Lost Odyssey

[Tempest]

Is this game supposed to be so hard? I just finished disc one and my characters are all around 20 with all the skills learned, but I seem to be barely survivng in boss fights and even some of the regular fights are causing me troubles. The damage dealt just seems out of whack as my guy has around 800 HP but monsters can do anywhere from 100-450 damage to me depending on what attack they use. I'm constantly healing at the end of every battle and it's getting old fast.

 

Oddly there doesn't seem to be any armor in this game, so it's not like I can just buy more expensive gear. you also can't grind for levels as the areas are level capped (sounds like a good idea, but it's really not). Does the game get easier over time or am I just way underleveled?

 

Tempest

[Red 5]

I am on disc 1 and just got thrown into the prison (actually, just escaped).

 

I have had three boss battles. The first one kicked my ass so hard it wasn't even funny.

It forced me to learn how to use my rings betther though, so I accepted that.

 

The second boss battle I won the firt time through. That was nice.

Then the army and their archers showed up. They kicked my ass three or four times before I beat them. There seems to be some trial and error with which spells and rings to use.

 

I found that if you aren't using the right spells based on the enemies elemental power (water to attack fire, fire to attack wind, etc.) you are pretty much screwed. And it does seem unfair that some enemies inflict so much damage. I hope as we progress we get some better defense...

 

That said, HOLY CRAP! How the hell did this game fly under the radar? I mean, it is absolutely stunning. I know people aren't all nuts about JRPG's anymore, but for anyone who was ever a fan of the old turn based RPG's this may be right up there with Chrono Trigger, FF7 and Skies of Arcadia.

 

I cannot believe the time and effort and production value that went into this game and I am shocked it wasn't a huge hit.

 

I guess times change and the Oblivions, Fallouts and Mass Effects have taken RPG's in a new direction (which I love as well) but I think Lost Odyssey is a must have for anyone who likes RPG's.

[cimerians]

I just picked it up used for 20 bucks at a local Recyclery. I need to get around playing this but I need to finish up some other games too. A friend of mine recommended it so I guess Im glad I got it.

[moycon]

While playing through I definitively thought LO was an RPG for folks who were good at RPGs. In other words, not for novices, I don't recall being super frustrated with the game tho. (Except maybe the DLC main boss who is SUPER hard)

 

Based on my game saves you're not under leveled Tempest. Kaim was level 20 when I hit disk 2. I hadn't ever really thought about the fact there wasn't any armor in this game, but sure enough when I booted up my old game. No armor.

Have you been assembling rings? They will help out some. It certainly does matter what element you use on a creature. The right one will do considerably more damage. The game might get easier for you the more skills you learn, especially when you break a certain person out of prison and you learn their x2 skills.

 

I'll have to agree with therealred5. This RPG was one of my favorites on the 360 just under Eternal Sonata. Absolutely stunning graphics and challenging game play. I loved it and thought it was awesome.

[Tempest]

I haven't been super frustrated or anything (I haven't wiped out yet), but I just noticed that LO seems much harder than the last 3 RPGs I've played (Tales of Vesperia, Infinite Undiscovery, and Blue Dragon).

 

So what characters are worth using at the end? So far the two kids seem pretty worthless to me (although the MP free heal from Prayer is nice).

 

Tempest

[wccw mark]

I am on disc 1 and just got thrown into the prison (actually, just escaped).

 

I have had three boss battles. The first one kicked my ass so hard it wasn't even funny.

It forced me to learn how to use my rings betther though, so I accepted that.

 

The second boss battle I won the firt time through. That was nice.

Then the army and their archers showed up. They kicked my ass three or four times before I beat them. There seems to be some trial and error with which spells and rings to use.

 

I found that if you aren't using the right spells based on the enemies elemental power (water to attack fire, fire to attack wind, etc.) you are pretty much screwed. And it does seem unfair that some enemies inflict so much damage. I hope as we progress we get some better defense...

 

That said, HOLY CRAP! How the hell did this game fly under the radar? I mean, it is absolutely stunning. I know people aren't all nuts about JRPG's anymore, but for anyone who was ever a fan of the old turn based RPG's this may be right up there with Chrono Trigger, FF7 and Skies of Arcadia.

 

I cannot believe the time and effort and production value that went into this game and I am shocked it wasn't a huge hit.

 

I guess times change and the Oblivions, Fallouts and Mass Effects have taken RPG's in a new direction (which I love as well) but I think Lost Odyssey is a must have for anyone who likes RPG's.

i bought lost odyssey awhile back,and just started playing it last week.im where your at.i just escaped the prison.i saved at the save spot up the hall and havent gotten time to play more of it yet.this game is awesome.challenging too.

[moycon]

So what characters are worth using at the end?

 

Well lets face it. Being immortal is where it's at.

I'm assuming you're asking because you want to know who to keep leveled for later?

Fact is this game has a certain level of balance through to disk 4. All the non-immortals learn new, better skills the higher they get. You'll want to take all the non-immortals to level 50 (Except for one who goes to 45) you'll know they are where you want them because an achievement will pop, at that point they will have learned all their skills. Then in turn you teach those skills to all your immortals. Then....you can dump em if you wish.

At the end of the game I had one non-immortal in my group. I'm hesitant to name who and why because you haven't met up with them yet. I will agree with you though, LO was definitely the most challenging RPG on the 360. Although, like any RPG, you will eventually get to a point where you can pretty much blow every creature away, no sweat.

Edited February 20, 2009 by moycon

[Red 5]

Although, like any RPG, you will eventually get to a point where you can pretty much blow every creature away, no sweat.

 

Now THAT'S what I wanted to hear!

Because that is NOT like most RPG's these days. It is fun being rewarded with the

ability to kick ass after trudging along.

Many games scale with you now and you never feel like you can just wipe out the low level sissies.

[Metal Ghost]

I know this is a necro-bump, but I continue to be super-excited about this game. I just completed disc 3 last night and am looking forward to heading towards the conclusion of this wonderful JRPG.

 

My last few play sessions, I've really wanted to get to the end of Disc 3, more or less simply to get to a new milestone. Now that I've done that, I think I need to get back to some grinding, which I really haven't done since Disc 2 (my characters are between Level 32-37 I believe).

 

I also need to go back and read through some more 'Thousand Years of Dreams' episodes. Those are absolutely wonderful. They're artfully crafted, and I've even found that I became a bit emotionally invested in a few of them.

 

As far as the difficulty, I would agree that I think it's a bit on the more difficult side. Though I think that the way Moycon termed it, 'not for novices', is probably a more apt description. Another way to describe it, it takes patience and a good amount of time invested. But not just playthrough time (which is pretty much a given for a JRPG), but quite a bit of time on Ring creation. I spent a good hour crafting rings in one sitting, to then give them to a master ring creator to combine and make into even more powerful rings. Normally I'd just skip that part of a game, but I found on L.O. it was a big help. Paying attention to the elements of monsters (as well as whether it's a magic, mechanical, hardened, organic, etc type) was absolutely necessary also.

 

I haven't played through a ton of Xbox 360 JRPGs (are there any others of note on 360?) but I did play through Blue Dragon, basically twice. I'd have to say that I do think that L.O. is more difficult. What I found helped a lot with Blue Dragon was the play field portion of the game. Once you were able to get the Magic Regeneration and Shield skills, you could find good spots on the map to simply walk into enemies and advance your Dragon class up. It didn't earn you experience points, per say, but with the skills learned from Dragon Class advancement, things got a WHOLE lot easier.

 

Anyway, out of curiosity, in the roughly 4 1/2 years since the last post, Tempest/Red 5/anyone else.....did you finish the game?

[moycon]

I finished it, but never did get all the achievements. I think I needed one more and that was for the DLC boss. There was a certain uber rare item found in the corridors on the way down to the boss, and it's been so long I can't recall what it was (silver rose or something), but you need it on like all your characters. I think i had one of them. I would grind and grind for what seemed like hours but never got another. I eventually gave up. I was always going o go back and get that last achievement. Reading this old thread is making me want to play through the whole game!

[cimerians]

I have to play this game. Its on my must do list along with Mass Effect. Two games I still have yet to play since I have a huge backlog.

 

I also have to play Blue Dragon and Tales of Vesparia on the 360...

[Metal Ghost]

Here's a quick question for those who have played Lost Odyssey: maybe I'm imagining this, but it seems as if when I'm grinding in the same location (and I mean same exact spot for a while), there will come a point when at the end of the battle it doesn't seem as if I'm getting experience points anymore. Does that even make sense?

 

Maybe it's just that all of a sudden a 'rank up' will slow down momentum towards the next tier. But I swear that last night I was building up experience like there was no tomorrow, and then my immortals earned Double SP, which was a big boost. Then I fought a battle and it didn't look as if I earned any experience from it. I was too tired at that point to continue battling, so I suppose maybe I just missed something (?). But this wasn't the first time I thought I noticed this happening.

 

Just thought I'd see if anyone else experienced this too. Either way....I'm still enjoying the heck out of this game!

[Tempest]

I need to replay this sometime. I remember beating it and thinking it was a really good game. Of course that was before I got married and had more free time.

[Algus]

To hard? Haha, I never got very far in this game because of that. I remember getting my ass kicked really early on by a boss and thinking "screw it! I have other games to play!"

 

I've got a friend who swears by this game (he really liked FF13 too...). I'm supposed to be the jRPG junkie in my friend group but I disliked most of the jrpgs I played on 360. And I never did get Blue Dragon.

 

Whatever happened to the studio that designed this game? Are they still around?

[Tempest]

Whatever happened to the studio that designed this game? Are they still around?

Mistwalker is still around. They co-developed Last Story for the Wii, but that's the last console game they did. Now it appears they're doing mostly phone stuff.

[Metal Ghost]

Ok, I just finished Lost Odyssey 15 minutes ago. I loved it! I have to admit that I don't think I've ever played a game this long, ever (I've never played MMOs and am not really into FPS multiplayer and the like). Final count was just over 60 hours. Which is more than it took me to play Blue Dragon (though I essentially played through that twice, so looked at that way maybe not). Granted, I played through almost all of the side quests, took my time exploring and did a quite a lot of grinding too.

 

Anyway, I'm glad to move onto different games now, but I will definitely miss this one. I honestly thought that I'd have it finished by the new year. This along with finishing up Wind Waker HD were the two big games I had been playing entering the new year. Those were both meaty games...so I think I'm going to be playing some downloadable titles for a while!

[Jess Ragan]

First, that typo really grinds me. Can't anyone fix it?

 

Second, I didn't spend much time with it, but two things stood out. The first is that its design is EXTREMELY similar to Final Fantasy, particularly the tenth game. The second is that the stories you're told at key plot points are quite memorable and touching. Weren't they written by a famous Japanese author? They were translated remarkably well.

[rxd]

I played this game a year or two ago. As someone who really does not JRPG's I enjoyed this quite a lot. Very under rated game....