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Turn-Based is Not Dead!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: March 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I guess I'm one of the few who love turn-based RPGs, and it's quite obvious that they are becoming a rarity. FFX on PS2 was the last one I've really enjoyed (at least the last big title most people would know about), then they started going for active battle. And of course we have our mega-hit western RPG of Mass Effect, which was a great game. But where's the love for turn-based? Are people forgetting their RPG roots? Did you not love Chrono-Trigger, any of the earlier FFs, or any other(s) that you may have grown up with? After FFX I've been itching for a good turn-based with a good battle mechanic and story. Lost Odyssey delivers. Thank "God," turn-based is not dead.

I'm only on the second disc (some people have to go to work, you know) so people may say my opinion of this being a five-star game is premature. However, I've played enough so far to know that this is a great game. When I first popped in the disc and watched that awesome, amazing cinematic at the beginning I knew I was in for something great. Speaking of that cinematic, I couldn't wait to get to a save-point so I could watch it again. Then I watched it again so I could show another person just how incredible this game is. Awesome, awesome stuff.

The battle system is great. The use of rings keeps it so that you're not just pressing "attack," "attack," "attack..." What I really love is the difficulty and I guess you could say the AI. Every battle is an effort, you can't just use a caster or your top tank and knock out enemies in one blow, you actually have to use healing spells and items during normal, random battles-- every character gets into every fight. This is definitely a welcome change. In previous games that I've played you almost always had 99 healing herbs, they were rarely used. Your top two characters could finish off a fight in a matter of seconds and battles almost became annoying. When you visited stores you generally ignored the item store and went straight to armor and weapons. In LO I've found myself out of healing herbs and resurrection items from normal, random battles and you constantly have to restock. One thing, though, is I wish there was armor. You only equip weapons (which you can actually see during battles, you don't have the same sword appearance throughout the game, which is good), rings, and "charms." Hopefully in the next episode of LO (from what I understand this is an ongoing saga that will span a few more games) armor will be equip-able and hopefully it will show up during battles. I'm going to use FFX again as an example, but when you equipped a player with a different shield or bracelet, it showed up in battles. The designs of such items is always cool.

My main gripe with the battle system is you have to set-up each characters moves to be carried out together all at once. The reason I don't like this set-up is if you knock out one enemy the next character in line that you've set up commands for will just attack the next enemy. Example, one of your tanks knocks out a fire elemental but you already set up a caster to cast water on it. Because it's been knocked out the caster casts water on the next enemy, maybe a water elemental, screwing things up. If you have individual attacks you can knock it out with the tank, then properly cast earth on the water elemental for your next turn instead of your move being pre-set. I prefer having characters attack one at a time, that way I can change up which enemy I'm attacking next, which spell, etc...

The story so far is amazing. The dreams are great stories, really well written stuff that should probably be published as a compilation of short stories, they work well enough alone that they don't even necessarily have to be linked to the game. They're "Chicken Soup for the Soul" kind of stuff. My one complaint with the dreams is sometimes I'm pressed for time and can't sit and read a story for 5+ minutes, I need to get to the next save point. Sometimes I just feel like whooping some monster butt and don't want to sit and read. Thankfully you can skip them if you want and come back later to read them. The one thing though, is having them as readable stories was a good choice. A cinematic for each would have been cool, but the manner in which the author describes feelings, smells, colors, etc... is far more involving. You will definitely have some emotions stirred up by some of them, without a doubt.

I really think that Lost Odyssey should be a game of the year contender. The graphics are amazing, there aren't any frame rate issues (Mass Effect, I'm looking at you), the story is great, the game play is awesome, and the music is perfect. A lot of reviewers said load times were an issue but they're about the same as Elder Scrolls. It's just really a shame turn-based JRPGs don't get the love they deserve. LO is a great game, don't miss out on it.

This may be the best current-gen game I've yet played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: February 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've been idly wondering if this is the best current-gen game I've played. It has incredibly awesome depth to the gameplay, but the place where it has a leg up on the Bioshocks and Devil May Cry's is in its story and characters. The only other game I've played in the past year and a half which has hooked me to its story and characters so much is Phoenix Wright 3. Everything else, with the possible exception of the Orange Box, has been simply "fun to play", but nothing that has me laughing one moment and sad the next, nothing that has me looking forward to the next cutscene just so I can see where the plot will go next, what the characters will do. I found out a few days ago that Lost Odyssey was written by a famous author, so....that explains it.

***EDIT****

The above paragraph is what happens when you excitedly write a review for a game when you've only played 2 discs out of 4. I had the gameplay down, so that part of the review is fine. But the story, which was so involving in the first two discs (as apparent from my frothing love for it) completely, utterly failed to live up its early promises. From the first two discs, you think you're in for a tale full of truly adult themes (like the death of your mother or child), which is why it is so horrendous that it completely devolves into "The Bad Guy went South! We must Stop Him!" and (paraphrasing): "Sarah, the path ahead is blocked with ice. Will you be our fire rod?" in the last two discs. Unfortunately I can't change the star rating for my review, but rest assured it would have went down at least one star. It's still fun to play, but in an RPG, you get your fill of the gameplay after 40-50 hours...and when the plot is this bad, there's not much incentive to go ahead and even finish the game.

Gameplaywise, it's a traditional turn-based RPG, with incredible depth. It has a fun timing-based attack system, but only if you equp a Ring to your character. Of course, you can assemble Rings on your own, determining what kind of effects it'll have on your character's attack. You can switch Rings around mid-battle, so you can change your sword from a water-based attack (complete with droplets gushing out of the sword), to a fiery blade, depending on what kind of enemy you're going to attack next.

The same goes for skills and spells. You can equip Accessories (which show up on your character in cutscenes and such) that teach your character skills. Immortals can learn these skills permanently, but anyone who has the Accessory equipped can use the skill it provides. This lends the system a kind of Final Fantasy X-2 feel, with everyone capable of obtaining access to high-level magic spells...so long as you're willing to give up whatever previous Accessory you had equipped on them.

To prevent the Immortals from becoming godly beings (at least early in the game), each Immortal has "skill slots", which you can equip a skill in. You can find things called Skill Seeds throughout the game, which creates a new skill slot for the Immortal you gave it to.

The incredibly fun strategic gameplay, along with the awe-inspiring music (Nobou Uematsu can do no wrong), means that if you're even slightly interested in traditional turn-based RPGs, if you have any fond memories of any of the Final Fantasy games, or Chrono Trigger, or Suikoden....you owe it to yourself to try this one out. Just go in there knowing the plot falls flat on its face about halfway through the game.

Impressive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Impressive,most impressive. I new when I first saw the trailer for this game that it was gonna be something special. This is the best RPG released on the Xbox platform so far,bar none. Gorgeous graphics an engaging story and spot on controls make this my favorite game so far for the Xbox. This is what every Xbox owning FF fan has been waiting for. The answer to our Japanese RPG craving is Lost Odyssey. What are you sitting here reading this review for when you could be playing this masterpiece?

Final Fantasy for the 360! Finally!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting for the Xbox answer for FF since the original xbox came out. And my waiting has finally been rewarded.
Don't listen to the doomthinkers about this game. If you liked the Turnbased (important!!) editions of FF you will without a doubt like this game. This play's and feel like a FF game, The only downside is the beginning of the game, There is a lot of watching at first (the story is great so it is only a small downside)But once it picks up your in RPG heaven. With super graphics and sound, great story and a slick turnbased actionsystem.
The loadingtimes are really not that bad, not nearly the half a minute to a minute some reviews or people has been saying, they are about 5 to 12 secondes.
I'm not going to stretch this review, I'm going to make this simple if you like FF (once again the turnbased editions, i can't stress this enough!!)you can absolutely do no wrong here. Like some reviews says it doesn't do anything new, but does FF even does this? Nope FF is FF it doesn't need big changes. So why should LO have too then?
RPG lovers over the world. BUY THIS NOW!!!

An instant classic. Do not pass this up.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First off, I'd like to say that I've been a pretty big RPG fan since I was little. Chrono Trigger(Super Nintendo) was the game that got me hooked on the RPG genre. Lost Odyssey caught my interest when it was first announced, so I started reading up on it a lot, and talking to people who imported to get as much info. as I could. After a lot of research I picked it up on the day of launch. Needless to say, I couldn't put it down.

To not drag this out: This game doesn't do anything new, but it does everything right you'd expect from a traditional RPG. Amazing story, great characters, a solid battle system, and a New Game+ mode. This has everything to offer for RPG thirsty fans looking for a next-gen RPG.

Pros:
+ Timed hit system put in place to keep the battles from lacking interaction
+ Insane graphics, the unreal engine is nice and allows for some crazy facial expressions. The scenery is really well designed
+ The sprinting/running in this game is quick! Mistwalker did this since they knew how walking slow in some RPGs can be painful.
+ The "Ring Assembly" system is neat. Allows you to combine accessories for some pretty wicked ones. These help in battle since you can switch at will (adds some tactics to the boss battles)
+ Anti-Grind system - they scale exp so people know when it's time to move on w/o overpowering there characters. Hardcore RPGs can still grind if they want, but at least they let it be known when you're at a good level (to keep the game challenging).
+ Boss battles are no pushover. Assuming you don't spend hours and hours building your team up to insane levels, the bosses in this game will be no pushover.
+ New game plus - allows you to start your game over with some of the stuff you had in your previous file.
+ One of the best Soundtracks in awhile. The man behind much of the Final Fantasy series is on board with Mistwalker, and it's very good.

Cons:
- None. The loading time issues you read in some reviews is gone. This was only on the "Review build" of the game. The retail versions DO NOT suffer from lag like they say. Many youtube videos prove this, and were made specifically to show how the loading times are fixed. Many sites like Gamestop even admitted this recently.

Go buy this game now if you like Japanese style RPGs.

Fantastic Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Pros:

+Astonishing graphics
+Even better music score
+Well performed voice actors
+A well told story that spans four discs

Cons:

-Load times are long and frequent
-There's some slowdown to deal with

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator and producer of the Final Fantasy series, left Square-Enix and formed Mistwalker along with several of the staff members who made the Final Fantasy series. Their first effort, Blue Dragon, was, for the most part, a decent RPG but not what you'd expect from the man who brought you Final Fantasy. Lost Odyssey is a much better effort than Blue Dragon. From the creators of Final Fantasy comes another sprawling epic that's far better than Blue Dragon could ever hope to be.

If there's one thing Mistwalker has solidified themselves in doing, it's the ability to make a beautiful game with some decent production values. The story of Lost Odyssey centers on Kaim. An immortal who has lost his memory. As the game progresses, you learn more about Kaim and who he was. In spite of having several overly done moments, Lost Odyssey doesn't feature a bad storyline at all. Much of it is well written, the dialog well spoken and acted by their voice cast. Even better is that there are a lot of emotional moments going on that make the game a thrill to play. While there isn't anything too stark about the story itself, the characters are likeable enough to keep you going. And they should be. This game spans four discs.

Lost Odyssey doesn't do a whole lot to separate itself from a lot of JRPGs. It has a few good elements to it, but in truth, this is really just your average turned based battle system. There are a few tidbits to separate it from other JRPGs, however. Such as placing your characters in the front or back row. While Final Fantasy has already done this, Lost Odyssey puts much more emphasis on this. There's a guard gauge you must keep an eye on, and once it runs out you'll take much more damage from attacks. Learning skills is also somewhat different. Kaim, like other characters who will join you, is immortal. Immortals can, however, learn abilities from their mortal allies by battling with them in combat.

There are also attack rings. When a character attacks you can hold the right trigger and then release at the right time to do extra damage. While it doesn't really add much of anything to the combat, it keeps you focused. Combat isn't too hard to learn. Neither is the rest of the game. In fact, Lost Odyssey plays pretty much like a standard RPG.

Lost Odyssey looks absolutely beautiful, though. Helped along, of course, by a well told story. The characters and environments are absolutely beautiful. To compliment all this, the music score is astonishing. Done by former Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu The voice acting is also pretty good. If there was anything that might keep the game's production values down, it might be that it just doesn't run all that smoothly. Blue Dragon suffered similar problems. While the slowdown people may not mind, the frequent and somewhat long loading times might be problematic.

In short, Lost Odyssey is so far the best JRPG you can get on the XBOX360 at the moment. It's deep emotional story and focus on its characters make it a more memorable RPG. While it suffers briefly in the technical department, it's certainly not a bad game by any means. JRPG fans should definitely pick up.

Finally an traditional RPG with a strong and emotional story

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

With the creator of the "Final Fantasy" series breaking away from Square-Enix to start his own company and to work for Microsoft as Mistwalker to continue to make traditional RPG's who would of thought that after the semi-good success with, "Blue dragon" that the company would make a game that not only is for adults, but has the story that feels like its filled with all the drama, political intrigue, and complications that makes up a good RPG well guess what you will find all of that in this game called, "Lost Odyssey" only for the X-box 360.

Lost Odyssey, is about a man by the name of Kaim Argonar. A 1,000 year old hero and protagonist of the game who due to some strange reason can't remember a chunk of his thousand years on his world but all he knows that he has some purpose even though he doesn't know what it is, so he continues to walk the world fighting wars after wars until he gets swept up into a chain of events that not only helps him get some of his memories back but also changes him on a path of redemption and solace.
But he's not alone in this adventure and he's not the only immortal in the whole world...soon you will meet up with the ever adventurous Seth (who is a woman by the way) and the very sarcastic Jensen who's a mage by profession but a bit of a womanizing jackass by nature. From the beginning they are your best friends and good allies in a complicated and very bittersweet storyline which is NOT a bad thing...for some reason they stepped back from the "pretty boy/girl" confused about saving the world" nature and put a somewhat cold hearted individual that only lives to fight then realizes his nature and goals thru certain dreams which i will get to that later.

But as the game progress the level of detail to the games design is pretty damn good being that the game runs on a Unreal graphical engine (which has its good and bad points). Good being that it looks REALLY great, the magic and other aspects to the game is done with such a crass to detail that it makes the game a worth while to watch but its bad point is that sometimes it does lag a bit from time to time but you really wouldn't notice it though and that's pretty much it. The fighting is pretty much your standard traditional RPG style but with an added twist called the, "Ring system" which at first its a bit complicated to do but with the tutorial it comes easy and its pretty fun as well as it helps you Plan on what ring you need to attach to your weapon in order to defeat an enemy and/or boss of the game which is a smart move on Sakaguchi's part but I'm sure the drawback is that everyone wanted or expected the battle system to be real time and this isn't but it advances the nostalgic feel for the game and its a bit more better than what "Blue dragon" produced (and readable too...blue dragon you had to wear special glasses to figure out what they were writing for the words were small..*laughing*).

The game is 4-discs which for some is long...but consider the source, you have a very abundant storyline; very well drawn out characters who's personality aren't the same and they compliment each other very well, a very well done complicated adult story line with adult humor at times. And let's get to the main part of the game...the story! Like I mention the story is complicated at most for its political intrigue, and immortal background but if the story doesn't get you hooked its the dreams that will. it seems Sakaguchi used the talents of a famous Japanese author to keep the player interest in its deep and engaging with stories that make even the biggest person become emotionally grasp by the extra sentimental backdrop to Kaim's past.

Even though it starts a bit slow after the first disc the action picks up a lot more and you are soon wrap into its world. A person who plays this game can beat it within a couple of weeks if not a month (if you have a lot of time in your hands of course). On a system that is gaining a lot of RPG games now this is one of those games that you must pick up in your collection..don't pass this one up.

Gimmicky, Cliched, and Fantastic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game has its share of cliche. The dialogue is sometimes very stiff, and your character, Kaim, is pretty disconnected during the first half of the game. The game tries to make his seem more caring...but when he opens up it seems strange and awkward. But perhaps being an immortal does that to people.

Anyways, what sets this game aside from other games, and I won't call this an RPG, since you have very little choice in anything...are the stories. The unlockable memories. They are deep and immersive, and they make you care. I won't lie, more than once they had me in tears. The man who wrote them can really paint with words. The stories are beautiful. I read someone else's review of that and scoffed. It's a video game...yeah. It is.

The story spans 4 discs, and it's long. I think I'm over 60 hours of gameplay now. It's my first time through, so it's probably not actually that long, but it had a long learning curve for me. I still haven't beat it. Some of the battles are so frustrating they make you want to pull your hair out.

Overall, a good game. Don't pass it up.

by now you should know

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is a standard Japanese RPG if you havent played one before chances are you wont like it. But for RPG addicts like myself its a must buy.
Its just that simple.

Excellent design, poor translation

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 51
Date: February 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Given the low number of RPG's available on the 360, I've been anticipating this game for quite some time now. Suffice to say, I was excited when I first popped the game in. From the art design to the seamless transition between cut scenes and player-controlled combat, the introduction was impressive. Though I didn't have access to skills or magic yet, the combat system seemed to be enjoyable.

My problem with the game occurred shortly after Kaim arrives at Uhra. I was starting to get a bit worried while watching the cut scenes featuring the debating Uhra Council. The dialogue just seemed...wooden. I don't know if it was the voice actors or the writing itself that irked me. It was probably a combination of both. Come to think of it, the only voice actor I was truly impressed with was the one that played Jansen. But I tried to ignore it. After all, I've played decent RPG's that have had their share of wooden dialogue.

The situation became impossible to ignore by the time Kaim had his first flashback of the past. I was initially hopeful. The brief cut scene was intense and emotional. It worked. But then the game launched into a bloated short story. The next five minutes were filled with screen after screen of text that transitioned in and out like it belonged in a PowerPoint slideshow. That wasn't really the problem. It was the writing itself that rubbed me the wrong way. Do you want melodrama? Look no further, folks. This little gem read like the premise of a Lifetime movie, except it was written by an eighth grader. I'd like to think the blame lies on the translation of the game to English. Maybe the Japanese version doesn't come across this sappy.

But man, is this bad. They beat you over the head with an over-abundance of flowery adjectives and cliché metaphors, all but screaming in your ear, "This is beautiful and poetic! Feel bad for Kaim! NOW!" I am sure that some of you out there may know what I am talking about. It was the kind of writing that made me think of Christopher Paolini's Eragon novel. It read a little something like this:

"The nighttime dew glittered on the delicate crimson flowers like a thousand twinkling stars in the shadowy midnight sky, untouched by the bitter harshness of the cruel world. Kaim felt his very soul cry out in eternal pain and sorrow as he glanced at her and saw the shimmering pearly tears gliding down her beautiful milky cheeks...blah blah blah."

Do you get my drift? My friends and I groaned as we struggled through this tripe. We were relieved once it was finally over and the game resumed. But no more than ten minutes later, we were treated with YET ANOTHER flashback story that was even longer and more juvenile than the first one. Except this one didn't have the interesting cut scene before it. If I were in charge of this game's translation, I would have smacked the person that wrote this junk with a giant "Writing for Dummies" book. This prose needs some relentless red pen treatment. The emotion they are trying to pound into your skull would have been a hell of a lot more subtle and effective if they had cut out the melodramatic flab.

From what I've seen so far, they treat Kaim like he's the emo poster boy for Immortals. I understand the game is full of these "dreams" of Kaim's past. I don't think I could personally handle that, no matter how cool the other aspects of the game are.

I already know some of you may bash me for this review. You may criticize me for rating the game this low without playing it the entire way through. Save your breath. I am entitled to my opinion. I'm certainly not going to play this game the whole way through if I have to be bombarded with wishy-washy middle school creative writing projects that take me out of the story rather than immerse me.

What is my final word on the game? If you can stomach this kind of stuff without being instantly turned off, go right ahead and pick it up. I'm sure the rest of the game is really cool. As for myself, if I want a dramatic RPG, I want one that doesn't try this hard. I want one that conveys emotion without making me want to puke all over my Xbox 360. Thanks for reading.

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