Odin Sphere - not quite sure...

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:16 pm

Taken me ages to finally sit down and start playing this one.
There are elements about it, apart from the beautiful graphics, which I really like. The alchemy stuff (although it takes a bit of work) is interesting, and the whole growing plants n stuff has some interesting strategy.

But I'm a little bothered by the fragmented nature of the game. The way each section is split into smaller sections kind of destroys the cohesion that role playing games tend to have.
Compounding this a bit is the difficulty of the battles. I'm all for the action aspect, it's much my preference to turn based stuff - but I don't like the fact that boss battles and certain sections require so much awkward strategy, like hightailing it in the opposite direction after a swift attack. It's a slow process to victory that could have been better implemented if the move set was more diverse and the boss attacks had more strategic patterns to learn - at least then they would have been more close quarters and fun to play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still finding the uniqueness and general beauty of the game compelling, and it's a cut above most games of the same ilk - but I feel as though it's so focussed on its looks, that it's missing a little something in terms of gameplay design.

Can I get some thoughts on this - but no spoilers please!

robthebanks · Post by **robthebanks** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:01 pm

I bought it last year but couldn't get into it aside from the graphics... Maybe its worth another shot though...

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:39 pm

robthebanks wrote:I bought it last year but couldn't get into it aside from the graphics... Maybe its worth another shot though...

Well I'm going to persevere a little more - I'm just wondering if it's going to surprise me at any point...

Dragoforce · Post by **Dragoforce** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:59 pm

I finished it today and it's one of the most overated games ever IMO.

The basic idea to combine beat em' up with J-RPG leveling doesn't really work. If a fight is to hard, it's just a simple matter of re-visiting old areas and grinding low level enemies. Or you could gather ingredients and go to Pooka village. Basicly - there is no challenge whatsoever.

The worst aspect of the game is no doubt the repetiveness. You fight the same bosses and visit the same areas throughout the five chapters. Using shmup terms, you can say that in order to finish the game you have to loop it five times. No fun.

And then there are the technical aspects. During a lot of fights the FPS drops to unbearably low levels and the slow input on the jump command is no fun either.

It looks nice though.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sun May 17, 2009 10:15 pm

it is on my to do list.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sun May 17, 2009 10:21 pm

^
That.

And add flat, one-screen levels, inability of seeing three steps ahead of you, style over practical sprite animation with awful recovery speed, and awkward menu system.

I think ppl review it highly because it's 2d, niche, and artsy. I bet those same people would lambast it if it was more mainstream because of its gameplay flaws.

Marshall banana · Post by **Marshall banana** » Sun May 17, 2009 10:46 pm

Skykid wrote:
robthebanks wrote:I bought it last year but couldn't get into it aside from the graphics... Maybe its worth another shot though...
Well I'm going to persevere a little more - I'm just wondering if it's going to surprise me at any point...

Well, the characters' books are intertwined, so there are interesting parts! There are only a few locations, and each character that you play visits all of them within his or her book (just in a different order for different reasons); that's the repetition Dragoforce is referring to, which isn't as boring as he says (it didn't even occur to me that people would see that as a flaw). You'll fight characters as bosses who you'll play later or have already played, which is cool!

The final battles are awesome, but, also, really difficult.

I think the gameplay is fine. It's just challenging sometimes and takes getting used to.

LaserGun · Post by **LaserGun** » Sun May 17, 2009 10:50 pm

I've only played my copy for about 4 hours, there's too much crap going on with the game, like item management etc. It's too much of a chore to play. The action is very stop-start and it's just a bit boring tbh, kind of like a 2D Dynasty Warriors game.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sun May 17, 2009 10:55 pm

The major issue which I had with this game was the fact that everything felt compressed, and you had to depend on your map pretty much entirely during boss battles. Kinda reminds me of MGS2 in that regard.

Visually it's great, but the loading times (and that damn sound skipping part during the loading screen) and the repetitiveness aren't. It's nice to pick up occasionally but I couldn't stand going through it at once. It's weird because most RPGs are meant to be ones which people can play for hours on end, but this one isn't one of them.

I think Princess Crown was a much better game.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun May 17, 2009 11:24 pm

Older thread here if you're looking for other opinions.

MOSQUITO FIGHTER · Post by **MOSQUITO FIGHTER** » Sun May 17, 2009 11:33 pm

Odin Sphere looks fantastic. It plays like Defender meets a platformer with no platforms, not a good thing. I got bored with it pretty quick. It does look nice though.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Sun May 17, 2009 11:44 pm

One of the greatest games of the last ten years.

elfhentaifan · Post by **elfhentaifan** » Mon May 18, 2009 1:07 am

...and the no doubt prettiest.

Momijitsuki · Post by **Momijitsuki** » Mon May 18, 2009 1:56 am

I picked up Odin Sphere last year, but I haven't played it much since then. It's an absolutely gorgeous game, don't get me wrong, but it's just so...slow-paced.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:15 am

Dragoforce wrote: It looks nice though.

Erinu · Post by **Erinu** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:52 am

Odin Sphere is a PS3 game in the PS2's shoes. That's all that needs to be said. Period.

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Mon May 18, 2009 10:53 am

Erinu wrote:Odin Sphere is a PS3 game in the PS2's shoes. That's all that needs to be said. Period.

I think there's room for a little more

@Elixir - I found it annoying to have to use the map for boss fights too, and you're right about the compression of everything. It makes it look smart, but it hasn't got much in the way of space to open up the game play.

I'm surprised so many people feel similarly, I was actually thinking it was just me and that I'd be told to persevere because it would all pick up shortly. I don't know if I can be bothered, especially now I've heard all the stage backgrounds and bosses repeat.

Not that Famitsu is much of an authority, but they scored OS 32, which is pretty good.
Vanillware's Oboro Muramasa recently scored 34.

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:34 pm

Muramasa is the shit.
I didn't like Odin Sphere, i love Muramasa.

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:45 pm

Jockel wrote:Muramasa is the shit.
I didn't like Odin Sphere, i love Muramasa.

What are the improvements Jockel. It really does look the absolute business:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfVk02zUNAE

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon May 18, 2009 1:33 pm

MOSQUITO FIGHTER wrote:I got bored with it pretty quick. It does look nice though.

Momijitsuki · Post by **Momijitsuki** » Mon May 18, 2009 1:48 pm

Jockel wrote:Muramasa is the shit.
I didn't like Odin Sphere, i love Muramasa. ;)

Muramasa's definitely on my 'DO VERY MUCH WANT' list. I remember watching the trailer-- I think I drooled a little.

elfhentaifan · Post by **elfhentaifan** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:17 pm

Momijitsuki wrote:Muramasa is the shit.

I think I drooled a little.

its got wimmen, too doesnt it?

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:21 pm

Jockel wrote:Muramasa is the shit.
I didn't like Odin Sphere, i love Muramasa.

Assuming there's no language option in the JP version of Murasama as there was in Korean Odin Sphere, are you using a guide Jockel (or able to read the language?)

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:08 pm

no need to. it's a hack and slash FFS

ok item management sucks a little without being able to read japanese,
but i'm having a lot of fun anyways.
don't think of it as an action rpg. it's more like an action game with rpg elements.

well the fighting is not as alchemy/item based like OS was.
and i find that to be a good thing. fighting is a blast and pulling off huge hit
combos is always fun.

and the entire presentation puts odin sphere to shame, it's sounding great
and looking gorgeous.
check the youtube videos, there should be entire playthroughs.
Edit: sorry for the odd writing style, i ninja-edited a few thousand times.

SamIAm · Post by **SamIAm** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:05 pm

I made it through 3 of the "books" in Odin Sphere, and then I just kind of stopped. I'm still meaning to finish sometime, but it's not easy knowing that I've basically seen everything already. I found the item management, which is necessary to avoid tons of grinding, to be very long and tedious.

The graphics are pretty damn good, though.

Princess Crown on the Saturn was more fun overall, I'd say.

elfhentaifan · Post by **elfhentaifan** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:12 pm

i must admit i havnt drawn more in my life than stuff about odin sphere (or at least i spent the most time on artwork for it).
So this game has kinda a safe place in my heart for being so goddamn good looking, even if it is in another way.

But i swear ill boot my ps2 tonight for a round for it, since ive only spent like a couple of hours on this game itself at all.

Khan · Post by **Khan** » Mon May 18, 2009 11:23 pm

yea ive played probably 10 hours into it and this was last year, since then i havent touched it I had exams and stuff at the time and chose to stop playing games for a few months......I'm gonna fire it up maybe next week I remember really getting into the game.

I mean what really strikes me is the look and feel of the game, you can tell they have put in ALOT of effort to makes things look so freaking gorgous.

I dont know if anyone of you played Princess crown? its vanilla wares effort on the Saturn back in the day....pretty good game I completed that back in my college days and remember being totally blown away with it, shame I had to use a online guide cus the dialogue was in Japanese, they should have released it in the US but there were rumours that they lost the Source code and years later we get a port on the PSP....which is still worth checking out if you can download or pick up a copy

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon May 18, 2009 11:32 pm

Skykid wrote:
Jockel wrote:Muramasa is the shit.
I didn't like Odin Sphere, i love Muramasa.
What are the improvements Jockel. It really does look the absolute business:

http://www.gamengai.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2500

PainAmplifier · Post by **PainAmplifier** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:00 am

Odin Sphere is a good game even if you don't rate it a a 'great' game. The artwork is obviously the most impressive part of that. The story is arguably compelling although the breakdown due to jumping between characters and grinding the levels themselves spreads it out a bit too far.

As far as repetitiveness goes, it's not really much different than playing a shmup really. You have a small number of levels, lots of enemies and some big bosses to kill. Just replace grinding and repeated maps with 1CC attempts and multiple loops. (And the story/grind with dense bullet patterns...)

I can't really think of this game as terribly grindy though. Yes, there is a spot in each 'book' that gets 'difficult' if you don't spend some time powering up. But it's not impossible to rush through the game if you know the characters skills and the enemies patterns. I beat Gwendolyns book at quite a low level compared to later books once I got the hang of the game and came up with some good strategies to 'farm' phozons and food quickly and easily. Which I did mostly just to unlock and create all the cooking dishes in the game. (Although the human city levels with all the frogs and mages is a pain even with a higher level character...)

The Disgaea games in contrast, are all about the grind. You can beat the game around level 70ish, but the level cap in that game is 9,999 and yes, there are some 'post game' challenges that make those levels necessary! (My current time eater is Disgaea 3)

For Odin Sphere, I don't think you can really pass a judgement on the game until you have at least played each of the five characters at least once. The experience you get from each is almost like remaking the game five times. I had fun with Velvet, enjoyed Gwendolyn and Mercedes, but didn't like Oswald or Cornelious. (The combat styles just sucked.)

Marshall banana · Post by **Marshall banana** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:32 am

I didn't care for Cornelius or Oswald either, but, probably, because they're not cute girls.