Infinite Undiscovery

One of the best Role Playing Games on your 360

Posted 4 years ago By - Brian Edey

The Xbox was far from being known as a RPG console, at least compared to the Playstation 2, but for this generation it seems the Xbox 360 is home of the big Epic Role Playing Games this generation, especially from Square Enix who has released and is set to release plenty of new games from older properties such as Final Fantasy to new ones such as the Last Remnant and this new property called Infinite Undiscovery. Leave it to Square Enix and one of the other gods of Japanese RPG development tri-Ace, from Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile fame, and if you do not know those games you are missing out on some of the best games ever.

Infinite Undiscovery should be every RPG gamers fans game of games, at least until the next big one is out and that is due to the fantastic gameplay with a mix of pure dungeon crawling action starting out with the player escaping from a prison, while being chased by a big ugly ogre, to one of the most memorable scenes of you fighting among these gigantic tidal waves. Every action you make in the world has a direct effect in the world via what the developers refer to as ‘Situational Battles’, which happen in real time. What is most incredible is the games story, and while it is slightly cliché at times, the story has some wonderful sci-fi and fantasy elements.

Every character in the game is likeable, believable, well designed and each part is well written to the story, there are no copy cat clones with only a few personality types to annoy you. Each of these characters are woven into the story and aid you on your quest in this world while you help Lord Sigmund destroy the chains which are holding the moon in place and devastating the world with monsters and destruction.


Being a Japanese RPG you might expect it to be a traditional turn based RPG, but thankfully Infinite Undiscovery goes in a new direction with an action based Role Playing Game formula we have seen in the past with a few games. You could almost say the combat is similar to the Elder Scrolls Oblivion (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) mixed with Rogue Galaxy from the (PS2), a fully 3D hack and slash adventure with some great Role Playing elements.

Basic attacks range from light to heavy, with a power attack, as well as spells, fleeing and special abilities all happen in real time, and while the real time combat allows you to control the combat of your character, the games artificial intelligence controls the 18 other characters who can join you in the game. But you are allowed to ‘try out’ your companion’s moves from magic to archery with just a quick few button presses and there are several gameplay moments where using one is helpful, even needed.

During combat swords flash, there are explosions and big particle effects going off everywhere and unlike other games which are similar to this you never seem to lose your focus during combat, you know where you are at all times, know what you are doing and what your companions are doing.

While the overall gameplay of the game is not perfect, it is fun and fairly easy to play and a very enjoyable process from the beginning to the end of this 25-30 hour RPG. It might not complete with the likes of Star Ocean and Dragon Warrior, but what does in the Japanese Role Playing Realm, this is a wonderful worth while experience.

Graphics

The games overall graphics are not the best we have seen on the console, but they are fairly decent with a well done art style combining cel-shaded and western themed styled in game graphics and CGI through out the game. The in game graphic effects are great and they look amazing during combat when there are plenty of effects happening on screen all at once. Pure anarchy at times, but it is beautiful as well.

Even though the graphics are great all around, there is a problem with them, but it is far from a gameplay killer or game killer by any means. Especially during combat and even sometimes just during exploration the games frame rate will drop off for a second or two. But even while this is annoying at times, not once during the game did it ever affect the game. It was surprising that even today all these years since the 360 launched; we have a game like this that lags out. Especially since we have many other games, with better graphics which do not suffer from any video lag at all, but as I mentioned the gameplay is not affected by the lag in fact it is almost feels like a feature.


Square Enix and tri Ace have always had excellent audio in their games and the audio we have in Infinite Undiscovery are very good, from the music to the special effects to the voice over work. But what is rather disappointing is we do not have enough voice work in this game, the main cut scenes are really the only parts of the game that have voice work and today, games such as these need to have voice work through the entire game. Another side to the voice over work which I was rather disappointed in was the fact there was no option for the Japanese voices which we have seen in other games such as Lost Odyssey from Mistwalker, another 360 exclusive.


While the game is linear, the difficulty changes add new content to the game and are fairly interesting to see the change which adds much to the overall value game. To be blunt though if any of the other tri Ace titles did not appeal to you, such as Star Ocean this game may not be for you either, but if you are new to them or enjoyed them Infinite Undiscovery is right up your alley.

This is a great action role playing game which will appeal to fans of Japanese RPG gamers and Western RPG Gamers and for a title like this from a traditional Japanese RPG company that is a rare thing. So buy this game if you like action RPG’s, RPG’s or action games.

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