Review: Lost Odyssey (360)

The story revolves around an immortal - Kaim - who has no memory, and as the game unfolds bits of his past become revealed. The way this is done though is quite unique. Exploring your environment can trigger dreams, all of which are just the most brilliantly written stories inserted into a game. As expected from a man who can’t die or age, each dream is incredibly sombre, normally resulting in death or mass genocide. It’s a bleak tone that really does carry on through the whole game.

The battle system is what makes Lost Odyssey a treat to play. The overlay may seem standard stuff with items, magic attacks etc, but it’s the ring system that adds a unique touch. Forging rings from various items you find scattered will give you an advantage in certain confrontations. For instance some rings will add water damage to your attacks giving you the upper hand in fights with fire based opponents and others give you abilities such as being able to cast magic up to a certain level. It adds a layer of depth to the combat because battles are rarely ever the same. There’s also a timing aspect added. As your character rushes to strike a ring will appear in the middle of the screen and you have to hold the trigger and let go when the two rings overlap on screen. Perform a perfect and your foe will take extra damage. It’s probably one of the best and simple battle systems we’ve played in an RPG in quite a while. We haven’t even mentioned the skill linking, which allows you to teach other members of your party skills from others.

The levelling up which for some players can become a chore, never does so in Lost Odyssey because of the way the game works. High level characters when pitted against equally matched foes will hardly gain much exp, however some members of your party (even if they’re only two levels below) will automatically level up making it far quicker and simpler - allowing you to carry on with the story far more quickly. Another bonus is that the random battles happen far less frequently than you’d expect, enabling your progress from A to B to become much more efficient.

With Lost Odyssey arriving on four discs it’s not a surprising fact when you see that the game is very cut scene heavy. Often you’ll only move a few steps before triggering yet another cinematic segment of the storyline. Normally this would be a problem if it was like Metal Gear Solid 2 where a lot of the sequences involve some feminine looking man talking a load of rubbish to his girlfriend. This is not the case with Lost Odyssey, as each scene is a joy to watch, beautifully animated and most surprising of all, doesn’t have rubbish voice acting. Yes, the voices falter between good and terrible, but we’ve certainly heard far worse, and musically the game is jaw dropping. Beautiful themes throughout by famous Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.

Lost Odyssey is not without it’s faults however as it suffers from some terrible loading times. Not just when entering each area, but also when the random battles kick off. Sometimes the camera can spin around the battlefield for at least ten seconds before characters start to appear. Although maybe this is just Gamestyle being impatient and wanting to witness the next revelation in the storyline. Probably the biggest annoyance with the game though was found on disc one. The opening boss battle can be completely unforgiving and compared to the majority of bosses you fight later is incredibly difficult to beat. Unfortunately it’s at this point that some people may be put off, which would be a shame. It does get better if you keep at it, just don’t expect the save points to get any more frequent.

If you’re a fan of the genre and are tired with the lack of decent RPG’s on the Xbox 360 then you can’t go wrong with Lost Odyssey. Brilliantly written, atmospheric with an intriguing plot that will keep you hooked till the end. We eagerly await Mistwalkers next release in the series.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver