- Lost Odyssey Review

Lost Odyssey Review by Count Vyers

1st time reviewing. May not be the best

Story
Lost Odyssey takes place in a world where magic energy is used to drive technological advances, however, such progress has led to war between three rival nations: the monarchy of Numara, the kingdom of Gohtza, and the republic of Uhra, recently changed from a monarchial society.

The protagonist, Kaim Argonar, A immortal. A lieutenant for the Uhran army, Ventures to the world to reclaim fragments of his lost memory. Along the way, He will encounter ally/foe who bears the same curse. [i]A Thousand years of dream[/i]
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Ok, I got to say that this games story is very emotional.
Emotional to the cutscene CGI to the "Thousand years of Dream" Novel.
I can say that this games story is hand in hand with Final fantasy X. But if your not REALLY into technical crazy plot, You may have a hard time understanding the story.

But if you play games for the story. I suggest you take your time with this. Savor it while you still can, because this game has one of the best story in my list. I literally played and finish this game around 2 to 3x. Its that good.






Music
The Music. This games BGM is one of the best I have ever heard on a RPG game.
Composer _ Nobuo Uematsu. He composed most of the Final Fantasy games. :thumbup:
Heres a little sample. This is the BGM for battles.

I literally bought the game sound track, very RPG quality. Sound track = A-



Gameplay
The gameplay may not appeal everyone. Its basically a Turn based RPG, like most JRPGS. (like final fantasy)
I wouldn't suggest this game to someone who is very impatient and goes for real time games.
The commands are basically.
Attack
Spells
Item
Defend

But the gameplay part that I found exciting was the Ring system.
All rings you equip will have effects to certain types of monsters/ Ailments/ Element/ Critical/ Etc.
In order for the equipped ring to work per attack, You would have to Timely Hold LT and release the right time to either perform a "Perfect attack", "Good attack" or "Bad attack"
Perfect attacks are critical + Ring effect
Good attacks are ring effect
and bad attacks are just neutral

And also take note that the monsters in the game is not very "Any element" friendly.
You will encounter alot of monsters that are immune and weak to certain elements.

Challenging factor = A
Some boss may take 1-10 tries to defeat! :ohmy:


Length
Length of the game is pretty decent. You should be able to finish the game in 50 hours.
Considering that per disk should last around 15 hours. (4 disc)
Theres also alot of Side quests. (Maybe +10 hours)

But if you're planning to get all achievements.. All I have to say is good luck.
I can guarantee you its gonna take you more than 100 hours for the achievements
but I can guarantee you that it's worth the time, Your gonna experience the greatest satisfaction of getting all achievements.



Graphics
Graphics are decent to good.
Theres gonna be occasional lag, and a bit of loading time at the beginning of each battle.
The cutscene in my opinion suffers the mass Effect cuts. Identical Cutscene lags.
30-40 frames per second. That pretty much the downfall of the game. But its pretty much bearable. (As I mention before. This game is not for the impatient)


Conclusion.
Pro:
-Good Length
-JRPG style
-Story is priceless, A bit of Oriental, Technological style.
-Music is priceless (A true legend)

Con:
-Suffers lag occasionally
-Only weapon/Ring/Accessory equips (Not much of a variety)
-Game may be too hard for some audiences.

8.9/10


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Note: The makers of the game is Mistwalker. Running by one of the co-founder of Final Fantasy.
The Music composer is the same person who composed the music for FF7, FF8, FF9, and FF10.

- Castle Crashers Review

Count Vyers Review and impressions from Castle Crashers

Story
Castle Crashers starts you off with a little knight, dancing in the living quarters. Until the kings magic stone crystal got stolen by a wizard. They/He then chase him down. Through Barbarians to Killer Corn.
They will also try and save 4 princesses. All split apart by certain boss/enemy. You fight your way to save the Kings daughter. You then receive a Kiss.
Objective: Fight your way through swarms of enemy, Saving the princesses and trying to recover the magic stone crystal that was stolen by a Evil wizard.

Story is a bit cliche~, Not that much depth.
The story goes hand in hand with flash animation website stories made by artists.
Basically, I wouldn't recommend this game if your into stories. But then the gameplay makes up for it!




Music
The soundtrack is amazing. The music makes the game more fun. It also gives you a "Arcade-ish" feel.
All I can say is the Sound Quality is Top-notch..

Action-RPG Genre for the music.
They did a great job. :thumbup:


Gameplay
Gameplay is similar to River City Ransom (GBA/NES)
You move through a 8-Directional way. Magic, Slash, Block and Item.
This game may be a little hard if your gonna play solo. So i recommend Co-op. Or Live Co-op. It's really fun and interactive.

Your magic damage/ Regeneration/ Distance/ Rand of new magic increased when you increase the Magic Stats.
Your Weapon damage increases when you add Attack stats.
Your Health and Resistance to damage increases when you add the Defense stats.
And your Bow speed, and movement speed increases when you add the Agility stats.

The stats system per level up is pretty good. It gives more variety to the game. There's also ALOT OF BONUS CHARACTERS.
You get new characters by beating arenas SOLO, and finishing the game with certain characters.
It just adds up to the replay value. It gives you alot more opportunity to finish the game again, heck even 3+ more times!
The replay value totally makes up for the story value. :thumbup:

Length
The game from beginning to end may last to 5-6 hours.
Some people reclaim that they finished the game Solo in 2 hours. But I highly doubt that since this game is a bit challenging.

If your achievement hunting. It may take awhile. And some might not be accessible at the moment.
Ex: Win 30 matches on All you can Quaf game
You can't really get it for a while because their servers are kind of crashing. (10/7/08- Problem still going)

But once the servers are fixed, achievement will add on the game length! Contributing Factor = B



Graphics
[img]http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/4843/castlecrashers200704230no8.jpg[/img]
Graphics. 2D Sides-Scrolling. The Animation is a masterpiece. 2D arts and renders are top-notch. What do you expect from The Behemoth? They make one of the greatest Side-Scrolling game animations ever.



Conclusion.
Pro:
-best Side-Scrolling animation/Graphics
-Arcade style game.
-VERY HIGH replay Value
-Very fun and interactive with Xbox Live.
-MUST BUY GAME FOR CASUAL GAMERS!!!

Con:
-DLC may take awhile to be released.
-No story-depth
-Hack n Slash gameplay, it may make your brain numb for awhile. +Magic of course
Mindless fun. Sometimes. :wink:

8.2/10

This game is a Must BUY for Casual Gamers. By the High Replay value ratings. 1200MS points is worth it. :thumbup:
Or try out the demo!.