Infinite Undiscovery is a fun yet flawed experiment into how the JRPG genre can progress.
Story
Story wise IU is quite a reasonable title. Bard Capell joins the rebel group working to overthrow another group called "The Order Of Chains" who are drawing energy from the moon through giant chains attached to it. Their leader's (Leonid) plan is to use this power to grant him godlike abilities and unfortunately in planting these chains he is bringing ruin on the world. Joining up with the group headed by the charismatic Sigmund (who Capell looks exactly like) an epic chain destroying quest begins full of some relatively clever twists you probably won't see coming and some good cut scenes to convey matters. The only problem with the story as far as I'm concerned is even when it tries to stir emotion the scenarios don't really deliver emotional impact. The game has plenty of death and supposedly tragic scenes but it didn't suck me in to the same degree Lost Odyssey did mainly down to the direction just not being quite up to scratch. The game does succeed in some good character interactions too which is mainly down to some good strong cast member and clever English dialogue which leads me easily too..
Characters
When you first start up IU you will immediately be struck by just what a complete unlikeable wuss Capell is, despite our kick-ass, shoot arrows and be a great strong female lead Aya saving him from jail (where Capell is imprisoned after being mistaken for Sigmund) he is not very grateful and whines continually. What is fortunately amazing is that he gets so much more interesting and develops so well over the course of his adventures that by the end of the game he was one of my favourite male RPG heroes and had a lot of depth to him. Aya backs Capell wonderfully too and due to great chemistry between them in both cut scenes and voice acting they work very well as the "couple" of the title and I was practically cheering their romance on it was crafted so beautifully. The rest of the cast varies in depth and likeability from great characters like the wise Eugene and hilarious maid to Aya who has something similar to tourettes syndrome to the intensely irritating Vic and Christoph who I wanted to hit every time they spoke. The cast of around 18 who fight with you plus extras is a bit overwhelming for the games length but the strengths of good characters are to well.
Gameplay
IU is a real time hack and slash style RPG with you taking control of just Capell but with up to three allies accompanying you through the world. The allies can be given simple instructions and Capell can request healing with a press of the Y button. In general this system works well and allies are intelligent enough to help you, but in a few situations when allies don't seem to respond and your left to die from bad AI things can get mildly frustrating. Fortunately this doesn't happen too often. Combat is a simple affair with A and B being used to do simple slashes while holding them down launching special moves which you unlock as you level up. The most annoying thing about IU is that you can't stop combat to heal or use mana potions and instead must speedily access the menu while getting your arse kicked to do so. The official website seems to bill this as an involving feature of the game, I call it a pain in the backside especially if the rest of the party is dead. Again though this issue can be overcome once you get used to it and for the most part combat is fast, good to look at and works well.
With such a large cast, levelling up could of course be an issue if you want to utilise them all. However characters level up when not even in the party and at times you must split your team up into three groups of four where they move around a dungeon and act independently (often joining you in final boss fights). Some of the games best and most innovative moments come when you have twelve of you battling to siege a tower with many dozens of enemies joining in in huge fights and despite what reviews of the title said there was minimal slowdown for myself when these huge fights occurred. I'm hoping these battles are a taster of the scale this gen of consoles can manage and Last Remanant in particular seems to be going for even bigger fights. Seeing as the ones in IU blew my mind this sounds most promising.
IU also tries to be different by throwing in various play styles almost at random as if Tri-Ace is testing them out for the future. You can suddenly find yourself defending a large group of refugees you can't let die, or having to shoot birds out the sky in a time limit as they carry a young boy off or suddenly running from a huge giant centipede after it bursts through a wall. These situations bring real variety to the plate yet at the same time can be confusing and result in instant game over if you don't react and adapt to the situation quickly. This is quite frustrating because save points are often few and far between at times and big chunks of the game can be replayed if your not prepared. Still the game tries some new ideas that with time and extra polish could have a big factor in future JRPGs and for that it should be applauded.
Graphics
Visually IU isn't that great, some parts of it could be done on a PS2 for sure and while the cut scenes look nice enough everything feels a bit flat. The explosions in particular look like they were hand drawn then scanned into the game and were laughable at times. One of the most annoying visuals flaws (which I suppose is also an audio flaw) is that the lip sync is miles out from the actual dialogue, to the point it's REALLY obvious. Sometimes a character can be speaking and their mouth opens for a second in a six or seven second piece of dialogue. Still again it's not a huge detraction from the game play just a flaw in the games quality indicating how it's evidently been rushed out.
Sound
Again this is a mixed bag. Music wise nothing is going to stick with you or having you humming along but they aren't bad background tunes or anything just generic. The main area to talk about here is the dialogue. Some of the voices are great some are rubbish and in such a large cast this is something you really should expect, unfortunately some of the cut scenes are dubbed and some aren't occasionally finding yourself listening to silent scenes that feel they should be brought to life by vocals. Again it isn't a major issue and there are less and less of these instances as the game progresses but once again it detracts from the game having an overall finished quality to it.
Lastability
The game has a fair bit of content with the main story spanning a sensible 20-30 hours but with a good 40-50 of optional content should you wish to dabble further and see all it has to offer. I'm sick of some RPG's being too long so this was actually a nice break from the trudging through 60 hours of story.
Overall
IU has an Infinitely Unfinished feeling to it like the game was one big beta test of new genuinely "next-gen" ideas that have been released to recoup some money at minimal costs to those involved. It's by no means bad and has some great combat, great ideas and a good story unfortunately the overall polish of the game is missing and the first hour really is unforgivable, I still find myself thinking "WHO ON EARTH THOUGHT THE FIRST HOUR WAS A GOOD IDEA!". Despite this though I recommend renting the game if your unsure, playing for a good four hours or so and seeing if you find yourself drawn in. In the majority of cases you probably will be.