Lost Odyssey

Platform: Xbox 360
Verdict: 4 discs of epic.
Rating: 4/5
Retro gaming is enjoying quite a renaissance at the moment with the Wii's Virtual Arcade and Xbox Live Arcade jointly offering glimpses into cherished pasts and shattering rose tints while swimming in nostalgia. They rarely are as good as you remember, spoilt by the heady modernities of adaptive difficulty, quick saves and the removal of pixels from perfect jumps.
Lost Odyssey is somewhat of a retro title too. Despite its super HD sheen and now-gen residence on Microsoft's box of tricks, it's a game that could easily hark from the PS1 era (or beyond to the distant ages of Dragon Quest on the NES), namely mimicking such titles as Final Fantasy VII. Coming from Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series that's hardly surprising.
From the traditional turn-based combat and amnesiac hero to the victory fanfare motif, Lost Odyssey screams Final Fantasy, and for many that's a great thing – with few Japanese style RPGs on the 360 it's a welcome addition to a catalogue obsessed with shooters and racers.
Compared to the West's forward looking titles like Oblivion and Mass Effect though, it's a game that seems lost in time. Even the Final Fantasy series has moved on from the staid and static turn-taking (as seen in its 12th iteration on the PS2) and while that may be a bugbear to many, the epic, emotionally charged and superbly translated story about immortals and a world at war (penned by award winning novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu) will be enough to satiate any misgivings.
Despite such a traditional template, Lost Odyssey does bring new variants to the genre such as larger combat parties. The Ring System is also one such mechanic which introduces a rhythmic requirement to timing for otherwise predetermined attacks. With random battles rearing their ugly head though it may not be enough to compensate.
While Lost Odyssey may tread old gameplay with only a few pleasing additions, it's a game that prides itself on story telling, stunning graphics and cinematic direction that reward only the determined and time rich profusely – almost enough to make me want to be a student again.