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Introduction:
You are immortal. You have lived for over 1,000 years and you cannot die. There’s just one small problem. You can’t remember the past 30 years. For reasons that are unclear – perhaps an emotional trauma, perhaps more sinister reasons, perhaps both – your memories of the past 30 years are locked deep within your mind. It will take time and help to unlock them…if you even want to that is.

You are Kaim Argonar, and you are about to undertake a dangerous, thrilling and emotional adventure. Along the way you’ll meet friends and enemies, allies and foes. Who can you trust? You may not know until you can gain more of your memories back. You have no choice but to forge ahead and hope you can figure out right from wrong – friend from enemy, before it’s too late.

Gameplay:
Coming from the same studio that gave us Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey is a Japanese-style, turn-based RPG set in a massive and fantastical world. The most important resource in this world is magic. The use of magic and mysterious devices known as magic engines provide the magic energy that the various factions you’ll encounter vie for control of. It’s unfortunate that the game’s creators chose to use such generic terms as ‘magic’ and ‘magic engine’ rather than providing more whimsical or fanciful titles for the mystical energy you will encounter in Lost Odyssey.

An intense and furious opening cutscene ends with Kaim as the only survivor of a meteor crashing into the planet during a battle. Since he is immortal, Kaim’s survival doesn’t astonish many. The more important question becomes, what caused the meteor crash? Joining with two companions, Seth Balmore and Jansen Friedh, you set out to investigate. Before long you find yourself wrapped up in a power struggle that could lead to war.

As the various cities and factions vie for control, the more important issue for Kaim becomes reclaiming his lost memories – as they may hold the key to what’s really going on and who he can truly trust. At first, recalling any of his past causes Kaim great pain, both emotional and physical. Because of this, he is very resistant at first in trying to remember any of his past. As the game progresses, however, Kaim begins to realize that reclaiming his lost memories and the lost memories of three other immortals will help him stop an evil plan that threatens the entire world.

As you’d expect from a Japanese-style RPG, Lost Odyssey has a great deal of pre-rendered cutscenes. Through the cutscenes, the game does an admirable job of giving you the feeling of ‘playing a movie’. This is the main reason the game comes on four (4) DVDs. The majority of these cutscenes are one means by which the game’s plot is revealed. Just be ready for a lot of them. At one point, early on at an important part of the plot, I must’ve sat watching cutscenes for over 20 minutes straight. Most of the game’s cutscenes aren’t that long (and the 20 minutes was comprised of two or three separate cutscenes shown back-to-back), and you do have the ability to skip them if you want. However, skipping the cutscenes means you’ll be missing important plot information, so it’s in your best interest to watch them. The cutscenes are rendered beautifully and show off the characters and landscapes in the game very well. They are not photo-realistic by any means, but they are not meant to be. They have a fanciful look which, along with the game’s music do an excellent job of helping to immerse you in the huge and beautiful world of Lost Odyssey.

While Lost Odyssey’s cutscenes do an excellent job of immersing you in the game, there are a few unfortunate factors that break up the fluidity and either ruin the mood or remind you that you are playing a game. The first are the so-called dream sequences. At various points through the game, something will trigger Kaim’s memories and a new memory from his past is revealed. Kaim’s memories return to him mostly in dreams so when a new memory is revealed, you will enter the dream sequence to see it.

No. That isn’t right. You don’t ‘see’ the dreams. You read them. That’s right. Instead of Kaim’s dreams being cutscenes also (which I would have preferred), each dream sequence is several (and I mean several) pages of text.  As with the cutscenes, you can skip the dream sequences. Unlike skipping cutscenes, however, you can go back and re-read any dream sequence you skip by resting at an inn for the night. When you go to sleep, you have the option to re-read any/all of the dream sequences that have been unlocked. This gives you the option to skip the dream sequences if you wish, and read them in larger chunks after you’ve opened up a few. It’s not that I necessarily minded having to read the dreams, but some of them are quite long. They are very important to the story, however, so even if you skip a few make sure you go back and read them eventually.

Another thing that breaks up the game’s fluidity a bit is the battles. This is to be somewhat expected in a turn-based RPG, but it’s disconcerting to just be walking along a path and suddenly see the battle animation kick in. You will virtually never see an enemy in the distance or running towards you or anything like that. Only after the battle sequence has been initiated do you see who you’ll be fighting. Also, though you can have a few different members in your party at most times (there are times when your party is limited to a single character), unless you are in battle or in a cutscene, the only character you’ll see on screen is Kaim. I found this a bit odd. If I have three or four members in my party, then why don’t I see all three or four of them on screen while I’m walking through the cities of the game? I got used to this, but still found it a little strange.

Also, perhaps it’s only me, but one other thing I found that really detracted from the overall feel of the game was the character Jansen Friedh. Most characters I played as or met in Lost Odyssey seemed to fit well into the world. For me, Jansen did not. He came across as a Southern California slacker, surfer-dude. I can only surmise the developers did this to try and inject some comic relief into the game, but to me it just didn’t work. Whenever Jansen opened his mouth, it ruined the overall mood and feel of the game.

Lost Odyssey does add a few twists in the way of battle formations and skills that are interesting. At any time, even during battle (but it will take a turn), you can alter your party’s formation. This is important because party members at the back of your formation will be better protected from enemy attacks. The same goes for your enemies, and you are always told whether the enemy you’re about to attack is at the front of the back of the enemy formation. This system has a very noticeable effect on how much damage you can take or dish out based on where a character is in the battle formation.

Immortal characters in Lost Odyssey, such as Kaim or Seth, cannot learn skills on their own. Only mortal characters like Jansen can learn skills. In order to gain a skill, an immortal must link to a mortal who has that skill. This is an interesting twist that also gives you something else to manage. Don’t forget to link skills or Kaim and your other immortal characters won’t gain any.

Your battle effectiveness is dependent not only on your battle formation, character level and skills but on what types of items you have equipped. For example, Lost Odyssey uses a number of special rings that you can equip to any character to improve various attacks, spell casting, etc. or even steal manna from your enemies. The effectiveness of the various rings is also dependent on how you assemble them. Each ring can be enhanced with other items you’ll find in the game to make it more powerful. There is a ‘Ring Assembly’ section on your item menu that lets you take care of this task.

Once assembled, the rings also initiate a minor change in battle. If you attack with a ring equipped, you can time your attack to get a hit point bonus. A ring will appear around your target as the attack starts. Hold the right trigger and a rapidly collapsing circle will close towards the ring surrounding your target. Release the right trigger at the proper moment and you’ll get a small but noticeable attack boost. Miss or time it badly and there is no penalty, but you’ll get no boost.

The graphics in Lost Odyssey are beautiful. Are they the best graphics I’ve seen in an RPG? No. However, the look fits the world of Lost Odyssey perfectly. Bustling cities, shimmering oceans, lush fields and rocky mountaintops all seem inviting and leave you eager to explore. The battle animations can get rather repetitive, but again this is to be somewhat expected when you have turn-based battle.

To compliment the beautiful graphics, the sound and music in Lost Odyssey is done very well. The music especially does more to help set the tone than I first realized. In fact, the music seems to fit so well that you’ll hardly even notice it. This is a good thing. Trust me. The voice acting in Lost Odyssey is also done, for the most part, quite well. The voice acting for Kaim especially is excellent. You can feel his pain and anguish as he recalls his more painful memories.

The best graphics and sound are, of course, in the cutscenes. It’s clear that time and care was taken to make them as beautiful and immersive as possible and they are a joy to watch and listen to.

Extras:
Lost Odyssey is strictly a single-player game. There is no multiplayer or Xbox Live play.

Conclusion:
Lost Odyssey follows the classic turn-based RPG formula for the most part, but it does add a few nice extras, such as the ring attack and skill linking for example, that make for a nice change of pace. It won’t win any awards for originality, as the game’s main story is rather cliché, but the story is done and told well nonetheless. If you’re looking for a turn-based RPG with an epic story and a massive world to explore, then Lost Odyssey may be the game you’ve been looking for.

Score: 8.2

Game on!