Story

You begin your journey as Capell, an orphaned flautist who bears more than a passing resemblance to Lord Sigmund, a freedom fighter seeking to break the chains that bind the moon to the planet. Wherever chains have been built, monsters are sure to follow and after Capell is broken out of jail by Aya, one of Sigmund's followers, he joins the group on their quest. Along the way friends are made, allies join your cause (18 in total), and Capell becomes the object of just about every female's affection.

The overlying story itself, a rag tag group of freedom fighters seeking to stop an evil empire from destroying the planet, never really rises above the cliché and the amount of characters in your party prevent more than half from being developed beyond stock RPG archetypes. Where the story does excel though is in the interactions between members of the core group. While I never cared for the story, what kept me playing to each cut scene were the relationships that were being explored. There is a moment late in the game where Capell's entire attitude changes and it effects how he speaks to the other members of the party. It is in this moment that I truly felt that developer tri-Ace had crafted characters that were able to rise above the world they populated.

For those of you who enjoy a bit of homoerotic subtext in their game (and really who doesn't?) pay special attention to Sigmund and his second in command, Edward. If they didn't have something going on beneath the surface than I'll hand in my official junior subtext locator badge.

Gameplay

Turn based battles are nowhere to be found in Infinite Undiscovery as every battle takes place without any transition to a battle screen. Think of battles as closer to a mix of Zelda and an MMORPG. You build a party of four characters but always exert direct control over Capell. Attacking consists of using A and B to chain attacks together into combos resulting in flashy finishing blows. By holding down either of the buttons Capell can perform more powerful attacks that suck up MP, but later in the game can defeat foes in one hit. The AI characters are set with simple commands like "act freely" or "conserve MP". You can even control which items they have access to so you never have to worry about losing all your MP recovery items and end up getting slaughtered during a boss battle. You are also given the option to connect with another party member and use one of their skills. This tends to be fruitless in the heat of battle as Capell gets pummeled while trying to order the buxom Michelle to cast a comet spell on a group of monsters. The same goes for trying to use items in the heat of battle, better be quick on the menu navigation or your ass is toast. I never really made use of direct orders aside from hitting the "Y" button to ask for healing. The AI works well on its own and only twice did I curse my team for running off after Capell fell leaving me to hear the death cries of my party as I laid in a heap twenty feet back.

When not in battle, Capell can connect with characters to participate in the crafting potion of the game. Each party member specializes in a specific craft form creating weapons to writing music. I found the weapon crafting rather pointless later on in the game when I could jus t purchase the same weapon after fighting monsters, all of whom have rather deep pockets. Other uses of crafting include creating healing items, status boosting foods, and the composing of songs that Capell can play on his flute, the most important of which allows for invisible monsters to be seen by the rest of the party.

The structure of the game is as follows: Go to town, find out they have a chain, go through dungeon of some sort, fight boss and smash chain. This general play style is used almost the entire way through, with a few variations along the way. The dungeons range from short battles through a town, to puzzle filled towers where you'll be adjusting mirrors and constructing orbs to make your way to the top. Each dungeon culminates in a battle with a souped up soldier, where blade flashes and spell blasts fill the screen. In between dungeons you'll be fighting your way across the world map, which at the start of the game is overwhelming. At the start of the game you'll be given a vague instruction on where to go next and spend the next twenty minute hoping you're heading in the right direction. This between towns is when a lot of easy leveling can be accomplished. Not once was I mad that I had to trek back and forth because trying out different party members to find the right combination of combatants is both challenging and rewarding. I ended up with my main party consisting of the aforementioned Capell, Aya, Edward, and Michelle. Two were close range warriors, Aya used a bow and arrow along with magic proficiency and Michelle was my main healer with some devastating offensive magic up her sleeve. So while the structure was linear and boring, the content managed to keep things moving along at an entertaining pace.

Sound and Visuals

Infinite Undiscovery gets the reward for the most uneven presentation this year. Let's start off with the negative, shall we? The lip synching is atrocious, or it would be if they had even bother attempting to change the mouths to fit the English translation. Often times characters will stop talking while their mouths are moving or continue their speech through closed lips. The only moments when the synching comes close to working in when a response in one word or during long speeches when in either language characters would be blabbing on and on. The voice acting itself skates between annoying and pretty great, where scenes of extreme drama or comedy tend to benefit the most while normal dialogue takes a hit in the acting department. One of my favorite minor characters, a handmaiden with a case of word vomit demonstrates the strengths and weakness of the voice acting. Often times what she says are flat out hilarious, and then sometimes the joke falls flat due to her delivery. Were there two voice directors on this game?

There is a scene early in the game where Capell is escaping from the flames of a dragon. This scene looked like it was rendered on a hybrid of a Sega Saturn and a Playstation 2. The flames themselves actually made me laugh they were so awful. That being said, like everything else in the game, the further you progressed from the start the better the visuals become.

At one point you make your way through a jungle area, an area so lush with greens and yellows and often times glowing rain that the enemies are able to hide themselves and pounce on your unsuspecting party. I took a moment in this area to adjust the camera to view the sky and it was a clear blue, which really was a testament to the art direction. That I was in such a dense wooded area that the sky itself seemed an entirely different world. I'm not a sucker for pretty graphics, but it was a truly beautiful moment.

The character models in the game, aside from their mouths, are designed to each have their own unique look so even with 18 different members running around, you never get confused as to who is who. Battle animations are pretty spectacular, especially when you unlock some of the higher level skills causing party members to fly back and forth between enemies. During cutscenes, everyone acts in that very stereotypical Japanese fashion with exaggerated movements leftover from the days when voice acting and facial expressions were just a twinkle in the eyes of game developers. Like the voice acting, the real treat are in the humorous and dramatic scenes, from Capell's disbelief that some women are willing to do "anything" to repay him for his actions, to any time there is a tragic death (of which there are more than you'd think). If only the middle ground scenes could have been so great.

Overall

I purchased Infinite Undiscovery with the goal that I would finish it by the end of this week. How then did I end up allowing my entire weekend to be sucked up by this game? It is by no means the perfect game, and suffers from several issues that keeps it from achieving the heights set by its RPG forefathers. That being said I couldn't put it down. Every hour that ticked by left a smile on my face. Maybe it has been too long since I played a quality RPG, or maybe sometimes a game can be a whole lot greater than the sum of its parts. If you love RPG's pick it up for the characters, pulse pounding button mashing battles, and knowledge that sometimes when you give something rough looking a chance, you may just be rewarded but what you find inside.