infini undisc – Infinite Undiscovery

Considering the lack of interest the Japanese have in the 360 it seems odd that most of the jrpg content available for the next gen is all on the 360. Some of it, Infinite Undiscovery included, is exclusive. Perhaps it is due to the ease of programming for the box or perhaps it is because they are trying to expose the jrpg to the western audience or maybe, just maybe someone at microsoft is throwing a fuckton of money at them… i don’t know.

What I do know is that if you happen to be a fan of the jrpg and Square Enix ( or more acurately Tri-ace ) in particular then this game probably already has your interest and if you are not then I’m afraid there is not going to be much that will convince you that this is your genre, beyond real time combat.

First impressions of Infinite Undiscovery are impressive, very impressive. Make sure that you watch the opening cinema instead of skipping, it won’t really give you much insight into the characters or the story but DAMN is it pretty to look at. Character design is also something I was very impressed with, with character art style being somewhere between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VIII which is pretty cool as far as I’m concerned anyways. The environments are good but not great with lots of colour but lacking a bit in detail and polish outdoors. The only other real problem I have is with the sound, music is great as you would expect from these guys but the voice acting is uneven and a bit unnerving. Some characters are portrayed with a subtle beauty which is really quite special while others are given to a ridiculous amount of over acting and absurd dialogue. At other times during smaller cut scenes there will be no voice at all with dialogue boxes doing all the work. It’s not a deal breaker but it is unbalanced, and combined with the characters penchant for shouting out the name of the special move they are doing it’s a little annoying.

In game you play Capell a simple, but not dumb, travelling musician who has all of the androgeny of any great Square Enix main man ( altough his hair is strangely realistic and his sword is well within the realm of scale to a human ) who is mistaken for a rebel leader and thrown in jail. He is then rescued by Aya, a rebel ( yell ) girl, and fairly obvious love intrest, who also mistakes him for her leader Sigmund. After much whining he/you are persuaded to join up with the rebels and fight the good fight, many people continue to confuse you with Sigmund and it is clear that this is going to play a part for a while. As for the rest of the story it’s all very familiar territory, major evil trying to control the planet, rebel uprising, blah blah blah. There is some variety in the side mission stories but they don’t impact the greater story line enough to make a difference to the familiar. It’s either a case of lack of originality or a company who is afraid of losing it’s core audience by changing too much, similar to a tv soap maybe?

As for gameplay there are two major areas as far as jrpg fans are concerned so I will mention them now combat is as I said it is real time which many fans will cheer and it provides a hack and slash element which will allow for some crossover. I personally am a fan of turn based combat when it comes to party management because even though the other party members do a good job of looking after themselves in combat when you need to use the connect function to access one of your teams special powers it can get a bit frustrating. The other aspect is the world map battles, there are no random battles, all battles are represented by people or animals on the map and will regenerate after exploration out view so it will not effect your grinding if that is what you are after. The missions are often not explained and almost all of your movement is on foot so be prepared for exploration and some times where you just don’t really know what you are supposed to do despite a very linear feel. The menu is capable of being very deep with different party combinations and abilities in abundance but where the combat is going to allow access for new kids the menu will not with constant fiddling required for your upgrading and equipping needs.

As a general rule though I like it a lot and if you are the type to dabble in the jrpg it is absolutely worth your time and money, if not you may want to try something a little bit more western to get your feet wet first.

I give it 7 androgenous leading men out of stereotype.

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