Xenosaga I & II

Xenosaga I & II[a] is a 2006 role-playing video game co-developed by Monolith Soft and Tom Create, and published by Namco for the Nintendo DS.The scenario, drafted and supervised by series creator Tetsuya Takahashi, was intended to retell the story of the two games while incorporating events that had originally been cut.The game was released exclusively in Japan in March 2006, receiving generally positive reviews from critics but was not commercially successful.[2][5] Unlike the original versions, Xenosaga I & II features random encounters within the environment, with enemies only appearing in the battle arena.For Episode II, more substantial alterations were made such as rearranging flashback sequences so the story would maintain an uninterrupted flow, and greatly expanding information concerning the Immigrant Fleet faction and the origins of central character Jr.. During the "beta" period of script development, the scenario for Episode II only made up 30% of the whole game, which was seen as a drastic imbalance requiring rewrites to address it.The total writing work on Xenosaga I & II lasted over six months, with Takeda needing to visit Monolith Soft's offices once a week to discuss the script.[9] The game's official title and release window were announced in September 2005 alongside reveal of Xenosaga Episode III and Baten Kaitos Origins.[3] RPGamer's Michael Baker positively compared the story to "a particularly well-organized season of Star Trek: The Next Generation" in spite of the need to read the in-game encyclopedia to keep up with its terminology, but noted that the amount of text could be off-putting, also citing the game being in Japanese as a barrier to importing the title.[14] Chandran enjoyed the additions to saving and navigation, and praised the battle system despite some pacing issues and annoying mechanics.[3] Baker praised the streamlining of general gameplay and the battle system, lauding the removal of the more convoluted mechanics of the original games.