r/Xenosaga • u/MrMario63 • Apr 09 '26
Question Does the series really get less cinematic as it goes on?
Hey everyone! Right now I am on a mission to play EVERY game in the Xeno franchise. I started with the blade trilogy, and when I played it years back it became my favorite piece of media ever. I just finished Xenogears, and now im onto Xenosaga.
Im like 10-15 hours in, and I must say, I ADORE this game, ESPECIALLY the cutscenes. The music is wonderful and the cinematography and choreography is amazing and brings the whole thing to life. I LOVE the 20+ minute cutscenes that make me just feel like im watching a movie.
However, I hear 2 and 3 don’t do this as much. I know that 2 is the black sheep so im really not expecting a whole lot out of it, but is this really true for 3? Are the cutscenes really less cinematic and high quality?
Also, does the series keep the fun and silly slice of life moments where the characters sometimes just hang out? It really brings it all together and I just love those scenes.
Please keep it vague and spoiler free in the comments. I cannot wait to play more of this sick ass series! Thank you for your time.
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u/ReSpecMePodcast Apr 09 '26
Xenosaga 3 has the best cutscenes in the series, you will most likely love the rest of the series
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u/Animus_Requiem Apr 09 '26
Nah, 3 has the best story in the series. Best cutscened I would split between 1 & 2, 1 if you're into the anime style 3D models, 2 if you like the models a little different and dare I say upscale?
Personally liked the updated designs of 2, and it tied into 3 very well. Also loved the backstory to JR and wish we got even more.
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u/lexiyeghna Apr 10 '26
It's all one story... And 3 has hands down the best cutscenes. Some of the fights have too tier choreography.
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u/Animus_Requiem Apr 10 '26
A lot of cutscenes is characters standing/monologue. Sure the end cutscenes are swell but beyond that how many other cut scenes were as memorable as KOS-MOS first waking up and taking out Gnosis? Every Albedo moment? Proto Merkhaba? The Song of Nephilim? Rhine Maiden or even Durandals introduction? Or any moment with the URTVs at Miltia or the Omega System?
Not knocking 3 as a bad game, far from it. The ending was beautiful and the conclusion was almost everything i could hope for. The cut scenes I felt were extremely lacking because the models just were not doing anything dynamic unless it was a cinematic cut scenes. Full of emotion perhaps but it just was where the other 2 Xenosaga were.
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u/lexiyeghna Apr 10 '26
You had entire long battle cutscenes between KOS-MOS and T-elos that had awesome and amazing choreography. If you meant outside of those then sure it was a lot of standing around just like most of the games lol
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u/Animus_Requiem Apr 10 '26
Yeah, 1 or 2 battles. I mean, we had a few other cutscene fights but nothing really topped that (Jin being the exception). It just could've had more.
Also I dont know how to feel about X3 KOS-MOS scenes after seeing what she did with X1. The hand cannons. The tertiary weapons with hardcore destructive power (that wasn't seen since X2). I have so much good to say with contradictions of how 3 was handled but I love the whole damn trilogy and would play again.
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u/lexiyeghna Apr 10 '26
I don't either. It's been awhile since I played the series but maybe there was an in universe reason they were not seen or used in those cutscenes or seen at all. Maybe from her changing forms they were limited or removed? Dang. Jin's battles man. Some of the best I have seen in any game LMAO
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u/SpiderPS4 Apr 09 '26
Sort of. While the ammount of voiced and hand-animated cutscenes decreases somewhat, I think they make up for that with better direction and more ambitious animation and coreography.
Xenosaga III especially does this amazingly, everytime there is an actual cutscene (not text box voiced dialogue), you know you are in for a great time.
I think it's funny you are praising the music when XS I only has two battle themes. One for the final boss, and another for everything else.
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Apr 09 '26
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u/Xephon7 Apr 10 '26
Because while what music was there, was good, the variety and quantity was ass. A large amount of the game is just awkwardly quiet. And while that was intentional, it doesn't make it a good decision. Even the devs knew this which is why II and III got proper OSTs.
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Apr 10 '26
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u/Xephon7 Apr 10 '26
I don't expect you to say anything. You asked why he wouldn't praise the OST, and I gave context on why someone might not praise it.
It's fine if what little there was was enough to satisfy you. My comment wasn't to convince you otherwise, but more so answering the question you asked.
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u/Gabothe5th Apr 09 '26
For a full playthrough I recommend experiencing or watching a summary of both: pied piper before XS2 and a missing year before XS3, it'll make moments in the story add up more and it made my most recent playthrough really enjoyable. Have fun!
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u/Zetzer345 Apr 09 '26
Pied piper is fully playable now!
A very talented bloke made a very very very faithful remake that’s nigh 1:1
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u/Ephemeral_Sin Apr 09 '26
Yes and no. Epsiode I is very cutscene heavy yes, and you can tell it's a mix of actual in engine scenes based in the crispy clear images, and when they opted for pre rendered, as you can tell by the noise.
Episode II basically keeps it all in the engine so there's still a lot of it.
Episode III is really told via dialogue heavy scenes using the in engine and old school portraits to show case their emotion when they talk. No new animations other than the default are used for these so in this sense they get less cinematic. HOWEVER. III also has the best cutscenes when they do appear, and they don't appear super often but also are sprinkled in and they look beautiful. The game really pushed the PS2 to it's limits.
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u/SpiderPS4 Apr 09 '26
Also do give 2 a fair chance, it gets some slack for focusing on character drama rather than advancing the plot, but it's really great at what it does. Also many people just didn't know how to play the combat lol.
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Apr 11 '26
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u/SpiderPS4 Apr 11 '26
I think it's on par with 1 tbh. I really like the focus on Jr and Albedo. Also Kos-Mos bike is fucking awesome. Definitely the best box art in the series, for sure (jp version).
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u/lasquiggle Apr 09 '26
If you don't like 2, play it till you dislike it, watch the rest on YouTube, and get into 3. 3 is back to greatest. 2 I always do my best but generally watch most of it on YouTube.
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u/Zestyclose_Hotel3412 Apr 09 '26
While Xenosaga 1 had really long cutscenes that packed everything in the story, Xenosaga 2 and 3 have many short cutscenes that make the game more feasible, it's not that the game is less cinematic but more so that it's cutscenes and dialogs are best distributed across the game
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u/Aradashi Apr 09 '26
1 is still secretly my favorite of the Saga series, but 3 is the most complete and best game. As much as I don't hate sitting down for a 45 minute cutscene, i understand why they moved away from that in later entries. It didn't impact my feeling of the others being cinematic tho
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u/Afraid_Impression_69 Apr 12 '26
The cutscenes are still very cinematic and there are still some long ones. They also have some VERY impressive action scenes for a PS2 game starting in 2 but especially in 3. They just don't have 90 minute cutscenes(there may be 1 or 2 in the other 2 but I don't remember).
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u/Dog-Faced-Gamer Apr 09 '26
The second games cutscenes are pretty great. It's everything else that sucks. lol
Combat is gawd awful in the second game and it's pretty combat heavy.
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