IGN hands on for LO,very nice reading.
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Sep 23, 2006 19:05
TGS 2006: Lost Odyssey Hands-On
Slashing swords and random battles.
by Charles Onyett
September 21, 2006 - We finally got a chance to check out Mistwalker' s much-hyped Lost Odyssey on the floor of TGS 2006. Studio boss Hironobu Sakaguchi had given us a glimpse at the first 10 mintues of the 40 minute demo, and it looked pretty good. With some extended hands-on time on the show floor, we were able to see what lay beyond where the previous presentation cut off.
The story follows a character named Kain, sentenced to live for 1000 years. When we were playing through the demo, getting killed meant Kain automatically revived with a small fraction of his health. No menus or mini maps were available in the demo we played, so the heads up display was pretty bare. In a press briefing a little while after the show floor opened, Sakaguchi said two major gameplay elements were not included in the demo. In other words, the Lost Odyssey demo apparently doesn' t give a very good representation of the whole thing.
This would explain the rather basic battles we sliced through until we were told to stop playing. Starting off on the fiery field after the sky meteor thing burped lava everywhere, we went off in what we hoped was the correct direction. Running around the ashy plain felt a similar to Final Fantasy X, especially when we ran into our first random battle. Honestly, running into a random battle was a disappointment. With Blue Dragon' s system of putting enemies on screen, and actually letting you do damage and affect their status, it would have been great to see LO adopt a different type of system. Instead, it appears LO is headed down the well-trodden road of random enemy encounters. Hopefully one of the unrevealed gameplay devices changes this up.
In his press briefing, Sakaguchi also mentioned there' d be a total of eight playable characters in LO. Four of them will be immortal type characters, and five can be on the battlefield at any time. The immortals are going to be able to absorb abilities from others, though we' re not clear on specifics. Only Kain was playable in the demo on the floor, so we didn' t really get a sense of how a party interacts.
Running around the smoking debris of the battlefield, we discovered some elements of the environment could be manipulated. At two different points we could push over pillars and use them as bridges to cross pools of lava. Enemy types included what appeared to be some kind of dog-headed soldiers. Battles consisted of each of us trading sword blows, with us easily coming out on top.
Kain' s abilities in the demo seem to be limited to a basic sword slash, a health replenishing ability, a mana replenishing ability, some kind of attack or defense booster, and a guard function that deflects damage. After battle, experience, gold, and sometimes items are awarded to the player. We didn' t manage to level up in the short time we got play, so Kain stayed at level 10 throughout its entirety.
We finally escaped the fiery field, reaching a stony mountain pass area. The random battles here pit us against groups of small, green-skinned enemies. Carrying spears and shielded with domed helmets, these guys put up a little more of fight than the dog soldiers. They had one magic attack that looked as through they threw smoke at us, in addition to their regular melee hits. Still, they were taken care of rather easily. Between battles we found a few breakable crates around the landscape, some of which yielded items when we walked over them.
We eventually ran into some gold-armored soldiers, who after a brief conversation escorted us to a small mountain camp. From there we caught a truck ride into a much larger town. Unfortunately we were told to leave at this point, so we didn' t get to wander around what appeared to be a sprawling metropolis.
The most impressive aspect of the demo right now is definitely the graphics. The game looks absolutely awesome, with a style that caught our attention and made us want to see more. Sound seemed excellent as well, from the sweeping score to the crisp battle effects. Gameplay was a little more underwhelming, only because it was so simple. We' d love to see how the two unrevealed gameplay elements Sakaguchi mentioned fit into the gameplay, and check out how immortal characters interact with each other in battle.
Sakaguchi says Lost Odyssey is being translated into eight languages, including English, Korean, two kinds of Chinese, Spanish, and German. Only the English, Korean, and of course Japanese will get full voice acting, he said.
French? nope,Italiano? nope,why spanish and chinese???
I know that germany as a counrty has the highest gaming pop but still,why no french?But seeing how i only care about it coming to EU which is now 100% confirmed im happy with the english :)
Sakaguchi made it clear that he was very concerned about the accuracy of lip-synching in his game, so close attention will be paid to that aspect. Though the demo will be released in Japan with Famitsu later on this year, Mistwalker hasn' t forgotten the rest of the world. Sakaguchi says he' s trying to get a demo to the United States and other territories through Xbox Live, though it wasn' t clear whether this will become a reality. In terms of when gamers can expect to play the final version, Sakaguchi is aiming for a simultaneous worldwide
Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.