Review: Lost Odyssey

Developed by: Mistwalker, feelplus
Writen by: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Music by: Nobuo Uematsu
Release Date: Feb. 12, 2008
Length: Took me 60 hours to complete

First thing I have to say about this game is Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu!! Holy SHIT! Ever since I played Final Fantasy 10, I've been quite sad to find out that Nobuo Uematsu left the Final Fantasy Series. FF's just haven't been the same since then. The same goes with Hironobu, he left square a while back, he is responsible for the story and production of Final Fantasy VII, Parasite Eve, and the Production of Final Fantasy VIII. Lost Odyssey was like a journey to the past, it combined the dark themes and story-line of Final Fantasy VII and the stylization of Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X. This game was an epic journey through an extremely imaginative and beautiful world. Accompanied by Nobue Uematsu'a epic and emotion filled melodies. From the intro, you are thrust into battlefield in a world on the brink of an all-out war, as main character, Kaim, an immortal that has lived 1000 years in this world. Kaim at first seems like an emotionless loner without a cause, later on you find out that he is among 4 other immortals sent to this world to investigate a cross dimensional disturbance, 3 of which immortals had their memories wiped by one evil immortal that is bent on destruction and infinite power. As you play through the game, Kaim's memories return to him. Trivial and subtle events such as a flock of birds flying over-head or the sounds of tree's rustling in the wind trigger Kaim to regain a memory that had been locked, and they are displayed on screen as short, touching, and brilliantly written stories with hazy dream-like backgrounds and sound. I can't say the main story is this game bright spot yet the short stories of the memories that Kaim regains hold memorable after the game is completed; some of which even made me pop a tear. The battle system is pretty straight forward and there is nothing complex about it until the ring assembly function becomes available. The ring function takes Squalls gunblade trigger of Final Fantasy VIII to a new level. When a ring is equipped and you attack normally, a interactive element is added to battle, a targeting ring appears on screen. This is the Aim Ring System in action. Holding the right trigger creates a second "aim" ring which begins at the edges of the screen and quickly shrinks until it overlaps the target ring. Release the trigger when the aim ring is overlapping the target ring. Miss and you may actually whiff on your swing. If you trigger the ring in the shaded area of the target ring, you get a "good" status for the attack, this gives you a chance of applying the rings various effects to your attack. Nail a "perfect" and you gain bonus damage plus guaranteed execution of the rings abilities. At first, the damage gain is a few measly points, but by the end of the game this can mean a gain in thousands of points of damage . The timing for the ring isn't as easy as I thought it would be, triggering a perfect is determined by super fast reaction timing on a millisecond basis. Eventually it becomes very intuitive with the wooshing sound that accompanies it. The ring system maintains an exciting element to the countless battles you encounter, it never gets old. Finally, this game graphics are so astonishing and mesmerizing that I found myself at multiple points in the game stopping and just staring at the ultra realistic sceneries. Don't miss this title if you were in love with games like Final Fantasy VII or VIII, it will certainly be another classic from creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Rating: A