Lost Odyssey is a refreshing take on the classic turn based RPG. Its characters grip you tightly until the end.
Lost Odyssey focuses on the journey of Kaim Argonar, an immortal who has lived the past 1000 years but has recently lost all of his memories. He starts his journey as the stereotypical brooding hero. As his memories return, he grows into a much more memorable character whom the others on the journey come to look to and admire. Kaim's companions include a number of other immortals who also are searching for direction after losing their memories as well. The party is filled out with a few mortals as well, including Jansen who serves as comic relief throughout the story. Jansen's cockiness and one-liners caused more than a few laughs on my end and the rest of the cast is developed nicely. As the immortals find their memories, and the mortals mature, the growth of the cast is evident and extremely well done. Instead of your usual cast of stereotypes, each character is unique and feels all the more real through their insecurities and strengths. The characters really make this game and ultimately how you feel about them will determine whether or not you enjoy the story overall.
Recovered memories are delivered in text based story sequences that act like chapters from a novel. They are filled with emotion and some are very touching, others very sobering. They are skippable and really don't relate to the main story if they aren't to your liking, but you'll be missing out on some amazingly well written tales of Kaim and other immortals' past that serve as a great addition on top of the rest of the game itself.
Combat is enjoyable and well paced even in it's turn based form. Your usual selections are present: Attack, Item, Magic, Flee, Guard; and after choosing the actions for each of your characters, a bar appears at the bottom of the screen to indicate the order everyone will perform their actions in. Spells have a strategic element to them based on their casting time. The more powerful the spell, the longer it takes to execute, so you have to decide whether or not that heal will land in time or whether or not there will be more than one enemy left when you unleash an expensive and powerful offensive spell. The basic attack function is spiced up via the ring system. Characters equipped with rings will have a ring appear as they attack. You hold the right trigger down to close the ring on the enemy and must release it at the right moment to do maximum damage. This keeps combat from being a dull button-mash that a lot of turn based combat games fall into.
Rings add certain elements or abilities to your attacks as well. Some rings, for example, add fire damage to your attack. Others do more damage against flying-type enemies. The best rings in the game combine a number of these abilities on one ring to give you the best chance to do maximum damage to certain enemies. Rings can be swapped at any time between turns on combat and by the end of the game you'll have well over 100 to choose from. Enemies have two types associated with them, an element type, and a monster type (beast, aerial, spirit, etc...). Finding the right rings for the right situation is another piece that makes the combat system very enjoyable.
The final piece to character development and combat is the ability system present in the game. Mortals gain abilities based on their character level and can supplement those with abilities from accessories. Immortals start with few abilities, but learn them over time from equipped accessories and can also learn any ability a mortal as learned by spending time in combat with them. Immortals can only equip so many different abilities at a time though so choosing the right ones for the situation isn't always easy. Accessories can be swapped in combat, but abilities cannot. With this system in place, it encourages the use of all characters in combat over time to learn different abilities from all mortals as well as develop the abilities of your immortals. This is supplemented by the way experience is earned as the game goes on. Characters who are behind catch up extremely fast, and characters who are essentially at the max level for a given area only earn minimal xp until you move on, discouraging meaningless level grinding.
The sound in this game is amazing. Nobuo Uematsu's score is very well done and varies from beautiful orchestrated themes to jamming guitars based on the situation. Voice acting is superb throughout all characters and the veteran voice actors present pull off each character very well. Sound effects in combat are stellar and bring a lot of life to the spells and environments.
If you enjoy role playing games, or just great stories and characters, you'll really enjoy Lost Odyssey. All of the elements that make up a classic old-school RPG are present and work very well in this generation of gaming. If you like the Final Fantasy series or Chrono Trigger, give Lost Odyssey a shot and you won't be disappointed.