Lost Odyssey

"An Odyssey Lost to the Realm of Bad Design"

Mistwalker Studios received a mild sort of fame when its Xbox 360 exclusive Blue Dragon released a few years ago. Perhaps what drew people was the fact that it was Hironobu Sakaguchi's (of Final Fantasy fame) first game with his new studio, rather than the quality of the game itself. Even so, there's no denying that the distinctly old school flavor was appealing to many, regardless of the games problems and limitations. With Lost Odyssey, I predict the same scenario playing out, as the fame of the developers greatly exceeds the quality of their work.

But that's not to say that Mistwalker hasn't done a better job in some areas this time around. In fact, they've done something with the story I would have previously thought impossible. It is simultaneously a thing made up of familiar, well-worn ideas and new thoughts. Lost Odyssey revolves around a man named Kaim. As the game begins, players will witness this warrior as he charges across a battlefield taking the fight straight into the heart of the enemy. Nearly as soon as it begins, the entire battle takes an unexpected turn as a meteor comes out of the sky and wipes out both sides. Kaim later awakens to witness the wholesale devastation around him, apparently not a bit worse for wear. It doesn't take long for two things to become evident, the first being that Kaim has lost all his memories in the obligatory case of amnesia. The second is much more intriguing and actually lends credence to the first – Kaim is a one-thousand year old immortal. As players progress through the game, Kaim's memory will slowly return, leaking out old memories of his past.

The memories become an important facet of the story through dream sequences. These sequences end up being a disappointing aspect because they're nothing more than pages of text players have to slog through. Despite being an avid reader, and the fact that they are undeniably well written, they almost always feel like wasted opportunities. The vast majority of them would have made for excellent cutscenes, and simply seem out of place (although that much extra content would have caused an already bloated four-disc game to expand even further).

The gameplay reveals itself to be another intriguing melding of old and new. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for the overwhelming abundance of basic design flaws to reveal themselves. Even worse, nearly everything wrong with this game falls into one of its most important areas – Combat.

Like the great majority of JRPG's, Lost Odyssey also uses a turn based battle system, which just so happens to be one of the worst I've ever encountered. Gamers who don't demand the same level of finesse and ease of use as myself will find it useable but crude. Think of it like this – Lost Odyssey's battle system is like using a mallet for brain surgery. It can be accomplished, but the results aren't pretty (or painless). Still, the basics are largely the same as anywhere else; there are options to attack, use magic and items. But beyond that, the problems begin to stack up at an alarming rate.

First and foremost, all commands for a turn are put in and then executed. This brings about a number of problems. If a player decides to hit an enemy with a series of attacks or spells, and said enemy ends up being immune to them, then that's an entire turn wasted. This problem is even more serious in the event of an ally being critically injured during the player turn. In that case, there's nothing to do but wait until the next turn and hope they're still alive by then. Experienced RPG players should be able to imagine just how big of an issue this is (especially in any fight that requires a modicum of strategy). Compounding the problem is the fact that a turn meter only comes up after the turn has started, making it completely useless.

Casting magic, which plays an important role in combat, is a ridiculous pain. This is due in part to the fact that casting usually takes more than one turn and you'll never know just who'll be attacking. An added frustration is that it's never clear just how long a spell takes to cast. Instead of just being simple and showing a number, the game uses some incomprehensible alphanumeric code that players must decipher in order to figure out how long a spell takes to cast. Needless to say, this just doesn't work.

An interesting addition to the formula is that of Ring Attacks. By equipping Rings (which can be found, bought or created by using other items), characters can add special effects to their physical attacks, such as poison or extra damage. This actually introduces a new player involving mechanic instead of adding some unseen mathematical equation to the mix (which is good). When attacking, a ring comes up on the side of the screen, which quickly closes over another smaller one. In order for the Ring Attack to work, players must stop the moving ring over the stationary one. Missing doesn't mean a failed attack, but the attack doesn't get the special effect of the Ring. Unfortunately the whole thing is extremely unwieldy as the exact point at which the ring needs to stop is all but invisible and never quite clear. In the end it requires more luck than skill to pull off a successful Ring Attack.

Death is also handled a bit differently here. Eventually the party will be made up of regular people and immortals (no, Kaim isn't the only one). Given that immortals can't technically die, if their health falls to zero, they will just be knocked out. After a few turns, they will revive but with only a little health. Mortal characters will of course die in the traditional sense. The big catch is that if the entire party is wiped out at one time, it's game over. However, even something as seemingly forgiving as this turns out to be another irritation. Given the tiny sliver of health an immortal is revived with, they must be healed immediately or they'll just be targeted and killed again. Once again, the absolutely atrocious way in which command input is handled becomes an issue, as I often tried to heal a wounded ally only to have to wait for a healing spell to charge up.

Leveling up and learning new techniques is another thing that is handled a bit differently. Mortal characters all have a set progression of skills that they learn. Equipping them with different items allows them to learn skills that aren't in their lineup. Immortals don't have any native skills and have to link up with a character in order to learn skills. As the mortal levels up and learns new techniques, the immortal will have access to a growing repertoire of skills. All in all, it's a bit reminiscent of some of the earlier Final Fantasy games, but it works so I won't criticize.

What I will criticize is the thoroughly weird way in which experience is doled out. Unlike most games, where enemies give out a set amount of XP without fail, here it seems to be tied to character level. A party may enter a new area, fight until leveling up and then find that enemies are only giving out a handful of XP. While this means underdeveloped characters can quickly catch up with everyone else, it also means that there's only a certain level to which characters can easily get to in any given area. As much as I would like to speculate on why Mistwalker decided to do this, it is ultimately such a counterintuitive and downright stupid thing to do that there simply is no logical explanation.

There are also some other weird design choices that fall outside the realm of combat. One of the most aggravating of these is the fact that health and MP are restored upon loading a saved game, but not after touching a save point. In essence, this means if players want characters at their peak condition before a big boss battle, it is necessary to restart the whole game (or use one of the expensive restorative items).

In spite of its many gameplay shortcomings Lost Odyssey looks great. The environments are extraordinarily detailed, and typically very imaginative. Areas such as cities are positively breathtaking in the amount of detail that has been put into them. Even the more traditional settings such as forests look good. Character models and enemies are also very detailed and show a good amount of imagination in their design. If there's one complaint I can drudge up, it's that the facial rendering of the heroes is a bit pedestrian (or put another way, they're not exactly beautiful people).

Those who played Blue Dragon will also be happy to know that the poorly implemented depth of field effect has received an overhaul. It no longer makes the player feel trapped in a fishbowl, and now correctly mimics the real effect of perspective.

Sound design is of similar high quality. The soundtrack is a glorious return from the horrible faux-metal of Blue Dragon (and I promised myself I'd never speak of it again…), and feels a lot like the soaring heights of the Final Fantasy scores. Then again, that might have a lot to do with the fact that Uematsu is composing again… The voice acting also leans toward the better side of the line, although there are a few exceptions. Still, Kaim sounds appropriately serious and distant for a man who's been around a thousand years and tag-along character Jansen provides some funny and cringe inducing comic relief.

THE VERDICT
Back when Blue Dragon came out, it was obvious that Mistwalker Studios wasn't interested in bringing change to the genre. If anything, they just wanted to make games that felt old-school. And that was fine, because a game can be as old-school as it likes as long as it's good. Like Blue Dragon before it, Lost Odyssey is full of retro appeal. Unlike Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey is plagued by a combat system that barely works, thus rendering it an unbearable experience rather than a happy jaunt down nostalgia lane. In fact, after playing this I'm forced to wonder if Mistwalker is even concerned with the quality of their games instead of how “old-school” it feels. One thing's for sure – It's time for Sakaguchi to get serious about making games before people turn their backs on him and his studio.

HIGHS
- Absolutely gorgeous
- Unique story

LOWS
- Battle system is garbage in every possible way

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/09

Game Release: Lost Odyssey (US, 02/12/08)