Lost Odyssey

THE GOOD:
Intuitive interfaces and turn-based gameplay that focuses on using strategy in battle and exploring a well crafted world.

THE BAD:
Graphical hiccups are present throughout the game and are hard to block out of your head after 45 hours of gameplay.

SUMMARY:
Game Play:

Being a turn based JRPG, the gameplay for Lost Odyssey comes straight down to the battles.

The battle system is intuitive, simple, but also leaves a lot of room for strategy. Players take up to 5 characters in their party into a battle. Players can spend their turns attacking, using skills, casting a variety of spells, defending, or attempting to flee which is your garden variety of abilities.

The Ring Building System will keep you in the battle and the visual effects are pretty.

Lastly, bosses are always challenging to fight yet do not necessitate grinding. Bosses can be defeated by equipping the right items, using the right techniques, or just gaining an idea of how they operate after a few deaths. Lost Odyssey presents a challenging difficulty level that encourages gamers to think and strategize.

This is all backed up by an incredible amount of content and solid field gameplay. Mistwalker has several solid puzzles while out in the field and tends to give multiple types of them rather than rehashing the same old tired trick over and over.

Graphics:

Lost Odyssey's graphics are top notch in appearance but the game suffers from fairly frequent lag spurts. It really seems that it's trying to do too much and it collapses under its weight. However, I couldn't imagine the game looking any other way and these hitches don't interfere with actual gameplay.

The power of the graphics seems to cause some loading issues however these are mostly exaggerated by professional reviewers. Loading usually takes a few seconds an area with some large cutscenes numbering around 30 seconds.

Overall the graphics are staggering. Mistwalker takes you to mountain tops, quaint villages, frozen wastelands, technologically advanced cities, decaying ruins, and many other locales.

Music:

The music shines in this game. All of it is orchestrated and fits well with the game. Mistwalker really understands how to use music to set the mood and does it well albeit a few times. Scores vary from a more classical sound to techno so you get a good spectrum of sound.

Plot:

The game is extremely plot driven and doesn't suffer for it. The plot is for the most part good. It does suffer from some generic aspects but it is compelling. It has a few plot twists and nothing ever feels like the writers decided to randomly fill a plot hole with garbage. The flow of plot is solid and feels believable.

Characters are well defined and their relationships with each other are fleshed out. Though some aspects could have been better, the plot was enjoyable and will take you throughout an interesting world.

Downloadable Content:

Lost Odyssey's DLC adds an extra dungeon that is available in Disc 4 (possibly 3 but really only doable in 4).

The DLC costs 400 MS Points and frankly felt uninspired. In it you basically descend 25 floors, each of which are essentially the exact same room with minor layout differences. Some enemies are tough while others teeter on annoying.

On the plus side it does offer a good amount of good rings and items that are not otherwise obtainable. It also adds a possible 100 Gamerpoints to earn to the game.

The boss of the DLC can easily be called the hardest in the game and is near broken.

Final word of warning, there are no save points at all throughout the DLC.

Overall:

Lost Odyssey kept me busy for about 50 hours with most of the side quests completed. This is coming from someone who has a lot of experience in gaming and for you fellow old school gamers looking for a JRPG, Lost Odyssey will satisfy your needs.

Though it could be refined some more, Lost Odyssey is a well built RPG that I have no regrets in buying. It's a good game for people who like the genre. For others, it's likely a questionable buy so check out some videos and get a good idea of what the game is like before you buy it.

It might not be a shining example of the genre but it's a good play and if anything, makes me look forward to Mistwalker's next epic which will hopefully have more polished graphics management and an even better plot.