Well I got it, but I have to wait till I finish work .. bummer ;.;

LOL I'm thinking about it... >:)

A Guy from my XBL Friendlist plays Lost Odyssey ^^

http://live.xbox.com/de-DE/profile/profile.aspx?pp...

Dude. It's WORTH quiting your job for! :P Nah of course not. Anyway, You heard me Jolli. I command you to post videos :P .... Pretty please / looks at jolli with kitty eyes!

ooo...no idea dont ask me lol :D

I'll do some vids when I get to around level 15+, the start has been seen a million times before.

English VA is surpisingly good :D

Yea I think so as well Jolli. I noticed this back during the tgs vids. The english VA is among the best I think I've seen for sure.

Hmn.....I just watched the first ten minutes on here and well, if Blue Dragon got some really low scores, I just don't see how this one can be any better.

Turn based RPGs are not my thing, but that's not the point. I'm not saying the game sucks, just saying I expect average to good review scores if Blue Dragon is any indication.

I don't expect gleaming reviews either, but just like blue dragon I suspect the ones that try to paint it as a bad or average game will be way off.

One thing about Blue Dragon though is that from the get go its art direction and very lighthearted approach turned was working against it. I suspect certain harsh criticisms that reviewers could get away with regarding Blue Dragon will be much harder to convince people of in regards to Lost Odyssey. I'm quite sure Lost Odyssey will have its humor, but I doubt they will find another marumaro. Some may try to paint Jansen as such, but I think that will fail.


It has that serious and mature tone people like, the violence is there in a fashion that it never was in Blue Dragon, this one has the kind of political intrigue people usually enjoy, there is a mystery surrounding not one, but multiple characters which should be the setup for some nice character development.

This game takes the relationships between characters from some of the scenes I've seen thus far much further than it ever went in Blue Dragon.

Scene with Jansen and Queen Ming
Numerous Scenes with Kaim and that girl with the classes (her name slips my mind)

This game has its share of serious tragedies (wont reveal all incase they are spoilerish)

There was complaints about Blue Dragon being light on the story and from what little I watched this game seems intent on filling you in on story with numerous events as much as possible.

It has similarities to blue dragon, but it also looks like a drastic improvement over many complaints reviewers had here in the USA about Blue Dragon.

But then again the complain I read the most was about it being turn based and with this one having random battles which I truly hate with a passion, I don't see how the gameplay itself is any different than that of Blue Dragon.

BTW, can you only play as that guy? No friends fighting alongside you like in other RPGs including Blue Dragon? Can you control them?

If not I see that being mentioned. Also, it looks EXTREMELY linear from what I've seen. Is there something else to do besides following a narrow path and fighting whatever gets in the way?

Thats becase its the very beginning of the game haven't you seen the TGS 07 videos? He fought with many more allies. And there will even be moments where he isn't in the party. Yes you'll be able to control them all while in combat. I believe you can have up to 7 people in your party at one time.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25322.html

The combat ring makes the gameplay different from Blue Dragon, the wall system and the priority in battle system like how their are specific set actions that will always take place before others to determine the turns. If it counts for anything the spells performed look cooler than the ones in BD and they look more diverse as well. There are also multiple combat rings that you can equip to your character that have different effects and such. Immortal characters can link to the abilities of the mortal ones in the party and there appear to be trademark skills as well for each character.

Well rpgs of this nature are typically linear in most cases aside from certain instances. I saw a japanese guy playing in a mansion last night and there appeared to be multiple paths to take in order to look around. It appears there were some puzzle solving type things going on as well. I suppose you'll also be able to explore some cities. I saw a town where you could choose whichever place you wanted to go into and there is a world map.

I also really like random battles because it just looks weird sometimes to have all these enemies or monsters right in your path. I think it interferes with the mood the artist tries to create in a place many times.

It was more acceptable in a wacky game like Blue Dragon, but in a more serious looking ff12 it just didn't seem right for me. Especially considering you fought wherever you were instead of going into turn based combat.

about Mistwalker and Feel Plus
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8829631...

I'm not surprised to see this.

Character Costume Design: Hideo Minaba (FF9, FF12, Blue Dragon, ASH)

I did notice certain style similarities, but didn't think much of it.

I can understand where you're coming from Lebato, Turn based ain't for everyone, and I'm sure you are right that it won't get a great score over here.

It's fair to say that western gamers aren't interested in turn based games anymore, not that they ever were really :S

I'm really enjoying it though, graphics and art are some of the best I have seen this gen, I'm liking the gameplay aswell, for anyone who was a fan of FF10 you will love this.

http://www.final-fantasy-12.com/ff12_developers.ht...
Art Director/Graphics & Animation - Hideo Minaba
Art director for Final Fantasy Tactics, IX, V, VI, Parasite Eve, Super Mario RPG, Tactics, Tactics Advance.

Bio: Hideo Minaba was credited on a game as early as 1992 and as recently as 2003. Hideo Minaba has been credited with the roles Graphics, Design, Programming and Support. Hideo Minaba has been credited on games developed by the following companies: Square Co., Ltd., Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Square Enix Co., Ltd.

lol i was just about to say to you jolli go watch video 3!!!, but you are playing the damn game so you got it better than me right now :)

I'm going to do my best to hold out for February release. First time Gangura was shown he looked so damn badass.

I like the style too, looks really nice. Graphics can look really good, but very plain during combat as in most turn based RPGs once again. The lack of liberty to go off the path also makes their job much easier on the graphics sides of things, specially in terms of draw distance, and great backgrounds.

Yea you do make a good point, but I'm a huge fan of this setup. I mean i like my games where I can explore of course, but then I like my games to be like this as well. Ultimately its about personal taste.

I really like the graphics during combat as well.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28610.html?type...

skip to 4:30

New vid showcasing a rather awesome scene from the lost odyssey november event :)

Fair point Grift but let me tell you to stay away from buying Eternal Sonata. it's only worth a rental mainly because if its story. the game is WAY TOO LINEAR and combat isnt DEEP AT ALL!The final fantasy 10 part just made my day. For me personally, FF10 was the BEST of the entire series.

Yea I tried out eternal sonata quite a bit as well grift and I don't think you'll be pleased, but by all means see for yourself as what may not seem so good to me may be for you.

I think a big draw of jrpgs is that to keep the narrative as tight and focused as they usually do they are almost forced to string you along in practically linear fashion to best present to you their story in the order they wish to have it told. I thought Final Fantasy VII and other jrpgs I played had plenty of exploration. Then again you may just want a lot more exploration than what is on offer. I guess as far as exploration is concerned we'll have to see if you end up being forced to go to specific places at a specific time or if you can manage to choose where you want to go first without it needing to be the most important objective. Or if there are those moments where you wont exactly know what the most important objective is and instead come across something good (like it was in ff7 at times)

A common thing I noticed about some games with combat systems as used in Eternal Sonata is that they may look more flashy and fun than traditional rpg combat systems, but I also find those combat systems often times (not all the time though) usually tend to not stand up nearly as well in the long run and as a result loses its appeal completely. My best description of it would be to say the level of fun or enjoyment you experience in a turn based system is much more likely to remain constant or not drop off nearly as much as those other systems do and if you are one of the guys that just don't enjoy turn based I think you'll still end up relieved that it doesn't start feeling like as big a chore as eternal sonata's system.

Another thing about turn based and I can't say if this is true for anyone else, but placed in the right story situation and against a specific type of enemy the turn based system suddenly feels just as new and exciting as it did when I just started playing. What keeps the turn based feeling fresh is how the story is handled and from what I saw just last night on that stream I can say it looks pretty promising.

There was a time for me when I didn't like turn based rpgs either, but I really learned to love it. What keeps the fun going with turn based combat is how the story ends up being handled.

Jolli when you can let us know if you've seen one special skill attack from Kaim yet sorta like the special skill attack that we've seen Seth use.

And if you have time give us some impressions on how you're liking the story so far like character interactions & character development. Also how is the art direction holding up so far still as strong as ever?

No need to go into too much detail it can be simple small answers on just what you think about the mentioned things.

From the trailers that i have seen the game is truly unbelivable!I just hope i can get enough money to buy another xbox360 to play this game(and blue dragon which i stopped at the beggining).Damn that 3RROD,and no M$ support for my country(Croatia).Anyway i found some impressions from another forum,so here they are

I'm about 9 hours down the road - yes, it all I have done today - and am enjoying it. Did it shatter the very earth upon which I stand? Not at all, but such a highly polished experience with obviously massive production values doesn't come along every day, and that's something to remember.

So, the bare bones. The lip sync issue sucks, the cutscenes look odd in Japanese but I tried the English voices briefly and then quickly switched back. If I go through again (fingers crossed for a New Game + that doesn't have to be downloaded) then I'll play with English voices second time. This isn't a concern for those of you who only want to play the game in English, anyway, and it will be nice for you guys to have it lip synced properly.

Super story heavy, too. You start the game at level 10, and after all day played I am now only level 18 (although more on that below). Often you simply move across a room or enter a new location and another cutscene starts. It took three hours before I even really got to see the battle system properly, and it is only really now that I'm starting to the potential in it. I've still only got three characters. Story and Japanese script and voice acting are top notch, however, (and whatever you think of the story of BD, the second two of these were fantastic in BD, so here's hoping you get a decent translation of them).

The short stories scattered throughout are simply put, amazing. Really, really nicely written. No exposition, no events that we will come back to later, just a total of 30 (I've seen about 8 so far) incidents in the life of a man who has lived for 1000 years. It feels kind of cheap creating such a rich character in Kaim through these (his in-game persona is little more than cool, quiet, moody ROG stereotype A) but the stories are beautifully done. The text appears in interesting ways, floating onto the screen, with key words appearing and key phrases remaining after the other text fades, and they have music and backgrounds that change according to what is happening. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy these (and each is quite long) but they are wonderful. My wife asks to be called into the room when I reach a new one ^-^

Combat appears super-by-the-book to start with, but there are some nice twists. The circle which appears on the screen is all about performing special attacks. First you need to find items (generally either picked up or got from monsters in battle) to make "Rings" which can then be equipped in addition to your weapon. These Rings give your attacks abilities like "Poision" etc. When your character attacks you hold down the right trigger and the second larger ring starts to shrink in around the smaller one. Let go of the trigger when the two rings meet and the effect of whatever Ring you have equipped is triggered.

Seeing as you are free to change your Rings when your turn comes around, you essentially have a stock of special attacks that you can pick and choose from depending on the next enemy you want to attack.

The wall system seems nice too - characters in the back are basically dead if attacked once the wall is gone - and the Skill Linking system (rather than getting skills from leveling up, Immortal characters have to link with a non-immortal to learn their skills) is nice too, although right now the points required to learn each skill are so low it is easy to just have them all.

Fixed skills for the human characters and severe variance in player stats also mean something lacking in most recent RPGS - truely unique characters. Rather than the "jack of trades" bunch games like BD and more recent FF games have seen, in which toward the end of the game everyone can do everything and all be exactly the same if you like, here (non-Immortal, at least) is walking a set path, and from their fixed pool of skills you then pick and choose which to give to your Immortals. I'm looking forward to this system flowering once I get more characters.

Also, EXP seems to be tightly controlled. You always seem to need only 100 for the next level, but I quickly noticed that after a couple of battles in the same place the enemies basically stop giving you EXP altogether, or only 1 or 2 points. Doing 50 battles to get one more level is pointless, and this "level cap" system means bosses should retain their difficulty.

Indeed, overall, the game is quite tough, the bosses in pariticular. As the game progresses this may loosen, but seeing as power / unintentionally over levelling due to exploring does not seem possible this time out hopefully bosses will prove a challenge right up until the end. Regular monsters have done for me a few times because of the classic "I don't need to heal my half dead characters until they are nearly dead" RPG mentality - the strength of the Wall is determined by total HP of the front rank characters when the battle starts, so the closer to max HP you keep your party at all times, the better.

So, to sum up - and for those who skipped to the end - quality around every corner, lovely music, lovely visuals, and a very adult, serious story with a seemingly simple but actually nice and deep combat system to play around with. I've cleared my schedule to enjoy this one in a concentrated burst so I'm sure I'll be back around here soon ^-^