While you do technically "play a role", that doesn't make it an RPG. In almost every game ever created, you play a role. Even Pac-Man, Asteroids, etc. "Role-playing" traditionally means that while you play within the creator's general construct (whether that be game developer or dungeon master), you still have free choice to mold the character into something you want. Whether that be by treating others differently, killing or helping different individuals, choosing different routes through the game, or whatever, there is choice given to allow the player to make the game his or her own instead of merely playing along through the designer's story. Most JPRGs don't let you do any of that.

Most action RPGs are about as role-playing as a JRPG. Neither really deserves the monicker. 

I don't see it as a detriment either, just a different way of playing. A way of playing that, IMO, doesn't deserve the title "RPG". There are many JRPGs that I have loved over the years and I've played a bunch of them so I can't dislike the genre that badly, though there are aspects of it that annoy the shit out of me (mainly hovering around the design and attitude of most JPRG protagonists). 

The frame rate thing was a bit of a miscalculated error IMHO. Those 'manga' style scenes where they have up to 3-4 inset angles of the varous characters really bogs down the machine, and I don't think they're particularly needed.

I just wish that they had more faith in their in-game engine. Now, the engine has varying degrees of success; absolutely excellent when the scene is poignant and so the directors are there crafting the characters' acting every step of the way, yet lackluster when the scene doesn't call for great scrutiny and ends up being disappointing.

If they're willing to go all the way in each scene, there's no reason the in-game engine can't hold-up for many FMV scenes in the game. Granted, the FMV sequences are still beautiful, and for the most poignant of scenes I don't mind having a polished proper FMV sequence.

The frequent sequences (not length) of loading makes the experience pretty fragmented while the console switches from FMV to in-game back to FMV and so on. You'll notice especially in, Disc 3 and end of Disc 4.

Also, I think the lack of power-levelling is a great plus, actually. You don't have to worry about being distracted from the main storyline, and boss battles are appropiately hard as hell and epic.

But you still have to 'power-SP-level' for the skills anyway, especially to get the full 1000 points achievement.

 EDIT: To illustrate my point about the inconsistent animation quality, here's a quote from the GDC 08 where Lost Odyssey was the subject of a surprise talk on cross-cultural game development.

 He again pointed to prioritization as the primary error on cut-scene production. In contrast to the backgrounds, the game's 300 or so cut-scenes were broken down into FMVs, A events, B events, and scripted (in-game puppet show) events. In retrospect, he thinks that the FMVs were unnecessary, and that the B events were a mistake. A events got manual facial expression animation and custom motion capture, where B events used off-the-shelf mo-cap. Nakazato pointed out that by trying to use the cheaper B events for less key scenes, they generated an inconsistent level of quality for the player. Next time, they might just use A and scripted events.

Get it! It's the only JRPG I have actually liked, and I have tried quite a few of them. I personally find the story to be really good, the characters are good, voice acting is pretty good for some and decent for others. It might be one of my favourite games to remember in the future.

Lost Odyssey motivational posters (Pure. Win):

http://www.lost-odyssey.net/forums/index.php?topic=522.0

Nine hours in now... Game starting to dive like a paraplegic off the 10 meter board. One hour based around a funeral... Did anyone ever explain to the Japanese what "cutting room floor" means to a story? 10 minutes is fine, 20 minutes is okay, 30 minutes is pushing it... But 50 fucking minutes with two mini fetch quests in between makes me want to put a motherfucking gun in my mouth and end it all. And to top it off, Kaim starts acting like a bitchy 12 year old girl with a skinned knee. Jansen is the only guy who I want to hear speak at this point. At least he's genuinely funny.

For all the hope I had for this game, it is turning right back into the pseudo-bullshit Japanese intellectual nonsense that I generally expect from JRPGs. I will await the second and third discs before making a decision about this game but right now, I'll take that "kiddy shit" Blue Dragon all day long. At least that game didn't try to pretend to be much smarter than it really is. It offered good fun with no expectations. I will take that all day long over some convoluted, heavy-handed, bullshit exposition about characters that I figured out in the first hour of the game, yet am still forced to watch their expositions laid out on a silver platter for me time and time again over the next cut scene (and next cut scene after that, then the next cut scene after that). I am not a fucking retard. I don't know if that's how the Japanese view their following but it doesn't work for someone with a brain. I figured shit out quite some time ago. I don't need it shoved up my ass in the size of a three-foot suppository.

...

Whew. I had a lot to get off my chest there.

Those posters are so funny!

LOL, at Ming.  You would think being a queen and lives for 1000 years, she should be able to get more wardrobe .... not that I mind.  I pick Ming for my party just for her fashion sense.

Let the cynicism burn, it's okay.

I'm nearing the end, but I stopped storyline exploration to try out the Temple of Enlightenment side-quest.

The game is amazing.

 I put my cynicism to the side and really enjoyed the first few hours of this game. But there comes a point where you have to cast away that cynicism and admit that the storyteller is writing a plot geared for people who are state-mandated to wear a foam helmet for fear that they may start banging their head into the wall for no apparent reason.

While I am not state-mandated to wear any sort of headgear in public, this game actually made me wish that I had one of those oh-so-cozy headpieces to wear because I wanted to bang my head into the fucking wall. Bad games make me mad but good games that treat me like an idiot infuriate me. 

Dang, I was really considering a purchase.

Was it a terrible game from a general perspective, or did it just have elements that you personally don't like?