A masterpiece of the JRPG genre, and arguably the most emotionally charged RPG ever made.
I really like how they portayed the characters....very mature and unlike other JRPGs out there which usually have a teenage protagonist. There are child characters in your party but I also found their portrayal believable and they had a lot of good personality that doesn't deter from the story.
There's a whole lot of emotion too in this game....characters laugh, cry, and overall, you can see that they can feel emotions with the events and things that happen around them. In most RPGs nowadays the characters are overtly serious or just plain angry....Lost Odyssey shows some unbelievable range for their characters' acting; arguably far better than the recently released Mass Effect (where the characters were really only just either angry or serious all the time).
The story and the way it is told via cutscenes (real-time and CG) combined with the thousand years of dreams stories make for an entertaining ride. Focusing on subjects that normally aren't seen in games (death and the tragedy of loss), again, there's a tone of maturity and wisdom to this game.
Lastly, there's a ton of sidequests to be had on disc 4; compared to most JRPGs which are a usually a linear affair, there's a lot of things to do when the whole map opens up....making this a game that lasts over 70 hours. At this time I'm still trying to get all the items and treasures in the world and I'm at 80 hours already. I have beaten the game earlier....and by the way, this game has the best ending I've ever witnessed. In my mind it has beaten the epic 20 minute ending for Final Fantasy 6!
Great job Mistwalker. I'm glad that the users around the 'web are rallying behind this title. I'd love to see more of the Lost Odyssey universe in the future.