Lost Odyssey - When the Well of Great Writing Runs Dry

Lost Odyssey is a JRPG that started as a collaboration between Final Fantasy grandfather Hironobu Sakaguchi’s independent studio Mistwalker and Microsoft for the Xbox 360. With a script written by Sakaguchi himself, it’s a by-the-numbers entry in the genre but with an inspired idea to insert a collection of short stories penned by best-selling author Kiyoshi Shigematsu. It makes for a brilliant, compelling synthesis early on that sadly can’t keep the magic flowing.

Lost Odyssey has been called an “unofficial Final Fantasy” by series fans, and indeed, those who have played Final Fantasy X will feel comfortable right away. There are many visual and gameplay similarities, and Nobuo Uematsu is here again to compose the soundtrack. Tara Strong, the voice actor for Rikku, is also here in a similar role as legendary pirate Seth. Combat is fully turn-based, and it has a great visual presentation, even today.

Where the game diverges from the long-running series (and the genre at large) is its mature story. Death is a constant companion for Kaim, our main character, and through him, Shigematsu’s A Thousand Years of Dreams delve into politics, war, sociology, unbridled greed and selfless acts of service, among other topics. It’s an excellent way to take a cliché–the amnesiac protagonist–and bend it into compelling, emotional interludes. As expected, however, that part of the story resolves, and the player is faced with the fact that there has to be a game here, too.

I would have come away with a better impression of the game if there was an exceptional JRPG at this game’s core–a reasonable expectation given the game’s pedigree–but Lost Odyssey didn’t get that. Aside from a couple of boss encounters with questionable difficulty tuning, it’s never outright bad, but it does lean on a lot of old ideas. Sakaguchi’s game scenario manages to connect well with Shigematsu’s themes for the game’s first third or so. Inevitably, it descends into the usual contrived JRPG scenarios, including a villain that did so much mustache twirling, he could power a small wind farm with his nefarious plotting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the genre and I’m always down for some warmed-over cliché soup. But the contrast in writing quality here between author and game scenarist (both as accomplished in their fields as they are) becomes all too apparent.

Lost Odyssey came out at a time when JRPGs were on the decline, and to this day it’s still exiled on the Xbox 360, not a prime destination for the genre. There wasn’t enough here to change any minds on that front either, so I’m not surprised nothing further came of the property. Being an emotional experience with some really touching moments, I’m glad I finally picked this up, even if I’ll never go back to it.

Any thoughts on Lost Odyssey? Or other games that ran out of gas for you?