Lost Odyssey is day 12 of our series on 15 Xbox classics you can still play on Xbox Series X|S. Hironobu Sakaguchi’s role-playing game was one of Microsoft’s biggest bets on Japanese RPGs for Xbox 360, and it’s still on sale through backward compatibility.
Lost Odyssey at a glance
- Developers: Mistwalker and feelplus
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Original release: 6 December 2007 (Japan), 12 February 2008 (North America), 29 February 2008 (Europe)
- Original console: Xbox 360
- Xbox Store price: £19.99 / $24.99
- Game Pass: not included
- Backward compatible since: September 2016
What is Lost Odyssey?
Lost Odyssey is a turn-based role-playing game. It follows Kaim, one of a small group of immortals who’ve lived for a thousand years but lost their memories. His world is going through a “Magic-Industrial Revolution”, with magic engines powering lights, cars and weapons, and two nations are using that power to build ever-bigger weapons.
It keeps many traditional genre features, including a world map, random battles and turn-based combat, but adds its own systems. Up to five characters fight in front and back lines, and the front line’s health forms a protective wall for those behind. An Aim Ring system asks you to time a button release when attacking to add effects. Immortals learn skills by linking with mortal party members.
As Kaim’s memories return, you unlock “A Thousand Years of Dreams”, short written stories about his past, presented in a style similar to a visual novel.
Lost Odyssey’s history on Xbox
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi pitched the game to Microsoft Game Studios. The first talks began in 2003, and Sakaguchi set up his studio Mistwalker in 2004. It started as an internal project at Microsoft’s Japanese studio, but after it ran into trouble, feelplus was brought in to build the game. Development took three and a half years, growing from ten people to 150 at its peak.
The team began work before it had Xbox 360 hardware. It chose Unreal Engine 3 so it could start early, but the engine’s design clashed with how Japanese RPGs were usually built, which caused repeated problems and long loading times.
Sakaguchi wrote the main story. Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, working on his first game, wrote more than 30 Thousand Years of Dreams stories. For the English version, Microsoft had them translated by Jay Rubin, best known for translating Haruki Murakami. Nobuo Uematsu, Sakaguchi’s long-time Final Fantasy collaborator, composed the score, recorded mostly with a live orchestra, and Sheena Easton sang two of its songs. Manga artist Takehiko Inoue designed the main characters.
Mistwalker confirmed in February 2005 that it was making two RPGs for the then-unnamed Xbox 360. Lost Odyssey was revealed shortly before E3 that year. It shipped on four dual-layer DVDs, which made it Microsoft’s largest console game at the time. It launched in Japan in December 2007 and in the West in February 2008, with extra Thousand Years of Dreams chapters, accessories and a late-game dungeon released as downloads in 2008.
Why it matters
Lost Odyssey was the second of two Mistwalker RPGs made for Xbox 360, after Blue Dragon, and both were published by Microsoft. It brought together Sakaguchi, Uematsu, Inoue and Shigematsu on one Xbox exclusive.
It’s never had a sequel or a remaster, so the original Xbox 360 game, through backward compatibility, is the way to play it.
How to play Lost Odyssey on Xbox Series X|S today
Lost Odyssey was added to Xbox One backward compatibility in September 2016, and it runs on Xbox Series X|S too. It’s on the Xbox Store for £19.99 or $24.99. When it first went on sale digitally that December, it was a free download for Xbox Live members until 31 December 2016.
It isn’t in any Game Pass tier, and it doesn’t have Xbox One X enhancements or FPS Boost.
If you own the four-disc Xbox 360 version, an Xbox One or Xbox Series X will recognise it and download the backward-compatible version.
More on Lost Odyssey
Our Lost Odyssey hub has the essentials and will collect future coverage. Tomorrow, the series returns to Albion with Lionhead’s Fable II.
