Aramation Games

Think of Lost Odyssey as a traditional JRPG for Microsoft’s console, and you’ll understand perfectly that this isn’t a Mass Effect or even a Fable 2. Featuring turn-based battles, random encounters, an epic storyline that pits you against the forces of evil and plenty of leveling up, the creators of Blue Dragon have delivered a very competent RPG.

This is the story of Kaim, an immortal that has lived a thousand years already in this world. When Kaim survives a meteor crashing in the battlefield, he’s tasked to inspect the potential source of the problem: the Grand Staff, a device that seeks to amplify the magic energy in the world. The universe of Lost Odyssey is rich and well-detailed, featuring fully-fleshed characters, different continents and countries with diverging interests. As you progress through the main story, you’ll meet other immortals (and mortals) who will join your party, and slowly rediscover your memories.

As mentioned before, the game features random encounters and turn-based battles where you issue an order, wait for the enemy to go through, and then repeat the whole cycle. While the battle mechanics aren’t overly new and exciting, character progression is quite different from other RPGs on the market. As an immortal, you don’t learn new skills as you level up: instead you must learn a skill that a mortal character in your party already knows by linking to him/her. This system forces you to micromanage your party as the only way to improve your immortal characters is to make sure mortals are leveled up as well. The game favors a more even character development. There is also a ring system which grants special abilities on physical attack (such as stealing gold, inflicting status damages…) based on how well you time your attack.

The game isn’t perfect as there are few annoying design choices: you do gain access to the world map (and various ships) but they do not add much to the game as exploring is minimal. Most of the times, you’ll just select a destination from a drop-down list. Some dungeons feature annoying water spouts or falls: coupled with narrow pathways, you’ll easily be frustrated having to go through the same path over and over again.

In the end, if you’re looking for a traditional JRPG and don’t expect too much innovation, you will be happy with Lost Odyssey. Through the adventure that spans 4 disks (yes, 4), the main quest will easily take you over 35 hours. The storyline has some rough spots but overall it’s marked improvement over the previous effort Blue Dragon, with more adult themes and interesting characters.

Rating: 75%