Customer Reviews

Infinite Undiscovery Includes Gift with Purchase

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having loved many of Square-Enix's RPG games I was extremely excited to hear that this title was coming to the XBox 360 system. I preordered it, ignored review sites giving it mediocre reviews, and sat down for a good while to play it. Now I'll try to give a fair view of the game.

Story 3/5:
The idea behind the story of the game, in general, is that the moon is being chained down by some organization and there is a group that exists to cut down these chains. Quickly you learn that you have a giant case of mistaken identity to which people think you're the hero who does the chain cutting. Add in some annoying whining from the main character and you have a pretty basic story. As the game develops it gets a little better but there is nothing ground breaking regarding it and it leaves me wondering if they could have taken the concept further to make a more enjoyable game.

Graphics 5/5:
The game is beautiful from what I've seen while playing. Although at times the bloom effect seems a bit overused the majority of the game has a unique realistic look and is exciting to play. It definitely stands out in a market saturated with a more cell shaded and somewhat cartoonish look for video games (the xbox 360 RPG market).

Vocals 2/5:
The most surprising aspect of the voice acting in the game is the fact some scenes have it and some don't. You'll hear the main character talking in one scene and then the minute you go through a door you just see the words on the screen. It's almost as if the game developers just decided midway through to only have speech during key scenes? That would make sense but a lot of the scenes with voice acting aren't key so I highly doubt that.

The voice acting, on top of that, when you do hear it, is complete rubbish. The characters sound pained to be talking and often they seem not to fit the situation. The emotion and vocal tone often do not fit the scene and at times they sound unbelievable.

Gameplay 1/5:
This is where the game does its worst. I'm going to break off each area of the gameplay I want to focus on into mini paragraphs so bare with me for a moment.

Fighting:
Fighting seems to take a MMORPG approach in the game. The world does not deviate between battles and walking in a sense. When approached by enemies (or vise versa) you use the trigger button to arm your weapon and you can partake in battle. You use your two attack keys to either do short attacks or powerful attacks. There is also a button to parry but I found it hard to execute. Besides this there is the ability to connect (link) with other characters so the main character can take control of them and use their skills.

Connecting Issues:
One quick note about connecting (mentioned last in last mini)... you often find you need to connect at key parts in the story. One character has the ability to shoot arrows and you'll find that at one point in the story unless you use this ability in a short period of time it's game over. This is annoying because you often have no idea that the ability is needed and have to go back all the way to your last save if you didn't think to use it. Another annoying connect period is where you have to use a character's charm ability (which you are unaware he has unless you connect and try it) to lure enemies somewhere. This is unexplained and is unlikely anything a normal user will ever guess without hours of annoyance.

Items:
Items can be crafted in the game by using certain crafting skills for particular allies with you. When in the world items are used in real time so the enemy can attack you at any given point while you're cycling through as well. Likely this will lead most users to either prioritize items at the top of their item list or hope that the NPC allies pick the right medicine at any given time to help out.

Flute:
At times you will also need to use your flute for various means. This is annoying in the sense that you often will have no clue for the need of the flute. In one area to progress you need to use your flute in the vicinity of a particular area but there is no reason for this what-so-ever in the context of the area. It's like they wanted to throw in more flute time but didn't want to go through the trouble of making it intuitive.

Searching Missions:
Throughout the game you'll have annoying mini story pieces you'll need to accomplish. One of such is where you need to pick up a quantity of items from the general area. There is no significance to the story but you will need to just search and search for about 5 - 10 minutes time to find all the items without any way to skip. I don't understand the point of this really and it seems like just another attempt to add in more user game time without actually adding to the game at all.

Party System:
One thing I like about the game play is the party system. Often you'll find you have situations where more than one party is needed. The computer will take the assigned party teams that you make alternative to your own and have them follow a set course (you don't set it) that will lead to the objective. So at times you'll find your party of 4 with 8 other teammates on the screen battling it out epically. It's pulled off pretty well besides the fact each of these situations is overly easy because of the nature of them.

Linear:
The game is massively linear in that while each area is relatively large and allows you to explore a bit there is nothing to do but kill the enemies in the area without any other game paths. So there is nothing really special about searching a whole zone because while you often will find other treasure chests everything else you can find right in the same general vicinity.

Maps:
Finally, the mapping system in the game is completely outrageous. Often there will be one tiny cave that will connect one massive zone to the next and unless you search every nook and cranny of the zone you'll never find it. I spent a good hour searching for the one that led to the first mission after leaving the first town until I gave up and searched the web for walk-throughs. Funny enough, in my search, I found tons of other posts across the web asking for the same information. The area to area is completely massive but without any markers to keep the user on track.

In general the game play is very unintuitive and you'll spend an infinite amount of time trying to discover what the heck is going on many times throughout the story. If you can put up with this annoyance (and don't mind searching frequently asked questions on the net for help) then you may like the game for other reasons but else you should avoid altogether. I like the game it's just the game play stands out and has often led me to drop it, walk away for a couple hours, and retry some annoying sequence many a time.

Nice title, isn't it? But don't expect a blatant fanboy review. Quite the contrary. If I had to summarize what you should need to know about this game, it's this: THIS GAME IS NOT FOR EVERYONE; DO NOT BUY IT UNLESS YOU ARE EITHER BLATANTLY OPEN-MINDED OR HAVE RENTED IT FIRST, OR HAVE A GREAT RETURN POLICY, OR SOMETHING.

Why do I emphasize that so? Because the nature of the game calls for that emphasis.

You see, Infinite Undiscovery is not a traditional RPG. It's an action RPG with some elements that emulate online gaming. That's issue #1. It's linear, but open at the same time. That's issue #2. It also doesn't pan out until you're a few hours into the game; you'll be lost on the story momentarily as it begins to develop itself; that's issue #3. There are others, but those are the first and foremost in my mind.

Your character starts out in jail. You get rescued eventually by Aya, who actually mistakes you for someone else who apparently looks identical to you. As you make your escape from the prison, you'll end up in a forest, and finally, meet some more of the key characters. Seems overly simple, but that's what I can give you without spoiling things.

In this game, you really have to think, I mean really think about what you're doing. Things like walking instead of running so you can attack someone from behind. Sound plays another big part of the game; if you don't have at least a 5.1 surround system you'll be impaired in this area. Even smell plays a small part - if you stink, enemies can detect you. In the darkness you can get assaulted by enemies you can't see (but they can see you because they're nocturnal). Getting attacked from behind cripples you and makes you susceptible to critical attacks. There are tons of different elements you need to take into consideration as you fight, which increases the immersion and the challenge.

Additionally, the world is alive; there is no "pause to bring up the menu". You need to make sure there are no enemies in the close vicinity, or that they are out of visual range, or you're in a town before bringing up the menu, because you can still get assaulted during this time. A strategic element to be sure, and one I wouldn't mind seeing in a future RPG, just slightly better implemented (more on that later).

With the "Connect" system, you effectively are giving commands to your colleagues to either do special attacks, heal, or talk to NPCs on your behalf, revealing different information than you get. The game relies heavily on this system, as you will frequently have need to use a character's special technique to get through a certain area. This lends itself to problems, however (more on that later).

If you're a fan of pure aesthetics, this game will not disappoint. The graphics, music and sound effects are all excellently done, and quite frankly some of the best looking on any game released to date. Some people have mentioned framerate issues; to me, they're so infrequent I wouldn't even call it a dealbreaker. With graphics this good, and minimal load times (considering it's basically an open world), a half second framerate drop every now and then is forgivable. Just make sure you turn down the voice volume; it tends to come through rather loudly on your left rear speaker during battle for some reason.

That doesn't mean there aren't issues, because there are.

- In the beginning of the game, you're evading a rather large foe. It seems almost impossible not to get hit by this guy. An option to turn and risk fighting him would have been nice.

- In a forested area, you're told to "stick to shadows". Considering the whole forest is dark, this instruction is confusing to a newbie user.

- Some areas are just ridiculous. Like when you have to cross an open field with some small ruins, and a creature is blowing fireballs at you which are possible, but extremely difficult, to dodge because of the camera angle. No instructions as to what to really do, except run. Might have been something there that I missed for all I know.

- You have to press Right Trigger to draw your sword. I like that and all, but what I don't like is that your colleagues won't draw their weapons if you don't, even if the tactic says to go all out.

- Quite a few things are not explained to you. In the beginning, Aya explains one of her Connect commands, which you use to take out a guard. That's great. Later, you're given Flute songs, yet never told what each song does or how/when to use them. I didn't even know I could use the flute until I was 2 hours into the game, even though I had it all along. I was also stuck on one area (and the web is lit up with boards about the same area) where I had to use another character's Connect command to charm enemies to a door; nowhere is this explained. That same character can talk to animals; not explained either.

- Outside of the primary characters, the additional characters don't have very much development.


As I said before, you should test this game before actually buying it. It might not be for you. It's not a bad game; just different. I wouldn't say it's similar to an MMORPG, even though it has some of the qualities. I would say...if you took Final Fantasy 12, with a better story and more plot development...and a better battle engine with pseudo-full control...you'd get this game. IMO, it's what FF12 should have been. Take that for what it's worth.

In short, this is the real-time/seamless combat RPG that Final Fantasy XII could and should have been. Combat is relentless and very involving. However, the "connect" system is really just a gimmick, and ends up being used mostly in forced puzzle-minigame chores rather than as a useful skill in combat.

My #1 complaint for this game is the poor voice acting throughout, and the lack of selectable Japanese voices. With 2 DVD DLs worth of data, not including the Japanese voices as an option is inexcusable. You'll see what I mean once the twins join your party.

The graphics in the camera-perspective-restricted Eternal Sonata might make Undiscovery look a little dated. But the real-time battle system from Undiscovery more than makes up for it and proudly shows off the new direction most new J-RPGs are headed towards.

Infinite Undiscovery is an objectively flawed jrpg that still manages to be fun despite--or possibly because of--its idiosyncrasies.

Gameplay is built around the familiar action-rpg formula of assigning specific attacks to face buttons and maneuvering freely about the field to unleash them as a finite pool of points is depleted (in greater chunks by greater spells).

As lead character Capell you'll also issue very basic orders to a close quarters AI squad, and the AI is generally competent. Uniquely, there are often separate squads (for which you determine the roster) which may be onscreen attacking a boss alongside your primary group or--less impressively--simply running off elsewhere to find a key as required by scripted dungeon progression.

On top of this base, you'll find a wide and often redundant array of skills, spells, food recipes, weapon production options, obtuse conversation/secrets trees, buff incantations, and even songs to collect. The development team was overflowing with new ideas but without the subsequent followthrough and/or skill to integrate them properly into the solid base gameplay.

Another form of variety is in the form of characters, of which you'll find a great many choices here. Most characters are likable enough, and every one of them is given some kind of unique gameplay system it can manipulate. One may be able to talk to animals, another be able to smash inconveniently placed boulders, etc. Here too though, the developers didn't know when to pull the reigns in. There are several characters that one can only place in the aforementioned separate squads for no other intelligible reason than perhpas they didn't have time to craft unique attacks for the characters if placed under direct command.

Despite what sound like damning flaws, it all comes back to the basic gameplay. And that remains fun to play. Most of the broken and or simply useless gameplay options can (and will be ) ignored to enjoy the entertaining spectacles of the colorful fighting.

The story also helps move things along, despite its own efforts at self-sabotage such as impressively mismatched facial animation and voice acting. The story of admirable if whiny young Capell, the energetic and enervating Aya, and many others is entertaining and generally efficiently told (judged under the low bar occupied by most jrpgs).

So, in the end, the game manages to earn a higher personal fun rating of 4 than I can objectively rate the overall game itself for others.

Square has done it again. This is another great title with beautiful graphics and smooth gameplay. The few minor catches is that the main character is not the most exciting person. He starts off as a whiny nearly useless bard. If you can get past his personality early on the game pays off.
Combat is similar to many Action RPG's with the ability to pair up with one of the other party members and use one of thier 2 special abilities. In addition you can build a second or third party that will travel with the main party but you have no control over thier actions.
The game has a system for item crafting that is usefull but alot like a standard MMO and promises some grinding to master the best gear or food in the game.
If your a fan of Square this is a title to grab. Try to get the 'pre-order' download card that comes with the game to enable better items to be available eariler in the game. Also X-Box Live offers several cheap/free add-ons that add more items to the game.

I was excited about this game after learning that it included a full real-time combat system while keeping some of the characteristics of the classical JRPG game. I found that the game was quite enjoyable, although a little short compared to Lost Odyssey.

The battle system was definitely the best part of Infinite Undiscovery. The ability to enter battles in real-time and avoid and flee from enemies as you see fit was a good feature. Compared to the random encounters of Lost Odyssey or Final Fantasies, there was no competition in real-time. Part of the battle system is also that all other party members are controlled by the AI, although you can limit them quite a bit. The computers are much smarter than they were in Star Ocean, and will use spells and skills fittingly. One flaw is that it is very difficult to access your items yourself quickly, as the if you are hit in battle, it will delay your effect.

Another plus to the game is its item creation system. All items that can be created use materials that can be gathered or gain from killing enemies. It can be much cheaper to create items rather than buying them from the shop. After a while of creating, your character's specific creation trait will grow. Most characters in the game can create items to a specific area, as in alchemy, iron working, enchanting, or writing.

The voice acting was rather awkward and did not fit the lips when the characters talk, as it was made for Japanese dialogue. One particular voice that was annoying belonged to Leonid, the antagonist of the game. He sounds very feminine when talking and it is often difficult to think he is the "evil" guy with his incompetent voice.

The story was quite interesting in the game. Capell, the main character, is captured by the Order of the Chain because he looks like the "Liberator," who is Sigmund. Sigmund leads the "Liberation Force" that goes around the world and removes the chains that bind the moon to a collision with the world.

Additionally, there are three social classes in the game: the unblessed, the meages, and the aristos. All three of these revolve around glyphs. Every child has a lunar rite when they are born that determines what power they will have when the moon is seen visible. Those who are born without the moon visible are called the "unblessed" and are treated as a third class. The average normal person is the "meage" and those who are fully in-tune with glyphs are "aristos" and rule the kingdoms. Capell is an unblessed, and was abandoned as a child because of that.

The characters are diverse and are quite enjoyable. The personalities range from the jealous, kind, arrogant, ignorant, and just. The only characters that I felt no connection with were the two children, who were more annoying than they were useful. Their voice acting did not help the situation and they ended up being a nuisance in the game.

The graphics of the game were quite exceptional. All of the characters, even NPCs, were well designed. They looked excellent during normal gameplay and you could see the detail they had even when battling. All the characters' outfits were well designed as well and fit the characters who wear them.

I would recommend this game to anyone who liked Star Ocean, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy, or any JRPG game. It has a good story, diverse cast, and excellent gameplay.

Pros:
+Battle system
+Item Creation
+Graphics
+Story
+Replay Value
+Diverse Cast

Cons:
-Voice Acting
-Slightly Short
-Few Annoyances in Battle

I rented this game before purchasing it, and now I'm unbelievably glad that I did. I read other reviews first, and I thought to myself "Maybe these people just aren't right for this game. The concept is so interesting this game deserves at least an 8 or 9 even if it doesn't deliver as well as it could." I was wrong. The game offers huge areas of play, a much larger than normal cast of "playable" characters, large numbers of side quests, and the story certainly has promise, but in my opinion the designers dropped the ball on every one of these features and more.

-Story

The story is, as I said, full of promise. A young character mistaken for a hero who sets off to liberate the world from evil. Pretty epic stuff right? Poor dialogue and a lack of detail utterly destroyed this aspect of the game for me.

-Massive areas to explore

As far as area of play goes I don't think I've seen many other games that even come close to Infinite Undiscovery, but like the story, the designers flubbed it. The maps are massive, but none of the areas you visit feature the level of interactivity you would expect from an RPG game. The maps felt repetitive, and to make it worse there is no indication of where you should be going. The character interactions will give you a town/area name but no indication of how to get there. The map is next to useless as you actually have to visit every single "square" of the map to uncover it and it lacks any sort of objective indicator to point you in the right direction.

-Side quests

There are a ton of little errands you can run for NPCs in the game, but some are only accessible by "connecting" with a specific supporting character and then speaking to the NPC. This is unnecessarily tedious when you consider there are 18 playable characters in this game. Additionally, I found the rewards were rarely worth the effort considering the vague clues offered by the quest giver.

-Playable characters

Sure there are 18 playable characters in the game, but aside from menu commands you can only ever control 1 character for each little arc of the story. This was especially frustrating for me as I like experimenting with different characters in an RPG, but this game limits your ability to immerse yourself in the various characters so much that, once again, it becomes a chore because you have to try and keep top level armor and weapons on those characters you can't really enjoy.

-Miscellany

My TV is a 33in standard definition TV. It isn't the newest TV in the world, but a few years ago I dropped $300 on it at a fire sale and it still works fine so I've never seen a reason to upgrade while mine's still working. The text in this game was absolutely unreadable on my set from just 6ft away. I literally couldn't tell what was happening unless the characters were speaking (which only happens in cut scenes) leaving me feeling lost and confused during character interactions. Also when characters level up they occasionally learn a new ability and instead of spelling out "Capell learned Cutting Slash" or whatever they placed a little face next to the words "learned Cutting Slash", but once again the portrait is so small (smaller than the face on a dime) that even from 6 ft away I couldn't tell who earned it. Now I'm sure you're thinking "Well that doesn't sound like such a big deal." However, roughly 6-7hrs in I encountered my first multi-team situation. basically every character that has joined you is running around smashing things and everyone gets the same EXP for it. At one point I was trying to keep track of 10 character's abilities and getting mauled by a literally endless storm of enemies(they spawn until you complete a related objective). This made it so difficult that I had to forget about keeping anyone up to date except my main character.

-Summary

This game really did have infinite potential, it expanded on many areas that make RPGs popular. It had the chance to take everything to the next level, but I honestly feel that, with the possible exception of Final Fantasy XIII (another recent Square Enix project), this is the worst video game I've ever played.

First of all, i think this game was a big step forward regarding the fighting system for RPG's. Finally getting away completely from turn-based game play, but keeping controllability of special moves and even other characters thru a special linking system. The system lets you control 1 other member of your party to a certain extent. This makes the actual fighting in the game fun and challenging at the same time. The environment is very well done from a visual aspect; the whole game, from the characters to the world itself is awesome.

There are some glaring drawbacks, imho. First off, the environment, although gorgeous to look at, isn't very engaging. There are hardly any "toys" to find both out in the area maps and in the towns. Even when you find a hidden treasure chest, the items you unlock are not worth the effort. In the towns itself, you can talk to all the people, but there aren't the usual mini-games. They are just kinda...there...hanging out, just waiting to deliver their programmed dialogue to you. Very disappointing. Even tho I almost always play these types of games with an almost obsessive need to complete everything i possibly can, I found myself eventually not even exploring the towns b/c I didn't get any reward or accomplishment. The only things in the towns you can interact with, and this is consistent, were a save point, an Inn and merchants. I would just blow thru and keep on with the main storyline, not feeling like I was missing anything.

Second, and by far the most infuriating aspect of this game, was the script of the cut scenes. I can deal with sup-par acting...as long as the dialogue is engaging or at least makes sense. I'm not talking about the plot, which is pretty good, so i won't give anything away. I'm talking about the individual interactions between characters. You're character, Capell, starts off as a whiney wuss. And 12 hours of game play in, guess what: Capell still acts all scared when asked to go kill a monster or something super scary! Never mind the fact that you've MURDERED literally thousands of dudes and monsters at this point...Capell must stay in character (his beginning character)! At all costs! Then there's the token sidekick chick that urges Capell on, and alternately chastises him in front of others in a lame attempt at lovers' friction. And there's the token surly dude, that hates your character for no apparent reason, and act really mad and pouty whenever asked about you. Then there's the token tough dude that says really tough and manly things at all times. And, for God's sake...why do all Japanese RPG's have to add annoying children? I swear it must be written on some sacred scroll of cheesy anime/jap rpg. And the token ditzy chick...so on an so forth...I eventually gave up and skipped the cut scenes altogether. And guess what!? I didn't miss a thing! I could have put the dialogue in myself, i bet. "Capell says something wussy, then cute girl chastised you, then surly dude says he hates you and you suck then manly dude says he can do anything manly then the demon children hop around and say something child-like and the ditzy girl says she doesn't understand..." And none of it adds to the actual story. Problem solved. Which in itself is it's own problem, you see.

All in all, the game is fun to play. If you enjoyed the fighting style of Mass Effect without the guns, i would recommend this game, but you might want to rent it first. If you are an anime fan, as I am, you will probably want to turn it off like a bad show. If the script wasn't so cliché and stilted I would definitely rate this game higher, but the cut scenes are just awful...just about every single one. (I'm guessing since i skipped some at the end) Also, the lack in environment, especially in the towns was very disappointing.

This game is extremely challenging and frustrating at times, the first few hours are some of the worst in any recent RPG, the menu system is cumbersome, the voice work in the cutscenes is hit or miss, and the crafting system is tedious at best, but despite this...

Infinite Undiscovery is one of the must fun experiences I've had with an RPG in the past couple years. The plot is suprisingly well written and compelling, the writers do a very good job of developing the primary cast, and even give the characters a chance to grow a little bit over the duration of the story. The world and its environments are large and detailed enough to have a sense of place to them without being completely overwhelming, and every city has just the right amount of NPCs. The art is above average, if not amazing at times, and the music does an excellent job of complementing it. When all the pieces come together, it's a very satisfying experience. The difficulty level is fairly high, but the game does a good job of making it feel like it's easier than it actually is - enemies and bosses can do brutal damage to your party, killing people in a single attack, but the game mechanics make it easy to recover from anything except complete destruction and manage to kill a boss anyway. The game has excellent pacing in most of its dungeons, save points placed in almost perfect locations, fairly clever boss encounters, and most of the other things you'd want out of an eastern RPG.

From a technical standpoint, this is an impressive showing from tri-Ace, on par with their previous titles if not better. The visuals are crisp and smooth, all the cut-scenes are done in-engine with fairly smooth animation (though unfortunately, the lip-syncing is atrocious), and with the exception of some slowdown during busy fight sequences, the framerate runs at a solid 60 FPS at all times. The controls are for the most responsive (with the exception of the nearly awful menu, and connect system), and the camera is almost good enough to not be noticed. Party members have suprisingly good AI and respond promptly to your commands, which makes most of the battles feel suprisingly effortless considering the game's difficulty level.

Despite the game's flaws, I'm very optimistic to see what tri-Ace does next - my expectations for this one were met and surpassed.

Infinite Undiscovery (IU) is a pretty good game. As a fan who started with Final Fantasy VII and whose last real RPG was the .hack//GU games on PS2, I know how to appreciate a good game.

IU can start off a little shaky for some, and even the first hour or so can have some people irked at some of the things the game throws at you. But it all takes a little time, and a little patience, before the ball gets rolling and the game begins to unfold.

It doesn't take long before you have a good ten or so characters to choose from, and the fact that everyone, whether they're in your main party or not, earns experience when you do, is a plus. You won't have three or four level 20s and the same number of level 7s.

The characters themselves are memorable and diverse, each with an appropriate voice actor that does a pretty decent job. Everyone seems to criticize the lip-synching (or the lack thereof). If a little thing like that bugs you, turn on the subtitles and read the dialogue rather than watch your characters speak without moving their lips.

The dialogue is well-written and there are actually some pretty funny cutscenes every now and then, usually centered on Capell and Aya, the two main leads.

The weird thing is that after clocking about 8 and a half hours, I was prompted to switch to disc 2. Awful quick, don't you think? I mean, a bit happened in disc 1, but I wasn't expecting the halfway point so soon.

At any rate, the graphics (especially the character models) are clean and crisp. The music is pretty good and though combat can be overwhelming at times, it's not long before you get the hang of things.

The achievements are a little ambiguous, too. Guess I'm gonna have to pick up the strategy guide when it's published.

Anyway, if you like RPGs, go ahead and pick it up.