Xenosaga Episode I

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (Episode I) is a Role Playing Game for the PlayStation2 and the first title in the Xenosaga series. Der Wille zur Macht (ゼノサーガ エピソードI 力への意志), literally "The Will To Power", is a reference to Nietzsche's thus named concept of an assumed rudimentary a-teleological force that elicits all activity stinted to existence itself.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht
Developer(s)	Monolith Soft
Publisher(s)	Namco
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release	February 28, 2002 (JP) February 25, 2003 (NA)
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

Game notes

In Xenosaga: Episode I, players assume the roles of Shion Uzuki and five other protagonists. Episode I focuses heavily on the Gnosis situation and the Zohar Emulators. It mainly serves as an exposition for the characters and the developing plot.

The game features no universal world map, but the player can travel to several regions of the game through the Encephalon, a location replicator also seen in Episode II. Other features include an in-game database, several mini-game "plug-in" systems that can be accessed from Shion's portable UMN console, an e-mail feature, and a turn-based battle system that includes both character and A.G.W.S. battles.

Criticism

GamingAge believed that the character designs and animation styles in Xenosaga were not up to par with expectations, although Episode II offers a different art style.^[1] GamePro criticized the complexity of the battle system mechanics, such as A.G.W.S. battles and tech points.^[2] One critic from Gamespy disliked the length of Xenosaga's cutscenes, claiming that it slowed the start of the game.^[3] Episode I was given Gamespot's award for the "Most pretentious game of 2003". ^[4]

Music notes

Episode I's soundtrack was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtrack for Episode I was the orchestra's most prominent Xenosaga-related project. Episode I featured one battle theme that was used in all fights and bosses except for the final boss.

Xenosaga: Episode I Reloaded

In mid-2003, Namco also released a special version of Episode I in Japan to drum up hype for the upcoming Xenosaga: Episode II called Xenosaga: Episode I Reloaded, which featured the English voice-acting and a few special features, like costume switching and a play-back library of all the game's movie scenes. This version was not released outside of Japan.

Xenosaga Freaks

On April 28 2004, Namco released Xenosaga Freaks in Japan, a supplementary game including a Xenosaga-themed word-puzzle game based off of Namco's Mojipittan called Xenopittan, a comical adventure game Xenocomi, the complete dictionary of terminology from Episode I enhanced with audio and video clips, and a playable demo of Episode II. This is the closest that Xenosaga has come to Xenogears' Perfect Works anthology beyond the Original Design Materials.