The other title that’s soon to be released on the Xbox 360, and the one that seems like the real effort, comes in the form of Lost Odyssey. After all, Blue Dragon was primarily developed by Artoon, with Mistwalker seemingly on primarily as supervisors. Lost Odyssey tells the story of an immortal being named Kaim Argonar, who is struggling with his unusual status and memory blanks. Microsoft recently gave us a chance to give the game a hands-on and it’s only made us anticipate the title even more.
While we only got a chance to see two hours, we were quite blown away by several aspects of the story and the game. However, there were a couple of aspects that weren't as appealing. The opening to the game is one of the most epic we have seen in a while and at least the direction of the story is nothing short of intriguing. If the depth to the characters is as profound throughout the game as they were in the opening two hours, then players are in for a treat.
Now that's a city.
As you play, you’ll unlock snippets of Kaim’s shattered memory through dream sequences. It seems that these sequences will play a large part in the game. While they are all conveyed purely through emotively written text and artistically rendered backgrounds, they are surprisingly effective. It’s hard to believe how well the text has not only been translated but written in such a manner that vividly describes the situation. Writing this good isn’t seen that often in gaming. Still, some sequences will be lengthy, so you’ll need to be patient. However, you can also watch each sequence that you’ve unlocked anytime.
In terms of raw gameplay, Lost Odyssey starts off rather slowly. Since we were constantly being introduced to the aspects of the game, there really wasn’t much to show off potentially distinguishing features. A lot of what we did involved generic exercises, namely going from A and rather aimlessly searching for point B or the next objective. The occasional NPC had a useful phrase to help you out. However, the non-useful NPC’s actually had some vaguely interesting ‘trivia’, if you like, about the world of Lost Odyssey. We just hope that the game doesn’t get too bogged down in these archaic exercises.
In terms of combat, we didn’t get to face many enemies but then again, we’re quite certain we know what to expect. It’s a fairly standard combat setup with a couple of tweaks. It was stressed to us that the game will heavily emphasise the position of your team mates. That is, with relation to the front and back rows. Also, players will equip rings that bring up another ring in battle that will give you a chance to do some bonus damage. Apparently, immortal characters (yes, there are more than one) can’t learn spells and skills but can ‘borrow’ them from human characters who do learn them.
Pft... Realism is overrated anyway.
While we have been assured that the game will be much tougher then Blue Dragon, there are a couple of worrisome aspects on combat. Firstly, the game reverts back to using random battles. This has been a gaming faux pas for a little while now, so it will be interesting to see the reaction or how it holds up over the length of the quest. Secondly, the pacing of battles seems to be slower paced than that of Blue Dragon, which can become frustrating in turn-based gaming. Still, along with the seemingly slow start, we won’t be able to judge any of these factors until we have played the final game.
There are two aspects of Lost Odyssey though, that we have no doubt will shine. That is, the graphics and sound. Built using the Unreal III engine, the graphical presentation, from the real-time cutscenes to the minor details to the amazing scope, Lost Odyssey is a beautiful game. It was amazing to watch the effortless transition from cut-scene into gameplay at the beginning. Hopefully the technical performance will match it. In terms of sound, we can be guaranteed a superb sound track. However, the excellent writing has come into the dialogue as well and the English dubbing in this game happened to be superb, so far.
Given how closely the game seems to be sticking to a traditional RPG design, we’re not expecting a revelation from Lost Odyssey. However, it’s the way that the game has been very carefully put together, as well as what seems to be a lot of love and care in the localisation that has us excited. Hopefully, this along with what is so far a deeply intriguing story will be enough to overcome any displeasures encountered by archaic design choices.
. My healer constantly die without me knowing.
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