This game is incredibly long. I dropped it after 15 hours.
The art is beautiful, though a lot of the female characters are designed very similarly. The story is just not for me, its boring and I have to sit there and listen to the characters drone their lines instead of being able to click through text boxes once ive read them.
I loved the combat and it's one of the reasons I think I will come back to it eventually, but the fact that every character has to go through the same goddamn levels makes it mind-numbing.

This was written for a GOTY piece back in 2016...

I'm not all that familiar with the PS2 version of this side-scrolling JRPG that came out nearly ten years ago, so I'm not privy to comment on the various adjustments and enhancements the remake has made over the original. What I will say is that Leifthrasir is the Vanillaware formula honed to (almost) perfection, a dark fairy tale slathered in theatrical storytelling and complimented by that familiar-but-pristine painterly art style, a heavenly soundtrack and a generous dose of chaotic, combo-based brawling that never grows old.

More of an 8.5 than an 8.

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.

It's pretty great, beautiful 2D art and a charming Norse mythology inspired story. Gameplay feels nice and smooth, I enjoyed playing as every character more or less. Pretty good story with a well developed world.

Does get insanely repetitive unfortunately, I wish the levels were a lot shorter because the gameplay to story ratio is pretty unbalanced. I also found the story a little too minimalistic and exposition-focused for my tastes, so I didn't get particularly invested.

Overall pretty good game though

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

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!

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.

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.

Positives:
- Good story
- Well written characters
- Nice art style and animation

Negatives:
- Extremely repetitive
- Bland level design
- Characters don't feel that unique (individual traits are not used enough)
- Some bosses are poorly designed (specifically the mage bosses)

7.5 / 10

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.

Yo soy la esfera de odin

El juego esta weno pero creo que su gran problema es la constante repetición de bosses y escenarios es una pena que cuando te juegas la primera campaña prácticamente ya te has visto el 90% de los mapas y el como el 70% de los bosses pero si puedes soportar esa repetitividad vas a tener una historia bastante bonita con muy buenos personajes y con un gameplay que un repitiendo lo que dije arriba cada personaje se siente realmente unico con sus mecanicas que les diferencias de cada uno.

Good game with amazing art and a reasonably interesting story, but unfortunately extremely repetitive. Even on the first character I was feeling drained midway through because there simply isn't enough variety. The second character at least does substantially more damage, but at this point I feel like I've seen all there really is to see in terms of gameplay from this game. It may be something I pick back up way down the line, but for now I don't want to waste at least 20 more hours with 4 more characters when I could play something more engaging.