During a closed door meeting Microsoft showed off Lost Odyssey. While it isn’t a Final Fantasy title it feels like it is a lost relative of Sakaguchi’s other series on the great RPG family tree. The demo started out with Kaim, one of the immortal characters, riding a train in a futuristic, but run down city. (does this ring a bell?) On the train they are suddenly attacked and the game switches from dialogue to combat. Lost Odyssey’s combat system is turn based with a few twists. When Kaim rushes forward to attack with his giant sword the game zooms in for “precision aiming”. If you can press a button when a cursor moves into a circle you can deal extra damage. The context sensitive command reminded me of how you press a shoulder button to do deal extra damage with Squall’s gunblade in Final Fantasy VIII. Using magic is another option in combat and Sarah, Kaim’s partner used the Prisma spell that caused an explosion of colors to appear on screen and light damage.
Characters in the demonstration felt like they were being emphasized as a mage or a fighter from the wall system. The invisible wall reduces the amount of damage your party takes, but it can be broken down. By casting some spells and using items you can break through and deal more damage. The principle of the wall is an enhanced version of rows as seen in other RPGs where fighters are in the front and mages/bards/mimics are in the back.
Remember how Kaim is immortal? Not all characters in Lost Odyssey are immortal, Sarah isn't. One of the ways immortal characters can gain new skills aside from leveling up is absorbing powers from mortal characters. Also immortal characters don’t “die” during fights. If Kaim falls in battle he is automatically revived after a few turns. You can still lose the game even if you have a party with only immortals. If your three characters are unconscious at the same time it’s time to restart from a save point.
The other neat thing about combat is during boss battles you can use objects in the environment. Before the boss fight begins Seth, a green haired girl and Tolten the elder member of the party discuss tactics in a manga like pre-battle cutscene. They spell out to the player they should hit a nearby crane and drop a bomb over the boss monster opposed to fighting it. The trick in this boss fight is to attack the crane with precision attacks and damage it enough so the bomb falls down for an instant victory. Random encounters don’t take advantage of the environment, but around three dozen story based fights do. I asked if it was possible to beat the boss monster the “old fashioned way” by you know casting spells, clashing axes and limit breaks. And you can, but you have to be strong enough to do so. I thought the environmental combat was a neat addition, but it instantly reminded me of the intro sequence in Final Fantasy X where Tidus and Auron knock the tanker to push through the Sinspawn.
Lost Odyssey was made in mind for a Western audience, which is unusual for JRPGs. Facial animation, hand gestures and the voices were done in English first. Microsoft plans to localize it this winter in many languages including: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and of course Japanese. It wasn’t clear if it was just going to be text translations for some of these languages or full voiceovers, but considering the amount of localization work put into Blue Dragon I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kaim fluent in more than five languages. The North American release will have the Japanese track too, if you prefer your RPGs in Nihongo.
Microsoft also has plans for downloadable content for Lost Odyssey to extend the 40-50 hour main game. Exact details were not disclosed, but I was told it will be similar to Blue Dragon.
The biggest debacle Lost Odyssey has is it feels like a lost Final Fantasy game. On the plus side it may draw in Final Fantasy fans looking for a console RPG fix this holiday season. On the negative side Lost Odyssey may have a hard time distinguishing itself as its own thing. The last piece of the puzzle, the mysterious story about Kaim living a 1,000 years, will be the deciding factor.
