Lost Odyssey - Restart

As I have an extremely long holiday this year between my A-level exams and my entrance into university, I am spending a rather large part of my time playing computer games. I have so much time in fact that I have decided to restart a number of games which I either didn't complete on my last run through or have just never completed. Last week I moved my PS2 downstairs to the big telly as an incentive to FINALLY complete FFXII. Today I restarted Lost Odyssey for the second time, hoping to complete it too.

Perhaps I didn't choose the best time to start playing as, having started this blog this morning I was anxious to get back to it, so I only played long enough for my wireless network to kick in again after it died on me.

Because of this I wasn't completely into the experience as I usually am when I play an RPG. I skipped all of the lengthy cutscenes, save for the introductory battle scenes which I find quite engrossing. I also hurried my way through the first part of the game, quickly getting to the save point after the first meeting with the grand council and leaving the game there. I may have neglected speaking to the many NPCs (a major feat for me as I usually want to hear everything that everyone has to say) but I didn't neglect any of the available goodies up for grabs. I'm a serious searcher of nooks and crannies.

The sense of boredom and borderline annoyance at the beginning of this game was probably a product of wanting to get back to my blog, as I've mentioned, and of being back at the beginning of the game. I clearly have no one to blame for the second reason as it's completely self-inflicted but I often find that I have trouble playing a game from a mid-point if I haven't picked up my controller for a while. It just doesn't feel right to me. So...I found myself being annoyed at the unfancieableness of Kaim in one of the cutscenes (don't game developers realise that all male video game characters have to be as good looking as my original pixellated crush Squall Leonhart?) and at THAT DAMNED PIECE OF HAIR that's always hanging in his face. That's nothing new though. That piece of hair has bothered me from the start. It haunts my dreams. While I might be being a little bit overdramatic I still want to take a pair of scissors to him. What were the character design team thinking when they decided on that little aesthetic quirk for Kaim? The animators must have loved having to be conscious of that one strand of hair for the entire game. Ah well. I've only ever got as far as the beginning of disc 2 so I've got my fingers crossed that he'll eventually go for a Garnet-style symbolic haircut and I'll be rid of it.

I am currently making mental notes for a possible walkthrough.