Infinite Undiscovery is a solid game with issues.

Infinite Undiscovery is solid RPG even though there are flaws all across the board. This is a heavy story driven Action RPG with a focus on timing combos and deflecting attacks while in combat. You take control of a teenage flute player named Capell, who bares a striking resemblance to a man named Sigmund "the Liberator". He is head of a force who opposes a group known simply as The Order. This resemblance causes Capell to be captured by some guards until a spunky brunette named Aya makes the same mistake and rescues who she believes to be Sigmund, her leader. This whole turn of events paves the way for a fairly cliche plot that is at least entertaining thanks to a strong cast of characters. 
 
Which there are a lot of; Infinite Undiscovery has near 20 characters that join your force of good over the course of the game. Like any other overused idea most of the characters fit into your typical Japanese RPG stereotype for character selection: Two young siblings, a womanizer who "falls in love" each time he meets a new lady, that kid you aren't sure is a girl or a guy, and so on. Thankfully the game seems to realize this and never really tries to develop these stereotypical characters. Along with most of these shallow characters is the typical plot; some young silver-headed man wants to obtain the ultimate power so he can reshape the world to his own vision. If you are familiar with JRPGs you have seen this all before and while Infinite Undiscovery does still make it entertaining the main character is really the driving force behind the entire game. 
 

Capell starts out as a real coward, always running away from fights and just avoiding people in general. For the first few hours he will often be found trying to escape hostile events only to be dragged back into the action because of his good spirited heart. The entire game is spent showing the growth of Capell as he goes from a coward, to a leader, and then near the edge of a mental breakdown. While at the same time he gets caught up in an awkward love triangle, tries to hide his social class from everyone, and learns about his messed up childhood. It is all really compelling and I found myself attached to Capell by the end of the game and couldn't wait to see what happened next in his downward spiral of a life. 
 

When not developing its main characters infinite Undiscovery has you walking around its huge world killing stuff and solving a few easy puzzles from time to time. Combat takes place in real time with a focus on chaining attacks together via the A and B buttons. Capell can do a simple swing combo followed by a special skill that changes based on how many simple swings you did. After this you can finish with one of two battle skills you have mapped to holding down the A or B button or a brief second than releasing. While on the easy or normal difficulty you can get away with button mashing to win fights, but on harder difficulties it becomes important to use the right attack combos at the right time. Knocking an enemy into the air will cause them to be juggled and makes it impossible for them to strike back while knocking them to the ground will restore health and magic for each attack you cause. 
 
As fun as the combat is, it does have a few problems here and there. There is no recovery time when standing up after an enemy knocks you to the ground, so if luck is not on your side you can be chained by enemy attacks which can cause your health pool to dwindle fast. That said, the game has a nice counter in this because of very strong ally AI. Save one "large" character you can take three other companions into battle that are controlled by the AI yet at the same time are fully customizable to your liking. You can give them quick commands in battle via the D-pad such as attacking the same target as you, working on building combos, or even letting them do whatever they want. Through the in game menu system you can also flag a spell as on or off for every single party member. If those options aren't enough you can link Capell to another party member using the right bumper and use skills that you have assigned to the party member. Some of these can destroy obstacles to get to treasure, while others such as Aya can go into an over the shoulder third person view letting you shoot things out of melee range.  
 
Capell himself as a flute player can play tunes in combat all of which have various effects such as revealing hidden enemies or cancelling magic spells the enemies cast. This is actually a fun concept as in some fights Capell can not attack enemies so instead of attacking you can support your allies by swapping between songs and playing them. 
 

Outside of combat Infinite Undiscovery has all the other RPG staples: opening treasure chests, solving a few puzzles, and walking around towns talking to people. It takes an interesting approach to field movement, however. On the field you can be in either combat mode or walking mode by clicking the right trigger. Essentially while in combat mode you run slower but can attack enemies, while in walking mode you run faster and can open doors and treasure chests whereas in attack mode the same button that would open a treasure chest will instead destroy it and possibly destroy the item inside. Many characters also have a crafting ability that can be leveled throughout the game. Sadly, however, other than Capell's enchanting skill crafting other items is useless on the lower difficulties of the game. 
 
Many areas your encounter force you to build multiple parties and split them up to fully explore a dungeon or castle. It is an interesting concept but I don't feel it was executed perfectly. You have no control over these other parties and it doesn't seem they can die either as you often see them in real time fighting enemies in the distance. However, at the end of the dungeon they are graded on their performance and you obtain rewards such as money or items accordingly. What makes this concept so cool is how it gives the game a bit more excitement. Often times in these situations enemies will be attacking from above that can destroy your team or you are trapped in an area and need a key to escape. You will sometimes send a carrier pigeon out to tell other party members to assist you or receive a message saying another group needs your help. Unfortunately it seems this idea was killed off at some point in development and is abandoned early on, after giving a tutorial on how to use the pigeon you are never able to use it outside of story driven moments and it is a letdown overall.   
 
Along with this odd system is the primary and secondary character system. Some characters that join you during your journey are flagged as secondary characters and can only be placed in second or third parties meaning they can never be used in your main party. There is never any in game explanation for this and it is truly baffling considering you get characters early on labelled as a secondary character that actually stay with your group the entire game. This also is a letdown as many of the characters I liked could never be used in my main party.
 

On the production side of things Infinite Undicovery follows the trend of some bad with the good. The game looks as good as what you would expect for a xbox 360 exclusive game but the cutscenes are all over the place. For example some scenes do not even feature voice acting and all the ones that do are painful to watch. Most of the voice acting is actually very good, but there was no effort at all put into lip syncing and it really takes away from the tension or enjoyment many scenes try to hold.
 
Things like this is what keeps Infinite Undiscovery from being an amazing game, for every cool idea or concept it seems none of them are developed to their full potential or are only really useful on higher difficulties. This is a problem because out of the four difficulties only the two easiest are unlocked from the start. You have to beat the game on normal to unlock hard mode which is where all the game mechanics start to come together. If you are someone who plays a lot of RPGs the normal mode will probably be a letdown to you given how easy it is. If you have any interest in this game I suggest playing it at least twice to really dig deep into the core of the game, which shouldn't be a problem considering you can fly through it in a short 20 hours. For those of you who do not like the idea of playing a game multiple times it might be best to stay away. Infinite Undiscovery really comes off as the kind of game that deserves a sequel for a second shot at fixing the many small problems that get in the way of an amazing experience.