The first two episodes of Xenosaga, Der Wille zur Macht and Jenseits von Gut und Böse, are released as a single game adapted for a handheld platform.

Story-wise, the game is almost the same as the console versions. You start as the young Shion, testing your newly developed android KOS-MOS, and go through the complex futuristic story up to where Episode II ended. Several cut-scenes that were left out of the console release are present in this installment. Those cut-scenes give a deeper insight into the personalities of the game's heroes.

In the graphics department, the game replaces the original 3D world with 2D graphics and an isometric perspective for battles. The cut scenes are presented as animé-style character portraits with the dialogues displayed in text boxes. The battle system retains most of the defining features of the first episode, including boost system, AGWS (giant robots) combat, etc.