I put a good 10 hours or so into Xenosaga II this weekend and I thought I'd share my thoughts on it. So far I'm finding it MUCH easier to follow than Episode I. I get the impression that most of the first game was simply to introduce us to the characters and get a few plot items in motion, but the details weren't supposed to make a whole lot of sense. So far in Episode II, things are starting to come together and we're given a LOT more detail as to how everyone's lives tie together (Rubedo, Albedo, Negredo! I get it now!).

As far as the gameplay goes, there have been some interesting changes to the battle system. They take a little getting used to, but I've found that by the time you get to the first boss fight in which mastery of the new system is required, you've had enough practice with it to get a handle on things... and of course during said boss fight, you are prompted with suggestions as to how to pull it together, all very helpful.

I have found that fights in general are MUCH more challenging in this game than the previous one, in fact I'd say they're harder on average than most RPGs. In the last area I went through, I found myself having to fully heal between every battle if I wanted to survive, and even then there were a lot of close calls. As much as I complain about it while I'm playing, I think this is actually better. Rather than having 100 battles between one major event and the next, all of which you brease through in seconds, there are only a dozen or two battles from one boss to the next, but they all offer an actual challenge.

The side-quests start very early, which is cool. I have probably already spent more time doing side-quests than I have going through the main plot, and that's saying a lot considering that almost every FMV runs about 10 to 15 minutes.

Oddly, I have already had to switch over to Disk 2, but my guess is that this isn't an idication of being halfway through the game, but rather an indication that they chose to put certain areas within the game on one disk rather than putting all areas on both disks and just splitting the plot events between the two. I'm sure that once I get back to Second Miltia, I'll be back on Disk 1 again. It's different than the way most console games have worked over the years, but back in the day of actual FLOPPY disks, this is how it worked, and I think it's a much more economical use of disk space.

Lady, this one is for you. Though there hasn't been anything TERRIBLY suggestive yet, there are a lot scenes with three young playful boys, two of which are twins, and all three of which are identical (except for their hair color). I remember a complain of yours from Episode I was that both KOS-MOS and Shion were rather annoying. I think you'll be pleased (or at least less annoyed) with their new incarnations. The voice actors for both of them have changed, so Shion sounds much less whiney, and both of them are rendered as looking much more adult than they did previously.

So far, there hasn't been a HUGE amount of religious iconography, but there have been a few things of note. The most obvious of course is that there is some priest guy getting involved in some political intrigue. He's icon of choice seems to be a form of a cross, though not the standard crucifiction variety. This one is longer up than it is down and all of the edges are pointy and tribal-like. The more subtle (though still not subtle) point is that Jr. (Rubedo) was number 666 in his batch of URTVs and he actually has the number 666 tattooed on his hand. There have been several references from Albedo about what a monster Rubedo is.

I'm sure this will come as a suprise to absolutely nobody, but so far, I'm greatly enjoying Xenosaga Episode II and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how things pan out.