Odin Sphere

[Anomaly]

I rented this game this past week because it combined two elements in a game that I like quiet a bit: the action RPG and 2D gaming. There had been a little talk under the radar about how breath taking the hand dran graphics were supposed to be, but the looks of a game doesn't matter so much on a game for me as how it plays.

Suprisingly, the game IS very pleasing on the eyes and has a musical score from the fellow that did the sound track of FFXII, so its an audio visual masterpeice. Even more suprisingly, the game play itself is as fast paced or as calculating as you want it to be. You can level up by destroying a plethora of enemies one after another and feed their souls to your weapons to enhance their powers. Or if thats not your speed you can spend hours performing alchemy with specific materials and regents, such as mandragora, to give yourself that extra edge in battle with a well tossed Napalm or a potion of unlimited power, or even a potion that simpley illuminates the darkness, or halfs your damage. If that doesn't work you can also spend time raising plants and animals that can be converted into food stuffs to raise your HP level or take the food stuffs to a restuarant and have it prepared into a dish that will not only raise your level but your Max HP as well. Truly the game experience you have is decided by your own personal play style.

The plot is engrossing, based off of Norse mythology and other Western myths and stories such as the Faye and the story of the frog prince. At times it seems like you're watching a play between battles, but rather than making the plot seem chopy, it adds to the richness of the world.

There are a few things that do dissapoint me. If you get a lot of enemies on one screen at any given time, especially during final boss fights, the game will slow down significantly, and possibley even fataly if you haven't spent time on your levels. There's also the time it takes to grow plants and the extremely long loading screens when you go to resturants that kind of spoil the flow of the game.

But the game does seem to have a lot of gameplay and I've had it for a week now and haven't even gotten halfway through it and thats a GOOD SIGN given how short some one player games have gotten these days. I kind of like the game as a bit of an oddity and will probably purchase it later once I see a price I like.

[LocoColt04]

My copy of Odin Sphere is still in the cellophane wrapping, despite having picked it up on release day. I've got too many RPGs on my plate at the moment to start another; however, I watched my boss play a bit of the game and I must say that I am incredibly impressed with the gameplay and difficulty of some of the battles.

I'm looking forward to getting into it soon; it's the next RPG I'll be starting when I clear something else off my list of current titles.

[Georg Prime]

From what you've said, this game sounds great!

I'm in the same predicament too though, I own the game but have too many rpgs on my plate. Right now I'm playing through Suikoden III, then I have Suikoden IV, Tactics and V to complete after that. So It will be a while before getting to it, but I'm anxiously awaiting that day.