Im 15 hours in now. Just finished up in Nordopolica. It is getting better, but everything I've has been more going to do random whims that have NOTHING to do with the main quest. This has become my main gripe about the game.
And Karol does become more likeable after Brave Vesperia. (although, Rita is taking no time filling in his place).
Side Note: Boy is this soundtrack good! Im looking for it reasonably priced online.
There's a scene coming up right before you head back through the Wesand towards Nordopolica where things start to get interesting. Really, the story is just picking up at Nordopolica, which granted it later in the game, but again, the entire first half of the game is simply there for character development, before it can reasonably put those characters in peril, it must make you love them. Just like an anime. The game has an anime style arc setup, seperated into arcs.
New victory phrase of the day:
Estelle: (to herself)They bounce...
Judith: Huh?
Estelle: (to herself)I wish I could bounce...
I don't need your console war. It feeds the rich while it buries the poor. You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores. I don't need your console war.
Im 15 hours in now. Just finished up in Nordopolica. It is getting better, but everything I've has been more going to do random whims that have NOTHING to do with the main quest. This has become my main gripe about the game.
And Karol does become more likeable after Brave Vesperia. (although, Rita is taking no time filling in his place).
Side Note: Boy is this soundtrack good! Im looking for it reasonably priced online.
There's a scene coming up right before you head back through the Wesand towards Nordopolica where things start to get interesting. Really, the story is just picking up at Nordopolica, which granted it later in the game, but again, the entire first half of the game is simply there for character development, before it can reasonably put those characters in peril, it must make you love them. Just like an anime. The game has an anime style arc setup, seperated into arcs.
New victory phrase of the day:
Estelle: (to herself)They bounce...
Judith: Huh?
Estelle: (to herself)I wish I could bounce...
I thought Judith said "What are you looking at" after huh
GOTY Contestants this year: Dead Space 2, Dark Souls, Tales of Graces f. Everything else can suck it.
lol, I don't have the script in front of me. I'll check.
I don't need your console war. It feeds the rich while it buries the poor. You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores. I don't need your console war.
Zen, please let me know when you finish and how long.
"We'll toss the dice however they fall, And snuggle the girls be they short or tall, Then follow young Mat whenever he calls, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."
outlawauron said: Yep I'm in the Oasis town now. 17 hours in.
It's really starting to push on Lost Odyssey.
Zen, please let me know when you finish and how long.
I had 28 hours at the point you're at, and was level 42 with everyone.
Some things you need to look for, that you're probably inadvertantly skipping:
Have you discovered the cake recipe?
Are you easily defeating the optional bosses?
Are you learning new artes through sidequests?
Are you working on your score?
Do you keep an eye on your skills, combo chains, and arte uses?
Are you synthisizing everything? Some items change the way you play, and greatly improve your abilities, like the Moon Selector or the Over Limit increases.
I'm not saying that you aren't taking your time. I'm just afraid that you'll finish the game in 30 hours and complain that you took your time and the game is really short. The game isn't short. The average gamer, sticking to the main story, will beat this in 40ish hours(I'm going by reviewer claims now). That's with a main story focused playthrough with very few sidequest completions. The maticulious gamer is gonna take 60, is gonna get the best weapons, is gonna powerup said weapons, and is gonna cut an evil swath of power through the game at ever stage, lol. That's how I like to play. I like the game to not possibly believe that I spent as much time methodically grinding and exploring as it should assume at that time. I like to dominate the game. That, to me, is part of the fun of a jrpg, and a major issue I had with Lost Odyssey's leveling cap.
At the airship point, the playfield is evened, but remember, at worst the game is only as long as FFVII, with a slew of sidequests and an end game just as big.
Check out this gameplay for an example of the potential power the character posess end game from Abyss(another fantastic game if you're interested):
Here's something really cool in the game. Put all the characters on auto, and watch the dynamic camera follow your AI battle. Also, put your "Only does 1 damage attack" sword on, and see how high you can rack up your combos with Yuri.
Anyway, if I'm guessing, being a completionist for me, 60+ hours first playthrough, 40 to final boss point on second, with an end game that will be with me as long as I own the 360.
My best guess for you, is just under 40 hours to the final boss, over half the sidequests beaten, 30 if you decide to opt right to the final boss. You'd be pushing it, but I'd wager the game could beaten in 20 hours on a speed run, as can most jrpgs actually. The game is slightly shorter than Abyss, almost equal in length to Symphonia, but granted a tad shorter than Symphonia as well(1 or 2 hours). More end game content than Symphonia though, modified battle system from Abyss(the above video is Abyss). Longer than Lost Odyssey in main story, simply due to the inability to grind until later discs, and with an infinite end-game. Most reviewers say the game averages 40. IGN said 60. The IGN reviewer is like me, I'd imagine.
We generally tend to think about a good jrpg as "The longer the better." That's usually true(Unless it sucks, in which case "The shorter the better."). However, we've also got to remember that jrpgs can be overlong. As far as a value score, I'd have to give it a 9. Considering the very tempting score replay, the only game that's matched it this gen, is FES, which gets a 10 becaused it was also only 30 dollars and was 2 jrpgs in 1. If it had Vesperia's quality of characters, it would have been the better game, but for me now, it stands as eversoslightly worse.
I ramble though.
I don't need your console war. It feeds the rich while it buries the poor. You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores. I don't need your console war.
All right, I'm 50 hours in, just started my review outline.
Here is the Xplay review. They praised it, gave it a 4/5, from a place that is notoriously hard on jRPGs.(2/5 for core crisis). Said it's a great example of why this genre still exists, and they also say this game deserves success in the states, just like it deserved it in Japan.
So yeah. This game rocks, and everyone who has actually played it(which only excludes those 2 sentence and a score reviews from most of the gaming mags) agree.
The only question is how much it rocks. Find out in my upcoming epic review which is still a few weeks out.
I don't need your console war. It feeds the rich while it buries the poor. You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores. I don't need your console war.
outlawauron said: Yep I'm in the Oasis town now. 17 hours in.
It's really starting to push on Lost Odyssey.
Zen, please let me know when you finish and how long.
I had 28 hours at the point you're at, and was level 42 with everyone.
Some things you need to look for, that you're probably inadvertantly skipping:
Have you discovered the cake recipe?
Are you easily defeating the optional bosses?
Are you learning new artes through sidequests?
Are you working on your score?
Do you keep an eye on your skills, combo chains, and arte uses?
Are you synthisizing everything? Some items change the way you play, and greatly improve your abilities, like the Moon Selector or the Over Limit increases.
I'm not saying that you aren't taking your time. I'm just afraid that you'll finish the game in 30 hours and complain that you took your time and the game is really short. The game isn't short. The average gamer, sticking to the main story, will beat this in 40ish hours(I'm going by reviewer claims now). That's with a main story focused playthrough with very few sidequest completions. The maticulious gamer is gonna take 60, is gonna get the best weapons, is gonna powerup said weapons, and is gonna cut an evil swath of power through the game at ever stage, lol. That's how I like to play. I like the game to not possibly believe that I spent as much time methodically grinding and exploring as it should assume at that time. I like to dominate the game. That, to me, is part of the fun of a jrpg, and a major issue I had with Lost Odyssey's leveling cap.
At the airship point, the playfield is evened, but remember, at worst the game is only as long as FFVII, with a slew of sidequests and an end game just as big.
Check out this gameplay for an example of the potential power the character posess end game from Abyss(another fantastic game if you're interested):
Here's something really cool in the game. Put all the characters on auto, and watch the dynamic camera follow your AI battle. Also, put your "Only does 1 damage attack" sword on, and see how high you can rack up your combos with Yuri.
Anyway, if I'm guessing, being a completionist for me, 60+ hours first playthrough, 40 to final boss point on second, with an end game that will be with me as long as I own the 360.
My best guess for you, is just under 40 hours to the final boss, over half the sidequests beaten, 30 if you decide to opt right to the final boss. You'd be pushing it, but I'd wager the game could beaten in 20 hours on a speed run, as can most jrpgs actually. The game is slightly shorter than Abyss, almost equal in length to Symphonia, but granted a tad shorter than Symphonia as well(1 or 2 hours). More end game content than Symphonia though, modified battle system from Abyss(the above video is Abyss). Longer than Lost Odyssey in main story, simply due to the inability to grind until later discs, and with an infinite end-game. Most reviewers say the game averages 40. IGN said 60. The IGN reviewer is like me, I'd imagine.
We generally tend to think about a good jrpg as "The longer the better." That's usually true(Unless it sucks, in which case "The shorter the better."). However, we've also got to remember that jrpgs can be overlong. As far as a value score, I'd have to give it a 9. Considering the very tempting score replay, the only game that's matched it this gen, is FES, which gets a 10 becaused it was also only 30 dollars and was 2 jrpgs in 1. If it had Vesperia's quality of characters, it would have been the better game, but for me now, it stands as eversoslightly worse.
I ramble though.
1. Have not discovered the cake recipe. I only cook if I remeber too. I don't really need to.
2. Ive beaten each optional boss so far without dying.
3. Not really. Thats only happened once. Not sure where or even how you get to these side quests. I sometimes assume what Im doing is a side quest because does not pertain to story what so ever.
4. Score? Im doing most of the secret missions. Not sure what you mean there.
5. Yes I synthesize everything I can. I have close 90 things done so far.
I do have Abyss. (Check out my game section, its there.)
And it seems that the game itself is 30-40 hours with additional crap you can do to extend the play time to 60. Im doing everything I can, but I can't do this "side quests" if I have no idea on how to do/access them.
Oh btw, 20 hours in. Second time in Nordopolica. Just arrived. My party's level is 37-38.
"We'll toss the dice however they fall, And snuggle the girls be they short or tall, Then follow young Mat whenever he calls, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."
According to Edge-Online, they report NPD show 33,000 units for ToV during the first 4 days. I am not sure how that's stack up against other JRPG. They came in at #58 (yike).
Since it's debut at around 70k in Japan so US initial sale is about 50% of Japan. My local GameStop are (2 stores in my area) both out of the game for awhile now. I never see the game anywhere else (Target, BB or Wal-mart).
May be positive words of mouths will get the sale going. The guys at GameStop said the game seems to have positive buzz.
mysticD said:
According to Edge-Online, they report NPD show 33,000 units for ToV during the first 4 days. I am not sure how that's stack up against other JRPG. They came in at #58 (yike).
Since it's debut at around 70k in Japan so US initial sale is about 50% of Japan. My local GameStop are (2 stores in my area) both out of the game for awhile now. I never see the game anywhere else (Target, BB or Wal-mart).
May be positive words of mouths will get the sale going. The guys at GameStop said the game seems to have positive buzz.
Ouch. That's terrible. Do you have a link?
"We'll toss the dice however they fall, And snuggle the girls be they short or tall, Then follow young Mat whenever he calls, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."
