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In a fantasy world dominated by an evil society known as the Order, you don't want to be a down on your luck flute player who 'happens' to resemble their biggest nemesis: the legendary Liberator Sigmund. That's why poor Capell has been tossed in a dank dungeon, but that's also why he gets rescued by a spirited archer girl named Aya. She shoves him into joining their band to cut the chains the bind the moon, and restore everything back to the natural order. For in this world, the moon grants special powers in the form of lunaglyphs, which can be used for anything from tossing around fireballs to healing the sick. Bring the moon closer, and these glyphs get more powerful, but has the unfortunate side effect of filling the surrounding region with ravaging monsters.
The combat is excellent, and the story is occasionally amusing, with visuals that sometimes approach awe inspiring. It's just all a bit thin.
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More action than RPG, the core of its real time combat is taken straight out of Dynasty Warriors. You have a weak attack and a strong attack, where mixing them up can knock enemies high into the air or slam them to the ground. Both are essential when facing the larger mobs to keep from being cut to ribbons. Larger enemies can't be tossed around so easily, but time your sword deflection just as they attack, and they'll be stunned for a few precious moments, letting you get some high powered digs in. You have two special attack slots to unleash some serious damage, and can connect with anyone else in your team to bring their skills to bear. Most of the time, you'll be fighting alongside three other members of the force, with a diverse selection of weapons and magical skills. Their AI is generally great at handling whatever the game throws at them, as long as you keep them well stocked with potions and other goodies. Which is a good thing, since with the real time menu system, it's incredibly difficult to use items yourself in the heat of battle. The lack of some sort of quick item select is a pain. What's not a pain is the camera, which can be moved with the right stick, and locked onto a specific enemy.
Don't expect too much originality beyond that. The towns generally feel like something out of every Japanese RPG ever made, and you can't do much there beyond seeing each wandering citizen's one line of dialogue, and stealing from their treasure chests. You won't find much in the dungeon and overworld areas either, except for wandering monsters and your next destination. The story has some incredible bits, both dramatic and amusing, but it's bogged by some of the most overused clichés in the genre. Aya's origins are particularly groan-inducing, and her constant nagging wears thin before the end of the first disc. At least she and a number of others get fleshed out through the course of the tale, growing in maturity and attitude. A good portion of the team do end up being shallow stereotypes, but they're really just there to fill out the roster anyway.
By daylight, the world of Infinite Undiscovery sparkles with rich shadows and the detailed environments. It's not quite on the level of the upcoming Fable II, as the areas outside of house interiors can be a little sparse, but it never feels like a PS2 game. Then the night falls, and with it goes the splendid lighting. Everything suddenly looks flat and lacking in detail. The developers should have thrown in a bit of mood lighting to help offset this dark. They should have also provided at least a color change when the heroes don new armor. There's a bit of different detail to the weaponry, which has a habit of not matching the cut-scenes. The lip sync geared to the Japanese voices, not present despite their being two discs, and the occasional complete lack of voice acting also take the whole presentation down a notch. I found the music a distraction, especially in battle, and left it turned all the way down.
The game is a little on the short side by RPG standards. It took me about twenty hours to reach the climatic battle with ultimate evil, though I haven't ventured much into the bonus dungeon yet. With no battle transitions and stunningly short load times, the brisk pace isn't too much of a negative. Especially when you can play it through again at higher difficulties for a greater challenge. Though the developers did pad it up in some of the worst ways. Such as all the equipment slots you have to fill for your whole party (which is just buying or crafting the best gear available anyway), craft grinding to unlock the actual good stuff, lack of save points before difficult boss battles, and sticking you in rather awkwardly designed outdoor environments with very little sense of where to go.
This is all disappointing when there are much better ways they could have added to its length. Such as allowing you to fight as other party members to wield bow and magic, to customize equipment with special abilities instead of the near useless crafting, and to have some way of actually choosing what happens to a character when they level up, instead of having it all decided for you. There also should have been far more side quests and some much better method of keeping track of them, since you'll need a pencil handy to know what you're supposed to do for who as it is.
The combat is excellent, and the story is occasionally amusing, with visuals that sometimes approach awe inspiring. It's just all a bit thin. I grew tired of repeatedly using the same slash combos, of Capell's wishy-washy attitude, of buying new armor at every new town, and plot points I saw coming from a mile away. Yet it's still a game I'm going to keep on the shelf to blast through it on Hard and Infinite modes after a nice long break. Because the core of Infinite Undiscovery is slash happy fun. |
