Infinite Undiscovery could be the first game in a new action-RPG franchise by tri-Ace, the Japanese developers behind Valkyrie Profile and the ongoing Star Ocean series, and it's also the first game that tri-Ace has released for the current systems. As such, it's hard to go into Infinite Undiscovery without some pretty high expectations. If you're able to do so, you'll be rewarded with a satisfyingly solid JRPG experience. There's plenty of combat, storyline, and action to keep you going until the very end. However, although Infinite Undiscovery covers all of the JRPG bases, it doesn't contribute a whole lot of new stuff to the genre, and its strengths are undermined by a couple of key weaknesses in the game design.

The protagonist of Infinite Undiscovery is a flautist named Capell. He's your typical fast-talking, wisecracking boy-in-the-process-of-becoming-a-hero, straight out of the JRPG/anime tradition. At the start of the game, he's rescued from prison by a female archer named Aya, who has him confused with the land's greatest hero, Sigmund. It turns out that there's a good reason for that: if it wasn't for Sigmund's poise and gravitas (and the fact that Capell tends to be a whiny pain in the backside), the two could pass for identical twins.

Following the jailbreak, Capell winds up being dragged along on Sigmund's quest to defeat a sinister group called The Order of the Chains. These nefarious foes are attempting to bind the moon with -- you guessed it -- massive chains, perverting the natural order of things and siphoning its magical power for themselves. On its face, it sounds like kind of a silly premise, but the first glimpse of the chained moon will take your breath away, and the power of the truly fantastic visual never wears off.


Most of your time in Infinite Undiscovery is spent controlling Capell as the leader of a three-person party. You have total control over Capell's actions, and the remaining characters are AI-controlled. There are six broad AI settings, and switching between them gives your AI allies instructions to gang up on the enemy you're fighting, seek out other enemies, conserve the MP that fuels their magic attacks, and so on. The quality of the AI ranges from good to superb, requiring almost no micromanagement, which is a must in a combat-heavy action-RPG like this one.

Making Connections

You can also have Capell "connect" with another party member, which gives you direct access to that member's special abilities. For example, if you connect with Aya, you can temporarily take control of the archer and aim her bow at a specific target to blow it up or send it plummeting to the ground. Connect abilities can help you fight enemies more tactically, but their main purpose is to get you past the game's many puzzles.