r/lostodyssey

You often see people say that the children, Mack and Cooke, are somewhat annoying, but I have to say that they’re at the center of one of the best scenes in the game: the funeral.

“A Return, Indeed” starts playing, the visuals and the music speak for themselves, and the scene gradually gives way to a brief but beautifully written conversation between the children and Kaim. For someone who experienced the loss of a loved one at a young age, the way Mack describes what he’s going through makes it much easier to empathize with him. “I thought I’d cry more.” That strange feeling of being completely broken inside while, at the same time, feeling utterly numb.

And then Kaim appears, and the scene turns into a beautifully written back-and-forth between the two. What I find particularly interesting is the contrast between them: Mack is experiencing loss for the first time and doesn’t even know how to process what he’s feeling, while Kaim has spent centuries living with it. Kaim is probably the character who knows the most about loss and death, yet in that moment, it’s Mack who is discovering for the first time what it means to lose someone.

I think that’s a big part of what makes the scene so powerful. It doesn’t need grand speeches or exaggerated drama to be devastating. The music, the silences, and a few carefully chosen words manage to convey something as difficult to put into words as the emptiness left by loss.

https://youtu.be/4vYL-omMg9s?is=eSU0tbVARR4BnfZC

I just wanted to share my personal thoughts on the game, and shine some light on a game that I don't see get discussed very often. Lost Odyssey has been on my radar since about 10 years ago when I heard it talked about in a Projared video, and it always stuck around in the back of my head as a "one day I'll get to that' type of game. It wasn't until after I did some more poking around that the game truly caught my attention. When I learned that Lost Odyssey was developed by the same studio as Blue Dragon (a childhood favorite of mine,) that both games were directed by Sakaguchi, AND that they got Inoue to do the art for the game I was completely sold. It took about 6 months for me to track down a physical copy at a game store nearby, and that whole time I was just stewing in excitement to finally play it. Lost Odyssey was seemingly everything I could've wanted in an RPG.

I took about 6 weeks (roughly 60 hours of play time) for me to finish, and I will say it nearly lived up to my impossible expectations. First I will start with what I enjoyed:

The characters in this game are lovely. All of the party members are pretty much great. Sarah and the kids are the only ones I think come out a little flat. Sarah just doesn't have much going on compared to the other immortals, and is also the only one who doesn't fully get her memories back and has to rely on her journal. Cooke and Mack are fine, but suffer from being a little one-note with the whole Lirum thing. Lirum herself is a pretty blah character to me as well. Kaim and the party pretty much stumble upon her completely by chance while she is on her death bed and the whole scene just feels very farfetched and removed from the rest of the plot. It just feels like something that happens because it needs to happen. Lirum's other appearances throughout the game where she shows up in the party's times of need to do various magical favors got an eyeroll out of me every single time.

The other party members are a lot stronger. Seth and Sed's relationship is phenomenal, Tolten is rather simple but the way his journey unfolds directly before the player is very nice. The scene in disc 2 where Gongora manipulates him into thinking there's been an attempt on his life is particularly sweet. Kaim is great but there is a little bit of a disconnect between the Kaim we get in the story and the Kaim we get in the memories. The Kaim we see in his memories is much more tender (how many times does he say something through a "strained smile" in the dream sequences?) than the one we get in game. Perhaps this is a product of all the terrible things he has witnessed making him a much more jaded person, but either way I don't care for it. He does show much more emotion once Sarah and the kids join the party.

Ming and Jansen are two of my favorites in the party but their romance is a little strange to me. Ming wasn't always totally dismissive of Jansen's boyish advances on her, but it felt like she held herself in a higher regard and wasn't too interested in him. It honestly was a little disappointing seeing her get with him, but it didn't bother me too much. Jansen himself I honestly really liked, but I can see why some wouldn't. He's the tongue and cheek coward of the group, but when push comes to shove his heart is always in the right place.

As for combat, I think this game hits it out of the park. The immortals learning from the mortals was a strong enough gimmick to intrigue me, but once you get access to the plethora of different powerful accessories the game really opens up and the possibilities feel endless. There are so many decisions to be made that it teeters on being overwhelming, but ultimately it strikes a nice balance. Being forced to use the more limited mortal characters to build up your immortal characters is a fun challenge, and lead me to using all 9 party members fairly evenly.

Most of my gripes with the game come from the story. The set up of the immortal cast having to recover their memories and put a stop to the political turmoil and world threatening plot Gongora has planned is quite nice. Gongora himself is quite strong until right around disc 4, but afterwards he really descends into a generic maniacal bad guy, or perhaps he was that all along and I just didn't care to notice. The immortals being sent from another universe was not where I wanted to see the story go and the reasoning was equally stupid. "Emotions" were causing issues in a parrallel world? And it really isn't explained much further than that. Suuuuuuuuper lame.

Okay just a few more quick notes:

I loved the sound track, the battle theme will be stuck in my head forever.

The way disc 4 opens up and is just crawling with sidequests is super fun and added like 10 hours to my play time. Finding the Blue Dragon by complete coincidence was such a cool feeling. Not to mention that he drops a fantastic item. It is a wonderful feeling when the world is fun to explore on its own without being told where to go. Lost Odyssey is filled with experiences that felt very authentic on the first time through.

The one thousand years of dreams were always super enjoyable to read, often timea bringing a tear to my eye. It is a little tough that sometimes they would come up in the middle of gameplay and I would be "forced" to read a sob story. It was often a pretty harsh tonal shift happening once or twice per session. Another complaint about the dreams is that they weren't very well spaced out throughout the game. I really did not encounter many dreams in disc 3 and 4 compared to 1 and 2. That being said they were a joy to read.

Okay that is about all I have to say about Lost Odyssey. Overall it is a lovely game that I will remember for a long time. Thanks for reading.