@bbsin

All the reviews you pointed to were actually previews on old builds, or the japanese version which apparently is quite a bit buggier and more unstable than the PAL and US versions.

Trust me, no framerate drops in the first three hours (I mean not a SINLGE one) and the load times are 5 seconds at most.

@starcraft: We'll see what the reviews say when they get posted on GT,ign,1up,etc. From what i can see, the load times are actually inconsistent, i've seen 3-5 second load times to 20-23 second load times from gameplay clips. Either way, I'm a huge Sakaguchi fan and I love JRPGs with good story lines, so missing out on LO isn't really an option for me. I'll just have to see for myself.

 BTW: is there an option to get Japanese dubbing with englsih subs???

Not sure about the dubbing, but I wouldn't put to much faith in Western reviews of JRPG's if your a fan of the genre. Blue Dragon did fantastically in Japan (critically and commercially) but still got panned here. Generally if all western reviews of non-Final Fantasy JRPG's are mediocre, it means the game is good. If the Western reviews are good, it means that game is fantastic.

Honestly I haven't understood the negativity surrounding Blue Dragon. The sales are not as dismal as some seem to believe, and the game has had solid review scores. Perhaps not fantastic scores, but an average 8/10 is not anything to brush off. I wouldn't ascribe the term fizzle to it thats for sure given the number of games that struggle just to cross the quarter million mark every year.

When I look at Lost Odyssey I say to myself if its as good as Blue Dragon then it is well worth getting. Blue Dragon may have not seen stratospheric sales, and it might have been derided by many with twisted motives, but the game was well worth the sixty dollars I shelled out for it. Given I have played it for over seventy hours at this point, and the first run through took over fifty hours. Hell if only some of the other games I have bought recently held me in their grasp that long.

The only question for me is this would those who have played it say it was better, worse, or on par with Blue Dragon. Not looking for a parallel of taste just whether the quality is there.

 Well, I wasn't talking about the actual rating of how good the game is, i was talking about any big improvements from the techical standpoint of the NA Lost Odyssey compared the preview builds and Asian versions. I can care less about what the reviewers say about the overall rating of the game, it's all just a bunch of opinions when it's all said and done, and from my point of view the only opinion that matters is mine. There have been plenty of non FF games that got rated decently by western critics that I did not like (Xenosaga, DQ8, VP,SoA,etc). As for Blue Dragon.... I personally thought Sakaguchi could have done much better than that, especially with the Boss music (he wrote it), story and character development :X.

"As for Blue Dragon.... I personally thought Sakaguchi could have done much better than that, especially with the Boss music (he wrote it), story and character development :X."

I actually liked the Boss music for Blue Dragon. It was such a change of pace from just about everything else that is out there. I only played the game a tiny bit, but my gf put +80hrs in on BD, so I heard the song quite a bit.

OT: Lost Odyssey is a really good game. I've played the game quite a lot (+18hrs already) in the +1 week that I've had it, which is more than I can say for some other game I have. It's actually the only real modern rpg I've been able to keep playing in a long, long time, since maybe the PS1 days. I think the JP DQ7 a few years ago was the last...(my gf played through BD and Eternal Sonata)

I'm playing the Japanese version, but I don't really find the load times for battles that bad actually. It would be good if they reduced them in the Western versions, though. I'm still having a great time playing the game and I especially love the music in this game. It actually makes me think of some of the older FF games, which is a good thing, IMO. Like I said in the other LO thread (trailer one) I actually want to pick up the soundtrack now!

Reading these specific sentences reminds me that everybody doesn't play or even understand RPG in the same way.

To me, for example, J. Random Dude is a specific thing of WRPG, and no JRPG I ever played had J. Random Dude in them. The only way I can think someone would say that about a JRPG, is if they played them without ever reading any text and without discussing with any NPC in these games.

When reading this review, I had this impression of a JRPG player that never read any text in them (thus making playing a JRPG useless and boring), but that was interested in this one because there were lots of cutscenes, so no need to read anything. 

The description of Lost Odyssey given here just describes a good JRPG to me, nothing groundbreaking.

As for the score, one can still get it on OST CD. Actually, the sole thing that makes me sad for Mistwalker  is Uematsu san. I'd play their games, ... well, actually no, I wouldn't play through Blue Dragon or ASH, despite the fact that I have a DS. So I'd try this game if I had a XB360, when it's released in Europe. But as it's unlikely to happen (that I buy a XB360 that is) ...

I don't like this style of graphics either, but I understand this game was made to cater more to western RPG  gamers tastes.

""Crazzyman there is no reason to think that the minor Japan slowdowns that Famitsu didn't think were an issue when they gave the game 90% haven been taken care of in America.""

==> actually Famitsu review mean NOTHING

And about LO,
it seems the PAL/NA version are different from the flawed japanese version
the game needed it.

 Ok im further through now.  I must be near the end of disc one.  I haven't noticed a SINGLE framerate drop.  And can I just say that this game has the most gorgeous looking cutscenes in any video game ever made...PERIOD.  Oh im sure it will be outdone a few times later on in this gen (LO2 lol), but as of now, this game is the standard.  As for load times, at the beginning of the game there were 5 second load times for random battles, but now there are none.  Its just the music, the quick battle animation and your into it.  Mistwalker must have really knuckled down in the two months between the JAP and PAL releases.  Frankly if I'd bought a Japanese version, I'd currently be PISSED!!