Infinite Undiscovery Review

Infinite Undiscovery is a standalone RPG for the Xbox 360, in which you play as Capell, a travelling musician who is mistaken for a hero of the people and locked up by the enemy army. After being rescued by one the hero's companions, Capell meets and joins the party in its quest to liberate the moon from the chains binding it to the Earth.

 

Like all RPGs, the story of the game tells of the adventures of Capell and the group as they battle against the usual overwhelming odds and bosses, as well as random monsters that lie in their path. However, the story is poorly told in places, with most characters, aside from a few select ones, having little to no major input on the story - the main reason for this possibly being that there are 18 different 'main' characters.

 

This game differs from most RPGs I have played in that you need to select a difficulty for it. However, to unlock Hard and Infinity modes, you must first play through on Medium and Hard modes respectively. Also, the amount of content available differs for each difficulty. For example, if you play on Easy mode, you will not be able to access the bonus dungeon after you finish the story. Even on medium and hard, there is still supposedly some locked content, although I have yet to see anything missing. The main difference between the difficulties that I can see are the stats of the enemies - they tend to have more HP and higher strength on the harder difficulties.

 

There are rather a lot of aspects about this game that are new or done differently to other RPGs, resulting in a good chunk of the first 1 or 2 hours of game time being tutorials for the controls. With so much to learn in a relatively short time, it's easy to get a little confused, although as you carry on playing the game, you should learn how to do everything with ease.

 

In combat you take direct control of Capell, and although you can add three more members to your active party, you cannot give them any specific orders (like in the Final Fantasy series). However you can issue tactical orders, such as Wait, Focus attacks, and Save Magic Points (MP). The only way to control other characters to a small extent is to ‘connect' with them, meaning they will follow Capell and attack his targets, also allowing you to command them to use up to 2 of their skills - you cannot simply make them attack though. Also, other characters will automatically use items as they see fit, with the exception of MP recovery items. This can be quite frustrating when you want to save certain items, but on the other hand healing items are generally easy to come by.

 

Another change to the norm is the real-time aspect - the game carries on even while you're in the menu, so if you're in the heat of battle and you need to throw out some items, you're going to be defenceless while you do. There is also two ways to move about - sword either drawn or sheathed. While your sword is drawn, you can do battle, but you cannot interact with objects, people or chests. Conversely, while your sword is sheathed you can open chests, talk to people and examine objects, but you cannot defend yourself from attacks.

 

Character progression is fairly linear - you get experience (EXP) from defeating enemies, and when you get enough you get a level up. Characters that aren't in the main party get half of all EXP the main party gets, as a little bonus in case you want to use those characters later on. Certain points of the game let you utilise multiple parties to get the job done, in some cases letting you have as many as 12 party characters all having it out in battle with foes. At best, it is quite amusing having the enemies ganged up on like that, at worst the view becomes confusing and the game slows down a little.

 

One more interesting aspect during battles/in the field is the bonus for getting through some events in a harder way; for example, by doing it faster or by not getting hurt. Sometimes it yields bonus EXP, sometimes items - whatever the bonus is, it's usually worth trying to get it.

 

When you get to a town/village, your party will be scattered about the city, and you can go and talk to them to unlock various scenes, hints and specific character palates/traits that may affect certain areas of gameplay, e.g., one character's trait is initially locked and therefore doesn't apply, however, when unlocked the character will have reduced stats when in a party with a certain other character.

 

 

The maps are vast, in particular the combat fields taking a good while to fully explore. However, it can get rather annoying when moving to other areas because there is no quick transport system, so you have to run everywhere. An interesting game aspect is that, at any time, you may create items to help you on your quests, ranging from new weapons and armour and foods, to healing items and abilities, and other raw materials for creation. Also part of this is enchantment, in which you can apply a certain bonus aspect to a character for a limited time.

 

The musical score meanwhile is excellent. Each area has its own localised background music, and all are very well orchestrated. On the other hand, voice acting could have been done much better, with some characters seemingly not having much effort put into them. The graphics aren't top-notch either, in particular the cut-scenes are poorly synchronised with the voices. One thing I did like about the graphics though is that if something happens, it stays happened. For example, if you look into the sky, you can see the moon with all the chains hanging from it. But as you cut them, the number of chains also decreases, no matter where you are in the game world - you could go back to the first area after severing all but one chain, and it would be caught by just one, rather than the six or seven that it originally was.

 

 

There are two pieces of free downloadable content for this game, one of which is available to Silver and Gold Xbox Live members, and one which is only available for Gold members. Both increase the raw materials available in ALL shops, meaning you can buy rare materials right from the start if you have the money for it.

 

There is actually a very easy money-making method available, if you're willing to put the time in - two of the characters can create a certain accessory, for which the materials are available with the vouchers. The materials come to 240 Fol (the currency), whilst the product sells for over 1000 Fol. With this method, you can easily abuse the stock of rare materials and have some very good weapons and armour very early in the game, enough to last even to the final boss. However, this does dispose a part of the challenge - having equipment far superior to that available as treasure and in shops may be felt as cheating a little.

 

Other than that, Fol is dropped by enemies after you defeat them, with Mimic chests yielding a lot more Fol than most enemies, for a trade-off in EXP. Again, there is the elimination of the money-making challenge, as you can buy a lot of extra items that you would have been otherwise unable to afford.

 

All in all, this game could have been great, but with a few flaws present, it is merely good. There is no multiplayer available, which could have made for good fun (going through the story with a few friends seems like a winner in my book), although that is typical of most RPGs anyway. Although it is fairly short by RPG standards - the story may take all of 20 hours, maybe even less - the side quests, bonus dungeon and Item Creation system (and achievements available, if you so desire) should certainly keep you going for a few days.