Lost Odyssey: First Impressions

Wow things sure have been Busy… and by busy I mean I have been trying desperately to get my hands on Lost Odyssey for 360, for like the past week… every waking moment.  However I now have it by shear luck. Someone sold it back to hastings used just before I got there last night and as the shipment is probably lost in Siberia right now, I desided that a used game is 1000000X better than waiting, more. Actually I have no problems with used games… it is just that they might not work as good (ie scratches.) but this copy looked good. I was/is so happy, not as happy as some people who find out of print buffy rule books for sale, but defiantly happier than someone with not quite stolen DnD corebooks in their back pack. (There are stories behind these… and both were last evening…)  I have been meaning to do a review of the new RPG Maker VX which I got the day it came out (the first) but I decided I hold off on that and do a first impressions of Lost Odyssey.

I was truly surprised with the combat system, at first it seems exactly like a turn based fighting system, but latter there is a mechanic introduced that makes it faster passed, called the Ring system. Simply put your characters can have these magic rings that give them powers during attacks but in order to activate the power you have to press hold and release the right trigger in a specific way. If you fail no big deal you just don’t get awesome extra stuff. It makes the combat seem more fluid for some reason.

Another thing about the game is the dream or memory thing that is with it. As you no doubt know you play as an immortal being that has amnesia. During your play through, talking to people or seeing things you are reminded of your past, when this happens you go into a dream sequence. I think this is one of my favorite things and also my least favorite thing. They could have done it SOOOO much better but it still serves to give the character depth that most Jrpgs don’t get. The problem is that it is practically all text on a dynamic background with music. It would be fine if it was a few sentences; HOWEVER, it is like a frigin short story. Don’t get me wrong… I like to read, but I really don’t usually like reading pages and pages of text on my TV… I mean wow… but I guess if it would have been animated then the game would be like 4 disks with like 2 “Dreams” disks… or something… which would be really ridiculous …

My last complaint about it is the camera…. OMG. It is like resident evil only you can change the angle slightly, and zoom in… I really like the whole floating camera thing, you know third person. But I suppose that I will get used to it, as it is not mind numbingly horrible.

Everything else is basically exactly like I want. Awesome music, Awesome graphics, ok-meh voice actors. Its all there. O ya. It has an option to change the voices to the original Japanese so I did.

One of my favorite parts so far was the VERY beginning, the intro cut scene that flowed right into the first and second fight, then into the rest of the cut scene was pure genius.

Well that is all I got right now… I am only to the grand staff yet, so I want to keep playing…

 

Bye-Q!

~ by Robopanda333 on March 6, 2008.