Lost Odyssey | Retrospective Review 

Thanks for watching, everyone! A couple of extra thoughts/clarifications: 1. When I said at 13:53 that Lost Odyssey doesn't show many rough edges, I was speaking more to the user experience as a whole rather than to the game's performance. As some of the footage I captured in the video shows, the framerate often dips pretty significantly (it's possible that my Xbox 360 being so old is a contributing factor), and the load times can be really long. If you download data from the discs onto the console's hard drive it can mitigate the load times somewhat, but they're pretty unbearable even when you do that. Performance aside, the game's UX is top-notch. 2. I've had a lot of good conversations with people over the last couple of weeks (on our podcast and elsewhere) who have offered some interesting points about how eternal life could stay interesting and fulfilling long term. I'm still not wholly convinced that a person wouldn't grow sick of being alive at some point, but it's been really cool to see people contributing their own experiences and perspectives to this ongoing conversation. If you'd like to give your two cents on this feel free to do so in the comments. I think it's a fascinating philosophical question. My problem with the game's storytelling isn't that this conclusion is different from my own, but that the storytellers didn't "earn" that conclusion by showing how the main character arrived at it. Anyway, again I appreciate all of you who have watched and shared the video. I have a lot of other video ideas that I'm working on currently and hope to have something new for you soon! Stay safe!

I made Nobou Uematsu giddy with excitement when I brought him a copy of Lost Odyssey to sign at a Distant Worlds concert. He said something to the effect of not too many people remember his work on the soundtrack.

Everytime I see these vids I can't help but imagine some alternate reality where Wada got ousted and Sakaguchi stayed on at Square, and lament all the games we could have gotten instead. Imagine if this game had gotten all the talent and resources at Squares disposal.

This game deserves an xbox one x enhancement or PC version. Especially since it was an exclusive. Some of the locales would be gorgeous in 4k with 16x anistropic filtering.

In the case of Gongora's character, and his utter, hamfisted villainy toward the end of his arc - it was always my take that where emotions are a relatively novel concept for the immortals, so too is empathy and moralty. To cut a long theory short, I always saw it as Gongora simply enjoying how fun irreverence and causing suffering can be. Kaim, Sarah, Ming and Seth discovered the merits of love, compassion and happiness whilst Gongora explored emotions on the other side of that coin. I always thought that was why they fought infront of a giant mirror at the end.

Oh nice! I'm actually playing Lost Odyssey right now on XB1 :) Looking forward to watching this.

Bring this to PC. To many people missed out on it.

Longing for the day a miracle happens and we get a port or sequel of Lost Odyssey.

Mike, I can't thank you enough for these retrospectives. They introduced me to some of the most profound works I've ever experienced.

Seriously when did they decide that overworld maps were obsolete. Tales of vesperia had one of the best modern overworlds .

Criminally underrated channel

"You don't have to read the dreams to understand the story, but you have to read them to understands its message" quality content like that is what makes your channel separate from the rest. Fantastic retrospective. You put a lot of work into this. I learned a lot of stuff about the development of the game I didn't know as well. I thank you for putting your all into this Mike. Can't wait for the next! The game may not do a perfect job of closing the story and it's themes out, but at least it set out to do something unique and delivered on that in the dreams and some parts of the plot. for that I really appreciate the gem. It's only so many times I can stomach the power of friendship.

The trailer for this game was one of the best video game commericals ever made. Had me pumped to play the game.

one of the best jrpg's of all time - TOTALY UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE ♥️ we need ps4/XboxOne/Switch/PC ports >~< !

I literally just bought this game yesterday. Found a sealed copy on ebay for 18 bucks. Couldn't pass that up. It's been a game I've wanted to play for years.

I had rather hoped that the story would have concluded with the immortals taking what they've learned of emotional pain and using that to return to their lives on the homeworld and make it a better place.

The definition of an underrated straight up masterpiece. When it first came out, despite growing up on all of the classics, I knew right away this one was special and would endure. I really hoped they would follow this up at some point, but it’s singular nature also makes it even more special.

We need Remasters of MISTWALKER's Gems *The Last Story *Lost Odyssey *Blue Dragon

The Dreams in this game made me cry. Hard. Never have experienced such severe emotions from a game, from before playing this, to this very day.

Bring this to the Nintendo Switch it would sell like cake. !!!

Still holding out on the possibility of a PC port eventually to play this so I won't spoil myself here, but here's some viewer engagement

Finally someone talks about this game again. I personally still love this game. Closest thing to an ff6 we have in modern era games

I absolutely loved this game! It was the last great turn based rpg.

One of the best VG soundtracks of all time.

I never knew how deep the history of this game's production actually was. Going WAY back to 2000's Squaresoft is something that was totally necessary to understand a game so important for Sakaguchi. Also, Uematsu's reason for going freelance is hilarious.

What I learned from this video: Don't skip Thousand Years of Dreams!

27:28 I mean, part of the problem with outliving your loved ones, is mitigated if your loved one is literally immortal like you are. Yes, Kaim and Sarah will always outlive their children and descendants, but they will have each other. And heck, they can literally watch over ALL their descendants for all time as like a pair of immortal matriarch and patriarch.

Just wanted to say that the game runs perfectly on One X and likely Series X.

Last year I was standing in line at a GameStop. Waiting. The dude in front of me was trading in a ton of games. While sitting there I notice him pull out a copy of Lost Odyssey. Case looked brand new. I said "hey man, can I take a look at that?" He gives it to me. It's brand new man. The disc's are immaculate. I feel like it was opened from the wrap and just never got used. I give it back to him. Say. That's nice. What a gem to see in public. He hands it to the employee. He scans it. Beep. I ask how much that trade in is worth? Employee says like 2 dollars or some shit. I look at the dude and say. "I'll give you 5 bucks for it cash" He asked the employee to take it off and I stole one of the best games I've ever played for 5 bucks And also as a fun fact. I played this game for the first time atleast 6 years after its initial release and when I put it into the 360, it didn't even require any sort of update. They made the game exactly the way it was suppose to be. A unicorn

Lost Odyssey is one of the best RPG's I've ever played. The story was amazing and the battle system was nostalgic. I even used a guide to get all the 1000 years of dreams because they were so good. Cooke and Mack can screw right off though.

Honestly, I finished Lost Odyssey and thought the game was okay 7/10, but suuuper overrated and all characters besides Kaim and Seth are visually unpleasing and some are straight out annoying (Cooke + Mack...). The video is Great 👍🏻

Amnesia seemed to be everywhere: Manhunt 2, Lost Planet, Bourne Ultimatum, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 8, etc. I wonder why characters with amnesia are in so many games and films 🎮🔫📺📽💻😱

I was a massive gamer yet never got into JRPGs until 2010 when I found this master piece. I have so many great memories playing this game! I had to learn an entire new way to play which felt strange from the fps and rpg realm I came from. I remember almost quitting at the Bogimoray boss but the accomplishment I got from that success felt AMAZING. I completely lost myself in the story and loved the OST. I don’t want to type too much more but this game will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to an amazing game genre. Also I listen to the OST til this day!!

I do believe a person would get sick but as we know humans psyche evolve constanly so depending on the person they will adapt meaning that they will either grow up or become insane on both good or bad ways

I'm sure I'm going to be in the minority of this comment section - But this is not a good game. Every single aspect of this game that isn't Thousand Years of Dreams ranges from mediocre to terrible. This game is not worth playing. Nothing about the gameplay experience is worth the time necessary to complete. If the only good portion of your game are unnecessary / skippable short stories, I would argue it is a failure of a video game. The good bits of this game are already the short stories, so it would have been better served as either a novel or collection of short stories. I'm not going to go through every problem I have with the game, but I will say I am not as forgiving of it's shortcomings as many in these comments. I 100% think that is because I am not as attached to Sakaguchi as god, or as nostalgic for the "good ole days" of JRPGs. Maybe I am too critical of this game, but I'm fine with that. Not every game can be for every person. Regardless, I do love your content- so keep up the good work!

A Switch and PC port of this game would do it justice.

So, they let Nobuo Uematsu, one of the best modern composers, go because he was unhappy with commute to work? They didn't offer him to work remotely? What the fuck?

The production quality of this video is really high! It was very pleasant to watch

Very fine retrospective.. I Love old school overworlds, the Gameplay in LO which feels Like an Evolution of Squalls FF8 gun Blade mechanic, the Ring/Skill system, the 1000 years Stories and it's amazing Soundtrack. But imo you focused Like the Game on the wrong Character and so the 1000 years Message ingame felt underwhelmimg... The Story of Seth though, her relationship with Aneira, who is from an erased Race which had people who lived much longer than humans thus being a much better Match for an "Immortal" by Default, the Personal BETRAY by Gongora who Made her even kill the ONLY being beides the other Immortals WHO was kinda the perfekt Partner for her , her final act to get her Revenge on Gongora since SETH pushes him Back to the world they Came from makes me really think that She is in reality the Main Hidden Character Here. .. She really had a melanchoic end compared to Kaim which had insane potential. I was looking for YEARS to See a LO2 featuring Seth as the Main Character which She is in reality, Just Like Ashe is in FFXII and Not Vaan, since both female Characters carry the Messages of their respektive Games MUCH better than the so called "Male Poster Boy Main characters".. but i digress and a Lost Odyssey 2 never Came... :/ And so Lost Odyssey will remain as a fascinating Game on a fascinating Console(Xbox 360), but it could have been SO MUCH MORE! Thanks for Reading though, Cheers. 👍

I remember the short stories really caught me off guard. I saw them and thought maybe some exec's nephew liked writing and so they stuffed a bunch into the game. About half way through I finally read one of them. Yow! I quickly went back and read the rest I had picked up.

Xbox series X users will finally be able to play Lost Odyssey the legendary Jrpg they missed that didn't have a 360 or xbox one.

This is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

Jansen was very popular when this game came out. I guess it was just funny back then.

Nobuo Uematsu's last incredible work imo

You're back man, its absolutely great news! Cover on xeno was awesome, this is a long awaited review on the game that was strangely forgotten. Please don't disappear for too much. Your collegue - musician, rock-metal vocalist from Belarus. PS: Maybe Last story next? Or...mmm...Kiseki?

You really feel the Hironobu Sakaguchi vibe in this game and that's why it's so good. Also Nobuo Uematsu have done the soundtrack.

$6.49 with xbl gold as of 2021-02-11. I just bought this game again for the 3rd time lol.

Great video! One of the most overlooked JRPGs of the previous generation.

I skip downloading this game on game pass thinking it was a mediocre rpg. I hope it's still there.

Still holds up to this day. Amazing JRPG. I started a new game the other week just to relive the awesomeness.

I want another JRPG by mist walker The Last Story was outstanding

Every now and again I see another one of these Retrospective Videos show up in my feed, and every time it's Lost Odyssey I watch it, Absolutely one of if not my #1 favorite game of all time, The entire package to me was something that I was way more invested in than most other games, heck even just media in general, It captured me on a level that nearly no other thing has. The only thing I would like to comment about in particular would be the voice direction, I think they nailed characters personalities in a way that may be cringe/over the top/awkward, but I feel like that adds to the charm of the game and the moments, It may detract from the emotional/seriousness of the story and message but I liked that it was a game that didn't take itself too seriously, I could be wrong but if it had been less so I feel it could have become grating since the game itself is so long. It has been a while since I've replayed it. 4 years late but still a wonderful watch

This being on Xbox pretty much killed it.

Omg I played this game back in 2009 and I love this game 😭😭 I read every 1000 year dreams twice. My favorite is “don’t forget me now you hear” 😭😭😭 spoiler alert........ Seth!!!!........ 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

“The gameplay experience is so smooth that...” the original 360 version has a hORRENDOUS framerate. It’s slightly better on Xbox One, but still bad. Xbox One X runs it fine, but still with some drops. Series X will be the first platform you can play Lost Odyssey on with a perfectly locked framerate Target. The gameplay experience was not “smooth”

They should Port it over to switch 🖤 would be a instant buy, I really want to play this again I can clearly remember that awesome final boss music 🎶 and that ending....the story needs to continue 😭

My X360 got RROD while playing 3rd disc :'(

The graphics in this game still look pretty good today. I remember playing this on 360 but was too young to appreciate what it was trying to do.

35:10 Finally someone who miss overworld map like me. ;)

Amazing game wish it was on PC even if it doesn't get updated textures or anything i would still play it becasue modders would eventually make the game even better graphically! EDIT: Just subscribed you have great content keep it up!

I hope we get Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey on PC in the near future. Having updated version on consoles would be brilliant as well.

This is a very nice review of the game and I appreciate you going in depth with it. I agree with many of your points with the story I do wish that it’s focus was more on the philosophical points of being immortal as I do see the untapped potential. However, I see you were not of fan of Jansen and I will argue that in the ideal story I do believe he would have been an essential comic relief character as in the story we received, he truly made me laugh so many times which kept the emotions of the overall experience pretty vivid rather than flat sad or happy. I will admit there were too many characters that did make the story a bit more lighter than it should have been (I’m not too big of a fan of Kaim’s grandchildren having a major part of the story) but I feel like just looking at Jansen, I would be surprised if you say that all of his dialogue was cringe and not very humorous. I feel like it was a really nice touch to have such a comic relief character in a emotional story and well really atmosphere as that was nailed down from the music and the thousand years of dreams stories. I do agree the villains are not the greatest and there were a couple of characters that blurred the focus but I definitely did love Jansen’s role in the story and as a comic relief character. I could not imagine this game without him in it

Lost Odyssey to me feels like an SNES game with modern visuals and production values. There’s not many games that give me this feeling aside from something like Dragon Quest 11. I also think this is Uematsu’s best soundtrack he has made. The battle themes are fantastic along with the main theme.

Mistwalker has a new game out on Apple Arcade. It feels like a spiritual successor in some ways, it’s a very interesting diorama based JRPG called “FANTASIAN.” Such a great little game, shame it’s only available on Apple Arcade I think.

Okay okay okay, I honestly had no idea that Vagabond and Lost Odyssey were connected, and it kinda blows my mind because I love them both and it's really cool. It's a shame both have issues now, what with Vagabond being on hiatus in 2015 and Mistwalker claiming they don't want to remaster Lost Odyssey meaning we'll probably never see it come off of the Xbox 360 and become playable elsewhere.

Fantastic review Mike. I can tell the amount of effort you put into this. Loved the touch of turning those quotes into a Thousand Years of Dreams bit. It's a shame there are some rough edges on the story side of things. I had to skip the spoiler section, but I still hope to play this through some day. Really hoping for some kind of way to play on PC.

I'm pissed off this is an x360 exclusive. I'll probably never buy anything xbox, I prefer playstation, and from a sales point of view, it's insane for a japanese game to be an exclusive in a xbox platform. xbox doesn't exist in japan, nobody cares about it and it sold very few units. the logical thing to do for a japanese game is to be released on playstation or nintendo. it's a shame, I would like to play this game. is it too late for a PC release?. other console exclusives have been released on PC.

What baffles me is that the same man who produced Final Fantasy 9 also was the director for Blue Dragon. FF9 has a great cast and (with one or two exceptions) fantastic characters that you get invested in, who are likeable and relatable. Blue Dragon on the other hand is... either very generic or obnoxious or both. And I know that that's subjective but, I just don't see how you can consider Shu to be on the same level as Zidane. There's such a lack of depth and complexity for the protagonists, they're very cookie cutter anime archetypes with such little personality of their own. I'm not saying this to insult Blue Dra- okay I'm saying this a *little* to insult Blue Dragon I really dislike that game, but I'm mostly saying it out of genuine curiosity. How does the man who made FF9 make this? Even if he was only a supervisor for Blue Dragon, I would have thought that as a supervisor he would, well, make sure that the game's main characters were engaging and likeable and to me they just very much aren't. I'd love to know how this was possible.

There is some strange cutscene direction early on. Like, it's pretty horrible. This was something I didn't remember from my previous playthroughs ages ago but noticed on my most recent. Things like cutaways to characters faces. Except the characters look dead in the face or the timing is off. Cutscenes in general just feel weird during the first disc. Unless you play it, it's hard to put into words. Sound balance is bad in terms of voice acting. This is a problem for the whole game. If it weren't for the subtitles there are whole lines I would miss. Speaking of bad cutscenes, the worst one is a small cutaway scene of Gongora creating a golem that later turns into the Head Chairman of Uhra and attacks Tolten. The cutscene looks like a bad machinima. It's a small cutscene but it looks so terrible it took me out of the game. No doubt the cutscene was added way later to explain the appearance of the golem because they forgot to include one initially. That is probably why it looks so bad.

Sadly this was not a game I could bring myself to finish. The story and the difficult combat encounters, even while doing a bit of grinding, just killed my interest in the game. Soundtrack was def my favorite part of it. Lots of potential, but this game is just nowhere near my favorite rpg.

I'm one of those people who bought a 360 for lost odyssey (and then i bought two more because red ring of death - yes really). I had only owned a ps1 and ps2 before because that's where final fantasy was. But i had played through all the final fantasy games i could get my hands on (almost all of them up until 12) and i wanted more. I was pretty new to gaming so i just knew i wanted lost odayssey (which i had found cheap for like 15 bucks at a used games store) and i knew i needed a 360 to play it. I fucking LOVED that game. Just the intro music still makes me cry. I spent a good 100h on trying to find everything and read all of the dreams. I think lost odyssey is where i discovered what a jrpg could truly be, it's exactly the style of game i like playing. Slow paced, story heavy, pretty, likable characters. Other people play games for the gameplay, my bf won't touch games he doesn't find mechanically challenging. But i don't care about mechanics at all. I need to be able to understand them, yes. But apart from that, I'll fight through any kind of gameplay hassle if i like the story well enough. Thankfully lost odyssey wasn't a fight at all, it was very fun to play, as well as read. Also, owning a 360 got me into western rpgs. I had only played jrpgs/final fantasy games before but shortly after buying the 360, i found a cheap copy of dragon age:origins and that's when i started expanding my tastes in video games. So lost odyssey being on the 360, while it means a lot of people missed out on it, wasn't a negative for me at all. Gotta say though, when i last played this i was... 19? And i loved the romance between ming and jansen. I'm 30 now, maybe i need to go back and play it again. I recently re-read a book i read as a teenager and it hit me on a very different emotional level. Maybe that will happen with lost odyssey as well. I'm very much looking forward to experiencing it again as the person i am today.

One of my biggest criticisms of the game is... ****Possible spoiler ahead**** At one point the game gives you control over the main villain. So I just put the controller down. Job done, world saved. He's still standing in the middle of a hall to this day. 😂 Other games have done this and I never usually like it. I think maybe it can be done well if the game sets a precedent early. Perhaps a game that makes a point early on of switching control between multiple characters, including antagonists and protagonists. But when you spend 30 hours striving to stop the antagonist, and then suddenly take control over them it makes no sense and it breaks the roleplaying.

I remember enjoying this game.....until I got up to those twin kids who were annoying af (interestingly theres also two annoying kids in Infinite Undiscovery, another RPG that came out around the same time) and with the battles that kinda dragged on a bit too long....yeah I dropped it.

I don't comletely agree about the skill learning. Especially in the late game, there are a lot of useless skill that you acquire, especially Magic. There are (I believe) 4 levels of each white, black and white/black skills, so 12 in total. But ultimately all you will need is the lvl.4 white/black skill because it contains everything from the other 11. Stuff like that bloats up the skill tree and could have been handled better.

Newlly appointed CFO Yoichi Wada is a twat Hironobu Sakaguchi was the samurai ninja of making RPG's and final fantasy, it was Yoichi Wada that ruined the series !

Lost Odyssey was a great game, overlooked because it came out on the Xbox 360, which did not have many RPGs on it. Lots of great moments, though it does drag on in the third quarter of the game.

Man for whatever reason I effin loved the voice acting and character moments in this game. Jansen is such a joy to experience and I was totally into the romance. But yeah the overall story is pretty weak. An utter classic of a game despite that. Amazing package.

The thousand years' dream is the only thing worth it for me in this game. I played it way back in Xbox360 and didn't finish it because I found it boring. Watching your review and it's still an easy pass for me.

*If you haven't heard this Lost Odyssey orchestra performance yet, please check it out. Its stunning.* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dixHG-3a2Dk.html

Sony should help Mistwalker make a AAA RPG like how they partnered with Kojima Productions.

Dude, this was so much more than a review. This was a straight up deep dive omnibus. Thank you so much. Subbed btw!

Wow surprised I never heard of this game, very unique and interesting. I usually start these videos not really caring and think I will only watch a few minutes but end up watching the whole thing.

I'm still hoping/praying for a PC rerelease.

Sakaguchi moving away from PS consoles was a bonehead move imo. And to hear that it's due to a personal grudge, that's even dumber.

imagine being able to go back in time to that show case of the ps2 all twirling and stuff and your like meh I got a ps5 and people over hear you and be like keep dreaming, and your like ahh hahaha yeah ^_^; aziff bitchez

Game is awesome. My Xbox 360 red ringed like 25 hrs into this game. I can still see the screen and myself sitting there staring in disbelief. It was like having my crack and heroin taken away at the same time

They definitely need to remaster this game. AAA Truly hidden gem

I stopped watching when you commented about spoilers. I Will come back to watch the rest of the video when I play the game. See you in one year or two

19:01 does anyone know the name of this track? I can't find it on any of the playlists here on RU-vid. It only plays during dreams iirc

The ads every 5 minutes exactly are driving me insane. There's even a countdown to the ads... its so freaking obnoxious! YT, you're killing me here!!!

Playing this recently is like playing a brand new FF game. It's a feeling I've been hoping for since FFX.

This really did give me final fantasy 7,8,9and 10 vibes. I always say this what ff 11 should have been.

I bought the 360 just for this game. 1000dreams was the best thing about this game. Only had this game on the shitsixty.

Just finished the game, I have been waiting to watch this video for a long while. The 1000 years were so good. The main story was so convoluted and silly that I had trouble getting through it. The characters and everything that is happening is just pure nonsense and I don't think you would get the deep message through the main story without reading those for sure. I enjoyed the old school combat. Anyway, I pretty much agree with you 100%... And those outfits! Ugh.. SPOILER: For the ending, if they would have added an extra bit with funerals for Jansen, Mac, Cooke, etc. it would have showed them suffering those losses... again..

This game was so good. I didn't have as much of a problem with the story as you did, but I absolutely get your points.

this game was wasted on the xbox audience and sadly over looked, it really should have been on a sony, steam or nintendo.

I miss sakaguchi games

I'VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS ONE.

Both LO and BD were mediocre. Mucha better than FF XIII but still underwhelming.

I'm playing it for the third time now. I bought it day one and this game is "aging" (by comparison to games and JRPGs released since) so well... A real masterpiece and the last game of its kind. The perfect mix of maturity and cheesiness like we can find in Sakaguchi games. The art (music and graphics) take us to the Heaven. I also love how the story made Kaïm and other immortals personal esperience resonate with the world state which mixes the experience of both industrial revolution and WWII. Gameplay is a good variation of turn-based system and gets better and better, requiring careful management even if some action-addicts do not like it. Definitively on my top 3 of the best games ever and I started video games in 1994. I really wished this game started the "Final Fantasy" of Microsoft. As for the topic, I don't get why people are frustrated about Kaïm and dreams. Kaïm is not really important in dreams as characters personal journey is not the most important part of the story. Dreams are more important as they contribute to the whole message. I see Kaïm more as an witness and observer in the game and dreams. I really felt like Gothza destruction was a reminescence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. So yeah this game was made by a Dream Team and is actually a Dream Game.