Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Gameplay Hints and Ending Video (PS2)

In this title, for the first time in the Xenosaga series, attacking during battle is done by making selections from a menu rather than using the square, triangle and circle buttons to perform various combos. The menu selections include attack, tech, ether, special attack, item, guard, change and escape. When any combatant takes damage in battle, their Break Gauge will increase. When the gauge is full, they will enter Break Mode. In this mode they will be stunned for two turns, rendering them both unable to act and vulnerable to critical strikes. This applies to the player's characters as well as all enemies and bosses. There are specific Techs which increase an enemy's Break gauge a great deal, but do little actual damage.

The Boost system from the previous Xenosaga games makes its return. When the Boost Gauge reaches at least Level 1, the characters can use the Boost command to take their turn next regardless of their position in the turn indicator. Enemies can perform this tactic as well. The Boost Gauge is also used to facilitate Special attacks; all Specials require at least two Boost levels before they can be performed, with some requiring three levels or more. By equipping particular accessories, the player's party can attain up to Boost Level 9.

Gameplay Hints

Aqueduct Opening
You can only do this on Fifth Jerusalem after you meet Allen at the hotel; before heading up to your room go to cliff in the park and an old woman will be bothering a worker. Talk to her and then go back to the hotel and a man will be sitting in a chair wondering where his grandma is.

After you talk to him go back to the park and talk to the worker; her grandson will show up and take her away. The worker gives you a good item and walks away. You can now blow up the pipe and open the aqueduct and get the item there.

Jin's Optimum Weapon
Go to the girl's bathroom and talk to the droid there. You'll need the weapon Bo Yan and a pack of beads to get Jin's most powerful weapon. Of course, you'll have to unequip the Bo Yan and equip another weaker weapon for him. You can find the so-called beads in Miltia.

Dive in the EVS Plate (Green Plate) and lunch in old church, Miltia. Search everywhere all around Miltia to find whatever the hell that bead is. Here's an extra hint: You can find Jr's swimsuit somewhere in Miltia too. If you ever find a gate that needs the password, the password is 5150. You can get that darn thing and get the hell out of Miltia and go back to the droid in the girl's cabin and give the items to the droid.

Make sure that Bo Yan is unequipped or else you cannot let the droid make that weapon of Jin's.

ID boss
You can only battle ID when you get the Weapons Room key from Citrine. ID is located in the CAT Testing Grounds on the E.V.S system. ID is a bit hard to defeat. Here is the best strategy I could come up with.

Before You Battle ID - I would wait to defeat ID until you get passed Abel's Ark (which has a boss battle I will be covering soon) so you can acquire Heaven's Door while you are at the CAT Testing Grounds. I also recommend buying about 80 Half Repairs, 50 All Repairs, and 99 Nano Repair Ms. Make sure all of your best E.S. equipment is equipped. You will also obtain Anima 3 when you defeat Abel's Ark, which will come in handy while battling ID.

Step One: When you first start battling ID, he is about as strong as an eleven year old. ID may seem like an easy boss at first, but once you are done defeating his first form, he will transform. You should not have any trouble defeating ID's first form. If you do that, there is no way you can beat his second form, even with a help like this.

Step 2: ID's second form is the hard part. The following strategy was the one that worked best for me.

Unless the E.S. Asher is down and out, have him in the battle. The other E.S.s you have in the battle don't matter. The only thing you need to look for to decide which other E.S.s you should use is how much MAX Health it has. Sometimes there will be a blue arrow pointing to an E.S. which you can see once you use the E.S.s. If it is pointing at you, odds are, ID is going to beat the crap out of that E.S. Use the Guard command as the E.S. that the blue arrow is pointing to as that E.S.s turn.

Let the E.S. Asher be the only one to attack ID. Only use far distance attacks! Let the other E.S.s heal all the other E.S.s to keep you in the battle. Once the E.S. Asher has a full Anima gauge, use his special attack. I would save the Anima you get until you have three full Anima gauges.

ID will use an attack called Demon Lord if he starts to charge. You will get a heads up message when ID is charging. He will attack on his last turn. When he charges, I don't care if you have three full Anima gauges, I don't care if the blue arrow is not pointing to you, YOU MUST BLOCK! Repeat this process until you defeat ID.

Defeat EK Sigma Easily
Erde Kaiser Sigma could easily be defeated if you have Erde Kaiser, Erde Kaiser Fury & Dark Erde Kaiser ether. EK & EK Fury Control Device could be found in Segment Address on Elsa & Labyrinthos. I believe you can find both Address & Decoder easily.

While Dark EK Control Device could be found in Segment Adress #6 on Durandal Park, and the Decoder are from Omega ID. Now for the battle, get a defender like KOS-MOS OR Ziggy in your party, or have them both if you want. And spellcaster like MOMO. Equip your spellcaster with Heaven's Door.

Step One: When the battle starts, use KOS-MOS or Ziggy break tech. Have the caster cast beam ethers, and the other supporting caster & defender, while attacking sometimes.

Step Two: After some turns, Sigma will start using Kaiser Shield. This could be the hardest part if you don't have all EKs ethers. Here is the list of EKs ethers you must use to shut down each Kaiser Shield:

Kaiser Shield I - Use EK ether

Kaiser Shield II - Use EK Fury ether

Kaiser Shield III - Use Dark EK ether

Have your caster cast it all, and don't worry about EP consumption, since you use Heaven's Door all EP consumption is 1. After one shield is down, it will use another one. After another shield is on, don't waste your turn by doing anything useless.

Use EK ether that will destroy the shield before its next turn. This way it won't attack because it's too busy to cast shield on itself. And don't forget to attack with break techs.

Step Three: After you destroyed all three shields, it will become vulnerable to any elemental attack. At this time, its break gauge must be high. Attack it a little more to get it break.

At its break state, use all your strong elemental attack and Dark EK ether. If necessary, have all your party cast Dark EK, and use Ether Pack if you run out of EP.

Keep using Dark EK ether, and after he recovered from break state, he may survive with some HP, so finish it before it starts using deadly attacks.

Here's the first part of the game's final cutscene, the ending FMV: