Mistwalker has come out with Lost Odyssey, an RPG (role playing game). Lost Odyssey, released Feb. 12, comes from the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. The Xbox 360 game isn’t your little brother’s after school gaming session. The cinematic-like story line is aimed more toward adults.

It begins with the main character, 1000-year-old immortal Kaim Argonar, surviving a meteor crash on a battlefield. Upon his awakening, he has no recollection of his memory and past. He is plunged into a world on the brink of a political war between two worlds. He isn’t the only one in the world that’s immortal. Kaim comes across three other characters that help his defeat the bigger force destroying their world.

The characters in Lost Odyssey look impressive. They outdo similar game Final Fanstasy’s bad guys with their detail and diversity. Another improvement is the use of rings. The rings are used to fight battles and project forces centered on wind, fire, water and earth. Lost Odyssey makes it possible to combined rings to customize the kind of attack to use on an enemy. By the end of the game, taking around 35-50 hours to defeat, 100 rings may be obtained.

One thing that really stands out as far as effects go is Lost Odyssey’s use of Unreal Engine. This is a tool that aided in the “realness” of the graphics in the making of the game. There are both good and bad aspects to this. Light projected from weapons and hits are brighter and more vibrant; however, Mistwalker didn’t seem to quite get a grasp on the technicalities of Unreal Engine as well as they could have. This can be seen in the loading time during such actions as opening doors and starting battle with an opponent.

The general story line at first glance appears to be the usual Japanese based tale: a small group of characters fighting battles to overcome a larger force. But the engaging, grown up plot in the smaller stories and side journeys really set this game apart. Kaim lives through several generations throughout the game and falls both in and out of love. Attractive scenes and graphics mixed with an intriguing stratagem make this game a good buy.