With the death of Final Fantasy as I knew and loved it, I was left with an empty void for my JRPG needs. Thankfully Mistwalker still embraces and recognizes that there is still a market for JRPG's. Unfortunately to date they have yet to come up with a game that is anywhere near the level of what Final Fantasy used to be; or currently is for that matter.
Lost Odyssey follows an immortal named Kaim Argonar who has lost his memory. Along the course of the story you will pick up 3 more immortals that suffer from the same affliction and a host of mortal characters. Lost Odyssey follows Kaim and his cohorts on a boring and uninspiring trip around the world in an effort to get revenge and over throw a powerful magic user who has usurped the thrown from "King Tolten" (one of the playable characters).
Now being a more than casual fan of JRPG's I was very impressed with the way Mistwalker was able to add new features to a series that has done and redone everything. The addition of the wall system adds a new layer to combat. Essentially the front row of physical attack specialists guard the back row of magic users. When the wall is decreased or destroyed the back row of magic users is then susceptible to more damage, so keeping your wall up is very important during the course of battle. Lost Odyssey also features a new skill learning system called skill linking which allows for complete freedom in terms of customizing the skills of the immortals. Every immortal must learn skills for the mortal characters. You select an ability and link it to the immortal and when the immortal earns enough SP they learn the skill and can then assign it to one of their slots (skills can be attached at will via the menu once they are learned). My favorite feature in the game is the ability to customize different rings to attach specific abilities to each weapon. Now as cool as that is what makes it even cooler is the ability to switch rings during battles and not loose a turn. So if you kill the fire based enemy the next turn you can switch your rings in order to fight a different type of monster without sacrificing your turn to do so. I was also pleasantly surprised by the "1,000 years of dreams" short stories. These are short stories that give you insight into Kaim's life (since he can't tell you himself because he doesn't remember). They are very well written and offer up the best story telling in the game. I'm not a huge fan of reading but even I found myself reading each one as I unlocked it and really enjoying them.
I really wanted to like Lost Odyssey. Maybe it's because there is a significant lack of JRPG's available, or maybe it's because I didn't like the direction Final Fantasy went in and I am looking for something to fill the void. Unfortunately as the game trudges along Lost Odyssey's flaws become more and more apparent. To begin with a true JRPG must tell a great story and this is one of the areas where Lost Odyssey falls very short. The entire time I was playing I never got the feeling that I was out to save the world, I never really cared and the story never sucked me in. Part of this problem is possibly caused by the horrible characters in the game. Kaim the main protagonist borders on anemic, even Cloud Strife thinks this guy has no personality. The majority of the dialogue comes from the character Jansen and he is one of the most annoying characters I have seen in a very long time. If Mistwalker was trying to create a character that you would want to punch in face than they succeeded but I don't think that was their goal. Every other character is forgettable and overall the story and characters are uninspiring. For all the innovations that Lost Odyssey offers up the game play overwhelms you with frustration on a fairly regular basis. As you get further into the game skill linking becomes more of a chore than anything else. It seemed like I was adjusting skills and thinking about my next step every other battle and I spent a lot more time than I wanted to in the menu screen. Now I am a person who likes to use status magic (poison, blind, etc.) but every time I would cast a status spell it would miss. Through the course of the game I casted status spells countless times and maybe had about 5% of them actually work. Not only do they have a very low success rate but they always say "miss" when it doesn't work which doesn't tell me if the enemy is immuned or if the spell just missed. As a result the combat in Lost Odyssey is not a strategic battle; it feels more like you are just out lasting the enemy. Lost Odyssey features a lot of mini games that are stupid and boring and in order to make them easier they reduce the amount of random encounters in the game. The lack of random encounters really shows when you inevitably encounter bosses and mini bosses. Due to the lack of encounters and battles you find yourself horribly out matched and then you spend twice as long leveling up as you would in a regular JRPG. Because you have less encounters and you are about twice as many levels below what you should be to actually fight the battle in the first place you spend a lot of time wondering around looking for fights so that you can reach a level that is sufficient in order to stand a chance.
Mistwalker approached Lost Odyssey with a lot of good ideas but poor implementation really holds this game back. Although I am grateful for Mistwalker's dedication to JRPG's, by my count they are now 0 for 2 and I don't know if I am going to let them try again. I would recommend this for big time JRPG fans but for everyone else you will probably want to steer clear of this one.
It’s quite hard to believe, but Lost Odyssey turns fifteen years old today. A curious product of the time, it has arguably only got better with age - and not just because of what it is, but also what it represents.
The short stories that Kaim collects/remembers are truly emotional. I remember one in particular made my eyes water.
If you've never played this, try to hunt down an original copy, or emulate it. This game was a gem.
I wish there was a remaster. This and Last Story. Sad these games were released on the...wrong platforms...
Considering all the early tech issues Unreal Engine 3 had combined with Japanese developers working with a foreign language engine Lost Odyssey on the PS3 would have been a tech disaster if it had used UE3.
Lost Odyssey's long load times and framerate drops are evidence of just how hard it was working with early builds of UE3, it's a miracle Lost Odyssey turned out as well as it did.
In a perfect world Lost Odyssey would have launched on the PS3 but I doubt Sony or anyone else would have funded the project if Microsoft didn't.
It wouldve sold better thats for sure and maybe dude wouldnt be doing mobile games now
These JRPGs stand up on their own.
VGChartz's Taneli Palola: "Some of my favourite pieces of video game music have historically been the overworld and hub world themes, as they often capture a wonderful sense of adventure and awe that makes me want to explore the world presented to me. The following nine themes are just a small handful of the best examples video games have given us over the years."
judging by your scores it is atleast an 8. i have got the game.
but no offence thats your opinion. i respect that. by adding your score up and dividing it by 4 it = it should het 7.9/8.0.
but it is your review.
by the way. a good review identiying the good/bad bits.
well done. i give the review 8/10
cheers for that :)