Lost Odyssey Review

The transition to next gen has been pretty hard on JRPG developers.Rising costs, shrinking markets due to dominance of western RPG's has caused developers to rethink their strategy of putting all eggs in one basket called as 'PS2' and going multi platform. Amidst this when the father of Final Fantasy decides to team up with his old buddy Nobuo Uematsu(Ed : For those new to the JRPG scene he is the musical genius behind the final fantasy games) to release an JRPG exclusively for Xbox 360 we had to take notice.

Story

Lost Odyssey is the story of Kaim Argonar, an immortal who is suffering from amnesia and unable to recollect the memories of his past. So begins the journey to try and piece together Kaim's memories. Along the way we bump into all too familiar cast of characters, a perverted spell caster, a stereotypical warrior woman, a scantily clad, well endowed princess and the typical high pitched angsty teenager. Although this is standard JRPG fare, what stands out is its execution. The story really manages to hold these characters well together with their personal motivations and histories. Slowly the player uncovers piece by piece the thousand years lived by Kaim and understand the emotions behind these characters. The end is pretty fulfilling too and this was designed to be a single game and not a trilogy like all the games these days. Special mention has to be made of 'Thousand Year Dreams' sequences. These are short stories which appear as dreams of Kaim presented in form of PowerPoint slides. They are simply fantastic and perfectly fit the atmosphere of the game. Each story has a theme related to life. It actually made me interested in reading up further works of this author, Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

Graphics

I was positively excited to see the graphics of a next gen JRPG and Lost Odyssey delivers on nearly all fronts. The characters are highly detailed. The animations are top notch with even minute facial expressions. The vistas are varied ranging from snow capped mountains to sandy deserts. Every town is exquisitely modelled and detailed. Spell effects, weather effects and other particle effects are a visual treat. The only nitpick i found was some times the engine buckles under its own weight. Take for example the picture in picture effects during some cut scenes. The frame rate drops down to mid 20's range which is the only minor blemish on a nearly spotless presentation.

Gorgeous character models make up a fantastic presentation

Sound

I never expect the English voice work in a JRPG to be at level of Japanese voice work, but this time Lost Odyssey comes pretty close. I personally like the voice of Seth voiced by Tara strong(Ed: Who also gave her voice to Rikku of Final Fantasy X ). It perfectly fits the character which rarely happens. Also her accent was not annoying. The teenager's voices are atrociously bad, but this always has been the case for JRPG's. Good thing is there are five voice options including Japanese which I chose. It is good to see a developer actually provide this choice and i expect other developers to learn the same. (Although who knows if this is the reason for the game retailing on 4 dual layer DVD9 discs). Nobuo Uematsu once again does a fantastic job with music. His orchestral compositions are absolutely fantastic. Critics might be feeling that after 10 Final Fantasy games he might have run out of steam but this is surely not the case over here. Not a single track feels reused or rehashed. This was one soundtrack I positively wanted to buy even before trying out the game.

Battle System

Lost Odyssey doesn't shy away from the tried and tested turn based mechanics of JRPGS since last 20yrs or so. It makes a few additions here and there. One is a timing based mechanic. You press the L2 trigger corresponding to the a circle on the screen while you are attacking an enemy. If you release the trigger at the right moment , depending on the ring which you have equipped you inflict bonus damage on the enemy. This adds a nice real time element to the battle. Secondly, there is a wall system. Which is basically the characters in the front row provide protection to the allies in back row. So you can place your spell casters at the back and the take reduced damage due to this wall. I enjoyed the battle system and was not boring or monotonous. The boss battles felt a bit too easy, but then again its better than frustratingly level grinding. Also i didn't require to level grind anywhere. The game in itself is quite meaty with tons of side quests. My first play through clocked in at about 51hrs with several side quests remaining. Overall the game is worth the price of admission.

Entertaining battle system

Final Comments

Lost Odyssey is a fantastic game and worthy of its exclusivity status. Developer Feelplus have done an amazing job of bringing a JRPG to next gen. PS JRPG fan boys like me do have a reason crib. So beg, borrow or steal to get a X360 and this game(Ed : The author borrowed the 360 from his friend). This is one X360 you shouldn't miss!

Final Score = 9/10