I think Odin Sphere really demonstrates the beauty and dangers of Vanillawares commitment to exclusively lush 2D games: on one hand, this creative constraint breeds alot of novel and compelling game design decisions; on the other hand, this can be a costly endeavor if youre not careful about your genre. Without a big budget, Odin Sphere takes some repetitive cost-saving measures that keep it flawed but promising.
For example, circular rooms for a platformer are an extremely smart and elegant solution to the challenge of keeping 2D worlds from feeling like flat planes with unreal perspective. Layered, parallel storytelling with multiple characters also offers an excuse to reuse some assets and enemies while still having an engaging, rich narrative (in some ways even richer than linear storytelling). Odin Spheres issue is a matter of poor foresight.
For example, circular rooms for a platformer are an extremely smart and elegant solution to the challenge of keeping 2D worlds from feeling like flat planes with unreal perspective. Layered, parallel storytelling with multiple characters also offers an excuse to reuse some assets and enemies while still having an engaging, rich narrative (in some ways even richer than linear storytelling). Odin Spheres issue is a matter of poor foresight.
Fun, but the PS2 version with it's horrible slowdowns is barely playable.
When I finished this game I told myself to never forget how aggravating to play it is, no matter how nice it seems in art and concept.
It started feeling like a chore about 20 hours in, but until that point I was extremely impressed with this. Everything about the presentation is beautiful, the combat (especially given the switch-ups that the different storylines provide) is nice and meaty, and the crafting system is exactly the right amount of deep-but-not-impenetrable. Even the story has some downright surprising hooks, given how chintzy and fantasy paint-by-numbers it feels at first.
On the technical side, the slowdown during some of the more crowded fights is straight wild. Might be worth picking up that remaster if you haven't yet checked this out, but I'm not entirely sure how much they fucked with the gameplay. As it stands, this one is plenty good.
On the technical side, the slowdown during some of the more crowded fights is straight wild. Might be worth picking up that remaster if you haven't yet checked this out, but I'm not entirely sure how much they fucked with the gameplay. As it stands, this one is plenty good.
This was a game I would've loved to finish but found it almost when I was not playing with PS2 anymore.
Would be five stars if not for the fact that the remaster exists, because hot damn did that feel so much better to play. Still one of the best of all time, and instantly made me a Vanillaware die-hard for life when I first played through it back in 2010.