I am going into this review fully and honestly admitting a confession: I have not, to date, completed "Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht." I've started it. Heck, I've even gotten about 8 hours of gameplay into it, but I always come back to one major revelation- this game is suffering a major identity crisis. And I always end up stopping my playthrough, even though I do deeply desire to finish this game and its two sequels, to see where the story winds up.
Yes, this is a game that fancies itself as a deep, provocative Sci-Fi epic. And not only that, it fancies itself as a deep, provocative Sci-Fi epic movie. This is one of those games where, every five minutes or so of gameplay, you are jarringly pulled from control in order to watch a 10 minute cut-scene. And often, it's a cut-scene filled with pretentious "sciency" dialog that you won't understand, and a plethora and onslaught of intrigue, twists, turns and double-crosses that make it difficult to follow the overall story lines. You can tell at heart, this would have made a better movie (or anime) series than a game, because the creators clearly have an agenda to tell a vast story that just isn't able to be supported by the confines of a JRPG video game.
But even still, this isn't a total loss of a game. In fact, there's plenty to like here. It's just that everything is betrayed by the constant interruptions and the forced, and often contrived storyline they force-feed you.
The game seems to predominately follow Dr. Shion Uzuki, a cute-as-a- button scientist in the future, who is working on a project to develop "KOS-MOS", an android, to help combat a vile alien force known as the "Gnosis." However, there is much intrigue and much going on amongst various other characters, and a mysterious device discovered nearly 4000 years in the past may be the key to the entire story.
At least, I think that's what the story is. As I said, I have never completed the game, and to be honest, what I have completed suffers a very confusing mass of different story lines, sub-plots, characters and themes. It's exceedingly hard to be able to follow what is going on for much of the game that I've played.
The game itself is competent and very well-made, to it's credit.
The graphics are very nice. They have a stylized, almost anime-like feel to them, which I quite liked, and the visual design, while arguably a bit tame and repetitive, is very interesting and feels true to a futuristic style. The voice acting is very, very well-done from what I've seen, in particular from Shion Uzuki, who is just so sweet, kind and well-meaning. Every time she speaks, you want to leap through your television and give her a big hug. The music is also very strong, atmospheric, and theatrical, making the game feel very epic in scope.
And though simplistic, the controls, both on-screen and in battle (this is an RPG, meaning that general gameplay and battle scenes are controlled through different mechanics) are great. And while pretentious, over-written and hard-to-follow, the storyline and characters are interesting and generally well-developed.
Unfortunately, the decent gameplay and interesting story and ideas just suffer so badly from the onslaught of overlong cut-scenes, and the conflicting, confusing storytelling. If this game didn't suffer these faults, it would have easily warranted an 8 out of 10. Maybe even a 9.
But those pesky cut-scenes and the confusion and frustration they cause almost all but ruin the experience. However, there is too much to like to completely dismiss the game, so I am giving it an ever-so-slightly above average 6 out of 10. Give it a shot. It's far from perfect, and there's much to flat-out hate here. But there's also enough to like that it may be worth playing for some gamers.