Take characters, for instance. You can build basic traits (strength, etc.), spell casting, technical attacks, and personal skills. You can don mechs, upgrade weapons, and tune your engines. To, while maps are important to finding everything, the real test of a guide is how well it brings all the rest of the confusion together.

I have to hand it to Birlew and Parkinson for managing to present all this material in a manner that makes good, usable sense. This is a 224-page guide, and you will wind up reading most of it. For the most part it is clearly written, well illustrated, and contains only a few glaring errors. None of the latter are disastrous, just irritating when you are trying to figure something out.

I have no qualms about using guides. Especially in a case like Xenosaga, where the designers obviously were planning an all out war with the players. Games like this scream out for maps and lists and charts, and here they are. One of my measures of the quality of a walk-thru if it extends enjoyable game play, and this effort meets that criterion head on. Well worth the cost.

16 of 17 found the following review helpful:


A MAJOR Help!  Jan 19, 2004 By S. Rhodes
As far as strategy guides go, I'm more concerned with how its going to get me through the game, and also if it can get me through the game with ease. That's the MAIN point of a guide is to get you through the game. The Xenosaga Official Strategy Guide does this with ease. There are a couple of gripes present but otherwise very nice.

The first thing I noticed about the guide were the first about 60 pages of the guide are dedicated to a few of the miscellaneous things. The game basics and such. This may not seem like much but the guide explains the basics of the game a lot more clearly than the instruction booklet does.

Character profiles are great. They tell you when characters learn techs in an easy to use chart and they also give a small bio for them without spoiling what their main role is in the quest!

An weapon/armor/item list is availible. Easy to use table that tells you what you should buy and what you probably shouldn't. We all know that in Xenosaga you could spend quite a bit of money and you don't get much. This guide will help you save your money.

A.G.W.S data for them all. This also suggest what you should and shouldn't buy for them, as well as who should pilot them and what attacks you should focus on using.

The walkthrough was perhaps the most helpful part of this guide. This is where a couple of my small gripes come in but believe me they're very small. The walkthrough is easy to use and here's a nice thing to do in using this guide, while a movie scene from the game is playing take the time to read the guide. You'll notice that a lot of the info is extremely helpful.

Most noticeable are the boss strategies. These are VERY helpful strategies but this is where my first gripe with the guide comes in. The boss strategies are extremely helpful on offense. It's great to know what you can do to the boss but it would also be nice if they told me what the boss could do to me in return. Other than that these strategies are unbeatable.

Before you begin each section you'll see a list of enemies, maps with a very handy key, and a step-by-step objective and items list. VERY helpful walkthrough.

My second gripe is minor depending on how you use the guide. The screenshots aren't always clear. Some are rather fuzzy (the smaller ones). It's also nice that with each new area you come to there are mini-bios for the characters who you'll meet there. So the guide is very imformative. The best part? The guide has NO spoilers to the amazing story that unfolds!

Now for those mini-games, side-quests and secrets. The guide will help you to understand the mini-games and play them to success. If you're like me you don't play mini-games much. The guide also covers just about every secret and sidequests there is, again it doesn't spoil the plot.

Clearly this is an extremely helpful guide. You'll love the guide. It's great to use for the game. Just remember that you won't know what to expect from EVERY boss (there's one that can kill you in one hit and the guide WON'T point it out).

10 of 11 found the following review helpful:


Xenosaga Strategy Guide  Jun 27, 2003
Ok,I love this game,and if you love this game too I reccomend you get the this.It tells you everything about the characters,their ether,their weapons,their tech attacks,and the A.W.G.S.It will tell you all the enenmies you'll fight,where they appear,how much hp they have,and their weakness'.This guide will also tell you some secrets of the characters and if they have special things you can find for them too.This book will also tell you how to play the mini games and what you need to play them.They have made maps that make sense and help you find your way around easily.This book pretty much covers everything you would want to know.Keep in mind that some times the guide will tell you how to fight.Everything is pretty much upgraded and a lot of times things don't work out.If something like this happens then do it your own way that makes in easier for you to win.I give this guide 4 stars because the pics in the book aren't that great and are blurred,and they didn't explain how many things worked.But I do reccomend this guide for the xenosaga game to get a better understanding of how it works.

9 of 10 found the following review helpful:


A good effort by Dan Birlew and Laura M. Parkinson  May 21, 2003 By Law Ah Eng
I am glad to say that this time round, Bradygames didn't screw up this guide.

The maps layout of enemy positions and item locations are right on the spot. Also the item charts, skills extractable tables and ethers are accurate. All sidequests, from Great Joe/Mintia and Meld/Din Gareth bosses are highlighted, as well as a great walkthrough.

XenoSaga can be considered an easy RPG, but purists looking to find every item, complete every sidequest would have a much easier time using this guide-for nearly everything in here is written in a clear, concise manner. I had no problems completing the game my first walkthrough as this guide told me of the creatures' weakness, what skills/techs to equip and where to find the less obvious items on the maps.

There are a couple of things I would like to see if they ever are going to reprint this guide:

1. The Casino section. Poker can only help you to a small extent with G. Slots is truly the way to being a millionaire. Check out gamefaqs for more information.

2. The tech levels are there, but the effects (how much damage does it do per level?) are not shown. I would like to see not just the T pts requirement for upgrading one level but also the statstical improvements-by how many points (Ether Attack /Physical Attack) does upgrading a tech helps?

Other than these minor concerns I have, a perfect guide. Keep up the good work!

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:


Major Help!  Oct 07, 2003
This book is a major help! Already played the game once through eithout the book, now replaying with book and am having ALOT less trouble mainly in the Cash, A.G.W.S., and other quests. Well writen and has practicly no spoilers.

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