Totilo: Lost Odyssey is a slow-paced, well-written game

MTV's Stephen Totilo describes himself as a guy "who played Fire Emblem with the battle animations turned off." This is just so we're clear on his impressions of a pre-release build of 360 epic RPG Lost Odyssey. According to Totilo, it's a slow-moving game which suffers from long load-times, but benefits from its "Thousand-Year Dream" sequences, well-written short stories which appear as on-screen text throughout the game.

That's right. Like the recent Harvey Birdman game, you'll definitely need the ability to read to play through Mistwalker's epic tale (gamers read, right?). For Totilo, it's these text sequences that set Lost Odyssey apart from the Final Fantasy series, to which he draws many comparisons.

Ultimately, however, it seems Lost Odyssey will require a lot of patience, with the first non-tutorial fighting sequence not occurring until two hours in to the game. We'll have to see come February 12 whether gamers have the attention span for the four-disc, 50-hour adventure.

[Via X3F]