RPG on xbox? 4 discs on xbox? Mistwalker? Despite having most things against it, Lost Odyssey has alot to give.
From the moment the game opens you know there is something about it,the opens the game, with a graphically superior cutscene, reminiscent of the FFX cutscenes, also in a battle which is all quite exciting, it then goes on and towards the end of the cutscene you are left quite bedazzled, Is it trying too hard?, Did I waste my money?, That was pretty awesome?. Many questions, or I could just keep playing the game and see what happens.
It then gets down to the grind, with a nice storyline coming in, it introduces the main characters propery.
The battles in lost odyssey are one of the games main strengths, it is turn based, but not in the manner of ATB or in the FFX style, it is more Dragon Quest, at the beginning of the turn, you choose all your moves and then they played out, and then you choose again, it is really effective with other little tweaks to it like having delays for larger moves, and when you physically attack someone, it has a little mini game where you have to line up one ring onto another, if that makes sense. Okay, its complicated, on the screen firstly before you press anything there is a ring, and this is where you hold down the RT button, bringing down a second ring from of screen towards the ring on screen already, once, the ring you are controlling lands on the primary ring, you release the RT button and will get a Perfect, Great or Bad, depending on where the ring ends up, and if you think this would take too long, you would be wrong, it only takes a matter of 3 seconds in which behind the rings onscreen your characters are seen charging towards the enemies, which is really quite impressive graphically.
Story-wise Lost Odyssey might aswell be a Final Fantasy game, if it does anything well, it lays down an exceptional story, it is a story-propelled RPG and very well knows this as it focuses alot on things such as cutscenes, graphics and sound these it does well, and add up to some memorable moments in the game which stick, especially an exceptional ending, I won't spoil it.
Lost Odyssey's excellent soundtrack was orchestrated by Final Fantasy's own Nobuo Uematsu, and as guessed, it adds into the cutscenes through-out the game massively and as you may have guessed, the final boss theme is outstanding and makes the final moments of the game breath-taking.
Aswell as the solid music in the game, the voice acting is of a fairly high standard aswell, which is needed for some of the more comic moments in the game.
The characters are one of the most exciting parts of the game as they are tied tightly too each other, and so when one or another pass away, you can feel the lump in the back of your throat. Throughout the game, the characters have some predictable relationships, but like watching a movie again, its fun to see them play out.
Lost Odyssey has some nice little added features that can be enjoyable, such as the thousand years dreams, which are little stories your character recalls through the course of the game, but become tedious after the first few and don't drag you in enough, aswell as an arena you can compete in, but once again doesn't keep you reeled in once you have completed the game.
All in all, this game is a definite rental, sure if you can complete a 4 disc game in the time you're allowed to rent it, but if you buy it, you'll complete it and never touch it again, but I don't want to end on a negative note, this game is a great piece of art and will definitely leave an impression on you.