Forget Final Fantasy. (Contains spoilers etc)
Well, where to start, Lost Odyssey is certainly an ambitious project, just to get it out the way early, if this game was called Final Fantasy 13, it would've sold millions, but because it's called Lost Odyssey, it's yet to even sell a million. Shame that.
Lost Odyssey's story (just a small warning, there might be some spoilers in this part of the review, though I'll try to avoid them, read at your own discretion I'm not paying you if I spoil the plot, well, I will pay you, with blazing fists.) revolves around two worlds that are subtly affecting each other. Perhaps not all that subtle in the case of the "main" world. To put it simply, the world in which the game takes place is affecting another world, where the Immortals come from. We know next to nothing about the other world, but alot about this main world. The game is set during a "magic industrial revolution", magic energy is a new found source of power, being used for just about everything, including war. Much of the story revolves around this for reasons that become apparent by the end of the story. As for YOUR story, you play as Kaim Argnonar, a man who has lived for 1000 years, who in his own words, "has no need for the past". Throughout the story he silently argues with himself over this, as he continues to find things from his past that were, perhaps, painful, yet still important. To coin a phrase from Stone Ocean, "perhaps the reason we are born is to have memories" or something along those lines. So yes, you play as Kaim and initially you are sent on a mission to investigate the "Grand Staff", a new construction which amplifies magical energies and all that good stuff. This is of course, after surviving a brutal war at the very beginning of the game. You are accompanied by Jansen Friedh and Seth Balmore (who is another immortal), **** happens, as they say, and before long you find yourself on a new mission to stop war breaking out between the nations of Uhra, Gohtza and Numara, and you find yourself many allies..and many enemies. Your small three person party eventually grows to include Cooke and Mack, Kaim's grandchildren, Ming Numara, the immortal 1000 year old queen of Numara, Sarah Sisulart, another immortal and Kaim's past wife (so Cooke and Mack's grandmother) Tolten, the Prince and short-time King of Uhra, and finally Sed, Seth's son who has physically out-grown her, (he's a relatively old man, she looks like she's in her twenties, amusing considering he still calls her "momma"). So, with these 4 immortals and 5 mortals, you set about to stop war from breaking out, and to stop the big bad. There are many twists and turns throughout the story, including a lengthy portion of the game where your party is scattered across the world in groups or two or three. It would be pointless to describe what happens throughout all fourty hours of the story, so I'll leave it at that.
As for the themes, well, mostly they revolve around the interactions of the mortals and immortals. Mortals crave Immortality, whereas the immortals crave the ability to end their lives – at least, they do not take great pleasure in being alive for thousands of years. Gradually, they all come to realise that what they have is fine. Another major theme which is especially precedent in the "A Thousand Years of Dream" feature of the game is..well, humans. These "mini-stories" cover Kaim's countless experiences with humans, humans with an uncurable disease, humans who murder without shame, humans who want to escape their seemingly 'boring' life, humans who long for immortality. This is where the meat of the 'themes' comes into play. They really are greatly written and genuinely interesting to read, however most of them are..depressing. Several to look out for include, "Letters from a weakling", "Bright rain", "The village closest to heaven" and "Samii the storyteller".. but really you should read them all.
Characters
Well, what is there to say about the characters? The characters and themes are essentially the same thing, but I guess I'll go into individual mini-analysis of each character. How and why they grow, again, spoiler warnings.
Kaim. Well, I think I basically covered this, at the start of the game he has convinced himself that he has no need for the past, however when he finds his grandchildren Cooke and Mack, he begins to no doubt question his stance, by the end of the game? He's..sort of happy, understandably. He seems to have come to terms with the fact that he will live for another thousand years, and welcomes it.
Jansen. Hrmm, Jansen's a tricky one, he's the joke character for most of the time, the comic relief. Initially he's working for Gongora but gradually he comes to like Kaim and company, even if he doesn't get along with Seth..or Sed..or..anyone. His is also the main "romance" part of the story, involing himself and Ming, perhaps a take on the ol' Queen and a Pauper..style..thing. He does mature throughout the game slowly, which is bizarre considering he must be around thirty years old, at a guess. Maybe he just comes to grips with his responsbilities or whatever, yes, he also refers to Gongora as Lord Eyebrows, a name I fully endorse.
Seth. Is another interesting one, she seems happy happy joy-joy for most of the time, and alot of her character development comes in regards to things that happened in the past, namely things regarding Sed, Aneira and Ming, Aneira being a companion of hers for 900 some years until Seth was forced to (at least, it's strongly implied Seth did it) kill him. Seth only really begins to change slightly by the end of the game, where perhaps she overcomes her grief regarding Aneira, it's also relatively near the end of the game that her son, Sed, joins the group. Seth is also suprisingly the one character to not "survive" the events of the game in your party, perhaps it was because of her personal grudge with Gongora, but it is Seth who falls through the portal with Gongora, now, this isn't technically dying. They lose their form on the main world, so in a way they are dying, but it also strongly implied that they are just returning to their own world in a way, I'm not really sure to be honest.
Cooke and Mack. Hmm.. well, their story and character growth is rather limited, although still a crucial part of the story, it mainly revolves around their mother Lirum (Kaim's daughter) and their efforts to contact her beyond the grave, and coming to terms with the fact that she is infact, dead, and having to let go etc. Cooke and Mack also have a relatively strong friendship with "Captain Seth", and "Aunt Ming", not to say anything about Sarah, who acts as their new mother of sorts.
Ming. Hrm, the Queen's story and character revolves around three other characters, Jansen, Seth and Kakanas. Jansen being the romantic interest, Seth being the age old friend, and Kakanas being the traiterous general of her own kingdom. Ming's character isn't really fleshed out that much, but as with Kaim and Seth you can find out interesting stuff from the Thousand Years things, namely we find out that Ming is incredibly perceptive, as being the Queen of a nation for a thousand years tends to do that.
Sarah. She doesn't change at all she's just obsessed with diaries and a plot device for Kaim, Cooke and Mack.
Tolten and Sed. I grouped these two together because invidually Sed would have about as much to mention as Sarah did, anyway. Tolten is a moron for basically the whole game, he stupidly follows Gongora and doesn't have the wit to see he's being played for a tool. When he meets Sed, he has come to terms with how much of a moron he is, and resolves to be more like Sed. Gradually he becomes less of a moron, and by the end of the game he's merely "a stupid twit" rather than a "ultra douche retard maximum", Sed on the other hand, just calls Seth "momma" and is quite understandbly a tad upset when she 'dies'. That's basically all for him.
Outside of the main party, we have Gongora. To be fair, his goals and intent don't really seem that bad, and GIGA SPOILER what he's basically trying to say/do, is this. On their homeworld (the immortals) there is not such a thing as magical energies and such. He has a theory that it is the feelings and emotions of the people on this world that are affecting the immortals world, he also admits that he has been infected by this "virus" known as emotion, and enjoys it, he enjoys the magical energies and being superior to the mortals. He aims to destroy the gateway from this world to the other, to stop the voices that tell him to return, in the end, ironically, Kaim's group ends up staying in this world, despite their goal of going back to the immortals world, and Gongora is forcibly returned to the immortals world along with Seth. Gongora wasn't really that evil, afterall. It's highly possible he just had the "I must rule everything" obsession.
Gameplay
As an RPG, Lost Odyssey plays rather alot like Final Fantasy X, which is by no means a bad thing. The general exploration system is relatively similiar, only you have a boat you can flap about in happily alot of the time, the party system is similiar, although there's a formation system in place which allows you to have your party divided into rows. Front/back. A nice addition along with the GC and Ring-Hit system, nothing amazing though. Generally, if you've played FFX you'll know what the combat is like here. There's the obvious supply of minigames and sidequests to keep you interested, including treasure hunting, hidden chests, backyard (an arena style thing) secret areas to explore and the "ultimate" spells Leveler and Divide, to collect. I guess you could count Self-Sacrifice as another ultimate spell, as it grants you access to the technically strongest spell in the game, Annihilation (which NEVER WORKS) ah right, there's also ultimate items to collect etc. Royal seals to unlock, Auction House to buy stuff in, there's tons of stuff to do in Lost Odyssey. I would estimate, that if you JUST did the story, but actually took it in (don't skip cutscenes, actually read text) it would take around 40 hours, 10 per disk. Now if you include all the optional stuff and A Thousand Years of Dreams..well, I've surpassed 70 hours I'm fairly certain, and I've still got stuff to do. The level cap is 99, as a side note. Yet you should probably treat level 70 as the top basically, at level 52 you stop gaining skills and at level 70 you can basically destroy anything in the game. That's one minor complaint I have, there's no ultimate boss, I mean like Penance from FFX. There's The Immortal from the backyard and Professor Kilolon or whatever, but they are both..well. I defeated The Immortal first time at level 70, he was relatively tough but still. A level 99 ultimate boss would be neat.
Hmm, as for the graphics, they are.. well, they are fine. The graphics aren't amazing, but the are colourful and relatively good. The world is a detailed and interesting one, with much variation, it feels non-linear at times, whilst at other times maps feel VERY linear. Who cares, it's an RPG. I didn't experience any glitches or bugs that I can think of during the game. I've heard complaints about the load times and the fact that there's 4 disks but uh..the load times seemed perfectly normal to me. As for swapping disks, I didn't really care. I thought it was pretty cool actually, it really gave you a sense of **** this game is massive". CGI cutscenes were very nice, as was the ability to pause them. However, the graphics in this game aren't on the same level as say..oh, Mass Effect. Yet they do their job. Spell effects are vibrant and nice, however it's a shame there aren't more "ultimate" style spell animations like Annihilation, Ultimate Hit, Divide and Leveler. Indeed, these aren't even really ultimate spells. There's no Ultima or whatever that spell is from FF. Divide is basically Holy, Leveler is just an Omni style spell, or whatever that thing is. Ultimate Hit is basically the only true ultimate skill, deals insane damage and has an awesome animation.
As for the music and voice acting? Music was great, that's all to say really. Voice Acting was also pretty decent, Seth's "BYE BYE" attack scream bugged me alot at the start as I thought she was screaming "FLY BY" which confused me, I also found Sarah's voice extremely annoying in battles, "DE-TH CALLS TO YOU, YOU MUST ANSWER" and "HEEEYAAA", however those are just personal complaints, generally, the voice acting was strong. One thing I liked, I didn't recognise any of the voices, there was no Nerentonchigolouch. Yes, the voice acting was decent. Ming's voice was superior for casting, "DAAARK FORCES OF DEATH, COME FOOOORTH". although her… 'accent' was a bit..bizarre at times though. cough AHMALWAIZZZREDIIIcough. Gongora's voice actor did a pretty good job going from happy advisor man to evil laughing maniac man. Oh, and sometimes I'd put Jansen in my part in the front row just to hear him scream NOT AGAIN when he got crit.
Score
I guess that's more or less everything. So, in closing, Lost Odyssey was good, it's a huge shame that it's not even sold 1 million copies, it should have sold 10 million by now. I think this is actually the first proper video game review I've done, and I'm not really comfortable scoring a game the same way I do an anime series as..well..it's just different, to recall however, my scores are generally based on what -I- think, so if there's something I found as a huge annoyance which wouldn't in theory annoy somebody else, I'll still factor that into the score.
Anyway, let's see.. Lost Odyssey.. I'd give it..
Story: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Graphics: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Make of that what you will. However I would highly suggest buying it if you happen to be reading this and don't have it, gamers need to support new games like these, otherwise we'll be stuck with Final Fantasy and Halo for all eternity. Lost Odyssey was a nice breath of fresh air into the RPG genre which I wasn't very impressed with lately, however, this and Mass Effect are restoring my faith.
BUY LOST ODYSSEY.