In Episode II, nearly every character has been given a “facelift” to make them like more realistic. The characters from Episode I had a “pseudo-anime” style to them, especially in regards to faces. The big change, graphically, comes in the form of character designs. The introduction sequence features some awesome giant-robot-fighting action, along with some stunning visuals of a city being ripped to pieces. No PS2 RPG is complete without a solid introduction movie, and in my opinion, Episode II delivers on this one. The “movie” sequences in Episode II, while being smaller in number and in length when compared to Episode I, look beautiful. There are some particularly pleasing environments, such as the forested Subconscious Domain (Summer) or Old Miltia, lit by a remarkable sunset. Episode II doesn’t do anything to “push the envelope” on graphics, but it does look beautiful, as do most games developed late in a console’s lifetime. In today’s videogame market, nothing seems to be more important than graphics. The specific changes from I to II will be discussed throughout the review.Īs Sweet and Seductive As a Deal With the Devil! The change was, for most gamers, not at all desired, but in many regards, the game flows smoothly in this transition. Is this good? Is this bad? Many people took it to be a bad thing, but I see it as beyond good and evil it simply is as it is. Many of the people that worked on Episode I are gone - and new artists, musicians, scenario writers, and programmers have come to give a fresh perspective. For anyone playing this game that has also played Episode I (that should be about 99% of the Episode II gamers), the changes made from the previous game to this game come as a shock. Like Der Wille Zur Macht (The Will To Power), this title is a direct allusion to a work of the same name by 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (also spelled “Nietzche”).īut while we’re on the idea of “beyond good and evil,” that is, neutral, amoral, etc., let us note an unintentional connection between the game’s name and the game itself. Tetsuya Takahashi, along with the old and new members of the Monolith Software staff, continued with the Xenosaga series by releasing Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits Von Gut und Boese (Beyond Good and Evil). If you are interested in the series but have not yet played the first game, consider doing so before reading this review. The second included image shows what it looks like at the same spot on the original PS2 hardware.Editor’s Note: Due to the nature of this game as a direct sequel, this review contains spoilers for Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, as well as a few minor spoilers for this, the second Episode. Obviously if you have it at native resolution there'd be nothing to see-just a black screen, but you can hear things going on in the background so you'll know you're missing something. The first included image shows what it looks like if you increase the resolution while the cutscene is playing. There are other cutscenes like this in the game so while I haven't gotten to them yet I assume the same issue will probably affect them as well. On the original hardware this cutscene was displayed in grayscale, but in PCSX2's emulation of it, when you see behind the black box by increasing the resolution in HW mode, it is shown in color, which leads me to think it has something to do with an error when trying to apply that grayscale effect. In SW mode it just covers it all since SW mode uses native resolution. When Shion needs to go to sleep in her room to progress the story around an hour or so into the game on the Woglinde (right before the Gnosis come), a "dream" cutscene plays behind a large black box covering either the entire screen or the upper left corner if you increased the resolution sufficiently in HW mode. Happens on any plugin configurations I tried and I've heard people mention it before so it probably goes for many/all(?) versions. Both Hardware Mode and Software Mode but presents slightly differently depending on the resolution you've got the game at in HW mode.
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