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Topic: Lost Odyssey. (Read 4042 times)

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jamie

#61 February 21, 2008, 02:08:40 am

ruined former youth seeking atonement
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i listened to a couple of the tracks of the sountrack and i thought some of it was pretty good. it's not pop music like ff soundtracks were, from what i heard, and it's kind of more similar to hitoshi sakimoto but manages to avoid being bland which he does a lot.

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SammyGamer

#62 February 22, 2008, 11:51:55 pm

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After finishing the game, here are my thoughts:

The people who have given insight on it(Marcus, Fire Mage) all make very valid points. IMO, the game has flaws, and it's definitely nothing new. It doesn't break the mold, but it does take the old mold to a new level. It's not perfect(is any game ever?) but I think that it certainly does more things right than wrong, and I think that for almost anybody who enjoyed the RPGs of "old"(not necessarily all "old" per se, but I'm especially thinking FF6-9, a lot of Snes Square RPGs, the Shadow Hearts series, etc) will find themselves at home with this one. I can only hope that this is the beginning of great things for Mistwalker. There's certainly a lot for them to improve on for their future efforts(technical issues, pacing, also some budget and management related stuff, according to interviews with Sakaguchi), but they've still managed to make something very impressive. It's the first console RPG in a long time where I've said to myself "Now, this was worth my money"

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Fire Mage

#63 February 23, 2008, 12:13:14 am

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One other thing I meant to mention about that worm boss. Even with it's annoying as hell attacks, it wasn't too bad...

But then after you defeat it, another one appears and you start the EXACT SAME BATTLE ALL OVER. It was so fucking annoying. That was a long time ago in the game for me though.

But I can forgive and forget, since this game is pretty amazing.

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Niitaka

#64 February 23, 2008, 03:41:27 am

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So playing through this game, there's so much superfluous fluff. There are moments where you are told to push a switch to trap a droid behind a door, and that's exactly what you do: the switch is right in front of you, the timing isn't difficult to get, and the concept is never repeated. The game tells you how do do it (so it's not as if the player has to figure it out and feels clever).

I mean, there's no point. It's just there.

And then there's a moment where you have to collect 10 branches. They're just strewn in random places and you're backtracking and it's just FLUFF.

Yes, I'm aware this is typical rpg fare but even fetch quests are better attempts at masking the pure arbitrariness (is that a word) of this sort of thing.

The 1000 Years of Dreams have some interesting short stories and they help flesh out the main character, but it's just text on a page which is kind of disappointing. Why not just read the book?

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jamie

#65 February 23, 2008, 03:43:29 am

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hahahaha man this sounds so bad

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Ragnar

#66 February 23, 2008, 05:04:54 pm

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Btw if anyone's seen the commercial Jefferson Airplane must be spinning in their grave right now (I dunno are they alive or dead I thought the singer died)

Edit: nvm she's alive I was probably thinking of Janis Joplin

http://djsaint-hubert.bandcamp.com/

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Fire Mage

#67 February 24, 2008, 02:52:17 am

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Quote from: Niitaka on February 23, 2008, 03:41:27 am

So playing through this game, there's so much superfluous fluff. There are moments where you are told to push a switch to trap a droid behind a door, and that's exactly what you do: the switch is right in front of you, the timing isn't difficult to get, and the concept is never repeated. The game tells you how do do it (so it's not as if the player has to figure it out and feels clever).

I mean, there's no point. It's just there.

And then there's a moment where you have to collect 10 branches. They're just strewn in random places and you're backtracking and it's just FLUFF.

Yes, I'm aware this is typical rpg fare but even fetch quests are better attempts at masking the pure arbitrariness (is that a word) of this sort of thing.

The 1000 Years of Dreams have some interesting short stories and they help flesh out the main character, but it's just text on a page which is kind of disappointing. Why not just read the book?

Have you completed this game? Because that's like stuff off disc one, so you've hardly played through the game.

And also, EVERY GAME is going to have fluff. Yes, there are flaws to this game, but the good most definitely outweighs the bad.

Steam ID: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Dravvad

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(Yeah, great name, but I was like 14)

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Shadow Kirby

#68 February 24, 2008, 06:20:44 pm

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Quote from: Niitaka on February 23, 2008, 03:41:27 am

The 1000 Years of Dreams have some interesting short stories and they help flesh out the main character, but it's just text on a page which is kind of disappointing. Why not just read the book?

You do know that most of the first adventure and rpg games (most, more like all) were only text.
Have the gamers imagination died so much that they absolutely need shiny graphics to be interested in a story. Sure, it's not interactive and that's a crime imo in a game but a 1000 Years of Dreams is just a nice collection of short stories that you can read when taking break of the action.

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maladroithim

#69 February 25, 2008, 04:02:17 pm

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Quote from: Fire Mage on February 24, 2008, 02:52:17 am

Have you completed this game? Because that's like stuff off disc one, so you've hardly played through the game.

Yeah the first disc gets really awful after the intro. I was shocked when the game made me collect flowers and THEN collect sticks and THEN play some retarded minigame when I was supposed to be grieving someone's death. After the fairly cool introduction I felt like the entire point of the first disc was to waste my time. Nothing happened to propel the plot forward and none of the game scenarios were very interesting. Blue Dragon had exactly the same problem; in that game, your characters were marooned in a strange country fairly early on and then spend the entire first disc (15 hours or so?) walking back home. Nothing happens the entire time except for a few dull dungeons.

Quote from: Shadow Kirby on February 24, 2008, 06:20:44 pm

You do know that most of the first adventure and rpg games (most, more like all) were only text.
Have the gamers imagination died so much that they absolutely need shiny graphics to be interested in a story. Sure, it's not interactive and that's a crime imo in a game but a 1000 Years of Dreams is just a nice collection of short stories that you can read when taking break of the action.

Well I thought that with the art and the sound effects and stuff it was a lot more interesting and "gamelike" than just sitting down with a novel. Also, I actually prefer reading about the character's past over watching cutscenes because the game would have been incredibly long and incredibly dull if I would have had to watch Kaim stack fruit or load cargo or whatever odd jobs he had taken over the years. I would think it would be a valid criticism to complain that it's an abuse of the medium or whatever, but since you can skip them and there's no essential information in them whatsoever, I don't really see that any criticisms are valid.

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Fire Mage

#70 February 25, 2008, 08:35:29 pm

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Quote from: maladroithim on February 25, 2008, 04:02:17 pm

Yeah the first disc gets really awful after the intro. I was shocked when the game made me collect flowers and THEN collect sticks and THEN play some retarded minigame when I was supposed to be grieving someone's death. After the fairly cool introduction I felt like the entire point of the first disc was to waste my time. Nothing happened to propel the plot forward and none of the game scenarios were very interesting. Blue Dragon had exactly the same problem; in that game, your characters were marooned in a strange country fairly early on and then spend the entire first disc (15 hours or so?) walking back home. Nothing happens the entire time except for a few dull dungeons.

Oh shit...a COLLECTION QUEST? That takes all of 2 minutes? And a MINIGAME?

What madness is this?

Really I'm not flaming you, but you're really nitpicking. What you complained about is all of 20 minutes of the game at most, and I'm referring to that whole section, not the collecting.

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maladroithim

#71 February 26, 2008, 02:19:59 am

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Quote from: Fire Mage on February 25, 2008, 08:35:29 pm

Oh shit...a COLLECTION QUEST? That takes all of 2 minutes? And a MINIGAME?

What madness is this?

Well I really did think that a lot of sections in the first disc after the exposition and the dungeon at Grand Staff were pretty dull. The long bit where your heroes are marooned and coincidentally running into what would eventually become the rest of your party is really not very much fun at all. Incidentally that happens to be the entire first disc. And regardless of how long a crappy scenario (stick collecting) is or isn't, it's still a crappy scene.

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Niitaka

#72 February 27, 2008, 07:44:04 am

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Quote from: Fire Mage on February 25, 2008, 08:35:29 pm

Oh shit...a COLLECTION QUEST? That takes all of 2 minutes? And a MINIGAME?

What madness is this?

Really I'm not flaming you, but you're really nitpicking. What you complained about is all of 20 minutes of the game at most, and I'm referring to that whole section, not the collecting.

The point isn't that it took x amount of time, the point is that it contributes absolutely nothing to the game. It doesn't push forward the story, it doesn't develop the characters, it does nothing interesting.

It's padding.

Quote from: Fire

Have you completed this game? Because that's like stuff off disc one, so you've hardly played through the game.

Yeah because 15 hours of my time is HARDLY PLAYING THE GAME.

Quote from: Fire

And also, EVERY GAME is going to have fluff.

False.

Quote from: Maladroithim

I would think it would be a valid criticism to complain that it's an abuse of the medium or whatever, but since you can skip them and there's no essential information in them whatsoever, I don't really see that any criticisms are valid.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/kt/video/sky2.mov
This is what would've made the stories so much more entertaining. The images and sounds were good, too, but walls of text really don't work well.

And it's not a criticism, really. I'm not saying the game is terrible because of these scenes. I'm saying that there isn't much else interesting to the game that even these short stories, which is just screens of text, is holding my interest better than the rest of the game.

Last Edit: February 27, 2008, 08:00:07 am by Niitaka

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Summoner

#73 February 27, 2008, 06:31:57 pm

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they actually sorta do that already, the whole moving text.

IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU I WOULD SPEND SATURDAY NIGHT ON AUTOFELLATE

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Fire Mage

#74 February 27, 2008, 10:08:16 pm

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Quote from: Niitaka on February 27, 2008, 07:44:04 am

The point isn't that it took x amount of time, the point is that it contributes absolutely nothing to the game. It doesn't push forward the story, it doesn't develop the characters, it does nothing interesting.

It's padding.

Yeah because 15 hours of my time is HARDLY PLAYING THE GAME.

False.

Err...explain padding. I'll agree it's not a big contribution, but it's not a big downfall. Also, there IS a point of time. If they sent you on a collection quest scouring the world for an hour, that's a lot different than 2 minutes of stick collecting in two areas.

15 hours, yeah that's what I clocked for the first disc. Sure, that's a while but to my standards you should go through a whole game before you start judging it. It may be a bit hypocritical for me I guess as I haven't finished it yet, but I'm not judging it. You're judging the game based on some "fluff" (at least it seems that way)

Finally, name some games that have absolutely no fluff, no breaks in action (somewhat), no stalling points. Please.

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Niitaka

#75 February 29, 2008, 08:01:20 pm

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Say you're watching a movie. 15 minutes in, a static image of McDonalds fries appears. Not for very long, just 5 seconds. The image has no relevance whatsoever to the movie. It's just there.

That's bullshit. That shouldn't be there. It doesn't matter how good the rest of the movie is, it doesn't matter that the image was only there for 5 SECONDS - it doesn't stop the image from being superfluous and useless in the movie.

Does that make sense? I don't CARE how long a useless collection quest is if it doesn't contribute anything to a game. Granted, there are ways of making a collection quest provide some meaning to a game - acting as the reason for the player to go to a new location, to talk to somebody, etc.

But the quest here doesn't do anything. You're staying in the same area that you've just been in, and you're running around the environment COLLECTING STICKS.

ANTIHERO WHO LIVED FOR A THOUSAND YEARS IS COLLECTING STICKS.

I sure as hell can call the game out for having bullshit like that. It doesn't matter how good the rest of the game is, this specific instance is still retarded.

Edit: You're misinterpreting my definition of fluff. Games don't have to be action-paced all the time. Lulls in the action aren't FLUFF if they serve some other purpose in the game - developing plot, acting as transitions, whatever. FLUFF is extraneous stuff that doesn't contribute to the game at all and should be removed, just like useless scenes in a film, useless chapters in a book, etc.

Last Edit: February 29, 2008, 08:05:30 pm by Niitaka

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