Critique: Lost Odyssey (VG)

A Final Fantasy clone for the XBOX360

Lost Odyssey is your run of the mill FF type RPG. You control Kaim, a quiet fellow who has lived for over a thousand years and has no memory of his past. The game takes place in a world where a Magic-Industrial Revolution is taking place and where graphics come before storyline. Thank Jebus it finally ended. I inevitably ran out of sidequests. I could have played another 50 hours. Not saying this game is any masterpiece or anything, but hell it is addicting. It really tickled my obsessive RPG completist nature. Although, other than some really enslaving gameplay, I can't say that many good things about it. In fact, I expect to shit all over this game in the review.

Graphics & Artwork 

 

Might as well start on the bright factor of this game. The game is beautiful. The landscapes and cities are all well thought out and give the surreal image of the magical-industrial society they live in. The cinematography of the game is very alluring. Great angles and pans make it feel more dramatic than it actually is! The dreams were these musical story sketches, vivid tales told in full color with sound effects and orchestration and were a unique part of the game. I'm sure most people didn't even watch them as they weren't really necessary. The world map was pretty stale and the underwater map was a dark, boring mess. Overall stellar aesthetics, but at what cost to everything else?

Gameplay

 

A Final Fantasy clone. Seeing that Hironobu Sakaguchi was holding the ropes this comes as no surprise. An old and tried formula for a game.  It's not bad thing, but it can be if you water it down enough. Beautiful artwork cannot cover up the lack of Summons, the weak and unoriginal spell selection, or the completely useless and time intensive Ring Creation system. How many Black Monster Bug Oils and Adamantine Ores do I randomly need to collect until I can make my god damned Monster Ring‽ Also, the insane load time in this game really made cinematic sequences very fragmented and unsuspenseful. And couldn't I have went and explored Khent before it was leveled to the ground, Hmm? Alas, there were many compelling elements. There's a whole bunch of great side quests, plenty of exploring to do, and one of the best RPG battles of my life.

Story & Characters

 

I really enjoyed the underlying story. That's probably why I read every single one of Kaim's lost dreams as irrelevant to the game as they were. The dreams were the most poetic and emotionally packed elements of the game, yet they never represented the cold and contained realism of Kaim's demeanor. Gongora, our 
tale's villain, was a complete failure. If there is one thing my father has ever taught me in life, it is that no story is complete without a mean, cold hearted, despicable villain. Preferably one that holds reason and wretchedness in the same light. Someone you wake up thinking about. I couldn't tell if Gongora was the main baddy until halfway through the game. I figured I would get to the man behind the man eventually but it never happened. Sad actually. You would think after 1000 years a man would find something more interesting to do than become a 'god'. All in all, the story was almost acceptable. It just lacked substance from the bland characters and for being a 60+ hour game it felt short and unfinished somehow. I could look at Ming's unnecessarily revealing chest all day though.

Sound & Music

 

A very bright point of the game that was dimmed by repetitiveness and bad voice acting. Bringing Nobou Umatseu was a very smart decision. As always his provocative compositions bring the magic into the story and the many atmospheres it accompanies. Although less melodic and more death metal than his other ventures, he successfully adds a new level of imagination and introspection into an already artistic game. Certainly not as memorable as his past soundtracks (I always compare to FF7). I also would mention that music is overused far too much and tends to water down drama when you've heard the same tracked used on all 4 disks.

Prologue (Good example of the main theme)

The sound design was solid. A sonic realism was used to create an organic world which was complimented nicely by the surreal electronic sounds of the magic-industrial times they lived in. A few stand out sounds included the airship spinning into the air and violently slamming back down into the water. The 'Roughs' in the Black Cave gave a wonderful zombie bird screech. But as for many modern games, the lack of stand out sounds comes with the territory as most games are now designed with organic sources rather than synthesized weirdness and also require 1000's of unique sounds and variations on each.

Awful English voiceovers. Absolutely awful. I don't know who was being catered to, but there were some poor voice actor choices with some poor voice direction in the English dubs. The Japanese voices on the other hand were incredible. Very emotional and believable voices that made the characters a little bit less bland.

Verdict = Still Holding 7 Eggs

I understand making games is a very exhausting process, creatively, mentally, and physically. I do wish all this talent and creativity did make a truly remarkable game. They didn't. Lost Odyssey had a super team working for it, an incredible Japanese folk tale to work with, and a renowned director. Yet it failed to reach any new heights. Yes, they did create a very playable and enjoyable experience, but they did not create anything new. Stunning graphics, artwork, and music never forgive bland and regurgitated gameplay, stories, and characters. I did use 70 hours of my life to complete it, so by all means please call me a hypocrite.

Comments

[Gensington1]

Perfect review. I have not even finished the game and I very much agree with all that you had said. I am towards the end of the third disc; and I must say that I hate how your party is split up into segments of two people for most of this disc. I do also have a strange inclination to finish said game, but other than to get it over with can't quite say why.

Love the egg system, does this mean you rate the game 7/12?

[Billy]

Indeed a 7 out of 12 or .583 if you prefer decimal.

[Lostchocolatelab]

I played about 4 hours into the story...which is about as long as I can commit to a 60hr+ game regardless of how good it is. (60hr for me doesn't come easily.)
Definitely cut from the same cloth as FF, sprawling epic drama!

I agree with your sound design summary for the most part. I found that during gameplay they chose to lean heavily on Iconic sound with very little variance...likely (as you say) due to space neccessary for 1000's of sounds.

I did however find that in the recurring sounds such as beginning a battle, sword impacts, taunts, etc. that hearing the same things over and over...while certainly helps to cement the idea of a sound (and don't get me wrong, these are EXACTLY the right sound) also was distracting from a sound perspective due to the repetition.

Understandably it can't always be helped when trying to meet memory budgets...but at the same time it's an aesthetic that doesn't lend itself to the "sonic realism" you mentioned.

As a side note, there's a video sound study I did for the game viewable over here:
http://vimeo.com/7552286

Cool interactive bell thingy at the playground.

Thanks for the review, now I know what i'm (not) missing!
-lcl

[Billy]

I agree that the recurring sounds that began the battle sequences were distracting from their repetitive nature and I do admit that it does lend itself to a unnatural reality. Granted, beyond the artificiality of repetition, the sounds were very true to life rather than imaginative and fictional, which is another attribute of many modern games. I tend to play games to get out of my physical world and all too often games recreate the possible rather than the unknown.

About your sound study. I did find the footsteps very interesting. Not only were they very well mixed and wonderfully performed, but they transferred beautifully from one terrain from the next. Did you do this for a school?