Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

First a little introduction. Lost Odyssey is a game about Kaim Argonar. He's an immortal, who has lived for a thousand years. You'll be playing Kaim, and throughout the game you'll meet other immortals and mortals which will join your party.

I'll be dividing this review in different parts. First I'll start with the story. I'll be rating every part with a different score.

Presentation: (Contains no spoilers)
Lost Odyssey has one of the most intriguing stories. If you're looking for a great (and huge) story, this could be your game. It has quite some political influences, but still remains within the fantasy theme. When you're playing the game you just feel like you're sucked in the world of Lost Odyssey. It has a lot of twists and turns, which will keep you asking for more.
Some other thing that is pretty unique about this game, is the feature A Thousand Years of Dreams. Along the adventure recalls Kaim Argonar (the main character) his memories which he has lost. These memories are told through some pretty long (sometimes a bit too long) stories, with no dialogues, just text with a pretty nice relaxing background music playing.
I was surprised when I bought the game, because the shop owner was putting four discs in the box. From that moment I was already thinking this should be a long adventure ahead of me. And that's true. You'll probably be playing for about 40 - 50 hours for the first playthrough. That sure is a positive thing for me. I like games that have a long time span. But something the producer succeeds in, is that the story stays fascinating, and you keep asking for more.
But the story has some problems too. This problem is that it's told through some cheesy dialogues. But for me, this didn't really matter that much.

The menu's look a bit outdated. There are just some bland steel-looking buttons. But still, this isn't really frustrating but they could've spent a bit more time into that. But nevertheless, the menu is good to overlook.

Something else that does bother me (not very much, but it can be frustrating sometimes) about the presentation are the loading screens. There are helluva lot loading screens. But this doesn't really spoil the fun of the story and the other parts of the game.
Presentation: 9.5

Graphics:
The graphics are quite appealing. Lost Odyssey uses the Unreal Engine, which also have the capacities to make a game look good. Lost Odyssey really has some fine landscapes, and the character models are pretty nice too. But sometimes you see the fingers of the characters, and they don't really look that good (for example). They are quite rectangular, or whatever you call it. But that's a small detail. The overall graphics are still very nice, despite some framerate problems. Yep, here comes the fun part. The game suffers from some framerate problems. You won't see any in the cutscenes, but in-game it might stutter sometimes. Not very much though. Just once in a while, and it doesn't really bother you. Your gameplay won't suffer, so that's fine to me.
Graphics: 8.5

Gameplay:
The game uses some unique features. First we'll start off with the ring and accessory system. Every character in your party is able to wear rings and accessory. Accessory will give the character an extra skill, which depends on the accessory you're wearing. A ring will give you some extra elemental damage (depends on what ring you wear, for example: you're wearing a Flame Ring, then you'll deal Flame Damage, etcetera) and some other bonuses, such as Damage Up. These Rings are crucial for the combat. It will allow you to give more damage to an opponent with the opposite element (for example you'll deal more damage with a Flame Ring to an Air Elemental enemy) and it gives you the ability of the combat ring system which I will explain to you now.
Lost Odyssey is a turn-based game, typically a JRPG. But it adds some depth to it. When you want to attack an opponent, you need to look carefully at the screen (This is only when you physically attack someone, not by magic or skills) because there will appear a two rings on the screen. One small which is centred on the enemy, and a large one. Your objective is to press the Right Trigger so the large ring will shrink and you have to fit the large ring into the smaller ring. If you time this right, you will get a 'Perfect' or 'Good'. If you got a Perfect you'll get some pretty heavy damage, and with a Good you'll still give some good damage. But if you didn't time it right, you'll get a Bad. This doesn't many consequences, you'll just give a bit less damage than a Good hit.
Next we got the Skill Link feature. Every immortal is able to use Skill Link. This will enable him or her to use a skill of a mortal. Throughout the game your mortals will learn skills by leveling up, and your immortals will be able to learn skills from the mortals by using Skill Link. But to fully learn a skill, you got to earn SP (Skill Points). After a fight your party will earn EXP (Experience) and SP. EXP is used for leveling up, and SP is used to learn the skill you currently got linked. So for example you need five SP to learn some skill you got linked. After a few fights you gathered five SP, and your immortal will be able to use the skill you've linked.
This all sounds quite complicated, but it's pretty easy when you'll be playing the game.
Gameplay: 9.0

Sound:
The music score has been composed by Nobuo Uematsu, famous of Final Fantasy. The score is pretty good, but isn't really outstanding. It just fits the game. But it doesn't have any memorable songs, yet it doesn't have any annoying songs either. So the music is fine, but not really outstanding.
The sound effects are just average. It isn't bad, but it doesn't have any earblowing sound effects.
Sound: 8.0

One last note. If you've bought the game, I recommend you to install the game on the hard disk to prevent long loading times. This has increased the score for Presentation.

In short:
Presentation: 9.5
Intriguing story, outdated menu and long load times which can be prevented by installing the game.

Graphics: 8.5
Great graphics, despite some character models and framerate problems.

Gameplay: 9.0
The Ring system and the Skill Link feature makes the combat addicting.

Sound: 8.0
Not very special, but it does fit the game.

Total: 9.0 (Not an average)