Ep 2's combat being predicated on stacking charges to chain combos together (and making boosts critical to said combos) made for an annoying and drawn out system. Dual and triple attacks aren't rewarding to pull off because they also use said precious charges, nor are they available unless you go out of your way to get them in sidequests. There are no skills that increase your stacks and the one skill that allows you to counterboost only works 1/4th the time and isn't affected by the double rate skill.
That being said, a few tweaks would make it all flow much faster. Make the double effect skill apply to all skills instead of just stats. Allow individual status immunity and make them available earlier in the game. Tie dual and triple attacks to character progression instead of sidequests. Double the acquisition rate of C and S points. Normal attacks should gain a stack, stocking should both defend from attacks and charge two stacks. The max stack charge should be 5 instead of 3 per character. Allow manual counterboosting to counter the incessant AI boosts. Increase the base agility of all party members other than MOMO by 1. Give Chaos and Ziggy an aerial attack or knock down option. That would fix a lot of the problems and I haven't touched the elemental system yet.
ew Mok Kos
In my opinion. there is a certain point when combat in Xenosaga 1 because VERY easy and fast. In xenosaga 2 the further you get the LOOOONGER the fights get because of how much setup the combat system requires to pull off. And, if a boss can interrupt your setup you have to start from square 1.
I've played MAAAAANY jrpgs over the years and xenosaga 2 is one where i just put it down on the last boss, not because it was "hard" but because minutes worth of setup can be wasted in a second.
All it takes is the boss stealing your boost as soon as you try to start the combo. I usually wait a moment to see if my starter lands or misses before committing to O attacks, but even then some enemies will boost as soon as I do so, wasting that character's stacks and forcing me to setup again. The AI is programmed to break your combo potential as often as possible. You can counter this by forcing them to waste all their boost with feint attacks (baiting the AI into boosting with starters, waiting a moment for the AI to boost during a character turn), but that also takes more time. More annoying is how some enemies wait just long enough for you to think you're safe committing to a combo, and then counterboost to screw you over. Throw status effects and the inability to be immune from anything, and it takes even longer in some fights.
