Infinite Undiscovery

Developer: Tri-Ace

Publisher:  Square-Enix

Released exclusively and with little fanfare at the time for the Xbox 360, Infinite Undiscovery seems to have acquired a bit of a cult following and though I don't think the game is as good as some of the fans have said, I do understand why it has its fanbase.

You play as Capell, a very annoying, whiny and unlikable character whose only noteworthy feature is that he resembles Lord Sigmund, the hero of the people, fighting his crusade against the Order of Chains who seek to tether the moon with giant chains because of... reasons I guess, yeah, the story is pretty iffy.

In fact, I found the game's writing to be lackluster on just about every level, non-sensical plot, boring characters, a bland world, even the voice acting is inconsistent, though to its credit, halfway through the game tries to throw you a curve ball, but it's really not very hard to see it coming.

On the gameplay side of things I absolutely loved the real time combat in this game, it's fast, flashy, you have plenty of skills to learn and you're required to keep some form of control over your team and by the end of it, you'll have over a dozen party members to choose from and for the most part the battles looks great with tons of flashy visual effects thrown in for good measure, unfortunately you are likely to run into some framerate issues.

There are plenty of towns to visit, but they along with the NPCs feel a bit too sterile for me, you'll often run into some sidequests, but the game doesn't give you a quest log, you also have the ability to craft your own gear, there are dozens of items used for crafting and hundreds maybe even thousands of weapons and gear to craft, but I found the whole process pretty tedious and underdeveloped.

Graphically, the game looks great during battles, but the towns and cities tend to look a bit boring, as for the sound, there are quite a few memorable songs, but the battle themes will quickly start to grate on you, though not as much as some of the voice actors, especially the very annoying pair of underage twins, seriously they're not even 12 years old and their mother just sends them off into war without a second thought, what's up with that?

Overall, I can see why the game has its fans, the game's combat is just so damn fun and even after you finish the 30+ hour campaign you'll still unlock a new multi-level dungeon that should take you quite some time to beat it, unfortunately, I feel the game fails on almost every other level.

Trivia: Did you know that originally the game was meant to have situational choice/consequence scenarios that would drastically change the main plotline? Originally, the game had some very ambitious design ideas in which the story would progress even while the console was turned off, a shame that none of this made it to the final cut.

Pros:

- Combat is extremely fun, flashy, engaging and requires some strategy
- Over a dozen party members to choose from
- Graphics look pretty good during battles
- Some Memorable songs

Cons:

- Terrible story with a twist that you'll probably guess before it happens

- Your characters are either annoying, bland, interesting but undeveloped, or a combination of these
- The battle songs will quickly grate on you, Inconsistent voice acting
- Occasional framerate issues, graphically, the towns don't look too great
- Underdeveloped crafting system
- Annoying underage twins... why did it have to be twins?

Final Grade: D+

The boxart isn't bad, though it's a bit on the generic side, it shows either Sigmund or Capel, proudly posing after destroying one of the Moon Tethers.

Inside you'll find a 36-page manual which features a different cover art (I love it when they do that) and two discs.

The manual is pretty good, it tells you everything you need to know on how to play Infinite Undiscovery and uses screenshots as visual aids, you'll also get some brief background and character information, though for some reason the manual only covers roughly half of your party members, not sure why the rest got left out.

Overall, this is a pretty good packaging by today's standards, it's good to know that some publishers still believe in manuals.

Packaging Grade: B