For sure! She's so expressive and has so much personality. She's a genuinely well written character with a lot of depth. I think a lot of people who haven't played the whole game may miss that and see her as little more than a fun play on the silent protag trope, but she's much more than that.

The game very easily gave me some of my new favorite characters! I don't think I've ever encountered a protagonist as endearing as Lea....

!!!

It's worth the frustration for sure. Some of the bosses really annoyed me lol but I actually really like the combat system. The game just absolutely crawls and really tests your patience (especially if you want to explore) so I've been relying on emulator fast forward to speed things up

I'm nearing the ending of Xenosaga and I really like the characters but the story is really just starting and the gameplay never really improves 😭 still worth playing but I hope you have fast forward lol

You can also tell they changed the lighting quite a bit which really messes with some of the art direction. It's not as big of an issue as the poor upscaling but it's definitely a noticeable difference.

Also I'm pretty sure it's all of the backgrounds. I looked at some of the battle backgrounds or area themes and they have the same symptoms of poor upscaling. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to this game previously.

Why did it take people so long to notice bsky.app/profile/xera...

I don't look regularly but I feel like I haven't seen a cheap PS2 in years. At least in the US

I feel like if this did happen they'd still find ways to justify it by marking them as "first print" or whatever and then the investor bros will still be assholes about it. And then no one will be able to buy them anyway because scalpers will still do their thing

Yep! The new content is really noticeable with the increase in production quality lol. Also if you hear a certain someone's voice.....

It being popular in its era is always surprising to me because I've never seen non-xeno heads talk about it