The Satirical Troll (Quickly) Reviews: Lost Odyssey

Imagine a time back before the days of the PS4, back in the dark age of the JRPG. It’s 2007, your parents are arguing downstairs about the housing crisis and you’re in your room playing your Xbox 360. You hear tale of a game released exclusively for the system; it’s a traditional JRPG made by the director of all your favorite Final Fantasy games; with art direction from acclaimed Manga artists like Akira Toriyama. Since it’s 2007 and Dragon Ball is the only anime you’re allowed to like without being ostracized, this intrigues you. Lost Odyssey was the second game made by Mistwalker studio, Sakaguchi’s new venture after retiring from making games briefly after Final Fantasy X-2. It was created to be a return to the traditional PS2 style JRPG that the generation had been lacking up to this point (Unfortunately, this includes the studio’s first effort Blue Dragon which is a charming but ultimately mediocre RPG.)Their second effort, Lost Odyssey however, would go on to define a generation of JRPGs.

Presentation and Technical: The 7th generation of games is often mocked for the overuse of dull gray and brown color pallets… And honestly, you’re not wrong for feeling this way. Unreal Engine 3 has a very specific look that really is a bit off putting in retrospect. But I think Lost Odyssey is one of the few games of this generation that actually manages to take advantage of the grayscale look. The title has a general visual design similar to a classic Final Fantasy like 6 or 7. One of the strongest aspects of Lost Odyssey is the fact that it manages to create such a visually engaging world where organic magic and industrial mega-machinery coexists. This is something I’ve always loved in games. Whether it’s Final Fantasy VII or Thief II, some of my favorite games of all time adopt this visual motif and it never really fails to be cool to me. The overall character design is pretty much what you would expect from a JRPG, but I really appreciate the effort that was put into the backgrounds of the levels. It has the feel of an older Final Fantasy or PS1 era game where the details in the areas make up for the restriction of exploration in parts, and the total visual identity is clear to see.

Overall, the presentation of the game is a bit off putting in ways if not viewed with rose tinted glasses, but putting aside what I like to call “Unreal 3 face” the game has a striking look graphically despite the overuse of muted color. The game is technically sound with a bit of texture pop in of course, but expecting a 360 era game to not have texture pop in is like expecting a Republican Congressmen to feel the emotion of shame. The cutscene direction is up there with some of the best JRPGs of all time.

Gameplay and Systems: Lost Odyssey really is a such a fitting name for this game because it is an odyssey lost to time. It’s a game more akin to something from the PS2 era than the 7th generation. The parallels to Sakaguchi’s previous works are obvious, the dungeons are heavily inspired by the style used in Final Fantasy X and the world structure is in some ways comparable to X-2 or FF XII. The dungeons in general are fine, but they lack a bit of creativity in the visual department and can be frustrating due to the encounter rate. Most of the areas are generic gray forest or brown ruins. The dungeon design is very familiar to a game like Final Fantasy X or FF XIII, as most areas have some sort of puzzle element attached to it, but lack freedom of exploration.

The combat system is exactly what you would expect from a classic JRPG. You have a party with different jobs and attack types, characters that need frontline protection go in the back row and can’t be attacked except by ariel or magic attacks. If you are a fan of classic turn-based combat, you’ll find absolutely nothing that is unfamiliar territory. In many ways, it’s as much a comfort food JRPG system as something like Dragon Quest is, but with a new age aesthetic. The combat in general is great, but I’m not a huge fan of how slow the battles can be. The game builds the battle system around a lack of AOE magic, with the few Black Mage spells you get that do target multiple enemies being fairly weakened. Attack animations are lively and gorgeous, but often times take far too long and it makes the random encounters a bit tedious after a while. There is quite a bit of enemy variety though and that keeps the battles visually interesting as well. This is simply not a game for people who don’t have the patience for turn based combat and random encounters.

I’m also a bit bullish on the level up system. In theory it’s great, your level ups don’t escalate in scale, IE, if you are level 2 or level 92 you only need 99 XP to level up. What changes is how much each enemy gives you is scaled to the character. This is nice in some ways because the game does force you to use all your party members at points, so if you do need to grind, this system makes it much easier in the long run. However, because of the level scaling, it makes it almost impossible to grind with your full party efficiently and that combined with the lack of any skill sharing or XP sharing for benched party members, it can get frustrating quick.

Story, Characters and Writing: Where Lost Odyssey draws even more comparisons to classic era JRPGs is going to be in the story writing and themes. Overall, the story has a lot of tropes, the main character Kaim is your typical pretty boy cocky goofy anime MC with over designed, efficiently focus tested JRPG hair, but there’s a sincerity to it all that evokes a game like Final Fantasy X. In a lot of ways, that’s the only game to compare it to. The themes of returning to nature from technology and the overall message of loss, memories and mortality all hit home for anybody with a heart, but will be intimately familiar for anybody who has played Final Fantasy X.

Most people will roll their eyes at the first sight of a JRPG that uses the amnesia trope, especially when it’s all the characters. But, Lost Odyssey turns this trope on its head with the 1000 Years of Dreams. Throughout the story, Kaim and other party members will be reminded of who they were before the amnesia struck them. These stories and vignettes are one of the game’s highlights. Not only do they do an incredible job of building the history of the world and slowly pacing out the backstory of the characters throughout these short stories, they provide some of the best writing in the entire game. I know most people hate the idea of having to put the controller down to watch these short stories play out, but you’re naive to not experience them. With writing, penned by legendary Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu, these stories range from fun little conversations that show you the personalities of the characters to straight up gut wrenching exercises in the human condition. Seth’s backstory in particular is a real tear jerker. I never hardly ever talk about translations (there is a whole other side to game criticism we don’t talk about that can give you more than your fill on it) but the translation team did an incredible job naturally translating the complex prose in these stories. Overall, I would say that the story and pacing, especially with the 1000 Years of Dreams interruptions can be very slow, but Lost Odyssey rewards that patience with some genuinely stellar writing.

Music and Sound Design- The music in Lost Odyssey was composed by Uematsu… That’s really all I need to say. The tracks in this game are up there with some of the best songs in any classic Final Fantasy. The character themes in particular are haunting and beautiful. The voice acting is generally high quality and the sound design, especially when it comes to magic attacks is really strong. My only complaint is that while 95% of the tracks are orchestrated beautifully, there are a few here and there where they used midi to save memory (the game is already 4 discs as is) and it’s a noticeable downgrade in sound quality, although not in composition.

Overall, Lost Odyssey is a game that probably would have been more at home on the PS2 than in the PS360 age. It has reached cult classic status, but that feels like saying Earthbound is cult classic, at what point does a game become well known enough that it no longer has cult appeal? A lot of its cult status comes from the fact that being a classic JRPG exclusive to Xbox is like grindr having an exclusive marketing cross over with female only fans models, but this game will probably never see the amount of love it deserves simply because of how restrictive it is to access it currently. The game’s overall pace is slow, and that might be frustrating for some, but fans of games like Final Fantasy X will find a game that most replicates the magic of that title’s vibe. Lost Odyssey remains a game that has its place as one of if not the greatest JRPGs in a generation where the genre was at its lowest ever point.