So this year I was going to make a conscious effort to work through my backlog. Buy less games, play more etc. That quickly fell apart in the first month however I've done decently at playing them so far and the Odin Sphere remaster Leifthrasir is one of the older PSN purchase I have yet to play . I decided it was a good title to finally finish on my 2024 games played list.

Odin Sphere is the third Vanillaware title I've played at the time of writing. The first was Dragon's Crown, a game I truly hated but perhaps approached wrong expecting a four player Guardian Heroes. The second was 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim which I utterly adored for it's keep you guessing sci-fi story. (First quick review I wrote on Backloggd actually) It's fitting then that Odin Sphere would sit somewhere in the middle between them as a game I like but with a lot of flaws preventing me loving it and hard to actually recommend.

So lets get the positive aspects out in the open first as this game does have a lot of good going for it. Firstly the artwork and animations are pretty stunning. Vanillaware is pretty famous for it's layered 2D art style and animations. The characters and enemies all stand out and the usage of colour and style makes it feel like a painting in motion. To carry on the presentation side of my positive compliments, the whimsical soundtrack is stunning. I especially like the theme song but it's all gorgeous wrapping up Odin Sphere into a great looking and sounding package.

I actually had to double check this was originally a PS2 game because even as a remaster it just doesn't feel like it. Equally it just doesn't play like it came from that console. The combat animations and battles are all so smooth chaining from moves to move. This isn't an insult to the PS2, it was an amazing system, just a compliment to Odin sphere's visuals and animations. When in combat the characters have a large amount of moves with more unlocking as the game progresses. It allows you to chain various moves and skills into large combos. Hitting a group of enemies into a huge combo with perfect blocks to keep the chain is initially really fun. I'm saying initially because this is where my praise of Odin sphere starts to breakdown a bit unfortunately. The game is based around five characters:

- Gwyndolin, a Valkyrie Princess.
- Cornelius, a prince cursed into a beast form.
- Mercedes, a fairy Princess.
- Oswald, an orphaned knight with a cursed sword.
- Velvet, a forest Witch.

Similar to Vanillaware's later title 13 Sentinels each character has their own story arc playing the game from different perspectives before a final chapter linking the full story together. In principal the idea is great. Vanillaware themselves proved this can work wonderfully as a concept. Here it is extremely flawed though. My biggest issue is there is no variety between each character play through. They have different moves, weapons and some unique skills on a couple of them but they are fundamentally the same. When you take that into account along with the fact that each one of them plays through the same 6 locations fighting the same 20 ish enemies and same bosses and no matter how gorgeous Odin Sphere is, and no matter how nicely it plays it just becomes tedious. You have to play all five scenarios to see the ending and by the 4th character I was just feeling burnt out of it all.

Perhaps because it's an action RPG there is a greater downtime between the story sections that could have kept the mystery going for me to want to push onwards but I feel the narrative behind the game overall just isn't strong enough to justify the multiple perspectives. There isn't a huge mystery that gets unveiled or a surprise twist. Each scenario explains a few things more but I didn't find any of it compelling. Everything around the multiple protagonist formula here undermines the story and the mechanics. Some of the story arcs on each character don't quite match with some odd reasons to make sure the character does visit the snow mountain or lava kingdom etc. Having a food resource cooking mini game for levelling is a neat little idea but gets boring having to save ingredients and feed each character as a core way to level them up every time. Exploring never has anything new on different characters, same levels, same equipment. This feels like a 6 hour game padded out to a 30 hour game and the fairy tale esq setting and lore aren't strong enough to carry that.

I hate typing this as I wanted to love Odin Sphere like I did 13 Sentinels. I am however grateful to it for being the game that put Vanillaware on the map, the game that is almost like a later prototype they built on. I'm glad I played it, it's well made, and looks and plays wonderfully it's just lacking meat on it's bones.

I wish you really could just grow sheep from trees.

+ Gorgeous art design.
+ Fun , fast and fluid combat system.
+ Pleasant whimsical soundtrack and great voice acting (I played it in Japanese).

- The game loop is extremely repetitive and the story cannot carry nearly the exact same content from a slightly different view point. Only one real negative but it's a big one.

terrible thought: the lower class we had been demeaning (vita players) might have been on the right side of history

its 2d air juggle combo game with lite-ivalice art, lite-ivalice story, real-ivalice music - how could i be honestly mad at all

the only things i can really complain about is its small scope, quite a bit of repeating levels and some slow menus, but generally i am cumming . i am comboing and i am cumming. i am doing a cumbo

I....love this game. SO GODDAMN MUCHHHHH!!!!

The combat, the characters, the ost, the story, literally everything. I love it all.

Ok so first a synopsis, you play as five different characters with completely different play styles while you go through their own story, their own grief, and their own end. You learn a lot about the world of Erion, all the misgivings and order of each nation. Each person is more or less fighting for their own wants and beliefs while attributing to the prophecies called The Erion Saga that is mentioned many many times throughout the game. While going through the five characters' end you learn the truth of the prophecies and with that knowledge it leads you to endgame.

It's pretty similar to 13 Sentinels if you've played that. Which makes sense since it's made by the same developer.

Basically when you start learning and understanding the world, cutscenes in the game start making more and more of an impact on you the player and you basically experience perfection.

This is not a request, this is an order. Please play this game. I swear it's worth it. I know many people knock it down a peg or two because the game does reuses bosses. But the gameplay is so much fun, it never really bothered me that much. Either way, the enjoyment of experiencing this game is such a rush I'm honestly glad I was able to play this finally.

I searched for this game for a long time before realizing earlier this year that it was remade on PS4 and I just never knew about it for some reason.

I went into this excited just on the art style alone and that department did not disappoint me one bit. I was surprised to find myself playing a beat 'em-up type RPG and completely creamed my jeans. Each character has their own playstyle and powerful abilities to unlock that breaks up a bit of the monotony from obliterating endless hordes of enemies. I preferred Cornelius and Mercedes personally, but each one stood out in unique ways.

The leveling system is interesting, but easy to manage. It was pretty easy to just pop an XP boost right before shoveling several of the best food in the game down your character's throat right before a huge battle and demolishing them.

While the remake added some changes to make this process go by a little smoother, it still feels extremely routine to downright annoying near the end of the game. I like that the story is stilted per character, it makes you surprised to find out how things came to be later down the line when you realize their timelines aren't exactly running simultaneously, but it can get monotonous fighting the same boss 3-4 times throughout the game. Especially if you hate fighting that boss. That big ass Dwarf battleship fight made me want to tear my face off every time I ran into it and you fight it 5 times.

Play it in one go if you can deal with that, but it may benefit to taking breaks between chapters because of this. I recommend at least giving it a try because the art style juxtaposed with the dark plot makes for a very compelling experience. Dread starts to seep in as you push forward and the build up to that was my favorite part.

A gorgeously presented tale about love, war, free will, and fate in all of its beauty, ugliness, joy, and misery.

My honest to goodness first Vanillaware game I've ever dipped into personally (previously watched someone play "13 Sentinels", which inspired me to start looking into Vanillaware), and what a game to start on.

However, before I start gushing about the game endlessly, I just wanna take a moment to talk about some of my minor complaints about the game in a relatively objective manner. To start with, despite the excessive variety the game has (which will be talked about later), I feel that that bosses, both the Mid and Chapter End variety, end up being repeated more than I'd like. Sometimes storylines for the characters have entirely unique encounters (including certain player character bosses), but more often than not you'd be hard pressed to go through a character storyline and NOT re-encounter a fair number of bosses. It's not noticed at first, but definitely more present as the game goes on, with the Armageddon chapter literally being a five End-Boss gauntlet with each of the five characters (you pick which character to use per boss in the run) that must be completed at LEAST four times if you want to see all the cutscenes. The other nitpick sadly happens to be the voice acting. Not the quality of it, as it voices are absolutely top notch, but the script used by the characters can pendulum swing wildly between Shakespearean theater to schoolhouse play. Any given cutscene can be elegant, beautiful, heartfelt, harrowing, triumphant, sorrowful, etc and then a cutscene or two later the dialogue feels a stilted or cheezy (creating some unintentionally funny moments that were probably supposed to be more emotional). An often joked about line between me and my wife (also a fan of the game), is when Cornelius shouted "I have a magic sword!" upon hearing a rather beefy situation dump over the war between the Faeries and King Odin's forces, as if there was a line omitted that would have otherwise made it sound less jarring and narmy. To be fair, most of the good dialogue tends to belong to important characters, and most of the narm charm belongs to side or minor characters, but it trades every now and then. The last thing is that, despite one of the most interesting characters lore wise is present through the game and drops hints about more background info, her personal story instead is a slightly repetitious lore exposition campaign rather than the more personal story that the prior four characters would have. Sure, we do get some personal story, but it's normally quite sidelined by backstory about the world and talk of the big prophecy already talked about at length through the game.

Despite all of this, though, this is STILL very minor in the grand scheme of things. It's still a beautifully woven tale, presented with absolutely dazzling and graceful visuals and artwork, with storytelling that at least half the time sounds like professional theater. It's fascinating to partake in this Norse inspired story as it unfolds slowly and reveals more about how the world of Erion works. Meeting the vast array of inhabitants of the land from humans to valkyries to dwarves to faeries to fire spirits to the beast-cursed Pooka, along with variety of flora and fauna that populate the natural and unnatural worlds. Visiting the largely unique and exquisite locations that greatly contrast with each other in aesthetic, climate, and purpose. And fighting against a large cast of foes aiming to put your current character into an early grave in some of the slickest 2D combat that I rarely see outside of head-to-head anime fighters (hell, even the special moves that you unlock during your journeys can be re-mapped as fighting game commands for extra combo-style nonsense).

The game's presentation, regardless of the minor issues above, is just so close to pitch perfect that it might as well be, and I'm not even purely talking about the visuals here, which, I shall mention again, are absolutely stunning. I'm more referring to the absolutely jaw dropping amount of detail and care that went into this game. From animations, item effect use, character strength and weaknesses during combat, strong homages to other game genres, the mouth watering food-porn, and even the "main menu" in the game. Actually, let me get into that last one. The main menu of the game, after the title screen menu, has the player take control of a little girl in a blue dress, rummaging around an attic filled with books and knickknack, and reading these stories and documents as the game continues to progress. Hell, each transition to major chapters (usually the swaps between cutscenes and gameplay) presents itself as if it were lettering in a fairy-tale storybook, and every historical note found in game transitions to the bookshelf to be read, which can be re-visited by the little girl herself to review the documents separate from story progression. It's such a small piece of the game that just adds so much on top of an extra whimsical charm to an already very whimsical game (despite dark story themes).

Then, there's the combat. Holy crap, the combat. I touched upon it before, but seriously, it's such a delicious feast of violence and character with every slick move, every special utilized, every enemy juggled, and every boss triumph. Animations are as smooth as they are graceful, feeling like they're coming from a top quality arcade game, with all of the precision and control that comes with it. Every hit feels satisfying. Every finisher is heavy. Every special and dazzling with a large pool of utility, especially when mixed with other specials. And the RPG mechanics compliment the action gameplay extremely well, making it feel like a perfect blend of tactics and action. And to think you get FIVE different characters to play with that play WILDLY different from each other. It's kind of insane how much a player can actually do in the game with such vast kits between that many characters. Oh, and movement for the characters is pitch perfect too. Not too quick, and not too slow, but each character has their own personal method of speeding up if the player needs to rush.

This game is a special one. If you ever have the chance to play it, do so. Even if you're the kind of person to one-and-done it, it's a joy to go through from start to finish, and for those that want more than a single runthrough of essentially FIVE DIFFERENT CAMPAIGNS, there's new game plus, a special survival boss gauntlet, and a new difficulty for those that are seeking a challenge that demands near perfection.

Disclosure: I was QA on the original version of this title

I played the original when it came out and I liked it a lot. This is a pretty extensive remaster -- it adds HD graphics as well as retooling the combat system, bringing it closer to some of Vanillaware's more recent titles.

The combat switch up really changes the feel of this game. It is more about racking up combos and juggling enemies. I feel like in the original I spent more time picking my shots and playing defensively. I didn't hate the old combat, but this new version plays really well, and it is cool that you can switch it to classic mode if you prefer it.

This game looked great when it first came out and it looks amazing now in HD. I like these character designs better than most of Vanillaware's other games and they still hold up.

I like the story in Odin Sphere, it is an interesting mesh of different perspectives that come together to give you a broader understanding of everything that is going on. It is cool, but takes a long time to get to its point and some of the chapters feel like they have some filler in order to bring them up to the right size. The writing can also be a bit grating and repetitive at times, though the voice acting is really great.

Odin Sphere is a fun game to play through and has an interesting story. I am glad this remaster exists and that it makes the combat and the game itself a bit more accessible.

Vanillaware has a habit of creating some of the most beautiful games out there, and Odin Sphere is no exception... it is absolutely gorgeous.

I have a weak spot for Norse mythology, so I enjoyed that aspect of the game's world/setting. Game is overall solid from a gameplay / combat standpoint with multiple characters and POVs. The only negative that brings this game down a fair bit for me, is that after a while of playing, it is prone to being a bit too repetitive.

Still worth playing though - for maximum enjoyment, I'd recommend cutting the game up in short playtime sessions to combat its repetitive nature.

This game is too long for its own good. To get to the ending, you will need to essentially play the same game with 5 different characters, and chances are you are mentally done after just one. There's also something discouraging about having to start from level 1 with each new character over and over again when you've just finished a playthrough with a lvl 70 something character. Another unfortunate consequence of all this is also that there is a high chance you'll be forced to play with a character or two whose gameplay you're just not feeling. Thankfully you can always switch the difficulty to easy if you want to speed things up by a few hours.

The gameplay is good. It's satisfying to chain different skills together to juggle an enemy for a long period of time, or to cause a massive barrage of explosions and damage indicators popping up on the screen by casting spells and using items back to back in a quick succession.

The prose is also good when it's good, and I'm glad to have got to the ending to see how the game wrapped up everything. Some of the story moments will also blow your mind to a degree when things that were foreshadowed earlier come together in a logical manner. However, the payoff of the ending struggles to be substantial enough to justify the time and the amount of repetitive gameplay needed to get there. Come for the gorgeous art and stay for it too, I guess.

Leifthrasir é uma versão aprimorada do clássico Odin Sphere de PS2, produzido pela nossa saudosa Vanillaware, um dos poucos estúdios que temos no mercado atualmente que ainda consegue entregar jogos side scrolling extremamente bonitos com essa pegada anime´like, e esse aqui em questão, se tratando de um remake/remaster não foi diferente.

O segundo jogo da companhia se trata de um beat'em up com elementos de RPG, situado em um universo fantasioso, onde iremos acompanhar 5 protagonistas com suas respectivas narrativas se aventurado pelo mundo, com isso, teremos uma valkiria buscando aprovação de seu pai, um coelho espadachim amaldiçoado, uma fada inexperiente tendo que assumir a liderança de seu povo, um cavaleiro sombrio procurando propósito pra sua vida vazia e uma bruxa carmesim tentando parar o inevitável traçado pelo destino.. ui.
A história é bem bacaninha de acompanhar, é meramente simples com cinemáticas de personagens estáticos falando um com os outros, mas funciona da mesma forma, a dublagem japonesa é maravilhosa e ajuda muito a digerir a trama; ela é conduzida por seleção de capítulos, que vai do prelúdio até o sexto capítulo e finalizado com um epílogo, cada campanha atinge umas 4 ~ 5 horas em média para completude.

Eu gostei bastante do sistema de combate, sendo um beat'em up o gênero fala por si só, mas aqui temos diversas habilidades únicas por personagem junto com o sistema de alquimia, o preparo de poções dá mais camada de aprendizagem, assim como a refeições que fazemos durante os intervalos, sendo o nosso meio principal de ganhar nível no jogo; além disso temos o phozons, um recurso que ganhamos quando derrotamos inimigos ou extraímos de plantas/borboletas, ele serve como moeda para melhoramentos de habilidades, mas também utilizamos o mesmo pra cultivar plantas, que vai nos garantir frutos, servindo como ingredientes para pratos mais sofisticados, que nos darão mais XP consequentemente, então você sempre fica naquela dualidade na hora de usar, algo que achei bem implementado na gameplay.

Um dos problemas principais desse jogo é a sua barriga, ele é bem repetitivo, levando em conta que temos 5 campanhas diferentes, a maioria dos eventos se passam nas mesmas regiões, então.. espero que tenha gostado de explorar aquele mapa pela primeira vez, porque você vai voltar pra lá com outro personagem.. mais 4 vezes. É meio cansativo senhores, não vou mentir, mas a progressão de personagem nesse game é tão bem feita, que eu ficava até animado pra próxima aventura, de qualquer forma estejam avisados.

Seguindo para termos visuais: qualidade Vanillaware, os caras não decepcionam nesse departamento e vale dizer que o Odin Sphere original é de 2007, então envelheceu super bem; apesar dessa nova versão possuir melhoramentos, a direção de arte se manteve da mesma forma (obviamente)

A trilha sonora é um ponto neutro do título, sinceramente não me pegou com quase nenhuma faixa, mas também não desgostei.

Pra finalizar, eu tive uma ótima experiência com o título, gostei pakas da reta final e fiquei viciado nas mini mecânicas integradas na gameplay, por conta disso recomendo pra geral ai.

Ps: VELVET MELHOR PERSONAGEM

Brilliant game. Awe-inspiring presentation (it's Vanillaware), fun combat (especially as Velvet and Mercedes). I own and played the original ages back but never finished it.

The circular maps are a good touch though they can sometimes make things easy to miss. One thing I really appreciated was the ability to "listen" for items as your character runs along the ground - the item name popping up on the screen makes a sound as do the mandragoras, and it's very helpful for combing over areas you've missed.

My only complaint is that the story and general pacing felt a bit overlong, but the structure works well and justifies it if you can stick with it to the end.

I loved every protagonist, I loved the framing, and I intend to go back for the plat. Vanillaware is a gem of a studio and I'm thrilled to have spent time in this storybook. Not a 10 for me but pretty damn close.

+An emotional Rashomon-styled narrative starring five distinctive and well-written protagonists
+Fast-paced battle system inspired by fighting games, with
a variety of playstyles based on the playable character
+Stunning visuals native to Vanillaware games
-A noticeable lack of variety in terms of stages and bosses progressively throughout the game

Charming!

Wish I developed stronger feelings about it. A good portion of my friend group described it as "straight fantasy romance written for gay people." Kind of hard to match those expectations. What I got instead was just a great, fast, action game.

You can really see the building blocks for what would become 13 Sentinels. Multiple playable characters, interacting storylines. Whole she-bang. Each character's gameplay style feels more concrete here than in 13S, especially when you've just finished a speedy character and started a slower one. My favorite characters relied significantly more on how comfortable they controlled rather than personalities. The 2D shooter style gameplay of Mercedes stressed me out far more than speedy Cornelius fight boy.

But the story telling is the real high point. Once you accept this as a straight-forward fantasy adventure without much subversion, the interweaving narrative is truly something. Gwendolyn's struggle to impress her father, Cornelius fighting for love against a curse, Mercedes avenging her mother, Oswald rediscovering his identity outside of being a soldier, Velvet defeating the sins of her family. All compelling frameworks. There's a few missed opportunities here to develop more conflict between the cast. Their goals keep them divided, but for the game's supposed interweaving narrative, the main cast actually interact very little. Their fights can never take place inside both of their narrative, only before one narrative has begun or ended. A character isn't allowed to lose during their own story. Feels like its not quite ready to commit to how its characters can have deeper or more antagonistic relationships. By the final scene, most of the cast doesn't know each other. Its an odd feeling.

But the sheer charm and warmth of the game tends to overpower that sense. Dragons, evil kings, family drama. All the tenants of good fantasy. It works! Even if it worked on me less than others, I can't deny that it works.

Good, but a bit unsatisfying in some way I can't quite put my finger on - both story- and gameplay-wise. Of course the art is phenomenal, though it does occasionally feel like the game is padded to wring the absolute most out of the beautiful assets. The localization is also kind of weirdly bad in spots, which, given that this is a second pass at it, is unfortunate.

From what I understand, this remake is a massive improvement on the original, which sounds much less playable. But this is certainly that - playable. I had no problem pouring 40-ish hours into it and had a good time learning about these characters and the world from start to finish. Probably not going to stick in my mind to any real degree and I don't feel like I need any more of it, but it was a good enough time!

6,5/10

Complicado.
Eu genuinamente gosto desse jogo e desgosto... é um caso de amor e ódio.

Eu genuinamente gosto da história, dos personagens,da ost, da direção de arte e design, esse jogo esbanja identidade, eu amo isso nele, mas....

O combate apesar de simples e fluido sofre do level design fraco e terei de explicar um tanto.

Controlamos 5 personagens, 5 rotas, 5 pontos de vistas, em conceito é interessante, eu particularmente gosto disso, mas muito boss e mini boss é reutilizado, o jogo fica repetitivo depois da rota da gwendollyn, o level design fica absurdamente fraco com exceções de fases muito específicas, o flow do game se torna tedioso e a narrativa sofre do ritmo arrastado da corpo do gameplay.

O maior calcanhar de aquiles desse jogo é algo que a falcomm sabe perfeitamente fazer bem ( Nem sempre) em jogos ys, que é a
Simplicidade X Execução.

Me forçei a terminar esse jogo, pois eu estava legitamente interessado na história e nos personagens, mas a narrativa perde muito ritmo devido a repetição dos elementos da gameplay, a variedade no gameplay é baixa, ainda mais na rota do polka prince, a historia dele tem pouca coisas relevante, mas o gameplay dele é gostosin...

No fim de tudo eu gostei, o final escalou de uma forma boa e foi uma conclusão afável, não vou esquecer esse jogo, isso eu afirmo.

Un sistema de combate y una serie de sistemas complementario muy bien cuidados acompañan a una fuerte trama sobre "desafiar al destino" presentado desde una perspectiva que se escapa del cliché. Es, básicamente, un cuento de hadas moderno libre de idealismo.

Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir cuenta con una historia y unos personajes trágicos fantásticamente construidos, qué junto a un mundo interesante y verosímil narra una bella trama que trata su tema sobre el destino de una manera más realista y humana a lo qué estamos acostumbrados. En términos jugables, resulta ser una experiencia gratificante por la mayor parte del tiempo, tiene problemas en cuanto a la repetición y peca de ser condescendiente, pero lo compensa con un muy buen combate y sus enfrentamientos basados en oleadas que ofrecen un reto ya sea contra jefes o mini-jefes. Logra mantener un alto nivel de profundidad en sus sistemas gracias a la personalización del combate, sus diferenciados personajes y las dinámicas complementarias que resultan estar muy bien cuidadas en términos de balance y escalamiento. El peor crimen de esta obra fue optar por un gimmick narrativo que terminó dañando su conclusión, sin embargo no creo que este sea suficiente motivo como para desechar a sus muy cuidadas dinámicas, su profundo combate, su entretenido bucle jugable, sus trágicos personajes, y su muy conmovedora historia.

~ ANÁLISIS COMPLETO: https://youtu.be/N3hNnW5sxkA ~

I have complicated feelings on this one. Of course, the presentation is fantastic. I think I am a bit spoiled having played 13 Sentinels first, though. The faces are barely animated at all in this one, and while I think it works for characters like Odin, it does not do any favors for characters like Mercedes and Oswald. It makes everything they say feel a bit sarcastic (though this is not a jab at the english VA, I liked it quite a bit). Far and away my biggest problem with this game is the structure. Each “book” has you playing as a different character, who all play pretty different, though being me I gravitated towards the nigh-uncontrollable flippy-dippy melee fighters. But with these characters, you are going through the same 8ish areas, fighting the same 30ish enemies, ending with one of the same 10ish bosses in each level, and it gets old really fast. I understand these assets probably cost a ton to produce and reusing them is resourceful, but it is so much padding. It negatively impacts the story too. It's a great, simple concept: viewing the lives of the children of these classic fantasy archetypes, with the conclusion that they are pretty much all horrible parents. However, it feels forced to go in certain directions just so I can fight the damn blue worm dragon for like the 5th book in a row. Not all of it is bad, I love seeing little details in one book heavily expanded and explained in another book (like seeing why Pooka ran the food store in book 1 explained in book 2). However, while it would require pretty extensive rewrites, I would’ve preferred a 10-15 hour game reusing less gameplay elements rather than a 35 hour journey that feels pretty tiring by the middle of book 3. I wish I could’ve liked it more, but it feels very forced into a structure that doesn’t benefit it.

You know that RPG you start, then life happens, then when you get back to the game it's been so long you forget what was happening so you restart it? Odin's Sphere was that for me every 3 years, for nearly 2 decades.

I'm glad I finally finished it, it was pretty cool!

Everyone should play 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is another banger game released by Vanillaware and between Muramasa and 13 Sentinels, the only other Vanillaware games i've played, this game falls in the middle of both camps. It has a strong gameplay-focus like Muramasa but it also has a good overarching narrative like 13 Sentinels. Though i wouldn't say Odin Sphere's plot is anywhere near as good as 13 Sentinels, i loved the sort of fairy tale simplicity that was going on in the narrative. It makes sense too, after all, this story is told through the eyes of a little girl reading books about legends from long ago. In fact, i would argue that Odin Sphere is a great example of "sometimes, simple is best". It's not a complicated tale and it's themes aren't particularly deep but it's characters have enough charm and it's through the simplicity of their stories that i was able to feel invested in them and their struggle. The overarching narrative also makes it really cool when you're able to see when two unrelated events are happening at the same time and how they may affect the overall narrative. The most noticeable example is when four of the five protagonists are in the Kingdom of Titania, fighting through the streets and the sewers are around basically the same time, yet for completely different reasons. But that's just the big one, as there are other moments in the narrative like this and it's just really cool to see. It adds an element of worldbuilding that you don't really tend to see in a lot of other games, even those that have excellent worldbuilding otherwise.

Character ranking: Velvet > Oswald = Gwendolyn >= Cornelius > Mercedes.

Gameplay-wise, it is a pretty fun 2D action game. I already found Muramasa to be fun and this game is just that but better. Unlike in Muramasa, each character plays completely differently so while the game can feel a bit repetitive in the areas you visit, it manages to mitigate that by giving everyone unique movesets. Gwendolyn and Cornelius are your standard lance and sword wielders respectively and i believe they came first because of how relatively simple they are to play as. Then Mercedes shakes things up by letting her fly freely and shoot very quickly, decimating enemies at the cost of her combo game. And if you were missing combos after playing as her, then good for you, because after Mercedes comes Oswald who literally has Devil Trigger. Velvet is a mix of Gwendolyn's range and Oswald's combo game thanks to her chains and as a result, she ended up becoming my favorite character to play as. Velvet really was a case of the best being saved for last.

Gameplay ranking: Velvet > Oswald > Cornelius = Gwendolyn > Mercedes.

The presentation of the game doesn't require me to say much. It's Vanillaware, makers of games with beautiful 2D art. I was really in love with how much this game embraced it's fantastical nature. Every stage background is gorgeous and the character designs are on point. Music good. I've got to say, this is easily the best-looking Vanillaware game. More of this please. I also have to give special shoutout to the command inputs. You're given five special inputs for your Psypher Skills but not only can you register more whenever you feel like it but you can even choose whether they are triggered by the D-pad or the control stick and whether or not they can only be activated on the ground or on the air. You don't see something like that in action-games a lot, at least i haven't. So good for you Vanillaware.

If there's any criticisms i have about the game, there is the repetition issue i mentioned earlier. Sure, it's mitigated by each character's unique movesets but if you continuously play this game, you might find yourself feeling a bit burned out. It's not super short like Muramasa is and it doesn't have the story/gameplay side thingy that 13 Sentinels has, so the possibility for burnout is there a little bit. As far as the story goes, while Mercedes grew on me as a character, i found her story to be the weakest one and that alongside the fact that i wished for a more combo-oriented character meant that i did admittedly have the least fun with her route, though it's not like i wasn't enjoying it. The presentation slightly tanks a bit whenever you do something in one character's story that leads into an event you already saw in another so the game just cuts to black and goes "and so, this this and that happened and now we go to the next scene". It's understandable why they did it but 13 Sentinels had several moments where you would see other character's stories playing out in the background while you're doing whoever's story it is you're doing at the moment. I won't hold it against Vanillaware for not doing something they end up doing in a later game, it would've been nice to see.

Odin Sphere is good and it gets the Armagon Seal of Approval.

le cambiaron un par de cosas al juego original y lo hicieron 10 veces mejor porque el combate ahora es GOD (aunque si es un poquito repetitivo), pasa de ser una experiencia aburrida donde necesitas jugar a la defensiva todo el tiempo a un juego donde haces malabares con los enemigos y podes hacer combos larguisimos que se hacen mas largos conforme vas desbloqueando habilidades con los SEIS PERSONAJES!! que controlas. la historia se hace medio complicada de seguir porque cuando cambias de capitulos la linea temporal medio que se da vuelta sobre si misma y hay cosas que terminas no entendiendo si no prestas muchisima atencion durante las cinematicas y lees los documentos, tampoco ayuda que algunos personajes secundarios sean recolors de enemigos o directamente el mismo sprite.

la musica de sakimoto acompaña perfectamente a este juego que visualmente es un espectaculo, el mundo esta construido enteramente con escenarios y personajes 2d super coloridos dibujados a mano que tengo entendido que es la estetica que usa vanillaware para sus juegos asi que me dejo manija para probar otros titulos.

My first Vanillaware game! The artstyle and design are what initially drew me in to Odin Sphere, but the gameplay and story made it more than worth it. It now stands as one of the best games I've ever played, and stands high on the list of games that made me cry the most.
The environments are gorgeous, encompassing everywhere from an aurora-cast city in the clouds to a glowing fairy paradise deep in a forest. The enemy design and animations aid in making every location feel alive, and the respective characters you meet in every locale adds to the fantastic ambiance of Odin Sphere that never gets boring.
2D side-scroller action games are something many consider played out and stagnant, but Vanillaware has a way of standing out with Odin Sphere's combat. It's easy to get the hang of, highly customizable, fluid, fast, and fun. Getting to experiment with each character's abilities and upgrading those that fit your playstyle allows for extremely satisfying combat. Additionally, the animations for many actions are masterfully done and simply add to how gorgeous every aspect of this game is.
The dungeon style of Odin Sphere is extremely unique, and it keeps the game fresh and fun while also being extremely simple to navigate. Exploration aspects like finding all items in a room and the clues given to you about chests with hidden psyphers was a perfect compliment to the well-made combat.
Cooking is the third mechanic that stood out to me. Collecting ingredients throughout levels, growing fruits and vegetables right there on the battlefield, and using your own power (phosons) to help them grow and give you EXP was lots of fun, and using what you grew at Maury's travelling restaurant while discovering new recipes in every chapter added to an already rewarding experience.
The original PS2 Odin Sphere was criticized for its difficulty, and I understand why. Playing the game on Hard (which was Normal difficulty in the 2007 original) was a challenge, and the easier difficulties added in Leifthrasir makes the game as a whole much more accessible and enjoyable.
Content-wise, you can play through the main story in somewhere between 25-40 hours, which felt sufficient for the story being told. I found it really cool how there are multiple final bosses, and you can fight any one of them with any of the main characters. Postgame content is almost nonexistent, except for a boss rush "Churning Rift of the World" mode.
The story in Odin Sphere is one of the best in any RPG (or any game ever) that I've seen. A main premise of five interconnected stories initially seemed like there wouldn't be any room for good development, but by the end I was extremely attached to all the characters and even a few of the antagonists. Furthermore, I never felt the pacing was reset or lost with the start of a new storybook and the beginning of a new character's story. Mercedes' ending is genuinely one of the most emotional moments I've experienced from a video game, although every protagonist was extremely well written and voice acted. The design of the main protagonists and many of the side characters is also top-tier, creating a cast of unforgettable characters that stand out immensely.
The music in Odin Sphere, while good, is simply standard. It doesn't stand out like all the other aspects of the game - with one exception. The main theme/credits music is a beautiful piece that fits the vibe of the game and adds to its beauty.
Odin Sphere is a game I will not soon forget, and a game I will soon return to and replay. Vanillaware's magnum opus, a masterpiece of writing, gameplay, and art combined into one. Absolutely worth a playthrough, or two, or more!