Arc Impulse!

I am trying to save money these days. But corporations such as Namco - giant uncaring soulless wonderful awesome godlike video game producing Namco - make it very difficult to do so. They make video games and I buy them. This is a simple relationship as unbreakable and unignorable as a diamond monofilament tether wrapped around my larynx.

Xenosaga II is coming out now.

Now, I never actually finished Xenosaga I: Der Wille zur Macht. In the grand tradition of Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears (all part of the same genetic line) I stopped playing at a certain point where it became ridiculously hard and figured I'd get back to it later. But now I have to finish Xenosaga - I have to dive back into that hanger bay and take down that giant quantum cannon-toting robot - because some salient facts have just come to my attention.

Xenosaga II has team up attacks. Jesus in heaven above, Xenosaga II has team up attacks.

For those of you coming late to class, Chrono Trigger is perhaps the greatest platform RPG of all time. It is distilled addictive adventure in the 16-bit tradition, encompassing all the greatest elements of the genre. Chrono Cross is it's direct story descendent, delving into issues of causality and time travel directly related to the original story. Xenogears is the half-completed conceptual descendant, encompassing much of the style and charm of the Chrono series while being very much its own animal. I say half-completed because they literally stopped making the final 10 chapters of the game after Final Fantasy VII came out and Square realized that the game was going to look out of date by the time it launched. So the second disc is a major let down and consists mainly of long cut scenes and linear boss battles to move you quickly to the finale. Still, it remains a favorite.

Xenosaga is a pseudo-cousin of Xenogears published by many of the same developers after they made the move from Square to Namco. It is ambitious, potentially involving 6 seperate chapters each with a 2-3 year development schedule. It's storyline is barely comprehensible but generates a level of intrigue unique to the Japanese style of pop storytelling. See also Metal Gear Solid, Escaflowne, Evangelion, and any Final Fantasy incarnation with 32 bits or more.

So what's the big deal with team-up attacks? Chrono Trigger had them, and they made the game. As you advance you gain special abilities with each character. Eventually they learn to combine these abilities in various ways. As you progress then, you may wish to swap out the characters from time to time to produce significantly different effects and strategies. Typically with these sorts of games it becomes a chore to level up your less favorite characters, but Chrono made it ceaselessly fun to explore each and every combo. And there were a lot.

So Xenosaga II has just touched off a geek nerve in me that is difficult, nay, impossible to ignore. Damn you, Namco, you beautiful bastards!