Good old summertime, a time to relax and enjoy a slightly slower pace. So why does it seem nearly as busy as the rest of the year? I’ve finally had a chance to catch up with a few of this year’s crop of game releases and thought I’d share my thoughts. The first one is a doozy: Lost Odyssey – a 40+ hour epic RPG on the Xbox 360.

Actually, 40 hours is an understatement if you aren’t focused tightly on the main plotline and tend to poke your nose around exploring every nook and cranny. On the one had, that can make it a good dollar to game-hour value, but it also causes a few drawbacks like a very slow moving start and the need to actually block that kind of time out of one’s schedule to finish the game to the end. Once the game pace picked up, it was an enjoyable experience. In some ways, it is comparable to one of my favorite PS2 games, ICO. In a similar way, Lost Odyssey has a very strong theme and mood that draws you in to the main character’s barren existence (bordering on Emo). The game becomes more than a series of tasks to complete and is elevated to a story and setting to be experienced. Even with my graphically challenged (non-HDTV) setup, I found the game and particularly its lush setting and back story quite engrossing.

The basic game mechanics are nothing too new. You control a main character along with several other party members who have skills and powers that increase as you gain levels. Some characters (including the main character) are immortal and even rise up from the dead in a battle after a time. The immortal characters can also learn skills and powers from the “normal” characters, but only a few skills are available to be used at any one time. The game is mainly played in a third person exploration mode in dungeon settings and towns. Combat is turn based with no terrain or positioning to worry about (other than characters in the back row take less damage than characters in the front row). Movement around the world setting is accomplished through the use of a world map that will quickly warp you where you need to go. As the game is primarily turn-based, there are only two elements that are more action-oriented. Some exploration levels require sneakiness and problem solving to complete, and the melee combat system has a ring-system where pressing and holding a button for the correct length of time will increase the bonus damage of a characters attack. Beyond leveling up and finding new powerful equipment, there is an equipment design feature where you can combine found elements to create some customized equipment. Thankfully, recipes are typically widely available and building new items is not simply a system of trial and error.

On the whole, I found the game to be one of the most enjoyable RPGs I have played in past years. There are good and not so good aspects to the game, so I thought I’d compare and contrast them for you.

Good – The game is very long. There’s lots to do so you get your money’s worth. Thankfully the main plotline is fairly tight so as to not lose the player with too many options. This is balanced with breaks in the plot that come at fairly regular intervals and provide time for the player to explore and area without feeling railroaded to the next quest.
Bad – The game is very long. Despite some summer vacation my game time is precious and its difficult to find the kind of time needed to finish off this RPG. The entire RPG genre can be a time sink, but this one does tend to be longer than some. This is even more noticeable at the start of the story as it takes quite a long time to get through all the background and character development before the plot begins to hum along at a good pace.
Good – Fast leveling. Like most games, exploring too little makes you underpowered, but level progression goes quick up to a certain limit, then slows way down for the rest of that particular area. Once the characters enter the next area, leveling speeds up again. This prevents players who work over random encounters from becoming over powered while allowing players who happened to move through an area too quickly to quickly move back up to an appropriate level.
Bad – The game too often provides opportunities to explore simply for exploration’ sake. While I understand the need to provide some decisions so that players are truly controlling their destiny, meaningless decisions are better left on the cutting room floor. For example, the characters are asked to meet someone at his house. If I’m told to meet someone at home, why do I have to spend 5 or 10 minutes running about in the empty hallways of his house after being shown through the front door by his servants? While I understand it might be appropriate for an exploration based game, in an RPG it simply removes me from the story while I wonder why I’m searching the garbage cans in the hallway for a spare coin or two. The man sent for me, can’t I simply get to him, chat and then get back on my way? Fixing a few different instances of this sort of thing could easily shave a couple hours off of the game and make it a more intense experience.
Good – In a tired cliché, the eternal main character doesn’t remember his past. However, it slowly comes back to him in the form of dreams. These dreams are activated throughout the game and consist of a short text story presented along with a moody ambiance slideshow. They are essentially microstories and are a real boon for fans of science fiction or fantasy. Each one explores some unique aspect of the game world through past interactions of the main character. Sure, they tend to be full of angst and melancholy of a man who will live far beyond the lives of normal people, but they each explore a very unique setting within the game world. A valley with wind so strong that it can only be traversed in one direction, a woman whose profession involves painting the portraits of people just after death, and so on. Perhaps it is my reading tendencies, but I think a small hardcover book of a collection of all the dreams would make a great fan gift or perhaps a freebie for a director’s cut of the game. Without the animated backdrop and sound effects the stories might lose a bit of their power, but they are still a worthy read. The dreams are some of the most mood setting parts of the game.
Bad – Not uncommon in fantasy settings, magic is quite powerful. Due to the rock-scissors-paper style of elemental weakness in combat, casting the right spells is necessary to win harder fights. Since casting a water spell on a fire creature (for example) is so effective, most battles lean heavily on your spellcasters. Since the main character is more of a melee character, it seems strange for the secondary characters to play a more important roll in battles than the protagonist.
Good – In a nice nod to those who aren’t 100% thorough explorers, many of the game’s skills and items found in the early story arcs can be obtained later through stores and trades. This is great for collectors who simply must have everything but may have accidentally overlooked a hidey-hole or two in their initial explorations.

There, that’s one more good than bad, clearly a positive review. What is even more important is the weight of each aspect and the bads tend to be minor when compared to the good. The games main failings lie in its slow start and occasional story-driven slowdowns in play. If that can be forgiven, this game has some excellent aspects. The game mechanics and story are solid, but the lush environment, back story, and setting are what push this RPG into the highly recommended category.

Tags: Game Reviews