Have you ever liked the (art/music/story) but not the game?

[AppleQueso]

I'm glad to see others criticize Xenosaga. The game has received so much fanboyish love from some people and was a critical darling upon its release. It has a nice soundtrack and a good story, but that's about it. I mean, the graphics are nice too, but only by Wii standards. Playing Xenoblade after spending a few hours on Final Fantasy XIII-2 on a 40" Samsung TV almost felt like going from a modern day game to a PS2 game. The gameplay in Xenoblade is BORING. Not initially, because you see interesting ideas in the affinity system and the combat, but those ideas never get fleshed out enough. The combat just pales in comparison to the stuff Final Fantasy games have put out in recent years, and doesn't even hold a candle to Grandia. On top of that, eighty percent of the game is sidequests, and they go through the same formula over and over again. Go kill X number of this enemy type. Go do some item fetch quests. Rinse, repeat. Ugh, most overrated title of 2012 by far.

Uh... wrong game dude.

Xenosaga is a Ps2 game from 2003. It's a completely different game than Xenoblade.

[Onikage]

Pretty much every Final fantasy style RPG that has random encounters and tiresome turn-based combat. I enjoy the Final fantasy games for just about everything except the combat, it's mostly just picking an option from a menu over and over until your enemies all die. Vagrant story has everything that final fantasy has but the combat is also actually engaging.

[Menegrothx]

Pretty much every Final fantasy style RPG that has random encounters and tiresome turn-based combat. I enjoy the Final fantasy games for just about everything except the combat, it's mostly just picking an option from a menu over and over until your enemies all die. Vagrant story has everything that final fantasy has but the combat is also actually engaging.

I'm playing FF9 every now and then and I'm fairly deep into the game and I can just spam attack on all of my characters (healer and spell caster too) in most of the battles, I can't be arsed to cast spells because the cast animation takes a few seconds longer than just bashing my opponents with a melee weapon It's just infuriating to get into a random battle every 10 steps when you don't know where you're supposed to go. Yes, I do know that you can run away from the battles, but they are still boring.
It's quite different compared to the other RPG I'm currently playing every now and then (Icewind Dale) where small changes in enemy positioning can make a huge difference. A single well placed enemy caster is the difference between breezing through an encounter and spending 25 minutes dying and reloading your quick save file, trying to figure out alternative strategies and ways to stay alive during the encounter.

[dreamcast4ever83]

I'm glad to see others criticize Xenosaga. The game has received so much fanboyish love from some people and was a critical darling upon its release. It has a nice soundtrack and a good story, but that's about it. I mean, the graphics are nice too, but only by Wii standards. Playing Xenoblade after spending a few hours on Final Fantasy XIII-2 on a 40" Samsung TV almost felt like going from a modern day game to a PS2 game. The gameplay in Xenoblade is BORING. Not initially, because you see interesting ideas in the affinity system and the combat, but those ideas never get fleshed out enough. The combat just pales in comparison to the stuff Final Fantasy games have put out in recent years, and doesn't even hold a candle to Grandia. On top of that, eighty percent of the game is sidequests, and they go through the same formula over and over again. Go kill X number of this enemy type. Go do some item fetch quests. Rinse, repeat. Ugh, most overrated title of 2012 by far.

Uh... wrong game dude.

Xenosaga is a Ps2 game from 2003. It's a completely different game than

Ya and xenosaga is actually quite long drawn out and boring as for xenoblade well I posted a huge review so I think people here know my feeling towards it.

"whisper" It's freaking kinck ass

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I just bought Xenosaga for $3 so after I'm done with S03, which is action RPG heaven, I'll get back to that boring long drawn out stuff. I'm looking forward to the story, so I'm sure I'll be able to get through the mindless combat. Considering there is more cutscene than gameplay, that will hopefully be worth it. We'll see.

I liked the art, music and humor in Lunar: Silver Star Harmony but the gameplay was insultingly basic. Exploring towns was awesome, but the dungeons were terrible - in fact, those were just straight corridors. Sometimes there's a fork in the road, but it never goes anywhere. If there were puzzles, they were also really simple. Just excuses to backtrack through a tunnel you don't want to see again.

Combat was just a matter of pressing attack and occasionally healing. Nothing else mattered. You could use magic and turn order to take out your enemies more efficiently, which is good because fighting is super tedious, but nothing ever posed a challenge. Not even the final boss. I played the PSP version, which is maybe easier than the original, but the basic simplicity of the battle system, lack of time keeping, small number of spells, etc has me convinced there's no strategy in the original versions either. In many ways, it was the hardest game I ever played. Hard not to stop playing it. And the story? Wasn't worth it. Not like (I hope) it will be for Xenosaga.

[AppleQueso]

I just bought Xenosaga for $3 so after I'm done with S03, which is action RPG heaven, I'll get back to that boring long drawn out stuff. I'm looking forward to the story, so I'm sure I'll be able to get through the mindless combat. Considering there is more cutscene than gameplay, that will hopefully be worth it. We'll see.

I don't think I'd call Xenosaga's combat mindless. It's just really dull.

[D.D.D.]

I just bought Xenosaga for $3 so after I'm done with S03, which is action RPG heaven, I'll get back to that boring long drawn out stuff. I'm looking forward to the story, so I'm sure I'll be able to get through the mindless combat. Considering there is more cutscene than gameplay, that will hopefully be worth it. We'll see.

I don't think I'd call Xenosaga's combat mindless. It's just really dull.

Kinda sucks to hear that about Xenosaga. I've been meaning to play it for years despite owning it/inheriting it.

[AppleQueso]

I just bought Xenosaga for $3 so after I'm done with S03, which is action RPG heaven, I'll get back to that boring long drawn out stuff. I'm looking forward to the story, so I'm sure I'll be able to get through the mindless combat. Considering there is more cutscene than gameplay, that will hopefully be worth it. We'll see.

I don't think I'd call Xenosaga's combat mindless. It's just really dull.

Kinda sucks to hear that about Xenosaga. I've been meaning to play it for years despite owning it/inheriting it.

It's worth a shot at least, definitely. Just... it always helps to know what you're getting into.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

It's worth a shot at least, definitely. Just... it always helps to know what you're getting into.

Exactly. I was told Lunar was a "Super awesome 16 bit RPG," and I thought that meant awesome challenging turn-based battles with big dungeons to explore. Turns out the fun part was talking to the NPCs! I was pretty disappointed, but if I had known what to look for I might have liked it better.

Glad to hear there's something to Xenosaga's combat. That's a lot better than the nothingness in Lunar, which plays itself.

[SamuraiMegas]

Shining in the darkness.
Everything was more fun than that