Lost Odyssey was the Xbox 360′s first genuine leap into the realm of JRPGs, an arena that had been previously dominated by the PlayStation brand for the last decade. Though it was only their freshman outing, it was the trailers of the incredible visuals that actually prompted me to beg for an Xbox 360 in the first place. Within minutes of playing Lost Odyssey, I knew that this would be the best turn-based RPG I had ever played (yes, in my eyes it trumps all previous Final Fantasy games) and even after playing Final Fantasy XIII earlier this year, the same assertion still holds true. To be honest, I don’t know if any other turn-based experience could top the one I had from Lost Odyssey.
So what made it so great?
It certainly wasn’t the gameplay. This was your standard turn-based fare with a set party of five and set roles for each character, (mages, warriors, mixes, etc.) where players gave out orders to each character and waited to see if their strategy would succeed or fall flat. The only unique aspects the game brought into play was the ring system and the immortality of a select few characters. With the ring system, depending upon the rings a characters could wear, they would gain special or elevated attributes during physical combat. For example, when adorned, some rings dealt higher damage with certain types of enemies, whereas others would inflict specific magic damage. For the ring-bearing characters, players would have to activate the item and line up two moving rings on the screen in perfect harmony as the character rushed the enemy. If lined up badly, no bonus effects would be achieved. If perfected, the character could inflict up to twice the amount of normal damage. This wasn’t exactly mind-bending, but one thing was for sure, it forced you to constantly pay attention during combat. That’s definitely more than I can say for several other JRPGs with traditional turn-based combat, where I often used the time to snack, take a sip, or file my nails.
What’s the most important element of a good RPG? THE STORY. If it’s a JRPG, it is all about the cut scenes. Lost Odyssey does fabulously on both fronts. The story becomes instantly interesting after Kaim, the midriff-bearing lead hero, somehow manages to survive a meteor shower on the battlefield without sustaining so much as scratch on him. As more characters come into Kaim’s adventure and as their memories slowly unlock, it only gets harder to tear yourself away from playing. Plus, when you first see the beautiful and lengthy cut scenes, it isn’t difficult to comprehend why the game is four discs long. It demanded so much of the Xbox 360 hardware that it only takes 12 hours per disc to complete (except for the last disc, when you have all that sidequesting to do). For an RPG fan, both of these aspects equal win.
However, none of these are even the best part of Kaim’s Lost Odyssey. The game’s true value lies within Kaim’s 1000 years of memories that players unlock by talking to NPCs, walking into random areas, or completing parts of the main questline. When Kaim unlocks a memory, the story is told in black-and-white text, but it’s presented in a far more interesting manner than reading a page out of a book. The words slide, drop, or cascade into the screen to fit the mood of the story. Sometimes it’s a whole page or sentence, and other times, single letters come floating in. This may sound slightly dumb and boring, but trust me, it’s something you have to see to understand. When you see the words cascading down the screen with the background music playing, it’s absolute genius. It was also obvious that the developer had hired a real short story writer to pen the memory sequences, because the stories and the wording used were nothing short of masterful. I would give anything for the ability to write fiction that engrossing.
Lost Odyssey was an deeply personal experience that I am not likely to ever really forget–especially since I went through a couple boxes of tissues while reading the memories–and I’ve never had one truly like it since.
What is the best turn-based RPG that you’ve ever played?
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