[xbox360] Infinite Undiscovery

Took a bit of time before I can muster some efforts to begin writing this review. Whether because I'm a lazy bastard in this festive season or just because I got a handful of irl stuff to handle, it does not matter I suppose. Anyway, it has been about a week since I finished playing the main story Infinite Undiscovery (IU), and about 2 days since I cleared the extra dungeon that comes after beating the game, Seraphic Gate. Sounds familiar? Valkyrie Profile players surely know of this.

[Infinite Undiscovery in Wikipedia]

Again, just like Tales of Vesperia, this is the extension of my previous quick review, going a bit of detail on my impression of this game after fully exploring every depth of what the game has to offer.

Story -

This is the tale of a world and its moon. Known as the throne of the gods, the moon rested peacefully in the heavens. Man enjoyed great prosperity by harnessing the power of the celestial body. Until one day... A sinister force ensnared the moon with chains and fastened them to the surface (lolwut), bleeding the life from the planet. The enchained lands were transformed into withering wasteland, and their once carefree inhabitants now lived in fear. Behind the world's plight were the Dreadknights and his menacing force, the Order of Chains.
Deep in a forest, in one of the Order's prison, a young boy named Capell was being held captive. His captor called him the "Liberator", though he had no clue as to what they meant. On the third day of his imprisonment, he was rescued by a spirited young woman named Aya. She was a member of a small band of brave warriors who had gathered under the banner of Sigmund the Liberator to free the world from the iron grip of the Order.
Upon meeting Sigmund, he was surprised to find a man who shared his very face and appearance. This meeting would change Capell's life forever and shake the foundation of the world itself...

sauce:Infinite Undiscovery manual. Easy =)

Hence Capell started his journey alongside Sigmund to free the world from the Chains, although he hesitate at first because he is scared of being hurt (wimpass). Many things happened in their journey all over the world (which seemingly a bit too small in my eyes), meeting many kinds of people (some which then joined the party) . Overall the story is nothing short of the typical jrpg plot, saving the world from the root of all evil. Even the ending share similarity to, say, Tales of Vesperia. And this game is also among those where one of the main cast died so early in the game (coughaerithff7cough), although post-game that character can still return to the party (like in Valkyrie Profile series).
As for plot development, although it does indeed give me a good impression, overall I feel that it's not thoroughly developed probably because the short length of the game. The only character with great development is Capell, I was especially surprised to see how he changed after the tragedy of Sapran. Good thing, there are many humor scenes added to the plot, (both direct and indirect humor) which added to my enjoyment while playing this game.
But then, I still don't understand why this game is named 'Infinite Undiscovery" :))

Characters

There are a wide variety of characters available to be picked for your party (maximum of 4). Some of them are awesome that not putting them in the party is a sin, while others are just average. But in the end it's all down to the players preference on who to use. Aya for example is a very good long range fighter with healing support, and is very useful to initiate first strike on the enemies. Rucha (Fire), Michellle (Aether) and Eugene (Earth) are the mages in the game, they're one who strikes with mega elemental spells and heals the parties whenever necessary. While it does not really matther which mage you would want to put in the party, it has been proven that Earth Element seems to work far far efficient than any other element, and hence Eugene come on top. Touma, being the only primary "aristo" in the game, is useful when exploring places with lots of Lunar Rain (especially Cobasna Timberland) because he is not affected by Lunar Power.
On top of that, there are also secondary characters that can only be used during certain mission that require additional parties (because the mission is rather large, although I personally don't see much difference between having them or not in the mission). How I wish Seraphina is a primary characters D:

Gameplay

Tri-Ace always excel with their battle system, and IU is no different. The game incorporate real time hack and slash action, with the battle system similar to Star Ocean series (basic and strong attacks, and holding the attack button allows you to execute Battle Skills assigned to the button) - except that there is no distinct short or long range-assigned Battle Skills. We can also combo with Capell's attack to create various combo, which basically enable us cancels basic-linked Battle Skill to strong-linked Battle skill. Again, this is like Cancel combo in SO, except that we can only cancel once per combo D:
Capell is the only character that can be controlled in battle/field, although we can still "Connect" him to other ally in the party to execute specific commands/attacks. This is especially useful for many purposes, like smashing he unbreakable boulders (Balbagan/Gustav), unlocking the locked treasure chest (Komachi/Vic), speaking with animals (Rico) and even commencing long range pre-emptive strike (I especially like using Aya's long range skill like Peacock Blow or Cardinal Cloak) which gives massive bonuses in battle (extra exp, 100% critical rate and high item drop rate). Basically "Connect" feature is what makes IU different than many other games.
Oh yeah, another similarity to Star Ocean is Flute. We've seen the Dragon Flute in Star Ocean 3, which is mostly only used in certain dungeon I forgot in SO3. In IU however, the application of Flute extend further more. Over the course of the game, players can learn various flute melodies, some of which are very useful in battle,while others are just there for the lulz, never being touched (at least I don't). 2 of the most useful melodies in the game is undoubtedly "Percipere" and "Mare Lunaris". The former allows you to uncover invisible objects (and even allows you to fight against that damn Vermiform), while the latter suppress the lunaglyph power of the blessed allies to prevent them from turning into Vermiform and KILL you. Better than Lunar Surpressant imo. And late, late in the post-game you'll get one of the best Flute melody, Symphony which increase ALL stats of the party as high as 30-40%. Unfortunately, the effect only last as long as the flute is played =.=

Sidequests

It is not RPG if there is no sidequest. IU also have many sidequests to offer, although not as much as SO3. From the item creation which allow you to craft various powerful items and weapons (some of the most powerful weapons can only be synthesised via this method); enchantment which gives various battle bonuses (like additional ATK/DEF/Crit rate/EXP etc); to the extra dungeons which allows you to fight against dreadful monsters and secret bosses. I kinda missed Battle Throphies as used in SO3 though, that makes it even more challenging if there's ever one.

Others

The game is unbelievably short, unlike many other jrpg that I've played. It take me less than 25 hours of gameplay time to finish disc 1 and further 25 hours to complete the game (before continuing with post-game sidequests). As I said before, the world seems rather small to me. Yes, small because there is only 5 major towns/cities in the whole game, and 2 small village, one of which last only for a couple of gameplay hours. All the cities and dungeons expand around 2 main settings in the game - Luce Plains and Oradian Dunes - which extend further oversea to Kalton to the "end of the world", Halgita (first being Nolaan). For normal difficulties, nothing in this game can be of problem if you're properly levelled. Although, getting some of the secret missions/achievements are rather a pain in the ass if you aim to get as many Achievements as possible. The real challenge come after you beat the game twice, where Infinite mode (similar to 4D of SO3) is unlocked. Feel the pain of hell.

Overall Infinite Undiscovery has been one of the best games I played in 2008, on top of being one of the reason why I desperately want to buy a 360. There are flaws here and there, especially in character expression (which Square Enix always fail anyway) but the battle system totally make up for it.

bonus video: Capell's battle skill exhibition. Eternal Refrain and Grin Valesti rawks XD


next: Seraphic Gate exclusive