Infinite Undiscovery is a 2008 JRPG from studio tri-Ace, creators of the Star Ocean series, released exclusively on Xbox 360 by publisher Square Enix. The main character, Capell, is mistakenly identified, due to a striking resemblance, as the legendary hero Sigmund, who once fought against the tyranny of the Order of the Crescent Moon, controlling the world through chains linked to the Moon itself, and Capell must gradually grow into the role of the true leader of the resistance movement, even though he does not initially consider himself a hero at all.
The combat system runs in real time across large, open battlefields, where the player directly controls one character while issuing commands to the rest of the party, similar to the Star Ocean games of the time, and a distinctive feature is the chain-attack mechanic, called Session Attacks, which allows multiple characters and enemies to be physically linked together at once using magical chains. Over the course of the story, the player gradually recruits up to seven fighters with different weapons and abilities, allowing various combat styles to be combined. The game also features an extensive, seamlessly connected world without a traditional overworld map division, through which the player travels alongside a large group of companion characters, and the story's score was composed by veteran composer Motoi Sakuraba.
Reviews praised the ambitious combat system and the vast, interconnected world, but criticized the uneven story pacing, a somewhat flat main character, and technical shortcomings such as long loading times between areas and uneven difficulty in battles against large groups of enemies. Even so, it was one of the first notable attempts to bring a traditional Japanese RPG to Xbox 360 at a time when the console was only just getting started in that field, and for genre fans it remains an interesting, if imperfect, showcase of tri-Ace's distinctive style, one that players still return to for its unmistakable music and generous amount of optional content.
Why play it: For fans of tri-Ace's work who will appreciate the ambitious combat system, the vast interconnected world, and the unmistakable music, even with uneven pacing and long loading times.
Game 128 of 259 for Xbox 360
