I'm only about 6 hours into the game so far, so it's too early to write a review, but I do have some early impressions. Some good, some bad...

First, the good...

The characters are top notch! The prose written to detail parts of Kaim's past are some of the most beautiful pieces I have written. The use of creative text, music, and ambiance help reveal some truly lovely vignettes that are both poetic and beautiful. Jensen is absolutely hysterical, and Seth seems great as well. The game does give you a great sense of a story presented from the perspective of beings who have lived for a long time.

Now, the not soo good...

the load times! Horrid! I mean, god awful, "makes the load times in Mass Effect seem short by comparison" bad! Turned based games are slow by nature, but to have them slowed even more by what are inexcusable load times in this day and age seems almost unforgivable. It hasn't ruined the game experience for me, but it is hurting my involvement in what is otherwise a great story. But, as critical as I just was, I can bear it.

Here's what I can't bear...

I said previously that I was only six hours in. But, I have actually played for ten hours. Why? Here's why.

My first go around, I missed a critical accesory in a chest along my journey of a mountain range that made doing the first boss all but impossible. I finally had to cave, and buy a damn game guide, only to realize my error, and restarted the game, so I could just start fresh and get the accesory I needed. Turns out, shortly after, I almost missed a critical spell hidden in a chest in a mineshaft that would have cost my chances against a second boss. Hey, I'm all for exploring, but I'm also all for skipping exploring on my first playthrough, so I can see the story progress. This becomes especially urgent, when I'm trying to make up lost time that unbearable load screens are causing. And, in other games, this hurried pace would simply cost me a 'heroic weapon fragment' or something awesome, but completely optional. In Lost Odyssey, my brevity cost me my only means of defeating the very first boss I faced.

That, is horsecrap!

That off my chest, the story is moving unusually slow. Between reading prose vignettes, enduring load screens galore, and backtracking to make sure I found all the items necessary to proceed, I find more of my time engaged in things beyond my control, that with the exception of the stories, don't enhance the play experience at all for the time they cost me.

I've been looking forward to this game for over six months, and while I didn't expect it to be the best JRPG I'd ever play, I did expect it to be a polished attempt. Unfortunately, early on, the seams are showing, badly, and it's tearing away at the fabric of what is, as a story, a potentially interesting one.

I will admit, that the last game I felt so frustrated with so early on was Assassin's Creed, but unlike that game, I have hope that the story will begin to flesh out, and redeem the faults of the game. Lost Odyssey is definitely building toward something bigger, and refreshingly more introspective that most JRPG's that exist...it's just a shame this intropection has become a slower and more tedious process that I feel it should be so far.

But, I have a feeling it'll turn around.