[Review] Lost Odyssey - First Impressions

So through Love Film I am renting Lost Odyssey. Its a traditional JRPG. There are the typical selection of starting characters, that can be summarized as; the silent amnesiac warriror with a sword, the fast theif/rogue, a wise cracking magic user. And I have no idea what else will turn up. I am about 4 hours into the game, and the combat system is fairly typical. You have a front and back row for tatics and defense. Enemies have the same set up. Each round actions are played out based upon a speed of the action. There are the typical selection of white, defensive, spells, and black, offensive spells (including things like elemental attacks, poison, sleep etc).

Is this anything of a surprise? No not really. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famed Final Fantasy series, is behind this. And it shows.

The world has some sort of magic fueled industrial revolution. Some bad ass magitech has gone wrong and it's up to you to find out. There are rather wordy flashback dream sequences to explain more about your immortal (yes you are immortal but the reason hasn't been revealed yet). And of course there are the monsters that attack at random points.

Then there are little things like how skills are learnt by linking immortals to the mortal characters, or the creation of 'rings' which use different components that are collected, and are then used to modify combat i.e. elemental attacks etc. These  rings appear in combat as a way to make the player more involved. You pull the trigger as the attack is played out. This causes a ring to shrink about another ring, all centred upon the target of the attack. The aim is to get a perfect overlay. So it is a bit like have a gun blade from Final Fantasy 8. Combat also allows for careful targeting of enemies to cause the enemy to be delayed in their action i.e. casting etc.

Now this could sound like a bit old and dated. I guess it is a little. But then there are a few things I like about the game.

The setting is well designed, and looks vibrant. The party is interesting. The turn based system is easy and more then just pressing A (fuck you FF13). There are enough bits of info to get from people standing around, but they are nice bite size chunks.

So it just plays as a good jrpg. Good mechanics, good setting, no annoying characters. It may not be revolutionary but I think in general rpgs such as this and Mass Effect, Fallout 3, FF13 etc haven't been that revolutionary or changed much in the last 10 years. But I still stand by the fact that I want to be rewarded for the right tatics, and not being hindered when mashing together game genres (you Mass Effect, I'm looking at you).

[review] MASSively Disa(E)FFECTED! #masseffect #xbox360 #review

'Hey I'm Commander Sheppard. I'm a Spectre and like perving on sexy aliens. But anyway, that means I'm a special operative. What? You say you have info. Well I work for the main government of the galaxy so you should hand that info over straight away or I'll be forced to take it. Oh but hang on you say you need your dry cleaning picked up? Say why don't I do that for you and in return you give me the info? Cool. Oh what? The laundrettes is defended by the Gimps! Well no matter I have shit hot fps skillz from playing Bioshock and Halo. Oh yeah, good point. I have like naff shooting skill on my stats sheet. Where did you get that from? So I guess my well aimed head shots mean shit all when ancient cliched robots called reapers have woken up. You ever played Warhammer 40k, or read Dune. Yeah I hear they are like the Necrons and the robots of the synchronized worlds. Oh yeah you are right. I better make my roll. What? How many D6?'

 

 

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54VJWHL2K3I]

 

 

Mass Effect. A quick one word conclusion. Yawn. Yes really. In a galaxy where the pj jump suits of ST:TNG have been modified with armour but still make you look like you are just waiting for the Saturday morning toons to come on, our hero, a special operative, with freedom to do all that is needed to make the galaxy safe, is reduced to goddamn courier missions just to get stuff that by all rights everyone should be handing over (unless of course they are hiding it on purpose). It makes me cry. I thought we had left these types of games in the past with KOTOR.

Maybe I am being unfair? It has a star studded collection of voice actors, and a nice diversity in game play (roleplay investigation, fps and tanks). But it feels all too flat, cardboard, contrieved. Why do I have to take the pirates out on the ground? I have a ship in orbit ffs! And do not get me started on the fps bit where all my shots are meaning less because I am penalized twice (my aim and then my character's shooting stats). WTF! This is why I hated Fallout 3 but at least you could just go into turn based mode and queue up some shots and let the game do the rest.

Don't get me wrong, the game is pretty. But the atmosphere is flat, the voice actors sound bored, and the setting is essentially nothing original (take B5, mix in the Necrons and some twileks and what may aswell be the Narn) and there you have it. No wonder I am going 'Renegade' in the game. Every fucking turn some turd who has info on my targets is holding it back in exchange for some service I can render. If only all I needed to do was make Sheppard just give them all blow jobs. At least it would make the plot line speed up and feel more urgent.

I do like some stuff. I like the galaxy travel and surveying worlds and choosing if some shit hole is worth an away team (surely I should have some fucking red shirts rather than 2 incompetent twats). But  I think if the game was reskinned, where you had a reason to do all the shitty courier jobs (like not being apparently important) then maybe, just maybe it might be better. May also get rid of the fps. I am lazy. I like my game styles separated as each gives a different experience. I want to feel that my investment in the game (xp or personal skill) means something. Perhaps have a setting more original or pay for the license for a better one (Mass Effect would be awesome as Fading Suns, because then you could have sword fights and it could be like Assassin's Creed in space).

Looks - 3/5

Gameplay - 2/5

Plot - 2/5

For reference AC:Brotherhood Looks 4/5, Gameplay 5/5, Plot 5/5