About the game
Lost Odyssey is a role-playing game developed by Mistwalker and Feelplus and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It came out in 2007 in Japan and in 2008 in the West. The story follows Kaim, one of a small group of immortals who have lost their memories, as he faces threats created by the coming magical industrial revolution and the pain of his returning memories.
It plays like a classic Japanese role-playing game, with a world map, random encounters and turn-based battles. Actions can be delayed by speed and by being hit, and melee attacks use an Aim Ring system where you time a button release so two rings meet. Towns have inns, shops and save points, and the inns are where you read the Thousand Years of Dreams stories.
The world is in the middle of a Magic-Industrial Revolution, in which magic engines power lighting, cars, communication and robots. Two nations, the kingdom of Gohtza and the Republic of Uhra, are building new weapons, and the neutral Free Ocean State of Numara is falling into disarray. The game opens as Uhra fights Khent, a nation of beastmen, in the Highlands of Wohl.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created Final Fantasy, proposed the game to Microsoft, and discussions began in 2003. Development began in 2004 and lasted three and a half years, starting with ten people and reaching 150. Feelplus was brought in to build it after the early work ran into difficulties. Sakaguchi wrote the story with the novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, who wrote more than thirty short stories about Kaim's life, shown in the game in a style like a visual novel. Nobuo Uematsu composed the music, and most of the two hours of music was recorded with a live orchestra. The game runs on Unreal Engine 3.
It shipped on four dual-layer DVDs, which made it Microsoft's largest console game at the time. All the lip syncing was done for the English dialogue. Jay Rubin, known for translating Haruki Murakami, translated the Shigematsu stories. The game was added to the Xbox One backward compatibility list in September 2016, and was a free download to Xbox Live members from 14 to 31 December 2016.
Reviews were generally positive, with an aggregate of 78 out of 100 and 36 out of 40 from a Japanese magazine. Critics praised the story, the Thousand Years of Dreams stories and the production values, and many disliked the traditional design, the random battles and the loading times. It sold about 110,000 copies in Japan by April 2010 and debuted at number seven in North America in February 2008 with 203,000 copies.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 78 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: Famitsu 36/40, IGN 8.2/10, GameSpot 7.5/10, Eurogamer 8/10, Game Informer 8.5/10, GameSpy 2.5/5, Destructoid 9/10, Edge 7/10.
Extra content
Extra Thousand Years of Dreams chapters, accessories and a late-game dungeon came as downloads. Microsoft stopped selling Xbox 360 add-ons on 29 July 2024.
- First North American add-on: A pre-order exclusive in North America, with more add-ons released overseas in April and May 2008.
- Professor K's Dungeon: A dungeon with 6 achievements worth 100 gamerscore, up to Conference Area 25B and the boss Killalon.
Good to know
- It shipped on four dual-layer DVDs, one more than Blue Dragon, and was Microsoft's largest console game at the time.
- A demo released in Japan in 2006 gave players a poor first impression of the battle system.
- All the lip syncing was done for the English dialogue, in every language version.
- A Japanese book of 31 of the 33 Thousand Years of Dreams stories came out on 21 November 2007.
- The Xbox 360 list has 42 achievements worth 1,100 gamerscore. The last six, worth 100, come from the Professor K's Dungeon add-on.
- A review copy with longer load times than the retail game led one outlet to amend its review on 19 February 2008, with the score unchanged.
- It was a free download for Xbox Live members from 14 to 31 December 2016.
Made by
Director Daisuke Fukugawa, Producer Takehiro Kaminagayoshi, Writer Hironobu Sakaguchi, Writer Kiyoshi Shigematsu, Artist Takamasa Ohsawa, Artist Takehiko Inoue, Artist Hideo Minaba, Composer Nobuo Uematsu.
