Lost Odyssey gets found in North America Feb. 12; free DLC with pre-order

by Scott Jon Siegel { Dec 11th 2007 at 8:30PM }

Microsoft has officially confirmed the North American release date of Lost Odyssey -- Mistwalker's Xbox 360-exclusive RPG -- as February 12, Shacknews reports today. The massive, 4-disc, 50-hour RPG follows the amnesiac immortal Kaim, and tells the thousand-year story of his life, all penned by award-winning novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

Pre-orders for Lost Odyssey from participating retailers will include a special download code, giving players access to a new mission and unlockable weapon. The downloadable content will eventually be made available to everyone, but will remain exclusive to pre-orders for a short while.

Tags: dlc, lost-odyssey, lostodyssey, microsoft, mistwalker

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

GoldenS1104 @ Dec 11th 2007 8:40PM

February 12th? Pfft.. no thanks. Starting February 10th, I will be completely consumed with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the next year. After that I'll only be partially consumed, but still completely obssessed.

Zorink @ Dec 11th 2007 8:42PM

Only the next year?

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 8:48PM

are you so sure of that release date?

GoldenS1104 @ Dec 11th 2007 8:50PM

I don't think they're gunna delay it again. But nothing would surprise me... it is Nintendo afterall.

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 9:01PM

just don't hold your breath, my friend there told me

GoldenS1104 @ Dec 11th 2007 9:06PM

I guess I'd rather have it delayed than be released unfinished. I've been playing Melee since it came out, and I plan to play Brawl just as long, so I want it to be as perfect as possible.

Freeze @ Dec 11th 2007 8:41PM

I will get this game when it arrives. I am looking forward to this. I haven't played a good RPG since...Chrono Cross in 2004. I remember playing Chrono Cross when I FINALLY got the tunes in the correct order in order to beat Lavos and get additional ending.

dan stabbingworth @ Dec 11th 2007 9:25PM

I think you're confusing Chrono Cross with a good RPG. Also, have you never played Okami?

Jake @ Dec 12th 2007 8:58AM

I thought Okami was more of an action/rpg with emphasis on the action part.

StrangeBum @ Dec 12th 2007 9:13AM

Okami was a great game, no doubt. But not really traditional RPG, more or less, Zelda styled gameplay and narrative as well.

Chrono Cross, on the other hand, was quite a surprisingly good game. A long, intriguing story, great music, a unique gameplay style, memorable characters and scenes and replay value.

Maybe I was just a big fan, especially after playing Chrono Trigger when I was younger, playing Chrono Cross was a real treat.

arrrgh @ Dec 12th 2007 11:44AM

but crono TRIGGER was a masterpiece

sifer2400 @ Dec 11th 2007 8:44PM

this is a new attempt to see if they can increase the pre-oder stage of a game the did extra content with lost planet i remember that one cuz i fell for it

James @ Dec 11th 2007 8:47PM

I'm interested in this. Just hope it's not another Blue Dragon yawnfest.

It does sound good.

Hiroken @ Dec 11th 2007 8:47PM

If this game is as good as I hope it is, I'll buy a 360 for it.

~

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 8:49PM

but just wtf is the extra shit

was this already released in japan? did they like it?

David-san @ Dec 11th 2007 9:17PM

Its sad, since the release in japan it only sold around 50k in couple of days.

DemonGSides @ Dec 11th 2007 9:40PM

50k in a couple days in japan is beyond a good sale, XBOX360 wise.

Yasunori Mitsuda @ Dec 11th 2007 9:08PM

@Freeze

How old are you and where have you been?

Chrono Cross is one worst RPGs ever made. (The only good thing about that game is the music.)

There are better RPGs out there.

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 9:13PM

you're just mad it didnt have time travel like all the other chrono trigger fanboys

GoldenS1104 @ Dec 11th 2007 9:14PM

a) "where have you been?"

That's kind of ironic because you apparently haven't noticed the reply button that Joystiq added a while ago.

b)"Chrono Cross is one worst RPGs ever made."

It's considered by many to be among the best RPG's of all time. Just because you personally feel it was one of the worst doesn't make him wrong. You have no right to criticize. Opinion and fact are completely different.

Chilly Willy @ Dec 11th 2007 11:07PM

As a stand-alone game, Chrono Cross was alright at best (character development was horrible, IMO). As a sequel to Chrono Trigger, one of the best rpgs ever made, Chrono Cross looks like a cheap cash-in from the goodly name of Chrono Trigger. And Chrono Cross was way too easy, BTW. (1)Encounter boss and find out its color. (2)Run from boss and load all your characters w/ colors that are strong against the boss. (3)Re-enter boss fight and kick his butt. Way too easy.

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 11:26PM

well chilly of course fights are easier if you prepare thoroughly for them

duhhhhhhh

Noshino @ Dec 12th 2007 12:28AM

"well chilly of course fights are easier if you prepare thoroughly for them"

not really, there are MANY games in which no matter how much you prepare for them, is all about skills...

example, Fire Emblem Rekka no Ken and any previous ones (Sacred Stones and the one for NGC were awful), the level of difficulty was above anything I had ever seen before...and no matter how many you had leveled your characters, you couldn't just take the enemy for granted...they would gang up on your characters...

StrangeBum @ Dec 12th 2007 9:20AM

As I stated above, I thoroughly enjoyed Chrono Cross. Sure it may not have been the best RPG to ever grace gamers around the world. I still hold that position to Chrono Trigger. But games like Final Fantasy VIII really turned me off and didn't interest me. Chrono Cross offered something that I enjoyed. To each their own.

Yasunori Mitsuda @ Dec 11th 2007 9:12PM

@Freeze

How old are you and where have you been?

Chrono Cross is one the worst RPGs ever made. (The only good thing about that game is the music.)

There are better RPGs out there.

Freeze @ Dec 11th 2007 9:33PM

I was reading in the Xbox forums that a couple of guys are playing this game right now. They gave praises for the story and more so for the music. I have enjoyed the masterful music of Nobuo Uematsu. He is a genius. Good choice at collaborating with Hironobu Sakaguchi. The Dynamic Duo-san.
And as far as you Yasunori Mitsuda-san, I am sorry that's how you feel about Chrono Cross. I wished you could of enjoyed it. But Golden-san is right, how I feel about the game doesn't make me wrong. You are right though when it comes to the music because Yasunori Mitsuda-san did an excellent job.

bm @ Dec 11th 2007 9:42PM

How is the gameplay in Lost Oddysey in their opinion? And I don't care about the battle system, I'm talking about the game environment. Is it somewhat free with a world that feels "real" like FF7-8-9, or is it a linear yawnfest with one narrow, linear, restricted path that you always walk, like in FF10? Does it have many different towns that are actually interesting with many streets and houses to enter, or do "towns" specify as one single screen with a few guys standing around?

So what I'm asking is, is it an actual game, or one long FMV with battles inbetween? I was very interested in this, until I heard that it was too battle-oriented. I hope I heard wrong.

Loki_d20 @ Dec 11th 2007 9:59PM

Do the 50 hours include the 25 hours of cut scenes and animations that you won't be playing the game?

James @ Dec 11th 2007 10:11PM

MGS is so poor for that. I played 1-3 a few months ago for the first time. Nah. Was like playing some eccentric soap opera!

Hope this one is nice with cutscenes.

James @ Dec 11th 2007 10:11PM

MGS is so poor for that. I played 1-3 a few months ago for the first time. Nah. Was like playing some eccentric soap opera!

Hope this one is nice with cutscenes.

Freeze @ Dec 11th 2007 10:21PM

@bm
I hope this helps. This is from the impressions of "kitzkozan" about Lost Odyssey:

Current Play Time is 20:24, start of Disc 3.

Overall I'm really enjoying Lost Odyssey. It's not without a fair share of problems though, both technical and story-wise. There are some slight design issues, but overall where the game really shines is in the gameplay. The battle system is fun and well thought out. The battles are pretty traditional, but balanced to be relatively challenging. There are random encounters, and the encounter rate is pretty similar to any other JRPG. Sakaguchi is a dirty liar for promising a low encounter rate. :(

The character customization options are pretty good, and there are tons of skills to learn from accessories and mortal party members. The ring making system is pretty interesting as well, and adds a certain tactical element to battles since you can change equipment in battles on the fly. There's no harm in making a bunch of rings that give different elemental or racial bonuses since you can swap them during battles depending on the enemies.

The dungeons and towns/cities are really well designed. They look good, and more importantly they play well. Each area has it's own unique little properties and gimmicks, and the puzzles and design logic on the maps and stuff are pretty neat. Areas are sizable and exploring corners or dead ends almost always reward you with items and stuff. The game also has various side events in each town/city and it always feels like there's something extra to do in the game.

Storywise, LO is a mixed bag. On one hand, the cutscenes are pretty well directed and the voice acting in both languages is pretty spot on. The characters are interesting and have unique personalities, and the worldview is pretty interesting and fleshed out. On the other hand, the game never really seems to want to take advantage of this, instead preferring to stay low-key most of the time. Even with the themes of immortals, great empires, betrayals and conspiricies, and high fantasy - the actual story remains muted and chooses instead to focus on more mundane interactions between characters showcasing their personalities and quirks.

A good comparison for this would be FF:TSW and Xenosaga Episode 1. The way the story and presentation is paced is very similar. The cutscenes and events focus more on the character side of things than the larger picture, and it never really tries to take hold of the viewer's attention to make the game more exciting or epic. It's not exactly negative, but it just seems odd that the game keeps throwing in epic otherworldly themes and elements but never really let them take center stage.... or any stage at all. They're just terms and throwaway dialogue pieces.

The Thousand Years of Dreams short stories are really fantastic, and there isn't really anything to say other than it's pretty much one of the best visual novel package I've seen. The way each story's text is presented with the background, text effects, sound and music - it's pretty much perfect in that aspect. Too bad it doesn't really have anything to do with the game. When it's well integrated into the game, the transition from game to visual novel is wonderful, but many a times I just feel that it's kinda forced into the game at certain points. They're always nice to read, but very often they have nothing at all to do with the game or the game's world, which is a little disappointing I guess.

In terms of technical aspects, the game is a lot better than I expected. All texture pop-in issues have been eradicated and there isn't really slowdown while moving around towns and dungeons. Unfortunately the game also has a shitload of LONGASS longing. It's long and there's a lot of it, no two ways around it. While the slowdown doesn't affect the movement part of the game, in battles and in cutscenes it's a whole different issue. Many cutscenes are filled with slowdown that hinder the true intention of the presented scenes, and make the animation seem more unnatural than it actually is. Several battles are also plagued with jerky pans and framedrops when enemy attacks interact with character models. When the slowdown occur, and they occur quite a bit throughout the game, it makes the entire presentation far more amatuerish than it should. It's a pity they couldn't iron out these issues.

I'll keep playing, but most of these observations have been consistant across two discs, so even if anything changes, they still apply for pretty much half the game. I do expect the story to get more interesting, it just isn't as deep and complex as I expected. It's actually rather simplistic, with a ton of offbeat humor injected in the scenes. Interesting combination....

Andrew @ Dec 11th 2007 10:48PM

Wait... you're comparing story to Xenosaga 1, one of the very best told (and directed) RPG stories of all time, with arguably the best music as well? If this game is half as good as that, it'll be a big deal. For me at least.

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 11:39PM

xenosaga was aite, but it wasn't great. and i definetely get what that reviewer meant by saying it wasn't very epic. same with ff12. the gameplay was good but the story was almost nonexistent and there were never any "wow" moments

now ff9 had some wow moments with all the fmv's of summons killing cities. those were awesome, especially atomos's scene, trashing lindblum

Noshino @ Dec 12th 2007 12:13AM

mmm, I actually thought FFXII DID have a WOW factor, I liked the storyline and graphics, but when it came to gameplay...not so much.

and seriously...how can someone use FF:TSW as an example of a well plotted storyline?

Jake @ Dec 12th 2007 9:06AM

Andrew,
He is comparing the style of the story to Xenosaga. So certainly there is potential for it being great if you liked Xenosaga. But quality, he is just saying it is good.

Battle system is very important for me in RPG's. I think this is why I often like Western 1st person or action based RPG's and why I absolutely love Mass Effect. Sounds like Lost Odyssey has somewhat fun and not painfully boring action. Might have to give it a try.

Freeze @ Dec 11th 2007 10:33PM

And this also bm from: aevanko (sorry for all of these posts)
I think the townsfolks are quite interesting, and talking to them not only unlocks some 1000 year dreams, but also leads to small mini-quests that net you cool items. As far as FMV, there are some sections that have a long period of stuff to watch, but it's never spread out so much that you feel like you're only playing half the time - it's more like you play like crazy to earn a cool FMV, although a lot of them use the in-game engine. It is very linear, but on disc 4 you get side quests, etc. It's very similar to FF10 in this regard.

bm @ Dec 13th 2007 12:32PM

"It is very linear, but on disc 4 you get side quests, etc. It's very similar to FF10 in this regard."

Ah. Not worth wasting my money and time on then. Thanks.

I guess the age of fun games that offer any kind of "adventure" is over, in favour of games that hold the player by the hand and lead them along a narrow path, so they don't get "confused" or, God forbid, miss any areas or cutscenes.

Bah.

Taco_Hell @ Dec 11th 2007 11:25PM

Now if only people actually gave a damn about FF13. I'm sorry, but after 7, which was meh imo, the FF franchise took a huge nose-dive as no game afterwards came even close to the awesomeness of their predecessors. Anyhow, I'm actually excited about Lost Odyssey, as long as they don't pull a Blue Dragon with it.

gonk @ Dec 11th 2007 11:37PM

i think it got better up to ff9 (and ff8 dipped just a bit from 7), then took a huuuuuge nosedive for ffx and still hasn't recovered

Clack @ Dec 11th 2007 11:42PM

If the premise of this game sounds interesting and you have a PC built after '97 or so, go grab a copy of Planescape: Torment and give it a whirl. One of the best RPGs ever made.

Donald @ Dec 11th 2007 11:50PM

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM

Yasunori Mitsuda @ Dec 12th 2007 12:50AM

@GoldenS1104

a) "where have you been?"

That's kind of ironic because you apparently haven't noticed the reply button that Joystiq added a while ago.

I did use the reply button.(That's why i double posted) It didn't work for me, oh well moving on.
(I'm not using the reply button anymore)

b)"Chrono Cross is one worst RPGs ever made."

It's considered by many to be among the best RPG's of all time. Just because you personally feel it was one of the worst doesn't make him wrong. You have no right to criticize. Opinion and fact are completely different.

No shit, i know that. It's a free country (for now), i can say whatever want. Also, i never said he was wrong.

Why can't i say something negative about Chrono Cross? But, if i were to say something postive about the game, then it's ok? WTF! (Why is everyone so sensitive?)

It's just like Halo 3. If you say something negative about it that, then clearly something wrong with you.

WTF! again

gonk @ Dec 12th 2007 12:59AM

learn to use the reply button

and if you quote someone, try using the marks for it to make your shit easier to read

Jake @ Dec 12th 2007 9:20AM

Yasu,
It amuses me that you got all bent out of shape over his comment, threw a big tissy, then complained about how people are so sensitive. Pot, meet kettle.

If a game like Chrono Cross, or Halo 3 for that matter, is released to critical praise, sells well, and is played and loved by many, you are a dumbass to call it "the worst rpg/fps ever made." Plain and simple. Total dumbass.

I don't understand why some people have to go wildly overboard if they didn't like a game quite as much as most people. The point of a game isn't for you to love it. It is for lots of people to like it. You are not special.

I hated Dead Rising with a passion. It hurt to play. But I could see how some people would like it and will accept it as a great game just based on its reception. Just not my cup of tea. I need to save them all.