These days, Japanese RPGs aren’t what they used to be. Under scrutiny from Western critics, companies, and an overall shift to more Western-style design, they have become something of a rarity. Japanese execs like Square Enix’s Yōichi Wada have shifted focus to more ‘globalized’ games, turning staples of the genre like Final Fantasy into, in my opinion, shells of their former self. This is the climate in which Mistwalker created Lost Odyssey, an almost brazenly traditional game that, for me, harkens back to the JRPGs I loved back in the day.

The game is a glorious revival of what used to make a JRPG a JRPG: turned-based battles, random encounters, towns, a World Map, tons of NPCs to talk to, a more stable camera with cinematic angles, a story that truly feels epic, and so forth. Most are now underappreciated qualities that tend to get hated on in the U.S. gaming press as ‘repetitive’ or ‘antiquated’ while they give a free pass to the same old sports sims, FPS games and MMORPGs. I guess as long as a game lets you control a badass who shoots people in the face 10,000 times or a mystical elf who casts ten million spells with his clan, then it’s okay to be repetitive.

Now, before I am accused of being an anti-sports sim/FPS/MMORPG zealot, I must make clear that I am not. I enjoy all genres; I just don’t like certain ones becoming hegemonic. Furthermore, I’m all for innovation, provided it's not confused with mere trend-aping and doesn’t automatically cast off tradition. During the SNES and PSX days, traditional JRPG elements were popular and easy to come by. In every generation since their numbers have been dwindling, however. Hybrid RPGs with FPS, action and MMORPG elements have taken their place in many ways. I have no objection to these games themselves, but dislike that traditional JRPGs are sacrificed along the way.

All of which makes Lost Odyssey an ironic revolution. It not only captures the feel of a classic JRPG, which in and of itself feels fresh nowadays, but also expands on the genre by taking advantage of today’s processing power with lush graphics and a sprawling, pacifist parable of a story. Then again, one would expect no less from Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created the best Final Fantasy installments, and Nobuo Uematsu, whose memorable scores have always been favorites of mine. In Lost Odyssey, Mistwalker have achieved the first true JRPG of this generation.