System(s): Xbox 360
Release Year(s): 2008
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $88.88 (New) $13.75 (Used Like New)
The Skinny:
A beautiful return to form for Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker studios, Lost Odyssey is a shining testament to the power of a well told story and old school JRPG mechanics. Its gripping story, solid gameplay, immaculate presentation, and wonderful characters make this one Xbox 360 exclusive that should not be missed.
The Meat:
Has a video game ever made you cry? That may sound like a silly question to some, but those people have obviously never played Lost Odyssey. This game tells a tale of love, loss, and the pain of memory that will make you feel feels that you didn't even know you had. The mastermind behind this work, Hironobu Sakaguchi, is a name you're seen mentioned in my reviews before. He was the visionary behind the Final Fantasy series, and after his departure from Square Enix following Final Fantasy X, he formed his own game studio called Mistwalker. After their disappointing first outing called Blue Dragon, which was a formulaic, bland RPG with little to offer, I was worried that Sakaguchi had lost his touch and that Mistwalker was going to fade into obscurity. However, this game assuaged all my doubts and reminded me why I'm a Sakaguchi fanboy. Lost Odyssey is the tale of one Kaim Argonar, a man who cannot die. It is a tale about the pain of immortality, the importance of memory, and the toll that 1000 years of life can have on a person.
Saying too much more about the story would be a disservice to the player. It is a tale well worth experiencing, simple in its structure, complex in its ideas, and beautiful in its poignancy. The Thousand Years of Dreams feature, which involves Kaim remembering snippets of forgotten memories from his past in the form of beautiful flowing text and images representative of his dreams, features some of the most impressive writing I've ever seen from a game. These tails of tragedy, love, laughter, despair, and hope are emotionally evocative on a level many people would not think possible from this medium and it really is a treat to unlock each one.
Now what about the nuts and bolts of what makes a video game great: the presentation and the gameplay? From a presentation standpoint Lost Odyssey is a feast for the senses. The ever talented Nobuo Uematsu has once again created a musical score that perfectly fits each situation, from the brooding urban city themes to the expansive and whimsical world map flutes. While not as iconic or immediately memorable as some of his Final Fantasy works, each piece really does help set the mood and create an atmosphere for each location and event experienced. Graphically Lost Odyssey makes excellent use of the Xbox 360 hardware with impressive areas and detailed character models for both NPCs and enemies. It must be noted however that every now and then a texture will pop up that is downright ugly and wouldn't have looked out of place on the Nintendo 64. These moments are rare, but noticeable and they are largely background or ground textures. While overall the visual presentation is superb, these occasional hiccups are rather glaring. That being said, the visual style and art direction more than make up for any short comings on the presentation front. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the load times. There are extremely long load times for battles in particular. While the encounter rate is thankfully low, the 10-15 second load time for each one can really start to add up. While not a huge negative, this could be off putting for some players as it does tend to drag the pace of things down now and then.
Speaking of encounters this is a JRPG in the truest of fashions. Gameplay consists of exploring areas for treasure, getting into random encounters with groups of enemies at regular intervals, and choosing combat options from menus for each of your characters. While this is par for the course for the genre, Lost Odyssey does do a few things to shake things up. For example, as mentioned above Kaim is immortal. In most video games this would be simply a "story device" and Kaim would still be able to die like any other character. Not so in Lost Odyssey. If Kaim's hit points reach zero he will collapse for a couple of turns and then revive. Game over only arrives if all party members are incapacitated at the same time. Non-immortal party members behave just as characters normally would in an RPG, becoming unconscious and/or dead when their energy is spent. While it's a small change, wrinkles such as the immortality aspect of battles really help freshen up the gameplay and keep it engaging and interesting for veterans of the genre. Furthermore, this game has a robust and interesting skill mechanic that once again draws from the game's thematic ideas. The mortal members of your party learn skills as they level up. This makes sense as they are growing and changing as people. However, after 1000 years Kaim is pretty set in who he is. As such he does not gain skills from experience and combat. Instead, he learns from the people around him and the items he finds. Immortal party members link themselves to mortal party members and their equipment, either slowly learning the ability attached to the piece of equipment or the skills of the person they are linked to. This helps to create a literal bond among the party members and adds a sense of cohesion and shared experience to the proceedings.
Similar to the above ideas, the elemental affinity system present in so many RPGs can be found here as well. At first it seems pretty standard, with enemies that have an affinity with fire taking more damage from water based attacks and so on with a rock, paper, scissors style across the elements. However, again Lost Odyssey manages to perfect and old system and tweak it just enough to be fresh and interesting. You can change your equipment mid battle at any time, and the game has an extensive ring crafting system. Using drops from monsters and items purchased or found the player can craft a wide variety of rings that add additional effects to attacks, from changing their element to causing status effects or bonus damage against specific enemy types like insects or mechanical types. The power of these effects is triggered by an extremely precise quick time overlapping ring system in battle. It keeps the player engaged and adds a whole new level of engagement over the top of the simple battle system.
Enough about the combat, let's discuss the people. Lost Odyssey is a game filled with incredible characters, from the mysterious nature of our immortal protagonist, to the wacky personality of Jansen, the party's resident drunk, womanizing mage. From the heroes to the villains the characters of this tale are well written and engaging, with understandable motivations and often times relatable experiences. Rooting for these characters, or actively rooting against some of them, allows the player to feel a great sense of engagement with the world, and go off the beaten path to find tidbits of information about their mysterious pasts or possible futures. I laughed at Jansen's antics more than once, and I felt great sorrow for the misfortunes of some of the souls who find themselves accompanying Kaim on his long journey.
The Bottom Line:
Lost Odyssey is an incredible game that any fan of JRPGs or a good story should really experience if they can. It's ruminations on the nature of memory and experiences that are accrued over a lifetime are thought provoking and make playing the game an unusual exercise in self reflection. Its system exclusivity, and on a system not known for its wealth of quality RPGs, could be a sticking point for some. Furthermore, the game is fairly difficult as far as turn based RPGs go and has a distinct old school mentality. That being said, its masterful writing, familiar but fresh gameplay, deliberate pacing, fantastic presentation, and wonderful cast of characters really make it a memorable and worthy journey that is well worth taking. This game receives a firm recommendation from me with very few reservations, with only a couple minor graphical hiccups and some unfortunate load times holding it back from being a truly immaculate experience.
Reviewed by Grant Nielsen
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