Lost Odyssey

[Breaker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w1Ry4NbPcc

I had pre-ordered this and finally picked it up today. I started playing this afternoon and my jaw hasn't come up off the floor since. It's a turn based RPG made by Mistwalker, which is lead by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is considered the father of Final Fantasy. The game plays very much like a Final Fantasy game. The only word to describe the graphics is STUNNING. The gameplay, music, and everything else is all A++ as well.

I've read a lot of reviews that all complain about load times, but I'm happy to report that that is a load of crap. There are load times, but I hardly notice they're there at all. If you have a 360 and you're into JRPGs, do yourself a favor and check this out one.

http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1176/1158773487.jpg

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/l/lostodyssey/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Odyssey

[Nicholas Steel]

this coming to australia ever?

[Breaker]

AU February 8, 2008

[DarkDragoonX]

Yeah, I need to pick that up when I get the chance... been rather looking forward to it. I thought the holidays were bad, but February and March are going to kill my wallet.

[Yoshiman]

I've actually been keeping an eye on this game for a while now. The last truly good J-RPG I've played was Tales of the Abyss for the PS2 amidst all the other "okay" ones.

The only thing I'm concerned about is that LO seems to have a lot of hate against it. Aside from load times, I've heard complaints against it being unoriginal and boring at times. But then again, the Xbox 360 fanbase is mostly made of FPS-fanatics.

[Cloral]

I haven't picked up an RPG in a while because I decided that I had to finish Wild Arms 5 before I could buy any more RPGs, and I stopped playing that for a while. Now that I'm back playing it again and getting pretty far into it, what do you think should be the next RPG I get: FF12, Blue Dragon, or this?

[Breaker]

I personally LOVED Final Fantasy 12. It was from the same team that created Vagrant Story though, my all time favorite RPG, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Lost Odyssey is quickly becoming one of my favorite RPGs though. If you have a 360, PICK THIS GAME UP. The graphics are unbelievable and it's a very well rounded RPG. I believe Final Fantasy 12 is now on the PS2 Greatest Hits so you can pick that up for 19.99. Get both.

Blue Dragon, created by the same folks that made LO, is more tailored for a younger audience. LO is much more adult oriented.

[DarkFlameWolf]

hopefully it'll come out on PC, but highly doubt it. Not buying a 360 for it though.

[Breaker]

5 hours into it and it's already topped Final Fantasy 7 in my book. This game is unbelievable.

[MottZilla]

I might grab it later on when it's cheaper. It looks interesting but RPGs generally don't hold my interest anymore. The graphics look nice though.

[Warlock]

I forgot this was even out already. I'm probably going to have to pick it up.

I checked out the IGN video review and it looked pretty snazzy. Though I don't get why they feel the need to rag on the game "because it's a JRPG". Half of the review is complaining that it has typical JRPG features - so? Isn't that the market for this game? People who like JRPGs?

P.S. - Slightly off-topic, but has anyone here played Eternal Sonata? That was another 360 RPG I've been looking at but never had a chance to really evaluate whether I want to get it or not.

[DarkDragoonX]

I checked out the IGN video review and it looked pretty snazzy. Though I don't get why they feel the need to rag on the game "because it's a JRPG". Half of the review is complaining that it has typical JRPG features - so? Isn't that the market for this game? People who like JRPGs?

Yeah, that's one of my biggest pet peeve about reviews. Such as a few reviews of brilliant old-school dungeon crawl Etrian Odyssey that slammed it for, essentially, being an old-school dungeon crawl. It's like going to a steakhouse and then complaining about the lack of chinese food.

Hell, Penny-Arcade already has a comic detailing my thoughts on the subject. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/05)

[Cloral]

Yeah, that was in response to poor reviews for Enchanted Arms. Though I would argue that the game had other problems, you really got the impression from some of those reviews that the reviewer didn't play very far into the game - which was one of the big things they compained about in the accompanying news post. This seems like it was almost certainly the case since many of the complaints were only valid for about the first hour or so of the game (such as the annoyingly stereotypical flamboyant homosexual character, who disappears after the intro sequence).
I got much the same impression from the Wild Arms 5 reviews. For instance, the reviewer in one review complained that you get healed after every battle. The truth of the matter is, if he had played past the first 2 dungeons he would have seen that the game places more significane on each individual battle. Most enemies can kill a character within 3 or so hits. And because all spells including healing spells cost quite a bit of MP, it is downright essential that your characters be healed after every battle.

All this makes me wonder, how far into a game must a reviewer play before writing a review? It seems like with RPGs in particular they could really miss the point of the whole game if they stop after just a couple of hours.

[Warlock]

I picked this up today. It is very good. It really is exactly like Final Fantasy - they could have slapped "Final Fantasy 13" on this and no one would have noticed it wasn't a Final Fantasy game :P (except for the fact that they renamed all the spells and status effects and stuff - same exact ones, just a different name :D)

It's a lot of fun, basically FF meets the Highlander :D There really aren't load times, I don't know why reviewers complained about that. There are maybe 15-30 second loads in between some major areas, but other than that it's fine. There is a bit of a lag at the start of battles but I can't tell if it's a masked load time or if they really, really just like panning around their characters FF7-style. But overall, load times are *faster* than or at least equal to any PS2 RPG, so there you go. I don't get the bitching.

I do like the Ring and Skill systems though. The skills are a lot like Final Fantasy 9 in that you can learn them from items. Though there is also skill linking with "mortals" that is kind of cool. I think the ring system works really well too, I like that you basically switch them out as the need arises and you can do that on the fly in battle. That's very cool.

Jansen is also awesome. The scene where he's supposed to meet them and he stumbles in drunk with three women on his arm is absolutely hilarious.

I don't know what to think about the dream sequences. They are nice but they are all really, really, REALLY depressing. They kind of kill the momentum of the story too :P I don't think I've seen one of them yet that didn't involve someone dying (usually tragically).

But that's the other thing - 4 disks and they couldn't make this full voice-acted? Mass Effect is one disk and that has full voice acting. At the very least, the dreams should be voice acted, I hate reading. Bah. I guess they just need all that room for the massive amounts of FMV :P Though on the plus side, it's really, really hard to tell the difference between in-game and FMV, and that's pretty damn awesome.

And then also, not sure what's up with the "Incredible Hulk" style split-screen cutscenes. It's kind of bizarre, but I almost think it works (well, at least way more than they did in that movie).

But ah well, I do like this game a lot. Definately worth the purchase. Like I said, it's *exactly* like Final Fantasy, so I get where the reviews are coming from. But really, is that a bad thing? It's a JRPG - that's what JRPGs do. Reviewers need to lighten up and try actually enjoying stuff for a change ;) It does feel weird though, I'll be playing and I'll look down at the controller or a "Friend is online" bubble will popup or something and I'll suddenly remember, yes, this is an Xbox game :D I'm so used to playing these on PSX for so long that it's just so bizarre :D

[Nicholas Steel]

is this game 4 discs?!? sheesh must be something like 110$ game over here then >.< which means i won't be buying it for quiet a while :P

[Breaker]

is this game 4 discs?!? sheesh must be something like 110$ game over here then >.< which means i won't be buying it for quiet a while :P

It's no more expensive than any other 360 title.

[Cloral]

When you buy a game, you're paying for the work that went into producing the data on the discs, not the discs themselves. DVDs cost less than $1 apiece to manufacture.

[Warlock]

I'm still amazed this is 4 disks tho - Square hasn't needed multiple disks since the PSX days (as far as I recall anyways).

Like I said, must be jam-packed with FMVs :D I also think they probably went all out with the textures and soforth. The game does look pretty nice.

[MottZilla]

Enix did which is part of Square now, with Star Ocean 3. And I'm sure they did other PS2 games that were multi disc. Now if you see a multi disc PS3 game, that'll be something. :p

[Matteo]

I'll be getting this after I finish FFXII...can't wait!

[Nicholas Steel]

yea the extra discs probably are because of the high quality textures with low compression (so they load fast without performance hit). oh and the xbox360 still uses DVD's doesn't it? that would be a good reason why the ps3 will probably never have multi-disc games.\

i believe this won't be the only multi disc game for the xbox360, not by a long shot :P

[Cloral]

So I decided to pick this up this weekend. I went to the local EB and they didn't have it. No big deal, this happens pretty frequently, and Target always has the games in stock. Wrong! Target was sold out as well. No store in Camarillo has it in stock. I guess it must be selling pretty well. That or they didn't make very many copies of it. Either way I'm going to have to go into Ventura to pick it up, but that won't be happening until early next week.

[DarkDragoonX]

I had to call/visit no fewer than 7 stores to get my copy at the beginning of the week, and the store that had it in stock only *just* got a shipment of four copies minutes before my arrival. If I hadn't specifically asked when they were getting their next shipment (it wasn't on the shelves yet), I would have missed it.

I'm actually rather surprised at how popular the game is. Seems the old-school jRPG still has some life in it, which suits me just fine.

[Breaker]

I'm on Disc 3 and still blown away by this game. It's a very cool RPG.

[Archibaldo]

A friend of mine picked this game up the day I bought my 360. If it's as good as you say it is, I might have to borrow it from him.

btw, whats the 'j' for in jrpg?

[DarkDragoonX]

A friend of mine picked this game up the day I bought my 360. If it's as good as you say it is, I might have to borrow it from him.

btw, whats the 'j' for in jrpg?

"Japanese," reffering to console-style gameplay mechanics originating in Japan-produced games such as the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. They generally focus on cinematics, character development and a strong plotline.

This is opposed to western-style RPGs, such as Fallout and Planescape: Torment, which are based heavily on PnP (pen and paper) roleplaying systems, typically Dungeons & Dragons. These focus more on nonlinear choices (though it generally, though not always, makes for a slightly weaker overall plot) making the main character the player. Typically very text-heavy, these games have lots of textual dialogue and branching conversation paths, often influencing the outcome of the story.

In a nutshell, jRPGs are like playing through a movie, and western-style RPGs are more like playing a tabletop D&D game. In recent years, with games like KOTOR and Mass Effect, there has been some crossover, as these games have a bare-bones western RPG structure, but greatly simplify the gameplay and the PnP elements, a in favor of simplified, almost-but-not-quite-jRPG mechanics and a stronger, albiet more linear, plot. I'm going off on a tangent, though, so I'll just end it here.

[Warlock]

That's a pretty good explanation. I like to think of it as basically Final Fantasy vs. Oblivion. Those are both good examples of the styles.

Anyways, I haven't had a ton of time to play this so I just got to disk 2 this weekend. Still a lot of fun. I really like how they handle their party system. For one, you actually get to have five people in a party which is great (3 person parties in particular bug me.. I hate having to pick and choose who I leave behind). Plus, you basically bring everyone with you, so you can swap them out at any time, which is awesome.

[Cloral]

I finally found a copy yesterday at Target (EB was sold out again). I'm only about an hour in so it is a bit early to tell if I really like the RPG-elements of it. But I will say that the graphics and cinematics of it are absolutely amazing. It really makes me feel like I'm playing a Square-made RPG (which is a compliment).

[DarkDragoonX]

My personal favorite aspect of the game is, ironically, the Dreams, which have no cinematics and no voice acting, just lots of text. People have complained the "the dreams shoud have been cutscenes, blah blah blah," but no. No, they should not be. There are somethings that can only be conveyed through text, and the Dreams do it perfectly... some of them damn near brought me to tears, embarrassing as it is to admit.

[Yoshiman]

I picked up the game about two weeks ago. I'm on the second disk, and it's definitely one of the best RPGs in a long time. Though I wish there was a little more emphasis on exploration.

I also wonder if the people who complained about load times had ADD or something.


My personal favorite aspect of the game is, ironically, the Dreams, which have no cinematics and no voice acting, just lots of text. People have complained the "the dreams shoud have been cutscenes, blah blah blah," but no. No, they should not be. There are somethings that can only be conveyed through text, and the Dreams do it perfectly... some of them damn near brought me to tears, embarrassing as it is to admit.
I completely agree. There's something about the way it's written that makes it so moving. Turning them into cutscenes would kind of ruin it.

And don't feel embarrassed. I kinda choked up on a few of them too. :p Particularly "Hannah's Departure" and "Don't Forget Me Now, You Hear?"

[Breaker]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who teared up a bit during some of them.

[Warlock]

My personal favorite aspect of the game is, ironically, the Dreams, which have no cinematics and no voice acting, just lots of text. People have complained the "the dreams shoud have been cutscenes, blah blah blah," but no. No, they should not be. There are somethings that can only be conveyed through text, and the Dreams do it perfectly... some of them damn near brought me to tears, embarrassing as it is to admit.

I don't think they should have been cutscenes, but I do think they should have been voice acted. It's annoying having to read all that every 10 minutes.

[Cloral]

Then you should do what I do and skip them when they first come up, and just watch them when you go to an inn. This keeps them from breaking up the flow of the game.

I'm in Namibia, and the funeral scene... apart from the stupid minigame tasks they inserted into it, that was really impressive. They've actually got me to the point where I want to keep playing to see what's going to come up next, and I think the last time an RPG managed that was FFX.