An ancient classic has risen from the dust and ashes. Lost Odyssey, developed by Feelplus and Mistwalker, and published by Microsoft, is now available on backwards compatibility on Xbox One. 

It was published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in western countries later. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, head of Xbox marketing, announced the backwards compatible version on Twitter earlier this week:

You asked for it and the team responded! We are bringing Lost Odyssey to @Xbox One with back compat today! pic.twitter.com/B9A3qO7UNe

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) September 29, 2016

There's a catch though -- you'll have to have a physical copy of the game in order to play it, as there's no digital option on the store.

Lost Odyssey is a Japanese turn-based RPG, praised in its time for a strong focus on story. Unfortunately the load times and formulaic gameplay held it back for many as well. 

The game wasn't a massive commercial success in western countries, so finding the game (instead of already owning it) will be a more difficult challenge.

Mobile gaming’s growth and size isn’t a surprise. The first step to selling a product is finding an audience for it, and mobile has a huge audience. For a self-proclaimed gamer, the only problem with what has become the world’s most popular games-playing device is the games.

The perception of mobile gaming tends to revolve around how shallow so many of the titles are -- and in fairness, the most popular mobile gaming titles are the ones with the broadest appeal, with their depth and challenge often lacking as a result. The fact is that there are a number of surprisingly deep, thoughtfully crafted and complex titles for mobile: it’s just that playing them means embracing a number of unique, foreign and frankly opaque game mechanics popular in their country of release.

The one word that connects all the titles in this roundup is the “Gacha.” The capsule-machine isn’t as big in the West as it is in Japan, but ‘Gacha’ is just that same ‘insert resources, receive a random prize that’s never as good as the one you wanted,’ system in video-game form. Often meant to facilitate the paid component of F2P titles, the use of a gacha is a fairly standard convention.

Seen in games where party-building is a key component, gachas are often used as the main recruitment mechanic. Characters, instead of being unlocked through story progression, or directly through in-game currency, are ‘rolled’ for. While a set number of rolls are given away as a reward for playing, the standard approach is to allow players to pay for additional rolls.  

For well-designed titles, this allows for better balance, while also providing tangible rewards for spending money. Since only a set number of characters can be used in a single encounter, the player is less likely to encounter ‘unwinnable’ scenarios where they might be forced to spend money to progress. On the other hand, an ‘unlucky’ player with common units, has plenty of incentive to try their luck again.

These games below stand out from the crowd. They're engaging, mechanically complex, attention demanding, addictive and sublimely enjoyable. They make a perfect first for someone eager to see what mobile can offer a seasoned gamer, or a new fix for a mobage veteran. They come fully recommended, and are available on both iOS and Android.

Phantom Of The Kill [iOS / Android]

Publisher: Fuji&gumi Games
Genre: TRPG

Phantom of the Kill is bad at first impressions. From its ludicrously shonen-esque promo-art, to the armor-bikini glad heroines in the game’s opening cutscene (a spectacular affair by noted animation studio Production I.G.) to the 15-minute long post installation download of game resources, the game does everything in its power to start prospective players off on the wrong foot.

A forgiving attitude is the best choice in this situation: players who enjoy the game’s polarizing aesthetic will find a robust tactical RPG. PotK has its roots firmly planted in the TRPG genre, with gameplay and complexity akin to Nintendo’s long standing handheld franchise, Fire Emblem.

Players familiar with Fire Emblem will notice the similarities right away. The game’s battle mechanics are a straight adaptation of Fire Emblem’s weapon triangle (Lances>Swords>Axes>Lances), pairing units on adjacent squares generates support bonuses, movement on a grid and all the familiar staples of the genre are right where they should be.

To PotK’s credit, none of these make the game seem like a clone or a derivative work. If anything, these familiar mechanics are well implemented and their inclusion justified, representing the best-practices of the genre. Unit classes are an important mechanic as well, with certain classes having access to different weapon types, movement abilities. PotK does have some interesting innovations, like the new gunner class: however, at the early stages of the game, these differences tend not to matter. There's an novel twist on the gacha formula as well; repeated rolls on the same type of gacha will have increased drop rates for rarer classes and characters. 

Phantom of the Kill is a solid adaptation of the TRPG genre to the mobile platform. While the style and story might be a point of contention for some, the solid mechanics, and involving game-play make it an easy title to recommend to fans of the genre.

Puzzles and Dragons [iOS / Android]

Publisher: GungHo Online Entertainment
Genre: Puzzle/RPG Hybrid

Influential, genre defining, and fun as heck, Puzzles & Dragons is one of the big names in the mobile game genre. The popularity of the property is difficult to understate: it’s spawned its own trading card game, an arcade machine and two different 3DS spinoff titles, including the Super Mario Bros edition. It’s even directly inspired the official Doctor Who mobile game, with various characters from the show taking the place of the Dragons.

In terms of gameplay, around 50% involves the ‘matching orbs of different colors’ seen in almost every hit mobile puzzle game of the past decade. P&D’s twist to the formula is to create an RPG component: the bottom half of your screen is the matching baubles, while the top is devoted to a 90’s era RPG battle screen.

A team of five (with an advertised pool of over 2000 characters to draw from), each associated with a different orb color form the linchpin of the battle system. As you build matches and combos of the various colors, you deal damage to the enemy above, with each colored unit doing more damage as orbs of their color are paired. In addition, units have a unique skill which can be activated after a certain number of turns have passed. These can be used to regain missing health, deal large amounts of damage to an enemy, or change the layout of the puzzle section.

While some units can be obtained as rewards from battle, these are most useful as sources of experience for more powerful units acquired elsewhere. All units have levels but they don’t gain experience through battle. Instead, to raise their stats, other monsters are fused, sacrificing them in the process. Units can rank up through what the game calls ‘Evolution’, although this requires using a specific combination of other unique units as fuel.

The gameplay is in the ‘easy to pick up, impossible to master,’ category. Players can accumulate tricks and techniques with the Puzzle half of the gameplay, but the bulk of the game’s skill is in effectively managing the Dragon half. Careful team selection is key, as is flexibility. The strategy in team composition is left to the player, but certain strategies prove beneficial for certain levels, encouraging constant planning. Continual updates from the developer and a shockingly deep late-game make Puzzles & Dragons a must-play, and the most likely candidate to leave players saying they’ll put it down, but just after they do this one last dungeon.

Terra Battle [iOS / Android]

Publisher: MISTWALKER
Genre: ‘RPG’

Other mobile games seek to emulate or evoke the feeling of other extant genres, but MISTWALKER’s Terra Battle manages to feel like a game entirely unto itself. While the game bills itself as an RPG – some familiar mechanics are involved – the gameplay is so uniquely designed and so deftly implemented that it requires some description.

The core of Terra Battle’s battles take place on a 5x8 grid, where friendly and enemy units alike occupy a single grid. Rather than moving pieces about a larger map, this 40-square grid is the entire map: battle occurs, not through a menu, but by strategically maneuvering your units, “striking from both sides in a pincer attack,” as the game says. Placing units on opposite sides of an enemy triggers an attack, and having units positioned just so can unlock chain attacks. The constant struggle to free entrapped units, to set up the optimal attack on a vulnerable enemy in this new shifting battlefield is shockingly intuitive and engrossing.

Character advancement comes from experience in battle, acquiring and selecting skills, and a job system (with a maximum of three pre-selected jobs per character). Team building is equally important, with weapon and elemental triangles playing a strong role in determining battle effectiveness.

A top-tier outing from some of JRPG’s most venerated developers, Terra Battle provides a glimpse into mobile gaming’s ‘Good Future.’ That it also happens to have one of the most deviously thought provoking battle-systems that technically replicates a turn based JRPG is a nice bonus. Other Tactical RPGs can only dream at the level of thought Terra Battle requires players to put into their positioning.

Honorable Mention: Granblue Fantasy

Publisher: Mobage
Genre: RPG

For those interested in other gacha-based mobage, and aren’t afraid to go the extra mile, Granblue Fantasy is the only place to go. Universally acclaimed, visually stunning, class-system featuring, English-translated, scored by the guy behind every Final Fantasy song you love, yes especially that one, Nobuo Uematsu, and “a shining example of JRPGs making the most of their new home on mobile devices,” Granblue still has no future as an official release in the west. Make no mistake, that's still a recommendation: it’s technically playable through your browser, and worth playing in any form. 

As mobile games enter their adolescence, the gacha method provides an appealing way to manage game balance while keeping high-quality mobile titles free to play. Offering plenty of characters, hundreds of hours of content, and challenging gameplay, these gacha based games are some of the best mobile gaming has to offer. Try them out, tell a friend, and consider telling us below!

Mobage FAQs

Gacha, is short for Gachapon, the Japanese term for those machines. The use of the term ‘gacha,’ as shorthand came from the mechanic’s repeated appearance in mobile games from that region of the globe. Asian-developed mobile games are called ‘mobage’ for similar reasons.

These games have a few mechanics that, while conventional in their home market, benefit from a short explanation.

Stamina

Most of these games will have a stamina meter: it goes up with player level, is depleted by taking quests, and is restored over time, by (paid) items, or by leveling. The higher the quest/the rarer the reward, the greater the stamina cost.

Gacha Types

It’s rare for games to only have a single type of gacha. Typically, they’ll have a combination of three main types.

• Standard
  • The gacha you’re expected to use. Rolling requires a resource given in small quantities for quest completion. The units in here are of mixed rarity, and the rates at which they dispense are fairly static.
• Event Gacha
  • Tied to seasonal quests and ‘event’ mechanics, these typically use the same resources as the standard type. The difference is that a number of specialized units may be available. Higher drop rates for certain units found in the standard pool, variants of existing units with different skills, and in certain cases, units and items exclusive to that event.
• Friend Gacha
  • Often tied to a social mechanic, these types of gacha take points earned by adding friends, using a friend’s guest units, or similar low-cost actions by the user. As a result, while rarer units may be available, the expectation is that this gacha is used to obtain common units, consumables, and power-up items.

Quests

Most mobage present the player with a set of levels or scenarios. To progress the story and unlock more areas and units, story quests form the bulk of the game’s content.

Event quests and daily quests are presented as additional options, providing an opportunity to obtain resources, experience or items that can be taken into the main quest. Event quests are added and removed on a regular schedule. Exclusive items and characters are sometimes rewards for finishing a certain number of a given type.

Hironobu Sakaguchi -- the man behind Final Fantasy and the founder of game studio Mistwalker -- recently revealed concept art for an unannounced project that his studio is developing. The art was created by Kimihiko Fujisaka, and was shown during a seminar at UH West Oʻahu Library in Hawaii.

Twitter user @VoltySquirrel (via Gematsu) was the first to tweet the pictures, and also stated that the game could see a reveal sometime within the next year.

Concept art from Mistwalker’s currently unannounced game. Says he might be able to fully reveal the game in a year. pic.twitter.com/mnc75G4oJZ

— Whatever, Trevor. (@VoltySquirrel) January 27, 2016

@VoltySquirrel later said that there wasn't much revealed about the game, but did say there might be a console release, and the art style will be "sketchy while still being 3D." 

@RPGSite ...sketchy while still being 3D. Visible pencil lines, etc.

— Whatever, Trevor. (@VoltySquirrel) January 27, 2016

For fans of Mistwalker's past games, such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, this is great news. Fans have been waiting for a new JRPG from Mr. Sakaguchi for a long time, so any news about a new game is good news!

Everyone wants to pull SS or S characters in Terra Battle, but more often than not you get A and B class characters from Pact of Truth. That might be a little disappointing, but many B class characters are much stronger than new players give them credit for.

The primary factor that separates character classes in Terra Battle is stats. SS characters have higher average stats than S; S characters have higher average stats than A; and so on.

While stats, leader skills, and a unit's single ability are only basis for character strength in most mobile RPGs, Terra Battle breaks away from that thanks to the skill system. A single character can have up to eight skills equipped, depending on their level. Four of those are from the job they are on currently, and the other four can be taken from their other jobs.

The ability to mix and match skills among a character's jobs means you have a huge amount of flexibility when putting your parties together -- and it also means many B class characters are worth your time despite the lower stats when compared with higher class characters.

We're going to go over what B classes are currently available and may be worth your stamina investment to get them leveled. Their skills per job will be listed, but details on those abilities can be seen on the official Terra Battle wiki.

What's important to note before going through this information is that most buffs stack, and in instances where a character has more than one of the same ability, each of those has a chance to activate if that character meets the positioning requirements (whether pincering, pincered, or simply in a chain).

A job's type is mentioned in each column header. For example, (Bow) or (Spear, Ice). Please visit the wiki for more detailed information on these characters, as stats and ability details can be seen there.

Amazora

A fire sword user who not only packs a huge punch, but has three opportunities to counter with her first job at 35, second job at 65, and third job at 35. Her third job Attack and Magic Attack are also quite high for a B class. (Wiki link)

Ba'gunar

Ba'gunar's stats are reasonable, but nothing to write home about. You get this guy upon the completion of Chapter 4. His Anti-Darkness Capsule can be useful in some niche fights against dark types, and his third job is immune to Paralysis. (Wiki link)

Bahl

Bahl is one of the two starter characters, and she's pretty well-rounded in her abilities. She has multiple buffs (some being equips), three separate instances of Counterattack, and a really impressive x1.5 Attack buff. The HP buff can be used to round out her relatively low HP, and she has one of the highest B class attacks. (Wiki link)

Dark Pegawyrm

This guy's a niche pick, but he'll get the job done if you don't have any dark element characters and are up against some particularly tough light element enemies. His HP and Magic Attack are more than reasonable for a character you can get as a drop. Dark Pegawyrm has no job changes. (Wiki link)

Gigojago

Gigojago is sort of a beast for his class. His HP and Magic Attack are both high for a B class, and his Attack and Defense could be worse. To top it all off, he has a 20% HP buff and five powerful ice abilities (three of which being AoE in some manner). A very strong addition to most parties. (Wiki link)

Grace

Grace is the second starter character, and is about as well-rounded as Bahl. Her Wild Beast and Dragon Defense reduction abilities are useful in niche situations, but she packs a pretty good punch overall. Her HP is slightly higher than Bahl's, but her Attack and Defense are a little lower. (Wiki link)

Kuscah

Kuscah one of the two B class staple healer characters, with the other being Sorman. Both are reliable healers and will more than get the job done through most of the game should you need a second one in your party (or as your primary, depending). Job 2 Kuscah gets Sleep Guard at 35 while Sorman gets Confusion Guard, otherwise their abilities are the same. (Wiki link)

Ma'curi

Ma'curi not only has the highest B class Attack, but also one of the highest Attack stats in the game when in battle and with his buffs. There isn't much to say about him except he really brings the pain. (Wiki link)

Mantledrake

Another mage unit that can drop, and he's not too shabby until late in the game. Mantledrake does in a pinch, but isn't too useful overall. Still worth remembering if you need some extra fire in your team, especially early on. (Wiki link)

O'pari

O'pari is a surprisingly strong archer. While his third job's maximum Attack  and HP aren't great, he can learn some really powerful skills in all three jobs. The ice damage reduction passives, which affect adjacent allies, are also very nice. A relatively squishy but powerful addition to most teams. (Wiki link)

Ra'prow

Ra'prow is not as impressive as some of the other B class characters, but will more than do if you've gotten unlucky with spear character recruitment. Ra'prow has several activated spear attacks along with two AoE equip Attack buffs, but ultimately serves to be less useful than higher class spear users. That said, he does in a pinch and has high HP for a B class. (Wiki link)

Sabertooth King

No one's ever thrilled to take a monster with no additional jobs into their party, but Sabertooth King can be a welcome spear user in the early to middle game. Unlike most characters and monsters, he learns his fourth skill at level 45, which can be a big help until your other characters reach 65 in one of their jobs, when they obtain their fourth skills. (Wiki link)

Sh'berdan

Sh'berdan is a versatile attacker, magic user, and healer -- and his stats aren't too bad to boot. His first job specializes in physical attacks, but gives a fairly reliable heal at 65. His second job specializes in lightning abilites, and his third in dark. There are a lot of mix and match possibilities for this guy and his Attack and Magic Attack aren't the worst, but he suffers in the HP department. (Wiki link)

Sorman

Sorman is a staple B class healer, just like Kuscah. The two are identical sans some discrepancies in stats and the fact Kuscah has Sleep Guard and Sorman has Confusion Guard. Sorman also learns Ally Revival (Equip) at 65 in his first job, while Kuscah learns it at 65 via his second job. (Wiki link)

U'nasag

U'nasag is another B class that just happens to be pretty strong. He gets a number of ice attacks, including two 1 column attacks (one of which he learns at level 15 in his second job). The Defense +50% Adjacent skill is a welcome addition to almost any party, especially when paired with a character with such potential damage. His HP and Magic Attack are fairly high as well. (Wiki link)

Zan

Another competent multi-element user like U'nasag, but unfortunately lacking in stats in comparison. He may be right for your party and he isn't terrible, but his Defense is low. His HP, Attack, and Magic Attack are all average for B class characters. Can potentially do more damage to a single target than U'nasag. (Wiki link)

Zenzoze

Primarily an elemental damage dealer, Zenzoze could be a safe bet for a party in need of dark damage. His Reduce Life 1/3 ability is unique among other B class characters, but does not work on bosses. Zenzoze's Defense is very low and can not be compensated by his relatively decent HP. Still, an interesting and fun character who can fit well into some party comps. (Wiki link)

I've played my fair share of free mobile games. In general, I don't like them. 

I don't like energy systems, I don't like grinding for ages until I get my next unit (when applicable), and I don't like the shallow yet addictive gameplay most of them present to keep you hooked.

The above all said, I absolutely adore Mistwalker's Terra Battle.

And notice the article title where it states Squaresoft's big names and not Square Enix -- the game is packed with names from the console RPG golden age. Jam packed! And I didn't even find out about that until after I started. Imagine my surprise.

Like your standard fare mobile RPG, Terra Battle has a stamina system. Unlike most mobile RPGs, it has a fairly robust battle system that will make you think about your next move.

What's this? The battle screen, my friend. You're set to combat enemies by moving your units on either side of them. You pull off chain attacks by aligning your units either vertically or horizontally, which you need to do to kill your enemies quickly enough to survive.

While dealing with your foes, you must also be sure to stay out of harm's way. Enemies have AoE abilities in droves, and traps in some stages ensure you won't have a good time if you enter a stage unprepared.

I can't explain the gameplay well enough to do it justice. It has the base of an SRPG with the elemental and weapon weaknesses and strengths one comes to expect from mobile RPGs these days. It's pretty nice.

Units don't evolve!

How Terra Battle handles upgrading units was the clincher for me: You don't evolve. You job change.

Units who are capable have three jobs. While each one is more powerful than the last, skills can be migrated from one job to the next. For example, you can see my starter, Grace, below in her second job borrowing two skills from her previous one.

This allows actual customization of your units instead of mere stat bonuses. This alone really impressed me, but I was knocked out by its combination with the combat, great music, and general feel that veered away from the other mobile games I've played.

All-star cast

I don't know if you were a fan of RPGs back between the Super Nintendo and PlayStation 2 eras. I know I was, and I am very familiar with some of the names involved in Terra Battle's development, art, and music.

First up is Hironobu Sakaguchi -- the creator of the Final Fantasy series. He also had his hands in Chrono Trigger, Parasite Eve, and Final Fantasy Tactics. His last game, The Last Story, was one of the most critically acclaimed games on the console.

But past Sakaguchi, who else has contributed to Terra Battle?

• Nobuo Uematsu - Known best as the legendary composer for the majority of the Final Fantasy series.
• Kenji Ito - Composer for most of the SaGa series, the Mana games post-Sword of Mana, and the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons.
• Hideo Manaba - One of the biggest artists involved in Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy XII.
• Hitoshi Yoneda - Artist for Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II.
• Manabu Kusunoki - One of the bigger artists involved in Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Blue Dragon.
• Kimihiko Fujisaka - Character designer for the Drakengard series and The Last Story.
• Naoto Oshima - Character designer for a number of Sonic games until the Dreamcast era, as well as the designer for NiGHTS and Burning Rangers.
• Yoshitaka Amano - Illustrator and character designer for most of the Final Fantasy series.

That is a lot of big names in the Japanese industry to be on one mobile game, but they are! And it's great! Exclamation point!

Seeing all these names (and those to come with more downloads) got me so excited, because Terra Battle really is a good game. But with the good comes the bad.

The bad

There are two things I distinctively don't care for in Terra Battle, but can deal with. The first being the small amount of stamina you're given.

Your stamina pool is very small from start to finish. While you may get more maximum stamina as you progress, the amount you need per stage only increases. This is pretty standard for mobile RPGs, but it's especially restrictive here because you only raise your maximum stamina (and recharge it) by finishing an area. You must use your energy carefully.

The second issue is sort of tied to the first: You only get energy, the currency used to get units via the Pact of Truth (the good recruitment option) when you complete an area.

You do get some energy via daily logins, but it still feels very tight. You don't get new characters very often, so if you've been unlucky the entire time you've spent with the game, you may have a lot of trouble in later areas and there's not much you can do about it.

These two facets of the game don't taint how I feel about it, but it is something to keep in mind. This is, after all, a mobile RPG -- some things are unavoidable with the genre. Perhaps the future console version will strip out the stamina system? One can hope.

Despite these two shortcomings (that could be much worse), Terra Battle is still a thoroughly enjoyable experience for a classic Japanese RPG fan. If you haven't given it a shot yet, check it out on Google Play and the App Store. You may just love it as much as I do.

XSEED stepped in to localize The Last Story, and surprisingly the game has turned out to be the publisher's most successful game yet. In celebration, they're issuing a reprint so those who didn't get the chance to pick it up the first time around can finally get their hands on it.

The Last Story was mega-hyped by core JRPG fans because of the man behind the game: Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi is the creator of Final Fantasy and went on to help develop Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve, among other titles popular with long-term JRPG players.

XSEED will be shipping out new copies of The Last Story with an MSRP of $29.99 instead of the initial $39.99. New copies will be standalone, which means no pretty packaging or swag art book for those who pick them up. The remaining $39.99 copies are premium and hence will include the extra goodies -- but good luck finding them.