Just grabbed my copy today, I'll be playing it later tonight, have a dinner to go to first. I'll post impressions tonight.
We've got some discussion of it here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17398&page=3 But I'm just going to copy and paste the stuff I've said about it on various boards: "I'm 11 hours in, still on disc 1. Hit a really good stopping point though. Thoughts: Anyone who says the story/characters are anything less than the damn near pinnacles of the genre is outright retarded. The plot is insanely complex and filled to the brim with shady politics. But the characters? Oh my God... Kaim is fucking awesome. And with those "Thousand Years of Dreams" stories... just... words cannot express how bad you feel for Kaim. And it just gets worse. I'm not saying anything... but I've never felt as bad for a character (be it from a movie, book, or videogame) as I feel for Kaim. Immortality is shitty. Jansen is awesome. Just... awesome. There's nothing else to say. Jansen just kicks ass. Seth is pretty cool too. And oh my God, I already hate the villian and want to make that motherfucker SUFFER! Sephiroth doesn't have SHIT on this guy... but he is very Kefka like, only without being fruity. Really, this game so far, IS the next-gen Final Fantasy 6. The way they develope Kaim (dreams) and Kaim's entire demeanor is incredibly reminiscent of Shadow. In fact, the world even reminds me of FF6. And holy shit there are so many awesome moments in this game. And I'm only on DISC 1!!!! But its just great. They really suck you in to the story. My only complaints so far are as follows: 1. There is a good deal of load times and there is slowdown during cut scenes. Oddly enough, its rare that there is slowdown during actual gameplay, so LO runs far better than Blue Dragon in that regard. 2. I obviously haven't finished the game yet, but part of me wishes they had drawn out Kaim and co. figuring out who the bad guy is. I don't know, I mean, they find out on disc 1. So... I have no idea whats going to be going down on discs 2-4. I can't imagine it being anything less than stellar though. This game is just... awesome. Another point: There is no armor. And accessories only serve to let you learn skills and apply magic effects. Nothing you equip (aside from new weapons) has any effect on your stats. Also, power-leveling is rendered almost impossible and far too time consuming if you do go for it. Its possible, I've done it a bit, but they really try to steer you away from the "Go to new town, buy new everything, level up, etc.". No, they want you to focus on building rings (which add effects to your attacks) and to just use strategy. Sakaguchi actually FORCES the game to remain well balanced and challenging. You CAN'T become obscenely more powerful than your foes... so you have to focus on building rings and learning skills to survive. And the boss fights are rough. If you don't have some sense of strategy, if you aren't landing "Perfects" (or at least "Goods"), if you aren't keeping your party's health up... then yeah, you will be destroyed. The fact that the immortals automatically resurrect after a turn is more just a courtesy. It is a difficult RPG. All that said, I'm going to bed. Gotta lotta shit to do tomorrow... and I gotta get it done so I can continue through Lost Odyssey. " "I like Blue Dragon. I love Blue Dragon even. I've played through it twice. And I was REALLY excited about Blue Dragon 2. But now that I'm playing Lost Odyssey, I'm like, "Um, I'd rather they just drop Cry On and Blue Dragon 2 and just make Lost Odyssey 2..." Seriously, Lost Odyssey can pull create emotions in you like no other RPG that has ever been made. The game is insanely well balanced, and unlike every other turn-based JRPG in existence (even including Grandia II) the game NEVER devolves into you mashing one button: even the random encounters require you to think out a strategy and execute it to the best of your means. Lost Odyssey is the game that made me realize why OTHER people don't like turn-based RPGs since it made it so fun. And Lost Odyssey is the first JRPG I've played that has shown me that it IS possible for a game to make you cry, then ten minutes later have you laughing out loud, and then ten minutes later have you pumped up to go fight the bad guy. There has been no JRPG since FF6 and there is no JRPG coming as far as I can tell that can even be held on the same level as Lost Odyssey. I wasn't expecting it to be this good, but by God, it IS that damn good." "Seems a lot of people are getting stuck on the first boss as well. I guess folks aren't used to RPGs not relying on level grinding to gauge one's ability at success. I mean, I'm over leveled now (find a nice secret spot where I gained a level after EVERY fight, at least, up to level 43) and the boss I just fought totally gave me a run for my money. It was brutal (and by brutal I mean double attacks that did 700+ damage per hit, Kaim has the most HP at 2900 and in second place is Seth with 2000), and if I didn't have Kaim loaded with more skills than he really needs, I would've been in trouble. At any rate, LO continues to be genius. The dungeons are VERY well designed. Like, they have REALLY good puzzles, are well designed in general, tons of hidden nooks and crannies, and are just overall great. And the further I get into the game (on disc 4 now), the more brutal the enemies are becoming, even the random encounter ones. If you don't watch out and keep your party healed up constantly, by God, you could get killed in a random battle, grinding be damned." "I swear, LO is the first time I have consistently laughed out loud at an RPG and a few minutes later was left sniffling like I just watched Optimus Prime die." "Amazing game. Its like, I always felt FF fell off after VI (which, I did play VII and VIII on the PC thank you very much), but... Lost Odyssey is almost a look at what would have happened if the series had maintained that level of quality. Or rather, Lost Odyssey is MY Final Fantasy VII. And really, I can spend all day drawing parallels between this and Fina; Fantasy VI. I know a lot of people compare it to FFX due to the camera and clothes or something, but... no. If it resembles any entry in the FF series, it would be VI. And honestly, to me, its almost tied with VI in so far as greatness, and like VI leaves the rest of the series in the dust. But, I am only on disc 3, so I will reserve final judgement until I am done with the game. Awesome game though. I really can't praise it enough. It has its flaws (only technical stuff though), but the story, characters, gameplay, etc. are all so damn good it doesn't matter. I mean, Lost Odyssey will make you cry, ten minutes later you'll be laughing out loud, and ten minutes after that you'll be pumped up ready to kill the bad guy (whom you really do hate. Like, not, "Man, fuck that guy", no, more like, " I want this motherfucker to SUFFER!!!"). It really is an excellent game. Its a shame it was underrated by reviewers though for being a turn-based RPG. Ironically, most review sites dissed its battle system for being derivative, but if anything, the way they FORCE the game to be balanced (i.e. limit level grinding, get rid of armor, make the focus on skills, accessories, and the ring system), is fairly innovative. Rather, it really makes it so that you have to actually be GOOD at turn-based RPGs to play it. I know a lot of people are stuck on the first boss. Only this time it you can't just sacrafice time in order to get that higher level with which to kill the baddy, no, this time you just have to use strategy. God help them when they hit the second boss. " So there you go.
really it resembles this much FFVI? i'm about to cry if it is so! i think nothing ever reached FFVI and FFT, storywise, gameplay-wise. if it is so it's a must buy.
I've only played it for about a hour, but so far it does look pretty decent, graphically its stunning, and the plot seems pretty good too, as well as the voice acting, the battle system from what ive seen is well thought out, although the timing takes a while to get used to My sons been playing it more than me as i bought it for him, but from what he's said it is a bloody good jRPG I must admit comparing it to blue dragon it does seem to be a far more involving game storywise, so it has 2 thumbs up from me!
Like I said, I hated FFVII because I saw it as a step back from the greatness of FF6. Lost Odyssey IS the Final Fantasy VII I wanted back then. It IS the next step of Final Fantasy VI. And the parallels between the two games are staggering (Kaim is a much better developed Shadow, the villian is a more intelligent and less blatantly psychotic version of Kefka, the focus is more on the characters, etc.).
About 90 mins in. Pretty cool so far, Act 2 for Mistwalker sees them taking FFVI - FFXII route and giving you their take on the mechanics, pre rendered backgrounds, mini map in the corner of the screen. Cut scene heavy so far, the Unreal Engine use is a bit puzzling. Character models aren't the best but their not cookie cutter shapes like other games use. If you're not a fan of the style of this type RPG I doubt this one will change your mind. However if you are a fan get ready for a treat. this has to be the most polished one of these I've ever played. The Dreams are AWESOME ! Some interesting mechanics in this. Honestly if they have more in the works I wouldn't worry about Final Fantasy being exclusive to the PS3. Someone at MS is either very clever or completely lucked out.
I might get this game. Still haven't gotten Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon, but mostly I've been playing Oblivion lately. I hear the "Vanilla" version of Oblivion was bad, but I love it. I can't wait to play it on my PC with mods. Also Shivering Isles is AWESOME. About Lost Odyssey, don't get me wrong, I really like FF6, but it was one of the first FF games to introduce omnipotent characters, rather than specialized ones. Omni powerful characters (ones that are available to use everything for anyone in your party) is something I somewhat dislike about modern JRPGs, but I'll try it out anyway.
Then you're in luck, every character has their strengths and weakness. You can't be omnipotent. Like, the immortal characters can learn the skills of the mortals, but say, if you tried to make Kaim a black magic caster it just wouldn't work, because he doesn't get enough MP or increases in Magic Attack when leveling to pull it off. Likewise, you can't make one of the immortal spellcasters a fighter, because they can only use Staffs (well, technically they could use a sword with a certain skill, but that would a waste of a skill slot) and their HP/Attack points won't go up enough to pull it off. And everyone uses their own special weapons, everyone can't use just any weapon. Though oddly enough your White Magic Caster, Black Magic Caster, and one of your fighters that uses special kinds of swords have skills the immortals can learn so they can use their weapons. So basically, every character serves their purpose. Now, you can get your immortal spellcasters to learn the schools of magic mortal characters have, and you can give access to other schools of magic to the mortal characters via accessories, but like, no one will cast White Magic as well as your mortal white magic caster, or Spirit Magic as well as your Spirit Magic caster, or Black Magic as well as your Black Magic caster. Also, there is very much a limit on the amount of skills you can give an immortal (you can add Skill Slots through Slot Seeds, but I've only gotten maybe... 20 of those in the game?), but even then you can't possibly make any immortal an end all be all do everything character. You'll still find yourself planning out what each one can do so you can best stay alive. And staying alive is a big part of Lost Odyssey. On disc 4, if you don't have a strategy going in to a boss fight, prepare to die. And I mean it. You will die. It has happened to me several times now. And this is the type of stuff where, round 1 takes place, you realize you messed up, but there's nothing you can do about it. Like, trying to heal and revive everyone is futile, because round 2 is going to hit you just as hard. Its hardcore. I've hardly ever actually DIED during a turn-based RPG, but tonight alone I died four times in combat. FOUR!!!!! Up to this point I hadn't died any. But if you don't have a strategy, you're dead. And even when you have a good strategy, you'll still wind up getting out of the fights by the skin of your teeth. Oh, and this game most certainly does NOT suffer from "My favorite party" syndrome, you will find yourself switching out characters constantly to take on various dungeons, boss fights, etc. But yeah, Lost Odyssey is a cut above damn near every RPG that has come out since FFVI. It really is that good. And while there are a TON of parallels between this and FFVI, it doesn't bother me because it makes it all the more awesome to me. Also: I'm 51 hours in right now. I have barely scratched the surface of the extra stuff (7 or 8 secret bosses, a colliseum, auction house, 2-3 extra dungeons) and I think I have 2-3 more dungeons to go in the game. And I will say this: Lost Odyssey never slows down. Ever. Every disc is jam packed with awesome. And Feel Plus got REALLY creative with this game. There's a lot of different approaches to things in this game, and it really makes it that much better. But like I said, Final Fantasy is now irrelevant. Lost Odyssey may never get the critical acclaim due to it not being called FF and it will never get its due in Japan since its on the Xbox360 and not called FF, but it is a by far better made game than any Final Fantasy, except VI, with VI, I can't decide if its on equal footing, slightly under, or slightly over. Nostalgia is a bitch like that.
Man, this is actually sounding pretty good. I was waiting for a decent Final Fantasy-like game on the 360, and was dissappointed with Enchanted Arms and Eternal Sonata is in its own league. If it wasn't for March being jammed packed with GTA4 and SSBB, I would pick it up right now.
I would but I keep waiting to see if friends will post pictures of their wives and girlfriends somewhere...
I will say this: Do not fight secret bosses if you want the game to maintain its astronomical level of difficulty (mainly disc 4). The secret bosses give you accessories that will outright break the game. Like, the ability to absorb ALL fire damage, or Skill Slot +10. Mind you, you have to BEAT secret bosses to get this stuff, but if you're halfway decent at strategizing and pay attention to the Ring system then, while they are difficult, they are very beatable. Though without Anti-Sleep and Earth Rings/magic, the boss that gives you Skill Slot +10 is impossible, since it casts All-Sleep, charges for 5 rounds, and then unleashes an attack that does 9999 damage to everyone. But with Anti-Sleep, Quake Ring Ultra+, and Groundus, the thing is nothing. Though the boss with that Fire absorbing accessory was pretty nasty...
28th? Damn, I thought it was coming out the same week Brawl was? Oh well, that works out pretty good, actually. I might be able to get LO now without distraction.
Fuck jp., you make this game sound like the second coming. I guess I'm gonna have to pick it up. Anyone know where I can get it, and Bioshock for cheap? Aw, what the hell, I may as well pick up gears of war if I want to do this whole XBOX 360 thing properly
