You just rotate the one token mortal in the group to get their abilities. The fact that you can't grind past a certain level makes it fairly easy to keep them maxxed out and then just siphon their abilities off as needed.

I find it odd how LO's combat system manages to be slower while still being more involved. It is definatly a few notches slower than your typical FF, but that is a side effect of the style of turn-based combat they used (for the curious it is like Legend of Legaia, Final Fantasy 1-3, or your typical SRPG but without the need to focus on character movement). The ring system manages to keep you engaged in the combat most of the time at least.

As an odd counter to your experience I really loved the early bits of Lost Odyssey, but have gotten bored on disc 3. There is a specific complaint I have about it that might be pulling the whole experience down though. The spoiler free version (or close to it) is the part after the train annoys the crap out of me. Although given that you found disc 3 miles better while I found it way worse it is probably just a matter of us enjoying different parts of the story more. Still disc 3 is plenty of fun and well worth playing through.

@Riachu

I am not trying to say Lost Odyssey's story is the best ever. It is an above average JRPG story in my opinion. Of course I accept that every video game story will likely be cliche at best and judge them best on how well written it comes out. I think we can both agree that the writing in Lost Odyssey is better written than Final Fantasy X. The only major problem I had with Final Fantasy X was the story was pretty good up until the second fight with Seymour where it died a horribly tragic death.

Actually, it's best if they stay text since the Thousand Year Dreams wouldn't be as emotionally gripping if they were cutscenes.  It would just be filler that doesn't affect the main story much.

Actually, it's best if they stay text since the Thousand Year Dreams wouldn't be as emotionally gripping if they were cutscenes.  It would just be filler that doesn't affect the main story much.

I totally agree. The presentation was rather ingenious; I think the way they employed sound effects, background, text manipulation, and what have you, all conveyed the concepts much better than a simple cutscene would have while still allowing the player a degree of interpretation similar to that which one has when reading a novel. Much, much more affecting this way.

Yes but when your native language isn't included in the disc it can get way too tiring.