lol....I'm afraid you just don't like JRPG's Rocketpig. Those things just happen and you get used to it. Hell in Xenosaga I had like 2 hour section where I played nothing, I had no input into the game whatsoever. And you know what....it was AWESOME. I don't think I could come up with a JRPG that would make you happy....and I've played a good number.

Well, like I said, I have to play more to honestly know what I think about the game. Right now, 9 hours in, I'm pretty 50/50 on the game. The quasi-emotional elements are typically Japanese heavy-handedness but I'm really just breaking into the story. I will definitely keep this thread updated with my placating opinions about games...

...

Okay, lying about that. I pretty much hate everything that doesn't come from Valve, though I'm waiting for Gabe to fuck up so I can finally add him to the "People I want to fucking kill" list. I find problems with everything, though right now, I definitely think Blue Dragon is a superior game to Lost Odyssey.

Keep this thread bookmarked. There is a lot to play and there is a lot for me to bitch about. And I'll keep doing it over - and over - and over - and over - again until I finish the game. 

2009 seems like it's so far away (read the sig).

Now that you are 9 hours in, what do you think about the gameplay? Is the development/level up system anything to talk about.

I really like JPRGs. I just think they're juvenile, inane, and completely pretentious. I won't apologize for calling something out for trying to be something it's not - namely a role-playing game, intelligent, clever, stunning, or anything else you would think amazing - but I will welcome it for being what it is, a simple escape from reality that give people hours and hours of enjoyment. That's it.

Done Xenosaga, done Chrono,  done it all. The difference is that I grew up. Even the best of that 90s genre is juvenile and if you compare it to a BioShock, Morrowwind, or even a Gears of War, it doesn't hold up. 

 I agree here.  Lost Odyssey is great for someone who likes that kind of game.  Alot of the reviewers that reviewed Lost Odyssey and gave it 5/10 were probably big FPS fans.  I share some of Rocketpig's sentiments about FPS games.  They are about 95% the same game over and over.  When Halo 3 launched, I was very close to selling my Xbox 360 after playing that garbage (IMO) for a week.  I'm glad I kept it.  Frankly, the only thing that's convincing me to keep the 360 is Lost Odyssey and other jRPGs.

I understand where you are coming from Rocket and I agree that the mini-games are a bit silly at times (actually it remind me of playing World of Warcraft...). At first I was thinking the same thing .... like put her in a grave give us some cutscene of the kids crying and be done but after I went through the entire thing I find the scene to be very powerful and moving. The torch flame thing is suxor but I think the designers are try to give you that user participation into the funeral thing instead of player being just spectator. I think in the end I feel for the kids loosing their mom and his lost (spolier). I am on the 2nd disc , I used to read a lot of manga when I was a kid and the story is playing out like typical Japanese manga / anime if you do not like that type of story telling then it can be somewhat strange.

I've completed the game, but even I have to admit that the funeral fetch quests destroyed all my emotional momentum. At least you know, if I actually had to kill somethings for the materials, that would literally add more 'game' to the whole experience. Not exactly peaceful, but a lot less tedious and far more interesting =/

I don't think the 'heavy-handedness' as you call it is a Japanese thing. It's simply a directorial choice. I've seen plenty of Western media which go for the same overtly dramatic paunch, except for some reason, it becomes even cheesier. Likewise, while Western style direction can be subtle, it's hard for JRPGs simply because it's entire structure is basically stylized. When something has become stylized, it's hard for it to NOT be dramatic as a result, because it's entire design was to over-emphasize certain areas from the get-go.

The only alternative would be to go the Persona route; stylized to the extreme, with a completely unabashedly 'extreme' presentation. Shooting yourself in the head to gain demons, anyone? Done for the shock value, but brimming with the symbolism. Persona is my personal benchmark for JRPG story-telling where the inherent metaphorical roots of the culture of the creators (Kabuki theatre) where symbolism is both subtle and dramatic melds wonderfully with modern themes and story-telling.

That said, I don't knock Lost Odyssey for what it is, and in fact I'm glad it still fits that classic JRPG mold while at least, taking its drama to some new themes. Simply put though, it could have gone further, it could have been done better, but it's still not bad.

I do however, simply prefer watching the LO cast over the teen-bops in other JRPGs (except maybe for Persona). I was so sick and tired of 'sexual tension' because of raging hormones being not just a peripheral thing, but A CORE SUBJECT, that it just turned me off completely. It was just...gross...there's no other word for it.

That, and I didn't want to keep seeing clear pop-culture references in the main chars. Squall was Gackt, and in my head, Squall was hence bisexual but with a nice singing voice. Tidus was just hilarious. I called him David Beckham, because that was what he was: The hero constructed by Fayth was goddamn David Beckham.

I hate random encounters. I think they're a cop-out in gaming. The battle system has a "bonus" system that is a little interesting but gets pretty easy to master early in the game. The casting system is interesting and it's probably my favorite part of the combat (casting time, interruptions, etc.).

I really think Blue Dragon's approach to combat was vastly superior to Lost Odyssey. I'm a big fan of that timer attack system and really liked how it changed the entire structure of long battles. It also kept you thinking the entire time and how you handled the timing of attacks could vastly change how you fought a battle.

I haven't tried it out yet, but what JRPG would you say it is close to in battle system?

It's pretty similar to any of the early Final Fantasy games with some timed actions added in for flare. It's not a bad system. It's just not particularly engaging after playing other games over the past 5-7 years.