"Sometimes when I play and review a game, I imagine what might have happened in the boardroom of the developers while the game was being made. With Infinite Undiscovery, I picture an idealistic game designer shouting "We must break the chains of RPG clichés! We must try something new!" And he is shouted down by someone who says "No! We must do everything the way it's always been done!" And I imagine this conflicting vision battling back and forth until the guy who was pushing for the new finally gave up.
Infinite Undiscovery has lots of promise... the story has a few bright spots, though much like my imaginary designer, these eventually get drowned out by the usual JRPG clichés. There are times when the plot is also so undercooked that people don't react to major events, so it seems like they are just following the script rather than showing any real motivation.
The combat is action-based and has some good ideas too, like the Deflect Drive, a more aggressive means of blocking and countering. Too bad the targeting system is so stubborn: I actually couldn’t target a barrel based on the tutorial's instructions (and a quick check of message boards tell me I am not the only one). When Infinite Undiscovery flirts with new ground, it excites. When it parades out every JRPG cliché and character (Oh boy! More emo teenaged heroes!), I lose interest fast. Let me give you this awesome example of how clumsy the game is: I triggered an alarm, leading to a battle. Then after the battle, the alarm still blaring, a companion stopped to deliver a monologue on the backstory as though we were in a coffee shop and not deep in enemy territory. There’s no need to bother with this when you can get Tales of Vesperia."
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Jason's Score:
6.0
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