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| image via Wikipedia |
Even before that, around last summer, I acquired an XBox 360 and around 20 games from my landlord. It all came at a great time, when my older games were gathering dust, and I was resorting to re-playing them—not a bad time, but after a while of it, I was in a gaming funk. Suddenly I was awash in new gaming experiences, and it was really nice. My fun-at-home factor skyrocketed.
I was in for a bit of a disappointment, however, as far as the games were concerned. Chalk it up to differences in gaming taste between my landlord and I, but The "Halo," "Gears of War," "Guitar Hero," and "Saints Row" franchises, though really well-made and worth putting time into, didn't really fit what I was looking for, or what I could play in front of my kids.
Many of them were short on positives—originality, compelling characters, confident narrative, convincing voice acting—and heavy on the negatives—stereotypes, cliches, and over-sexified-female characters who offer nothing to the story (I'm looking at you, "Ninja Gaiden 2").
Now, I like a bit of violence in my games, as I am a big "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat" fan, but most of these newer games feature constant murder that I just don't have or want the stomach for. Plus, I look at #Gamergate lately and wonder, would this sea of gamers be a little less threatening if they hadn't been fed heaping loads of endlessly-re-spawning murder in their precious video games for the past 20 or 30 years? Could that constant de-sensitization be coming through in how they treat people online, if not in real life?
So I really have to put 'excessive violence' in the 'negatives' category, because I don't want to be the type of person who can just look the other way. "Grand Theft Auto V," though wonderful, has been my most modern game to put me at my limit for gratuitous violence. So the "Gears of War" and "Halo" games are out for me–constant murder going on there, be it alien or human. The "Ninja Gaiden" games are fun too, but OMG the violence is up to 11.
"Soul Caliber 4" can be summed up as: Bouncing Titty Game.
Even shooting endless zombies on "Resident Evil" online, for RE4 thru 6, has gotten old. And those are some incredibly entertaining online experiences. (I still plan on getting RE:Revelations when it becomes cheaper).
You'll see "Lost Odyssey" there on the right. That wasn't part of the original collection; it was part of a group of games in the basement that my landlord had left down there for some reason.
So I'm down there doing laundry one day, and I notice LO on the shelf, collecting dust. I pick it up, see it's an RPG. There's a big "this-game-is-for-demo-purposes-only" sticker on the front that covers up a key piece of information that would have tipped me off to its creator and his history with video games.
Now, I'm a sucker for a good RPG, and after "The Witcher 2" left me underwhelmed (prob should have played "The Witcher" first), I was really hungry for everything an RPG should be: immersive and story-rich, with characters full of depth, epic music, at-least-believable graphics, fun battle sequences, monsters, and a shit ton of magic.
Knowing nothing, I took LO upstairs and gave it a try.
Immediately it looked like a Final Fantasy game. The music, the character designs, the massive-scale, world-shattering shit that was happening right off the bat, and especially the battle system, all contain elements from various FF games, including 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8 (Japanese release #s).
It's pretty similar to the latest FF games too (10 - 13), but that sort of goes without saying. That's the way RPGs are made these days—advanced, evolved. Like Internet 2.0. Gone are the days of small sprites and blocky, clunky worlds.
Already I could see LO improves upon every aspect of Final Fantasy games from which it seems to borrow—nothing is simply a straight transfer, but was streamlined, and with such style!
Needless to say, I was pleased as punch. When I gleaned so much old school JRPG influence from LO, combined with its modern and badass feel, I no longer had to hope this game was going to be something special, it was throwing special at me. LO holds on to what it is and doesn't let go. It doesn't just go halfway in—"Lost Odyssey" captures and owns old-school JRPG style.
And having grown up with old school JRPGs, I am the ideal demographic for this shit.
After 15 minutes of being introductorily wowed and awed, the opening credits began to roll, and who does it credit for the game's music but none other than Nobuo Motherfucking Uematsu. My jaw dropped. Uematsu is a guy whose music I have deeply studied. It fascinates me how much he can do with so little.
So I take to Wikipedia. WTF is this game? This is what I see:
The plot of Lost Odyssey was written by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famed Final Fantasy series.Of course! It was exactly then I became fully enthralled.
It's not often I get a pleasant surprise like this, and it took all the pieces coming together at the right time to make it happen. Knowing nothing going in was essential to my elation at the discovery of the pure gaming magic that LO delivers.
Even the name sounds like Final Fantasy! It's like Sakaguchi was trying to say, 'Hey guys, I know the franchise has gone off the rails—allow me to put it back on track, from the outside.'
So, let's get into specifics.
LO improves upon every aspect of Final Fantasy games from which it borrows—nothing is simply a straight transfer.
The battle system is reminiscent of FF1, in that you input your entire party's commands, and everyone goes at it for a single round. This is repeated until one side wipes out the other. You may remember how infuriating could with FF1, but in LO the mechanics are improved and the flow of battle is smooth.
Interesting to me is how far back in time they had to reach to resurrect that battle system. It's inherently more challenging than the now-standard Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which I first saw in FF4. It was a stroke of genius to take such an old school battle style and make it the main battle system of a modern game. Isn't it cool that old-school elements re-tooled are what make much of this game enjoyable?
LO streamlines character movement and exploration by giving you a 'run' button to make your character haul ass thru those maps. Giving the player a reason to explore, LO peppers the maps with shiny trinkets and treasure chests waiting to be found, rewarding those who investigate every corner of a map. This was another thing I always loved about those old-school JRPGs—finding treasure in the nooks and crannies.
You can change your equipment mid-battle! Win. The game doesn't focus on armor, either. Your characters learn skills and gain HP as they level up, but they never change clothes. New weapons, 'Attack Rings' and accessories are always popping up, and consist of what you'll be spending your hard-earned G on. It simplifies the game, not bothering with armor. I like it.
Without spoiling too much, I'll only say that the characters are wonderful. Without hesitation, I can say that all of them are likable.
Remember Snow from FFXIII? No trace of his dumbassitude within the main party.
Remember the horrendous voice-acting of FFX? Gone. All the voice-acting here is great.
As a side note, the character Seth is the same voice as Twilight Sparkle from "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."
And all those reasons I listed above for not liking games, including weak female characters, stereotypes, and excessive violence and swearing? Gone. This game has no blood and no cursing, which means I can play it around my kids.
Further, the writing is phenomenal. The characters of the children are not written accurately enough to represent their age group, IMO, and the drama is so heavy-handed you could swim through it like syrupy gelatin, but those are my biggest complaints. The game sure had me crying several times during the heaviest emotional parts, and then had me wow-ing at the epic parts. It's a full package.
Don't pass this game up if you're a Final Fantasy fan.
