Done playing for the night. Impressions time.
5-6 hours in currently. I'm at the Sea of Bahm.
I'm enjoying the game a lot, especially the characters. Overall, I'd say that so far it's a lot more enjoyable than Blue Dragon and Mistwalker fixed up a few issues that game had, like the frame rate for instance, or the shitty menu interface, or the characters who aren't appealing (Marumaro I'm looking at you).
Positives and Negative:
+ Random battle rate is extremely forgiving. There were some points where I didn't get into a random battle for an upward of 45-60 seconds, or at least, it felt like that. Typically it takes 15-20 seconds for a random battle to appear, and even then, most battles are fast. Thankfully the splash screen or whatever for the random encounters loads extremely fast, unlike what I saw in the videos prior to release. Funny.
+ Light on the grinding. The experience system is Suikoden-esque; once you get to a particular level cap in an area, you will tend to stop gaining much xp at all. Thus it's hard to grind. However, if a character is underleveled, this means they can catch up quickly.
+ Thousand Year Dream segments are absolutely captivating. They have neat text effects, beautiful music playing in the background, and these neat background images that change depending on where the story goes. They are well written and give Kaim a certain amount of depth he otherwise wouldn't have, even though you can't actually see the stories take place in a cutscene. You can go read them at any time, so they aren't obtrusive. Really soothing and unique pieces, I think, "misuse of the medium" or not.
+ Great graphics and art direction and general presentation. The game definitely looks a lot better up close and personal. The peak of the mountains made me drop my draw because of its beauty. UE3 in full effect in this game, and unlike Mass Effect, it doesn't have retarded texture pop in. I guess this is just more evidence that Bioware's programmers suck or something. Anyways, it feels like an actual next gen jrpg, unlike Blue Dragon. It kind of reminds me of when I first played Final Fantasy X, and saw how the game handled those transitions from in game to battle in Zanarkand. It wasn't something that was possible with the previous technology. Lost Odyssey kinda makes me feel the same way some how. The presentation is top notch.
+ Great music. It always fits the mood and while not nearly as memorable as Uematsu's FFVI-VIII work, it's still well made. Probably on FFIX's level, but I'll have to continue playing to find out! Overall, good work Uematsu. Especially on the dream sequences.
+ The characters. Kaim, Seth, and Jansen are a wonderful trio. The game constantly has sequences that have them interact with each other, and the chemistry is just perfect. Jansen, in particular, almost every scene he is in has me LOL'ing. Kaim is like an immortal Squall, which is fucking awesome. I'm just waiting for him to say,"Whatever." so I can laugh. Seth is Rikku/Yuffie/Selphie-esque...when she wants to be. She's playful, but serious when she needs to be. Overall, thus far, the characters are my favorite part of the game. They're a huge step up from Blue Dragon's meh characters, who, while charming, were lacking "oomph".
+ The game manages to switch between being serious and light hearted at the flip of a hat. It has a dark tone, but the game has no problem pulling any punches when it comes to getting the player to laugh.
+ Pretty solid story thus far. Coupled with the Thousand Year Dreams segments, the story seems interesting, I think. There's a ton of mysteries already, and I wonder where it goes. There's signs of political intrigue, which makes my dick hard.
+ Battle system is fucking awesome. The ring system makes battles constantly engaging, forcing the player to pay attention at all times. Magic charge system in effect is always badass. The guard system takes the traditional jrpg row system and warps it to a new level. The battles, especially because of the first boss battle, are really interesting. I cheered when I got the "do three perfects in a row" achievement. The ring system is really rewarding.
+ Customization, while currently limited, is still fun. I've made Kaim my Warrior, Seth my Thief/Assassin, and Jansen's a Red Mage.
+ Interactivity. Playing FFVII this past Christmas break made me realize how we have actually regressed in that regard when it comes to jrpgs. Lost Odyssey ups and the ant and is a return of form if you will. There's always tons of objects and things to interact with. You can kick a ball in the playground ala Costa Del Sol, or even play a piano. I'm liking this.
+ Reasonable difficulty. It's not a Megami Tensei game but it's decent. The first boss took me three tries to defeat, which isn't bad for a first boss. It's not a complete cake walk like Blue Dragon, thankfully. I've had a bit of trouble since there seems to be a lack of mp items thus far. Yeah, it's pretty DraQue. You need to conserve mp and know when to use it in this game it seems, which is always awesome.
+ No stupid third person view bullshit. The camera angles present in Lost Odyssey are really dynamic and give the world a lot of life.
- As of now I seriously have no complaints, major or minor, which is rare. I'll probably think of something to nitpick later. I guess I could say the load times suck, but they are only annoying prior to cutscenes, when they are longer than average. I've seen far worse. Another case of people over blowing a games problems.
So far, the game has exceeded my expectations. I just really expected a well made jrpg, but this is actually pretty damn good. If you're a fan of FFVII-IX I don't understand how it's possible to miss this game, as you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. Even more so for those of you who weren't big on FFXII, like yours truly.
Lost Odyssey is a huge step up from Blue Dragon. Check it out and prove to the press once again, that they're full of shit. Traditional rpgs will never die.
