"Lost Odyssey," a new role-playing game for the Xbox 360, is a visually stunning joyride with a complex narrative that mostly succeeds in drawing the player into its fantastic new world. Developed by Mistwalker and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the game brings the first serious so-called "JRPG" to the 360. The plot follows the exploits of an immortal man named Kaim, who has been a mercenary for thousands of years, as he begins to recover his erased memory and tries to find a purpose in a life that can never end.
"Lost Odyssey" is a fusion of old conventions and modern mechanics. Combat is completely traditional turn-based fare, quite familiar to players of "DragonQuest" or "Final Fantasy." Players queue the actions that their characters take, and then a turn of combat plays out, with all characters and enemies acting. This sequence repeats until one side or the other is dead, a hardly innovative progression, but still quite fun to fans of the genre.
The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 for all of its graphical and physics-based rendering, though, and so looks markedly more real than even the most recent "Final Fantasy" games. The realism of the characters contributes to the story's emotional weight, as well; the world is that much easier to identify with due to its resemblance of reality. The Unreal tech usage seems slightly out of place in a turn-based game, where none of the engine's shooter heritage would seem to make a difference, but the graphical polish seems to be reason enough to license it.
The music in "Lost Odyssey" deserves special notice. The game's composer is Nobuo Uematsu, famous for his work on every "Final Fantasy" game up until "Final Fantasy 10" (2001). "Lost Odyssey" is definitely one of his best works. With a completely original score, every piece of music in the game reflects its epic scale and narrative well. The score is full of drama and it serves to underline and emphasize the most emotional moments of the game.
The game can take more than forty hours to complete just the story, let alone all the possible exploring. This length is potentially troublesome for a college student who wants to complete the game while in school, but the storyline is clear enough that it will still be understood if it is played in many one- or two-hour sessions. The upshot of the epic scope is that the players really get their money's worth; at about a dollar an hour for entertainment, "Lost Odyssey" is one of the best bargains for the next-generation platforms.
While JRPGs have many strong points, one famous weak point is also present in "Lost Odyssey": mini-games. Mini-games have their place in games, and some of the games present within "Odyssey" are unobtrusive and enjoyable. When mini-games interrupt what are supposed to be emotional climaxes in narratives, however, they absolutely shatter the suspension of disbelief that makes those moments so powerful. "Odyssey" falls into this trap when the player must collect flowers and torches for what would otherwise be a very moving funeral. This moment more than any other in the game is a potential reason not to play it.
Overall, however, the strengths of "Lost Odyssey" far outnumber its weaknesses. With solid turn-based combat, an interesting and thought-provoking story centering around the concept of mortality and astoundingly realistic graphics, "Odyssey" will win over many gamers in the West who have never previously been interested in Japanese RPGs. Created by the team behind the original "Final Fantasy," "Lost Odyssey" is a much-welcome addition to the 360's library of games.
