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No Direction Home: Lost Odyssey Stumbles On The 360

• By Cameron Lewis
• February 12, 2008 15:32 PM PST
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Developer Mistwalker returns to the Xbox 360 with Lost Odyssey, an epic tale of war and loss. But is the game good enough to steal away some of Square Enix's thunder or is it just proof that, when it comes to console RPGs, Final Fantasy is still the king of the castle? Find out in our in-depth review of Lost Odyssey!

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The game's protagonist, Kaim, shares a quiet moment with some of his friends.

When you're saddling up to sink over fifty hours into an RPG, you need an epic story that'll sustain your interest over the long haul. Unfortunately, an affecting collection of anecdotes isn't enough on its own to elevate any game from merely worthwhile to truly memorable, not even one with high production values and a pedigree as storied as Lost Odyssey's.

Still Waters Run Deep

Lost Odyssey's main protagonist, Kaim Argonaur, is an Uhran Lieutenant, sideburns enthusiast, and part-time mercenary; he also happens to be an immortal who has lived over 1,000 yearshe just doesn't remember any of it. As mercenaries tend to do, Kaim gets himself embroiled in a war, but the grief of losing many friends, wives, and children over the years has worn him down so that his personality is equal parts habitual honor and enigmatic stoicism, even in the face of a cataclysmic event like a lava-spewing meteor dropping down on his head on the battlefield.

But while Kaim isn't particularly demonstrative, Lost Odyssey's storytelling methods are the complete opposite: From the sobbing children at a funeral and the predictable reunions with old friends, the game's narrative makes overt attempts to tug on your heart-strings. Whether you find it moving and profound or cloying and cornball depends on how open you are to the miniature fables that punctuate the larger narrative. The main thread lacks high-stakes urgency and a villain worth giving a damn about, but these diversions make up the difference in prefabricated poignancy.

Surface Tension

Of course, amplified efforts to stir up emotions are part of the RPG tradition. But where Lost Odyssey falters is in the actual gameplay, which is doesn't inspire the same sort of reaction that the story at least aspires to. The linear environments that you'll explore, from the verdant Ipsilon Mountains to the haunted red ground of the Crimson Forest, are sometimes breathtaking in their beauty and detail, but simple box-moving and guard-evading puzzles seem designed more to annoy than to engage; you'll also spend a lot of time poking around in pots, behind posters, and in other people's wardrobes for hidden goodies such as gold, items, and miscellaneous functional trinkets.

Breaking up the tedium of the item hunting, however, are the twenty-four different hidden treasures introduced a dozen or so hours which manage to turn one-note towns into places worth investigating for otherwise unavailable equipment caches. Regrettably, exploring all that scenic beauty is sullied by constant random encounters that require you to sit through at least ten full seconds of run-up before you're allowed to battle. What seems like a minor irritation early in the game grows into a constant nagging nuisance that'll make you dread unnecessary steps, and the constant loading screens between even small areas are almost as aggravating.

The game also features an intriguing skill system that offers up a refreshing sense of flexibility but it's all for naught as you realize that the periodic boss battles are challenging not because of particularly cunning design or strategic insight but because you didn't equip the correct skills ahead of time. How you are supposed to know which skills will come in handy before you go into battle is beyond me.

It pays to explore every town thoroughly for both the views and the hidden goodies scattered about.

More powerful enemies often have separate parts to target. Choose wisely.

Most of the puzzles are little more than simple time sinks of trial and error, but many have some built-in shortcuts.

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