Lost Odyssey Xbox 360s Best JRPG Deserves A Remaster

Lost Odyssey: Xbox 360’s Best JRPG Deserves A Remaster

Contents

Lost Odyssey was a return to form for Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, and it could seriously benefit from a sizable remaster.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Lost Odyssey Xbox 360s Best JRPG Deserves A Remaster

Hironobu Sakaguchi is a legendary name in gaming – the creator of Final Fantasy and the driving force behind the majority of the series. In 2004 Sakaguchi left Squaresoft and formed a brand new studio named Mistwalker. The studio’s first game Blue Dragon failed to live up to expectations, despite doing plenty of things well.

Mistwalker’s second game, however, was an entirely different story. Lost Odyssey was a return to form, featuring grand storytelling, intricate turn-based combat, and a blend of high-fantasy and science fiction. As much as Lost Odyssey feels like it could be Final Fantasy game, it tries some unique new ideas that mostly succeed.

The Xbox 360 saw a surprising amount of JRPGs, most of which were fairly middling. Lost Odyssey stands at the head of the pack, however, and it’s one of the most memorable experiences on the console. That being said, though, there are plenty of issues that could be smoothed out, and a remaster would help Lost Odyssey be even better.

A Return to Form For the Creator of Final Fantasy

Lost Odyssey’s unique story setup focuses on Kaim Argonar, an immortal that’s lived nearly 1000 years but has lost his memories. As the game unfolds Kaim meets four other immortals and starts to recover his memories, finding out the reason why they’re all immortal and what they’re supposed to be doing. Part of what makes Lost Odyssey so memorable is its impeccable presentation. There’s a serious sense of scale to all of the events of the story, and the game starts strong with an unforgettable introduction scene that takes place in the middle of a massive battle. Lost Odyssey feels like it a decent budget behind it, which it probably did since it was published by Xbox Game Studios. Whatever the case there’s serious care put into making the world feel unique and lived-in.

See also  CSI Ranking The Investigators By Intelligence

The narrative is the main highlight of Lost Odyssey, and it really goes to some interesting places about the meaning of life, and how living 1000 years would change a person. The most unique aspect of the game comes with a feature called 1000 Years of Dreams, memories that Kaim remembers as he adventures. These take the form of text stories mixed with audio-visual elements that make them feel downright ethereal. The dreams have absolutely fantastic writing and provide a ton of context into Kaim’s personality and the history of the world. It’s an utterly unique feature unlike anything else in gaming, and it’s executed masterfully.

On paper Lost Odyssey is a fairly standard turn-based RPG, with players making their way through the world and story in a linear fashion. The first interesting wrinkle added to the combat comes with the immortal characters. The majority of the party members are mortals that have set abilities that they learn as they level up. The immortals, however, can learn any of the skills mortal characters have by using skill links, and they also learn skills through equipping accessories. This adds an interesting layer to the combat system, as players can build out the immortal characters with different abilities and specializations.

The other key aspect of combat comes with attack rings that each character can equip. When a character with a ring attacks players can hold the right trigger to make an outer ring shrink on an inner ring, and if the timing is correct the character’s damage is increased. It can get a little old, but rings provide valuable stat boosts and a little bit of interactivity to battles.

See also  15 Powers You Didnt Know Aquaman Had

Lost Odyssey’s combat is strong, but it suffers from many of the problems a lot of older turn-based RPGs do, it’s simply too slow. Battles start to feel long and drawn out after a while, and that’s especially true when working through lengthy dungeons. To add to those problems, a ton of side content opens up on disc four, requiring players to dive back through old areas. Modern JRPGs, like Bravely Default, have solved these problems by adding fast-forward buttons and even the options to turn off random battles completely. Final Fantasy XII is a prime example of an older JRPG that wildly benefitted from more streamlined features in the Zodiac Age. Lost Odyssey could benefit even more, as the game had a strange feature of scaling experience from battles. Each area had a level cap and once players hit that cap battles would only yield one XP each, but still give SP. This was probably to cut down on grinding, but players still get in random battles, making them either see the battle out or flee. A fast-forward and skip battles feature would really help the pacing of Lost Odyssey.

It’s a pity to see Lost Odyssey stuck on the Xbox 360, as the game never made its way to any other console, although it is backward compatible on Xbox One. There are so many small changes that could improve the game, and a visual upgrade could work wonders for the gorgeous aesthetic. Lost Odyssey is an absolute gem, and it shouldn’t just fade into obscurity.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/lost-odyssey-remaster-xbox-360-best-jrpg/

Movies -