The Upstreamers, we learn, are followers of a nomadic religion. In a land where a powerful airstream only blows east to west, they spend their lives trekking headlong into the harsh, unceasing winds. Believing they can one day reach the source, generations move against the flow, birthing new members who will continue the journey in their place. Kaim, the hero of Lost Odyssey, remembers meeting Upstreamers on his travels – always, of course, heading in the opposite direction. One he encounters as a young girl; again as an adult, temporarily settled in a village; finally, after many more years, he witnesses her funeral back on the stream. He appreciates the desire for endless travel that burns within these people.
There are many such tales in Lost Odyssey, the fragmented memories of amnesiac immortals who have lived for a millennium, combined into a collection called A Thousand Years Of Dreams. They’re short stories of glimpsed lives and inevitable deaths, often beautifully written, poignant and strangely captivating. Why strangely? Because of how they’re delivered in-game: slowly, by text, an old-fashioned method that takes longer to resolve than the cutscenes we so often resent.
Yet A Thousand Years Of Dreams sparkles by returning to tradition, a little like Lost Odyssey itself: a classical JRPG released when the genre’s stream was heading in other directions. Helmed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, developer Mistwalker embarked on a quest to keep the old form alive, passing it from (console) generation to generation. In time the studio would have to rethink, moving towards mobile development, but not before creating one final fantasy of its own, of the kind Square Enix had left behind.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2022-Ausgabe von Edge.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2022-Ausgabe von Edge.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.
TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
THE STONE OF MADNESS
The makers of Blasphemous return to religion and insanity
Vampire Survivors
As Vampire Survivors expanded through early access and then its two first DLCs, it gained arenas, characters and weapons, but the formula remained unchanged.
Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII
Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
THUNDER LOTUS
How Spirit farer's developer tripled in size without tearing itself apart