Xenosaga Episode II Part 02: Crosstown Traffic

Previously on Xenosaga: I am freaking tired of Old Miltia! It’s Old Miltia, guys! Stop flashbacking! Everyone stop flashbacking!

Oh, bullocks, now I’m late for church.

Here’s a pretty typical looking nun.

Oh ho ho, is this Margulis’s boss?

It may as well be! This is The Patriach (real name: Sergius XVII, but it literally will not be said during the game). Here’s everything you need to know about this guy: in Japan, he’s simply known as The Pope. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, meet your new Space Pope.

More interesting than The Patriarch himself (come on, he’s the leader of a religion in a JRPG, you know how this one is going to go) is the organization(s) he’s leading. On the outside, The Patriarch is the leader of The Immigrant Fleet, which is basically a religious organization that claims they were responsible for the original exodus from Earth. To be clear, they were responsible for, I don’t know, catering the flight or something, they weren’t responsible for making Earth uninhabitable. Anyway, thousands of years later, they’ve become a religious organization. It’s kind of like if The Daughters of the American Revolution eventually mutated into its own cult.

But secretly, The Patriarch is also the leader of Ormus. Ormus is the official “evil religion” of Xenosaga. It’s also, basically, Christianity. It’s a little more on the Catholic/Gnostic side of the denomination, but a lot of the… let’s say “indicators” are there. Ormus was founded way back in the day by one of Xenosaga’s many immortals, and you can probably guess which one if you’re paying attention (hint: it’s the bad immortal). Ormus’s main concern is the Zohar, which is a big shock to everybody, I’m sure, because it’s not like everyone in this universe wants the damned (holy) thing. Anyway, when Ormus isn’t Zohar-coveting, it’s also funding such noted terrorist organizations as U-TIC, thus this happy little conversation.

The main reason I bring all this up is because, at least in XS2 (when it’s really important), the story does little to outline “how” The Patriarch “works”. The Patriarch is basically only going to be evil every moment he’s on screen, but that’s only witnessed by the audience, he theoretically has a very kind, public UMN twitter that balances his more overt malice. To be clear: he’s the leader of a bad guy organization, but the universe at large thinks he’s just a religious figurehead.

This isn’t some weird transition shot, this is Margulis appearing via semi-transparent hologram tech. I’ve never understood the appeal of such a thing. Like, have you ever skyped with someone, and thought, “Wow, if only I could see this dude’s back?” It’s unnatural.

Bah, back to the plot. Did you know that everyone in the universe wants the Y-Data in MOMO? I suppose I’ll let this one slide, because it’s Episode 2, and I guess some people need to catch up or be reminded. It was two real life years between episodes for a lot of people…

So the Kukai Foundation “has” MOMO (more like she kinda enjoys hanging out with their VP), and Padre is none too happy about this.

Sure, blame the maniac…

“According to the U.R.T.V., Albedo, the Y-Data is secured by a form of high-level protection only accessible at the U.M.N. Control Center on Second Miltia, hence the current situation.”

Alright, I guess Albedo’s “possession” of the Y-Data was exaggerated in the last game, and he’s still got to wait for MOMO to USB into the UMN. I guess this makes sense with Albedo’s “everything is going according to plan” during the finale of XS1, but… I guess the Y-Data info on Proto Merkabah wasn’t behind the extra encryption? Lame security, Mizrahi.

Speaking of “it’s all going according to plan”…

Here’s your org chart for these doofuses. The Patriarch is at the top, and he’s the legit head of a popular religion. Margulis appears to be lead does-stuff guy, and he’s responsible for the terrorist organization, U-TIC. Somewhere above Margulis but below Patriarch is Cardinal Heinlein, who also has a controlling interest in this whacky space religion. Heinlein, it appears, is public relations for the legit religion, but subtly manipulates planetary governments toward U-TIC concerns. Heinlein, for instance, was likely responsible for the arrest of the Kukai Foundation last Episode.

Patriarch does not like Heinlein’s machinations, though. Probably a good reason for that. “Heinlein” won’t be appearing in this game, but…

Here’s a picture of Heinlein at last year’s Christmas Party.

Margulis is totally Team Patriarch all the way!… Sucker.

“Don’t ask me, I just work here.”

“I shaved your name into my chest hair! Want to see?”

“No, that’s… No.”

Whaddya gonna do, Patriarch? Old man him to death?

And just for the hell of it, let’s call out Albedo on being a damn freak. Ah, religion.

This is an oblique reference to the fact that Patriarch actually knew the URTV daddy. That’s gonna come up! That’s gonna come up a lot!

As we leave the scene, we’re reminded that this is not some cheapo religion. Stain glass ain’t inexpensive! … Or maybe it is, I’ve never really checked.

Meanwhile, here’s Margulis on the bridge of… some ship. His true feelings on his boss are muttered as soon as the holo-call is cut.

And here’s Pellegri, who evidently finally escaped Margulis’s shadow and is out and about.

U-TIC has really upped its membership since XS1. Pellegri now has two lackeys: Hermann and Richard. Get ready to meet the Biggs and Wedge of Xenosaga.

JRPG escalation: the good guys have at least one ES (Asher), so now U-TIC is going to have to whip out theirs. Albedo was really ahead of the curve.

Fun fact! Our giant robots are thousands of years old! What!?

Oh, that explains it. Wait, what, again?

Oh, alright, I guess the power sources for the ESes are thousands of years old.

Um, are you talking about the Zohar or the mechs? Because if you’re talking about the ESes, I feel like they’re really being underutilized. Let’s just say the ESes are “strong”.

Yes, each ES is basically ancient power source plus modern technology. That never goes wrong!

Alright, are our pasts and bad guys all firmly established now? Good! Let’s go back to the actual cast of this story. Hello, Elsa, my old friend.

This segment is a quick pan over the good ol’ party of Xenosaga Episode 1. It’s narrated by Shion, but not subtitled, oddly enough. In the interest of words, here it is:

“R&D Report: File Number 026643. The anti-gnosis battle android KOS-MOS, while undergoing start-up and field-testing onboard the Federation cruiser Woglinde, awoke during a gnosis attack on the fleet. She initiated Autonomous Mode, even though that mode was still sealed, and has been fully operational ever since. KOS-MOS is acting under her own volition. However, there are many unstable elements in her emotional program and further improvements will be required. After the escape from the Woglinde, we were rescued by the Elsa, a Kukai Foundation cargo ship. We are presently descending into Second Miltia in order to turn KOS-MOS over to Vector Second R&D Division. Furthermore, while en route to Miltia, we took the 100-Series Observational Realian Prototype MOMO into custody. During this time, we were pursued by the U-TIC Organization and an individual called Albedo. Albedo’s tenacious attack brought about the appearance of the Song of Nephilim and Proto Merkabah. KOS-MOS’ actions allowed us to overcome these crises. I believe this series of actions by KOS-MOS has been greatly influenced by her black-box components left behind by the late Kevin Winnicot. This will likely become a major focus of our future research. Report author: Shion Uzuki, Chief Engineer, KOS-MOS Development Project General Operations, Vector Industries, First R&D Division.”

Yep, that’s XS1 in a nutshell. (References to Cherenkov: zero)

Allen you insufferable nincompoop, you broke that poor lady’s glasses!

Wait a tick! That’s Shion! I… think? Well, a reasonable facsimile.

Oh, and KOS-MOS has this new thing going on where her hair is continually iridescent. I guess “blue hair” isn’t foreign enough for anime land, so they had to up the “she’s not human” indicators. Also, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but she comes off as slightly more… Amazonian?

Anyway, time to park this sucker on terra firma. Fun fact: this is the first the Elsa has actually landed on a planet in two games.

Baggage claim OF THE FUTURE!

Shion winds up taking direct offense at Allen’s joy. These two are going to have some screwed up kids.

Allen also thinks to thank KOS-MOS for her saving the entire crew twice in rapid succession. I guess everyone else is just planning on mailing her a gift card.

“We’ve got our own plot to deal with. You?”

“I have this whole ‘job’ thing…”

I… I think Junior just asked Shion out? You go, shortpants.

Shion immediately turns it into a playdate and invites MOMO. Do you think most JRPG parties hang out in cliquey little groups?

Allen, you have an entire planet, now. Give the woman some space.

Ziggy has to visit the little cyborg’s room.

Oh, no, he’s going to go call Dr. Mrs. Mizrahi, aka MOmom.

“Tell her I’m filled with love and adoration! MOMO bear stare!”

“Ziggy, just so we’re clear, it’s good that you got her to the planet in one piece, but you still have to walk her a couple of blocks to the finish line.”

Ziggy starts to ask a question, and Dr. M busts out the given name. Does Ziggy look like a Jan?

Ziggy is taken aback, and basically rebukes his old moniker.

Ziggy recovers and relays -MOMO LOVE-.

It’s not very effective.

Junior has an opinion!

Legitimately, a public UMN terminal isn’t the most private spot in the ‘verse.

Junior asks Ziggy about maybe upgrading the ol’ tin man model and getting himself something a little more permanent.

Ziggy… is not interested in being alive any longer than he has to be.

At this moment, MOMO is off helping caterpillars cross the street.

Nor are we interested in prolonging this cutscene.

Alright! Control!

We’ve got full reign of Grand Miltia Station here… and it’s not much. It’s basically a whole screen of random NPCs, but I suppose it’s a nice break from the prologue dungeon and then next dungeon.

Ugh, this. We’ll get into the particulars later, but already there are a bunch of NPCs milling about talking about future sidequests. I guess you’re expected to remember these dorks for later? Good luck with that.

If you’re particularly observant, you may have noticed that the menu no longer contains XS1’s “UMN” link. That’s because the extensive glossary of terms of XS1 has been completely cut. More’s the pity, as you’d think any “newcomers” would absolutely need that dictionary to know what the hell is going on. In an effort to alleviate this issue the tiniest bit, the entire story of Xenosaga Episode 1 is available at this terminal and this terminal only. Why would you want to read it at your leisure through a menu anywhere in the game? It’s much more convenient to tie it to one distinct location that is randomly inaccessible. Good job, Xenosaga Episode2!

Also, you can brush up on the combat system here if the opening tutorial area wasn’t enough. Again, this would be a lot more useful to read when you’re actually in a combat-based dungeon…

Here’s a sidequest you can “enjoy” without activating the “real” quest: Captain Matthews is hideously in debt, and you can help by selling off all your items. This is the only place in the game that is “money based”, and this whole, game-long quest is basically the place to empty all the vendor trash out of your inventory. You also can only “sell” at this one, distinct location throughout the whole game, even later when you’re on the friggen Elsa. Ugh. Anyway, we’ll revisit the nuts and bolts of this one during the Sidequest Update, but just be aware that this is the only place in the game (literally, only place) where money matters.

Also, remember that I hacked my way to 99 of every consumable…

Time to leave this silly place. Fun fact: I want to say that if you play XS2 while ignoring every single side quest, you’ll never revisit this spot again. If you hope to complete the sidequests, however, you’ll find yourself running through the spaceport eleventy billion times.

So Junior, MOMO, chaos, and Ziggy are going to hover-limo over to the Federation Building (home of the Helmer). Hanging out with a fantastically wealthy company has some advantages.

Make up a good lie, Robo Dad!

I really hope MOMO’s incessant optimism isn’t just a setting.

Oh, hello, new friend. Do giant robots migrate around Second Miltia this time of year?

Wait, no, this looks bad.

They’re U-TIC, specifically the previously mentioned Richard and Hermann. Just to be clear, they’ve got regular AMWS, not ESes.

I’m kinda glad that, a whole half hour after cleaning up Albedo’s last mess, Junior naturally assumes this is some kind of second (fourth?) attack from his idiot brother. He’s wrong, but it’s nice to have the continuity.

The AMWS tear the roof off the limo, and Junior attempts to shoot the attackers. This might seem useless, but this is how we brought down Albedo’s ES…

The limo was just on auto-pilot up to this point, but MOMO decides to slide in there and take over. Recall from way back when she joined the Elsa that she is an ace pilot.

ACTION DRIVING ACTION!

“Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of MOMO has been approved.”

MOMO takes the car vertically up the side of a tunnel. Junior… should wear a seatbelt.

Finally, the gang catches a break when chaos and Junior throw together an impromptu double tech. chaos tosses up a fire extinguisher, and Junior blasts it, creating a smokescreen that is somehow enough.

Put your shoes on, honey, we’re at the dungeon now.

“Second Miltia City” is a very weird dungeon. This must have either been the first dungeon designed for XS2, or the last. There is no real treasure (just consumables), no decoders or hidden doors, and no way to re-access this area at a later point in the game. Additionally, some of the enemies here observe really unusual behaviors not seen anywhere else in the game. It makes the whole area feel kind of off, particularly if you’re replaying it after “knowing” the rest of the game.

But, hey, we’ve got part of the old gang back and ready to go. Shion and KOS-MOS are off at Vector, but we’ve got free reign with Junior, MOMO, chaos, and Ziggy. chaos retains any levels/skills/etc. he had from the prologue, incidentally.

Here’s our first bit of weirdness: enemies have a tendency to destroy the environment to ambush our heroes. Again, this is the only dungeon in the game where this kind of “dynamic encounter” happens.

Everyone (including party members not currently in the party) retain their old attack methods from XS1… except MOMO. For whatever reason, she’s traded her magic wand for a bow and arrow between games. Not that it’s very important, but this is never commented on by anyone in the game. Remember that this is the same story that just gave us an origin for why Shion took off her glasses…

More importantly, though, is the fact that MOMO and Shion are very limited with their attacks. Both characters only ever have a circle attack available (while other characters almost always have two choices). The good news is that it’s long range and ether based, which gives MOMO (or Shion) a function in the battle party, but the bad news is that she has to work twice as hard to cause an enemy to break. This kinda pidgeonholes the women into support roles. Lame.

Most enemies yield EXP and Skill Points. Let’s use a few of those!

Access the Skills section from the main menu, and you can upgrade your skills. That makes sense!

First of all, there’s four Class levels. You’ve got access to Level 1 immediately, and all you have to do to access the next level is learn all four skills from any given level’s subclass. Speaking of which…

There are 8 subclasses for each of the first three levels, and four (or five? I think it’s four) subclasses for Level 4. To be able to unlock the skills within a subclass, you must spend the required Class Points. Most of the classes are the same value, but you can see that Class H is mysteriously double the cost. Hm…

After you’ve “purchased” a subclass, you can then spend Skill Points to learn any and all skills within the subclass. There are three kinds of skills: ether skills, which are just like the ether “spells” of XS1 (you can see Medica and Refresh right here), but with the added benefit that you can now “equip” unlimited ether skills. There are also “innate” skills (like Poison Guard or Blind Guard here) that are permanent “upgrades” to your character. Learn an innate skill, and it’s part of your character forever. Finally, there are “accessory” skills (see E ATK+2 or EDEF+2 in a couple of screen shots) that basically take the place of accessories from the last game. These are generally great, but you can only equip a limited number at a time (three at the start) so, even if you’ve learned the best accessory skills, you’re still limited by how many you can use at once.

Also important: you will receive “bonus” Class Points when you learn every skill in a particular subclass, so it’s in your best interest to find a subclass where you want “everything”, and don’t just bounce around from individual skill to individual skill.

Note that all skills, ether or otherwise, no longer “level up”, so there’s no reason to use skill points on anything else. Also, for reasons that will become clear way the hell later, you want to teach MOMO as many ethers as possible.

Remember how Class H cost double the Class Points? Well, it turns out that it’s inordinately not worth it right now, because all of its skills are simply ?????. To unlock ????? skills, you must find a corresponding “key” in the real world. Most of these keys are found in treasure chests, behind Red Segment Doors, or as rewards for sidequests. As you may expect, the ????? skills are some of the best/most useful in the game. I’ll do my best to mention some of the better ones as they pop up.

For right now, I’d highly recommend picking up the innate Memory skill. It will “remember” the break zones for every enemy you ever break, saving an awful lot of your own, human memory. If nothing else, buy this skill for Junior, as it will save you a lot of time during the absolute final boss.

In general, I’d say the Skill Learning system of XS2 is a lot easier than XS1, with the caveat that there are way too many choices to start. If you make a beeline for the good, useful skills (like Medica or ATK+/DEF+ skills) things will be good, and you’re not stuck debating pumping points into a soon to be obsolete Tech Attack like in XS1. On the other hand, if you’re somehow coming into XS2 as a complete JRPG neophyte, well, you’re probably going to blow your skill points on a lot of useless crap.

While we’re hanging around the menu screen, here’s the Tech menu. Again, nothing can be upgraded here, but you can remind yourself what each button combination does during combat. All this information is available through icons on the actual battle menu, so it’s kind of superfluous, but… it’s nice to know these techniques have names? I don’t know.

Okay, back to our tour of Second Miltia. This little waterway features soldiers that will infinitely spawn from behind the party. Again, this kind of thing is not seen anywhere else in the game, where monsters just aimlessly wander around the overworld, like in XS1 or the prologue dungeon.

Oh yeah, Ziggy is definitely rocking his swimsuit. The swimsuits unlocked by the XS1 data each work like accessory skills, and grant the user greater speed and skill point acquisition at the cost of less defense. Everyone in the party will eventually have their own swimsuit available, and, thanks to the skill point bonus, I’ll be wearing them continuously as they’re acquired.

Ah, our first “surrounded!” battle. These are particularly annoying, as there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do to consistently avoid them, and, even when you’re a million levels ahead of the enemy, you’ll still get randomly pincered. At this early point in the game, everyone in your party save Ziggy has like 12 HP, so a back attack can practically guarantee a dead MOMO at the start. Best you can do is kill whichever side has fewer enemies, and then focus on what’s left. Hope you survive the experience.

A little ways in, Junior decides to call home for backup.

But Gaignun is having a bad day.

He recovers… but did he spill his dainty teacup? That’s not like him.

We’ll find out soon enough!

Gaignun calls Helmer on his million year old phone, and Helmer gets the message.

Not certain why anyone thought U-TIC would give up just because we’re in an atmosphere…

More dungeon, more monsters (soldiers) spawning out of hidden areas like literally no where else.

Trust me and we will escape from the city. I’ll make it through prove it to you. Follow me! Oh yeah!

Here’s Executus, our first (sub)boss for the real party… but he’s kind of a nothing fight. Aside from starting with a rear attack on the party (turn around, Ziggy!), this is basically just a straightforward fight where using the attack command over and over again will carry the day. MOMO’s arrow attack seems to do the most damage, and, after Exy loses some HP, he’ll start countering on a predetermined event slot. Just don’t hit him when he says not to hit him, and you’ll be fine.

There’s a brief reprieve after Executus where you can talk to some very cowardly townsfolk.

And then a U-TIC helicopter shows up. I still really like their logo. The best graphic designers are evil.

This starts a sort of minigame where an orange laser net will go down the street, and it’s your job to duck out of the way of the net into conveniently distributed alleys along the way. Touching the net causes a battle… but it’s not a very difficult battle, and you might enjoy the EXP, so… it’s one of those.

Shortly thereafter is a savepoint followed by our second subboss, Libra.

Libra frequently primes its octo ray, which isn’t all that powerful. More important though is that this is the first place Xenosaga Episode 2’s real boss pattern emerges.

Here’s the deal: XS2 has a battle system based on learning the enemy’s weak point, exploiting that weak point, and then doing massive damage when that weak point is exposed. That said, it is totally possible to ignore that system, and just keep plinking away with weak attacks that will, eventually, fell the monster du jour. It would take forever, but it’s doable.

In order to… discourage this kind of behavior, a number of XS2 bosses follow a pretty familiar pattern. At the start of the battle, the boss does very little damage. But, as the boss loses HP, it will employ more deadly techniques, usually building to a technique that will do large damage to everyone in your party. Get hit with this move too often (Sonic Boom in the case of this battle), and you’re done.

So the path you should be following is: while the boss is using “weak” attacks, find that weak point (in this case, two high [A] attacks), then spend your time sitting around stocking stocks. Attack the boss like normal, then, when it starts using its super attacks, use your knowledge of the weakness and all your accrued stock/boost to put it down in a turn or two.

If you don’t do this, you’ll spend way too much time healing, and, well, good luck even surviving.

Junior retains his boss-killer status from XS1 and puts Libra down.

Back to running along.

XS2 takes a moment to remind you that not all boxes should be destructed… I mean, if you’re psychic and already know where all the enemies are hiding.

Ah, here’s a combat helicopter that serves as our first real flying enemy. Note that Ziggy has a turn here, but he literally cannot do anything to touch his opponent. chaos has the same problem, but Junior and MOMO (and later Shion, KOS-MOS, and Jin) all have far attacks.

But this isn’t a big deal, because, unlike XS1, we now have a quick “Change” command that will allow us to switch in whichever character we like during battle.

Yay, MOMO! While it’s not that important during this dungeon, later dungeons practically go the Final Fantasy X route and require you to rapidly switch around characters to exploit monster weaknesses. Eh, at least it keeps you on your toes.

Almost done here. Time to climb up to the roof and get gone. Wait, how does that work?

Again, no chases this dynamic ever again in the game.

Looks like climbing up to big, open areas only encourages boss fights.

… Axel? Oh God, no.

Oh, no, just Richard again.

Richard is in the skinny AMWS, and Hermann has the thick one. Richard and Hermann are U-TIC lackeys that will show up sporadically in this game and the next and… they’re barely worth mentioning. Richard is kind of nuts, and Hermann is his protector/manservant because he owes him a generations long life debt or something. I believe it’s all explained in the supplementary materials, but what’s important is that these guys exist because you can only kick around Pellegri and Margulis so many times before it gets old. I want to say this is the absolute most threatening these two ever become, and it’s entirely because they’re in AMWS fighting at least two preteens.

Fun fact: Hermann used to own the Elsa, and gave it to Captain Matthews because they were old Space Marine buddies. Lucasian small universe.

Double Fun fact: Richard has beautiful girl hair, but you never see him outside of an AMWS in this game, so his styling is wasted.

So, boss battle.

First of all, this is human vs. AMWS, so that precludes actually scoring break status on the bosses. Way to screw your own system XS2! Also, despite what you’d expect, you don’t take that much damage from the AMWS. It’s manageable.

What’s important is that Hermann will use Medica as Richard’s HP descends, so absolutely defeat Hermann first. I’m also going to note that Hermann doesn’t make his white mage status known until Richard has lost a lot of HP, so it’s very likely a new player will lose quite a bit of fight progress when Herman reveals his healing abilities.

Also important: Richard will use more powerful skills as his HP drops, so you can royally screw yourself if you keep attacking Richard thinking you’ll outpace Hermann’s healing. This battle does not fool around, so, in the name of all that is chaos, kill Hermann first.

I didn’t. The battle took me sixteen minutes. That’s absurd for the capper to the first (non tutorial) dungeon.

We’re back to the XS1 standard of boss battles kind of accomplishing nothing, but it looks like someone else has decided to join the party…

It’s Pellegri in the ES Issachar. We’re screwed!

Oh my God where did we put our stupid AGWS?

Ow ow ow.

Looks like Issachar has those option thingys like the Simeon.

We’re saved! The ES Asher is back!

And you know who’s in the pilot seat.

Get funky!

Once again, please sit around and watch a fight much more interesting than anything that requires your participation.

Sure, whatever.

Something happens! This one of those Anima things everyone was talking about?

And both mechs just freeze in the air. Maybe it’s vapor lock?

Bah, Pellegri doesn’t want to deal with it. Time to go, boys!

Junior… has a point. That dungeon took an hour or so, and this city isn’t that big.

Canaan immediately determines the entire army that was attacking the party five minutes ago is going to call it off now, and you’ll be fine. And he doesn’t even offer the gang a ride on the way out.

Oh, and Junior doesn’t like the whole Rubedo thing, but we already knew that.

“Particularly given you look exactly the same.”

“Junior, you never introduce me to your friends.”

FLASHBACK (dammit)! Remember Junior cradling a near-dead Gaignun in XS1? Here we are again.

Bad time for everybody.

But…

Ah-ha! The damaged ES Asher from the last update. Looks like, post Jin’s exit, Canaan and chaos reclaimed the Asher and actually finished their mission.

And chaos has to do his thing and compares the URTV children to the horsemen of the apocalypse. Really, chaos? You have to do this while a kid is bleeding to death?

Maybe you could actually do something instead of narrating at them?

Junior is rambling. Hey, he won’t admit this again for another 15 years.

Oh, and he’s also ranting about Albedo, who was “a piece of me”.

I believe this is the first it’s actually mentioned that Albedo (#667) and Junior (#666) are literal biological twins as opposed to just obviously related.

chaos, this is your last warning. Knock it off.

Suppose? Need I remind you that that planet got sucked into a double black hole like ten minutes later?

Yeah, I guess this is the first this is confirmed, too. Though you could see Junior and chaos had a repartee in XS1 if you were paying attention.

I have to admit, it beats “Junior”.

At least we don’t have to call him "Frog".

“And you think that dude with the white hair is really named ‘chaos’?”

Foreshadowing for like an hour from now!

I feel like ever since Ziggy gave Junior that talking to back before The Song of Nephilim MOMO rescue mission, Junior decided it would be his life’s goal to annoy Ziggy at every opportunity.

See?

Anyway, I guess a helicopter comes or something to evac the team, and this is the end of this little adventure. Hope everyone enjoyed touring the city!

Next time on Xenosaga: Shion, girl about town!