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Overall B+/B
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.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=224474
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.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=224474
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