Review: Lost Odyssey

March 19, 2008 by Panzer Pev

Lost Odyssey is the second kick at the can for Mistwalker Studios. Headed by the famed Hironobu Sakaguchi who created the Final Fantasy franchise, Lost Odyssey is the Xbox 360’s first true JRPG. Teaming up once again with composer Nobuo Oematsu, Sakaguchi has managed to craft a game that is at once familiar to Final Fantasy fans and easily accessible to those that love the genre.

The story revolves around an immortal, Kaim, who has lived for 1000 years. While the game doesn’t take place over the span of those years, it has flashbacks in the form of dreams that help to flesh out his life and backstory. Of course, along the way he is helped by several companions and one man aims to rule the world. Typical stuff. I won’t go more into the story here, as I always feel that is something you need to discover for yourself. Not only is it more rewarding, it’s part of the overall experience. However, I will say that there are some great characters in this game. Notably, Sed (get it, like Cid from FF?) and Jansen stand out.

Despite being a traditional JRPG (random battles, turn based combat etc), a few notable additions serve Lost Odyssey well. First, it has implemented a ring system (pictured below) in the combat that requires you to hold down the right trigger and release it at the right time to achieve more effective attacks. There are hundreds of different rings that can be attached and a fairly deep assembly system that allows you to craft rings with various elemental effects or status boosts. In addition, there is now a “wall system” in place that takes into account the formation of your party on the battlefield. The long and short of it is that party members in the back row get a defensive boost relative to the HP of the front row. It serves to add a little more strategy to how you build and position your party throughout the game. On a side note, I feel it is important to point out that there are NO SUMMONS in this game. If you go in expecting to find them you will be disappointed. Rather, Lost Odyssey uses a elemental based system with fire, water, earth and wind.

Overall, Lost Odyssey can present quite a challenge to JRPG newbies. There is little in the way of a tutorial and the first boss fight can kick your ass if you aren’t prepared. However, seasoned Final Fantasy fans will likely have no problem hacking their way through the game.

The music in Lost Odyssey is absolutely top notch. Oematsu has crafted a fantastic soundtrack and I enjoyed it throughout the entire game. While it is very reminicesnt of his work on Final Fantasy, it still manages to stand on its own and help craft a unique identity for the world of Lost Odyssey.

There has been much made of the supposed 30 second load times in Lost Odyssey as highlighted in several reviews. Fortunately, this was only a problem with the early code and the retail version doesn’t suffer from any long load times that ruin the experience. However, there is a noticeable frame-rate chug when entering battles and even in some cut-scenes but neither do much to detract from the experience.

As always, the question remains, do I recommend this game? Unfortunately, the answer is not as straightforward as you might think. Any fans of Final Fantasy will really enjoy Lost Odyssey. It is essentially the game that Sakaguchi would have made as Final Fantasy X had he remained with Square-Enix. While the game mechanics of a turn-based RPG may feel a bit dated after the likes of Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Lost Odyssey remains a solid RPG and should be considered by any fan of the genre.

The Good:

+ Great magic effects
+ Engaging and mature story
+ New ring system keeps combat engaging
+ Nice cinematics

The Bad:

- Pacing is a bit dis-jointed
- Dream sequences interrupt the flow of the game
- Some framerate issues