I Need Help On Xenosaga

Well, a week ago I got a new PS2 since mine was broken and would cost more money to fix than to buy a new one. So anyways, I picked up Xenosaga because I heard it was great. I am now stuck at a certain boss. I am inside a gigantic gnosis, and am at the core,(around 12 hours and 30 minutes into the game) where I am at the Zohar and this gigantic Gargoyle and his two buddies (can't remember name, they look like slugs floating in the air) attack me. I don't know how to beat them because they deal ~200 damage a turn to my people through 2x Hell Rise or something. I was just wondering if there was a tip to beat them, because the Gargoyle regenerates his HP and it's deathly hard to beat the other two. Any advice?

I'm assuming you're at Gnosis Cathedral Ship.

That's not a really tough battle... Gargoyle is weak to lightning, and Oudogogues are weak to slash, and they have about 1/3 the HP of Gargoyle.

Take out the Oudogoges first, and yeah, Gargoyle will power-up and heal, but after you finish off both Oudogoges, you just need to focus on the main boss. Heal, Attack.

Which characters do you suppose I should use? I have been using chaos, Shion, and KOS-MOS. chaos's Heaven's Wrath Attack does ~250 damage, and KOS-MOS's attacks R-Cannon, R-Blade and R-Drill do ~300 damage. I was just wondering if I should use Ziggy at all. Otherwise I just figured a strategy to beat them, my brain just went dead for a few minutes I gusess.

What level are you?

In the last battle (well, you are far from that, but...), I use Kos-Mos, Shion, Jr.
For now, actually use whoever you want to... one good healer is enough, and pick two that can do damage effectively.

Ziggy has lightning attack, so he can be useful in this fight...

You are far from it. Many harder bosses ahead, my friend. If you're frustrated now, God knows what will happen when you reach Simeon(Albedo's Mech) or the half dozen other kickass bosses.

Personaly, I remember using for that battle, Shion, chaos, and Ziggy. Of course, Jr., Shion and MOMO were my "final team." For now, concentrate on boosting your A.G.W.S.' power. They'll help you survive for a short while longer.

Oh, and don't forget. if you are really stuck, CodeBreaker is your friend....

Hmm... I can't really say that game has a lot of tough bosses. I think I died once in a optional boss fight? Jr. vs Joe? But that's because I never saw it coming, and I was way too weak when I fought him.

AGWS wasn't all that useful at this stage, because they'd be too slow. And you know you're biased for not using Kos-Mos. Kos-Mos deals out the most damage, until Jr. joins. And Jr. will be the king of random encounter by then...

Still, in a boss battle, I found that Kos-Mos is most well-rounded character. With the skill transfer, she can deal out tons of damage, self-heal, and can take a lot of damage.

KOS-MOS is a must-have whenever possible. Unfortunately for me, I thought Ziggy was actually useful for a while, and spent time developing him. My mistake...

My typical party was Shion, KOS-MOS, and Jr/MOMO, depending on the situation.

The only time I found the game particularly difficult was when I was rushing thru the first time around, and made it to the end in under 40 hours, and I was woefully underprepared for the fight. No Erde Kaiser, I was half the level I should've been, and I remember that I never realized something about upgrading AGWS units. I was in sorry shape, and surprised I got that far...

I actually didn't use Shion that much. I used her in the last battle just for the 9999 damage attack... well, I probably should have spent more time on her instead of chaos. But that's when I loaded a earlier and played the game again so I could use those "Ancient techniques" for Shion.

The first time I finished the game at like avg level 29, with Kos-Mos being the highest lv 32.

Well, I am using Shion, chaos, and KOS-MOS. When I fought this boss at first I was level 15 for all of them, but now I leveled up to 18 for all of them, and might wait another level or so to take them on. The reason I died at the boss, was because the average damage for the Gargoyle when I killed his minions was ~300-400. I think this was because of shitty equipment, but eh whatever. I was thinking of now killing one of the minions, and then the gargoyle so it doesn't have so much power. I also am planning to attack mainly with KOS-MOS, as I have equipped chaos with Medica-All so he can help heal while fighting.

18 should be more than enough, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't level unless I have to...

(Except for Shin Megami Tensei, I'm at level 103.)

No... I didn't mean the game had super-hard bosses. I mean, there are other bosses alot stronger and more frustrating than those in Cathedral Ship.

Enjoy finding your way around the Song of Nephilim.

Actually, I found the Song less annoying than the Cathedral ship. Mind you, I had overleveled Jr. and Chaos before then (they both have nice all enemy attacks)

KOSMOS is the best against Gnosis enemies,
Jr. against humans (though he's pretty good against anything)
Chaos against a group with different elemental weaknesses (due to his last ether spells)
Ziggy against machines
MOMO's the best healer (her attack in her normal form's almost useless)
Shion's more of a support character than outright attacker, though spell ray and her all lightning attack are quite useful. I transferred most of the healing ethers to her and KOSMOS, making a Shion, KOSMOS and Junior party quite deadly.

I also found Song to be quite easy. I've been playing it on and off lately, and am (I think) about halfway through Proto Merkabah.

Hmm... I can't really say that game has a lot of tough bosses. I think I died once in a optional boss fight? Jr. vs Joe? But that's because I never saw it coming, and I was way too weak when I fought him. AGWS wasn't all that useful at this stage, because they'd be too slow. And you know you're biased for not using Kos-Mos. Kos-Mos deals out the most damage, until Jr. joins. And Jr. will be the king of random encounter by then... Still, in a boss battle, I found that Kos-Mos is most well-rounded character. With the skill transfer, she can deal out tons of damage, self-heal, and can take a lot of damage.

I find that statement to be depressing. One of the reasons Im liking the game is because Im having a hard time with a lot of the bosses, an experience im not used to in a turn-based game.

Err... really? I don't think I've over-leveled my characters, since they have an average of 29, and my three who fought the last boss had an average of 31..

The one difficult turn-based RPG I've recently played would be Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, especially on hard mode. Even on normal, random encounters can easily make your game over if you don't know what you're doing.


Don't get me wrong though, Xenosaga is a great RPG, and it is not super easy or anything.

A lot of turn-based RPG games' difficulty lies in how you manage your party. That is usually gained from intuition and playing experience.

After playing these types of games for so long, it's really hard for developers to throw anything truly difficult at you, so a lot of games seem easy (squaresoft likes to make it difficult by randomly hiding the NPCs you need to talk to).

Just my little splurge on it.

The only boss I found somewhat tough in the game was Albedo near the end. He's a real pain in the arse.

The only time he was tough was when I got to him after playing for ~35 hours and rushing thru the game. I was maybe half the level I should've been, and didn't know some things about AGWS upgrades.

I managed to make it past him a few times, but Sophie Pethos just flat out owned me.

Yeah, after not having much time to play it in the past month, I finally beat it. Albedo was really easy. Provided the average level of my characters was ~41, I think I did well. Sophi Pethos was a bit of a challenged with that "Omen" attack that does around 1k, but I ended up beating him in about 15 minutes. The music for that last battle is rather strange since it's the last boss, but I liked it. Can't wait till the second comes out...

Level 41?! Wow. That's 10 level above the "recommanded level" I think?