Lost Odyssey Retrospective: Rediscovering The Xbox 360's Greatest JRPG

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell: ''Half of Lost Odyssey is spent poking static backdrops for treasures, the other half participating in highly choreographed, randomly generated battles - and if you think all that sounds desperately, painfully over-familiar, walk a few miles in the shoes of Kaim Argonar, immortal man. The game's ageless, little-spoken hero makes a fitting emblem for a genre in decline, gazing upon humanity with an apathy born of centuries of fruitless wandering.''

[dirigiblebill]

Would kill for a sequel. Wonder how many bluray discs it would fill... ;)

[Roccetarius]

Sadly, the chance of this being possible, is very low. Not enough people supported the game over the years.

[BanBrother]

Lost odyssey was about 4-5 gb on all four discs. I'm glad, as it allowed for more cut-scenes and content. Compared to Enchanted Arms 1 disc for instance.

I'd love it if it went multi-plat, and a new Lost Odyssey was announced (not necessarily a sequel). Definitely one of the better JRPG's this gen. Absolutely loved it. Had so many heart crushing moments. Quite emotional, and the characters were so awesome, which is hard for JRPG's to pull off.

[joab777]

Its what FF shoulda been. They have to make a sequel. They just have to. Maybe Ni No Kunis success on ps3 will change their mind. Ni No Kuni is awesome!!!

[IAMERROR]

MS is going to need some game to try to move the Next Xbox, that is unless they completely give up on Japan.

[3-4-5]

The thing that didn't appeal to me were the Battles.

Every video i watched, it was basically the same thing over and over. Guy runs from 30 feet away for no reason to land a 20% attack. retreats back 30 feet. Next person does same.

They waste so much time showing the person run up to whoever they are going to hit. That would get old in about 5 minutes.

The environments looks beautiful and I'm sure the game is fun, I just couldn't bring myself to play it after watching about 4-5 game play videos.

[3-4-5]

What is with all the disagrees? Am I completely misunderstanding this game and it's battle system ?

[fermcr]

Too bad Microsoft gave up on producing JRPG's. Lost Odyssey is one of the best JRPG's this generation.

[BanBrother]

Sadly, the abandonment of Lost Odyssey is one more reason I will not get a 720. LOVED the game. So disappointed they have not continued it. If any other Lost Odyssey game was announced, I'd literally pinch myself. I won't get my hopes up for a future release, but damn if it were announced, I'd have the biggest smile on my face.

[FantasyStar]

What's to continue? You played the game. What's left to do? Best to let LO stay immortalized in the past.

Go play The Last Story. It's pretty good as well.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

MS probably could have produced more JRPGs if the Japanese had taken to them. sadly It didnt work out. Which sucks cause I really liked Lost odessy it had good story, combat,decent side quests, optional bosses.

[Godmars290]

They didn't, Hironobu Sakaguchi did. At least putting them on the Xbox because it was too expensive after two poorly selling attempts. Likewise other JRPGs, Last Remnant, Eternal Sonata and that WWII title with werewolves and vampires, just didn't do well. Then Tales of Vesperia went to the PS3, sold over twice as well in Japan, and Sakaguchi was pretty much screwed in the HD market because of bad blood with Sony.

With the Xbox's decline in Japan few could afford to take the risk no matter how much money Ms threw at them.

[aquamala]

one of the few JRPGs that have mature characters that don't talk like 10 year olds .

[Dark11]

This.

i don't know why , there is a few JRPG's with a mature and a serious characters.

[Shinro]

Because most JRPGs are targeted towards a younger audience.

It's such a simple reason really.

[Tr10wn]

that's what i loved about lost odyssey the game was aimed toward a mature audience and it feel very well done because of that.

[joab777]

I agree and i loved the past life stories. please make a new one.

[Studio-YaMi]

Shadow Hearts was another awesome JRPG with a mature protagonist ... at least 1&2 did ! I SOOOOOO wish for a Shadow Hearts 4 on the PS4 ! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE x( !

[MasterCornholio]

I still have very fond memories of when the casualbox360 was called the corebox360.

Those days were amazing with incredible titles like BioShock, Blue Dragon, Condemned etc were exclusive titles for the 360.

What great days indeed but its a shame that Microsoft went crazy with Kinect.

I'll never forget that horrible E3 where they unveiled the Kinect.

Motorola RAZR i

[Shinro]

Only reason I got an XBOX360 was because it had a lot of JRPGs at first.

Lost Odyssey
Infinite Undiscovery
Tales of Vesperia
Magna Carta 2
Last Remnant
Star Ocean 4
Etc.

...and then the support for it seem to have faded. Sigh.

[zerocrossing]

Same here... 2 other awesome JRPGS that made it the 360 were Eternal Sonata and Enchanted arms although I don't believe either of them were particularly well received, JRPGS on the 360 just seemed to die :/

[kevnb]

eternal sonata got good reviews, but the game was not that great and people didnt buy it. Ni No Kuni, xenoblade chronicles, and the last story are the best in the genre to make it over to the west this gen.

[Seraphim]

Eternal Sonata was brilliant! Lost Odyssey was as well. LO is easily one of my all time faves.

Makes me wonder. What ever happened to Mist Walker? After Blue Dragon, LO and a DS [?] game they seem to have faded. Not that it would happen because Sakaguchi hates PS but I'd love to see them do a game similar to LO or even a new LO. Kind of makes me want to go out and buy a 360 again just so I Can go back and play it again....

[kevnb]

they made the last story and some ios games, I dont think you will see them make an xbox exclusive anytime soon again. On topic for this game, anyone tried installing it to hard drive? I played it back when it came out but the long load times drove me insane, I never finished either thanks to my xbox dying and taking my save with it.

[zerocrossing]

Man I would love a sequel to this! It was one heck of an awesome, epic, old school styled JRPG with enough originality to make for an unforgettable game, it also shows that the classic battle system can still work for this gen, Lost Odyssey is what FFXIII should have been IMO...

[bluem00se]

This game is so underrated. It's probably my favorite JRPG of this generation. One of those JRPG's I can go back to and play again every few years.

[abcd]

Amazing game and the soundtrack is one of the best Uematsu's work.

Battle theme: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Boss theme 1: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Boss theme 2: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[listenkids]

If it was released on anything else I'd love to play it, but unlike Kotor 1 did back in the day, it won't make me purchase a console.

[baodeus]

Just make a sequal of LO and Phantom dust and I pre-order the next gen xbox.