Awhile ago, a really nice person sent me a copy of Lost Odyssey. For one reason or another, I have kept putting it off. But lately I've felt the pull towards it, since Disgaea 3 has felt more and more like a chess game with experience than a RPG. Compound it with a ninja strategy game, and well, coffee just wasn't a good enough fix. I am currently playing Final Fantasy VII, and as great as the game is, I really, really need a game with non-polygon graphics. I had already started Last Remnant, so I thought I should finish that, but the Magic 8-ball redirected me to Lost Odyssey. I can't deny the Magic 8-ball. There would be cosmic consequences and reparations.

When I opened the game case, four, count 'em, FOUR game discs popped out. I had a small heart attack. A good RPG should be at least 40 hours, but I don't have the time and energy for a potentially 100 hour game. That's one reason why I have never finished Ocarina of Time. I contacted my benefactor, and she assured me that the game didn't take any longer than any other Final Fantasy game. I would discover in the first few minutes why the game requires four discs.

She could not have been more right.

I have never, ever seen a game with such incredible graphics. Add on top of that turn-based play (which takes longer than hack n' slash) and lots of cut-scenes that run between five and ten minutes long, it's easy to see why the game needs so much space.

I'm only a few hours in, and I'm in love. The turn-based play has some strategic and interactive elements, so it isn't as boring to watch partymembers hack away at enemies one by one like the ants marching in. The protagonist is moody, but a badass, and he has a badass chick companion with a freaking huge sword. The story is even worthy to sit amongst other great RPG epics. Shawn, who claims that he hates watching it as much as he hates watching me play Final Fantasy, wouldn't leave the room while I played. He even helped me find hidden items and watched the epic long cut-scenes of Kaim's memories in silence.

I only have one complaint: the lack of in-game tutorial. The game assumes that the player is well versed in the Xbox controls as well as how to play a turn-based game or that the player read the instruction manual before play. Not that it's hard to make a selection and move on, but not everyone would be as familiar. But if this ends up being my only complaint, Lost Odyssey may become my new favorite game. That may make Shawn very happy. He's tired seeing Crisis Core stuff plastered everywhere.

I finished the Story mode of LEGO Star Wars a couple of days ago and then I briefly tried the Freeplay mode in hopes it would be more fun. Unfortunately, the answer is not really. So very, very disappointed. But the bad news for me is good news for Shawn. Since his PSP broke, he'll be borrowing mine as I don't have any other PSP games to play right now. Not that I don't have anything else to play...

My new DS came in this week (yay!) so after I gave up on LEGO Star Wars I cracked open Ninjatown. I was afraid it would be like Viva Pinata, since the review comments were roughly the same: it's a difficult strategy game, but its cutesieness may be too much for older gamers and the gameplay may be too difficult for younger gamers. It is annoyingly cute, but the gameplay doesn't annoy me like Viva Pinata did. It reminds me alot of Warcraft or Age of Empires, two genres I absolutely love. Instead of fighting with warriors right out of Dungeons and Dragons, you dispatch an army of ninjas to fight the hordes of demons invading Ninjatown.

Like Warcraft, you have to develop a strategy in where you place your different kinds of ninjas. It all started out simple enough. Now that I'm on the third level, I have a variety of ninjas at my disposal as well as some secret ninja arts of my own (think of god powers, for those who have played Age of Mythology), and it's gotten very complicated. Oh how it is making me miss Age of Mythology. I may try to find those discs and install it on my computer.

Between this and Disgaea 3 though, I'm overloaded on strategy. I'm jonesing for some serious RPG play. I can't decide if I should focus on FF7 or start Lost Odyssey, a game I have been frothing at the mouth for since the commercials last February.

While I'm waiting on my new DS to arrive (finally broke down and ordered one from Amazon since I have no idea when my local stores will get them back in stock) I'm playing Lego Star Wars II on my PSP. I really liked the Lego Indiana Jones game, so I thought I'd surely like this game as much or more, especially since I like Star Wars far more than I like Indiana Jones.

I was wrong.

Maybe I shouldn't have played Indy first. It's obvious that Indy, a later game, fixed a bunch of annoyances from previous Lego games. For starters, I've had to open up my instructions manual to find out how to do some things since the game doesn't have much of a play as you go tutorial. Not even buying hints helped me figure out all of the nuances, and since you didn't have to buy hints in Indy, that annoyed me a bit too.

Now since this is a Star Wars game, I should have counted on plenty of instances where I would have to fly some sort of space ship. But I didn't. I suck at flying games. Ask Shawn. My very first game ever for the PS2 was a PSOne version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I could not handle flying on the broom. I had to get Shawn to do all those parts for me. After the fifth time of asking him for help, he told me to look at getting a different game. I haven't had better luck with other games that require flight. Granted, the flying in this game isn't half as difficult as I remember flying Harry's broom was. However, I look like a drunk pilot. A very drunk pilot. It's bringing back memories of my first time to play a game with an analog stick, and I couldn't manuever my character through a doorway. It was sad then, and it's sad now. There is no way I'm going to be able to find all of the minikit pieces, gold bricks, and every other imaginable hidden thing (seriously, why are there so many hidden collectibles??) during the flying levels. It was frustrating enough the first time. With practice I'm sure I could get better, but I'm not really interested.

All in all, I'm not enjoying the game. I'm loving all of the laugh-at-loud moments from the cut-scenes (I'm not sure what was funnier: catching Stormtroopers in a hot tub or watching them wash windows) but the gameplay isn't that fun. It isn't hard, but it isn't fun. I'm going to finish the story mode, but the jury is out about anything else at this time.

I found this online and then spent a few minutes cracking up.



Now I want Crisis Core back so I can play it again. I guess FF7 will have to do for now.