Back near the end of '08, Square Enix released a new title named Infinite Undiscovery. The name itself caught my ear and along with the gameplay and graphics, the hook was set and all SE had to do was tug on it a little harder.
I received the game back in Christmas and had recently began to play it a few weeks ago due to the fact that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 had me hunched over, playing with my enemies as I slowed, doomed, and confused them. But I digress. For an RPG from SE, I was a bit disappointed at the fact that there's about 20 hours of straight storyline, skipping almost all of the side quests, but was pleased with it overall. I was, however, extremely frustrated that around hour 10; I was on the second disc, the proverbial shit had hit the fan, and I was confused with only more questions thrown at me and no one able to answer them. When I told my friend this, he was shocked. "You understood Indigo Prophecy!" I sadly nodded in agreement.
The story revolves around a young flute player named Capell who has been captured and just as quickly broken free, though he complains about being stuck in the the cell for three days. The first major twist is merely 20 minutes or so in, where you find that Capell has a look alike named Sigmund (or the other way around) who has been fighting the baddies of the world though they both deny having any siblings. This sets off a long series of events that encompasses a large world of creatures and characters, each with their own distinct personality, from the hardass Edward that follows Sigmund around to the wise and soft spoken Eugene who is an old friend to the group.
The fighting system is smooth but not without some flaws: Basic run around until you have to draw your sword then kill everything until it's dead. Your party members will not attack until you draw your weapon first which makes getting from point A to point B in a rush nice. The AI can also be set to different settings such as "Focus", which tells your party to focus on whatever you're attacking, and "Free", which allows them to do whatever the see fit during the battle. You can even "Connect" to a nearby party member and command them to do certain actions, some of which allow you to open locked chests, set up large combo, and even talk to animals (I personally love that one). The "Y" button calls out for healing (while not connected) and anyone able to heal, whether it be via magic or potion, will do so. There are some points, however, where the camera gets to be a pain or your half naked caster runs into the enemy's blast of fire which can lead to disaster during boss fights.
The world in which you travel isn't too big thankfully yet it is big enough to give the feeling that this might be a real world to adventure in. Each town is unique, from the poor yet homely town with their doors open to the expansive town inside of a castle. As time passes in the game, the people in the towns change; a tsunami wracked town will rebuild itself after some time has passed. Along with the world, the music to beautifully composed, once again, each area having its own theme, from the open desert that you'll get to know well to the final castle which will send a chill down your spine.
Now that I've given the game praise, I'm going to rant a little about a few things that drew the primal fury out of my subconscious and turned me into that coin-flipping Twoface that I can be.
First, the voice acting: I'm a big fan of any game that adds voice. Not only is it convenient, it gives the character a depth that simple text cannot give. But when you go from a voiced cutscene to a non-voiced cutscene with no warning, this can and will irritate the audience. They do this several times during the game and you never know when! This is especially annoying because of the fact that you can't pause, read the line, and then continue. Now, this isn't annoying for me per say, but it was extremely frustrating when I was playing with my niece who is currently eight. She would go and read whatever the NPCs would say, allowing her to really get into the story. But if I'm not paying attention, say in the other room to get a drink, and one of these voiceless cutscenes come up, I have to rush from whatever I'm doing to quickly read whatever is there out loud. A mild pain in the tail.
Still on the topic of voice acting, overall the work was sub par. There was some great scenes where the voices sang with the fury of a thousand angels and there are some lines, usually Edward's, were so off key, even Helen Keller would have asked, well signed, "WTF?" A major problem I saw was the fact that some of the lines tried to match the lips of the character which usually left the lines sounding like the voice actors took line delivery classes from William Shatner; choppy and unnatural. The few major scenes where the voices really matter, they were perfect, which was a relief.
The second flaw that made my eye twitch a little was the clipping. Now, when someone says, "Oh man, his cape keeps clipping through his leg," gamers refer to this as clipping; one object going through another that it's not suppose to. This pretty much never happens during game play except for the friendly sword going through you. The clipping problem tends to happen during cutscenes, the place it should never happen. The one clipping problem I kept seeing was when Capell went through a wardrobe change. Before hand, he never had a problem, but once he got his new armor, his sword would clip his hip and cape, but as I said before, only during cutscenes. Details like this is what can make or break a game when it comes down to score and awards. Am I nitpicking? Yes.
I was going to go on a small rant about the shadow problems but was informed that the problem was not the game but the actual 360 itself . So /endrant
Is Infinite Undiscovery worth the $40? Almost. If you really want it, go for it and enjoy but to the general RPG fan, wait until it drops a few more bucks before picking it up. That or bum it off a friend. So what's the overall score for this little gem?
Grade: C+
Pros: Wonderful environments, well composed music, wide variety of character
Cons: Amateur voice acting, simple details overlooked
Shocking: Seeing one of the characters, my niece and I both thought, "Oh cool, a woman to join our group." Until he spoke. "Oh gods! I thought that was a woman!" And that response didn't come from me.
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