Amazon Maximum Age: 20 Amazon Minimum Age: 144 Binding: Video Game Brand: Square Enix EAN: 0662248908229 ESRB Age Rating: Teen Feature: A seamless, real-time battle system that maintains a strategic, party-oriented format Label: Square Enix Manufacturer: Square Enix Model: 90822 Platform: Xbox 360 Publisher: Square Enix Release Date: 2008-09-02 Studio: Square Enix
Features
A seamless, real-time battle system that maintains a strategic, party-oriented format Episodic situational battles urge players to think before they engage A twisting, 30-hour storyline co-written by Ryo Mizuno, creator of Record of Lodoss War 17 characters join the hero, Capell, each with a unique “Connect action” that allows the player to take direct control
Customer Rating: Summary: An incredibly disappointing, highly generic mess of a JRPG. Comment: I was personally hyping this game for the high A to low AA range. I was expecting an JRPG that carried with it the tradition of an engrossing story with beautiful senery, but also broke away from the norm with its revolutionary combat. What I got was a JRPG so generic that it was actually worse than average RPGs in the genre and its so called revolutionary combat sstem was so dull, simple, and easily broken that it just felt like a huge waste of time.
Visually, the game looks like an HD PS2 game with some enhanced textures here and there, some weak light and shadow work, a good draw distance, and a huge amount of shine, because apparently to make a proper JRPG these days everything must be shiny. It basically looks on par with Ninety-Nine Nights but with way less characters on screen, and to be honest, NNN's combat was much more entertaining despite being a hack n' slash. At least the combat looks really cool when you watch it, too bad it doesn't play that way.
The soundwork is nothing special. The soundtrack is pretty typical of JRPGs, epic and done with a symphony. It kicks in harder when you're in combat. That's good for the most part but it can get annoying when you're entering combat to kill one or two enemies. It's like having someone follow you with a cello and having them go nuts with it every time you step on a crack in the sidewalk. The voice acting is appreciated, but they did a pretty lousy job with it. Everything that comes out of these people's mouths is so corny and so badly written that it embarrasses me to play this game in public. On top of that, there's a ton of cut scenes where the characters talk, their mouths move and everything, but no sound comes out through the entire scene! That's just downright lazy.
The plot is incredibly horrible. On the box description it seemed fine, passable. Once you start playing though, and live through the plot, you realize how ridiculously stupid it is. You end up not caring about any of the characters at all because they're all annoying and unlikable. The game is pretty easy and never really offered me any challenge. The combat is so shallow and boring that I feel like I'm just zoning out and pressing X and B at times. The game really struggled to keep me interested. You can control your teammates and tell them what to do, but luckily the AI is good enough that they can handle themselves most of the time. The only real redeeming qualities to this game is that it isn't a glitchy mess, you get to ride a big red bear thing into battle, and it ends.
I was bitterly disappointed this time. Square Enix and Tri-Ace Really let me down, and I think I 've lost any respect I may have had left for Square Enix. I'll stick to MIstwalker for my JRPGs now, thank you very much. Customer Rating: Summary: Another typical cheese Japanese RPG Comment: When you first put this game in the 360, it will force you to connect and download an update from XBOX Live. This is only a one time download. This update is not for the extra content or bonus feature. It is a mandatory update. Without this update, you won't be able to play this game.
Overall, this is just another JRPG features annoying screaming casts and cheesy dialog. It is no where near other JRPG such as Dragon Quest VIII or FFX or even FFXII. However, it is somewhat better than Blue Dragon and Enchanted Arms, in my opinion. The game is short, not many side quests. The story is nothing special; go from one place to the next to cut down the chains. Kind of repetitive.
If you want to know what happens to all of the characters after the final boss, you must spend 5-10 minutes watching the credits and special thanking to some special people...Then a short film kicks in showing what each party member is doing after the final boss fight. Kind of interesting except the final, final scene showing Aya and her bear. Not making much sense but you have to watch the 5 minutes credit rolling at the end to find out. I won't spoil it. Customer Rating: Summary: Infinate Discovery RPG Comment: This is a pretty good Game and Has some new inovative Ideas for the Gameplay. Though the cut scenes are a bit long and sometimes the voice acting cuts out for no reason the game's story line is what helps drive you to continue in this game. The great thing about this game is the ability to make Two and some times Three partys which will act on there own and will succeed based on the groups you made. The connection system is extremly cool as well it alows you to do things such as talk to animals to mind controling enemys its great. The game it self is relativly short Take you about 15-20hrs game play depending on your Skill level. The great thing about IU is the replay value is high and has 3 diffrent dificulty settings. Easy, Hard, and Infinate mode. A big aspect to the replay is a Tower that has Insane loot and bosses harder and more health then the final boss in the game. I wont spoil anything but lets just say it brings a challenge to a relativly simple RPG. I give this game a 8.5 Out of 10 Customer Rating: Summary: maybe if they just..............nope. It still sucks. Comment: The game itself is ok, but the poor voice acting and the way things move around in the game is just horrible. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, when Squaresoft was just Squaresoft, you could just see that logo on an RPG and not even think twice about buying the game because you had a 95% chance of the game being awsome. Please think twice before buyin this one. Storyline is ok but it still is missing a lot and does not meet up to the expectaions of the Square Enix name. Customer Rating: Summary: Who says the 360's hurting for quality RPG's? Comment: Maybe if you discount Oblivion, Mass Effect, Tales of Vesperia, Enchanted Arms, Eternal Sonata, Operation Darkness, Spectral Force 3, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and the upcoming coup-de-grace "Final Fantasy XIII" along with the rest. Yet I keep reading that Microsoft isn't offering enough quality RPG's. So I ask you this, mainstream gaming media: how many quality RPG's are out there for the Wii and Playstation 3? ........Damn right. Xbox 360 is currently your one-shop stop for every non-portable piece of role-playing hotness there is. So why won't anybody but the fans admit it? Alrighty then, on to the game. I racked my brain for weeks trying to decide between "Infinite Undiscovery" and "Tales of Vesperia". The reviews all came up Tales, but I loved what I'd read about IU so I took a chance, just like I did when I bought the horribly-reviewed but highly enjoyable "Operation Darkness". My verdict? I'll never trust a professional game reviewer again. I still plan on getting TOV and I'm sure it's great, but the luke-warm reviews for this title are uncalled for. It's immensely fun, full of brilliant characters and character moments, charming humor, secrets, and awesome combat. If you long for a real-time JRPG without overly-cartoony graphics that will give you some things you've never really seen before in this type of game, pick this up ASAP.
Picture this: Your reluctant hero Kappel (you), his archer girlfriend Aya, and the huge fire-breathing horned bear she keeps as a pet, Gustav are exploring an area along with a party of four other characters who are working entirely independently of you. You come to the top of a ridge and see your pals engaging a group of foes. Your archer fires an arrow above the fray which then rains damaging sparks onto the enemis, surprising them and panicking the littler ones. Meanwhile, you've climbed on top of the bear and together you both go charging down the hill, aiming straight for the big red ogre currently knocking your friends around like bowling pins. The force of your impact throws you off of Gustav's back onto the gorund but deals big damage to the ogre, who is now engaging your furry friend head-to-head. You pick yourself up and unleash a devastating combo of kicks into the ogre's back. He turns and stops your assault with a palm strike as he lifts his massive club with his other arm. You parry just as he attempts to crush you and leave him stunned just as the rest of your companions finish mopping up the rest of the baddies. All seven of you unleash a devastating combo adding up to dozens of consecutive hits as the lifeless ogre falls to the ground. Wonder what's around the next corner?
As you can see, combat in this game is exciting to say the least. There is a grand total of 18 very unique characters that can be spread out over as many as three independent parties as any given time. The parties are sometimes fighting side-by-side and sometimes only meet in passing. Each non- player controlled grouping is graded and rewarded based on their effectiveness so one would think you should choose your arrangements wisely. Unfortunately, the rating always seems to come out "C" regardless of what you do. Sloppy. Some characters prefer to be grouped together, such as Aya and her pet Gustav or the magical twins (*cough*PalomandPorom*cough*) Rico and Rucha, and perform better when they are. Each character also has sets of quirks that you are able to discover. For example, sexy magic-user Michelle is terrified of flying creatures. This can cause her to flee in panic and ignore your orders, leaving you without a healer for a while. Other characters are afraid of the dark, but ninja girl Komachi actually prefers it. This is a cool twist.
Each character usually does a great job fighting on their own, but you can "connect" with them at any time and command them to use their powers as you see fit. Rico, for example can talk to and control animals which makes him handy in some places to get info and even items from some furry friends or for turning foe to friend in battle. Rucha, on the other hand, can summon a small dragon to fight by your side. Each character has their own skills that come in handy both in and out of battle. As I said before, the game is full of charm and the cast is outstanding. Hours can and should be spent exploring the ins-and-outs of their different skills and relationships with each other. I just wish you were given more time with them.
"Infinite Undiscovery" isn't perfect, though, as fun as it is. It is very short (under 40 hours) for an RPG with so much depth. A lot of it isn't given any room to breathe and as a result, you will likely miss out on a lot. Also, the first act is a nightmare. Don't buy the game and then shake your fist in anger at me because of the cruddy game you just bought half an hour in. I suspect this is the cause of the lackluster reviews. As soon as you start, you're treated to bunch of fully-animated but annoyingly silent cutscenes every few steps. No voiceover. This is no longer acceptable. If you want to convey the information without any voice-acting, do it without making me sit through a cutscene. After very little combat, you're given a boss battle......that you don't get to fight. You're instructed to run from an invincible ogre. Yay? So after this lame sequence the game drops you into a forest so dark you can't see a thing. Even your mini-map is blurred. Headache-inducing. Then to top it off, the ogre comes back so you now have to run away and do so without being able to see where the hell you're going. THEN rather than letting you actually PLAY the game at this point, you're forced to carry a girl (no fighting allowed) and run away from a flying fire-breathing dragon whose every breath knocks you down so you have to wait seconds for Cappell to get back up so you can continue running to you-don't-really-know-where until more fire knocks you down. But once you get where it is you're going, your troubles are over. The game rocks, the silent cutscenes are mostly replaced with full voiceovers, and your band of rebels begins to grow. The save system has "old-school" written all over it. This is not a compliment. The story is cliche-ridden at times, but it is a JRPG so that's expected. Also, I REALLY wish you could control the other characters. They are so cool and so much fun to fight beside that I wanted to play as them myself. There are some characters that you aren't allowed to put into your personal party which bugs me as well. The characters themselves are all memorable and you gain a genuine affection for them as the game progresses, but again there just isn't enough time for you to spend with them and even less for those who cannot join your party. A lot more polish and a larger world would have made this game an all-time great.
"Infinite Undiscovery" may not measure up to the best of the best, but it's the most fun I've has with a current-gen Japanese RPG yet. The character humor is often more then clever and really offsets any cliches. There are some very frustrating challenges in store so keep gamefaqs.com handy. In fact, don't think the game is over just because you finished it. There's a much harder challenge to be found within the game. The story itself is actually pretty cool and refreshingly simple, leaving the action to carry the biggest load until the endgame. Smart move. Just like with "Valkyrie Profile" (an all-time favorite of mine) Tri-Ace has made RPG combat a true joy and thrown in some cool little secrets for you to stumble upon along the way -usually in the form of more character development. I really wish they'd put more into the multi-party system. That was one of my favorite -but sadly underdeveloped- aspects of the game. Squaresoft was always my favorite RPG factory (Enix's "Seventh Saga": also awesome in it's day) so color me thrilled that Square-Enix -after much hesitation- has decided to back the Xbox 360. This is a great start, but I hope they put more effort into the upcoming The Last Remnant
4 1/2 stars rounded down for giving me 4 discs worth of characters and innovation on a 2-disc story.
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