Square's slow warming to the 360 may have led to the eventual shocker that Final Fantasy XIII would be released on the console, but Infinite Undiscovery may be an even bigger surprise. Unfortunately, not all surprises are good. The game begins as a rather confused woman, who mistakes you for the famous Lord Sigmund, rescues you from prison. It turns out to be a common mistake, as your character, Capel, looks exactly like him. The misunderstanding is also what got him thrown into prison in the first place, as Lord Sigmund is the leader of a resistance movement battling a nefarious group of baddies obsessed with chaining your planet to the moon.
Lord Sigmund is a hero to those oppressed under evil rule because he seems to be the only one that can successfully break the chains and vanquish the enemies. Capel is just a lowly flute player, who thanks to the magic of video games is one heck of a fighter. His prison break thrusts him into an ongoing battle, with an ever-growing slew of companions at your disposal representing the party system. The plot is relatively solid, though anyone who has played an RPG or two will be able to spot the twists long before they happen. The pacing of the slowly moving story could use a little speeding up, though.
Infinite Undiscovery breaks away from the typical turn-based setup with real-time battles. Your party is comprised of the standard four-player setup, though you do not have much control over what the others do. This actually works well, since they are capable fighters all on their own. It is possible to have your party destroy an enemy before you can even whip out your sword. You can press a button to remind your healers to revitalize the group, though they rarely forget their duty. You are not completely without control of your party's skills, though. Using the 'connect' feature, you can select a member of your party for the express purpose of using their specific skills. They use these well enough on their own too, leaving you most frequently taking advantage of the feature to solve puzzles or reach items you cannot otherwise. On the fly tactics options gives you some control over what your party does, though it is limited to six pre-defined options that feel too generic and does not allow you to assign separate tactics to your two supporting parties.
The battle mechanics themselves lack the depth to keep you interested through the game's rather short playtime. With two buttons controlling your attacks in a shallow combo system, fights devolve into mindless button mashing too often. You learn new skills for Capel, but can only assign two at a time; with each pulled off by simply holding a single button. Making things even simpler, entering your inventory or skill menus does not pause the action. While this might make sense conceptually, it makes it too difficult and risky to bother using items while in major battles. Without a quick-select function to queue up items for your disposal, it leaves your inventory items largely unused. You are also limited as to your party selection, since you only select your parties at certain points in the game, with no way of changing their configuration otherwise. The full-fledged real-time battles are a great idea that comes at a steep price.
