Lost Odyssey Review
There can be little doubt that Lost Odyssey comes with a pedigree that many games would kill for. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu, who both worked on Lost Odyssey, still inspire intense feelings of admiration and respect in many role playing game fans. In many ways Sakaguchi’s work on Square Enix Final Fantasy series defined the Japanese role playing genre, and Uematsu’s iconic music triggers such fond memories in us that we’ve started whistling one of his tunes as we write this. (Pipe down over there, some of us are trying to work!-Ed)
So it’s totally understandable that Microsoft turned to Sakauchi’s Mistwalker studio, founded a few years after he left FF developer Square Enix, to deliver two Japanese style role playing games needed to help the Xbox 360 crack the Japanese market. But with the first Mistwalker game- Blue Dragon- having received a very mixed reaction, have these role playing legends been able to deliver the promised Xbox 360 answer to Final Fantasy in Lost Odyssey?
We’ve a particular fondness of the genre, so like more than a few 360 JRPG fans we were grinning like the proverbial cat that got the cream at the thought of playing through all four discs of Lost Odyssey’s story.
While it may not be the Final Fantasy for the 360 that we'd hoped for, Lost Odyssey is still a great game for slightly neglected Xbox JRPG fans to get their teeth into. Let’s face it; the Xbox 360 isn’t exactly overflowing with Japanese Role playing games at the moment. (Could that be something to do with the fact that Japanese gamers seem to have taken to the Xbox 360 like a cat to water?-Ed) The scope of the game is certainly impressive, and if you’re into RPG's that start with a slow burn, slowly unfolding their narrative to a climactic finish, then Lost Odyssey will be just your cup of tea.
The main protagonist of Lost Odyssey is Kaim, an immortal man who cannot die and has lived for a thousand years.(There can only be one?-Ed) Like many a JRPG hero before him, Kaim has lost his memories- all recollection of the past 1000 years of his life has mysteriously vanished. The start of the game sees Kaim wandering the earth as a cold hearted mercenary, fighting for which ever of the world’s warring city states will pay him most. In a truly impressive opening sequence, you fight as Kaim in a huge battle as a mercenary for the city of Uhra. When a massive magic meteor crashes onto the battlefield, you emerge, thanks to your inability to die, as the sole survivor.(Lucky that!-Ed) After it transpires the attack may have come from magic being wielded by someone on your own side, you’re sent to investigate a danger that threatens to pull the whole world into conflict.
As you’d imagine, Kaim picks up various characters to help in his quest, and you soon discover that there’s even more at stake than just the war you’re in. And Kaim's memories, it seems, will be the key to saving the world.
There isn’t really anything all that original about the story set up for Lost Odyssey, we’ve all seen the ‘amnesiac hero must remember his past to thwart evil’ plot line a million times. But Lost Odssey's more adult characters and the emotive interaction between them marks this game apart from more run of the mill JRPG'S. You'll come to genuinely feel for the human stories behind the characters. It’s just a shame that the main villain of the piece is such a cookie cutter bad guy, with a typical JRPG evil scheme.
On the other hand the themes of love, family, life and loss are far better represented in Lost Odyssey than they are in most JRPG’s and there are some deeply touching moments in the game. Key amongst these are the "A Thousand Years of Dreams," sequences, where certain sights, sounds and events trigger Kaim’s memories, which present themselves as excellent written short stories, complete with stirring music and effects. They give the game’s atmosphere a huge boost, as do the interesting characters that end up in your party, like Jansen, a loveable womanising rogue and magic user or Seth, the former female pirate with a tragic past. Even the children in this game aren't as annoying as the typical cute ragamuffins you're usually saddled with, as they play an important part in humanising the initially distant Kaim.
But there are, it’s fair to say, two types of gamers in the world- those who love Japanese role playing games, and those who just don’t. If the thought of turns-based combat and random encounters send a shudder of dread down your spine or terrible visions of endless grinding for experience leave you in a cold sweat, then Lost Odyssey isn’t likely to make you a JRPG convert. The games combat sequences are conventional turn-based affairs, with each party member attacking in turn, big weapons and the usual triangle of magic attacks based on various elements. You'll recognise all the familar inventory items like health and effect potions from Final Fantasy too, albit with slightly different names. The only slight addition to that formula is the ability to equip 'rings' on your melee weapons, requiring the player to use timing with an attack button for bonus damage or effects. Once learnt the system is pretty useful and at least helps you get more engaged in the combat. You’ll have to plan each battle carefully, using all of the five members of your team that you’ll eventually be able to field to best effect, especially during some of the difficult and impressive boss battles.
In many ways Lost Odyssey’s presentation is some of the best on the Xbox 360. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 for both the combat and some cut scenes, for the most part running smoothly, through the frame rate suffers during a bit during the story telling cut scenes and battles with a lot of characters on screen. The main characters themselves and the huge range of interesting bad guys in Lost Odyssey are the games key strengths, being beautifully designed and detailed. Magic and battle effects are equally good, with beautiful looking and impressive magic attacks. There isn’t much you haven’t seen here before in terms of environments, but what there is looks decent enough. Much of it just seems very Final Fantasy derived through and you'll constantly be reminded of similar places and battles in past Final Fantasies.
Lost Odyssey’s sound track, while nowhere near Nobuo Uematsu best or most stirring, is enjoyable in its own right, fitting the story and creating a ton of atmosphere. We'd have just liked it to be a touch more strident and give the game a more instantly recognisable musical character. The voice work in the game is generally quite good if a little cheesy at times, with some very good dialogue driving the narrative forward. Call us spoilt, and we have been by the likes of Mass Effect, but one major failing of the game was the fact that not every character in the game actually speaks. All the major ones do of course, but you'll have to read text when speaking to minor characters as you wander the game world. Speech should have been done for all the games characters-it's just something we expect as standard now.
Lost Odyssey is a solid and enjoyable title with a cracking story, but it doesn’t do anything new or impressive enough to threaten Final Fantasy’s crown as king of the JRPG’s, through it was clearly designed to do so. All the elements are there, but they just doesn't seem to gel together enough to bring game up to Final Fantasy's legendary footing.
That said, if you're a JRPG fan, you'll enjoy it's story, touching character interaction and just the huge scope and style of Sakaguchi's new world. You'll be very at home as everything feels comfortably familiar. Perhaps a little too familiar at times because you'll be constantly reminded of similar ideas and epic moments done just that bit better in the Final Fantasy series. Even more importantly for newer players, the hardcore combat system could leave anyone who isn’t a fan of the genre or has been weaned on more contemporary games like Mass Effect feeling cold. But if you love JRPG’s or adventure games in general Lost Odyssey is a must and you'd better grab it while you can.
Who knows when the next one of this quality will be along on the 360?
UKMusic.com rating: 3.5 Stars
Lost Odyssey ia avaliable on XBox 360 now.
Written by Sam Bandah
