Reviewing: Lost Odyssey

Like with MagnaCarta 2, I have done my own play through of Lost Odyssey on my Youtube channel. If you'd like, feel free to view it here. It is one of my most viewed pieces of work to this date, and I'm happy to say that because the game deserves the recognition.  

Lost Odyssey is an Xbox exclusive, and came to North America in February of 2008. Being that this game was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, you know you are in for a treat. Final Fantasy has forever left it's mark in the gaming world, and Mistwalker did the same quality work when creating Lost Odyssey. The game scored highly not only with professional reviewers, but also by players alike. I think that most people who have played the game can agree that it is a great game for this generation. 

Synopsis: 

You are playing as Kaim Argonar, a man who is immortal. He has lived for over 1,000 years with no memory of his time spent on earth. Through his journey, the player will rediscover Kaim's memory, and piece the last 1,000 years of his life together. A constant shadow over Kaim's own life now imposes a greater shadow over the entire mortal world, and it is up to Kaim and his comrades to stop it. 

Pros:

1. The emotional power this game has over you is like no other that I have experienced before.

This game literally had me in tears, or close to on several occasions. Because of the game's depressing atmosphere, your heart strings are tugged at each sad event. The character's all have very human like behavior and characteristics, almost making you feel as if you could be in their shoes, or experience something similar yourself. I'd much rather play an emotionally overpowering video game then watch a sappy and sad movie personally, and Lost Odyssey does not disappoint. I promise.

2. Unique and fresh designs, and beautiful graphics in a traditional JRPG style. 

It is so refreshing to see a game that doesn't recycle environments, and enemies. So many games will take one enemy and recolor it 10 different times, which just gets stale and boring. Each area within Lost Odyssey has unique enemies, that had thought put into them. Not only do they all look different, but they did the liberty of giving enemies special abilities, and really making them a formidable opponent. Really a huge plus, because it makes battle that much better. Towns all have very fitting themes, and custom music to go with it, which makes each town stand out. Even dungeon in this game suited the surrounding areas and were all very well done. The JRPG designs really never fail to disappoint me, because they are always so hauntingly beautiful. Paired with a fantastic artistic value, and a gloomy atmosphere, Lost Odyssey's environments were just great. 

3. Customization 

Without giving away too many spoilers, there are characters you can really customize and have fun with (immortals) and characters that are really only suited to one class with a specific ability (mortals). By linking your mortals and your immortals together, you can create powerful and diverse characters. Your immortals can have increased stats, skills, and become "tanks" in battle while your mortals provide back up support with their specialized class. Accessories also have the same effect, and it makes the player feel as if collecting items is worth it because you can get rewarded for it. Because this is a turn based JRPG, the game requires a little bit of skill, and can be very difficult in certain sections. The customization allows the player to change your party for each unique dungeon, and to have an easier, and more enjoyable playing experience. For the MLG gamers out there, the exact opposite is true - you can customize to make the game harder, which is also another beauty. It's the perfect balance in my opinion. 

Cons:   

1. Loading times and length. 

I personally am a fan of long games with tons of side quests and things to do, such as a JRPG should be. However, the downfall with this game is that it really (in the grand scheme) doesn't have that much game play. It's 4 discs long, which was new for the Xbox when it was released. Despite that, the four discs are mostly jammed packed with massively long cut scenes. Again, this is a negative and a positive. It really helps with the story, and the cut scenes are beautiful and wonderful to watch. Sometimes though, it feels as if you get next to no game play in before you are thrown into a massively long cut scene. The loading screens in this game are also insanely ridiculous, probably the longest loading screens that I have seen with a game in a long time. This would be manageable if it was every once in awhile, but it's present throughout the entire game, from start to finish. At the end of the game you've played through four discs, but most likely only have about 25 or 35 hours of game play, which feels a little.. off when you think about it. It's a minor complaint really, and has it's ups and downs. Because of all of the cut scenes, it forces you to really pay attention to the game and to follow along. Sometimes you just want to be lazy, but with a game like this, it can be easy to get lost on to what's going on.

2. The story and game overall is great, but unfortunately builds up too quickly, and then crashes just as fast. 

I would say that the first two discs are the best. You get all of the great story build up, character recruitment, and the game really feels like a wonderful joy ride as you piece everything together. They throw you the whole story within the first two discs, but then it all slows down dramatically. The third disc is nearly all cut scenes, and the fourth is when you finish the game, and do all of the last minute side questing and exploring. It was like all of the major game play was the first part of the game, and it was all cut scenes after that. I understand that they were trying to break the two up, but I feel they did a poor job of doing so. By the end of the game, it's so ridiculously easy (if you did all of the side quests) that the final boss isn't a challenge, and you've known how the ending of the game was going to be like from an early date. 

3. The game's visibility is limited at times, and the color scheme could have been better. 

A light grey background with white writing certainly was NOT the smartest choice in being nice to the player's eyes. I remember playing this game my first time on a small TV and it was torturous to read. Not only that, but the font is very small, and there's no option to change the color or size. Thank goodness the game does have subtitles if you need them, but good luck trying to read them! It gave the game the "darker" feel by staying away from bright and sassy colors, and it suited the game.. however it was a bad game mechanic.

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Overall, I highly recommend Lost Odyssey. I would have to give it a 9/10, because I just love this game. It's emotional power and cut scenes make it worth playing. I can get over limited amounts of game play at times, because of the nature of the game, and how it was created and how it came together in the end. If you are a lover of an involved story and powerful emotion then this is the game for you. I cannot give you the experience, there is so much more to this game then what I mentioned! So until next time, I hope that you've enjoyed and I will be back with more games in the future.

Reviewing: MagnaCarta 2

My MagnaCarta 2 play through was done on my Youtube channel, and can be viewed here. If you're interested in the overview/review, then feel to scroll down and read. 

MagnaCarta 2 is a JRPG, originally being released in October 2009 exclusively for the Xbox 360. By professional reviewers, like IGN, the game scored pretty poorly in the grand scheme of things. While I do agree that there are much better games out there, I often feel that "pro" reviewers are much too hard on games, and much too biased. The community of players themselves ranked the game to be about a 6.5/10, and I'd have to agree. I am no pro, but being that I have beat and played through the game (three times to be exact), I feel I can tell you some things I liked, and some things I did not.

Synopsis:

In a time of warfare, our main character, Juto also struggles with his memory. Having amnesia, he floats through the world somewhat carefree and lost. When war claims his best friend, Juto sets out on a quest to reclaim his memory and to reap revenge upon the one who took his friend's life. Through these simple goals, Juto discovers much more then he is bargaining for, and will unlock a power that has long been hidden within him. 

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Pros:  

1. It has what you would expect from an RPG.

Like many RPG's, this game is very long. The two discs are loaded with beautiful cut scenes, lots of dialogue, and a diverse and very large map to explore. There are always tons of side quests which allows for extra exploration, as well as extra items and gold. Character development was very well done, and trying to complete this game 100% proves to be a challenge. This game ends up being about 50+ hours of game play, which is perfect. 

2. The story starts very generic, but builds up, and ends up being very well written. 

The whole "character who lost his/her memory" is EXTREMELY over done in gaming, however, it's not always a bad thing. I feel that MagnaCarta 2 was a game that really did this idea well, and warped it into a creation that the player was not expecting. The story starts out simple, and ends up being very complex near the end. Dungeons were well designed around this idea, as well as some of the characters in this game. Not to mention that the story is well explained so that the player is not confused by the end of the game. There is nothing worse then playing a game through for 60+ hours and then saying, "well that made no sense." No spoilers here, feel free to play the game on your own to judge for yourself.  


3. Character design, development, and voice acting are all well done. 

Fortunately, I really don't find myself hating any of the characters in this game. Characters have their moments, sure, but in the end you learn to love them. They all have their own unique back stories, and each character's own life was well incorporated into the game and into the story. Each character compliments each other, even if it is in negative ways, which I admire.  This is mostly true for your main party/protagonists, but you can't leave out the antagonists either. They are not simply evil people thrown in for no rhyme or reason, and they made the game that much better, for many reasons. Voice acting was well done, and JRPG's rarely disappoint me with characters overall. My favorite character? Crocell. <3 

4. Graphics

Ah, yes. The graphics/artwork of this game was awesome. The characters all looked very human like (the human ones anyways), and featured unique designs when designing other characters. The world map was well done, and was very diverse. Cut scenes looked especially impressive, and I really enjoyed the cinematic parts in the game because of it. Even while reading text boxes, the character movement and crisp animation made it bearable to sit through the mountains of dialogue. Even if I feel they could have worked on the text a little bit, this game is overall, very easy on the eyes.  

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Cons: 

1. MagnaCarta2 brought a unique, but very disappointing battle system. 

I feel the battle system for this game was supposed to be one of the selling points. I will say that it is unlike any I've seen before, and I do give the developers props for at least trying. I feel that you either love it, or you it's a huge pain in the ass for you, and I am the latter of the two. It's pretty difficult to explain, so bear with me. First thing is that you can control all three characters on the field, and not just one. While it's tempting to only control one and let the other two be, the AI is dimwitted, and you will not get very far controlling only one character in a battle. In order to pull of chains, you must control characters in a timely and effective manner, which can be very difficult. Chains are easy to screw up by "overheating", or if the AI stupidly screws it up while you're getting another character ready for a chain. The gauge to pull off special attacks is slow to fill up, and again, you must monitor all three characters. You can't go out all crazy with attack or you will "overheat" which will not only screw up chains and generated Kan, but it will also leave your character defenseless and useless to attack. Very frustrating, and very slow. Battles end up taking longer then they have to because of the little room for error. This battle system feels like a task, almost like a chore. Disappointing. 

2. Lack of camera angles.

Ugh. Camera angles seem to be an issue with a lot of games, and this one is really no exception. It's more the lack of a camera angle that bothered me. There was no zooming in, first person view, and it took away from potential good points that the game had. There is a free camera when you're out exploring the map, but that is about it. In battle, the camera angles are fixed, and they give you the worst angles at the worst times. The text on screen is small enough as it is, and having to concentrate on your character being clustered into an area and unable to change the camera angle makes it worse. Not to mention, they put in a custom camera angle for each move you do. This is not only a waste of time, but it is incredibly inconvenient when you get back to the battle and are confused on where you are. Overall, a poor game mechanic, and very distracting.  


3. Absolutely no replay value. NONE.

*sigh* This was probably the most disappointing thing about this game. Most long RPG's have a way to reward you for finishing the game (besides achievements/trophies), by having a "new game+" option or something of the sort. You know what this game did? Absolutely nothing. It could have been something simple, even if it was crummy. Allowing you to keep your items/weapons, or your level for example. For such a long and involved game, I felt almost robbed at the end, expecting there to be something at the end when there was absolutely nothing. Because the game was so long, I feel people would have replayed it again to collect things they missed the first time, or to finish quests or something. But because you have to start from scratch, it feels like an inconvenience and a waste of time. 


4. Somewhat linear, and having little choice in big decisions.

Not as linear as Final Fantasy XIII, but still as annoying. You eventually gain the ability to warp, but not as early as I was hoping for. Even when you do, it is limited. Often, you'll walk into a region and be unable to leave. Warp points are extremely spaced out I find, which makes for a lot of unnecessary travel on the world map. Some of the side quests are time sensitive, which is frustrating if you forgot to do one or two before moving on. As for choices, you can't skip a lot of the dialogue. Considering the mountain of dialogue, this is very frustrating. I feel I'm tapping A like crazy, as with the owl in Ocarina of Time. You just want it to stop! Performing a special move in battle will show you a cool cut scene for it, sure. This is only fun to watch the first 100 times, and not being able to skip it was quite irritating. Save points are in set locations and feel sporadic to me. If you do die, you can potentially lose a lot of progress. There is no difficulty settings, and so players can't challenge themselves if they did hypothetically want to play through a second time (even though the game provides nothing). Characters are given two weapon types only, which is a good and a bad thing. It limits creativity and customization, but it does allow you to optimize your characters faster. These are all small things, but they build up over the course of the game. Together, the small things really took away from the overall game play. 


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I am a religious RPG player and maybe that's why I cut the game some slack. Overall, I wouldn't dismiss this game completely, and still believe it is still worth playing at least once. You have to give the game a chance, and I did really genuinely like the game. It takes a little getting used to, but once you get in to it the game can be pretty addicting. For those of you who have played, let me know what you think. Hope you enjoyed, and see you for the next game I'll be looking at!