Lost Odyssey ^{(Xbox 360)}

Genre: RPG Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Mistwalker Players: 1

By Keith B (3rd Apr 2008)

With 1,000 years of memories to find, the hero of Lost Odyssey has a lot to do.

It has been a confusing time for me of late, having to review Lost Odyssey, Lost and Lost Planet. But it’s not half as confusing as it is for Kaim, the focus of Lost Odyssey who is searching for more than 1,000 years of his memories.

Reviewers play a dangerous game when they herald a title as something that one particular sector of the gaming community is going to go crazy for. When Two Worlds landed it was proclaimed that fans of Oblivion were going to be thrilled, only for them to almost choke on their leg of lamb and tankard of ale at the shoddy game before them. So I’m not going to say that Final Fantasy fans are in for a treat because I don’t know if they are, I’ve never really been a Japanese role playing game fan and, while I’ve played the likes of Blue Dragon and others over the years, I’m not going to faint over any of them.

What is true, though, is that from a completely aesthetic standpoint, Lost Odyssey is a remarkable achievement indeed, a work of art and you would expect nothing less from the head of animation, famed comic artist Takehiko Inoue. Throw in the fact that it’s Final Fantasy guru Hironobu Sakaguchi’s follow up to Blue Dragon and you start to see the pedigree. The world is beautifully created and visually, it’s simply stunning. As you wander Kaim around you’ll cross mountain ranges complete with panoramic vistas, journey through large cities blended from both industry and magic, and confront enemies from the small and cute to the massive and horrifying. These alone make Lost Odyssey something that deserves close scrutiny.

Kaim is an immortal, someone who has lived for 1,000 years but can remember none of his past. He now journeys the world looking for keys to his memories, which are triggered by speaking to a someone, seeing something long forgotten or revisiting a place where he has been long ago. Once a memory is unlocked, the game slips into a text based rendition of a memory, with dialogue scratching across the screen telling the reader a little of Kaim’s past. When this first happened I was a little thrown, considering the impact the animations and general visuals have, but I soon realised that these snippets of reading actually helped give the player a break from the trail of interconnected cut scenes interspersed with the combat. You see: Lost Odyssey is filled to the rim with cut scenes, which helps explain why it’s housed on no less than four DVDs.

It turns out that the text of the game, along with a lot of its plot, is written by successful Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, and it shows. They are not tired spewing-forth of generic drivel just to add length to the game; they are properly realised tales that, one by one, provide an insight into the history of our character.

But back to the game itself. As you begin your journey, you set out to help discover what is causing the Magic Staff, a sort of magic amplifier under construction, to spit forth raw magical energy. But this is only the beginning, because what follows is a tale that spins and winds through so many elements and plot twists that is only becomes more engaging as you go. In order to get to the end, you’re going to have to play for somewhere between 60 to 70 hours (When I had played 15 hours I was still on DVD one). You have to give it time to begin to kick in.

Populating the time between cut scenes, dreams and story explanation is a whole lot of exploring and combat. This is where the JRPG people should get their fix. What unfolds is traditional fare: while running around the game world your party is represented by one person, Kaim, but when combat occurs you gain control of the entire group. Combat proceeds on an initiative basis and you and your foes take turns hacking and spell-casting each other to pieces. What is a very interesting feature is the fact your immortals, for Kaim isn’t the only one you find, will rejuvenate themselves after they’ve been knocked out after a few rounds. This adds a new dynamic by allowing your tactics to include the fact that some of your squad will rejoin the fight without having to spend a casting slot on regenerating them.

Each living member of your team receives experience points at the end of the fight, but unconscious party members don’t. So, you also try and ensure that you have regenerated any fallen comrades before you finish of the final foe.

Skill development is straightforward but developed enough to provide gamers with interesting ways to developer their team. Immortals don’t learn skills in the traditional way, instead skill-linking with a mortal in their squad and, each time the mortal uses the relevant skill, the immortal slowly learns it.

Gathering items is a much less interesting affair. Scattered throughout all the levels are numerous pots, plants, posters and so forth that can be kicked to reveal the contents. The boring thing is that each and every one of them contains something, so there’s isn’t much variety to it and it gets to the point that it feels more like grinding than any form of interesting surprise every time you search. Still, it’s not too big of a deal to dampen the enjoyment of the game. While in a city, you can walk into someone’s house and proceed to ransack it right in front of their faces. This is something that would have been easy to address but again, it’s small complaint when the world you’re running around is so polished.

It would be easy to level criticism at the title by being more of the same rather than something that tries to break the mould. But the fact is, never before on the 360 have you had the chance to watch the many lives of one character, as they fall in and out of love, create families and watch them pass away as he fails to age, and all accompanied by a wonderful orchestral score. Lost Odyssey is a superb game for anyone who loves, or loved, the genre.