Odin Sphere also suffers from slowdowns but is relatively isolated to very rare occasions particularly when there are a mob of foes on screen or certain boss fights. Many stages are re-visited a couple of times throughout the game due to the way the unique story-telling structure works, and recycled backgrounds are not uncommon. Palette swapping is common, which should be expected within any 2D games. Unfortunately the game suffers from repetitive level design. You do have to wonder how a small company like Vanillaware can create high resolution animated sprites when Konami can't with their Castlevania series. It is almost like watching a fully coloured live shadow puppet performance. You can easily notice how the character's hair flutters and their chest expands when breathing. Sprites are larger than usual giving characters greater freedom to express expression, and are wonderfully animated. The amount of meticulous detail is amazing as highlighted by how lush and sophisticated each backgrounds are. The Japanese manga/anime style won't win any praise from detractors of the art style, but they work very nicely with the title. Characters are deformed, though not as much as one would expect. It uses large and beautifully drawn sprites sparingly. Odin Sphere retains a very similar visual style to Grim Grimoire. Later on you can cook ingredients at restaurants which can be used to gain your character's maximum HP, negating a huge need for level-grinding. Seeds can be used to harvest fruits at the expense of Phozons, and fruits can then be used to augment the player or for use in alchemy. Items collected can be used in varying matters to improve your characters stats. For example Gwendolyn can glide and attack, while Mercedes can fire five bolts at an enemy when her Psypher is charged. Each characters have their own special skills. This will automatically refill when the character rests (remain inactive) or by absorbing Phozons. Loading time is minimal, at least in the PAL version (I've read about long loading times on the NTSC version).Ī power gauge appears on the top left of the screen that has to be refilled for the character to attack. Exiting the stage will prop up the world map. At the end of each stage you will received an end of stage stat report as well as bonus loot. Defeated enemies will release Phozons that can be absorbed by holding down which is used to augment weaponry and give the character new Psypher skills (which is a fancy term for skills.). The real time combat is accessible and can be quickly mastered after the first hour of the game. The game has a user-adjustable difficulty that can be changed at will. Exploration and combat takes place on the same plane with no transition screen. The gameplay is side scrolling based laced with action RPG combat - think of Viewtiful Joe mixed with Valkyrie Profile and you are close. Completing a book will unlock another book and so on. Each book will take a couple of hours to complete. The characters are: Gwendolyn, Valkyrie Princess of Ragnanival and daughter of demon lord Odin, whom she seeks his love Cornelius, the Prince of Titania cursed to be a purple rabbit Mercedes, the fairy Princess of Ringford and next in line to be Queen Oswald, the shadow knight serving Ringford and renowned dragon slayer and Velvet, the only Princess to survived destruction of kingdom of Valentine. The stories told are connected, each presenting the player a different perspective and providing an overall story arc. Odin sphere or grimgrimoire series#The tragic tale of war mimicking an ancient prophecy predicting darkness is told in chapters, based on a series of books read by a little girl called Alice in her library attic while accompanied by her cat.Įach of the five books tells the story of one of the five different protagonists. It is now the home to Pookas, rabbit-like critters who were once humans now cursed to be forever cute. This very storming battleground was once the Kingdom of Valentine, which was decimated by an ancient artefact. In between a storming battleground holds host to the majority of battles. The story of Odin Sphere involves two warring kingdoms, the Ragnanival led by the demon lord Odin, and the forest of fairies Ringford, home to the fairy race. Sure we still have Persona 4 to look forward to, but that is if we ever get it released here. Developed by Vanillaware, the people behind the gorgeous Grim Grimoire, Odin Sphere is one of the last few RPG titles worth checking out on the ageing PS2. Fortunately not playing it right away allowed the hype to dissolve. One can only go through so many epic RPG titles before feeling burnt out. Unfortunately with a monumental of things to do, including Persona 3 and other what-nots, I neglected the title which sat on the shelf unplayed and unloved. Odin Sphere has been out for quite some time, even in Europe where it was released a couple of months ago.
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