The Bottom Line at the Top:
Don't pre-order or buy this game outright unless you are an avid fan of JRPGs and have to have all of them. You need to see some gameplay and get a taste of what it's like first.
The Review:
I've played Lost Odyssey for quite a while, maybe 15 hours or so, and I'm still on the first disc. This is a good sign. I always loved playing RPGs for this very reason and they have been a large part of my gaming life. This is a point of shame because after so many years I know for a fact I could have invested that time into something better. Alas I did not and now I am an addict of the genre, and for this I have laid myself as a sacrifice upon the altar of play testing a game for the masses. I do this for altruistic reasons, which is obvious by my track record, but I also do it as a personal attack to the three sentence review of a game that had taken many people many years to create. While the game isn't perfect it is apparent that there was a great deal of effort, and more importantly heart, invested from its conception. The question is, would that be enough for you to lay the cash down for the game or will you want to pull back on your pre-order?
I've played through the first disc and I'm almost finished. While I promised a review on release day I could not finish the game in time for it, so it's a review based on what I've played up to this point but I'm sure some conclusions could be well drawn especially concerning gameplay. If needed I will add an addendum to the review after I finish the game.
When I first got the game I was pretty excited to pop it in and start it up. As soon as the theme began I could feel it in my bones that it was the beginning of an epic and all the while Uematsu's music slapped me in the face. His talent for the soundtrack of the game shines glaringly throughout and continues to be a fantastic addition. There is nothing more to discuss on the music because it's fantastic.
I remember playing the beginning stage of the game when it was a demo back in 2006. It was pretty intense, and that much hasn't changed, but the intensity of a war raging all around does not exist anywhere else on the first disc. It was the panaramic viewpoint and the swarming soldiers that gave the sense of danger of the first scene, so it gives a bad impression when there is no more of that through the first disc. Perhaps it will come later, but it may not. Only time will tell. Take into account that the game starts off as a scary war and moves right into regular JRPG cliche immediately afterward.
The fighting system is alright. The only thing that seperates it from other games is that you have to pay attention to the turn based combat because you have to hold the right trigger and release it at the correct time so that it hits the monster or soldier to get a higher attack score or link a status ailment to the attack. It's basically FF8 Squall's Gunsword R1 attack but instead it is two rings, one collapsing on the other. There is nothing else about the combat that is new or interesting, so anyone looking for something different will be dissappointed. It is beautiful to look at though, and it will take a while to get used to the aesthetics. This is the second thing to keep in mind because fighting is a large part of an RPG.
However, I'd like to point out that random battles are far and few in between which is good if you want to get from point A to B or don't like the combat system. This is bad if you get to a certain point and you can't beat a boss, or even normal soldiers, because you breezed through to see the next cutscene but can't hack the fight. This is the third thing to remember before picking it up because for JRPG fans the level grinding is part of the fun.
The characters are divided into two classes. There are the Immortals and the Mortals. The Mortals will gain a level and learn new skills as they progress. They will also wear an accessory and use the skill that comes with it. They have two ways to learn and use skills which means they are pretty basic. The Immortals do not learn skills with levels but instead have to equip an accessory and learn the skill from that, or instead "Skill Link" to a Mortal and learn that way. It seems like the Immortals got jipped but it's not true because you can learn two skills at a time and to learn the skills (thru disc 1 at least) takes only 10 - 20 SP (Skill Points). As a rule of thumb, one enemy is one SP and in a fight there are 2 - 5 enemies around. That means after a few fights you have all the SP you needed to learn the skill.
There are only a few slots available for the Immortals to put thier new skills, but in truth there aren't that many skills needed to be an awesome character. In fact it won't take long for the Immortals to learn all the skills from the accessories found around the game, nor from linking to the Mortal characters, even if you don't do much fighting or level grinding. This is the fourth thing to keep in mind since it means that the skill system for the game is actually not a big challenge though it presents great customability for the Immortals since they can learn any and all skills.
The other point of interest is that the game has one weapon and one ring for each character. That is it. Yes you can get more weapons through the game but you don't get shields, gloves, armor, greaves, or helmets at all. This means defense is earned by increasing levels, which as was pointed out is kind of difficult to do. The rings have status affects, attack bonuses, elemental bonuses, or just fun additions to them for the battles and the RT holding ring attack that happens in each battle. There are significant bonuses on some rings, however since there are random battles this means that there is no way to know what monster is coming next. You cannot know ahead of time that the "Evilfire" monsters will show up and therefore may not have the water rings equipped. This is just fine because it is easy to change rings during the battle and it does not take up the characters' turns. i would like to have seen more items or more weapon choices like FF12, which left me drowning in options, but it was obvious that this was not a fighting or treasure collecting RPG, rather a cinematic one.
The fifth thing to keep in mind is that this game is beautiful, and it is driven by the story far and away more than anything else. I can see the signs that someone had spent a great deal of time trying to flesh out the story on all levels, pertaining to everything from the world itself to the memories and traits of the characters. For those interested in the story of a bored mercenary that lives a 1000 years and starts to recall his memories little by little, which are given as lengthy back stories read to mood music, then this will draw you in like it did me. There is so much told already although it is only the first disc, and I can tell that there is much more to tell later on. Furthermore, the joke character is not a contrived jerk, the female lead isn't whiny, and the main character pulls off being a badass very well. I am happy with most of the characters which is rare for a JRPG which tends to run off of a pretty annoying cast.
Two major problems with the story driven aspect of this game are that there are times where it will be an hour and a half to two hours between saves points unless you want to start skipping stories and hurrying through battles. I had to play the same area twice because I didn't have the time to finish up and get to a save point before leaving for an appointment. Beware of this. The other problem is that there will be some corny stuff, fluffy stuff, and pretty melodramatic scenes. You may end up rolling your eyes from time to time as I did. I always thought that mini games and story aids were silly, yet a nice change to participating in the story rather than watching it. This is the first game for which I have played a funeral mini-game. It was strange, and because it was so strange I'm not sure I'm able to comment.
Point blank: I like this game. I just have a hard time recommending it to others because there are some silly story portions - something far departed from the dark and dangerous feel of the war at the beginning, a feeling I hope returns in the later stages. Also a toned down combat and character system makes the game kind of easy and doesn't lend itself to much challenge unless some large addition comes later on to the game's fighting system. I don't believe it will, but the possibility exists. I had heard that the bosses are strategy oriented fights rather than head to head battles, but that's never the case if you level grind and collect skills, so the point seems moot. I had also heard that it was the same as FF8. It is not. I had read a lot of things but they seemed to skip by what was important.
I want to play all the way through the game and see if there is something monumental waiting down the line, and give a fuller review, but I didn't have the time to do so. I do know that this is enough to help make the decision on whether you want to buy the game or wait for more info as the masses get ahold of it. Do you want to be the tester or the spectator? My advice is to sit back, wait, maybe play a friend's copy for a while before picking it up. Cancel the pre-order, don't get caught up in the hype, and slow down a second, because you may not like this game. It's a possibility most people don't really want to discuss.
I give this game a 3 out of 4, and just barely (more like a 2.5 but there are no decimals here friends). I did this because while I felt like it was a 2 at first, the system and style of the game's fighting grew on me although they were simplistic. There was also a lot of effort put into many aspects of the game which give a more complete experience to the player, and as such should be recognized. However, simple is not always better, corny stories are embarrassing, and without shields and the sheer ease of Immortals being awesome magic users or fighters takes it down a notch. If the game doesn't pay off well at the end I'll adjust the score to a 2, but without a miracle this one won't make it to a 4. It's too bad really because that's where I wanted it to be.
