Let's Play Xenogears (Part 57) [4-8Live] 

the change in the battle start animation started the moment you realized you been eating people. The thing is, the ethos been handing out food for over 500 years, and they handing out that food. The soylent system food, is the main part of everyone diet. Just like how we all buy ground beef, and other meats. What if you learnt that cows, and pigs, where DNA altered humans, and at one point, where the same DNA as humans, but because they have been altered they are now slightly different. It is to indicate that your paradigm has shifted, and Fei now sees the world completely differently. He is starting to understand how truly twisted of a plan has been happening, and how someone, or something some where is forcing the world to be the way it is, and what ever that is, must be stopped. The shattering glass was a metaphor for his shattering ego and mind. He hated fighting, so every time he had to fight, it showed that is ego and mind was shattering. Now it is not shattering, but acting more like liquid and flowing.

It's just as Slimebuck says in the comments down here: remember: Fei starts off as a peaceful person, he never wants to fight, so whenever he HAS to fight, something in him breaks that pushes him to fight (symbolized by the screen shatter effect). Since the food eating scene, Fei has now shifted to a point where he's not forced to fight by external circumstances, now he ACTIVELY WANTS to fight against Solaris and this is why the battle transition is changed.

The deathblows end in X

i remember seeing somewhere back when this game was somewhat current, that you level DB's faster if you just spam whatever the leading symbol is, instead of putting in the whole combo. so like if the DB leads with a triangle, you just spend all 6 points in triangle, or if its a square leading attack, just spend all points in square without putting in the entire combo. i think the game tracks how many times a button has been pressed, and i think they said that the first button of a combo is what the games is tracking. take that with a grain of salt though but that\s always how i've leveled after learning that.

For such an extensive game they really have a limited amount of enemies in each area.

Good morning