For one decade, Xbox gamers have been complaining about how Japanese RPGs are so predictable with their gameplay and abundance of cutscenes. Well here's Mistwalker's second entry into the Japanese RPG, and those complaints are still around for this game. It's like Mistwalker is living in 1997 and can't stop going to the well of yesterday for ideas (or cliches in this case).

The only thing new about Lost Odyssey is that you play an adult instead of some thirteen year old brat. The guy is real old and he hangs around with people just as old as him. He's immortal and doesn't have a clue as to who he originally was a thousand or so years ago. He meets other people like him and they kinda go off fighting some guy who wants to destroy the world. Along the way, they discover more about each other and their individual history.

That's the entire game in a nutshell. The idea is to "unravel" the histories of these people as you hunt for the big bad guy. The unraveling is in the form of cutscenes so there's really no detective work here. Along the way, you'll have to put up with the same bland village dialogue that fill these Japanese RPGs to the brim. The only notable exception comes from the dialogue between the immortals.

Combat is turn based with up to five of your team against weird and imaginative creatures. The front row takes more damage so you'll have to plan a little during combat. But the combat is really limited since you just have to pick who to attack instead of attacking the first target the cursor hits. There are also rings that you can make to increase your damage by adding elemental attacks.

The characters are well designed and animated, but the world seems a little lacking in texture, especially outside. Once indoors, the detail can be seen. However, we can't say this game has full next-gen graphics after playing Final Fantasy XII. Lost Odyssey is much sharper, but overall, not much better in the graphics department. Worst yet, Lost Odyssey suffers from slowdown and very long loading screens between places. The music is topnotch thanks to Mistwalker's legendary composer.

Lost Odyssey is a long game around 40 hours. It fills four DVDs, but mostly with cutscenes. While everything plays and behaves as you would expect from a Japanese RPG, we found the characters very likable. There's a large audience of PS2 owners who own the 360 and would love another Japanese RPG. Well here it is. But if you're one of those Xbox gamers who complain about how generic Japanese RPGs are today, be prepared for another one in the form of Lost Odyssey.