Lost Odyssey

Few "Final Fantasy" fans like the new course of the series, with Yasumi Matsuno's different approach in "FFXII" and the growing number of uninspired series' spin offs. Because of this, "FFXIII" is probably the least expected episode in the series in many years. So, when word got out, that after leaving Square, Hironobu Sakaguchi formed a new company named Mistwalker, expectations reached an all time high for the "Final Fantasy" fans. Due to the "Blue Dragon" flop, "Lost Odyssey" was released with little fanfare: reviewers everywhere dismissed the game as mild effort to repeat the JRPG formula once more, and the fan-base of the 360 wasn't mildly interested in a classical JRPG. So, the question that needs answering is: how does "Lost Odyssey" stack up when compared with the "Final fantasy" legacy?

"Lost Odyssey" is the tale of Kaim Argonar, an immortal that has lived for a thousand years. It is set in a high fantasy/sci-fi scenario, similar to that of "FFVIII", where a number of political conflicts have engaged the world in a series of wars. The reason why the world is at war is rather simple: there is a powerful, mad wizard that wants to take over the world with his magic, and uses these conflicts to gain power; alas, a big old cliché. Sakaguchi's script is really poor, with a plot so obvious and dull, it hurts: in the first few hours it will be plainly obvious who the bad guy is and what he's plotting, and what the good guys' role is. No plot twists, no grand finale, no hidden meanings... nothing. Yet, the ol' Sakaguchi charm still manages to creep up, with a cast of touching and funny characters giving the story a much needed interest. . Not all the cast is as charming as it should be and can seem mostly underdeveloped, especially Kaim, who is so "emo" it becomes annoying: all his dialogs can be resumed to a series of careless, dry one-liners. But that is where things get interesting…

"Lost Odyssey" features a collaboration from Japanese writer Kiyoshi Shigematsu, named "1000 years of dreams", a collection of memories belonging to Kaim's thousand years of living. These memories were translated to screen only using text, a few abstract images and sound, and of course, Uematsu's soundtrack. The result is, by far, the best narrative "Lost Odyssey" has to offer. Here, Kaim is portrayed as a multifaceted character, with proper feelings and personality; his life-episodes are much more deep and emotionally provocative than anything Sakaguchi can come up with. They can be described as philosophical tales about war and peace, love and hate, life and death, but nothing I could write would transmit how powerful, well written they really are. After the first one, I was hooked to these pieces of literary magic, that managed to make me weep every time, due to the intensity of those vivid dramatic moments, made all the more touching thanks to Uematsu's music. It's so good, that if "Lost Odyssey" focused on these writings instead of the silly "Madman wants to take over the world" plot, it would probably have the best JRPG story ever.

The game-play, as would be expected from Sakaguchi, is the standard in classical turn-based RPG's, i.e. nothing new here. And if it does feel dated, one must admit that at least it's well executed: battles require timed inputs, that prevent the player from dozing off; grinding is not an issue, thanks to the use of an experience system that grants levels with great speed; and the tradition of obscure side-quests is gone, with most of the hidden secrets in the game only requiring a healthy amount of exploration and reasoning to uncover. So if you like to reminisce about classical "Final Fantasies", then the game-play will surely make you happy. Nobuo Uematsu's fully orchestrated score will also make you very happy, as it follows the spirit of the series, meaning its one hell of a soundtrack. Though it's nostalgic, it's a completely original score, which allowed Uematsu to go to new, unvisited places, instead of having to rearrange the same tiresome melodies.

On the technical side, the game has its ups and downs. The art-direction is good and translates well into the powerful Unreal Engine, producing beautiful sets and characters. It isn't, by any means, nothing that hasn't been done before: most of the aesthetic is reminiscent of past "Final Fantasies", and the usual Japanese silliness (like dresses that lack fabric in bosom and rear) is too present to make the world's environment feel believable. The fact that the game doesn't run very well, doesn't help: there are many loading-screens and stuttering-cut-scenes waiting players who want to get through to the end of the game. At least, the cut-scenes and FMV are the best I've ever seen, with fast cut editing, dynamic directing (finally a game that masters the use of low and high-angle shots) and use of simultaneous multiple POVs (giving a comic-book feel like that of Ang Lee's "Hulk"). Apart from the simplistic lighting, the visual direction by Roy Sato (animator of "The Flight of the Osiris") is entirely commendable.

So, is "Lost Odyssey" a worthy successor of the "Final Fantasy" legacy? The answer is… yes. Though "Lost Odyssey" has many flaws, it fares remarkably well in upholding the series' concepts and production values. Everything you'd expect from a "Final Fantasy" is present. Yet, "Final Fantasy" has always been a series that, in each episode, went further in the genre and "Lost Odyssey" feels exactly the opposite. At first, that might be a letdown, but after shedding a few tears from reading every "1000 Years of Memories", you'll understand what Sakaguchi is trying to say with his game: why go forward, when the dramatic potential of the genre is still underachieved? "Lost Odyssey" is his greatest masterpiece, a game so heartbreaking, profound and beautiful that it fully deserves the title of "Final Fantasy".

What can one say about Losy Odyssey, many have said the obvious that, "it doesn't reinvent the wheel", while this may be one could also say Lost Odyssey keeps things simple and that today is where I am coming from.

Lost Odyssey works from the Final Fantasy angle with similar fights and magic usage, this is what old school gamers simply adore, I being one myself was incredibly happy with this aspect of the game which enables a quick learning curve to take place.

Moving on, Lost Odyssey supplies a massive dose of fantastic written story line and emotional tales during 1000 years of dreams, its quite simply one of the best, however this is not to say that it is a weepy kind of game with many of your main characters memories spanning from description of being a soldier and a merc etc.

The graphics are some of best the Xbox 360 has seen and with tiny loading times this game just looks and plays amazingly smooth.

As a summary if you are a gamer who just loves action and an amazing story or are a fan of Final Fantasy games then I can safely say that this game will be for you.

For those who are interested I have complied a list of finishing times.

:For a quick mover who is not interested in the side questions: 35-45 Hours :For a gamer who enjoys to take in scenery and walk the towns while doing most side questions and optional bits: 55-75 Hours :Finally for a gamer who is considered hardcore, likes to take in everything they see and truly experience the game, completing every last bit and taking their time: 75-90 Hours My personal time: 74:58 Thank you for reading and if this has helped you decide if Lost Odyssey is the right game for you then good luck and enjoy the game!! 10/10 100/100 A++!!

Yes, this more so than part twelve of Final Fantasy seems more like that series. However, it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination as I almost gave this game an eight instead and it probably deserves an eight more. The story has an immortal named Kaim who has no memories of his past sent on a mission to explore an object called Grand Staff. He is joined by Seth another fellow immortal and Jansen who tags along at the request of the obvious villain Gongorra. During your many adventures Kaim regains his lost memories, his lost love, and his lost for good loved ones. The fighting is basically turned based using at times a ring system that when timed right can cause extra damage in battles, causes elemental damage, and can inflict status ailments. Sort of like Shadow Hearts, but not quite as involved or as good. I like Hearts better cause there you used the rings for everything...here you only use it for the standard attack. The music is okay, though kind of minimal as it does not exactly blow you away. However, the music was very good during the cut scenes called a thousand years of dreams, a series of stories telling of Kaim's past. Most of them are rather sad, but they add a lot to the game. The problems with the game though are many too. One, Cooke and Mack are a bit annoying at times and they are in the story a lot. I wish Sed was in the story more than these two kiddies. There is also the fact that Kaim is the main character for most of the game, but he does not stand out in any way at the end, really standing back as the pirate Seth takes center stage. Then there is the loading. Why on a next generation console is there so much loading? Why is the game broken down on four disks and they can not do a better job of transitions than they did is beyond me. Look at Final Fantasy X...all on one disc, but it flowed very smoothly. It was also a Ps2 game. I just do not get this at all. However, for the most part you are in store for a really good game, the fighting is fun, the side quests easy enough to do, and the ending was rather good as well. So for the most part a fun role-playing game for the Xbox 360.

It's funny to me now, how I almost gave up on this game completely. A couple of months ago a friend gave me three of his Xbox 360 games to borrow for a while. One of these was Soul Caliber IV, the other I can't remember the name of, which is ironic since the one I can't remember the name of was actually the one I had wanted to borrow in the first place as far as I can remember. Anyway, the third game was Lost Odyssey; he threw in Soul Caliber and LO because he wanted me to play them and see if I liked them. So I played Soul Caliber IV for a while and enjoyed it, and then I decided to try Lost Odyssey. At first, I was bored and convinced that, being an RPG novice, I wouldn't be able to play the game properly. So I cast it aside without giving it much of a chance. I'd barely even made it past the first city.

So, yeah, I wasn't into the game and I soon forgot about it. My friend asked if he could have the game back, if I wasn't willing to play it. I said yeah, but we both forgot about it and I didn't see him during the summer, when I realised I still had the game. One day I randomly put it on again and this time I started playing for real, and soon found myself hooked. The game is four discs long, and it took me about a week to get through three of the discs. That's how much the game sucked me in, and had me addicted.

The story is of Kaim Argonor, an immortal who lives in the human world. His memories have been erased and he cannot remember who he is and what he has done in the past. He soon meets up with other immortals, and also mortals, who become his close friends. As time goes on, he begins to remember, as do the other immortals whose memories have also been erased.

I won't spoil the story, I'll just say that this game is great. I haven't got much to compare it to since I'm not really much of an RPG gamer, but in my eyes it is one of the best looking, deepest games I've ever played. I've played Final Fantasy X, but it was so long ago that I'm not sure I can really compare the two games. Still, Final Fantasy fans may want to give this one a look since I've heard the music composer of the FF series helped with this game. Anyway, it's a really good game and deserves to be recognised as an amazing RPG.

I should start this review by prefacing that Lost Odyssey is the most recent brain-child of master storyteller, Hironobu Sakaguchi, responsible for directing or producing Final Fantasies I through XII. So, when I first heard of his next project, I was eagerly anticipating what the game could potentially have in store. The game deals with a group of immortal who have lived for 1000 years, but recently lost their memories, leaving them to wonder about their origin and what they've gone through. The way in which these character's immortal life is examined gave me a stronger emotional link to the characters than I had in any other video game before or since. It remains in my mind as the greatest story to come from a video game. Beyond the story, the turn-based RPG may not be what most people are looking for, but what's there cannot be underestimated. While the intricacies of the battle mechanics are not the best I've ever seen, they're still engrossing and a clear cut above the average game. However, there's so much more to love: the gorgeous artistic style, the almost obscene large number of side quests; I could go on and on. If you love art, RPG's, heck, even if you just love excellent stories, buy this game. It's your duty.