When comparing Lost Odyssey vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Lost Odyssey for most people. In the question“What are the best RPGs for Xbox One?” Lost Odyssey is ranked 28th while Dark Souls III is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose Lost Odyssey is:
Impressive character models and gorgeous oceans, sweeping vistas, and detailed cyberpunk cities in Lost Odyssey feel like they could easily belong on Xbox One. You'll get to see every level of detail in Kaim's expressions as he goes through many hardships in the story. Exploring the lush forests and rocky mountains of overworld levels is exciting because of how real everything looks and feels in Lost Odyssey's detailed style. The opening cinematic that shows Kaim fighting against a legion of soldiers is especially great, with a seamless transition from the cutscene into a battle, almost like something out of a tech demo.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Beautiful visuals that hold up well on Xbox One
Impressive character models and gorgeous oceans, sweeping vistas, and detailed cyberpunk cities in Lost Odyssey feel like they could easily belong on Xbox One. You'll get to see every level of detail in Kaim's expressions as he goes through many hardships in the story. Exploring the lush forests and rocky mountains of overworld levels is exciting because of how real everything looks and feels in Lost Odyssey's detailed style. The opening cinematic that shows Kaim fighting against a legion of soldiers is especially great, with a seamless transition from the cutscene into a battle, almost like something out of a tech demo.
Pro Backward compatible on Xbox One from Xbox 360 with improved loading times
Lost Odyssey's graphics were ahead of their time on the Xbox 360, but these unfortunately came with the limitations of long loading times. Thanks to backward compatibility on Xbox One, you don't have to worry about waiting for two minutes or more each time you zone into a new area. The loading screens are reasonable, and you'll most likely go through the game without many performance issues.
Pro Well-executed traditional turn-based combat
Lost Odyssey's turn-based combat captures the traditional feel that JRPG fans love, with elemental magic for exploiting enemy weaknesses, plenty of skills to learn, and lots of gear management. Your magic casters stay in the back row to shoot out spells, and your physical attackers will hold the line in the front to protect the casters. For tougher battles, you'll be able to rely on your immortal characters who can't die in combat, but they're really limited when it comes to learning new skills. Your mortal characters will get knocked out if they take too much damage, but they're free to learn new spells and skills like normal. There's also a cool and unique system where mortal characters can teach their skills to immortal characters to keep battles from getting stale.
With managing your gear, you'll find a lot to play around with through the game's equippable rings. These rings have certain resistances to different elements, so you'll want to make sure that your team has the best rings for any challenges in your way. If you're having a hard time with a thunder boss, you can spend some time tweaking your ring loadouts for your characters instead of throwing yourself at the fight and losing over and over with no real strategy.
Pro Epic soundtrack
Lost Odyssey has an epic soundtrack with a huge scope, capturing all of the emotions behind war, family, and tragedy. The battle themes have piano and percussion melodies that sound tough enough to fit right in with war movies. For large overworld locations like snowy plains in the middle of blizzards, the wintry xylophone sounds and menacing synths really make you feel like you're trekking through a harsh environment. More tragic songs for cutscenes pull at your heartstrings with harpischords and violins. But then there are other songs with harps and violins that give you hope that the story will turn out okay for Kaim and his friends. The composer, Nobuo Uematsu, covers a lot of emotions in this soundtrack, fitting perfectly with the game's mature story and themes.
Pro Mature story that grapples with the downfalls of immortality
As you play as Kaim, you'll get to relive his lost memories of his family that he can't remember. Even though he's immortal, he can't remember the things that should matter most to him. He struggles with this transience in his life while fighting to save the world. It's an interesting and mature take on the tropes of immortality and amnesia, putting you in Kaim's shoes as he struggles with these tragedies alongside his companions who support him along the way.
Pro Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story.
Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you.
Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Pro Stunning environments
The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world.
Pro Can give a great feeling of accomplishment
The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement.
Pro Unpredictable boss battles
The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions.
Pro A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle
You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle.
For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach.
Pro Solid controls
This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience.
Pro Great combat system
Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes.
Cons
Con JRPG tropes dilute the overarching plot
If you're not into JRPGs because of the tropes, then Lost Odyssey may not change your mind about the genre. The plot with a cast of characters coming together to defeat a destructive evil force isn't too original. Although there are other details that help the game stand out from the crowd, like the focus on immortality, they won't do much to bring in anyone who dislikes the predictable tropes.
Con Poor support for mouse+keyboard control
The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick).
Con It's hard
You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III.
Con Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity
You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance.
Con Occasional performance issues
There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much.