Lost Odyssey

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Lost Odyssey review
Vyle

Review

Is Lost Odyssey the RPG the 360 needs?

Story and dreams


The story focuses on Kaim Argoner, an amnesiac Immortal, who is called to initially assist the country of Uhra with an investigation into what is wrong with the Grand Staff. Of course, things get far more complicated than that, leading Kaim and his chums on a merry chase around the world, in true RPG tradition.

Kaim is certainly an interesting protagonist, having been cursed with immortality and thus having to watch everybody he's ever known die (often horribly). This naturally means that he sports the familiar emo look of JRPG heroes, but unlike most, he does wear slightly manly clothes.

Furthermore, when he meets other Immortals and the Mortal characters, the story begins to open up, spinning a far more intriguing yarn than SquareEnix's latest efforts. That said, it still falls short of certain other games, but this is more of a personal preference than a problem with the game itself.

Speaking of stories, the strangest - and yet most enjoyable part – of the game comes not from the battles, or the often overly long and occasionally bland cut-scenes, but from the 'Dreams'.

These dreams are unlocked when approaching/speaking to certain people under the right conditions and unlock what is essentially a memory of Kaim's written as a short story. These are incredibly well written and, while longer than some people may be comfortable with, can be skipped and re-read at will. The stories are touching, and tend to have sad endings, but nevertheless provide an entertaining and powerful read.

The rest of the game, as already stated, plays like any other RPG, with battles earning experience points and money. While innovations are scarce, there are a few nice additions that add some spice to the proceedings.

Some innovations to spice things up


Once Kaim's party encompasses both mortals and immortals, Skill Linking is made available. This is because Mortals can acquire skills by increasing their level – an ability that Immortals don't possess. To teach an Immortal a new skill, they must initiate a 'Skill Link' where the Immortal chooses a Mortal's skill, and then learns it by acquiring the necessary amount of Skill Points through battle. These skills can then be equipped to an Immortal's skill slots. The slots are limited, though, which encourages intelligent skill set-ups.

Immortals can also learn skills by wearing certain items of equipment. For instance, if an Immortal wears an accessory with Poison Immunity, they can learn that skill and equip it even when the item is no longer being worn. Mortals, however, cannot do this, and so are only able to benefit from the skill while the relevant equipment is on their person.

Another addition is the Aim Ring. This ring appears during a character's attack and is initiated by holding the R Trigger. Doing so prompts a ring to appear around the enemy. A second, outer ring, appears and begins to shrink. The aim is to release the trigger as the outer ring overlaps the inner ring, and rewards the player with additional damage if done correctly.

While nowhere near as exciting as the Judgement Ring from the Shadow Hearts series, it's a nice addition that encourages the player to pay attention to the often tedious battle grind of the genre.

Battle system


The final addition is the Guard Condition (GC) or Wall system. While other RPGs will allow you to change formation to relegate weaker characters to the back row, so that standard attacks will inflict less damage on them, Lost Odyssey takes it a step further. Characters in the back row are protected by a 'wall' which is strengthened by the HP of the front row characters. The higher the combined HP, the stronger the wall. As front row members take damage, the wall weakens. This is a nice touch that adds much strategy to the already intense battles.

One problem with the battles that spills into the rest of the game is that there appears to be text under the enemies' statuses which is too small to read thanks to the game being created with HD in mind. For those without HD televisions, this snippet of information which could make the difference between life and death in a high level battle remains a frustrating mystery.

7.0

fun score

No Pros and Cons at this time