Final Fantasy & Much More
LO starts of with a bang literally. The starting cinematic shows the fighting between Khent and Uhra. In the midst of the fighting, Kaim is seen killing Khent troopers and suddenly the cinematic switched into the game and introduces you the battle mechanisms of the game. After dispatching a couple of Khents, the cinematic continues with a fiery meteor crash, killing everybody in the blast radius except the protagonist (cos he's an immortal). After surviving the crash, the game introduces you to the second and important part of the battle mechanism, the rings. Basically by timing the 1 ring to intercept the other, more damage can be applied. After that, the adventure begins with cinematics on the various politicking in Uhra. Eventually the protagonist will be introduced to 2 characters, the flirtatious Seth Balmore (another immortal) and the corny Jansen (a mortal). There are so many things in the game that I can't cover everything. However let's look at the major details of LO.
The game's non battle sequence will take a majority of the games. There will be lots of in game or real cinematics describing to you the game's main plot (mind you both cinematics look almost the same!). Besides taking on the main quests, which will be fully narrated by the characters themselves, interaction with minor NPCs and doing the side quests are also worth completing despite the line texts of the minor NPCs. Line text? Not another NWN game! However, the similarities end there. Unlike NWN or even FF, the incentive of engaging the minor NPCs is because sometimes it unlocks Kaim's memories. It appears as a form of dream and more line texts appears. And surprisingly, the dream sucks you in as you read the story of part of Kaim's 1000 year old past unfolding in some form of PowerPoint slides! What makes it so unique is due to the intense background design, gripping soundtrack and the occasional sound effects to punctuate the certain words in the text. It stimulates your imagination. And after "playing" through the dream, you realize there is a moral to be learned in every story, ranging from the frailty of life, to the loneliness of being an immortal (after watching all your loved ones die). Besides unlocking the "1000 years of dreams", there is a myriad of puzzles to solve too. Ranging from the challenging (avoiding security bots in a ship) to the mundane (picking up certain objects), LO retains its freshness and surprises you sometimes with the unique puzzles.
However, for the action lovers, there will be lots of battles too. The battle sequences are similar to the FF series. By using the formation properly, low HP characters can be partially protected from further damage by the GC, calculated by the total HP of the front row tankers. However unlike FF, the GC drops after when your tankers take damage. So unless you have a character that cast some replenish GC spells, your back row people will take more damage as the battle progresses. This applies to the enemies too. So there is a certain element of strategy involved during the battle and makes the targets that you choose so important. The battle will have different outcomes from the choices you make. One sterling example is the giant worm boss. He attacks by absorbing energy from his minions. Do you immediately go for broke and assault him, or should you take his minions out, even though they respawn at every turn? If your characters faint, you can revive him or her using some items or spells. But for immortals, they usually revive FOR FREE up to half HP automatically after 2 turns. So this gives another dimension to the tactics involved, especially when the fainted characters do not gain XP.
Secondly, the enemies have different types and element. By using a rock, paper, scissors mentality, your black magic (attacking) spells can do extra damage against the element types. The rings as mentioned earlier can be used to deal additional damage against either type or element of the enemy. This is especially useful when fighting the bosses as they have huge amount of HP. There are also white magic spells to heal yourself and remove certain status problems afflicting your character. Then there is composite spells. A mixture of two black or white spells. So it is possible to cure paralysis and heal your characters in one turn when it would have taken 2 turns for example. Finally there is spirit magic which is akin to nature magic. It has both offensive and defensive spells. Finally, certain characters have different set of skills to do additional damage or recovering the HP of other characters for example. Thus, the battle in LO is complex and difficult, with a certain degree of tactics involved.
As mentioned earlier, the game's storyline is gripping and filled with many plot twists here and there (as clearly shown when you meet the twins later on), the characters are well portrayed ; Kaim being a emo-less guy, Seth being a flirt and Jansen with his incessant whining and funny one liners ("Oh Puberty's weird", "Did someone order the seafood?"). The score is really topnotch with melodious tunes during happy times and pulsating rhythms during battle sequences. The sound effects are realistic enough especially during the dreams. Graphics wise, the different environment graphics are realistic (the water is really fantastic!). The characters models are very detailed, with the fluttering of Kaim's hair to his tattoos to the veins on Ming's hand and on the exposed part of her body. However, at times, the graphics in general feel a wee bit dated. This is evident during the harp scene. The lines of the harp are not straight and sometimes the shadow lines are jaggered too. It could be because of the AA of the 360. Thankfully these moments tend to be rare.
Despite the good and memorable moments, there are a few shortcomings in LO. One major gripe is the frame rate issue. During some battles with huge or many creatures, the frame rate tends to stutter when the spells are flying fast and furious. Another gripe is the starting difficulty. The first boss is rather difficult and the starting few battles tend to give you some headaches too. Be prepared to try and try again. But patience will see you through and thankfully, it gets easier as the game progresses towards the end of the first disk. I still don't know how hard it is for the remaining 3 disks though. Another gripe is that some side tasks are too difficult (avoiding security bots in the ship for e.g.).
Ultimately, if you overlook those small gripes, LO is a long long game (4 disks) with a compelling storyline and a solid cast of characters. The characters themselves are so compelling, you'll want to replay the game just to laugh at Jansen's one liners, pity Kaim's eternal curse or enjoy the company of the ever bickering twins Cooke and Mack. Coupled with a dynamic musical score and intense visuals and sound effects, it makes LO a joy to be played, placing it together, if not higher than other excellent RPGs like Mass Effect.