Lost Odyssey

[Gungnir]

Keris reminded me that I actually bought LO on the same week as it's release. Normally, I wait till a game at least goes down past the 40 dollar line, so I generally don't get to start these kind of threads.

The story is pretty good so far, not too many cliches, but enough to make it feel kinda familiar. Jansen is a hilarious womanizer (and he shows up drunk for your first mission), and I'm actually not sure if him and Seth are going to hook up, because she just seethes with hate for him, and does so from the moment they meet. Kaim is a bit emo, but I like the reason behind it. Being an amnesiac who dreams of a little girl, that he cares for without knowing why, jumping off a cliff into the ocean will do that to a guy.

The combat is turn-based, but it's got some cool ideas. The front line of your party acts like a wall, and you get a number called Guard Condition that determines how well they work. It starts out as the total of the front line's HP, and when they get hit, it goes down by the same amount, but healing doesn't restore the bar. The higher your GC is, the less damage your back line takes when enemies attack them.

Every normal attack has a little timing game, and depending on how well you do, you can get special effects added on to them, like poison or a damage boost, depending on what kind of ring you have on. Which is where the obligatory item creation segment comes in. The making them isn't particularly fun, but the effect in combat is worth mentioning. I'm glad that the rings are the only thing you can make, because they're not really that important to combat, but useful when you have the right one for the right situation.

Oh, and there's these cool little bits where seeing something, like a group of people talking about a certain subject, will unlock a memory from Kaim's past. Then you get a little character development from him by way of short stories presented with neat backgrounds and sound effects. These are quite cool, but they are easily ruined forever by a simple comparison.

Powerpoint Presentation
It's your own damn fault if you opened that.

[Crispy Dave]

remembers past memories what about assassins creed

[Cybren]

As someone who grew up playing JRPGs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, I am overwhelmed by this sense of dejavu as I play it, which is funny because the game concerns a thousand year old wanderer whose experiences reawakens long forgotten memories.

[Raroy]

The bosses are a pain. They are like Shin Megami Tensi Bosses expect you can't customize your team to be effect against them. I get a sense that the story will get better but it doesn't hit it there yet. Probably at the end of disc one.

[Rogue 7]

Overall, reccommended? I may have to pick this up when I get back home.

[Gungnir]

Overall, reccommended? I may have to pick this up when I get back home.

I think that if you have ever liked a Final Fantasy, you'll probably like this enough to buy it.

Oh, and because I feel like I need to appease the people who hate emo main characters, Kaim warms up after the first disk.

[Cainen]

As someone who grew up playing JRPGs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, I am overwhelmed by this sense of dejavu as I play it, which is funny because the game concerns a thousand year old wanderer whose experiences reawakens long forgotten memories.

...Are you serious? Sheesh, I've always thought the genre was bereft of originality and then they go and rip off my favorite RPG. Massively. God dammit.

[Gig_Complex]

Its a great game, I just got past the Black Cave in Disc 2 and I have to say, while this game does have a few flaws it is overall at least a 8.5 in my books and is a must have for those who wish the 360 had more JRPGs. It also makes up for Blue Dragon in my mind.

Pros
- Graphics are Beautiful, I know its a second tier thing compared to the story in my opinion but the graphics in this game are top notch.
- The Story it self. While not necessarily completely original its not in my opinion a rip off of the genre and the Thousand Years of Dreams were written by one of the best writers out of Japan and are a great read.
- While there are random battles, I find that they're nostalgic and are spaced far enough apart and aren't all that bothersome.
- The voice acting is top notch each voice matches quite well and while not every line is voiced the most important are.

Con
- The first two boss battles can sometimes come down to luck depending on how they act, but other then that the difficultly is just perfect in my opinion, if you don't use a strategy guide as I've heard people constantly breeze through the game with them.
- The music while on par with FFs and his previous work does seem to be lacking in some areas, for example Tosca doesn't have a track just ambient noises when it would have been perfect for a joyful acoustic guitar track.
- While the load times aren't as bad as the reviews say they are there are times where they are noticeable but they don't really detract from the game.
- On a similar issue, the graphics sometimes clip, this however seems limited to various copies of the game as my friend's copy doesn't seem to stutter all that much I've seen mine do so, but only in the first 10 minutes.

Overall I definitely recommend this game to any RPG fan who has a 360, while it doesn't take the top list it does have a place on it and at the moment of all the next-gen RPGs that have come out it is the top one.

[Ranis]

Lost Oddysey is incredibly impressive. I say this because when Mistwalker released Blue Dragon, it was passable for me, someone who has beaten literally every single FF game and has high expectation, I saw Blue Dragon for what it was: Mistwalker's first game, and for what it was, Blue Dragon exceeded what I thought it was going to be.

Lost Odyssey completely erased any doubts that I had about Mistwalker as a company. As I sit down to play Lost Odyssey, I feel incredibly nostalgic, like I've seen this before and been here before, but the storyline keeps me guessing every time I progress it. I want to say that this feels exactly like playing a FF game, but something keeps me from it; either the feel, or the music, I can't quite place it.

The reason why I can't say that is because everything in this game, everything, doesn't feel superficial. In a typical FF game, it's quite apparent that 90% of all NPC's are just there to be there and to have filler. However, even the most lowly soldiers of Numara when you meet Cooke and the other kid, their movements and reactions feel real. To such a degree, that, there is no doubt that this entire world feels alive when I play LO. (Now, I'm sure what helps this is my brand new HDTV with 7000:1 contrast ratio, but even so.) This is helped by brilliant voice acting combined with the very unique cut scenes that will cut a portion of the screen out and show one character looking at another, or at something else, to emphasize what's going on between character interaction for cinematic effect. For example, when in the mountains there is a cut scene where Seth looks at Kaim with a worried expression; this never would have been apparent from the angle of the "master screen," or the camera. It's very visually stimulating.

The combat system is something new. The rings are a nice addition to the game that will allow a wide variety of customization, but I'm worried about being overwhelmed. Just before and after the second bosses, the game basically overwhelmed me with random items used in ring creation. If it keeps going at this pace, things may get just a tad out of hand, with the existing need to filter through hundreds of rings, therefore heavily bogging down gameplay. However, I like the wall system. It's fresh and new, and I think that it will eventually be an essential part of winning even the simplest fights later on in the game, balancing doing damage to the enemies while recovering the guard condition or recovering it. It brings something fresh to the table of RPG's, and I approve of it.

Kaim's memories, extremely pretty and elaborate PowerPoint presentations they may be, are masterfully written and the guy who wrote "Don't Forget Me Now, Ya Hear?" should be given a cookie because it was so sad that it actually made me cry last night. I'll admit it, I cried due to the emotions a video game evoked in me. Think what you will, but I think it's a step in the right direction, for sure.

Overall, I'm not very far in this game at all but I'm considering it a masterpiece. The storyline is expansive and impressive and I can't wait for the moment that I find out more about the world that Mistwalker has graciously given me. I don't think this one will ever leave my shelf once I beat it, and many of the FF titles have immediately upon their own completion, so take it for what you will.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Dammit! Now I'm wondering if I should buy an Xbox 360 just for this game!:smallsigh: