Lost Odyssey Duckroll & Bebpo Cross Review!

[Bebpo]

Duckroll and Bebpo cross review 2007's biggest rpg not called Mass Effect!

Story, Characters, and Writing
Bebpo: C
It's bad, and even more illogical than most j-rpgs with the worst villian ever, but at the end of the day the 20 hours of cutscenes are well directed and entertaining so you're never bored. Premise is great, worldview is interesting, but cast is bland and maybe Inoue was not the right man to make them. One thing I did like was the theme of family. It's not seen to often in rpgs outside Grandia 3.

duckroll: C-
Definitely the weakest link in the game. For all the potential in a story about a man who has lived a thousand years, the story sure seemed like just another big fun happy adventure ride. I really don't think there were 20 hours of cutscenes, but there were indeed quite a lot, and they were all pretty hilarious - often for the wrong reasons. The villains and set pieces in the game are what really drag the game down, aside from the generic one-dimension characters. The actual dialogue seemed to be making the best out of a bad scenario, which is overall unfortunate because the premise deep down is pretty strong and unique.

1000 years of dreams
Bebpo: A+
The "1000 year dreams" are visual text novels written by good authors and almost all excellent tales lasting 10-15 minute with nice music in the background. Although most of them don't really connect to the main game's plot. They're a nice bonus to have on the disc to read and enjoy. Quality entertainment that gets an A+ from me.

duckroll: A+
The difference between an actual accomplished novelist and a videogame writer is never seen in such contrast as in this game. While the game's actual scenario and script fail to hit the mark, the short stories that chronicle Kaim's past hit it totally out of the park. Everything from the actual writing, the concepts of each story and the actual implementation of the text, sound, music and background imagery connect to present the reader with unforgettable experiences in storytelling on a visual medium. This is both a boon and curse to the game because while the viewer will be left very impressed with each story, it also leaves much to be desired from the actual story of the game - which sadly never quite delivers on any level.

General Gameplay
Bebpo: B+
LO's other name is Shadow Hearts 4, because with most of the SH team that's what it is. At its best, the game is up there with the best moments of SH2 with excellent puzzle dungeons that are half rpg, half Resident Evil. At it's worst it's like the bad parts of SH3 with confusing dungeons and annoying encounters. While it's nice to have a world map, I'd hate to live in the LO world of rocky nothing which pales in comparison to the amazing world of Blue Dragon or even older PS2 rpgs.

duckroll: A
I really enjoyed the overall gameplay in Lost Odyssey. The dungeons and towns definitely reminded me of the better parts of Shadow Hearts, with really smart use of obstacles and puzzles in the dungeons. I feel the cities are what give the game an edge over most other RPGs, because they're really well designed and large enough to feel like actual cities. The world map itself is quite a downer, but I loved the modes of transportation in the game. Considering how barren the map itself is though, I wonder if that was one of the reasons they went with a menu based map overall.

Bebpo: Yes, the towns were very nice, though I personally didn't like the bigger sprawling cities. It just took too long to keep running several screens into a city for sidequests. While you do have a very nice super fast run, it's still a lot of ground and loading and there are a ridiculous number of sidequests in each city so you'll visit them quite a bit.

Battle System
Bebpo: B
The ring system, GC system and skill system are innovative and very cool and fun. The ring is a step back from SH, but it's still nice to have instead of just selecting commands. However, the system balance is broken beyond belief in the later stages. The game is challenging at the start but then gets progressively easier each boss until the endgame bosses and enemies do 0 damage against you and you kill them in 2 hits (I died on the first two bosses and then never again). It's basically the opposite of BD which was pretty easy until the endgame where it had some fun challenge. Also it's worth noting that the battle speed is Xenosaga ep1 level of SLOW. Expect to spend 3-5 minutes in each battle even if you finish them in 2 rounds.

duckroll: B+
The systems are well designed, and for most of the game pretty balanced. The Judgement Ring in Shadow Hearts is definitely a more indepth battle system, but I have a feeling they simplified it because they wanted to focus on the other systems, which seems like what the game is really based around anyway. Balance-wise I felt the game was very well tuned for most of the game, but towards the end it does get exceedingly broken. I found the battles fun but what the game really lacks are super bosses. The optional bosses available in the game far exceed Blue Dragon's in variety and design, but fall flat on the challenge overall. The battles are indeed slow though, they're time consuming and if you're not in the right mood it can be quite a strain on the experience especially with the encounters being random.

Graphics
Bebpo: A-
Would have been A+ if not for the performance issues such as the stuttering when a battle first starts or at random times when streaming. This is the best looking rpg ever made no doubt, especially in the battles. The art design carried over from SH is impeccable and seeing SH type enemies with UE3.0 graphics and DQ/BD level animation is amazing. Attacks and spells have the flash that was missing from BD. CG FMVs look amazing, especially with Ohsawa's great art design.

duckroll: A
Excellent monster designs, environments looked great and each area had a rather unique look. Outside of several generic areas where there was massive asset reuse, overall the game comes off as a very next-gen JRPG. The textures, the modeling and the animations are really finely crafted. The team put tons of attend into the detail of settings, backgrounds and even idle animations for monsters. Many of the settings are really good, and several key scenes look really fantastic visually. Various technical issues result minor annoyances that prevent the game from being the benchmark it could be, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one fantastic looking game.

Bebpo: Just wanted to agree that the idling animations are fantastic in battle. So much detail was put into the battle animations.

Music
Bebpo: B+
It's a good soundtrack, but outside a handful of tracks it's not very memorable at all. The town themes sound EXACTLY like SH2 town themes, which makes no sense considering the composer is different. The main theme is A+, but overall I preferred BD's soundtrack, especially the vocal songs with suck here but were cute in BD (marumaru dance; birthday song).

duckroll: B
First I'll have to say, the main theme for Lost Odyssey is probably the best videogame musical track I've heard in many years. It is a sweeping piece piece that invokes feelings of grandeur and really builds the mood. Unfortunately it's not only the best piece of music in the game, but the really the only truly memoriable tune. The best tracks in the game are all varients of the main theme. Most of the music is pretty competent and it is by no means a bad or even mediocre soundtrack. It just fails to be great because there isn't much attachment to most of the pieces. I do feel the scenario is to share to blame though, it's hard to find musical themes memoriable when you find it hard to care for much of what is going on.

Bebpo: Man, the final boss song...lol. BD's was almost Uematsu's one winged angel follow-up. LO is....yeah....

Loading
Bebpo: F
I timed the loading from battle transition to when your menu pops up to select commands...20 fucking seconds. LO will be known forever as the game that made me hate random encounters even though I'd been fine with them for decades now. When you're trying to solve a puzzle and BAM encounter and sit for 20 seconds -> 3-5 minute battle -> puzzle it's annoying. Imagine being on a balance log on that happens and you come back suddenly 5 mins later and have to keep your balance. Random encounters only work when there is almost no loading like the handheld FFs or SMT games since you can get them over with and get back to the game real quick. There's a lot of other loading, but really it's the encounter loading that drove me insane by the end when backtracking through the entire game again for sidequests. If there was EVER a game that needed a "no encounter" accessory it was this; but nope, not here.

duckroll: D-
Yeah, the loading is bad. There're no two ways around it. Everything from areas, to battles, to the goddamn fucking SAVE SCREEN is loading loading loading loading loading. I wasn't that bothered by the random encounters taking ages to load because I probably went nuts and got used to it, but there were several other issues that really bugged me. Sometimes if you prepare a mega spell, and it's set to go off after the normal attackers, the spell animation won't load in time. So Kaim will slash an enemy, and he'll stand there for 3 seconds just waiting. It looks retarded and is really embarassing for the game engine. The other issue that drove me insane was the save reading code. It's probably the worst code for reading a list of saves ever. The more saves you have, the longer it takes to load. The game gives you a total of 20 slots, so by the end I had like 17, and it was taking half a minute to a minute to load just the listing of saves. Actual saving would take a second, but then after that they would have to READ THE GODDAMN LIST AGAIN before you can return to the menu. Two minutes to save a fucking game..... ARGHARGAHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Lasting Appeal
Bebpo: A
Main game is about 40-45 hours long, plenty of optional bonus dungeons (like SH1-3 and BD) give it a boost to 55-65. If you are an utter completionist who spends 100 hours in FFX or BD, expect a good 80 hour+ game. All in all, a great amount of content for an rpg.

duckroll: A
It's hard to argue with a RPG that lasts over 60 hours and provides good entertainment all the way. There are lots of optional quests along the way and a whole lot more open up at the end. The rewards for almost everything in the game are pretty solid, so you never really feel you're wasting your time scouting out an entire dungeon or doing a fetch quest for a citizen. The optional quests and collectathons in the game should be enough to satisfy pretty much any JRPG gamer.

Overall
Bebpo: B+
In a word? It's a SH game that's worse than SH2 by a good deal but better than SH3 by a small amount. While the gameplay gets broken and the story is silly, the game is fun to play (outside a few spots) and fun to watch for a good 50+ hours. The best parts of the game are horror areas straight out of SH. If you've never played a SH game before and you play and enjoy LO, immediately go run and buy SH1-3 and you will be the happiest person on earth for a month or two while you play them.

duckroll: B
I don't really feel much of the SH comparisons outside of the visuals, but I do think that Lost Odyssey is a pretty enjoyable but flawed RPG. When it delivers, it really delivers, but when it doesn't it really feels like there's a lot of wasted potential. We'll never know what it would be like if the game had a better engine without loading, or if the scenario had better writers. It's unfortunate that the game never reached it's full potential, but what remains is still a pretty solid title. While the game is plagued by problems both technical and design-wise, it's still an incredible look game with great visuals and fun gameplay.

[Bebpo]

Also just want to separately add that LO is the buggiest j-rpg I've ever played. I encountered a variety of crazy glitches, though none required resets or loss of data so it's not a huge deal. But UE3.0+Japan developers = lol

[BenjaminBirdie]

My dream come true! All it needs is Blim footage, WHICH WE ALREADY HAVE REAMS OF.

GAF delivers the goods.

[Linkzg]

you must really care about music if that is what put your score above Duckrolls

[duckroll]

Also just want to separately add that LO is the buggiest j-rpg I've ever played. I encountered a variety of crazy glitches, though none required resets or loss of data so it's not a huge deal. But UE3.0+Japan developers = lol

No resets or loss of data? The game froze on me at the start of a battle right after a boss fight! Thankfully it never happened again.

[Kintaro]

I wonder if I'm the only one who read the title and thought of this.

[Defuser]

Also just want to separately add that LO is the buggiest j-rpg I've ever played. I encountered a variety of crazy glitches, though none required resets or loss of data so it's not a huge deal. But UE3.0+Japan developers = lol

For like UE3.0 + C/B rated JP developers = lol

[duckroll]

Bebpo: Man, the final boss song...lol. BD's was almost Uematsu's one winged angel follow-up. LO is....yeah....

Well if BD's final boss song was a follow up to One Winged Angel, then LO's is definitely the follow up to OTHERWORLD!

For like UE3.0 + C/B rated JP developers = lol

We'll see if Last Remnant is any different. I doubt it'll be much different honestly. UE3 is a buggy piece of shit. :P

[muckhole]

I'm cautiously optomistic about LO, but what I'm reading here about the load times may be the deal breaker for me on this one. I still enjoy RPG's, but as I get older I don't find myself as forgiving of lengthy load times in the middle of games. Mass Effect's elevators were bad enough, so I can't imagine wading through all the random encounters in LO without losing my mind. Here's hoping they can address this before the NA release.

[GhaleonEB]

So basically, you agree with each other.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Nice job.
I'm on disc 3 of Blue Dragon right now so I should be ready for LO when it hits. Though with all of the PSP games I've been buying lately I'm not so sure.

[jman2050]

So for the average gamer it's a C-. Gotcha.

[Jonnyram]

I've still not finished the main story because I'm trying to get 100% of the other stuff first, but I wish they'd made more of the other characters' stories in the end. Voice-free, short cutscenes just don't do them justice. It's like FFXII all over again - awesome opening which collapses into generic JRPG story with typical ending. I agree they could have made a lot more of the 1000 year dreams.

Some of the later accessories though... :O
By the time I hit the last dungeon, I'll probably have about 40 skill slots on each of my immortals.

[Deadly Monk]

Day 1 for me for a loooong time. I'll be done DMC4 by the time it's out.

[MCD]

Well if BD's final boss song was a follow up to One Winged Angel, then LO's is definitely the follow up to OTHERWORLD! We'll see if Last Remnant is any different. I doubt it'll be much different honestly. UE3 is a buggy piece of shit. :P

Epic: learn how to code lol

[Loudninja]

Hey is the ring system something like Growlasner as well?

[Greatness Gone]

Hopefully i'll be done with No More Heroes and DMC4 by the time this comes out.

[dark10x]

Wow, sounds like the issues would drive me insane. I will skip this one unless they fix them.

Random battles DO piss me off and it sounds as if they've never been more annoying than in Lost Odyssey.

I'll pass...

[Meier]

I hate random battles with a passion. If they can't get the load times down to 5-7 seconds at most, then I don't think I could get through it regardless of how good the rest of the game is.

Good read though, thanks for your thoughts guys.

[bathala]

the story is the main thing for me. I'm going to rent it 1st.

[Desi]

So much detail was put into the battle animations.

But why only one swing animation?

Also it's worth noting that the battle speed is Xenosaga ep1 level of SLOW

Oh damn...Dragoneer Aria takes like 3 mins a fight too.

but cast is bland and maybe Inoue was not the right man to make them.

YOU DIRTY WHORE! I will admit that I dislike their outfits a LOT (except Seth's and maybe prince boy). The characters themself aren't too wacky yet not very normal everyday so a nice middle ground kind of like FFXII.

I already pre-ordered this so still a pickup. Casting time for magic gots me intrigued. Beyond disappointed that this tale does not go on for 1000 years.

[Schopenhauer]

Thanks for the SH reference Bebpo, that really helped me put your review into perspective.

I am looking forward to the SH inspired horror areas (among other things) and am glad to see that at least part of th e SH team is still out there helping to make games.

Lost Odyssey is first day for me.

[duckroll]

YOU DIRTY WHORE! I will admit that I dislike their outfits a LOT (except Seth's and maybe prince boy). The characters themself aren't too wacky yet not very normal everyday so a nice middle ground kind of like FFXII.

Well I think most of the character DESIGNS are pretty good, except Gongora, who is really awful, I dunno what Inoue was thinking. As for the outfits, it appears that Minaba designed all the costumes and whatnot in the game, which might explain why they're all so awful.

[Jiggy]

I love random battles and never want to see them die, but... 20 seconds? Wow, just wow. :( I mean, I ended up loving FFIX, but even that didn't seem like 20 seconds.

[CowboyAstronaut]

Incredible review you two. I played and beat the game myself and I'll admit maybe due to the fact that most of it was nicely directed and entertaining as Bebpo said I didn't really find myself too down on the story, but I admit there are definitely aspects I wished it pressed more on as it could've went a long way to making the game a far more memorable experience overall.

A lot of potential present in the story which they placed there, but as duck said once before they didn't allow them to truly take center stage and how well certain things seem to be executed can at times make you lose sight of that fact maybe. Well it did for me.

The concepts are incredible they just need a new scenario writer and I think we may be on the right track.

I really love Blue Dragon's soundtrack and there are tracks that I would easily put up against anything in Lost Odyssey, but there are moments where I feel I like Lost Odyssey's more, but then I remember the town music and in that regard maybe BD may really have the edge, but I love both pretty evenly hard to say which i truly prefer.

Everything else I think I really agree on except the loading while annoying wasn't really too much of a problem for me.

I definitely enjoyed a number of the characters though.

If I were rating the game I would probably rate it a B as well.

[neojubei]

Do you think LO will be a success with load times like that? I think a lot of reviews might harp on this and be something in the minds of gamers when they think about buying the game.

[CowboyAstronaut]

Do you think LO will be a success with load times like that? I think a lot of reviews might harp on this and be something in the minds of gamers when they think about buying the game.

It definitely can be as I imagine the loads maybe couldn't stop hardcore jrpg fans from buying the game.

[neojubei]

It definitely can be as I imagine the loads maybe couldn't stop hardcore jrpg fans from buying the game.

True, but the mass market?

[MCD]

Well I think most of the character DESIGNS are pretty good, except Gongora, who is really awful, I dunno what Inoue was thinking. As for the outfits, it appears that Minaba designed all the costumes and whatnot in the game, which might explain why they're all so awful.

Gongora > you

it's all about awesome fat villains.

[duckroll]

It definitely can be as I imagine the loads maybe couldn't stop hardcore jrpg fans from buying the game.

30k sold, confirmed.

[SnakeXs]

Good job, guys.

Now here's to hoping for the best. =|

[harSon]

How far am I from finishing the game? I just managed to get the magic Stone and was able to cross the magic barrier thing

[CowboyAstronaut]

30k sold, confirmed.

30,001 I got a friend to pre-order Lost Odyssey today.

Slowly but surely!

[Mejilan]

Thank you for the cross-review. It made for a fun read.

Never a big fan of the SHs to begin with, I think I'll pass on this game. The slow battles and horrific loads sound like a dreadful combination.

[Woo-Fu]

Shame about the loading. Wish devs would think about adding a full install option with just a dvd check at the start.

[Barakov]

20 seconds?! Damn......hopefully it'll be improved by the US release but I'm not counting on it. As bad as it sounds that kills LO for me. Really unfortunate.

[cvkpaladin]

Even though there are a few negatives I'm worried about, the load time, random battles, and the not-so-great main story, I think I'm still going to pick up the game on day 1. I need a next-gen jRPG and none of the other games out so far interest me (BD, ES, etc.). Hopefully I enjoy the gameplay as much as Bebpo and Duckroll did. Also, maybe they'll fix some of the technical issues that plagued the Japanese version. Unlikely I know, but I can always hope.

[Green Shinobi]

So to put it bluntly, it's better than Blue Dragon?

[UncleGuito]

Sounds good enough, I'll buy it.

[Phthisis]

LO's other name is Shadow Hearts 4

That's all you needed to say. Day one.

[UncleGuito]

That's all you needed to say. Day one.

Wow, I read over that. Shadow Hearts II is one of my favorite RPG's ever; thus, this will be day one for me, as well.

[Himuro]

Nice review, buddies.

[duckroll]

Wow, I read over that. Shadow Hearts II is one of my favorite RPG's ever; thus, this will be day one for me, as well.

Just don't expect anything similar in terms of characters, setting, or writing. :P

[Defuser]

20 seconds?! Damn......hopefully it'll be improved by the US release but I'm not counting on it. As bad as it sounds that kills LO for me. Really unfortunate.

I bet andrewfee won't mind if it's not 25 mins.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I bet andrewfee won't mind if it's not 25 mins.

How about you keep that bullshit out of this thread?

[Defuser]

How about you keep that bullshit out of this thread?

Ok, I'm sorry :(

[Eteric Rice]

So if they had done better with the story and loading, the game would have been completely awesome?

[phez]

great read guys, thanks.

[duk]

thanks guys, this was awesome

[bobbytkc]

One thing I couldn't stand are load times for random battles.

Well, for one, i am now too old to be able to tolerate random battles for long stretches (and i do mean tolerate. I have a feeling that people tolerate random battles more than they love it), and long loading times for them would just be a game breaker.