Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 Creative director Guillaume Broche of Sandfall Interactive would love to play a remaster of Lost Odyssey, the mournful 2007 Xbox 360 game. RPG from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and development studio Mistwalker. He believes that reviewers at the time harshly criticized the game for adhering to certain conventions. He also believes that it would have been better if it had been released on hardware other than the Xbox 360, which was struggling to gain popularity among Japanese consumers at the time.
“It became a cult classic because not many people played it because it was only available on the Xbox 360, and its core audience was probably more used to PlayStation consoles,” Brosh said. Ed Nightingale from Eurogamer in a retrospective interview published this morning. “But the core audience that played it loved it. In my opinion, the critical reception at the time was very unfair, as the game was criticized for being “old school” at a time when it seemed like every game, with the exception of the open world, was viewed as “old school” by the Western press.
“I didn’t share that opinion at all, and its linear structure combined with the world map, amazing story and fantastic music made it one of the best games of its kind,” he added.
I'm not sure I'd go that far, but yes, Lost Odyssey is very good and deserves more attention than it received. There are a few aspects I don't like, like the excruciatingly long transitions between save points, and yes, it has random combat, which used to cause a stir among European and North American critics, but has been out of fashion for so long among big-budget RPG developers that it's become something of an exciting novelty. Ah, remember when you couldn't get to the end of a mountain trail without imagining 12 shots into an aquarium with the same giant beetle and harpy duo.
The combat is quite elegant, combining timing and positioning issues with the magic ring's QTE system. But I liked the game more because of the immersive visual novels – the memories brought back by your immortal protagonist Kaim – and the faded industrial fantasy setting that resembles a post-apocalyptic edition Final Fantasy XSpira.
Brosh says the game “never had a real successor,” which perhaps leaves out Sandfall's Clair Obscur, although I'll leave it to you to debate the similarities. “Justice for the lost Odyssey,” he told EG. “Remaster it now so more people can play it please.”
