Zapix

As I mentioned, I've played the demo of Blue Dragon, and it turned me off horribly. The animation style, voice acting, and worse than American Idol music was enough to make me turn it off rather fast. Perhaps it's a good RPG for... an 8 year old?



On that note, I finally caught up with Ben on going onto Disc 2. About 16 hours to reach Disc 2, and that includes leveling, exploring, and digging up every possible treasure I could find, including going back and having to search for some I had missed.

Now 18 hours (17 hours 58 minutes) into LOST ODYSSEY, and I'm on way out the door in disc 2 (I just left Numara)

I'm finally warming up to the music, although still not inlove with the battle music. It just doesn't feel intense enough I suppose.

The story is... Well... Let's just say the last Final Fantasy game I remember that could touch a story like this was Final Fantasy VI. I know many fellow FF fans will argue that, but VI had by far the best story (Tactics gladly in second place). The characters, dialog and the voice acting are well done, especially when compared to previous RPGs of a similar nature. Jansen for example, his character's habits, personality, speech, they all pretty much fit!

This also might very well be the first RPG I'll play through to the end since Final Fantasy VII. I have a bad habit of stopping just around 75%-95% into RPGs for some reason. Again, the story is keeping me interested, and the change of pace in the environments and battles is pretty rapid when I think about it. Enemies come in different groups quite often, and the fact they use the front/back row system adds to it.

When thinking of Devil May Cry 4, and how it was definitely stated that part of the fun was feeling like you're that badass cocky character who can whip anyone sideways and never lose a fight. Ben stated LOST ODYSSEY tends to feel easy, and this is definitely true once you get a grip on the battle system. However, we are playing an RPG which no brainer means (Role Playing Game) and we are playing the role of a 1000+ year old immortal named Kaim, whom you'd hope and think after being alive for 1000 years as such... Knows how to handle himself pretty well! Also, we're immortals right? We're not supposed to die! We're the guy that is feared even from the very beginning of the game (not tossing in names to spoil anything here!). So it would seem right to have a somewhat ease of things.

Also games are being made in ways where the 'casual gamer' is no so stressed out. Granted, we're experienced gamers. Is that to say it makes up for the ease of fights? No, but again, the impressions of being the character we play comes into hand. Could a new comer to RPGs beat this? Definitely with some effort. Could they beat it with the same level of ease? Depends on how thorough they are I guess. I have enough things to keep me occupied, and considering the game is going to boast 45-60 hours without fail, I'll welcome the ease of the battles to make it go so it doesn't drag on.

Finally, on a note of the graphics, I stated before I'm not impressed, and I stand by that. I've noticed jittery motion at times, and the faces and details are just not nearly as refined as SquareEnix is. Regardless of this, I'm not about to judge it for its graphics. I'd still welcome the old 2D RPG style.[/font]

__________________
'Maybe I could use my PSP to control his PS3!' - cAtDaFeLiX (regarding Dillon's PS3)

PS3: DMC4, Enchanted Arms, Genji, GR AW2, GT5P, MGS4, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Oblivion, Sonic, UT3

360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: CC, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (42RDM)