i bought and preordered this game and put one day shipping on it to make sure i would get as soon as it came out and it also came with preorder bonus content. the game looks awsome. so now amazon says that they are expecting delayed on my account that it still hasnt been shipped 2 days after the game came out, and on top of that they are saying that if someone else gets the game today they will get it by the 15 what is that sh++ WHERE IS MY DARN GAME?????
Rating: 5 / 5

Lost Odyssey may be a next-gen game, but its roots are definitely in the old school world of turn-based, RPG gaming. Lost Odyssey follows the story of Kaim: a brooding immortal on a mission of self-discovery. Or something. The story is kind of hard to follow, with prolonged sequences that attempt to flesh out the game’s story and characters. The characters of Lost Odyssey themselves are great and interesting on their own, but they’re stuck in a run of the mill story we’ve seen in RPG’s before, and will more than likely see again. The game’s turn-based combat is where the real meat and potatoes of Lost Odyssey is to be found though, with some great animations and some excellent uses of spells and skills development. What really hurts Lost Odyssey though is that the non-battle gameplay elements are just plain boring. You’ll feel as if you’re doing a ton of backtracking throughout the game, which is nothing new to the RPG world, but here it just seems more noticeable than anything else. Also, there are some really long loading times that populate throughout the game and detract from the gameplay experience, along with some technical issues and frame-rate problems that pop-up from time to time. Flaws aside, Lost Odyssey is a mostly gorgeous, lengthy, turn-based RPG that long time fans of the genre should get some enjoyment out of, just don’t expect anything real special here.
Rating: 3 / 5

Seriously though…

Given the low number of RPG’s available on the 360, I’ve been anticipating this game for quite some time now. Suffice to say, I was excited when I first popped the game in. From the art design to the seamless transition between cut scenes and player-controlled combat, the introduction was impressive. Though I didn’t have access to skills or magic yet, the combat system seemed to be enjoyable.

My problem with the game occurred shortly after Kaim arrives at Uhra. I was starting to get a bit worried while watching the cut scenes featuring the debating Uhra Council. The dialogue just seemed…wooden. I don’t know if it was the voice actors or the writing itself that irked me. It was probably a combination of both. Come to think of it, the only voice actor I was truly impressed with was the one that played Jansen. But I tried to ignore it. After all, I’ve played decent RPG’s that have had their share of wooden dialogue.

The situation became impossible to ignore by the time Kaim had his first flashback of the past. I was initially hopeful. The brief cut scene was intense and emotional. It worked. But then the game launched into a bloated short story. The next five minutes were filled with screen after screen of text that transitioned in and out like it belonged in a PowerPoint slideshow. That wasn’t really the problem. It was the writing itself that rubbed me the wrong way. Do you want melodrama? Look no further, folks. This little gem read like the premise of a Lifetime movie, except it was written by an eighth grader. I’d like to think the blame lies on the translation of the game to English. Maybe the Japanese version doesn’t come across this sappy.

But man, is this bad. They beat you over the head with an over-abundance of flowery adjectives and cliché metaphors, all but screaming in your ear, “This is beautiful and poetic! Feel bad for Kaim! NOW!” I am sure that some of you out there may know what I am talking about. It was the kind of writing that made me think of Christopher Paolini’s Eragon novel. It read a little something like this:

“The nighttime dew glittered on the delicate crimson flowers like a thousand twinkling stars in the shadowy midnight sky, untouched by the bitter harshness of the cruel world. Kaim felt his very soul cry out in eternal pain and sorrow as he glanced at her and saw the shimmering pearly tears gliding down her beautiful milky cheeks…blah blah blah.”

Do you get my drift? My friends and I groaned as we struggled through this tripe. We were relieved once it was finally over and the game resumed. But no more than ten minutes later, we were treated with YET ANOTHER flashback story that was even longer and more juvenile than the first one. Except this one didn’t have the interesting cut scene before it. If I were in charge of this game’s translation, I would have smacked the person that wrote this junk with a giant “Writing for Dummies” book. This prose needs some relentless red pen treatment. The emotion they are trying to pound into your skull would have been a hell of a lot more subtle and effective if they had cut out the melodramatic flab.

From what I’ve seen so far, they treat Kaim like he’s the emo poster boy for Immortals. I understand the game is full of these “dreams” of Kaim’s past. I don’t think I could personally handle that, no matter how cool the other aspects of the game are.

I already know some of you may bash me for this review. You may criticize me for rating the game this low without playing it the entire way through. Save your breath. I am entitled to my opinion. I’m certainly not going to play this game the whole way through if I have to be bombarded with wishy-washy middle school creative writing projects that take me out of the story rather than immerse me.

What is my final word on the game? If you can stomach this kind of stuff without being instantly turned off, go right ahead and pick it up. I’m sure the rest of the game is really cool. As for myself, if I want a dramatic RPG, I want one that doesn’t try this hard. I want one that conveys emotion without making me want to puke all over my Xbox 360. Thanks for reading.
Rating: 2 / 5