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Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360) Official Japanese Release Thread
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
reriel said:
Well.... no. I wasn't really counting the sidequests, they went really overboard with those in SH:C. :lol
The main story is pretty comparable in terms of humor though, lots of goofy stuff and the script is pretty campy too.
I dunno, the character development is okay I guess. There isn't much exposition in terms of character backstory, except for certain characters. I guess it's the same way in SH:C. But from how they interact and behave you get a pretty good feel on what the characters are like, its subtle but pretty well executed. Doesn't really add much to the story itself though.
I would say honestly, the -storyline- in SH:C beats the crap out of LO though.
AndriaSang said:
Are you going to buy Away just for his music too?
Kyoufu said:
Huh? The short stories have nothing to do with the game's story. I think this has been made clear over and over by everyone playing it. They're just something attached along with the game. The actual game story has nothing to do with the novelist. It's just a normal JRPG story written by Sakaguchi.
To say SH:C's story is better is really disappointing
I dunno, SH:C was one of the best PS2 JRPGs. Pretty tough competition.
duckroll said:Huh? The short stories have nothing to do with the game's story. I think this has been made clear over and over by everyone playing it. They're just something attached along with the game. The actual game story has nothing to do with the novelist. It's just a normal JRPG story written by Sakaguchi.
I dunno, SH:C was one of the best PS2 JRPGs. Pretty tough competition.
I agree, great game, to bad 3 was not as good
nelsonroyale
Member
duckroll said:Well.... no. I wasn't really counting the sidequests, they went really overboard with those in SH:C. :lol
The main story is pretty comparable in terms of humor though, lots of goofy stuff and the script is pretty campy too.
I dunno, the character development is okay I guess. There isn't much exposition in terms of character backstory, except for certain characters. I guess it's the same way in SH:C. But from how they interact and behave you get a pretty good feel on what the characters are like, its subtle but pretty well executed. Doesn't really add much to the story itself though.
I would say honestly, the -storyline- in SH:C beats the crap out of LO though.
Are you going to buy Away just for his music too?
Are you sure?
I thought SH:C's story was pretty bad, some of the 'twists' were ridiculous later on.
Piper Az said:
Really? I don't think his stories are bad at all. I enjoyed the stories in FFV, PE, BD and ASH. The LO worldview and characters are really interesting too. Just because the story in LO isn't as serious and epic as I expected he should stop writing stories? Seems harsh...
nelsonroyale
Member
duckroll said:
this is annoying though...perhaps slightly because my interest in history, I find these sorts of premises rather intriguing... had similar hopes for a complex and compelling take in the film the Fountain, but that ended up being very simplistic quasi-mystical dross
When the concept of this game was first revealed my expectations were quite different
FateBreaker
Member
nelsonroyale said:
Shadow Hearts...Covenant? That story was awesome, if I remember correctly.
L0st Id3ntity
Member
duckroll said the story wasn't as good as what HE expected, wasn't as epic and serious as HE was hoping.
So stop chasing him, read more impressions, or wait for the game and then decide on your own.
So stop chasing him, read more impressions, or wait for the game and then decide on your own.
duckroll said:Huh? The short stories have nothing to do with the game's story. I think this has been made clear over and over by everyone playing it. They're just something attached along with the game. The actual game story has nothing to do with the novelist. It's just a normal JRPG story written by Sakaguchi.
I dunno, SH:C was one of the best PS2 JRPGs. Pretty tough competition.
Yeah, right ! Damn right ! The storyline of SH:C (SH2) is very good.
Still want to try LO, but I have to buy a 360, may be later. I was sucked into Folklore these days, very interesting story, no time for others yet (may be except GT5P).
maskrider said:
Oh yeah, you were asking about the pacing of LO and if it's playable in hour long sessions. The answer is probably no. The pacing is kinda uneven. So while there are segments where you can play for an hour and feel complete (cutscene -> dungeon -> cutscene -> boss -> next town) enough to save and quit, there are also many instances where the game can drag for 2-3 hours without a good spot to stop. Some dungeons are pretty long, and you'll never know when the game decides to hit you with a bunch of cutscenes one after another Xenosaga style, and you just can't stop. If you're short of time on weekdays, this is definitely a weekend sort of game.
nelsonroyale
Member
FateBreaker said:
how was it awesome? Honest question, could you explain?
L0st Id3ntity
Member
So It's unpredictable.duckroll said:
Fine with me, I'm a 5 hours session a day man.
Thanks for the music track and the video, Blimblim.
It looked nice and the loading seemed pretty fast though at the end the sound was a bit delayed ( i suppose is my computer´s fault, being too old and slow).
I´m getting Shadow Hearts btw,as there has been so much praise in the thread, and hope i can play it before i get LO.
It looked nice and the loading seemed pretty fast though at the end the sound was a bit delayed ( i suppose is my computer´s fault, being too old and slow).
I´m getting Shadow Hearts btw,as there has been so much praise in the thread, and hope i can play it before i get LO.
FateBreaker
Member
Orodreth said:
Excellent. 2nd one is the best, with the original 1st close behind. 3 is a good game, but compared to the rest of the series, it's quite disappointing; just a heads-up.
Piper Az said:
I agree mildly. That's not a good thing for my current views on LO. He has Kiyoshi Shigematsu on his team, but if Sakaguchi allows ego to interfere with meritocracy, I'm highly skeptical about LO's ability to deliver on the story end. When I first received news that Kiyoshi's scripts are watered down in the final product, I was worried. Now, I'm apprehensive. Minor technical faults are tolerable, but if a jrpg has no story going for it, the only things left are music (which is excellent as everyone can tell from Blimblim's upload) and combat system.
Speaking from personal experiences and yardsticks used, FF V has no story, it has a giant excuse to dungeon crawl called "save the world by collecting crystals". Which is fine, since FF V was often lauded for its job system and few will argue its "story" is the selling point. FF IX, Sakaguchi's last FF project before he left SquareSoft, had its script written by Kazuhiko Aoki. I have considerable respect for FF IX's villain, which makes it a jrpg with good story in my book. But it wasn't Sakaguchi who wrote it. FF IV's script was crafted from the brains of Takashi Tokita, and FF VI was handled by Yoshinori Kitase. Kitase was credited for FF V as "scenario writer' as well, so I'm not sure what to make of this distinctive bipolar qualities in writings.
I'd reiterate the opinion that Hironobu Sakaguchi should best exploit his latent talents as a producer, managing his team with concentrated specializations if he wishes Mistwalker to perform an encore as he did with founding SquareSoft.
Still, I hope my skepticism is pre-matured and unwarranted. I'd definitely be buying LO in Feb' 08, but my expectations are lowered considerably, as a safeguard against the ensuring utter dismal if I keep harboring lofty standards.
sennin said:
Huh? He was never "on the team" so to speak. He was contracted to write the short stories that chronicle events in Kaim's past. Nothing more. He never really had any input on the game's main scenario and was never intended to. Nothing to do with egos.
Errrr.... what watering down of his scripts.
pancakesandsex
Member
rs7k said:
Kuroyume said:
Is this game as good as Evolution on Dreamcast?
How about better then Ephemeral Fantasia? Because you know talking lute's are a major selling point!duckroll said:
Actually a question about the Wall system. How is it used exactly like at max wall is it impossible to hit a backrow combatant or the chance of them being hit lowered?
Desiderus said:
Ephemeral Fantasia has animu, so it clearly wins.
Desiderus said:
It reduces damage significantly. So at a full lvl 4 Guard Condition, attacks on the back row would deal say 20 damage instead of 150, or 120 damage instead of 400+ damage, etc. As the GC drops in level, that reduction drops. When the wall is gone, damage to the back row is not much different from being on the front row.
duckroll said:Huh? He was never "on the team" so to speak. He was contracted to write the short stories that chronicle events in Kaim's past. Nothing more. He never really had any input on the game's main scenario and was never intended to. Nothing to do with egos. Errrr.... what watering down of his scripts.
This comes as a surprise, for Mistwalker was confident in advocating Koyoshi as the winner of the 124th Naoki prize in literature for Bitamin F, together with Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inuoe as character designer and Nobuo Uematsu backing up the audio end parading as 3 stars of Japanese media being LO's core talent team on LO's official website. I was aware of Kiyoshi's contributions for penning short stories in LO; but I'm disappointed to hear Sakaguchi did not further incorporate Kiyoshi's proven ability to pen in the main scenario. This is what I meant by watering down the potential of LO's script.
FateBreaker
Member
:lolPachinko said:
sennin said:
I don't really think it's that simple. I mean, I would totally see where you're coming from if Kiyoshi was an acclaimed scifi/fantasy novelist in Japan like say Tow Ubukata. Then to not use his full talents is a waste. But Kiyoshi is a character novelist that deals with stories of human nature and people stories. Firstly, why would Sakaguchi ask him to write a main scenario for a game setting that he has no experience in, secondly why would he accept when he's not a script writer and hence would see most of his writing lost in the transition to a visual medium?
duckroll said:
Simple. Because Kiyoshi and Takehiko Inoue are the only writers with high credibility on the team. If we were to compare score cards in literature on LO's team, Sakaguchi is the one with the least acclaim (not experience), and hence the least qualified out of the 3 to be writing a main scenario.
Piper Az said:
Agree on both counts, although I'd have to admit the 2nd is bordering very close to wishful thinking, unless the US release sees a delay. There are only 2 months until the US release, and I'm not sure that's exactly ample time to perform bug cleaning. However, if a delay is executed for optimal performance, I'm all for it. I don't mind waiting a few more months if the US version sits on shelves proudly free from technical issues.
Yeah, it's wishful thinking. Considering they nearly had 8 months to "optimize" Blue Dragon, yet didn't optimize a damn thing pretty much crushes that wish.sennin said:
Don't get me wrong, I still loved the game. But I was just wondering what was the need for that 8 month window if they were going to just half ass the localization anyway.
sennin said:
Erm, I think you're looking at this the wrong way. This is Sakaguchi's game, it's his idea, it's his story. If not for him, there would be no Lost Odyssey at all. He simply felt he wanted Inoue's art and Kiyoshi's stories to grace -his- game. If I wanted to make a game, just because I wanted some famous people to help me on parts of the game doesn't mean I'm going to hand the entire project over to them. That makes no sense.
And really, where is this idea that there are no scriptwriters on Lost Odyssey. There are two scenario script writers credited (Atsuhiro Tomioka and Yuka Yamada), and they're both professional anime script writers. I don't think it's fair to say Sakaguchi should stop writing just because there are better people around. Clearly it's better than games are created out of the passion of creators than as some sort of talent assembly concept to get the "best" people working on a project when they might not even care about it.
duckroll said:
There lies the ego part I mentioned earlier. If he thinks this is his baby, that's more than acceptable - it is factual truth. However, parenting a project into receiving critical praise and fiscal success is more than just saying, "It is mine, so I get to do what I want with it." That is all fine as well, except the competition is strong. Last Remnent and FF XIII are going to crush his efforts if he keeps up with this philosophy of, "my game, my way, don't question my methods of under-utilizing talent". FF's success is team-work, not an One Man Army (OMA) effort. I'm confident Sakaguchi and bigotry are antonyms, and he should be fully aware of this factoid.
duckroll said:
This is nice to know, but it brings up another point of contention. For all these talents under Sakaguchi's wing, they are still, in your own words, unable to equal, never mind surpass SH: Covenant in quality of writings?
duckroll said:
Au contraire, I have expressed my stand on this view. Clearly I view talents over passion as the better deployment of labor, and the concurring voice that said SH: C has the better story agrees with me. I think he should stop writing, and focus his energy on expanding his team by recruiting, retaining and motivating them for further reaching potential. Passion with mis-placed talents equates ideals with mis-matched pragmatism. He is asking a lawyer to prepare financial statements and an accountant to file writs. Those recipes often churn out inefficiency.
sennin said:
Erm, what? I have no idea wtf you're saying anymore. S-E does exactly the same thing. Nojima controls all the FF and KH scenarios and often does a horrible job. The original Kingdom Hearts had the foresight of getting Keiko Nobumoto as a script superviser, but with the success of the franchise Nojima just went nuts with KH2 by himself and it was horrible. I don't see how it's any different at all. Are you saying that Last Remnant is going to have a better story than this? Because maybe you didn't watch the same trailer I did.
Maybe it's the same reason why FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFX-2, KH, KH2, FFXII and FFXIIRW are unable to equal never mind surpass SH:C in quality of writing?
Sounds like you just hate SH:C. Maybe we have different tastes?
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
I wasn't aware this was a competition in the first place.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
duckroll said:Yeah, you're right, maybe I should stop posting impressions. They always cause trouble.
I just think it's silly to argue that Sakaguchi shouldn't write/direct/produce/??? his story. Let him do what he likes, it's his artistic freedom.
dirtmonkey37
flinging feces ---->
duckroll said:
And what reason is that (just curious; I haven't even played SH: C)?
Anyways, it's sad that LO has failed to meet expectations (or at least that's what it seems from the last few posts in this thread).