- Title: Infinite Undiscovery
- Platform: Only for Xbox 360
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Developer: tri-Ace
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: RPG
- Pros: Fun battle system; nice presentation
- Cons: Awkward character management; game starts off very slowly; some gameplay mechanics need more work
The story in Infinite Undiscovery is about a world where the people used the power of the moon for good, but one day a group called The Order of Chains bound the moon to the planet to try and control the power for itself. This threw the planet into chaos. Only one person can cut the chains holding the moon in place, the great Sigmund. Your character, however, is Capell. A musician who looks exactly like Sigmund and was captured and imprisoned by mistake. When Sigmund’s allies come to save who they thought was him, Capell is drawn into the conflict and the fate of the world may rest in his hands.
The story overall is fairly well done and the concept is certainly interesting. It takes quite a while to pick up, however, and the characters don’t really hook you the way that some recent games have. Once you get over the hump, though, Infinite Undiscovery is pretty addictive and you’ll want to see how the story ends. The game only takes 25 or so hours to play through, which seems short for an RPG but that doesn’t bother me too much. So many RPGs seem unnecessarily long and IU is like a breath of fresh air.
Gameplay
Outside of combat, however, there are some hitches in the design. First up, the game doesn’t pause when you are trying to go through the menus, which means you have to find a quiet corner away from battle to tinker with your equipment or you’ll get killed. Rather annoying, that. Another annoyance is the game’s phony stealth tactic. You have an advantage if you sneak up on enemies from behind, but “stealth” only really consists of walking very slowly, which just isn’t all that fun considering how fast and furious the rest of the game is.
In spite of these issues, however, Infinite Undiscovery is a pretty enjoyable game all around. The pace of the game keeps you interested, and the relatively short length ensures you see it all before anything becomes too repetitive.
Graphically, IU is a decent looking game but isn’t really going to impress most Xbox 360 owners. Cities and towns and buildings in general look very nice, but the dungeons and outdoor areas you spend much of your time in are kind of bland and repetitive looking. The characters are detailed and distinctive and good looking overall. The best part of the visuals is the sky. The chained moon hanging above everything, gorgeous star filled skies at night and bright days with nice looking clouds really stand out.
Sound
The sound is simply okay. The music is really quite good in most spots, but the English voice acting is fairly poor. I’m not one of those that automatically assumes Japanese voices are better in games like this, but the voice acting (and the cheeseball script doesn’t help) in IU isn’t too good.
Bottom Line
All in all, Infinite Undiscovery is a decent RPG that is well worth playing for RPG fans. The story is interesting, the gameplay is solid, and it offers a challenge you don’t usually find in RPGs. I also admire the devs for keeping the game length under the 30-hour mark as well as not succumbing to role-playing stereotypes such as using the four elements for the magic system. There is a lot to like here, but a few decisions that will also leave you scratching your head and overall there isn’t much here you haven’t seen before if you are a big RPG fan. It is worth a play through, but a rental should be more than enough.
