

Drew,

If the game play of a game doesn’t aid in telling the story and in fact is not necessary to the overall plot in any way, if the dialogue scenes can stand completely on their own, then what the hell is the point of Xenosaga even being a game. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper for them just to make it into an anime or something.

The day that all playability can be drained from a game without the plot suffering at all is the day I know that this expensive habit just isn’t worth it any more. I like linearity, but this is going too far. I loved xenogears-except for the second disk- and I can only hope that the other episodes in the saga have gameplay that actually matters and is not just there so that the finished product can be called a game at all.

Osirus

Drewski,

There's nothing wrong with hour-long story sequences if they're executed well and used in moderation, but I don't trust that to happen over an entire game. And this is coming from someone who loved Xenogears. The second disc of Xenogears was survivable through attachments formed with the characters in the first disc, but just like the team's next game, Chrono Cross, they really should've known when to just end things.

But this problem isn't only confined to one team or series. Xenosaga sounds like another example of a disturbing trend that has hampered some of gaming's most well-known franchises - auteurs out of control.

Whether it was Metal Gear Solid 2's endless prattling or the many awkward moments of Final Fantasy:TSW, men like Sakaguchi and Kojima have free reign without anyone or anything keeping them in check.

Even the biggest film directors in the world must collaborate with studios and distributors. Studios don't have directors on the payroll, unlike game companies, who end up beholden to their biggest franchises. The game-making process isn't nearly collaborative enough, and most publishers aren't nearly varied enough, which results in narrative disasters like MGS2.

The only exception to this collaborative film process has been George Lucas, which is *exactly* why Episode 1 was such an indulgently awful movie. In the 50s, most major movies were produced by auteurs under contract to a particular studio. This system died with multimillion dollar failures and after the movie-making process became more accessible to independent directors.

Unfortunately, game development appears to be getting less accessible cost-wise, so I hope we aren't doomed to a future of extravagant sequels produced by directors with nobody looking over their shoulder. They won't always be bad games, but they will rarely be great or balanced ones.

-Ed M., MIA Agent

Agent Cosner,

After much covert surveillance, it has been discovered that Tetsuya Takahashi and Hideo Kojima are smoking the same hallucinogen laced marijuana. We bugged their lamp, and this is what we recorded.

"Pass the bud, Tet Dogg"
"Dude, this is some kine bud Hideo"
"Word"
"You know what I just decided dude?"
"What's that, T?"
"Screw what ALL of our fans have been telling us for years, bro, cuz I have a VISION man. I'm gonna take the worst part of my last game and make my next game JUST like it, yo. All cutscenes, all the time. Then I'll put 15 minutes of gameplay in there to trick people into buying it for 50 bucks a pop. Ya heard? I'll call it a 'cinematic' RPG. That'll flip'em all out"
"I'm with you bro. Just cuz everybody loved Snake didn't mean I couldn't put in a long haired bishounen freak as the main character of my sequel. They're just lemmings, man. Do your own thang" "Hells yeah. I be the pimp and the players be my bitches"
"Just to piss'em off more, let's make our 'games' look better than everything else on the market"
"East siiiide"

-JC, who reminds all the kids out there that your brain on drugs is a tasty part of a balanced breakfast

I never cared much for the gameplay aspects of RPGs. I'm more of a movie/story guy and this is the only place I can find 40+ hour stories and/or movie-like things. So, yay, Xenogears was fantastic, the second CD its highlight, and gimme Xenosaga.

-Mike, the Dude.

It makes me feel great, Cozy.

See, I am one of those folks who can't get enough story in my RPGs. It's been a long time since I've found an RPG battle (other than a boss fight) interesting at all, and I see most RPGs as a big story I'm watching, fighting my way from one plot sequence or boss fight to the next. I don't mind linearity and monotony of gameplay as long as the story and the design of the environments are good enough to keep my attention. Yes, I'm who those gamers are talking about when they bitterly complain about "people who want to play a movie". And I'm proud of it. Nyah.

If I wanted to immerse myself in great gameplay, I'd play an action game. If I wanted to think about my battles, I'd play a strategy game. The main focus of RPGs for me is story, and Xenosaga looks like it'll deliver.

Just representin',

Paul Segal

The Xenosaga hands-on impressions made me laugh. And laugh and laaaaaugh.

Kingdom Hearts has Jack Skellington in it. Coolest. Game. Ever.

~Ian P.

I don't know what it is with this kind of stuff lately. A 7:3 dialogue-to-gameplay ratio? Why not make it an anime or live action television program? Why not a collection of DVD's (much cheaper than developing all the game engines)? At least then we'd be able to skip around to our favorite chapters easily, after finishing the game, without having to have a buttload of memory card saves. What is so interesting about walking around and talking to people to get dialogue, instead of having it come simply naturally in the plot? What is so interesting about trekking through a dungeon that has seemingly no relation to the plot at all (and that have battles that are mega-simplistic to boot)? From the impressions I've read on XS, it looks like the deepest gameplay element is going to be its card game, believe it or not. Gee whiz.

I've got an idea, which ties in with the humor topic from the other week. Instead of going to CBS (or, in this case, TV Tokyo or something) with an idea for a comedy, why not just turn it into a game. You could have the hour-long segments, just like a TV show, with perhaps interesting minigames to break up the monotony. Hell, why not create a porno in the same fashion, with simple tic-tac-toe or card games deciding who gets to screw who next.

Making something that's less than a game INTO a game only cheapens the experience and the vision you want to present. Games are games for a reason, god-damn it. Can you imagine turning some of America's (or Japan's) drama films into games? Deeply emotional scene, deeply emotional scene, deeply emotional scene, BAM: card game or battle where it doesn't belong.

I'll still buy the game, play it, and probably enjoy it, though not as much as if it was being enjoyed through its intended medium. I'll tell Takahashi right now that if he wants to tell a story, he really needs to get out of the game business. Stories are supplements to games, not the other way around. Keep it in mind when XenoSaga II rolls around.

*I haven't played the game yet, and I'm only going by the GIA's impressions, so I'm really in no position to bitch. But you guys help make bitching all the more possible. Thank you, GIA.

Steve S. Freitas, who actually purchased Pac-Man World 2. Don't ask