Lost Odyssey

[Masamune]

I'm going to have to agree, the writing wasn't -that- great.  It was decent, but I wouldn't say it stands out really.  Seth was probably the only character I really liked, Jansen is overrated.  He was a decent comic relief guy, but that was really his only purpose.  The voice acting was pretty well, but the actual dialogue wasn't anything special.  Persona 3 has much better VA's and dialogues, imo.

[newgameplus]

I should clarify, as well. What Masamune just said rings true for me, as well. NO character in-game was characterized well. Jansen simply benefited from having a fantastic voice actor concerned more with delivering lines well than lip-sync.

The whole game is plagued by that "detachment" inherent to poor English localization from a Japanese game. The cultures are so distinct from one another that it requires tremendous amount of work to successfully localize a game. Very rarely do I see that effort put forth, especially since the PS2 era.

I miss Working Designs :(

[Eusis]

I miss Working Designs :(

But we have Atlus!

[newgameplus]

Ill give you that. They usually do a pretty good job with localization. I'd just like to see less... quirky RPGs from them and more "serious" games that aren't SMT or DDS or Persona or whatever.

The team at CapCom responsible for Phoenix Wright should be given bigger assignments, IMO. That was some mighty fine localization.

[calintz]

I just thought, overall, the writing in LO was superb. Sure, the dreams were a highlight, but the whole thing was completely incredible

surely you don't think the cliched, and even cringe-worthy dialog of "main bad guy" (spoiler averted) was "incredible"
to each their own, tho...

The whole game is plagued by that "detachment" inherent to poor English localization from a Japanese game. The cultures are so distinct from one another that it requires tremendous amount of work to successfully localize a game. Very rarely do I see that effort put forth, especially since the PS2 era.

Tho, if you listen to the Japanese VA in Lost Odyssey, tho it has a (admittingly biased) better VA, what is generally being said is similar to the English subs... (if you can understand the Japanese, that is)

[Prime Mover]

Bad Guy: I came to this world and I have power and now I want more power to rule!

That's not writing, that's plot, and yes, it's simplistic and cliche. But even the most lauded RPGs and movies around here boil down to simple, formulaic plots when you get down to that level.

And really, is that the main plot, or just the conflict? The main plot is about Kaim and the others figuring out their place within the changing world, and that isn't as cliche as you make the game out to be. If we were to define "central conflict" as plot for every game we talked about, you could say that no game, movie or book has a great plot, because most of them boil down to some kind of tried-and-true conflict.

And how could you say that Jansen, Cooke, Mack, Seth, and Sed... who are all very flushed out characters, have dialog that's weaker than those from the FFV era? I think you need to go back and play FF4 and FF5, because you're in for a pretty bad wake-up-call if you remember them being superior.

I personally thought the dialog in the game felt less forced and more lifelike than 95% of the other games I've played as of late. Persona 3 being one of them.

[Lord Dorkus]

Developing An Epic: Nakazato On Lost Odyssey And The Future
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3628/developing_an_epic_nakazato_on_.php

I hope AQI is able to one day find an "it" game that will put them on the map. I wish them the best.

[Royal]

Can someone give me some special advice on button smashing in that annoying minigame? I had problems with it in Blue Dragon (almost broke my gamepad) and here it is again.
Are there some other console RPGs including button smashing minigames? (so I can be forewarned)

[terrencelee]

Can someone give me some special advice on button smashing in that annoying minigame? I had problems with it in Blue Dragon (almost broke my gamepad) and here it is again.
Are there some other console RPGs including button smashing minigames? (so I can be forewarned)

i couldnt get into blue dragon, L.O. was great though and yah seth is the shiznit. only thing about it i absolutely hated was that damned temple of enlightenment. i had to use a guide just to get out of the ****ing thing.

writing wasnt that great, it was maybe a 7 out of 10, the gameplay/graphics  are where the game really shone through

[Lord Dorkus]

Can someone give me some special advice on button smashing in that annoying minigame? I had problems with it in Blue Dragon (almost broke my gamepad) and here it is again.
Are there some other console RPGs including button smashing minigames? (so I can be forewarned)

A game like Gears of War 2 I can understand it having a button smashing minigame because it's supposed to be stressful and I'm certain it won't be anywhere near as bad one in BD and MGS but button smashing is a horrible design choice in a game like this. The way they implement it really isn't really that fun IMO. It's the only thing I hated about Blue Dragon, well that and the nothings, and in some other games as well. I don't think I've made it to the button smashing part in LO yet or maybe I can't remember doing so. Where is it in LO? I'm on disk 4 and taking my sweet time. IU and Tales won't be out for a few more months so I'm not in a rush.

I usually set the controller down on a chair or something and use it like an arcade joy stick so I can get that fast arcade like button taping going. A mini game like that is only fun with an arcade joystick which is part of the reason I can't understand why they think it's a good design choice for a console game. Using this tactic worked well with Metal Gear Solid 1/2 in normal only. I couldn't get the achievement for not getting stomped on by the bird in Blue Dragon using it(That bird always managed to get one stomp in even when I pretty much had the bar just about maxed out.) but I was able to make it past that stupid point. I'm sure you may have already tried this but it works for me.