[XBOX 360] Lost Odyssey - a tale of the Immortals

I spent roughly a week after finishing Magna Carta 2 to complete this game. The last time I touch Last Odyssey was a few months ago (probably back then since the last semester break) reaching quite a lengthy bit of the game until mid-disk 3. With the help of several walkthroughs and guides, I finally manage to finish the game at 900/1000G achievements (minus the 100 extra DLC achievements). The last 100G can still eb attained by searching for 3 final Seeds that I missed to get the Pipot last Accessories, then fight the stupid bandit monster leader in Great Ancient Ruins for accessory with another learnable skill, proceed to learn the skills for all my Immortals; and finally go back to all dungeons and places to look for any unopened Treasure Chest. But it's too troublesome, I'd better give this game a rest for now...

Lost Odyssey (ロストオデッセイ) is a console role-playing game developed by Mistwalker and feelplus and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The player takes control of Kaim, a man who has lived for a thousand years and who has no memory of his past. The game is set in a world nearing a "magical industrial revolution." Kaim, who has forgotten his past, struggles with the return of his memories and the pain they bring.

Lost Odyssey was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famed Final Fantasy series. This is his third project outside of Square Enix, following ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat and Blue Dragon.

Lost Odyssey on Wikipedia
Lost Odyssey official website
Lost Odyssey on xbox.com


Gameplay - 6/10 (okay, but not that bad)
Lost Odyssey incorporate classical rpg-style turn-based gameplay. Think of classic turn-based Final Fantasy series plus the Judgement Ring system in Shadow hearts series, and you basically got Lost Odyssey. Why I rate it as a mere 6 is because at this age, I prefer a real time action gameplay like those in Star Ocean and Tales series than the boring "select-action-on-menu" type of gameplay, although the presence of Trigger Ring does made up a bit for the lameness of the gameplay. One more thing, I hate the transition animation from field to battle, showing the background (as in pre-FFX battles) alone took more than 10 seconds. And lastly is the usage of random encounter for battle, which can be pretty annoying at times when you want to explore the field, as you have no choice to evade battles. The game wasn't even that old to adapt this kind of gameplay (released early 2008), but then maybe I am among the minority that does not prefer this kind of gameplay.
On the plus side, the game offer various kind of abilities, skills and magic for player to experiment with. From the normal Black and White magic to the Spirit magic (sorta like the Blue Magic in FF9, with lots of support and non-elemental magic). And up to 5 people can be used in battle, divided into front and back row. Great feature as we doesn't often see an rpg game able to accommodate this much character in a battle.

There are 2 type of characters in Lost Odyssey - mortal and immortal. As a general rule, the immortals (Kaim, Seth, Sarah and Ming) are much stronger than the mortal simply because they can equip up to 30 abilities whilst the mortals (Jansen, Mick, Cooke, Toltem and Sed) are stuck with specific skills assigned to them, unless they equip other accessories to give extra abilities. Which is why I never leave my immortals out of my party although the stupid, incompetent guide that I follow hate Ming very much (and I can't understand why either). Late in the game, the immortals are, as their rank implies- immortal, overpowered because of the amount of awesome skills that they can equip - auto-shield/barrier, absorb attack/magic, total immunity, nullify element; everything that made even the strongest monsters in the game looks like a tiny rat.

In term of character personality though, I don't quite like most of the characters, they are awfully designed for my taste. Gangora has to be one of the retarded antagonist I ever encountered, along with his ideal of "rule the World". Kaim kinda fail as a main hero, trying hard to be a silent character like Squall did in FF8. Jansen tried to be a joker of the party but most of the time he failed to amuse me. Sarah, Ming and Seth is okay I suppose, but I really dislike their appearance. Regardless of that, I can't argue about their battle capabilities though (just like how I hate Sarah in SO4 but can't get her out of my Wonder Dungeon party due to her battle prowess). Seth and Kaim can tank attacks and magic np, Sarah and Ming can decimate the whole enemies mob easily with their magic. Sed and Toltem are really "useful" because of their skills.

Looking at the good aspect of this game, I would actually praise Lost Odyssey for its graphic and music. The field, town and dungeons were designed spectacularly, and the special effects in battle were nice. Speaking of music...hey it's composed by Nobuo Uematsu, need I say any more? Great music composition (I absolutely love Battle Condition and Dark Saint) although I find them less memorable than the one he did for Final Fantasy series. Nevertheless, Lost Odyssey is still a product from Hinorobu Sakaguchi and worth playing if you are jrpg fan, and can still cope with old-school turn-based combat and fresh yet uninspiring storyline.

overal game value - 6/10