Review: Infinite Undiscovery
Square Enix's first Xbox 360 Exclusive Falls Short of the Hype
Oct 18, 2008
Square Enix shocked many role-playing game fans at the Microsoft press conference at E3 this past summer with their announcement of bringing role-playing games to the Xbox 360. The RPG giant had to put its money where its mouth is for these releases, and unfortunately, their first release for the console, which happened to be an exclusive, fell several feet short.
The developers for Infinite Undiscovery obviously wanted to make it highly innovative and unique when compared to other JRPGs, but their enthusiasm for new gameplay techniques resulted in an overkill of gameplay controls. If the story wasn't so interesting, many gamers would never complete the game. Unfortunately, there will be even fewer who will replay it.
What the Game is About: Similar to Every Other JRPG
The game's plot doesn't start off as unique from any other JRPG. Cappell is the protagonist who does not like to fight (although he has quite the skill for it) and does not want to get involved with the world's problems. But after being mistaken for Lord Sigmund, the real savior of the world, Cappell is thrust into the fight to liberate the world from the Dreadknight's chains to the moon. These chains summon monsters and blight to the surrounding lands, and no one is able to break these chains except for Sigmund. This hero is ready and willing to accept his gift and responsibility, a perfect antithesis to his doppelganger, Cappell.
Cappell slowly takes his place amongst Sigmund's party of liberators and discovers that he has the quite the hero role to play as well. Why is he the spitting image of Sigmund? Why does he also have the ability to break the chains? Why is he so adept at handling a sword when he's just a flute-player? Cappell is forced to undiscover the answers to all of these questions while he's saving the world from ultimate destruction.
The Good: The Story and Innovative RPG Gameplay
While the story is a bit similar to almost every other JRPG in existence, it's still intriguing enough to motivate the player through two discs and dozens of hours of chain breaking. It's a bit similar to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, except that instead of ridding a town of Twilight, Cappell is ridding a town of a chain and the evil it brings with it. Saving the world is always fun and enticing enough to continue playing.
The gameplay, however, is different from almost every other JRPG in existence. Instead of typical turn-based play with a party of five, Cappell's party of four battles in real time hack 'n slash. Not only that, but Cappell can connect with the members of his party to access some of their battle skills. For example, if he connects with Aya, he can use her archery skills to surprise attack an enemy from a distance. Cappell can also connect with party members to access their other talents, such as Rucha's cooking skills, Edward's ability to forge weapons, and Rico's ability to talk to animals.
The Bad: Infinite Gamplay Controls, Partymembers, and Bad Lipsynching
While the idea behind using all of these battle skills and talents is very creative, perhaps they should have been spread out among other games or just not had as many. Just when a player can get comfortable with the controls and everything possible to do while playing, the game introduces yet something else. At times it is very overwhelming, and it is easy to forget every little nuance Cappell can do or can do while connected with other characters.
The fact that Cappell's main party reaches over fifteen characters does not help matters. That's fifteen characters of battle skills to learn and assign, abilities to remember, and armor and weapons to purchase.
If all that wasn't annoying enough, the voiceover lipsynching is downright laughable. The game originally had just a scrolling script for the dialogue, but the North American version added voiceovers to the mix. So there are plenty of instances where the lips have stopped moving and another sentence or two is belted out. It's so bad, it's perfect fodder for a drinking game.
The Verdict: Undiscover it as a Rental Before Purchase
While the game has appeal in elements of its gameplay, one should rent it to see if it's tolerable enough for purchase. But even then, the replayability factor is too nonexistent to justify spending $59.99 for this RPG. It's really a shame, too. But there are always Last Remnant and Star Ocean: Last Hope to look forward to.
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