Review: Lost Odyssey - Emotional rescue in an RPG

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 05 April 2008 13:28

Opinion and Analysis

An epic emotional journey that brings a wistful taste of Japanese style Role Play Games to a western audience. From the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s development studio Mistwalker comes the second JRPG exclusive for the Xbox 360.

Blue Dragon, Mistwalker Studio’s first Role Play Game for the Xbox 360 produced a sales spike for the struggling Microsoft Xbox 360 in Japan and brought something other than Final Fantasy to western audiences.

Lost Odyssey
	Developer	Mistwalker
	Publisher	Microsoft
	Rating	MA15+
Xbox 360

Mistwalker Studios return with Lost Odyssey (LO) bringing many familiar and a smattering of new features to the JRPG experience, none more so than a new grown up presentation and story line that will tug at the heart strings.

Maybe those heart-strings are more easily tugged if you are a parent, but even so the story that unfolds in LO is an poignant following of the immortal Kaim Argonar and downside of being immortal.

The relationships that develop through the course of the fifty or so gaming hours (over four DVD’s) show the leap into adult concepts that Mistwalker Studios have made from Blue Dragon.

Because of the story to be told, that is clichéd within the arc of saving the world from the big bad evil, but detailed in its relationship complexity, much of your gaming time will be spent watching cut scenes and reading the artistically presented dreams as Kaim’s dormant memories are awoken piece by piece.