Lost Odyssey

"A solid but unoriginal experience"

Pros:

+ Great visuals
+ Plenty to do
+ Fantastic score

Cons:

- Too easy
- Safety on the part of the developer holds the title back


Whilst Mistwalker is a rather young developer, it's filled with vast amounts of experience with several members having previously plied their trade at Square. A studio that was set up to create one type of game and one type of game only, Mistwalker wasted no time in releasing their first Japanese role-playing game (JRPG), Blue Dragon. An Xbox 360 exclusive, Blue Dragon went on to secure generally favourable reviews, deemed to be a good title rather than a great. Shortly afterwards, Mistwalker began work on what was to be their second JRPG, entitled Lost Odyssey. After a lengthy wait it was finally released and the final result is a solid, though safe, JRPG.

You'll find that I use the term safe, a lot in this review as it's what really springs to mind when you think of Lost Odyssey. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the game's gameplay. There seems to be a set formula for the gameplay to your typical JRPG and Lost Odyssey sticks firmly to this. You have a party that can contain up to five characters at any one time. Throughout the game you'll explore vast expanses and in these areas you'll encounter enemies. When you come across an enemy the screen will move from the set area that you're in to a battle area of sorts. Here you take turns to give each of your characters a command such as using their basic attack or perhaps a spell to damage the enemy. Once you eliminate all the enemies in the battle area, your party will receive money, items and, of course, experience. This experience will level up your characters increasing their various stats and affording them new abilities. As mentioned Lost Odyssey's gameplay is near identical to that which you'll find in most JRPGs but this is not a bad thing.

This very particular style of gameplay has been honed over a number of years and, as such, is rather well executed. Whilst it won't win over anyone who is not a fan of JRPGs, it will certainly make genre regulars feel right at home. That being said, Mistwalker have made some additions to the formula. Firstly, there's the Guard Condition system. Again, like many JRPGs, Lost Odyssey uses a series of two rows that you can place your characters on; the idea being that your physically stronger characters go on the front and protect your weaker characters on the back (usually magic casters). How the Guard Condition system works is quite simple; a total is taken of the max HP of your entire front row and this is your Guard's HP. As your front row characters lose HP so does the Guard HP. Whenever an enemy elects to attack a member of your back row, any damage they do is reduced based on how full your Guard Condition bar is (obviously the more it's full the better). It's a great little system that adds another element to the gameplay and one that you'll have to keep your eye on. It's inclusion offers your casters must better protection which any fan will tell you is a good thing. Another addition is the Ring system. Throughout the game you'll find various rings that you can equip to your characters. These rings have varying effects from increasing basic damage to making a character's attacks have an elemental nature. Whenever you attack with a character who has a ring, two rings will appear on the screen; a small and a large one. The larger ring will contract around the smaller one. The aim is for you to pull RT as the two rings overlap. If you do so the ring's effect will occur, but if you fail to do so your attack will still occur, just without the effect. Again this system works well adding another tactical level to the game. It also helps to maintain the player's focus rather than simply selecting options.

However, the biggest change is that four of your characters are immortal. Firstly, immortals can be knocked out in combat like their mortal counterparts, however they can also recover from that status without any items or spells all though this is entirely random. The main difference though is that your immortals don't learn abilities by levelling; instead they learn them from items and mortals. Each immortal has several skill slots that can be increased with various items. In these slots you can place any abilities that you characters know making your immortals very versatile. Whilst it can be tedious to wait for your immortals to learn all the skills that you want them to, there's no doubt that it really helps. In effect, you can sculpt the characters to fit whatever means you want them too. That being said, the character's stat growth is still fixed so you cannot take a physical character and make him a black mage as he'll be considerably worse than your party members who are black mages.

If I had one major complaint with the gameplay it would be that the game is simply too easy. As with any JRPG worth its salt, Lost Odyssey features a host of bosses to test yourself against. The problem is that the vast majority of them provide no test whatsoever allowing you to use the same set of tactics against them all. The first two bosses that you face will likely be the most difficult but this is not due to their A.I. , it's just down to the fact that your party members all have low HP values at this point and are very vulnerable to boss attacks. Once you've played the game for a while and increased your character's stats and abilities, you'll have little difficulty in marching right through the game. To further compound this, the game uses a flawed levelling system that sees your characters level up almost every single fight. It serves only to make the game too easy. I'm all for the reduction in time spent grinding levels but Mistwalker have gone the other way. Tragically these flaws spoil what is a very solid gameplay core but there's no getting around either issue.

And with Lost Odyssey's gameplay being rather safe, it's story can only be held in the same light. Your main character is a sword for hire by the name of Kaim but his name is not the only unusual thing about him; Kaim is an immortal, rumoured to have lived for over one thousand years. When a huge meteorite lands in the middle of one of his battles, killing all but Kaim, his superiors decid to send him off to find out what and more importantly, who, caused the meteorite. In typical fashion, Kaim assembles a cast of heroes who travel with him across the world in search of the meteorite's source. The story is very sound but, again, it's very safe. With the exception of one twist (which admittedly was a fantastic one) near the beginning of the game, everything plays out exactly how you expect it. You even know who your main enemy is before the first quarter of the game is through. Where Lost Odyssey is far stronger though is in its characters. Whilst Kaim is your typical silent and strong type, throughout the course of the game you'll perform tasks that will trigger Kaim's long lost memories and these "dreams" really help to flesh Kaim out giving the player an insight into his past life, all one thousand years of it. Along with Kaim you also have Seth, a pirate and fellow immortal in search of her son. Seth is rather closed book throughout the first half of the game though she is made more interesting thanks to Jansen, but come the second half of the game after a certain incident, she really opens up more and becomes far more likable to the player. And then there's the afore mentioned Jansen - the comedian of your team - a very warm character who's by no means a saint having lived a life filled with alcohol and women. Both he and Seth form a double team of sorts and really help to ease the tension that's induced by members like Kaim. Sadly, not all the characters are as strong or as deep as these three. You have Mack and Cooke who fill the cliche spot of the children and they really will annoy you whilst offering very little to the overall narrative of the game.

But you will certainly enjoy looking at your party members as the character models in Lost Odyssey are great. In fact, the overall visuals of the game are great; environments are varied ranging from the dark and dreary to the warm and vibrant. Cut scenes (as is to be expected from a Japanese developer) are beautiful and entirely pre-rendered allowing for some fantastic moments. Even the in game fights look terrific with the camera cutting to various angles even whilst you're picking your options. There's a variety of enemies and whilst some look far better than others, the bosses are truly something to behold. Even in the simple dreams that Kaim has, where you'll simply read text over a variety of still backdrops, look terrific. And it's in these dream segments where Lost Odyssey's trump card is revealed; the score. The music in Lost Odyssey is simply epic with a wide array of songs that always seem to perfectly encompass the mood at that moment be it one of sadness, joy or excitement. Some of the piano parts in particular are breathtaking to hear - I've found myself leaving dreams open just to hear the entire piece.

The dreams are also a major tool in fleshing out the life of the game. But they're not the only thing that Lost Odyssey has to offer you for your money; a lengthy campaign that will last for forty hours easily along with the usual array of hidden bosses to take on after, or during, the main game and DLC offering more challenges, Lost Odyssey will certainly demand a lot of your time if you wish to see all it has to offer. It's sheer size means that a lack of a real reason to replay the game is never a concern though some invariably will wish to give the game another go.

However, those that do will be in the minority as truth be told, Lost Odyssey never really warrants another playthrough. It's a solid title but one that has very little that's either unique nor special about it. It's a game that doesn't try to stand out and so it doesn't. The biggest mistake that Mistwalker made with this game was that they tried to target two separate audiences; those that love JRPGs and those that don't, but never hit either. Fans of the genre will argue that it's far too easy whilst those that don't like JRPGs will find little difference between this and the previous titles that they didn't like. And it's a real shame too as Lost Odyssey is a solid game with a good cast of characters and a fantastic score. Had it not been for the lack of difficulty and the games lack of originality, this would have scored well. It's still the best Japanese RPG to be found on the Xbox 360 but given the rather poor selection, that's not saying too much - a bit like this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/09

Game Release: Lost Odyssey (EU, 02/29/08)