Got LO yesterday , played for about 2 hours and so far its good . The graphics are good , nice lighting and environments . Loading times are sort of frequent (unreal engine problem ? ) . The combat is standard jprg stuff but the ring system does add a little and its fun . The skill link and the ring enhancement systems are also well done . The story does seem to be well written . The whole technology-magic setting and the political setting is cool . The dream sequences are also well-written . Music is top-notch .

So far i am enjoying it , will add after playing a little more ..

Wait, it' s not supposed to come out for over like another 9 days. How do you have it?

It was released in india a couple of days back .. We generally get MS games early . We got crackdown 2 days before the US release

Bad ass man! Enjoy it!

Is the pirating scene pretty heavy over there, does MS actually release games early, or are dealers & vendors just lax on the " do not open" requests?

Unfortunately the pirating scene is pretty heavy and because of that some of the publishers do not release their games here (especially ubisoft ) . The MS games are " officially" available early .

Sakaguchi said himself that he would be intrested to see how indians reacts to his games.

Sakaguchi said himself that he would be intrested to see how indians reacts to his games.

They' ll like it, it was free. lol

Free ? I paid 48$ for it , 12$ less than what u guys will have to pay but not free .

Sakaguchi must be a fan of Indian culture . The text in the environments (i mean the billboards in the cities and stuff ) are in Hindi ..

Anyways , i would like to add that the bosses are very tough in the game . Lots of grinding required but its fun ..

It was a joke, because you said there' s a lot of pirating in India...

ORIGINAL: 2pac

Anyways , i would like to add that the bosses are very tough in the game . Lots of grinding required but its fun ..

After playing through the brutality of FF3 on DS, I' m up for any challenge now. God that game was merciless at times.

Well, I purchased Losy Odyssey yesterday and so far it exceeds my expectations of it. I' ll just to a brief outline so as not to spoil anything.

The dubbing is incredibly good. Lip synch is spot on, and voices are appropriate for their characters. Jansen has got to be one of my favorite characters so far.

Graphically it' s fantastic. Once you get to Numara you' ll understand why. It also suffers from none of the trademark slowdowns and " texture popping" that is prelavent in most UE3 games. From what I can see, this is because of two things:

1. Lost Odyssey doesn' t use extensive normal mapping. In UE3, high levels of detail are achieved by normal maps that are placed on the lower poly objects during realtime rendering. Due to data transfer limitations of optical media on consoles, these take a while to load and results in what looks to be " texture popping" . Lost Odyssey is still a beautiful game despite using less normal maps.

2. When loading a large scene, they extend the loading screen by a couple of seconds by showing us a piece of generic information about a specific character. This simple trick gives time for the normal maps to load properly and stops any further " texture pop" . Load times are still good and on par with other UE3 games.

The overall framerate is is much improved because of these things.

Gameplay is your standard JRPG affair. And being a fan of JRPG' s, that' s fine by me. Random encounters are just right. Not too frequent to be annoying, but not infrequent either. The difficulty is moderate-hard but once you get a feel for how combat works, it gets easier.

Character development and story so far is very impressive. The use of dreams are a really good way to get that extra character depth, and also provide that occasional change of pace. Some people may not like them because they require a fair amount of reading to understand them, but they' re presented beautifully, and the philosophical writing is really used well. Anyone who likes reading will find their use in the game refreshing.

From the few hours I' ve played so far, I' m enjoying it 10x more than Blue Dragon. As much as I tried, I just couldn' t get much past the first disc in that game. But Lost Odyssey is an excellent gaming experience, certainly worthy of the Sakaguchi namesake.

Sweet! Thanks for the impressions man. I' m really looking forward to picking this game up. I' m trying to push through Blue Dragon right now. I' m on the second disc and from what I' ve heard the third disc is really short so I' m hoping if I really push I can knock the game out just before buying Lost Odyssey.

So fucking typical that I got RROD...

Bah.

But hey,its in weiterstadt atm the place it were supposed to be repaired at.

Hey unlucky , how did you beat the worm bosses ? Those mutha**** keeps beating me ...

I didn' t realise this was on 4 DVD' s. It makes sense, but that is a bit of a pain in the ass. I thought we got to leave those days behind with the ps1.

I don' t care what your thoughts are on the Hi-Def format of choice is, you have to admit that 1 disc would be much more preferable than 4.

edit - That said, I eagerly await this game as I have been wanting a nice long RPG for quite a while, and the previous offerings of Blue Dragon and FF12 couldn' t pull me in.

ORIGINAL: Dagashi

I didn' t realise this was on 4 DVD' s. It makes sense, but that is a bit of a pain in the ass. I thought we got to leave those days behind with the ps1.

I don' t care what your thoughts are on the Hi-Def format of choice is, you have to admit that 1 disc would be much more preferable than 4.

edit - That said, I eagerly await this game as I have been wanting a nice long RPG for quite a while, and the previous offerings of Blue Dragon and FF12 couldn' t pull me in.

The 4 discs dont matter . Its not as if u have to change the disc every hour or so . You play through the disc and once u finish it u can load saves by putting in the other discs ..

Man , i am still stuck at the beginning of the first disc . The videos have got me super excited . The game looks like it truly is epic .. If only i didnt totally suck at jrpgs ..

ORIGINAL: 2pac

Hey unlucky , how did you beat the worm bosses ? Those mutha**** keeps beating me ...

I just kept a lid on the amount of minions he had, because he can' t charge up as quickly without them. I don' t think there was any real trick to it. Prism helped a bit but after a while I just switched to single round spells. Just make sure you keep healed and take opportunities to go all out on him when they come.

I just got to the second disc now and am about 12 hours in. I can now clearly say that this is one of the most dramatic gaming experiences ever. It' s like a fantastic novel, you really get attached to the characters and their relationships with each other. Mark my words. This game will draw you in and not let go. I don' t think I' ve felt attached to characters this much since FF7. It' s a game that' s not afraid to pull on the old heart strings.

I' d like to correct what I said earlier. The underlying combat and skills/spells system is quite complex once you get further in, and ends up being far from generic.

I have not read any reviews on the internet, nor do I wish to know about the cynical and jaded opinions of a bunch of ingrates. I' d definitely give this one a minimum of 9/10.

Thanx unlucky ..

Game trailers review is up . They gave it a 8.8 which i feel is about right ..

GameTrailers

quickly without them. I don' t think there was any real trick to it. Prism helped a bit

Metacritic rating is now at 72. Which to me seems a bit low, though I have yet to play it.

What gets me is that many of the quotes mention Mass Effect as some sort of recent RPG that all others should be measured against. I loved the game, but it was definitely flawed, and certainly was less RPG and more action than previous Bioware offerings. To compare a more old school style JRPG to a new school action shooter RPG is a bit misguided IMO, but hey, so are the majority of gaming journalists.

I' m still gonna go pick this up tommorow regardless. I hope I can really get into this game, I' m definitely gonna try.


edit -

What I want to know is how Gamepro can go from saying this about Blue Dragon and giving it a 95

Blue Dragon might not be sheer perfection, but it still delivers a truly exemplary console RPG experience by thoughtfully executing and expanding on longtime genre traditions.

to giving Lost Odyssey a 65 and saying this -

Ultimately, whether or not Lost Odyssey is worth your time and money comes down to how absorbed in the broad strokes of this world you' ll let your own imagination become, and whether you' re willing to make the emotional investment asked of you. Ordinary suspension of disbelief simply won' t cut it in the face of such overt melodrama and strained gameplay.