Lost Odyssey was the second of two Japanese-style
RPGs developed for the Xbox 360 by Mistwalker, the other being
Blue Dragon. Whereas
Blue Dragon, with its
Kid Hero cast and Akira Toryiama character designs, was clearly intended to be the Mistwalker equivalent of
Dragon Quest and designed primarily for the Japanese market,
Lost Odyssey was clearly designed with the Western market in mind, and bears a closer resemblance to the
Final Fantasy series. The game was produced by
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, scored by
Nobuo Uematsu, written by award-winning novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, with character designs by Takehiko Inoue, the manga artist who single-handedly popularized basketball in Japan with the
Slam Dunk series.
Now that your expectations are appropriately high, let's move on.
Lost Odyssey is a
very Japanese RPG, centered around Kaim Argonar,
The Hero, an
amnesiac mercenary who is apparently
immortal. As the game opens, he is serving in the army of the
Magic Republic of Uhra, a nation still in turmoil from the abolition of its monarchy, in their war against the beastmen of Khent. The game opens with the final battle of the war, which is concluded by a meteor strike (
which takes the form of lava pouring out of the sky) that wipes out everyone on both sides save Kaim and another amnesiac immortal, a woman named Seth Balmore.
From the moment he meets Seth on, Kaim's memories start coming back. At the same time, Uhra is convinced that the meteor was the result of some finicky wiring in their new
Magitek tower, and send Kaim off to investigate. The plot thickens as
Councilor Gongora schemes to restore the inept Prince Tolten to the Uhran throne and restore
the monarchy. All of this is set against the background of the "Magic-Industrial Revolution," as the nations of the world are struggling to incorporate
Magitek into their daily lives. Prominent characters include:
- Kaim, The Hero; begins as The Stoic, but gradually becomes more emotional as he recovers his memories
- Seth, The Lancer; Flirty Action Girl and former Pirate
- Uhran wizard Jansen Friedh, The Mole, for all of about five minutes, Plucky Comic Relief by way of being a Handsome Lech and Chivalrous Pervert. Narrowly Rescued From The Scrappy Heap by good vocal performance and the guiding hand of Character Development.
- Ming, the immortal Queen of Numara.
- General Kakanas, leader of Numara's armed forces
- Mack and Cooke, two kids from Numara who tag along for the ride. Also, Kaim and Sarah's grandchildren.
- Sarah, Kaim's immortal wife
- Sed, Pirate, Cool Old Guy and Seth's son
- Prince Tolten, the heir to the throne of Uhra
- Gongora, the Big Bad and an extremely Smug Snake. Although by the time you complete the game, that will be the least thing you hate about him.
The gameplay is classic turn-based combat based around a skill system. Mortal characters, which form most of the party, learn new skills by gaining levels, and can temporarily gain new skills by equipping items, while immortal characters can learn skills from the items they equip and by "skill-linking" with the mortal characters. Magic is divided into four categories - Black offensive magic and White defensive magic, which are obvious holdovers from
Final Fantasy, as well as buffing-focused Spirit magic and Composite magic, which is a fusion of spells from other schools. General gameplay resembles NES- and SNES-era entries in the
Final Fantasy series, but with the benefit of the Xbox 360's graphical power and much more elaborate
Boss Battles.
Another gameplay feature of note is the "Thousand Years of Dreams" - as the game goes on, Kaim starts to recover his memory in the form of dreams. These dreams are displayed in the game as short stories. Read these at your peril.
Tears will be jerked. The game can be played with dialog in both the original Japanese and in English, to satisfy both sides of the
Subbing Versus Dubbing debate, and both are very high quality performances. The game was not much of a success in Japan due to the 360's unpopularity there, but enjoyed much greater success in the West. If thats what you want to call it.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Seth
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit, though a rather generous one by modern standards
- Authority Equals Asskicking: You will have two monarchs in your party by the end of the game.
- Award Bait Song: What You Are.
- Bag Of Sharing: Even when the party members are continents apart.
- Bratty Half Pint: Cooke. Mack is significantly more mature.
- Cant Catch Up: Beyond a certain point, the mortal characters in the party will pale into insignificance in battle compared to the four Immortals.
- Character Level
- Chivalrous Pervert
- Criminal Amnesiac: Kaim and Seth are in this state when the game starts
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming
Momma!
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: The one shouting "momma" is visually about three times older than his mother (and quite spectacularly grizzled), yet he's still acting like a happy 4-year old.
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: The soundtrack was written by Nobuo Uematsu. It's outstanding. Except for that Sheena Easton number during the credits.
- Competence Zone: A very broad one. Even without the immortals.
- Despair Event Horizon: Gongora's plan to wipe the memories of the other Immortals requires a personal trauma serious enough that they want to forget. So he arranges them.
- Dungeon Punk, arguably
- Cool Old Guy
- Elemental Rock Paper Scissors: Notably, uses the Western elements but with strengths and weaknesses defined by an Eastern cycle.
- Evil Chancellor: Both Gongora and Kakanas
- Exposition Break
- Fantasy Gun Control: averted, sort of. ONE character (Sed the pirate) uses a gun called a magic rifle, but wars are still fought with swords and shields. They have big magic tanks and cannons though.
- Fate Worse Than Death: Since he couldn't kill his fellow immortals, Gongora had to get creative.
- Fetch Quest: One wonders who thought it would be a good idea to render a funeral as a tedious fetch quest followed immediately by a broken Mini Game.
- Functional Magic
- General Ripper: General Kakanas
- Handsome Lech
- Hermetic Magic
- Immortality
- I See London: Oh General Kakanas, you wacky jingoistic traitor....
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold
- Kleptomaniac Hero: While nearly every pot, bookshelf, chest, and drawer in the visitable parts of town has useful items in it, the game has a hilarious Lampshade Hanging for this trope, in that the inhabitants of houses and proprietors of inns want you to take them for some reason. The innkeepers say that all the gold and potions lying around their businesses are "complimentary," while private citizens consider it a favor if you removed some of the clutter... you know, those piles of 100 gold coins that just do nothing for the flow of the room.
- Large Ham: Gongora leaves no scenery unchewed.
- Loads And Loads Of Loading: Loading screens stick around for a while, but contain information on party member statistics.
- The loading times are successfully mitigated by loading the game onto your system's hard drive (to the point where it's hard to take in the party member stats that quickly)... of course, that takes up over 24 gigs of memory for the four discs.
- Unless you just install the disc you're currently on, then delete it and install the next one when you reach the changeover point.
- Magitek, and lots of it
- Mayfly December Romance: Jansen and Ming
- Manipulative Bastard: Gongora
- Medieval European Fantasy
- Meganekko: Sarah.
- Pirates
- Narm: Everyone just so happens to die JUST as Kaim gets there... A bit sad at first, but when such horrible time is so excessive (and so very dramatic) it starts getting funny.
- Non Lethal KO: Oddly, immortal characters automatically revive themselves after a few rounds. Think about that.
- Puzzle Boss: Quite a few of these.
- Rags To Royalty: Jansen
- Random Encounters
- Really One Thousand Years Old
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Save Point
- Shout Out: A couple of these, such as the Kelolon and the Bonus Boss Blue Dragon, both references to fellow Mistwalker game, Blue Dragon
- Smug Snake: Gongora. He has enough power, intelligence and "interpersonal skills" that you'd think he'd make a fine Magnificent Bastard...but he's so obviously evil and completely lacking in charisma, pummeling the slimy little git is all you'll think about.
- Staff Chick: Subverted. Cooke is female, a healer, carries a staff... and is a Bratty Half Pint who wants to grow up to be an Action Girl. Played straight, however, by Sarah.
- Stripperiffic: Queen Ming.
- Tag Along Kid: Mack and Cooke.
- Tear Jerker: Lirum's death, A Thousand Years of Dreams, Seth's return through the mirror in the ending.
- Ted Baxter: Jansen.
- The High Queen: Ming
- Warp Whistle
- We Are As Mayflies: Immortality is not genetic, so Kaim outlives his daughter and Seth looks younger than her own son.
- Who Wants To Live Forever: Another major theme, for obvious reasons, subverted however in that by the end, eternity isn't so bad after all.
- Widget Series
- The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask - Ming Numara
- Woolseyism: Evident if you understand some Japanese and play with that audio track, much of Jansen's dialogue has changed completely and his voice acting is the best in the game.
- The English lines were recorded first, making this an inversion from an English speaker's perspective.
- Xanatos Sucker: Tolten is such a well-meaning idiot it's almost painful to watch.
- Victory Pose
