How I lost 40 hours of my life

If you own a 360 and you haven't experienced the brilliance of Mistwalker's epic RPG Lost Odyssey yet, you owe it to yourself to do so right now. No, seriously, stop reading this post and run to your nearest game emporium and shell out the dough or the kitten gets it!!

(FYI, there is no kitten)

Okay, so fair enough, it doesn't add too much to the RPG game dynamic template, which is worn so thin you could glaze your house with it, but it does offer unmatched story-telling ability, characterisation, music score and graphical prowess. This aesthetic clout makes the experience much more immersing.

In terms of villains this has one of the genre's best. Ultra-bastard Gongora is a nasty piece of work, with the same cackling insanity and respite for human life as Final Fantasy VI's Kefka, as loopy as a can of spaghetti-o's.

What I find particularly interesting is how adult the game can be at times, definitely worth the Pegi 16+ rating, if not for scenes depicting Gongora murdering his magical acolytes, but for the severity of some scenes where entire populations and armies are wiped out by the stroke of a magic wand.

Put simply, it's comfortable with death and the idea of dying, discussing at length the ways of human life on a mature level, especially through the many dream sequences unlocked throughout the quest. These graphic novel sections can make for tedious reading but if you take your time to absorb what they say, the overall plot becomes as beautiful as it is harrowing.

Pretty powerful stuff. After the awesome, but script-starved Final Fantasy XII, Square-Enix should take note and up their game slightly, Where their last installment impressed by pushing the PS2 to its very limit, truth be told - the story stank and the combat system divided fans. Proof that technical power alone does not a game.

Lost Odyssey however, manages to find the correct balance between these factors. Great stuff Mistwalker - Sequel please! But no roman numerals thank you...

Much Love,

Dave