A game worth playing at least once. Fantastic story with characters that seem to come to life off the screen.
--Stroy--
So, the world is in danger of ending and destroying all life as we know it. Five people must step up to fight against the fate handed down in their prophecies. You've seen it, heard it, played it all before...so what makes this any different? One character is Odin's daughter, one is a Fairy princess, one is the princess of a lost civilization, another is a prince of the only remaining human kingdom and the last is a user of the powers from the Netherworld but his soul is slaved to the queen there.
--Gameplay--
The player controls one of five characters. Each of the five playable characters has their own book. Each character has their own fighting style with unique skills. Each character does, however, share many of the same skills. The hardest and most annoying this is leveling up for the final battles after each characters book. Characters stats come in two forms: HP Level and Psypher (the weapon) Level. To level HP up, the player must eat food that they grow, go to the Pooka Cafe or to the Pooka Kitchen. This can get both tiring and expensive as the player must go through levels to gather money and items and they must gather all the ingredients and recipes for their meals themselves. Leveling up their Psyphers is also difficult as they must absorb phozons, life force, that is given off from certain plants and from killing enemies. Since phozons are required to level you Psypher and to grow food, leveling up PH and Psypher at the same time is difficult. The player may need to play through each characters book at least twice to get high enough levels to fight the final bosses in the sixth book. Having to do nearly the same thing five times, then possible ten times if necessary can get beyond aggravating.
--Graphics--
The biggest draw of this title was the artistic graphic animation used. Hand-drawn sprites that flow during battle and cutscenes seem to actually "come to life". Visually, it is astoundingly pleasing and shows fans that a game doesn't have to have realistic or elaborate 3D graphics to be amazing. Each background is original and drawn with incredible detail and depth. The game is experienced almost like watching as a fantasy story unfolds before your eyes.
The major downfall is during several battles when many enemies will appear on screen and slow the game down significantly. It doesn't interfere with gameplay, but can get annoying at crucial moments.
The game is truly a work of art with visuals unique to its style that no 3D game can imitate.
--Sound--
The game's fabulous orchestral score is composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. He composed music for many of Square Enix's RPGs such as Final Fantasy XII. The music suits the game's atmosphere and charm. The best scores are the different themes used during the credit staff role at the end of the game.
The game allows the player to choose between full dual language voice-acting. The English suits the game's style with a Shakespearean air to it, but the voice acting is very well done and makes the language used both entertaining and interesting unlike the usually dull and cheesy sound that most Shakespearean language gives off.
--Value--
This game is indeed one worth playing. Every RPG fan should play it at least once. Odin Sphere is a fun game with a great plot, interesting characters, and fabulous music score. Rent it at least, give it a chance, because the fun the game offeres far outweigh the heavy repitition.