New Xenosaga details, media

   What looks to be Xenosaga's chief minigame has been revealed: XenoCard, a collectible card game within the game world. Exactly how XenoCard works is difficult to say; the screenshots shown thus far hint at a complexity on the level with real-world card games like Magic: The Gathering. A few things can be deduced from the released media, however. The game seems to revolve around battling character cards, each of which have their own stats, cost to play, and rarity. Furthermore, special "event" cards can be played. Each card has high-resolution art printed on its face, and cards can be obtained both in starter decks and booster packs, as in real-life CCGs. The packs themselves can be purchased or won in battle.

   Also new are details on Shion's personal assistant, or Procurator. Appearing as a small bunny, the UMN-issued device performs a multitude of tasks for her. The Procurator fields the email she'll receive at certain points, and it seems that story events will be affected by the way Shion replies to them. It will also keep a record of monsters and enemies that Shion encounters, with rotatable and scalable models and vital statistics on them. In addition to the monster database, the Procurator keeps a glossary of useful or important words learned--which could potentially be very handy if Xenosaga has anywhere near the amount of cryptic terminology found in Xenogears. Finally, the Procurator will provide direct access to simulations of already-completed dungeons, should the player want to build levels or acquire items missed the first time through.

   MonolithSoft has also come forward with the first firm details on the mechanics of Xenosaga's battle system, which seems to be a vast expansion on Xenogears' somewhat simple combat. The three levels of attack, each mapped to a different button on the controller, return, though they are now based on range, rather than strength. The special attack Deathblows are only activated by using the Circle Button attack at the end of a character's combo. Moreover, Deathblows are now learned simply by leveling up, so players no longer need to try out every combination until they stumble upon one.

   The Ether magic system from the first game also returns, again with some substantial changes. New Ether skills are learned through a "tech tree" of sorts. Each ability has a set of dependencies, and certain skills must be mastered before the player can move on the the higher level ones. Each character has their own unique skill tree, and learning some sets of Ethers will unlock new techniques which previously did not appear on the three. For example, once Shion has mastered Medicast, she'll gain access to Medicast Full, but only if she has previously learned the skill Analyse.

   Characters still level up through traditional experience points, but Xenosaga throws two more kinds of earned stats into the mix. Talent Points can be spent to directly increase the basic stats of each character. Skill Points, on the other hand, can be used to earn a variety of passive abilities from equipped accessories. These purchased abilities will stay with a character even after the item is de-equipped, so long as the necessary Skill Points have been spent.

   Beyond all this, Xenosaga offers a few more innovations to keep the battles interesting. During combat, the GTW (Group Turn Window) will track the locations of all the battle participants. Characters and monsters in the back row cannot be harmed by physical attacks. The window also displays the exact turn order, similar to Grandia's IP Gauge or Final Fantasy X's CTB Window.

  The new Event Slot, also displayed during battle, seems to be intended to add an element of chance to the battles. Each turn of combat cycles through one space on the slot, from normal, to increased critical chance, to increased boost gain, to increased points at the end of battle, then back to normal. Whichever character is acting on that particular turn will then get to take advantage of these conditions.

   While the Event Slot may seen unforgivably random, the spaces always cycle in the same order and can be exploited with the use of Xenosaga's Boost Gauge. During battle, attacks will fill the gauge. When enough points have been earned, players can spend them to interrupt the turn order in the Group Turn Window and make that character act immediately.

   Thanks to Darklore for help with this story.