Infinite Undiscovery

"Discover a tale of a moon enchained"

Capell.. a happy go lucky minstrel who is wrongly imprisoned by a mysterious group called The Order of the Chains for being mistaken as the leader of the liberation force. Eventually you are freed by a beautiful maiden who also mistakens you for her leader! Yes, this maiden is part of the Liberation Force and from here on your journey begins...

The first few hours.. you will find the gameplay frustrating (it doesn't quite play as you would expect) and there are some problematic camera angles and framerate inconsistencies. You will get quite a lot of pop-up instruction screens explaining 'this and that' which is a little too much to take in at first..

After this ordeal the game improves as the story develops Capell is eventually rescued by the Liberation Force (a team of people who set out to free the moon that's been enslaved by a dark cult) and lands with these characters each with their personalities and emotions which have an effect on Capell as his interactions with them will affect his life throughout his adventure.

Capell controls a sword which you can swing and make combos. As you gain experience you will learn new battle skills and string these to your basic sword slashes. You only are able to control Capell throughout the entire game even though there are like 15+ characters that join you throughout.

You can invite these characters to party up with you which will allow allied attacks via the CONNECT system (this will require fast thinking during frantic fights) and becomes very useful later on in certain situations that force you to think quickly plus you will also need to micro-manage these characters! FAILURE on some of these situations may lead to a game over so be warned!!!

You will also control party tactics.. ie make your party fight monsters seperately, attack together, wait, save mana etc.. One of the party tactics called COMBO will allow you the ability to chain massive combos which are pretty tricky to pull off but can rack in lots of bonus experience. Practise makes perfect!

Whats strange about this game is you cannot block attacks (this IS the frustrating part), later on if you are lucky you will be able to find items that will increase your chance to auto block enemy attacks. Because of this system you will need to use hit and run tactics when needed.

There is however a counter attack you perform (This requires precision timing, something for the experts) which stuns enemies briefly.

Since Capell is restricted to a sword (and a flute being a minstrel, this has its uses later on) he will have to rely on the computer controlled characters for help in healing or any other skill that Capell lacks.. The computer AI is very good, it can go pear shaped 5% of the time.

Be warned the menu system will not pause the game so while you are searching through your inventory you can be attacked, IU runs in real time "infinitely", It can be paused tho.. Its only safe to access the menu when you find a safe spot or in town. This does become difficult when in battles and party members have fallen and you need to find healing items!

The monsters here randomly drop items and you will spend a lot of time "farming" a certain monster for a rare item drop.. These items are needed for CREATION.. cooking, alchemy, weapon and armour creation.. Make regular saves as not everything you create will be a success! Failure will cause loses on rare items you spent many hours hunting for!!

Story and characters, there isn't much new here, you probably have seen it before. However in IU it's done well and the character development and humour is charming, personalities are endearing as they bond throughout their journey.. Sadly not all characters are fleshed out.

Graphically, characters have a unique anime look. Some scenery looks gorgeous, some look average. The world you live in has huge areas to explore, almost like Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion size! The towns and villages you encounter.. the graphics.. well they look ok. The camera again it gets a little out of control during tight spots. You can use a "lock on" to an enemy when you need to run around like crazy to gain your wits.

I really do like the music here. Its big orchestral pieces sound wonderful and there are smaller music pieces to enjoy. Voice acting; some good and some bad. Strangely the characters in battle seem to cry out names for their special attacks every time special attacks are performed, can grate on you. Also as people have pointed it does feel weird during some cut scenes there are some fully voiced and others its just text but this appears in a lot of Japanese RPGs.

Infinite Undiscovery compared to other RPGs may seem shorter than expected.. It is meant to be replayed again and again so maybe you will discover things on replay you may have missed first time..If you play IU on EASY then it will be short.. Monsters are very easy to kill and you can dash from A to Z with hardly any need to level up.

Overall I am really enjoying this game. It started off really badly and there is quite a lot to dislike, but it gets better the more time you put into it. It's not for everyone. You can play this quickly on EASY MODE by simply running from A to Z and when completed dismiss it as a waste of time.. or put hours and weeks into it and delve deep into it's world. It is a little rough in places but as you become accustomed to it you will discover a good game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/11/08

Game Release: Infinite Undiscovery (EU, 09/05/08)