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A party of amnesia-afflicted immortals does not make a sound basis for compelling stories.
Lost Odyssey is a fairly traditional JRPG. The pacing, combat, story-telling, puzzles, and other mechanics follow expected tropes. If you have played these games enough, nothing exceptional will stand out. In other words, you play it for two things: the story and the dreams.
The story involves some immortal characters who have all lost their memories. Those memories are all conveniently recalled at appropriate moments to advance the plot, which is tiresome at best. While the intrigue and story arcs of various characters could be interesting, the lack of memories means the main characters exist initially as blank slates with no hooks to make you care about them. Adding story elements later doesn't help, because the initial taste is dull or sour.
On the other hand, the dream mechanic tells nice short stories that piece together interesting aspects of each main character. Players find and read these stories throughout the adventure, some unavoidable and some hidden. These optional short stories are delivered via animated text and include various background music tracks, sounds, and mostly static images to reinforce mood and theme.
At about the halfway point in the main quest (the Ice Canyon) I decided to set the game aside. The gameplay is uninteresting and the characters are boring. As I'm only interested in the game's story, I can watch the remaining cut scenes on YouTube and spend far less time and effort. I recommend the same for anyone interested in this title.
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