Product Description

Lost Odyssey is the story of Kaim, an immortal character who has lived more than 1,000 years. He doesn't remember his past, and he doesn't know where his future lies. Throughout Kaim's journey, a handful of characters will join him on an odyssey to discover their intricate past and destiny, leading players through a dramatic story of massive scale. Lost Odyssey features breathtaking visuals and an epic adventure made possible only by the power of Xbox 360.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #372 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2008-02-13
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• 1 Player
• Dolby 5.1 Surround
• HDTV 1080p

Amazon.com
Famed game producer Hironobu Sakaguchi of Mistwalker game studio, along with feelplus Inc. and Microsoft Game Studios, leads a staff of gaming masters to bring a truly next-generation role-playing experience to Xbox 360 in Lost Odyssey.

Lost Odyssey is the story of Kaim, an immortal character who has lived more than 1,000 years and doesn't remember his past and doesn't know where his future lies. Throughout Kaim's journey, a handful of characters will join him on an odyssey to discover their intricate past and destiny, leading players through a dramatic story of massive scale. "Lost Odyssey" will feature breathtaking visuals and an epic adventure made possible only by the power of Xbox 360.

An Engaging and Unparalleled Emotional Story
With story sequences penned by award-winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu in cooperation with producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, "Lost Odyssey" sets a new benchmark for the RPG genre with a combination of true-to-life cinematics and the story of an immortal man who has been suffering in many ways for 1,000 years. Players will witness Kaim's life as he lives through many generations, becomes part of numerous families, falls in and out of love, and confronts all of the conflicts that arise. Kaim's struggles are set in a world that is on the verge of a "mystical industrial revolution," where mankind has attained dark powers.

Innovative Gameplay Features
Lost Odyssey blends massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) elements into the game's traditional RPG system, enabling players to make strategic decisions for a more immersive and deep gameplay experience.

Massive scope and engrossing environments
The massively scoped worlds, memorable characters and epic story line of Lost Odyssey play out like an intense and unsettling blockbuster action film. Heading up the artistic demands of the title is famed Japanese comic artist Takehiko Inoue; renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu has been recruited to create a contemporary soundtrack.

Realistic Graphics in Next-Generation Gaming
Powered by Unreal Engine 3 technology, Lost Odyssey boasts stunning visual fidelity and rendering quality. The Unreal Engine 3 technology pushes high-definition visual designs to a higher level and brings out the smallest details in the largest battles. Gamers will experience a rich dynamic world with an unprecedented level of detail. Users can experience the true-to-life gameplay and facial expressions of emotionally distressed characters in the world of Lost Odyssey.

Customer Reviews

Great Game, For a Time
Lost Odyssey is an exciting addition to any persons collection. It is, indeed, a great game. The graphics are fine. The story is intriguing and holds some depth. The gameplay itself is a welcome change to Blue Dragon, and other such similar games. But, after you hit the second disc, it starts to get too repetitive to be satisfying the whole time you play it. The story just isn't that gripping. Of course, keep in mind, that repetitiveness comes with the territory of a turn based rpg. If you really enjoy the genre, you will really enjoy the game. All in all, well worth a try, I enjoyed it very much.

Gimmicky, Cliched, and Fantastic
This game has its share of cliche. The dialogue is sometimes very stiff, and your character, Kaim, is pretty disconnected during the first half of the game. The game tries to make his seem more caring...but when he opens up it seems strange and awkward. But perhaps being an immortal does that to people.

Anyways, what sets this game aside from other games, and I won't call this an RPG, since you have very little choice in anything...are the stories. The unlockable memories. They are deep and immersive, and they make you care. I won't lie, more than once they had me in tears. The man who wrote them can really paint with words. The stories are beautiful. I read someone else's review of that and scoffed. It's a video game...yeah. It is.

The story spans 4 discs, and it's long. I think I'm over 60 hours of gameplay now. It's my first time through, so it's probably not actually that long, but it had a long learning curve for me. I still haven't beat it. Some of the battles are so frustrating they make you want to pull your hair out.

Overall, a good game. Don't pass it up.

This may be the best current-gen game I've yet played
I've been idly wondering if this is the best current-gen game I've played. It has incredibly awesome depth to the gameplay, but the place where it has a leg up on the Bioshocks and Devil May Cry's is in its story and characters. The only other game I've played in the past year and a half which has hooked me to its story and characters so much is Phoenix Wright 3. Everything else, with the possible exception of the Orange Box, has been simply "fun to play", but nothing that has me laughing one moment and sad the next, nothing that has me looking forward to the next cutscene just so I can see where the plot will go next, what the characters will do. I found out a few days ago that Lost Odyssey was written by a famous author, so....that explains it.

***EDIT****

The above paragraph is what happens when you excitedly write a review for a game when you've only played 2 discs out of 4. I had the gameplay down, so that part of the review is fine. But the story, which was so involving in the first two discs (as apparent from my frothing love for it) completely, utterly failed to live up its early promises. From the first two discs, you think you're in for a tale full of truly adult themes (like the death of your mother or child), which is why it is so horrendous that it completely devolves into "The Bad Guy went South! We must Stop Him!" and (paraphrasing): "Sarah, the path ahead is blocked with ice. Will you be our fire rod?" in the last two discs. Unfortunately I can't change the star rating for my review, but rest assured it would have went down at least one star. It's still fun to play, but in an RPG, you get your fill of the gameplay after 40-50 hours...and when the plot is this bad, there's not much incentive to go ahead and even finish the game.

Gameplaywise, it's a traditional turn-based RPG, with incredible depth. It has a fun timing-based attack system, but only if you equp a Ring to your character. Of course, you can assemble Rings on your own, determining what kind of effects it'll have on your character's attack. You can switch Rings around mid-battle, so you can change your sword from a water-based attack (complete with droplets gushing out of the sword), to a fiery blade, depending on what kind of enemy you're going to attack next.

The same goes for skills and spells. You can equip Accessories (which show up on your character in cutscenes and such) that teach your character skills. Immortals can learn these skills permanently, but anyone who has the Accessory equipped can use the skill it provides. This lends the system a kind of Final Fantasy X-2 feel, with everyone capable of obtaining access to high-level magic spells...so long as you're willing to give up whatever previous Accessory you had equipped on them.

To prevent the Immortals from becoming godly beings (at least early in the game), each Immortal has "skill slots", which you can equip a skill in. You can find things called Skill Seeds throughout the game, which creates a new skill slot for the Immortal you gave it to.

The incredibly fun strategic gameplay, along with the awe-inspiring music (Nobou Uematsu can do no wrong), means that if you're even slightly interested in traditional turn-based RPGs, if you have any fond memories of any of the Final Fantasy games, or Chrono Trigger, or Suikoden....you owe it to yourself to try this one out. Just go in there knowing the plot falls flat on its face about halfway through the game.