Lost Odyssey - Gen. Discussion & Info

20 hours of cutscenes will always be 20 hours of cutscenes. But when people say "20 hours of gameplay" it usually, for me, actually equals about 10 hours.

This is going to be quite an....... experience.
 
But at a certain point, in my opinion, it becomes a really expensive CG animation movie...

Xenosaga went over my ideal proportion of game to cutscenes.
 
From what I have read on gaf, its the best rpg this generation.

Its not like its had much of a contest.
Enchanted Arms and Blue Dragon.

Am I Missing Something!
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']The game tanked in japan.. only reason Im worried.[/QUOTE]
What the fuck did you expect? Even if every single 360 owner in Japan bought this game, it still would have tanked.

The thing to look at it how many Lost Odyssey 360 bundles was Microsoft able to slip into homes.

[quote name='InuFaye']From what I have read on gaf, its the best rpg this generation.

Its not like its had much of a contest.
Enchanted Arms and Blue Dragon.

Am I Missing Something![/QUOTE]
Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata.
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']What the fuck did you expect? Even if every single 360 owner in Japan bought this game, it still would have tanked.

The thing to look at it how many Lost Odyssey 360 bundles was Microsoft able to slip into homes.


Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata.[/quote]

Sorry Should have specified, J-RPGs.
 
As a big JRPG fan, I'm really looking forward to this. It's a shame the discussion thread is already a big bitch fest about the cutscenes, oh well.
 
[quote name='InuFaye']From what I have read on gaf, its the best rpg this generation.

Its not like its had much of a contest.
Enchanted Arms and Blue Dragon.

Am I Missing Something![/quote]

I liked enchanted arms. Up until I beat it.. no replay value really.. no use for golems.. sigh. Fun game.. i should buy that again if i see it.
 
I want an RPG inbetween Oblivion (open character creation) and Knights of the Old Republic (D&D style mechanics, linear quests)

cutscenes need to be retired.. its ok to have a cutscene before a major event or after a dragon slaying but every two feet you walk and theres a cutscene.. I hate that.. I turned off games because of that. I like a good story like many of you. But it also shouldn't be a slave to your game's existance. I think i've finally grown weary of "book" games (like the final fantasys of the world) I really want another good Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic style game on the 360.. one that has quests that need to be completed but you can also go around and do other things.

(reasons why I hated Oblvion, the story really didn't "matter" and the world was TOO open)
 
is it really cg or ingame cut scenes...
i love final fantasy... but will have to wait for this to drop in price ~30
 
[quote name='Ryukahn']As a big JRPG fan, I'm really looking forward to this. It's a shame the discussion thread is already a big bitch fest about the cutscenes, oh well.[/QUOTE]
As always. JRPGs and Koei games get thread crapped all the time. People that have no desire to play the game have to come in to let you know just how much they're not going to. Try doing that in a Halo or Madden thread.
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']As always. JRPGs and Koei games get thread crapped all the time. People that have no desire to play the game have to come in to let you know just how much they're not going to. Try doing that in a Halo or Madden thread.[/quote]

I will.
 
This will be a day one purchase, no doubt. The 360 needs more JRPGs. The game looks amazing, and I am a huge fan of Takehiko Inoue's art.
 
I really want this game, but I think it's going to have to wait. I still haven't finished Blue Dragon (I'm about a third of the way through disc two after about 20 hours)
 
[quote name='tokitoki50']I really want this game, but I think it's going to have to wait. I still haven't finished Blue Dragon (I'm about a third of the way through disc two after about 20 hours)[/quote]
I had considered picking up Blue Dragon (held off on it since I still have to beat Eternal Sonata) and just wait on Lost Odyssey, but after seeing more of Lost Odyssey, I decided not to wait. From the looks of it, there is potential for a lot of replay value (at least from what I've seen and what I want in RPGs to be replayable), so Lost Odyssey should keep me busy for a very long time if I'm right.

The next 2 months are really crammed for me as far as releases go though, I think even more so than the holiday season. :drool:
 
[quote name='Ryukahn']
The next 6 months are really crammed for me as far as releases go though, I think even more so than the holiday season. :drool:[/quote]

Fix'd.
 
Not sure if I'm as excited about this game with this news, but I know I'll get it. 4 discs on the 360 kind of blows my mind though, there must be a lot of lush and varying environments for that.

I'm curious to see what the reaction is from Mass Effect fans, that game is about 50/50 when it comes to combat/story and it's seemingly a pretty big hit.
 
I'm afraid. DMC4 on 2/5 and then LO on 2/12....and im still having soo much fun with COD4. Ive been praying for more arms to grow but so far its been futile.

And has anyone heard the OST yet? Nobuo Uematsu goodness. It should be great. I already love the music from the trailers.
 
[quote name='Ryukahn']Excellent revision to the OP, great job![/QUOTE]

Ya i originally just made this thread to say wtf 20 hours of cutscenes but i guess someone revived it from october and now its pretty much become the general discussion thread. So i felt it my duty to update the OP and keep it up to date. Plus i was hella bored at work and this killed some time. Cant wait for this game.
 
[quote name='slavefive']Can't wait for the soundtrack either. I'll import it from play asia or otaku.com.

BTW, here is a very informative preview from the first 10 hours of play. No, it's not the somewhat less than glowing preview IGN gave. This one is from worthplaying.com.

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=49078&mode=thread&order=0[/QUOTE]
Nice preview. I especially like this part:
Reading the dreams fleshes out Kaim's personality in a wonderfully deep way, although these stories also tend to be very depressing. Where most RPGs are about J. Random Dude saving the world, Kaim is a drifter who is either unmotivated or primarily concerned with momentary revenge. Many of his hidden memories involve dealing with the constant death he witnesses as he goes through a thousand years of immortality, and these are not dramatic, glamorized deaths. It's old women sliding off into the humiliating agony of Alzheimer's, political prisoners starving to death, and sad foreign brides committing suicide after years of prejudiced treatment from townspeople. The stories are written powerfully and can be incredibly moving, usually evoking deep sadness. If you're a gamer who turns to games to escape real-life difficulties, Lost Odyssey may be too much for you. It's a bleak and frank title about the frailty of human nature in a way that no one has any reason to expect a video game to be.
Click to expand...
Sounds like my kind of game.
 
Got mine preordered and got my code. I'm assuming on release all this code will do is unlock content already on the disc. Kind of cheap way to get preorders but I was buying anyway. The soundtrack is really good, has an epic feel to it. Its also good to get the full version of the song from the Winter trailer. For some reason I really like that song....
 
New Review for Lost Odyssey. Theres alot more Good then bad in the review.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=224474&highlight=lost+odyssey

Story, Characters, and Writing

Bebpo: C
It's bad, and even more illogical than most j-rpgs with the worst villian ever, but at the end of the day the 20 hours of cutscenes are well directed and entertaining so you're never bored. Premise is great, worldview is interesting, but cast is bland and maybe Inoue was not the right man to make them. One thing I did like was the theme of family. It's not seen to often in rpgs outside Grandia 3.

duckroll: C-
Definitely the weakest link in the game. For all the potential in a story about a man who has lived a thousand years, the story sure seemed like just another big fun happy adventure ride. I really don't think there were 20 hours of cutscenes, but there were indeed quite a lot, and they were all pretty hilarious - often for the wrong reasons. The villains and set pieces in the game are what really drag the game down, aside from the generic one-dimension characters. The actual dialogue seemed to be making the best out of a bad scenario, which is overall unfortunate because the premise deep down is pretty strong and unique.

1000 years of dreams

Bebpo: A+
The "1000 year dreams" are visual text novels written by good authors and almost all excellent tales lasting 10-15 minute with nice music in the background. Although most of them don't really connect to the main game's plot. They're a nice bonus to have on the disc to read and enjoy. Quality entertainment that gets an A+ from me.

duckroll: A+
The difference between an actual accomplished novelist and a videogame writer is never seen in such contrast as in this game. While the game's actual scenario and script fail to hit the mark, the short stories that chronicle Kaim's past hit it totally out of the park. Everything from the actual writing, the concepts of each story and the actual implementation of the text, sound, music and background imagery connect to present the reader with unforgettable experiences in storytelling on a visual medium. This is both a boon and curse to the game because while the viewer will be left very impressed with each story, it also leaves much to be desired from the actual story of the game - which sadly never quite delivers on any level.

General Gameplay

Bebpo: B+
LO's other name is Shadow Hearts 4, because with most of the SH team that's what it is. At its best, the game is up there with the best moments of SH2 with excellent puzzle dungeons that are half rpg, half Resident Evil. At it's worst it's like the bad parts of SH3 with confusing dungeons and annoying encounters. While it's nice to have a world map, I'd hate to live in the LO world of rocky nothing which pales in comparison to the amazing world of Blue Dragon or even older PS2 rpgs.

duckroll: A
I really enjoyed the overall gameplay in Lost Odyssey. The dungeons and towns definitely reminded me of the better parts of Shadow Hearts, with really smart use of obstacles and puzzles in the dungeons. I feel the cities are what give the game an edge over most other RPGs, because they're really well designed and large enough to feel like actual cities. The world map itself is quite a downer, but I loved the modes of transportation in the game. Considering how barren the map itself is though, I wonder if that was one of the reasons they went with a menu based map overall.

Bebpo: Yes, the towns were very nice, though I personally didn't like the bigger sprawling cities. It just took too long to keep running several screens into a city for sidequests. While you do have a very nice super fast run, it's still a lot of ground and loading and there are a ridiculous number of sidequests in each city so you'll visit them quite a bit.

Battle System

Bebpo: B
The ring system, GC system and skill system are innovative and very cool and fun. The ring is a step back from SH, but it's still nice to have instead of just selecting commands. However, the system balance is broken beyond belief in the later stages. The game is challenging at the start but then gets progressively easier each boss until the endgame bosses and enemies do 0 damage against you and you kill them in 2 hits (I died on the first two bosses and then never again). It's basically the opposite of BD which was pretty easy until the endgame where it had some fun challenge. Also it's worth noting that the battle speed is Xenosaga ep1 level of SLOW. Expect to spend 3-5 minutes in each battle even if you finish them in 2 rounds.

duckroll: B+
The systems are well designed, and for most of the game pretty balanced. The Judgement Ring in Shadow Hearts is definitely a more indepth battle system, but I have a feeling they simplified it because they wanted to focus on the other systems, which seems like what the game is really based around anyway. Balance-wise I felt the game was very well tuned for most of the game, but towards the end it does get exceedingly broken. I found the battles fun but what the game really lacks are super bosses. The optional bosses available in the game far exceed Blue Dragon's in variety and design, but fall flat on the challenge overall. The battles are indeed slow though, they're time consuming and if you're not in the right mood it can be quite a strain on the experience especially with the encounters being random.

Graphics

Bebpo: A-
Would have been A+ if not for the performance issues such as the stuttering when a battle first starts or at random times when streaming. This is the best looking rpg ever made no doubt, especially in the battles. The art design carried over from SH is impeccable and seeing SH type enemies with UE3.0 graphics and DQ/BD level animation is amazing. Attacks and spells have the flash that was missing from BD. CG FMVs look amazing, especially with Ohsawa's great art design.

duckroll: A
Excellent monster designs, environments looked great and each area had a rather unique look. Outside of several generic areas where there was massive asset reuse, overall the game comes off as a very next-gen JRPG. The textures, the modeling and the animations are really finely crafted. The team put tons of attend into the detail of settings, backgrounds and even idle animations for monsters. Many of the settings are really good, and several key scenes look really fantastic visually. Various technical issues result minor annoyances that prevent the game from being the benchmark it could be, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one fantastic looking game.

Bebpo: Just wanted to agree that the idling animations are fantastic in battle. So much detail was put into the battle animations.

Music

Bebpo: B+
It's a good soundtrack, but outside a handful of tracks it's not very memorable at all. The town themes sound EXACTLY like SH2 town themes, which makes no sense considering the composer is different. The main theme is A+, but overall I preferred BD's soundtrack, especially the vocal songs with suck here but were cute in BD (marumaru dance; birthday song).

duckroll: B
First I'll have to say, the main theme for Lost Odyssey is probably the best videogame musical track I've heard in many years. It is a sweeping piece piece that invokes feelings of grandeur and really builds the mood. Unfortunately it's not only the best piece of music in the game, but the really the only truly memoriable tune. The best tracks in the game are all varients of the main theme. Most of the music is pretty competent and it is by no means a bad or even mediocre soundtrack. It just fails to be great because there isn't much attachment to most of the pieces. I do feel the scenario is to share to blame though, it's hard to find musical themes memoriable when you find it hard to care for much of what is going on.

Bebpo: Man, the final boss song...lol. BD's was almost Uematsu's one winged angel follow-up. LO is....yeah....

Loading

Bebpo: F
I timed the loading from battle transition to when your menu pops up to select commands...20 fucking seconds. LO will be known forever as the game that made me hate random encounters even though I'd been fine with them for decades now. When you're trying to solve a puzzle and BAM encounter and sit for 20 seconds -> 3-5 minute battle -> puzzle it's annoying. Imagine being on a balance log on that happens and you come back suddenly 5 mins later and have to keep your balance. Random encounters only work when there is almost no loading like the handheld FFs or SMT games since you can get them over with and get back to the game real quick. There's a lot of other loading, but really it's the encounter loading that drove me insane by the end when backtracking through the entire game again for sidequests. If there was EVER a game that needed a "no encounter" accessory it was this; but nope, not here.

duckroll: D-
Yeah, the loading is bad. There're no two ways around it. Everything from areas, to battles, to the goddamn fucking SAVE SCREEN is loading loading loading loading loading. I wasn't that bothered by the random encounters taking ages to load because I probably went nuts and got used to it, but there were several other issues that really bugged me. Sometimes if you prepare a mega spell, and it's set to go off after the normal attackers, the spell animation won't load in time. So Kaim will slash an enemy, and he'll stand there for 3 seconds just waiting. It looks retarded and is really embarassing for the game engine. The other issue that drove me insane was the save reading code. It's probably the worst code for reading a list of saves ever. The more saves you have, the longer it takes to load. The game gives you a total of 20 slots, so by the end I had like 17, and it was taking half a minute to a minute to load just the listing of saves. Actual saving would take a second, but then after that they would have to READ THE GODDAMN LIST AGAIN before you can return to the menu. Two minutes to save a fucking game..... ARGHARGAHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Lasting Appeal

Bebpo: A
Main game is about 40-45 hours long, plenty of optional bonus dungeons (like SH1-3 and BD) give it a boost to 55-65. If you are an utter completionist who spends 100 hours in FFX or BD, expect a good 80 hour+ game. All in all, a great amount of content for an rpg.

duckroll: A
It's hard to argue with a RPG that lasts over 60 hours and provides good entertainment all the way. There are lots of optional quests along the way and a whole lot more open up at the end. The rewards for almost everything in the game are pretty solid, so you never really feel you're wasting your time scouting out an entire dungeon or doing a fetch quest for a citizen. The optional quests and collectathons in the game should be enough to satisfy pretty much any JRPG gamer.

Overall
Bebpo: B+
In a word? It's a SH game that's worse than SH2 by a good deal but better than SH3 by a small amount. While the gameplay gets broken and the story is silly, the game is fun to play (outside a few spots) and fun to watch for a good 50+ hours. The best parts of the game are horror areas straight out of SH. If you've never played a SH game before and you play and enjoy LO, immediately go run and buy SH1-3 and you will be the happiest person on earth for a month or two while you play them.

duckroll: B
I don't really feel much of the SH comparisons outside of the visuals, but I do think that Lost Odyssey is a pretty enjoyable but flawed RPG. When it delivers, it really delivers, but when it doesn't it really feels like there's a lot of wasted potential. We'll never know what it would be like if the game had a better engine without loading, or if the scenario had better writers. It's unfortunate that the game never reached it's full potential, but what remains is still a pretty solid title. While the game is plagued by problems both technical and design-wise, it's still an incredible look game with great visuals and fun gameplay.
Click to expand...
 
It sounds great, but the slow combat may be a turn away for me. I hated how Xenosaga had 5 minute random battles and like 45 minute boss battles just because everything was so slow. It seems odd too since they compare it so much to Shadow Hearts, but the combat in those 3 games is ridiculously fast.


On a side note I also have absolutely no money, baaah!
 
Watched a couple of youtube vids on the loading for random battles, and yeah, it looks like it can be very annoying. I'm still going to get this though, just don't know when because of my backlog.
 
For those worrying about the long load times to fight, I recommend watching some of the battle videos on youtube. I think they mask the load times pretty well, and remind me of some other RPGs that do the same, so I don't see it as a big deal.

Try this one for an idea.
 
[quote name='Ryukahn']For those worrying about the long load times to fight, I recommend watching some of the battle videos on youtube. I think they mask the load times pretty well, and remind me of some other RPGs that do the same, so I don't see it as a big deal.

Try [MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jP2PMZ9cg4[/MEDIA] one for an idea.[/QUOTE]


Omg that was the first gameplay video ive watched, (trying not to have too many spoilers) and it looked awesome! I cannot wait. That loading didnt seem long too annoying at all. Sure it was a little long since im used to 5 sec or less loading but damn that is sweet. The graphics and art design for the monsters is fantastic and the music was nice too................feb 12 hurrry up
 
[quote name='Poor2More']are the preorder codes unique? or somthing u can just look up on the interweb after release?[/quote]

Gonna assume general codes. BB and CC both have the pre order bonus.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Gonna assume general codes. BB and CC both have the pre order bonus.[/QUOTE]
Actually it look more like Marketplace code, so each code is unique.
 
Dang. I'm really stuck on this one. Torn between beautiful graphics and what looks like a fun battle system on one side, and horrible loading times and an already massive backlog on the other.

I think the loading times/backlog are going to win this battle. I'm sure I'll pick up LO later on though.
 
Loading times are so last gen.

I don't care if the game has to look like shit, just get rid of the loading times. Good looking graphics can wait until next gen if you can't do them without long loading times.
 
I got a free copy ordered this weekend, so even if it sucks I should be able to come out ahead. That video is making me think "40 hour epic: 20 hours of cutscenes, five hours of loading, and another 100 hours to unlock all the 'Max ___' Achievements."
 
2 notes:

1) The U.S. commercial is up on the official website. Great footage. Weird choice for music. They used a 60's hippie song. Odd when the OST is so freaking good..

2) The OST is so freaking good! I dl'd it to see if I really would like it and it's phenominal. Best OST I've heard in a long time. Uematsu has a hidden gem on his hands. I'll be purchasing the full/retail OST from otaku.com or playasia very soon.
 
Sorry for not keeping up, but IGN said that the Japanese version of this game was basically glitched to hell... or at least, it stuttered a lot and felt like Mass Effect technically... I do not want another Mass Effect, so is there any truth to these statements?

I'm hoping not since this seems like it could be the first good, original RPG in years.
 
Umm...load times look fine to me. This is what people were complaining about? If you've played any traditional jRPG's in the past, then you should be used to this by now. Don't give me that "games should have better load times because it's next gen" crap. I've seen next gen games with far worse load times.
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']Loading times are so last gen.

I don't care if the game has to look like shit, just get rid of the loading times. Good looking graphics can wait until next gen if you can't do them without long loading times.[/QUOTE]

Also, from what ive been reading around the net from people who have the game, the loading times are very short with pictures and music to distract. Ive heard that there have been no loading times that have exceeded 10sec. Usually they are from 7-10sec.



Heres a great preview from gametrailers for those who are on the fence. It explains alot and might help sway some people either for or against.

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz8FpduTGJA[/B][/MEDIA]


and also the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Heres of video of the main theme. Absolutely epic. I dont know why but this theme gives me goosebumps listening to it. Like you can imagine the epic shit that happens.

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5vb6VFOiCI[/MEDIA]
 
speedy180-

Heh, I thought I was alone...I totally agree with you-- the Lost Odyssey score is AMAZING. Hats off to Nobuo for composing such a compelling OST...the last OST I absolutely loved from Nobuo was FFVII's. The Lost Odyssey OST gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it.
 
Yeah, i was really suprised how good it is. I like to get the OST's for the games that I'm into (I just got Mass Effect, too). But, I have to agree, this one is really special. It's a perfect combination of old school final fantasy and full orchestra composition.
 
I don't think I mentioned it in this thread, only the GGT.

But I don't think the soundtrack is THAT good. Don't take that to mean I think it's bad, because I don't. It's a good soundtrack, and probably Uematsu's best work. It's by no means amazing though.
 
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