Half of Lost Odyssey is spent poking static backdrops for treasures, the other half participating in highly choreographed, randomly generated battles - and if you think all that sounds desperately, painfully over-familiar, walk a few miles in the shoes of Kaim Argonar, immortal man. The game's ageless, little-spoken hero makes a fitting emblem for a genre in decline, gazing upon humanity with an apathy born of centuries of fruitless wandering.
Other leading men can't help but seem hollow by comparison, their private struggles with destiny trivial and contrived. When Cloud Strife was in potty-training, Kaim was slaughtering men a thousand years his junior at the behest of vainglorious princelings. By the time Squall Leonhart picked up a gunblade, Kaim had criss-crossed the world a dozen times over - a sword for hire, distinguished from the rest by inhuman prowess and a sort of mournful serenity.
These are the sights and sounds that ultimately thaw our hero's travel-worn gloom, not the spectacle of battle, or the prospect of a continent-dooming conspiracy. As Lost Odyssey begins, somebody drops a meteor on Kaim. He barely even blinks.
Couched as a collection of animated short stories, Kaim's scattered memories are the things that most obviously distinguish Mistwalker's opus from its inspiration, Final Fantasy. Microsoft picked an interesting time to invite the comparison; by late 2007, Square Enix had steered the Final Fantasy series away from some of its most famous tropes and devices, experimenting with more cinematic, reflex-driven combat and consolidating its toehold on the MMO scene. Ultimately, Lost Odyssey feels less like a clone of Final Fantasy as a vision of what Final Fantasy might have been, had Square resisted the temptation to strike out for the horizon.
On the road
It's bafflingly, beguilingly anachronistic - a painstaking recollection of the genre's glory days which revives every tradition, however misguided. Well, not quite. True, the storytelling and interactive elements aren't so much "distinct" as locked in windowless rooms and obliged to communicate by tapping the wall. And yes, the base ingredients of combat and character development lean heavily on Square's efforts - there are the usual spells, status effects and items, some (like the restorative 'Angel's Plume') almost brazen in their derivativeness.
21 comments so far...
Metalrodent on 9 Feb '13 said:
thats a long subheading
DGR1980 on 9 Feb '13 said:
Damn you Ed.
I got stuck on a time based travelling part on disc 4, and now i want to finish it. Only trouble is the save is on a dead xbox
OXM ETboy on 9 Feb '13 said:
Ouch. Apologies!
terry cheyne on 9 Feb '13 said:
TALES OF VESPERIA
is the greatest jrpg on xbox and it doesn't have stupid kids in it.
pit they didn't make a sequal to lost odyssey as it was very good
Plamsa wing on 9 Feb '13 said:
I've had this for two years, haven't even played it yet.
Thanks for reminding me.
Still at least it was a brithday present. Were it not for Ni no Kuni, I'd start it, but I don't want to be splitting my time up for JRPGS.
Still haven't finished The Last Remnant either...
I do like these retrospectives though, this was in the last mag wasn't it ? Sure I read the other day.
Alaric14 on 9 Feb '13 said:
Good call out for Mistwalker; a shame they never made more RPGs for the Xbox360 even though it's games line up is by far the most 'westernised' a console's ever has been.
Lost Odyssey is excellent, it has to be said. Kaim's approach to every situation was believable and his apparent immortality served to enhance the vulnerabilities of his mortal companions, which was played upon with the excellent read only story segments detailing previous moments of love, loss, and battle-hardened resolve.
I didn't like Gongora. As the arch-enemy to a story that engaging I expected more than a goatee-wearing, peroxide-tipped muscle mountain, and even though his agenda had the potential to be a major axis of comparison between his and Kaim's existences the dialogue never capitalised on it.
Still worth picking up if you haven't already. Enjoy a JRPG 'old skool' for a few dozen hours or so.
stealth50k on 9 Feb '13 said:
". The JRPG in general, meanwhile, has adapted to ill fortune by hybridising with action games - a process epitomised by the gradual decline of Final Fantasy's Active Time Battle system into something more befitting a brawler."
generalized lying horse shit.
2 out of the last 3 final fantasies have been turn based rpgs.
Paley on 9 Feb '13 said:
I can't remember a great deal about it other than I enjoyed playing it and the poems were often quite beautiful
Rewave Acid on 9 Feb '13 said:
it would have to be Eternal Sonata for me! One of my favourite games ever, immense battle system, beautiful graphics, lovely twee story with an amazing musical score and full of anime cheese. Although Lost Odyssey is second
Damn that battle theme was good
ItchyRash on 9 Feb '13 said:
Yikes! Don't think there's any need for the aggression. Fantastic game. Great story, quite cheesy in a way a jrpg should be and the kid characters aren't that bad. Still looks fantastic as well. Especially the cutscenes. Wish there was a sequel. I've asked so many times on these forums about other jrpgs on Xbox I'd like as this is the only one I've touched but I'm yet to try any. Sure Eternal Sonata was the one most mentioned. About to start Dust: An Elysiam Tale soon which I here is quite jrpg style. Don't regret playing this though. Think it got overlooked by many as it came out alongside mass effect 1
ChocoROID on 10 Feb '13 said:
I consider Lost Odyssey the most underrated JRPG I've ever played, But times change and people get bored of the same thing.
I agree that this is what the Final Fantasy series would have been if it hadn't been forced to keep the variety high, after all, no game series survives >35 games without keeping the mechanics a little different.
As long as the story stays different and I can keep immersed, I love JRPGs and will continue to play them for as long as they exist, the sad fact is, that they are just not as popular as they used to be.
ChocoROID on 10 Feb '13 said:
Troll?
msbhvn on 10 Feb '13 said:
Yep. Got banned under his original name (which was just stealth) and then started creating account after account saying he had "infinite" IP addresses and email accounts. Pathetic really.
Maverick_McCool on 10 Feb '13 said:
Yay , Stealth is back , how you been you ridiculous idiot? It's been a while since we have had a genuinly useless prick on these forums. It was begining to get a little to civillized.
Aw , who am I kidding , f**k off back to CVG you pointless creature.
Oh and Lost Odysee was pretty good apart from the whiny kiddies , but I preffered Blue Dragon if I'm honest.
Grummy on 10 Feb '13 said:
The Last Remnant. The only JRPG of this generation I actually completed, AND I went back for all the achievements. Loved the game. I really couldn't get into playing the others.
Oh, except for Nier, which was interesting, but like Dark Souls, I couldn't justifiably call it a JRPG as it doesn't have many of the classic JRPG tropes.
DGR1980 on 10 Feb '13 said:
Whereas the pseudo Pokemon wasnt annoying in the slightest?
That said i really enjoyed Blue Dragon too. At the risk of sounding like Stealth I actually preferred these two to any of the Final Fantasies
CunningSmile on 11 Feb '13 said:
<sacrifices goat>
Kernow I invoke thee!!!!!
FishyGinger on 11 Feb '13 said:
I assume it's the same stealth as on the cvg boards. Sounds the same. Interesting fellow that.
Plamsa wing on 11 Feb '13 said:
Still working on getting 100%, why I've yet to finish it. Just past the 8 bases, which took me ages until I realised I had screwed the leveling up and had to start again.
I have to say though, it too was a birthday present my sister bought, one I surprisingly enjoy.
SidTheSloth on 11 Feb '13 said:
Ah, what a cracking game LO was, nice feature Ed...
Biggest issue for me with Lo was the first disc was pretty tough to play through and incredibly 'ploddy' at times, but it definitely got better the longer it went on. That aside it has one of the meanest achievements i've ever seen, and probably the worst, most horrific (but also optional if i remember correctly?) dungeon towards the end of the game that is a disorientating, rotating labyrinth filled with never ending random battles against tough bastards, and to make it worse, you have to find your way out again, with no sneaky shortcuts home allowed
*****Lost Odyssey Spoliers Ahead!!*****
Ending was a bit 'meh' too imo - always suspected it was left open for a potential sequel as you never see what really happens to the two who go through the portal thingy (Gongora & Seth was it?). This is all from memory though so maybe im speaking poo - but a sequel looks an impossibility now anyway
*****Spoilers End*****
All that aside, i thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the game (the less those irritating kids are involved the better) and the little short stories were a fantastic distraction and a clever way i thought of telling you more about Kaim...
With Ni No Kuni having been released on PS3 recently, and Persona 4 about to launch on vita i can't help but look at the 360 and yearn for a few more titles like LO as FF just hasn't cut the mustard this gen... The popularity of things like Ni No, Disgea, Persona etc shows there is appetite for the genre outside of Japan and it seems strange for MS to have shut it out after dabbling. Even the overlooked/stupidly titles Infinite Undiscovery went down well in the absence of better alternatives - I'm sure they're not stopping third parties from catering to the crowd but their absence hurts the 360 imo as an all rounder..
KernowDevil23 on 11 Feb '13 said:
Done. We'll see how long it lasts this time.