Lost Odyssey Impressions

[Spongedaddy]

I played through the first hour and had a good time. I am happy to report that in my first hour of play I never waited more than 15 seconds during a load or transition screen. The game does seem to be old school like everyone said, but with an incredible degree of polish. I can't see how reviewers are knocking it for that. That's like being a movie reviewer who doesn't like comedies, but reviews them all the time.

There were a few frame rate drops, but nothing terrible. The cut scenes use an interesting blend of cinematic approaches. I also like the voice acting so far.

Oh well. I would like to see the end of both random battles and use of save points in JRPG. However, I know that's not the case here and accepted it when I spent my $60. I got the game for the incredible story and the idea that you use strategy instead of constant grinding. So far so good.

The disc stacking and cheap plastic sleeve for the 4th disc is a joke though.

[highheatkingsb]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Awesome, can't wait to pick it up!!!!

[Mr.Wednesday]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Thanks SD. I'm still waiting for it to hit the shelves in Cali.

Edit: well, I went to gamestop and got the game. It was the only place in my area that had it. A few quick impressions to piggyback off spongedaddy.

1) I must say I am very impressed with the visuals. The game is graphically gorgeous. (like SD said, polish up the ying yang)

2) It is a traditional JRPG. If you liked FFI-X I think you will enjoy LO.

3) Load times don't seem that bad. I think Mass Effect took longer, Bioware just did a better job of hiding it.

4) The opening sequence was awesome (don't want to give it away) might be one of the best.

5) If you know what to expect, you want be disappointed.

I only have one problem with the battle system. once you start to get rings you have to time your attacks with the right trigger. I have yet to get a perfect. I usually always get good. I guess I'm getting old.

[ChaseB]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Got the game but haven't played it yet.

Worst retail box ever, why stack 3 discs on top of each other with nothing separating them?

Also the random 4th disc in a little case next to the instruction manual equally as weird.

[Spongedaddy]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

First boss battle wiped me out twice. It's a good thing I know that this game requires you to come up with a strategy for the bosses. Now I just need to come up with one...

[jfsolo]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Played about an hour and 45 minutes just to get a taste. Its early, but right now it seems stylistically like one part Final Fantasy, one part Shadow Hearts, and one part Xenogears.

I don't think its going to bring any new fans to the genre(unless they're young and this is their first game of this kind) Its definitely a shout out to the old school RPG fans.

The loading times don't seem that long to me, I've played a ton of games that took way longer than this game does. Seems to range from 5 to 15 seconds.

"A Thousand Years of Dreams" may be the deciding factor for how people feel about this game. I know a lot of people are going to HATE it, I've just seen my first one and I think its great.

I can already tell that I'm going to enjoy this game immensely.

[Spongedaddy]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the dream part, but I like it. It's well done with beautiful music and an artistic animated background. I still would have liked to seen it done as a cut scene, but that would have eaten a chunk of time and disc space.

[Mr.Wednesday]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Played about an hour and 45 minutes just to get a taste. Its early, but right now it seems stylistically like one part Final Fantasy, one part Shadow Hearts, and one part Xenogears.

I don't think its going to bring any new fans to the genre(unless they're young and this is their first game of this kind) Its definitely a shout out to the old school RPG fans.

The loading times don't seem that long to me, I've played a ton of games that took way longer than this game does. Seems to range from 5 to 15 seconds.

"A Thousand Years of Dreams" may be the deciding factor for how people feel about this game. I know a lot of people are going to HATE it, I've just seen my first one and I think its great.

I can already tell that I'm going to enjoy this game immensely.

You hit the nail on the head. The turn based gameplay is FF, the battle system timing, kind of like Shadow Hearts, and cut scenes from Xenogears. The game feels epic.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the dream part, but I like it. It's well done with beautiful music and an artistic animated background. I still would have liked to seen it done as a cut scene, but that would have eaten a chunk of time and disc space.

I like the dream parts. I get to use my imagination to bring some background to the story. You are right though, cut scenes would have been nice. But, just think how many cut scenes we would have to watch. I've already seen three dream sequences in the first two hours.

Great game so far.

[Spongedaddy]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

I wound up playing for two more hours just to because I had to beat that boss and then find out what happens. I played a total of four hours today which is unusual for me. I am really digging the game.

They kept their promise and fixed the loading times. The elevator rides in ME were more annoying than the 15 second loads in LO. I think this game got a bad rap by some of the press. The Pac Man dude comes out of retirement and everyone raves. Mistwalker makes one of the most polished JRPGs in a while and people piss and moan because it is old school. It's too funny. You can't win.

I would say this is a very enjoyable game for what it is. One shining point is that I have wanted a crisp high def look for a JRPG for a long time and this game is a beauty. Sure I would prefer the save anywhere and the Blue Dragon see the monsters and pick your encounter system, but four hours speaks for itself. MS has been the only console this generation (so far) to deliver a great RPG experience. You have a wide variety of excellent styles to choose from.

[poster]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Liking it so far. Not sure how to do alot of things yet, but that will come.

[Flawless]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

5 hours in and thoroughly enjoying it.

Thousand Years of Dreams are fantastic. They are superbly written with great music, different imagery, and text effects. You are not forced to read them the moment they come up too. You can read them when you rest or at the start menu.

Loading is really a non issue, at least for me. It certainly isn't close to what the reviews made it sound like. I have yet to experience anything over 15 seconds, which has came up only a few times. Loading is usually 5-8 seconds and when you go back into areas that you have already been, they are almost instantaneous. So either there is a difference between the review builds and retail builds, or peoples DVD drives are failing.

The first couple hours are really story heavy, so I'm just now starting to really dig into the combat, but I'm liking it. The guard condition system seems like it's going to be pretty big key to having success. The ring system is nice. It certainly makes the combat a little more interactive. The immortals having to link to the mortals to learn skills is a pretty cool dynamic. I'm very interested in seeing how this opens up once I get more members in my party.

Frame rate is pretty stable for the most part. The graphics are good. Some parts just are to muted (thanks UE3) and DOF is used a bit much, but overall it's pretty nice looking game thanks to some really great art direction. The music is awesome, especially the main theme.

Does Kaim sound a little like Jackie Estacado (The Darkness) to anybody else?

Jansen is great. Dude has had a few really funny lines so far.

[trobinson97]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Didn't know another thread was made. Copied and pasted:

Okay. Had a busy day but I got around to playing up until the first boss. Again, load really don't seem to be an issue. The pro reviewers seem to have singled that out in their review process but it seems that retail copy doesn't have the issue. The load times are comparable to Mass Effect and Oblivion, nothing so far has taken so much time that I got annoyed.

Gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from a traditional JRPG. Nothing really to add. About that first boss though, I got wiped several times before I came up with a strategy that worked. I was actually really glad for that. I didn't have to go grind levels (it would take forever first of all), I simply changed strategies and where I was getting wiped, at the same level I beat the boss with relative ease. The random battles aren't too bad, they are not as frequent as I have become used to in games like this.

The story is paced slowly, but it's cool for me since I am kind of big on character development. Once huge plus to the story for me is the 1,000 Year Dreams. Basically, if you go to certain spots in certain areas Kaim will have a flashback or dream that reveals more of his back story. It's a really nice addition that I am sure will add a nice bonus to the story. If it doesn't it's still all good because they are nice reads.


I can tell I am gonna be addicted to this for the next week or two just from the few hours I've put in today.

[fredropro]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

I love this game so far Im 32 so ....I have a soft spot for old school rpg's. I thought the opening movie was awesome

[Spectre]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Dumb question, but do you see English subtitles if you play the game with the Japanese track?

[Mr.Wednesday]

Re: Lost Odyssey Impressions

Dumb question, but do you see English subtitles if you play the game with the Japanese track?

You can set subtitles. So, if you want the Japanese voices you can have English subtitles or none at all. But, I will say, the English voices are pretty good.