Now that it's out in Japan and have English speech Im considering buying it, even though the menus are in Japanese, but is it region free so it will work on pal?

No it's not region free, it only works on NTSC/J, you'll have to wait for the western release.

This generation, as usual, only the handhelds are region-free (though at one point Ninty were promising a region-free Wii... ah well)

The Japanese verson works on NTSC/J and PAL machines only. Not NTSC/U. I've imported the Asian verson with English menues and voice, and it plays like a dream. Gone are the loading and texture issues everybody keeps speaking about with the Japanese december release.

I'm on disc 2 at the moment. 14 hours in, and I'm REALLY impressed about the game and the story. The only wish I have is that Kaim would be a little more like the wise man he seems to be in "Thousand Years of Dreams", that btw is a really good read! I keep on looking more and more forward to the moments I can sit back and read.

and for those of you that is wondering; Nobuo has done a great job with the music (at least in my opinion. I didn't really like his work with Blue Dragon that much, and still think his work with FFVI and IX are the best yet.) . It really hits the spot almost all the time, and is a major factor of producing a lot of tears for me in the most emotional moments.

zneeger wrote:The only wish I have is that Kaim would be a little more like the wise man he seems to be in "Thousand Years of Dreams"

Well, you can't fault him for losing some of his wisdom along with the vast majority of his memories, eh

But the loading times are alleviated? o_O I hadn't heard that any version of Lost Odyssey was receiving such fixes. Sure it's not just that you don't mind the loading times, rather than them actually being reduced from the Japanese version?
If they really have been tweaked to be shorter, though, I would expect that the US and EU releases would receive similar treatment...

Aaaand finally - I hadn't heard that Japanese games worked on PAL machines. Like, ever. I know that DVDs can work between Japan and Europe because they're both Region 2, but NTSC/J working on PAL machines? Can't say I've ever been told that before.

I mean, the loading times are not the same as I see in the fan made movies on youtube and such. With all the fancy stuff loading in after the gameplay starts (the same thing you see all over Mass Effect..) the graphics are all there when you start to play. And the longest loading I've experienced for a battle is maximum 12 sec. (Not one minute as they say in IGN.. I've been counting ) well.. in total. my gaming experience so far has been far better than I was expecting technically... and even gameplay and story wise. Its by far the best JRPG so far during this generation in my taste, and a great start on the new year!

As for NTSC/J working on PAL machines; not every single Japanese release works on PAL machines. Only some. I use http://www.play-asia.com/ as an import site, and they usually show what type of console the game works on.

zneeger wrote:

QUOTE:
I mean, the loading times are not the same as I see in the fan made movies on youtube and such. With all the fancy stuff loading in after the gameplay starts (the same thing you see all over Mass Effect..) the graphics are all there when you start to play. And the longest loading I've experienced for a battle is maximum 12 sec. (Not one minute as they say in IGN.. I've been counting ;)) well.. in total. my gaming experience so far has been way better than I was expecting technically... and even gameplay and story wise. :D Its by far the best JRPG so far during this generation in my taste, and a great start on the new year!

As for NTSC/J working on PAL machines; not every single Japanese release works on PAL machines. Only some. I use http://www.play-asia.com/ as an import site, and they usually show what type of console the game works on.

I did see that region bit on the Asian version of the game on Play-Asia, yeah (it's my regular import site also). So is the game, when set to it, completely in English? Have you not encountered any problems with lack of English (say, in the 1000 years of dreams bits or any other random bits), or with anything else (disc read errors in the 360 or whatever)?
Just considering getting it myself this way, but I'm unsure, I'd kinda want a hassle-less copy so I'm tempted to just wait it out for the UK version.

Hi, to my knowledge there are two versions realeased until now. The Japanese Version (NTSC/J) and the Asia Version (PAL!). I've got the Asia Version and it runs fine on my german PAL 360. It includes full Japanese, Korean and English Text AND Speech. => you can play it in full english