Lost Odyssey may finally be the JRPG that us JRPG fans have been looking for - that is Japanese RPG for the slow ones. I guess it wasn’t really until more recently that what to me has always been just simply RPG, got re-coined to JRPG. Probably due to the flood of “rpg” games like Oblivion, Morrowind, Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and whatever else you consider to be an RPG showing up in the last 10 years.

JRPGs are the likes of Final Fantasy 7, Wild Arms, Phantasy Star 4 (Not PSO/PSU), Chrono Trigger, Suikoden - you know, the good stuff! To some, JRPGs are repetitive annoying games where you take 2 steps in the world, then are forced to mash X in a slow paced battle that ends unchallengingly in your favour. To others, JRPGs are epic storylines that involve you in character development and storyline to a degree that could shed more tears than the day you learned that Star Trek: The Next Generation would be airing its final episode. Then to people like me, they are just fun.

It has been a long long while since I recall playing a worthy JRPG (For those interested my 3 favs are 1-3, Phantasy Star 4, Wild Arms, Suikoden 1). I have tested the waters with Blue Dragon for the 360, Wild Arms 3 for PS2, Final Fantasy 10 for PS2, and probably the best thus far, Eternal Sonata for 360. Briefly, Eternal Sonata was amazing, but I only put in 10 hours, it got too easy and repetitive. I’m going to give it a second short eventually.

Lost Odyssey is what we’ve (I’ve) been waiting for. Developed by Mistwalker, a new studio headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series. The 2nd game from Mistwalker in the past year, the first one Blue Dragon, was designed to mimic the Dragon Quest series - something I was never in to. Lost Odyssey is made as a Final Fantasy clone.

Great JRPGs for me require multiple components:

1. Intriguing Storyline
2. Interesting and Entertaining Characters
3. Fun and/or Challenging Gameplay
4. Good Music

All elements are present.

Intriguing Storyline

Well you already know about the Final Fantasy creator having his hand in the honey pot for this one. Well so did an award winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu. Together you get this story:

You are Kaim - an immortal that has lost his memory. All Kaim knows is that he has been wandering the planet as a mercenary for an eternity. Are there other Immortals or is Kaim the only one. As you work to discover who you are, your current military boss has sent you on a mission - discover what has happened at Grand Staff, a man made location that has been created to harvest a newly discovered magical essence (or simply magic in plain terms).

Interwoven in to the normal gameplay, are quite fantastic FMV sequences that tell a large portion of the story. I believe I read somewhere that there are over 12 hours of FMV in this.

Even more interesting are the unthoughtfully named “Thousand Years of Dreams”. How do Immortals suffering from Amnesia get back their memory? Through dreams of course… duh. These may very well be the most interesting and rewarding sections of Lost Odyssey. Rather than tell them through FMV or character interaction, each memory is a short story of text, told to specifically chosen music and background images. There are a ton of these dreams in the game, most of which are fantastically amazing. These are extremely creative and combined with well-composed music. I highly recommend you do not ruin these stories by reading their textual descriptions somewhere online. They can only really be experienced in order by playing through the game.

Interesting and Entertaining Characters

One word. Jansen. More words, an alcoholic womanizer combined with comic relief. Jansen keeps most interactions light hearted and funny. Besides him, you have your solemn lead character that continues to grow interesting as the game develops, as well as a party of unique characters to follow you around. My only complaint in this section is that the antagonist seems quite bland. Usually these games have massive evil entities with devious plans that span across thousands of years. This guy seems quite ordinary. It is entirely possible that he is just a figurehead frontman for the true evilness, I am about 30 hours in to the game and I have yet to find out otherwise.

Fun and/or Challenging Gameplay

Gameplay is standard for the JRPG without too much deviation - which to me is a good thing. You select your attacks before the round starts, then it plays out. Too keep it interesting is a ring system. As you kill monsters you gain crafting materials which can craft rings. Rings will change your melee attacks to include additional properties such as damage to mechanicals or higher crit chance. When using a ring you must time a mini-game to line up two rings on the screen. The closer you get to lining them up, the better your ring will perform. It is not the lining up the rings that is intriguing, but collecting and using the right rings for the right situations.

This game is also quite challenging. Without going in to too much detail, be prepared to take multiple attempts on bosses as early as the very first boss. Better plan yourself out properly!

Good Music

What can I say… I downloaded the soundtrack (legally of course…)

Overall Conclusions

If you like JRPGs like Final Fantasy, you absolutely cannot go wrong with Lost Odyssey. Ive heard the game is around 50 hours, but I’ve also seen people nearing the 60 hour mark before putting it down. It spans across 4 discs so it is sure to keep you interested for a good amount of time. The story continues to get better and better, and the characters and gameplay keep it exciting. I can’t wait to finish up this game, I just hope I can find the time before Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes out in 2 weeks!

Rating score for the TLDR’ers - first watch the videos above for entertainment, then read 9/10