Lost Odyssey

03.03.2008

In brief: if I were not so dedicated to my work, I would still be at home playing. It is absolutely exhausting – you cannot take on anything else. The 60% of water content in the human body has meanwhile been converted into the same percentage of coffee. But that is only a “what if” situation, which luckily has not come true, or if it had, I would keep it quiet to conceal my lack of social skills. It COULD however still happen. Because with each minute that passes as my notes draw me to Lost Odyssey, the unrestrained urge looms to drop everything and cast myself back into the game. But I may not do that. I have promised my buddy (who knows and loves the Final Fantasy series and its adherents) only to play Lost Odyssey when he is also there. A pity.

If there were a fundamental formula for a fun game, it would be used in Lost Odyssey. Since there is none, I am venturing to put forward a thesis on what draws you to Lost Odyssey. If you don’t have anything else to do. Even when you get the feeling that an editor has done nothing else than play games and spent his entire free time in front of the screen, and must then forcibly deny this. And of course we have other leisure time activities. Unfortunately, Lost Odyssey is definitely the all-time worst example to demonstrate this, because my other weekend chores faded completely into the background. That is made even more evident from the score, which shows all and sundry exactly how long you have been playing the game. If you were in the grips of a never-ending game, yes, that would be great. But it is sad when the saved score rings up 25 hours, and you come to the realisation that you were playing for the entire 25 hours without any pause for sleep.

So what’s the point? In my greenhorn days (I am not saying that I have outgrown my greenhorn status, or at least only partly) I once asked myself how it was possible to have fun with a turn-based RPG. Lost Odyssey shows you exactly how. It is not only about the (well-proven!) fighting system. It is the mix of everything. The mix of fights, exploration, levels and the story. The term ‘boredom’ is unknown in Lost Odyssey. The game gives you the freedom to do what you like. Of course, there is a linear story, which you can follow if you wish. You can however just as well take your main character, Kaim, for hour-long strolls through stunning cityscapes, chat to every inhabitant, and solve funny side quests. Then there is the poor girl whose dog has run away. Obviously you have no time to spend only looking for the wretched dog, but if you perchance come across it in the city, it is still nice to return the dog to her. There is also a small reward for doing so. Or when the three lively street urchins give you the lifetime chance to join their gang. But you must first find them a doll, balloon and a ship’s model.

As you endlessly wander around the gorgeously detailed cities or the forest, the programme of the former manufacturer of Final Fantasy illustrates that turn-based fights can still be fun, even if the system seems somewhat old-fashioned. Tactics are a prerequisite for each Mob. As a first step, you must decide upon a formation for your troops from the very clear menu. It is advisable to place your warriors in the front row, and keep your battlemages and healers in the rear rows. The Chars in the rear row receive far less damage if the front row is still standing. Should I heal Kaim, or would it be better to line him up for the next attack and charge? Will the Mobs attack him at all? Friendly Japanese RPG's suddenly feel comfortably domestic. Element against Element. Water Mobs are best attacked with Fire strikes, and so on and so forth. In order to still give the whole thing a bit of innovation, the guys at Mistwalker have installed a “Ring System”. You come across rings on your adventures with traders, in vases or in other hiding places. Alternatively, you can also manufacture your own ring, using the Mob-Drops option on the menu. These rings give you, as well as any other character who carries them, additional damage bonuses. In order then to make use of these, you use a circle around the Mob to indicate an attack. You can then place a second circle over the first with the RT button. As soon as the circles overlap, you must let go of the RT button immediately. Release the button too early or too late, and the effect doesn’t work, or only half-works. If however you lay the circle “perfectly” on top of the other, you get to enjoy a great bit of extra damage.

What do you get from the fights? Experience points and skills – correct! In Lost Odyssey, you have two kinds of character. Invincible and normal. The main character Kaim is an Invincible. He does not gain skills as he progresses through the levels. Using a skill system, however, he can learn skills by watching “normal” party members and thus learning. This allows you to completely configure your individual character. But don’t worry – Kaim and his Immortal friends don’t only watch. Decorative items such as necklaces, eyeglasses or other such stuff are likewise provided using the skill system. If you carry an object which tells you the number of life points held by an enemy, your immortal character learns how the system works after a few fights, and can thenceforth also use the object’s capabilities without further investment.

Since you need a reason to go and experience the stunning cities and the great fights, the Mistwalker team also fitted a fantastic, emotional story into the “Lost Odyssey” package. The somewhat grumpy Kaim, your main character, is a mercenary. And in addition, he is quite good at it. His advantage? He is immortal. He is 1000 years old but yet also suffers from amnesia. It must every now and then get really frustrating to wander and fight for 1000 years all over the planet, and sooner or later forget the reason why. But this says a lot about Kaim. Taciturn and depressive, he treats not only his clients but also his companions with a spark of arrogance. Then there are the somewhat dubious but nevertheless funny Jannson and the clued-up Seth. Obviously, as the game progresses, many more appear. But I am not going to tell you about them here.

It is clear that Marc Rein was happy to use the Unreal Engine 3. This turned out good results for his work, and gives the old-fashioned gameplay of Lost Odyssey a Next-Gen feel. However the no-holds-barred world of Lost Odyssey is simply too much for the poor XBOX360. Frame drops and severe stuttering are the order of the day. However music fans will be spoiled with the bombastic-epic sound of Nubuo Uematsu. Once again a masterpiece.