1. Lost Odyssey has better cast of characters and a better story overall:
 

Lost Odyssey main protagonist Kaim and his fellow companion personalities and characteristics are more interesting than Vanille, Lightning, hope and the rest of the cast of Final Fantasy XIII. When you talk about humor relief characters, Jansen is funnier and more entertaining than Sazh. Lightning the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII is the typical emo character, while Kaim is an immortal who has seen a lot of bad things happened to him or to the people he loved in his 1000 years of living. Themes that were presented in Lost Odyssey such as immortality are mature and more interesting than the typical themes presented in FFXIII. Final Fantasy XIII has some good moments in its story, but when you compare those high points with the high points found in Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy XIII story feels average at best. The Thousand Years of Dreams also gives Lost Odyssey the edge over Final Fantasy XIII in story telling.
 

2. Lost Odyssey soundtrack is stronger and more memorable:
 

While some tracks from Final Fantasy XIII are good, it pales in comparison to the master work done by Nobuo Uematsu in Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey battle theme is more heroic and more epic. The boss battle themes in Lost Odyssey are more intense and gives the player a sense of danger while keeping the epic feel to them. Lost Odyssey soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks ever made for any game. It’s memorable, emotional and epic at the same time.
 

3. Voice acting in FFXIII is weaker:
 

Vanille voice over sucks, and the strange thing, it’s one of the most important and the most talkative character in the game. Which sucks. Also, Lost Odyssey gives the player the option to play the game in various languages while you can play FFXIII in English only.

4. Lost Odyssey is less linear and its world is more interesting to explore:
 

If you think that the lack of real towns and villages or exploration in FFXIII doesn’t hamper the experience, you are fooling yourself. Ok, FFXIII opens after more than 25 hours of gameplay, but after this point, you begin to get used to the linearity which discourages the player to explore the game’s world. Lost Odyssey gives the player more freedom from the outset which encourages the player to explore every area in the game. Also, FFXIII world is less interesting.
 

I presented to you four reasons why Lost Odyssey is a better JRPG than FFXIII, and I can give you more reasons, but I won’t. I’m not saying that FFXIII is a bad game, no it isn’t. But it isn’t as good as I was hoping for. The funny thing is FFXIII has a higher score on metacritic despite the fact that Lost Odyssey is the better game. Also, FFXIII sold over 1 million copies in its first week in the west while Lost Odyssey overall sales still didn’t hit 1 million. A very sad facts indeed.
 

Anyways, it seems that Sakaguchi’s upcoming game is far deeper in development than what we believe. As posted on Mistwalker official website, he made an update and stated that there is some work to be done on the dialogue for the last dungeon of the game:

“I still have unsettled adjustment on the last dungeon dialogue and the directions of the ending scene. I didn’t think I had that much adjustments, however this being the last dungeon, my requests has become slightly excessive. I will email you guys by tomorrow. I’m sorry guys, I may have many requests”
 

What could this update tells us other than being another normal update? One thing: The game’s story/script is almost complete. This is good news to hear. We hope that this won’t be the last thing we are going to hear from Sakaguchi before the official announcement of the game, spring 2010. But there is one big important question we need the answer for: Will the game be Xbox 360 only game or multiplatform?
 

Sakaguchi posted on Mistwalker’s official website that he is currently working on a second project for the iphone:
 

“2010 is the year of my long-awaited new blockbuster project.
I’m putting my heart and soul into this production. I’m taking a full swing and making this the best project.
Oh, by the way, We are also working on a project for iPhone.
This should be released soon as well.
We will put our efforts together and do our best!
I’m sure you’ll Love it.”
 

Blue Dragon for the iphone or a new IP? More info will be released as we dive into 2010.
 

After the cancelation of cry on, I was expecting Mistwalker to unveil their next game at Microsoft E3 press conference last month but it did not happen. So visiting their website is the only option I have to get some information and guess what I found some.


When you visit there website you are going to notice “column by Sakaguchi” one of  his posts called “Lego4″  hinted that his new game will have a blend of rpg style strategy and character growth,  and we will know more about the project at the end of the year (may be TGS 2009). Then another post called “Ray of light” was published by him mentioning that he is going to Tokyo for a new project, as he has implemented a system of battle field called “order and chaos” during real time scenes.


So what do you think he is up to? Will he make a traditional JRPG or something new, and what the possibility of him working on Xbox 360 using nattal to revive the JRPG genre?


Let us know by leaving a comment.