 |
|
7.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
INFINITE UNDISCOVERY Posted by Joe Anderson on Sep 10, 2008 08:58 (Sep 10, 2008 08:58) |
||||||||||||||||
It seems odd but certainly over the past year or so the Xbox 360 has seen it’s share of JRPG’s while it’s main rival the PS3, with the exception of Eternal Sonata hasn’t really got round to entertaining them at all yet. Now with the release of Infinite Undiscovery the Xbox 360 sees yet another game from this genre come on board.
Infinite Discovery tells the story of a young boy named Capell, at the beginning of the game you are being held captive although you seem to have no idea why until eventually you are rescued by a girl called Aya, who it turns out had mistaken you for someone else. As this story progresses you eventually escape and meet her group of adventurers, one person in the group particularly sticks out and he is named Sigmund, it turns that he looks exactly like Capell and he is on a mission to free the world from the order, who have chained the moon to siphon it’s powers. And so the adventure begins…
 Capell is a rather unlikely hero, he isn’t really the type to boast about his fighting skills, in fact he is rather reluctant to help save the word at all, it seems he would rather just play his flute. That’s not to say he isn’t a likable character in fact this trait in him makes playing him all the more compelling.
The story really kicks off once you have met Sigmund, it is decided that you will help save the world, which (as mentioned above) isn’t really Capell’s idea of fun, however he reluctantly agrees and sets off on his way. On your adventures you will meet various different characters and although you are only allowed three in your party at anyone time you can also form two other parties made up of four members each and manage them at the same time. This can all get a bit complicated though as you then have to make sure that everyone’s health and weapons are kept updated, which is very difficult due to lack of cash and the fact that you never know when you need someone to be in your particular group because you need their help. This part of the game becomes a big inconvenience because it is very time consuming managing all of these characters.
Thankfully the action in Infinite Undiscovery is a lot better than the party management system, combat is assigned to two buttons, you can throw quick attacks, strong attacks or pull of some combos by using a combination of both. As well as being able to control your own attacks you also have some degree of control over your companions, this is because you are able to connect with another member of your group and by doing so you are then able to use their attack or special skills to help you progress further. Using other party members in combat is largely unnecessary as they are quite skilful fighters anyway, however the connect skill really comes into its own when for example you need to speak to animals or get past a certain puzzle which requires skills Capell is lacking.
Other skills you can make use of in your party is their healing abilities, pressing the Y button will cause Capell to request that a party member “takes care of the injured”, this is obviously very handy during combat, especially when you are involved in a more taxing fight. It has to be said that the AI of your opponents is quite good, they will sometime refuse to heal if it is not required and when they do use heal they know whether to use magic or equipment to get the desired affect. Another skill which Capell has up his sleeve which is worth mentioning is his ability to play the flute, although he only starts off knowing one tune, throughout your adventure you will learn new, more useful songs which will then give him certain benefits like the ability to find hidden items.
In most parts of the game you will spend time wandering the open lands adventuring, be this in small towns where you will find yourself wandering about having useless conversations and completing mini tasks or taking the next steps in your adventures by meeting new acquaintances and then continuing on your quest to save the world.
 Graphically the game is certainly nothing special, it seems to me that more time has been spent on rushing the game out than it has on its presentation. There are some nice elements to be fair such as the chains stretching up to the moon from all directions, however most the time you will be too busy pulling your hair out in frustration thanks to the awful slowdown during combat.
Things do improve with the soundtrack, it really fits into the atmosphere of the game, however there are other flaws such as the game ability to only provide voiceovers for some of the cut scenes, which is something that smacks of the game being rushed and this does really annoys me to be perfectly honest.
Infinite Undiscovery isn’t particularly a bad game, in fact playing through the adventures is quite enjoyable. The games main problem is that it has too many flaws and not enough twists, it’s an average RPG, not an epic and that in some respects is its downfall.
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
Comments |  |
