Is Lost Odyssey really that good?

I have been looking for a good RPG on the 360 and i have seen a lot of post here saying Lost Odyssey is a great game. What makes it so great, how is the gameplay, and how long is it? 

You play any of the FF series? It looks alot like 8 in terms of all the menus and what not.
It's 4 discs long so it is pretty length, I've only done one disc although I do enjoy it. From what I've heard of everyone who plays it the game derails around the midsection of the 3rd disc and then heads for the toilet, but I can't comment on that as I've not gotten that far.
 
The combat is pretty solid, it keeps you thinking with a simple timing mechanic, so when you attack you hold the right trigger, and you release it when two circles have aligned, get that spot on and you'll do more damage. It's simple but it works, you can make rings that affect the attacks aswell, they're just like having special weapons, like a chance to paralyze on hit and things alike. The thing with these is the main characters are called "Immortals" (I'll let you guess why) they can't actually die in combat, but can go to 0 hp, but will get back up over time, if everyone is downed though it's over, and they can be revived like other characters. 
However the abilities of rings, and specific tiers of spells can be permanently learned by immortals and equipped as skills, one I remember was a ring that recoved HP whilst defending, and if I had them learn this ability, then equipped it as a skill, they'd be able to use that in battle without the ring then, mortals can't do this however and always have to have the item to use the ability. 
As for spells, the same applies as rings, if you have someone who can cast upto tier 3 black magic, you can assign one of the immortals to learn this, and over time with the casting done by whoever has the black magic, the immortals will learn it, it won't be as effective but it's still a benefit, I often use it for a second healer, but it's pretty easy to make them learn all the techniques and ring abilities you accquire.
 
It's all these little micromanagement things that keep the game fun, there's also a fair few "hidden" paths, by that, I mean they won't be marked on the map but you won't have to do anything special to get there, just run a little ofcourse where a barrier is broken and you'll find things, such as spells, which is a bummer as spells are found in chests, you can buy them, but I think it's relevant to the section. So if you passed a spell, only after you've been through that section and passed it, can you buy it and not before. So it's worth looking around, there's alot of things you can interact with aswell to get "Seeds" which you give to some dude in a pot for items. If one vase/bin/poster can be interacted with, every single one that looks like it can be too.
 
Meh, typed more than I intended, I'd never have got the game because it was never really appealing to me, although I am a fairly big FF fan, picked it up for £10, and I never regretted it, just need to get back into it really. Good game anyways. Worth picking up, story seems decent aswell nothing special, but there are some nice things with the main character and because he is immortal you get to find out about his past and what not, which is actually really interesting, but if you want to find out in full, you'll have to be prepared to read, there's a shit load of text, it's nicely presented, but that doesn't take away from how much there is.
 
And so you know it's random battles classic JRPG style.
 
Edit: I really did type alot, and I've only played one disk... 
disk or disc?

It's 4 disks long... I'd say it's of substantial length.
 
I couldn't tell you much about it though - I don't have it yet, but it's on my list. Read the LO board perhaps?

I thought it was enjoyable, nothing massively groundbreaking, but easily the best jRPG this generation.  The dream sequences really make it unique (as long as you don't mind reading) and a lot of the story is very depressing.  If you cried when Aerith died, this game will have you going by the end of the first disc, if not the first dream sequence.

The entire intent of Lost Odyssey is to recapture the essence of the playstation era Final Fantasy's. Nay, it is a Final Fantasy game.  
If you look at the direction where Final Fantasy X was going, it most certainly is a combination of that and certain aspects, that may have been missing for that tile from previous Final Fantasy's.
 
The item skill system is directly continuation from Final Fantasy IX. The art style is more returns to a more consistent theme, and the return of mixing up traditional level building with a level cap, actually works more times than it fails. 
 
Unless you overpower your characters, (which, like all JRPG's you can.) and you go consistently from one dungeon to the next, prepare to run into some difficulty that I hadnt seen since some very early JRPG's. There is most certainly, a wrong way to fight some enemies.
 
 

Lost Odyssey Last played on May 26, 2008

1100/1100 P

42/42 ACH

4045 players

Yes, please play it, I implore you.

I couldn't tell you. I got a little turned off by the character designs and some people were talking about long load times before every battle (installing to the HD may fix that). I was interested in it because it seemed more adult / serious than Blue Dragon or Eternal Sonata, but other games kept me distracted at the time. You could even say that it fell completely off my radar until you just reminded me about it. I will say that if I ever see this for $20 it will be mine.

It is a great game in my opinion, but not greatest. Do not expect this to be the next leap in the genre, but do expect a solid back to basics RPG. You fight monsters, you level, you get story, you fight boss, repeat. I also really love the magic spells and item building. I'm on the third disc, but stopped playing when the xbox broke. :(

 I thought it was enjoyable, nothing massively groundbreaking, but easily the best jRPG this generation. 
[...]
The entire intent of Lost Odyssey is to recapture the essence of the playstation era Final Fantasy's. Nay, it is a Final Fantasy game.  

• The game is horribly written. It might even feature the worst script I have ever had to endure in the last 10 years of gaming. Even by anime / JRPG standards, this is a really bad script. The story itself, the bare bones of "what is happening" is interesting, even intruiging at times - But underdeveloped, and wrapped in one of the most awful dialogue and characterization I have ever seen in an RPG. If you have a sense of good writing and storytelling, this game will hurt. An exception to that, and what saves the game a little, are the dreams, which are masterfully written and executed.

• Loading is not an issue. The retail copies are already significantly better than the review copies, and installing the game to the HDD* makes it even less of a problem. Loading is frequent, but never long, and never really annoying. Battles load in ~15 seconds.

First two discs are great
Third disc is alright
Fourth disc bored me. Terribly so.

I have some reasons why over here.

The game itself is fun.  The achievements are bad (Treasure Trove anyone?).  If you rush through this game (which I have done numerous times trying to get Treasure Trove achievement), I clocked the game at 45hrs.

It's pretty damn awesome.I just started playing it again after a VERY long hiatus and I'm at about 10 hours and am still on the first disk. I'm actually pretty sure there's still a lot left on the first disk. It's actually really hard as well. The bosses take a lot of strategy and you need to take a lot of stuff into account like rings and enhancements to beat them. Play it.

it's the best JRPG of this generation, hands down. The game is awesome, I highly reccomend it.  
 
VIDIOT! 
 
How the hell did you get the treasure trove achievement... did you follow a guide? i used a guide and got through the game and NO ACHIEVEMENT so i mus have missed ike one chest. i was so pissed. also, i couldnt get the skill master achievements for the immortals because maybe there was an item with a learnable skill in one of the chests i missed. It really made me mad. sometime though i will have to get through it.

its not that great. final fantasy's better

It's a solid turn based RPG.  I personally thought Blue Dragon was better.  If you are looking for a real time RPG, get Tales of Vesperia.

Yes it's good.

The game took way too long to actually get started for me to really bother with the rest of the game. I like exposition in my intros sure; but yeesh, Lost Odyssey just had way too much of it.

i'm early on in disc 3, long game, but definitely worthwhile.  while the dream sequences are interesting, i ended up skipping them along the way and reading them later, just too much to handle when you're trying to progress the main story line sometimes, but that might just be me 
 
it's very good, and probably the best rpg for 360 out there 
  

though i do agree with someone's earlier comment about installing to avoid disc cannot be read errors, that killed me

been waiting for it to hit the $10 sweet spot around here or if i come into a load of cash i might pick it up.

  I just beat the game 2 days ago and it was really good. However i'm about 4 hours into Tales of Vesperia and i think i will like this game a little more than i did Lost Odyssey. The combat is much better and i like the sense of humor this game has.
 
The game took me 38 hours to complete. I beat all but 3 of the optional bosses, and i only did 2 side quests (to get ultimate weapons). So if you do everything the game should last you about 50+ hours.    

" VIDIOT!  How the hell did you get the treasure trove achievement... did you follow a guide? i used a guide and got through the game and NO ACHIEVEMENT so i mus have missed ike one chest. i was so pissed. also, i couldnt get the skill master achievements for the immortals because maybe there was an item with a learnable skill in one of the chests i missed. It really made me mad. sometime though i will have to get through it. "

Thanks for all the info everyone, i will most likely get LO and i might check out Tales of Vesperia