Lost Odyssey- Initial Reactions

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CreganTur

Gawd
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Jan 15, 2004
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I must admit that Lost Odyssey slipped in under my radar- I hadn't heard anything about it until earlier this week, when I saw the commercial for it on TV. I got excited after doing some research, especially once I saw that it was an Eastern RPG similar to the FF series, which was fine with me since I love that series.

After playing for an hour my overall reaction is "Meh..."

Don't get me wrong- the opening fight was very cool (and very FFesque)...at least it was until you went up against the robot. After the 2nd time that it killed me with its blade attack and I was resurrected for no reason (I imagine that it happened either due to the priests you saw earlier in one of the custscenes, or had something to do with Kaim's immortality, but they didn't do anything to really play on that idea. It was just Death => Res).

The acting is stereotypical over the top Anime. It really is. Also the fact that it takes 30 minutes before you can get Kaim to say more than 2 words was a little annoying because it felt like they were shoving the "brooding hero" idea down my throat.

The only real problem I have with this game is the menu system. It works fine, that's not the problem- the issue is that it's completely freakin grey! It looks like an alpha build that never made it to the art department! (plus the little portrait of Kaim that shows in the menu looks like crap). At least the menu is easy to navigate, and I do like the sort ability. I just wish it were prettier.

Load Times aren't anywhere close to as bad as reviewers claimed.

I'm looking forward to continuing this adventure, and I really hope that the story picks up quickly and can pull me in.

If Lost Odyssey is half as good as FFX, then I will be immensely pleased.
 
I'm about 2 hrs in and I'll just say I find this game far better than FFX.
 
I'm really really enjoying it. I really like all the characters, but maybe that's because I haven't been exposed to anime before (except a few Pokemon episodes as a kid...) so I haven't really felt that "oh this character is just like so and so from that episode".

Menu system looks fine to me...

My personal favorite is Jansen. He's humorous to me...and the CGI and cutscenes are all shot fantastically IMO.

Dunno, I like it a lot.
 
The Thousand Years of Dreams stories really help flesh out Kaim's character.

I plan on starting the game over this weekend when I have time to play a lot. Playing for an hour and stopping like I did doesn't do the game justice.
 
I'm only a couple hours in - so I can't give an informed opinion just quite yet. I will say the game starts out pretty slow though, which I'm more than willing to trudge through.

The graphics are gorgeous, but there are some minor framerate problems - especially in the cutscenes. The long loading times reported in most reviews aren't really a problem for me - they're more than acceptable.

Characters are complex and well fleshed out. American voice acting was better than I thought it would be. Seth, the female, looks just like the chick from Uncharted if you ask me. =)

The Thousand Years of Dream story sequences are.... interesting. It's good writing, but they're quite long, and after awhile you start to question why you're reading all this text on a next gen HD game console.

Combat is very old school JRPG, which I grew up with and love. The combat animations and spell effects are impressive, even in this early level. Skill system and bracelet powers are very fun so far.

Looking forward to going home and getting deeper into the game.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
I'm only a couple hours in - so I can't give an informed opinion just quite yet. I will say the game starts out pretty slow though, which I'm more than willing to trudge through.
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I heard it does start off slow (like the pacing of any Final Fantasy game really) but there is something that happens that all asudden things pick up big time. So far enjoying the game.

Very old school but with SOME modern twists. Nothing wrong with it though. And ya the load times thing I don't get. Not really that bad. Feels like 3 seconds.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
The long loading times reported in most reviews aren't really a problem for me - they're more than acceptable.
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Supposedly the version (off the Xbox 360 dev network) many of the reviewers looked at was not the same as the retail version, even thought it was released at the same time. Those 30-60 second load times shouldn't be present in the final retail version.
 
How are the English voices? I know there is a Japanese track you can chose if you wish to.
 
Viper8547 said:
How are the English voices? I know there is a Japanese track you can chose if you wish to.
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This was one of my concerns too actually. Eternal Sonata has some pretty lackluster English voice acting so I play that one in Japanese. As far as LO goes, I'd say the English track is among the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game. Then again, I'm only 2hrs in but it's good stuff so far.
 
So in about 4 hours of play, I've already had two 'dirty disc errors', which has me a little worried. Especially considering that some save points are well over 30 minutes apart.

Why does this piece of shit console have to have the best games? =(
 
Not got it myself yet, but I've watched a friend play it and so far I've been impressed.

/needs more time to play this sort of game :(
 
PoweredBySoy said:
So in about 4 hours of play, I've already had two 'dirty disc errors', which has me a little worried. Especially considering that some save points are well over 30 minutes apart.

Why does this piece of shit console have to have the best games? =(
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I got the same thing. I had just beat the first boss (the bird thing) and I got a skip... skip... skip...

"The disc is unreadable."

I was pretty pissed since the save thingy was right there but oh well. GD shittily manufactured 360. :(
 
phobic said:
I got the same thing. I had just beat the first boss (the bird thing) and I got a skip... skip... skip...

"The disc is unreadable."
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Hmmmm, you know, that's exactly where I got my first one as well.

The second one I got I believe was a random encounter, and it crashed during the opening animations of the battle - before you see what enemy it is you're fighting.

After I posted that, I played for another 3+ hours last night and it didn't error out once. So I guess there's hope.
 
phobic said:
I had just beat the first boss (the bird thing)...
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I just got to that battle last night. That griffin is TOUGH! I fought it 3 times and died every single time!

I do have to say that I am really enjoying this game now- as soon as I got my mission from Gongora the game started to flow better.

I do still wish the menu didn't look like crap. I swear, every single time I see that plain gray menu it reminds me of a Form created on Access by an amateur:mad: That and, why couldn't they make the font a little bigger?
 
Okay, I have to revise some earlier statements.

I'm about 7 hours into the game right now (just finished the funeral and am about to go into the forest) and I LOVE this game! The story has really picked up and is awesome!

Even though it can be a little tedious to read the Dreams (I agree with an earlier statement- "why am I reading all this in a next-gen game?") they are masterfully written and give a great insight into Kaim.

Comabt is really getting good- I can't wait to add some more people to my party!
 
It is really nice to have an old school, classic JRPG on this platform. I'm hoping this game does well enough to show Microsoft that there's money there if the game is quality, so they do a few other things than more FPSers.

I'm done with disk 1, the game is fantastic from a story point, depth of character (through the dreams), etc. The combat is fun and involving, so you don't get sick of it. Many final fantasy elements are in this game's mechanics, so fans of FF series I'm sure will like this one.

My only complaint are the battle sequence music tracks...or lack there of. Same song everytime...was fine for 8 hours, but more?
 
Had a little Lost Odyssey marathon this (very cold) weekend, so now I'm about 33 hours in. Still loving it overall - and the frequency of disc errors has gone way down, so that's good.

I've come to the conclusion that the writing in this game is a little weak though. I mean, the plot and overarching storyline are fine - but just the actual writing and lines of dialogue tend to fall a little flat. Perhaps that has more to do with the localization though. But seriously, Final Fantasy Tactics, a portable game, has 100 times better dialogue than this does.

For those just starting out, the story in disc three gets crazy - and I mean that in a good way. It has taken the game in entirely new directions I wasn't expecting. The whole thing started off very, very slow. But since then it's just gotten better and better, and a snowballing effect is taking place. If it can keep it up the momentum through disc 4, we're in for one hell of a finale.

Oh... and I'm just going to throw out Seth Balmore for the hottest video game chick of all time. There, I said it.
 
yeeep.... that's it. I'm done.

About a quarter of the way through the 4th disc I'd guess, and I just got done with a very long sequence where it didn't allow me to save, along with the toughest boss fight in the game so far. The boss fight alone takes 20 minutes to complete when you know how to do it (my third try on him). But doing the whole puzzle-based dungeon before that is another 30 minutes at least.

Right after I finally beat the boss, the 360 locks up during a cut scene. I'd laugh if it weren't so annoying. But yeah, that's the last straw.

Good game. Shitty system. I'm giving up.
 
I can't wait to play this game. I still need to beat Mass Effect, Bioshock, CoD4, and Orange Box. =\ I wish i had more time dammit.
 
NeoGohan said:
I can't wait to play this game. I still need to beat Mass Effect, Bioshock, CoD4, and Orange Box. =\ I wish i had more time dammit.
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Haha, I'm not exactly in the same boat, with that many games, but I do have two games I've been playing through, and I don't want to get another game (especially an RPG), until I've finished these. I'm still playing Ace Combat 6 and Eternal Sonata. I beat AC6, but I've been playing through it on the harder difficulties, to unlock the remaining aircraft and extras.
 
I just got it today and put in an hour so far. Pretty story driven in the beginning, but hopefully things will pick up. I'll give some more impressions when I have actually played a decent amount. All I can really comment on thus far is how good the combat in the cut scenes is :)
 
ThirtySixBelow said:
I just got it today and put in an hour so far. Pretty story driven in the beginning, but hopefully things will pick up. I'll give some more impressions when I have actually played a decent amount. All I can really comment on thus far is how good the combat in the cut scenes is :)
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Oh it definitely picks up at around the 3hr mark I'd say. Yeah, pretty slow but if you're willing to stick with it, it's a pretty good game I think.
 
How da hell are you guys crashing or gettin errors. I just finished the game....clocked 72 hours LOL lvl 74 on all characters...... not ONE crash or hiccup.. smooth gameplay.... maybe your discs are defective or its your 360. I have an elite btw.
 
villain71 said:
How da hell are you guys crashing or gettin errors. I just finished the game....clocked 72 hours LOL lvl 74 on all characters...... not ONE crash or hiccup.. smooth gameplay.... maybe your discs are defective or its your 360. I have an elite btw.
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I've gotten 3 freezes in the first 4 hours of the game. I think it's my 360. Maybe it's getting too hot? If other people arn't having issues then it's probably not the game. The game is definitely starting to pick up and i'm liking it a lot. I just wish I could figure out why it's freezing so much. It seems to be only during the loading parts. :(
 
Got it Saturday, almost 4 hours in. Really enjoying it. I love story driven RPG's. Even the combat is fun. I don't normally do JRPG's becuase I'm not a big fan of turn based combat. But this is fun.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
yeeep.... that's it. I'm done.

About a quarter of the way through the 4th disc I'd guess, and I just got done with a very long sequence where it didn't allow me to save, along with the toughest boss fight in the game so far. The boss fight alone takes 20 minutes to complete when you know how to do it (my third try on him). But doing the whole puzzle-based dungeon before that is another 30 minutes at least.

Right after I finally beat the boss, the 360 locks up during a cut scene. I'd laugh if it weren't so annoying. But yeah, that's the last straw.

Good game. Shitty system. I'm giving up.
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You dont think your system is locking up because you play it way too much do you?
 
GregP24 said:
How do you beat him? I've tried everything, from focus fire on the boss, to killing all the little bugs. I can't kill the bitch.
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Basically used the two tanks on the bugs (but only killed like 2-3 bugs whenever there were 5) and then used jensen on the big dude doing the spell called aqua:D
 
HaVoC said:
Basically used the two tanks on the bugs (but only killed like 2-3 bugs whenever there were 5) and then used jensen on the big dude doing the spell called aqua:D
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i did slightly the same pattern

Equip firing rings and attack the bugs.
use Jensen's flare on one bug.
Get all the bugs out as fast as you can. The worm can't attack if you kill the bugs fast enough and you can get 2 turns usually of just focused attacks on the first worm and use aqua spell (worms are fire)

Second worm prepare. He will cast a spell rigth away. Make sure one character has a yellow band on (prevents paraylsis) Don't worry about fighting just unparalaze and heal team just enough. Focus on bugs, repeat above pattern.
 
I'm really starting to get into it, just started the crimson forest and the story is actually pretty good. I took a break to play mass effect and forza 2.
 
Netrat33 said:
Equip firing rings and attack the bugs.
use Jensen's flare on one bug.
Get all the bugs out as fast as you can. The worm can't attack if you kill the bugs fast enough and you can get 2 turns usually of just focused attacks on the first worm and use aqua spell (worms are fire)
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This is pretty much what I did. The main strategy is to take out as many bugs as you can and hope that only 1 or 2 reappear at a time. If none charge the worm can never attack. I just attacked the bugs and was able to take out 2 per turn. Once I got rid of them all I would use jansen to start using aqua on the worm. When the second worm comes in it's fully charged and you can't avoid it's attack, but it was never enough to kill me. Just be careful of the paralysis effects on the worms attack.
 
I mostly agree with what's been said about the worm, the only thing is that you only really need to kill 2 or 3 of them before you can effectively kill the worm.

The reason for this is the enemy's GC- the strength of the defensive wall that protects the worm. When you kill the initial bugs you reduce their GC. The bonus is that the bugs that magically appear do not increase the worm's GC, so once you get it down it's down for good.

Aqua the worm, and once the GC is down you can use Seth and Kaim to attack the worm too, or to take out bugs- either one works.
 
Aw man I really wanna play this game :(.

Heh, I'm playing Suikoden V now (which is awesome), but it's funny, it doesn't pick up til around 10 hours (there are maybe 2 forced fights, and 10 random encounters or so in the first 10 hours). And some of you think Lost Odyssey is slow :p.
 
Just finished Disc1 and I'm impressed. Started off kinda slow, but for a 4 Disc game thats about right. The dreaming parts are a little weird at times, but if you sit and actually read them all they're good for giving a bit of back-story. So far though, I'm pleased with the game overall.
 
Where do I get the aqua spell from?

I went back to Uhra to see if I could buy it, but the vendor didn't have it. He did have aqua bombs, but those hit for a little less than my lvl2 flare.
 
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