In Infinite Undiscovery you find yourself playing the character of Capel, a reluctant protagonist who bears an uncanny resemblance to the land’s greatest hero, Sigmund. Capel has been imprisoned by the sinister Order of Chains, an evil cult that has shackled the Moon to the planet; obviously, we could sit here all day poking holes in the plot… but, to be brief:

In this strange land, the Moon is a god and at birth everyone is granted a lunarglyph (a mark that gives them magical powers) depending on the cycle of the Moon. Those born during the New Moon receive no glyph and, known as the unblessed, they are treated as outcasts. By tying the Moon to the planet, the evil Order of Chains has eliminated lunar cycles. The land around the chains becomes barren, desolate and filled with deadly creatures. Only Sigmund the Liberator can destroy the chains, and joined by his trusty clan he heroically goes into battle to free the land. Now, you might think that the inhabitants of this world would have noticed someone tying up the Moon with bloody great chains, or the fact that the Order seems to have access to space travel while everyone else is busy toiling away like mediæval bumpkins… but, no.

Plot absurdities aside, Infinite Undiscovery also has the badly-written dialogue, irritating juvenile characters and ill-cast voice actors common to Japanese RPGs. What would seem, initially, to be a plus-point for the game is its size. But while the terrain is vast and well designed, it’s also completely unsignposted, and your quests are provided with only the loosest of directions; so you spend much of your time running in endless circles with no idea where you’re going.

Having said all that, it turns out, rather miraculously, that under all the dross is a pretty good game. The exchanging of the random battles and turn-based fighting that typify the RPG for real-time combat works rather well. Capel, unable to cast spells of his own, relies on his other party members to do it for him, utilising their magic and attack abilities to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. There’s quite a lot of flexibility, so you can use your party’s abilities in the way best suited to your situation. And despite the poorly written dialogue and awful plot, you may well event­ually find yourself absorbed; the game’s stunning visuals certainly help. So, in spite of the many flaws (or possibly, in some perverse way, partly because of them), Infinite Undiscovery is, in the final reckoning, actually rather charming and enjoyable.