If you thought the world had forgotten about old school design save for Castlevania or Mario, Atlus wants to prove the world wrong with its localization of Odin Sphere, the spiritual successor to Princess Crown. It’s one of those games most people won’t blink an eye at, but I’ll be damned if it’s not the game of the year. Odin Sphere is a striking game. Seriously, I didn’t think that much detail could be put into 2D graphics. The sprites almost leap off the screen, giving the impression of texture and depth. The backgrounds come alive as trees and flowers sway in the breeze, and the characters’ chests rise and fall as they breathe. The graphics are worthy of a painting, and indeed, the game is designed to look like it plays out like a picture book. The only thing detracting from its beauty is its very old school slowdown. There’s just too much detail for the game to keep up with.
It should be worth noting that Odin Sphere is an action RPG and not a brawler and shouldn’t be played as such. Mashing on the attack button will only result in your character in a world of hurt and an empty POW meter. The game is simplistic enough to be accessible but detailed enough to make it more than just an action game. Fighting is done by pressing just one button and spells are brought up by a menu. However, there’s an active participation on the part of the player in determining how experience points are divided up. You can either absorb phozons(magical energy balls left behind by dead enemies) into your weapon to strengthen it. Or you can plant a seed and let the plant absorb the phozons to bear fruit which you can harvest and eat to heal you up and give you experience points toward your health bar. Later on, you learn how to mix potions and find recipes and ingredients for the kitchens that cook food that give you superior healing and experience. Finally there’s an underlying story and characterization that’s genuinely excellent. There are five different “books”, each telling the viewpoint of five different characters as the events unfold. None of these characters are truly heroic nor really villainous, just fighting for his or her own country. Truly a sweet surprise of a game and one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
While I strongly agree with you on every positive point, there is one unfortunate downside to this game. Ever since I beat the first book (Now I’m on the Fourth), the game has become increasingly repetitive. For instance: While each character is unique as far as fighting styles and story is concerned; they all go to the same areas fight the same enemies, and fight almost all of the same boss fights.
Now you have to admit while Odin Sphere is quite the gem, it’s not perfect in all respects. I just wished each character had their own areas to explore and enemies to fight; then this game would have been perfect. I’m still enjoying it though.
I’ve only had time enough to play the game for about an hour, but it seems extremely interesting. I’m not all that enraptured by any of the gameplay, but the storyline seems solid and the visuals and overall art design are absolutely exceptional. I’m interested to see how the game progresses from here (whenever I find time to play it).
[quote=“dragoon lover”]If you thought the world had forgotten about old school design save for Castlevania or Mario, Atlus wants to prove the world wrong with its localization of Odin Sphere, the spiritual successor to Princess Crown. It’s one of those games most people won’t blink an eye at, but I’ll be damned if it’s not the game of the year. Odin Sphere is a striking game. Seriously, I didn’t think that much detail could be put into 2D graphics. The sprites almost leap off the screen, giving the impression of texture and depth. The backgrounds come alive as trees and flowers sway in the breeze, and the characters’ chests rise and fall as they breathe. The graphics are worthy of a painting, and indeed, the game is designed to look like it plays out like a picture book. The only thing detracting from its beauty is its very old school slowdown. There’s just too much detail for the game to keep up with.
It should be worth noting that Odin Sphere is an action RPG and not a brawler and shouldn’t be played as such. Mashing on the attack button will only result in your character in a world of hurt and an empty POW meter. The game is simplistic enough to be accessible but detailed enough to make it more than just an action game. Fighting is done by pressing just one button and spells are brought up by a menu. However, there’s an active participation on the part of the player in determining how experience points are divided up. You can either absorb phozons(magical energy balls left behind by dead enemies) into your weapon to strengthen it. Or you can plant a seed and let the plant absorb the phozons to bear fruit which you can harvest and eat to heal you up and give you experience points toward your health bar. Later on, you learn how to mix potions and find recipes and ingredients for the kitchens that cook food that give you superior healing and experience. Finally there’s an underlying story and characterization that’s genuinely excellent. There are five different “books”, each telling the viewpoint of five different characters as the events unfold. None of these characters are truly heroic nor really villainous, just fighting for his or her own country. Truly a sweet surprise of a game and one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.[/quote]
In short, Odin Sphere kicks ass, and everyone should play it now.
Finally had a chance to play the game over the weekend. The sprite usage in the game is insane. The sheer number and size of the sprites is extremely impressive, and the level of detail in the animations of each sprite is amazing.
That being said, I found the gameplay to be a bit… odd. Each encounter didn’t feel deep enough to be an RPG, but certainly wasn’t hectic enough to be a straight up brawler. It was a noble attempt at blending the two, but for me, came up just a bit short of really capitalizing on the uniqueness of its elements. Granted, I didn’t play quite enough to really get a good feel for everything, but first impressions were moderate to good, nothing amazing just yet.
