Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra 2006

Is it still worth playing?

Monolith Soft's 2006 role playing game for the PlayStation 2, set in a science fiction universe of hundreds of thousands of planets. Shion Uzuki and the battle android KOS-MOS investigate the origins of the alien Gnosis. On the field, enemies are visible and can be avoided, engaged or held in place with traps. Once a fight starts, it is turn based with three active characters and runs on two gauges. One, the Break gauge, fills as attacks land and leaves a broken character or enemy unable to act for two turns. The other, the boost gauge, buys a second action in a turn or a special attack, and a kill made with one pays bonus experience, money and skill points. In some dungeons you fight in mechs instead, whose weapons draw on a finite energy supply. Combat that rewards planning a few turns ahead still keeps each battle tense today.