When Lost Odyssey was released last year, arguably its most contentious inclusion was the “Thousand Years of Dreams”, a series of in-game short stories written by the highly acclaimed Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu. When main character and amnesiac Kaim encounters certain people during the game, he recalls a lost, distant memory and this unlocks a story. These stories are delivered in what’s best described as a very professional PowerPoint presentation; they consist of blocks of text, some background sound and visuals, and that’s about it. This basic narrative contrasts starkly against the game and the genre’s typical high production values and elaborate cut scenes.

For many the “Thousand Years of Dreams” was Lost Odyssey’s exceptional feature. They felt that it contained first-rate writing in an unique form that embellished the game’s extensive lore. Others, however, found problems with this unusual choice of narrative. Some felt that its impact was lost in translation, despite that process having been undertaken by Harvard professor Jay Rubin. Others felt that the stylistic dissonance between it and the main game’s more genre-typical narrative was ostensible and detrimental. The commonest complaint, however, was one given voice by Shane Bettenhausen. He’s now Ignition Entertainment’s Director of Business Development, but at the time he was part of the 1UP Yours podcast, and it was on one of its episodes that he memorably described the narrative as a “failure of the medium”. He argued that by not using the audio and video capabilities of a modern video game to proper effect, and by resorting to measures that could have been produced in a solely textual medium, the “Thousand Years of Dreams” came off as repressed and regressive.

I’ll admit that at first I could appreciate what Bettenhausen was saying, because their presentation is very basic. Nonetheless, I disagree with him. The stories are wonderfully well-written, and by shunning the choice to showcase them in a cut scene, the developers have presented them in a way that enforces a different type of pacing, one that forces the player to think harder about what they’ve just viewed. I agree with those who say that the “Thousand Years of Dreams” contrasts against the main game’s narrative, but only because it was so much better than the latter’s derivative plot and presentation. For me, those short stories in their most basic of forms are the strongest parts of this game.

Sadly, their implementation is not. One of the biggest problems I have with video games, and in particular Japanese RPGs, is their pacing. More than any other genre, the J-RPG doesn’t integrate story with gameplay. Sometimes this isn’t for lack of trying, but more likely it’s deliberate, a design choice steeped in culture that stands proudly against the changing tides of the West, despite the tireless efforts of the likes of Kojima et al. I’ve become accustomed to this choice, even adapted to it by treating the gameplay and plot of a J-RPG as the two distinct things that they are. As far as I’m concerned, I’m unlocking the game’s story through my playtime. That’s fine, but during my Lost Odyssey playthrough the “Thousand Years of Dreams” has been creating more sudden, unexpected, and unappreciated switches from play to story than I care for. When I’m halfway through a large dungeon, carefully grinding my way through the enemies and considering my strategy, the last thing I want is to be removed from that and thrown into an irrelevant side story, yet that’s exactly what Lost Odyssey did time and time again.

Yes, they’re optional, but quite frankly you’re missing out on the game’s best feature if you don’t stop to read them. While I do enjoy them, it’s still an example of poor pacing, a problem that plagues this game galore – more on that in my next post.

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