According to a post from Major Nelson, the cult classic games Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon are now available digitally for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Additionally, Lost Odyssey is now free to download for a limited time.
Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon are classic turn-based JRPGs developed by Mistwalker for the Xbox 360. Both games were well received by critics but had little staying power. Neither received Xbox Marketplace releases until today. These games are now available to download for both Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners, but the good news does not stop there. Microsoft is celebrating that its library of backwards compatible games for the Xbox One is over 300 by giving gamers free copies of Lost Odyssey until December 31st. Blue Dragon, however, still costs $20.
Mistwalker was founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, best known for creating the Final Fantasy franchise, after he resigned from Square. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey were the first games Mistwalker produced. In Blue Dragon, players control four characters with “magical shadows” that are capable of attacking or casting magical spells. These attacks and spells become more powerful the longer they are charged, but players have to strategize and determine if letting characters get hit before they attack is worth the extra damage. Lost Odyssey uses a more standard turn-based system than Blue Dragon that allows players to deal extra damage by pressing a button at the right moment.
Gamers who want to take advantage of this giveaway have until December 31st to download the game but should be aware that it will require 16.18 GB of free HDD space.