Again I say: Next!

From what I gather, Lost Odyssey was considered to be a bit "old school" when it launched, and it really hasn't aged well since then.  Mechanically, it's pretty bog-standard JRPG, with smallish zones to run around in, where the camera is controlled by the game... while the mini-map doesn't track with the camera changes, making navigation more challenging than it needs to be.  Combat erupts seemingly at random, with no indication on the field that you're about to encounter anything first.  Combat itself is mostly standard turn-based fare as well, with the usual front-row back-row setup... but you have to set up commands for your whole party at the start of each round, and, due to the "ring system" they implemented for melee combat, you are effectively penalized if you're not waiting for your fighters' turns to come up with bated breath.  And then there's the whole "immortals" thing... it's a key part of the story line (I watched a recap video), but it has no real combat effect - that is to say, if you party wipe, it's still game over.  The story this is all in service to, well, it's fine in some of its details, but the overall arc is still "stop the big bad from taking over the world, you plucky upstarts you", so I'm glad to have watched the recap video rather than suffering through the whole game to see the story.

The one thing I'm a little sad to not experience further from this game (but honestly, not so much that I'm going to look for video or anything) is the "dreams" feature.  The main character is an immortal who's been kicking around the world for a thousand years, who currently suffers from memory loss. Encountering certain experiences unlocks a dream containing a memory from that thousand-year journey... but it's not presented as a video or anything like that.  Rather, it's told as a short story, in text, with various animated effects applied to the characters themselves in ways that evoke the atmosphere or environment of the story.  It's a pretty neat way to tell a short story... but I can also see why it doesn't show up in newer games as well, with so many reading-averse gamers out there.

Well, leaving Lost Odyssey behind, that makes the next game up Red Dead Redemption, a widely-loved game in a wild-west setting I generally have little use for, so it's a toss-up as to how this game will go.  That will also be the last of the XBox 360 games in my "give it a proper go" queue... but no worries, once I'm done with that, I've got a load of more-modern XBox One games to go through, followed by literal hundreds of Steam games to sift through as well.  Social distancing indeed!

Next!

So, I always liked the general idea of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, but it's been years since I last played it... which is the only excuse I have for forgetting how much I disliked certain aspects of it.  Basically, it's "escort mission, the video game", which would be unfortunate enough on its own, but pair that with imprecise controls and a camera that can't decide whether you or the game is in control, and it becomes an exercise in frustration.  I might look up video on the game later, but I can't force myself to play it while I've got so many others to explore.

Next in the queue then is... Lost Odyssey, which looks to be a very strange JRPG, only part of the strangeness being due to the sub-par (by modern standards) localization in English from the original Japanese.  Wild costuming, a world in the throes of a "Magical Industrial Revolution", and multiple literal immortals in your party, once you finally get "on the road", all of these point towards a story that might hold my interest.  Hopefully so, since I already have some serious doubts about this game's particular twist on the standard JRPG combat system.

That's enough Dragon Age II for me.

Well, I lasted a fair bit longer on this game.  I likely would have finished it out, but there were just too many game-freezing bugs for me to endure through to the end.  Of course, that could be solely the fault of the game itself, or something to do with the XBox One backwards-compatibility stuff not being quite up to snuff... either way, it's a shame, since it's another "has its charms" sort of game.

In brief then, design choices that stuck with me, good and bad.  The more action-RPG bent of the game worked for my playstyle, but pretty much every fight of any consequence boiled down to "defeat waves of enemies", enemies that appeared on the field with little justification - in fact, in one case, I watched an ogre literally "fade in" in front of me, which does immersion no favors.  I liked that they stuck with the idea of having a dog, while demoting it from follower to summon... but hated that the summon would disappear (and trigger a cooldown) every time you changed maps.  Speaking of maps, they got reused liberally - not just the art assets, mind you, but the actual maps, something that "doors that don't register and can't be opened" kind of helps to point out.  Finally, the story and setting... well, I liked the idea of playing in the same city and surroundings over the course of multiple years, with the whole "yeah, the fight for the fate of the world happened elsewhere while you were busy here" vibe, but advancing the timeline by three years, and finding gear for sale in the slums both better and higher-priced than anything you could buy in the posh districts earlier was another blow to immersion.

So, yeah, I don't regret the time I spent playing, but it could have been much better and more stable... can't help but wonder if it was a rush job of some sort, to cash in on the success of the first game.  Oh well, enough of that, on to the next... looks to be Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is next on the docket.  Something platformy as a palate cleanser might not be a bad thing at all.

Bailing on Dragon Age Origins, maybe Dragon Age II?

Well, I tried to like Dragon Age Origins, and got further into it than I ever have before... but, in the end, I just couldn't force myself to stick with it.  The "dark fantasy" setting is fine, and the standard "save the world from impending doom" story-line is fine, but the mechanics of the game just don't work for me.

I think the main problem is that the game wants to be more than one thing, which ends up compromising the whole.  It lets you build a character to your tastes, using a new-to-this-series character system with loads of detail, complete with different opening scenarios based on the choices you make... then saddles you with multiple, changing companion characters, and expect you to learn how they work as well, so you can take them over if need be (like, for example, your main character gets knocked out) and tweak their AI so they act competently when you're not controlling them.  It wants to be a real-time tactical game, but it also wants to be cinematic... so, sometimes, you'll get a cut-scene or similar, then dropped as a party into an untenable situation.  All that, and some of the problems that plague other games in this genre (for example, you can have multiple companions, but only three plus yourself in the active party, but you can swap out companions readily, without any in-game justification for why your party size is restricted), add up to a game I just don't want to play, for all I enjoyed some of the situations you're put into.

With that in mind, I had some serious reservations about starting up Dragon Age II, the next game in my XBox 360 backlog... but it appears that Bioware, makers of both games, learned some things from the first game.  The second game features a simplified version of the character system from the first game, with better communication as to why you might want to invest in the various stats and skills, and has pivoted to an "action" RPG, mainly meaning so far that spamming the base attack button is now required when you're not using a skill... but the skills also tend to be more flashy, helping change the feel of the game a bit.  That, plus a much less traditional story that's only loosely tied to the events of the first game (in fact, you're basically indentured for the duration of the events of the first game) gives me enough interest to give it a go.

Strangely, the changes between the two Dragon Age games also make me want to take a look at the Mass Effect series again at some point, which was also produce by Bioware.  I played a little of the original Mass Effect, and was similarly turned off by the mechanics involved.  I later played Mass Effect Andromeda, and, while it wasn't exactly earth-shattering, it was a passable sci-fi RPG.  Maybe enough of the mechanical differences made their way into earlier games to make #2 and #3 worth a go?  Eh, I'll keep an eye for them on sale, maybe.

That's Blue Dragon down

A bit over 50 hours of playtime later, I've finally finished Blue Dragon.  The short verdict:  while it has its charms, I couldn't really recommend it to anyone on its merits.

To go into more detail, this game has a number of things working against it.  First, it appears that the game was designed to be released roughly in tandem with an accompanying anime (if the dates I saw on Wikipedia are right, at least).  As such, the story of the game itself is at the level of b-grade shounen anime.  In broad strokes, the story follows some kids from a village that attempt to interfere with an annual calamity that hits their village, resulting in them unintentionally getting transported elsewhere, meeting the hissably-bad lead villain, then escaping while gaining magic powers.  From there the story is three broad arcs:  making their way back to their families while collecting more companions and power; tracking down the main villain, only to find out the power they've acquired serves to empower the villain once it's stripped from them; and regaining their power on their own terms, then finding and facing the villain once again to finally defeat him.  Bog-standard stuff, really.

Second, the game itself has some technical challenges.  I believe this mostly revolves around the way they had to originally release the game, as a 3-disc set for a game system that included configurations without a hard drive.  As such, even in the current XBox One backwards-compatibility version, you still get prompts to change discs, for example.  You will also get weird freezes where even the background music stops if you try to use an unusual move for the first time in a while.  All in all, I only had the game actually lock up on me once, so it's not like it's unplayable, but it's definitely unnerving when it happens.

Third, there's some design choices and general lack of polish that weigh the game down.  The game can't seem to make up its mind as to whether it or you should be controlling the camera, and, when it lets you control it, sometimes it will throw the view out of focus if you try to put the camera somewhere it doesn't expect or care for.  Gameplay balance for challenge is almost non-existent, to the point where, just following the main quest line, there is little to no challenge at all in fights once you regain your powers in the third act.  Also, I won't be sad to never have to hear this particular song during a battle again.

Of course, like I said, the game does have its charms as well.  Having a viable (in game world terms at least) reason for a bunch of kids to be up to the task of beating up monsters is always a plus.  The designs of the monsters are reasonably varied as well (although there are the inevitable palette/skin swaps), including, strangely enough, animate piles of poo wielding spears and the like (Japan, go figure).  The class system is both straightforward enough for each class, and the effective multi-classing you can unlock through the Generalist class is something I'd like to see more games give a go.  On top of all that, there are occasional mini-games and the like, but they're used sparingly, and only where the "regular" game system wouldn't work well to carry the story.

So, on to the next game then... looking at my list, the next game would normally be Dark Souls, but I made the mistake of watching a speed-run on that game online once, and there's no way I could convince myself to spend the hours necessary to play the game "right" after that.  So, after that, looks like Dragon Age: Origins is the game to play.  I know that game's near and dear to the hearts of more than a few people, so I have high hopes.