Lost Odyssey

The Core Video Games Forum
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I can why one wouldn’t like. The Narrative structure is sort of a mess. It starts out epic as fuck in scope, then once the whole thing zeros in on the main party, it falls into JRPG cliche, with the 1000 years of dreams devolving into just a collection quest.

I do like how the characters are developed, especially Kaim. He starts out sort of cold and apathetic, then after Kaim reunites with Lirum, and discovers his grandchildren he becomes much more likeable and human.

I like the option of switching to Japanese. I think the script changes depending on the language you use because I had it on Japanese, then switched to english cos I couldnt read the Subs (boo), but then the tone of the script felt off. The english dub feels miscast (Seth’s english voice sounds too childish for appearance and character) Cooke grates on my nerves, almost as bad as Jansen. Jansen… Amid the story’s epic and depressing beginning, meeting him for the first time and listening to him as the “comic relief” almost killed the whole thing.

Gameplay is typical for a JRPG, with the immortals learning skills basically another esper/materia/what have you system. Nothing good or bad to say about that. I’m still having trouble timing my perfects with the ring system though. Oh well.

I just want to say, I love the 1000 years of dreams. It’s so beautifully written. The first one had me almost tearing up. If they released this in book format, I would snatch it up without a second thought.

Now, Sin, do I think It’s better than Blue Dragon? Honestly, I don’t know. This has a much more interesting and deep story, but the pacing is slow as hell, and I find myself getting bored before anything interesting happens. Blue Dragon’s story was as simple as they come but the pacing, oddly was much tighter and I wasn’t bored. Gameplaywise I’d say is even. It’s the same gain-AP-learn-skills system, just packaged differently. The graphics in LO are much smoother, and still look good after almost two years. I guess I’d have to say I like BD more just because it was easier to get into. On a technical level, LO blows it away. Overall for all hype that surrounded Mistwalker upon the 360’s arrival (I’m late to this I know), they sure haven’t had much to show for it.

PS, I’ll never understand why the first two boss fights were two of the hardest bosses I’ve ever fought in an RPG. The bosses since have been pretty easy. What the fuck?

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Since you haven’t finished the game yet, yes the story starts off deeper in LO than BD. When you finish LO, you’ll see that they dropped the ball and that BD is a much better, well rounded package. You’re only seeing the itp of the ice berg in how LO is a boring uneven mess. The story to LO goes nowhere.

I will concede that stories are beautiful and sometimes they do pull at the heartstrings. Its a shame the man who wrote the stories for the thousand year of dreams didn’t write the rest of the game. I found the differences in the quality of the writing and storytelling jarring and the contrast didn’t help.

Tales of Vesperia remains one of the best RPGs of this generation.

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Yeah I think I read that the 1KYOD writer didn’t write the rest of the game, which is a damn shame.

I agree with Vesperia. Sad really that there’s hardly been any outstanding RPGs in the last 4 years. I thought maybe I was losing interest in them. But then I think “No, I liked Eternal Sonata, and Vesperia…”

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I think I’d mostly agree with Sin, although I think I enjoyed Lost Odyssey more than he did. I think there are some really great parts in the story - I especially enjoyed Disc 3 - but there are a lot of “who fucking cares” parts in the game (end of disc 1?), too. Still, I enjoyed the story well enough, although it was very sloppy.

The combat is what really kills LO for me. Sure, it’s the same as BD in a sense, but Blue Dragon is much faster (nevermind the Field Barrier skill which makes the game such a breeze to play through), and the class system is a lot more interesting than “these guys are locked to one class, but those guys can just learn everything.” It makes it so like…why would you ever not have the four immortals in your party at the same time? Plus, LO’s combat is just damn slow, and based around a really stupid gimmick. Hold the R Trigger and let go after a second! No need to learn anything different - it’s the same every time!