NOTE: This review is about classic mode (aka PS2 mode) on hard, with all refinement options turned off.
This is one of those weird scenarios where most gamers "in the know" with regards to notable releases in the 2000s are aware of Odin Sphere, but the conversation kinda begins and ends with how pretty it is in a "WHOA COOL ROBOT!" sort of way. Why aren't we actually... talking about this game, a game with a mechanical identity that's absolutely peerless (even in attempt!), and a narrative that's shockingly effective and affective?
From the bizarre "platformless action-platformer" movement design to the inventory management, to the alchemy, to the leveling system, to the positional-centric combat—All carefully made to be only EXACTLY as complex as they need to be to promote meaningful decision-making—this is a game that even in spite of its flaws feels like Vanillaware's magnum opus, which is INSANE when this is literally their first game (under their current name, anyway). And yet here we are.
It's after midnight and I gotta be up in 4 hours ("If death cannot be avoided, then I welcome my fate.") and I'm rambling incoherently but just... this is already one of my new favorite games of all time y'all, fucking play it. It's on every PlayStation device released since 2007, you have no excuse unless you're Xbox's Strongest Soldier in the Console War or whatever.
NOTE: Will definitely have more to say about both Classic AND Refined mode whenever I play and finish the latter; this remake FASCINATES me.
This is one of those weird scenarios where most gamers "in the know" with regards to notable releases in the 2000s are aware of Odin Sphere, but the conversation kinda begins and ends with how pretty it is in a "WHOA COOL ROBOT!" sort of way. Why aren't we actually... talking about this game, a game with a mechanical identity that's absolutely peerless (even in attempt!), and a narrative that's shockingly effective and affective?
From the bizarre "platformless action-platformer" movement design to the inventory management, to the alchemy, to the leveling system, to the positional-centric combat—All carefully made to be only EXACTLY as complex as they need to be to promote meaningful decision-making—this is a game that even in spite of its flaws feels like Vanillaware's magnum opus, which is INSANE when this is literally their first game (under their current name, anyway). And yet here we are.
It's after midnight and I gotta be up in 4 hours ("If death cannot be avoided, then I welcome my fate.") and I'm rambling incoherently but just... this is already one of my new favorite games of all time y'all, fucking play it. It's on every PlayStation device released since 2007, you have no excuse unless you're Xbox's Strongest Soldier in the Console War or whatever.
NOTE: Will definitely have more to say about both Classic AND Refined mode whenever I play and finish the latter; this remake FASCINATES me.