Finished disc1 tonight. I would guess it was around 20-25 hours long so if it's 50% of the game then this is the biggest Xenosaga game yet and it would actually be 40-50 hours of plot with stuff CONSTANTLY HAPPENING.
So yeah, it's pretty awesome. RPG of the year so far from disc1 though a lot is riding on how well it ends. Story (including ep1+ep3 and maybe bits of ep2) is one of the most interesting and enjoyable ones of any rpg I've played. I mean compared to game after game of GO TO THE ELEMENTAL DUNGEONS TO FIND THE CRYSTALS or GO FIND THE GLOWING TREASURE or GO BEAT THE EVIL EMPEROR INVADING THE LAND having a real plot like a book is nice.
The gameplay is stacking up really well also. Lots of great dungeons, good battle system that has depth, requires strategy, and still feels old-school turn-based. Good puzzles and hidden secrets.
Music and graphics are still totally awesome. Mecha stuff is amazing and the best mech battles in any rpg since Xenogears. Lots of XG/XSep1 cameo/reference/homages.
One thing is that the game is HARD. It's like really really jokingly easy for a while and then suddenly at one dungeon it's like "Hi, now we are really starting" and it gets at least as hard as ep1 if not harder. Boss fights remind me of SMTIII ALOT. They are long 10-15 min battles where you need to go in with the right accesories equipped and a solid plan or you will DIE. I had one boss where all my characters were at full HP and the boss did its strongest attack...and it killed the entire party instantly. My first and only game over so far >_< But then I went back in with the right stuff and that same attack only did about 1/6th of my HP to my party and I took the boss down. You have to pay tons of attention to elementals to the point where its almost a small flaw since you're basically jumping to your menu and switching up accesories equipped every 3 mins when you see an enemy on the map so you'll have the right stuff for the battle. Luckily there's usually only like 2-3 enemy types per dungeon so you figure out a midway that works well against all and you're set. Anyhow it's hard and I like hard so it's good.
Boss fights are also ****ing badass against bosses that should be ****ing badass. Great music, awesome art designs, great attacks, nice cinematic angles, tough fights that make you sweat; It gets the blood pumping like it should. Especially nice after the panzy Judge fights in FFXII
and yeah I have a lot to say about VP2 now that I'm done with it, but I'm a little pre-occupied with Ep3 right now I'll get to that in the future.
Oh and Ep3 is doing a good job of ignoring Ep2's existence and the writer is doing an excellent job at bringing the series back from having steered way off course. I could almost believe this was a Takahashi game if it was just a little smarter and more polished.