http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/810/810154p1.ht...

US, August 3, 2007 - For an RPG that is coming out later this year, details have remained scarce on Lost Odyssey. We recently saw a brief demo of several combat areas and learned a bit more about the immortal hero Kaim at E3, but to say we know what to expect out of this highly anticipated RPG is the understatement of the year. To squeeze a few more details out, we sent Ray Nakazato, President of feelplus Inc., a list of questions. Feelplus, as a reminder for those that recall Mistwalker as the developer for Lost Odyssey, is the dev team created as a subsidiary of Microsoft to aid the small Mistwalker studio.

IGN: From what we've played of Blue Dragon, it takes a while to pick up the pace in terms of story and how open the game is. Will the same be true of Lost Odyssey or will the pacing be different?

Ray Nakazato: The pacing will be very different. We are not disclosing how it will be, as we are still tuning and balancing many aspects.

IGN: Is the game a linear experience or will we find many branching quests and optional side stories? Will there be multiple endings to the game?

Ray Nakazato: The basic story in linear with a single ending, but there will be side quests to partake in.

IGN: We've been told that the game takes place during a brief portion of the immortal Kaim's life. What makes this part of his life so special that it is the focus of the game?

Ray Nakazato: 30 years ago, a new power manifested itself unto the world. With its discovery came the Magical Industrial Revolution. This power came to be called "Magic Energy."

Even now, there are none who can explain why this power - a power that merely lay buried within all living creatures - suddenly flourished as it did. Today, this Magic Energy permeates every corner of the world. It has changed the way people live, transformed the shape of industry and has even altered the nature of war.

IGN: How much does Kaim's past play into the game?

Ray Nakazato: There will be many short episodes that elaborate on the past 1000 years of Kaim's life in the form of dreams. Players will understand Kaim more and more as they view these episodes.



IGN: How are you keeping the combat interesting with an immortal as the main character?

Ray Nakazato: When an immortal's hit points (HP) reach zero, they fall down for a few turns and then eventually recover after a few turns. If everyone in your party is down, the game will be over.

IGN: What is the time setting in the world of Lost Odyssey? Many of the settings looked futuristic while others reminded us more of feudal times.

Ray Nakazato: We don't have a particular time setting as the world of Lost Odyssey does not take place on Earth.

IGN: Some of the character design is reminiscent of Final Fantasy. What sets Lost Odyssey apart from that series?

Ray Nakazato: It is completely a new design, but we have a few concept artists who formerly worked on the Final Fantasy series.

IGN: Have you run into any difficulties translating Lost Odyssey into English prior to the game's completion in Japan in preparation for a worldwide release?

Ray Nakazato: No, our visual director is an American and is a Hollywood veteran. He creates excellent English cut-scenes. In addition, Microsoft's support on multi-lingual production is excellent.

IGN: Who is performing the English voice acting? Are there any famous voices we might recognize from other games?

Ray Nakazato: All the voice-overs in Lost Odyssey are performed by professional voice actors. We recorded all English voices in Los Angeles.

IGN: Will we still have the option to listen to the Japanese voice acting as we will in Blue Dragon?

Ray Nakazato: This is still being determined.

IGN: Why is Lost Odyssey sticking to old-school turn based combat systems rather than trying to add something new to keep things fresh?

Ray Nakazato: For this particular title and its fans, we felt that a traditional game mechanism would be best.

IGN: We saw some basic elemental attacks at E3 this year. Will there be any more awe-inspiring spell effects such as large scale summons?

Ray Nakazato: There will be many more magical effects, but you'll have to wait for the details.

What kind of stupid question is this and to top it off what kind of stupid answer was that! I'm flabbergasted.

Otherwise, not much info but hey I dont care, the game is only a few months away and the less I know about the game the better.

there will be a new demo and a flood of info at TGS i'm sure.

Actually I'd rather they didnt show more. I honestly am quite happy with what we saw so far. I'd love if they would start talking about Cry On and why not Blue Dragon 2 perhaps ?

There is no way in hell MS will allow that! LO is there big hope for a big push in JP this xmas, there gonna plug from it from TGS all the way to launch ala BD.

Uh oh in other words they totally owned Blue Dragon in their review for this :)

what a crappy interview. Learned nothing new, and also, they need to talk more about ASH. Asses!


Grrr, guess it's TGS then. ASH, LO, and Cry-On. I'm just hoping LO doesn't suffer from the tech issues that plagued BD, framerate drops up the ass, screen tearing, etc. They had almost up to a year to fix those issues, and yet they didn't solve a damn thing.

lol :)

I couldnt agree more. Those issues wont keep me from buying the game but I really hope they get ironed out in Lost Odyssey. There is nothing more annoying frame rate drops IMO.

I dont get this anti-turn-based, I mean if it was good enough UP UNTIL now for 11 FF's and a plethera of other RPG, how come its become taboo this generation, in all honesty its the dumbest thing I've heard in a while. There were always other RPG with superior combat systems but all of a sudden no one wants turn based, quite an oddity.

Dont think much into it. Everybody is now saying this after what Final Fantasy XII did and with Final Fantasy being the bunchmark of the JRPG genre (which I dont agree with), most people think now that what has been done in there to the combat system should be the standard from now on which is a joke if you ask me. I'm glad Mistwalker didnt consider it and I'm even happier they had the guts to stick with turn based for the two titles. I think Cry On might be different but We'll see.
I really hope they still stick with turn based. I'm all with removing random battles a la Blue Dragon which was done extremely well in giving you the chance to pick a fight if you want to and to me that was the only problem with JRPS, random battles not that I mind it but I'm glad it got removed. Lost Odyssey though seem to have sticked to Random battles, I think which I think is fine. We have Blue Dragon without random battles.

Seriously the frame rate problems in Blue Dragon are minimal and they don't detract from the battle, which is generally the only place they appear.

Most games on 360 suffer from Screen tearing in some form or another.I totally agree with you, I'm a huge fan of Turn Based games and they are the generally the game of choice in Japan, i think it has something to do with Western taste more than anything.

Westerners seem to like hack and slash RPGs more than Turn Based, and for this reason Japanese dev's may feel pressured to alter their games to sell well in the west.

Interview was a bit lame, but so close to TGS its to be expected that anything new would be revealed, like Almio i would like to see something on Cry On also.

I already know i want LO, so don't need to see anything new on the game, day one purchase for me.

Wasn't a problem when the ps2 was doing it so I just guess its cause the Xbox 360 has these types of games now so its suddenly unacceptable and is now a major drawback to an rpg. I bet if Final Fantasy 13 turned out to be turn based reviewers wouldn't attempt to detract from it in anyway.

I have ZERO problems with turn based gameplay.

In fact, I'm extremely happy with Blue Dragon. The demo was pretty ruined but it did show how fantastic the strategy is when you play on hard.

Problems with turn based gameplay come up when your normal attacks are too effective. Good turn based games balance enemies with varied capabilities with characters with a wide range of strengths and weaknesses.

That forces the player to formulate strategy - so every battle turns into a little game of chess. That's what turn based gameplay in an RPG is all about.

Most Xbox gamers are used to more interactive battles, which is the way American and European style RGP's are done - I also love those.

In fact, I prefer real time battles. However I still love and really appreciate a good turn based battle system. Games like that are all about the quality of the production and the story - the idea behind games like that is to match the fantastic story with a purely cinematic turn based strategy game.

I understand many people just don't get turn based RPG's. But that shouldn't surprise anyone, I can't tell you how many people just don't like Tetris, or just hate puzzle games. Tons of people just don't like chess or checkers and prefer other games.

Some people love to have a nice cool drink out at the park over a game of chess. Other people rather play touch football at the same park.

I enjoy both, and the same goes for real time and turn based RPG's.

Damn right it is! :)