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Discuss episode I's story here - feel free to make additional topics for particular theories or what not, but this is for general story discussion and questions for episode I. Please remember to mark any spoilers in this topic as it is not marked as a whole.

Personally I love the game, it's one of my all time favorites - though as far as story goes episode I was really just setting up events for later episodes. So far I still like episode I a bit better than II, but II does a lot more with advanced character development and a few plot revilations than episode I.

lupe1013151

can you tell me how to get through the song of nephalim?

Well this question is better suited to the gameplay topic but I can still help. Are you stuck in a particular area or just lost within the dungeon? There are a lot of puzzles in the Song so that can get confusing.

But here are a few basic things about the dungeon:

It consists of 3 towers and you are forced to go through them in a particular order. Tower 1 is pretty simple once you figure out the elevator puzzle (the number of boxes you break determines the floor you go to:

from an faq @ gamefaqs

3 boxes - 2nd floor
6 boxes - 3rd floor
9 boxes - 4th floor
12 boxes - 5th floor
15 boxes - 6th floor
18 boxes - 7th floor

(link to the rest of the faq: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/xenosaga_d.txt --- I didn't write this it's just the guide that I use most often - the search code for SoN is 3.11 in this guide)
Level 3 has a switch to extend the bridge to Tower 2 and Level 6 will take you out to Tower 2 - just a note about Tower 2, it's the only save point in the whole dungeon so keep that in mind.

Once you're into the dungeon area of Tower 2 you have to go through a series of floors connected by ladders to get to the bottom level. There should be 3 doors spread out along the edge of the room - they all lead to a large room and a boss fight, but the doors all lead to different sections of the room that you may not be able to get to from either of the other doors - for example there is a switch near one of the doors that you'll need to use to drop the platform from the room with the save point. The walkthrough I mentioned above has more details on this too.

Then you'll have to fight a boss. The difficulty of this boss really depends on what characters you use in your party - I recomend KOS-MOS, Jr., and Shion (you can switch Jr. for chaos - I've done it both ways and even with chaos on a higher level but Jr. is by far the most effective - if you use chaos instead you're in for a long battle, it's not more difficult just longer). Put Shion beind Jr. so you can cast Dandyism and if you have it equip Bravesoul to Jr. (hemlocks can actually come in handy if you have it equiped) as it ups attack power as your HP goes down - using hemlocks to drop his hp to 1 will increase his attack power immensly but make sure Dandyism is cast and you have a boost or two just to be safe then just use any one of Jr's more recent tech attacks (make sure it's set in the HI slot before battle) to pummel the boss. Make sure the rest of the party stays over 400 hp and have KOS-MOS casting X-BUSTER or healing/using hemlocks on Jr. and the battle should go pretty quickly. If you don't have Bravesoul you can use a Stim DX on Jr. for a similar effect, but you don't have to worry so much about keeping him at low HP. If you use that strategy the boss should go down in no time and you can move on to the next tower.

Exiting the room to the south will lead to a platform with a switch to extend the bridge to Tower 3 and an elevator leading back to the first room you entered in Tower 2 - take the elevator up and save, then continue on to Tower 3.

In the main room of Tower 3 there should be 3 ways you could go - back to Tower 2, into Tower 3 dungeon, and out to Tower 1 (but the bridge isn't activated yet). So you'll have to enter the dungeon. Again see the walkthrough I mentioned before for more details on how to get through the dungeon. There is one puzzle in this area as well after you solve it you can activate the switch that opens the path to Tower 1. There should be an elevator near by - use it to go back to the main room of Tower 3.

You can go back to Tower 2 to save if you wish or just advance to the next area by taking the elevator in the middle of the path between Towers 1 & 3 (it has 3 colored columns of light in the center). Opening the door at the bottom of the elevator shaft leads to scenes and a boss battle.

I found this battle to be particularly difficult (well the first time I played through the section it was really easy but the second time it was particularly difficult), it's a long battle and the boss has quite a few attacks that can take a chunk out of your HP. The key to the battle is realizing that when it uses the "Airods" attack its ether defense drops and you can do a good deal of damage - saving up boosts and initiating a boost-chain (boosting back and fourth between your party members not allowing the boss to get a turn) is always a good idea. The party I recomend is either KOS-MOS, Jr., and Shion or KOS-MOS, chaos, and Shion. Keep Shion behind Jr. if you're using him so he can cast Dandyism (I can't remember if there's any other reason to keep her behind someone since I think all of this boss's attacks can hit her even if she is behind another character..I'm not too sure about that though). Keep your HP pretty high throughout the battle as the boss can take off over 400 on all characters with one attack. If you're using Jr. put Bravesoul on him and use a similar strategy to that of the previous boss - just pay close attention to when the boss's ether def is down (long ranged attacks are the only thing that will effect him until the ether def is compromised). If you decide not to use Jr. put Bravesoul on KOS-MOS instead, but I don't recomend the hemlock technique since KOS-MOS doesn't have an auto-revive ether (I can't remember if there's an item/skill for auto-revive...). I can't remember my strategy for the party using chaos, though I know that at the time I probably didn't use Bravesoul and got through it fine (the second time through the game was about 3-5 levels lower than I was the first time through so that might explain why it was harder the second time I fought it).

After that more scenes. Unless you're prepared to fight another boss DO NOT talk to the cloaked man until you've healed up/gone back to Tower 2 to save. Talking to the cloaked man will initiate the next boss battle.

The only thing of note with this boss is that you should use anything but beam attacks (you might want to switch out KOS-MOS for chaos or Jr. if you've been using her since most of her attacks are beam based). The bravesoul technique works wonderfuly - again I recomend using it with Jr. since he has an auto-revive ability. Keep your other two characters at high HP (remember to put your healer behind Jr. if you're using him) and just keep hitting the boss, he's got fairly low HP - though he's got two forms (the combinde hp for both forms is half that of the last boss).

Then more scenes and you've completed the Song of Nephilim.

I love the game. What I thought was interesting they used psychology in the game (I'm a psychology major in college). They used the works of Carl Jung (Did a paper on him last year). His stuff deals with unconscious and conscious. He used to work with Freud, but they had a disargeement and stop being friends.

The stages Nigredo (Blackening), Albedo (Whitening), and Rubedo (Reddening) are discussed in his work when he is talking about alchemy.

There is another stage called Citrinitas which mean yellowing. Maybe this is relating to the URTV (I can't remember the order of the letters sweatdrop ) 668. 668 was the number that was skipped, right? I thought there was a reason why that number was skipped over. Just a long shot there. I really love psychology.

If you want to know about Jung's works that are mentioned in the Keywords section on Xenosaga, I'll be glad to tell you more. 3nodding

You'll be happy to know that URTV 668 shows up in ep2, the name isn't exactly Citrinitas (though it's very similar).



Yeah the psychology in the game is very interesting - I'd been wondering where I could read more about the alchemy psycology stuff, there's a book about it right (can't remember the name of it)? I've been meaning to start reading some of Nietzsche's works too, but I haven't been to borders in a couple months.

Do anyone remember in a flashback, the Commander (I can't spell his name) meet someone in a cloak and that person give the Commander a device? I have wondered who it was. For some reason, I think it was Kevin who gave it to him. I could be wrong.

Yeah, most people have come to the conclusion that it must have been Kevin (it's sort of assumed to be true on Zenosaga.com now). I thought that the biggest clue was the bang sticking out of his hood (if I remember correctly) since it was blue and would fit the style Kevin's hair was in.

I haven't beaten the game yet but about the girl, the first scene that I saw her in I thought she was Elly (I don't know if the scene you mentioned is related but either I just don't remember or I haven't seen it yet) until she said she was Nephilim (I think). But she does look like Elly. I wonder if she has some connection to the Song of Nehilim.

Wow.That is awsome.You all know a lot about Xenosaga and all that,don't ya?Where do you find all that stuff?I'd like to know a lot more about it.Especially the characters..^^

Anyways...You all seem to know more about Xenosaga than I do,though I have just recently beaten the game...And I didn't know where to ask this,so I guess I'll ask it here. sweatdrop I don't get some things.. Like,how come Jr hasn't grown up?Did the Song do something to him?Or is it something else? And in the end what was Chaos doing?When he was in the uh...part of the Elsa where they keep the A.G.W.S.? confused