Infinite Undiscovery

"From Coward to Hero"

Intro::

Infinite Undiscovery has to be one of the most compelling stories I've ever had the honor of taking part in. Developed by Tri-Ace, Infinite Undiscovery takes you through a long journey filled with tough decisions, sadness, joy, and tears. It not only offers an amazing story, but a real-time battle system as well. Have those two components alone makes it a great game, but the icing on this cake is also worth tasting!

Story::

Through the experiences of a young musician named Capell, you travel about in a world bound for doom by the shackling of the moon to the world via Giant Chains by the villain known as the Dreadknight. Starting as an innocent bystander, you are thrust into this journey after being imprisoned by the Order of Chains because your are mistaken for Sigmund the Liberator, the leader of the forces seeking to rid the world of the chains in attempts to save the world. after being sprung from a lonely prison cell, you escape captivity only to meet up with Sigmund and the rest of the Liberation Force. Here, is where your epic journey begins!

Along the journey your force slowly grows in numbers as you meet various characters from different walks of life. Each offering uniqueness in their personality, it's almost hard not to fall in love with an appreciate each of them. You share in their struggle, and the struggle of Capell, and grow above an beyond these struggles as your progress through this story. Infinite Undiscovery is a tale of love, friendship, bravery, and compassion.

Gameplay::

Infinite Undiscovery is a fairly simple game to play. You tend to either be doing one of three things: Watching the story progress via cut-scenes, traveling across open lands/through towns, or spending some time grinding out levels.

One thing notable about the gameplay though, is the item creation mechanic. While most games I've played tend to give the most opportunities for gear through shops or random chests, Infinite Undiscovery gives you the chance to make your own! This is neat, because you choose to be as powerful as you want, when you want, provided you have the money to make some of the more powerful items. Speaking of money, the item creation system allows you to also make a profit by putting your skills to use. Doing some quick math, one can see the benefits of buying raw materials from shops and forging them into pricey items in which to sell in exchange for some pleasing amounts of Fol, the currency of the game.

Like other JRPG games, Tri-Ace allows you to interact with your allies while visiting towns. One way to do this is to simply talk to them. However, Tri-Ace implemented a nifty feature that allows you to 'connect' with one of your allies while in town(also on the battlefield, which I'll touch on later) so you can drag them along and attempt to gain a different conversation with the people amongst the town. Sometimes while doing this you can trigger special private events. Most of these are non-interactive, but others give you the chance to answer questions presented by the person talking in attempts to build or ruin your relationship with that character.

The Battle System::

One major thing about this game that appeals to me is the battle system. Unlike many jrpg games that I have had the chance to play, Infinite Undiscovery is all about real-time battling in every sense. Instead of walking up to an enemy and entering some sort of battle stage, in which you have a set area to roam and fight in, you fight in the normal environment on which you travel. Not only that, but you are not plagued by frequent use of menus to hand out some heavy poundings on your foes. One other interesting feature that is used in combat is your ability to connect to your allies. While they normally act on their on(and do a good job most of the time at that), you have the option of connecting to one of your party members. While doing so, you can use either of the two abilities that you've previously assigned to them.

Some of your party members abilities have special 'Connect' mechanics which allow you to further control that ability to act how you please. One of these abilities, called Ravaging Raptor, places you into a third-person perspective behind Aya and allows you to aim and shoot her bow.

Some issues I found was the stale mechanic which gives you the chance to further your combo's by allowing you to attack enemies while they're knocked up in the air or knocked down on the ground. Funded by AP, a resource gained by chaining combo's against your enemy, it's hardly useful as many of the enemies that actually live long enough for you to chain long combo's on aren't susceptible to being knocked into the air or onto the ground. I suppose the only plus side to this feature is the fact that you can regen your mp/hp pools by executing ground combo's, which saves you money on regen items.

Fighting is definitely an all around fun experience, especially the battles in which you are able to use multiple parties. There's nothing more exciting than the havoc of having upwards of 5+ allies on the field at once, causing mayhem as they go about. It's saddening that Tri-ace didn't throw more events like this in throughout the game though, and you can only count the experiences in which you can use multiple parties on one hand. Hopefully they will make more use of this feature in the event of a sequel or add-on content.

Audio/Graphics::

While Infinite Undiscovery doesn't take advantage of the full potential of the Xbox 360 graphics wise, the game is still appealing to the eye and you can tell it was made on a next gen console. The music always seems appropriate, as-do the sound effects when using such actions as swinging your sword. The only problem I have with the audio of this game is the poor lip-syncing. Many times you can witness the sound of speech without seeing a characters lips even moving. I understand issues like this will be tend to happen especially with JRPGs, but the frequency of the problem in this game is disappointing. I'd like to see some work towards lip-syncing done in future Tri-Ace games. I'm rather fond of the voice acting, however, as I feel people Tri-Ace used effectively captured the personality of the characters they were recording for.

Closing::

If you're looking for a great RPG game to play, I highly recommend you check this game out. Not only will you enjoy stomping your foes using connected party-members along with your own physical prowess, but you'll also enjoy the captivating and emotional journey that the intriguing characters of the Liberation Force take you on.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/09

Game Release: Infinite Undiscovery (US, 09/02/08)