The last great Playstation 2 game to come out during the death of the Playstation 2 era.
Story: The story of Odin Sphere is equivalent to one of classic novels like: The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, Lord of the Flies etcetera. Like all great stories each individual character has specific events that correspond to his/her life but at the end are used to garner an overall main story. Odin Sphere does a spectacular job of weaving in everyone's life together into a clean yet understanding ball of yarn. As stated before this story contains everything that makes up a great novel: love, war, death, massive kings with huge egos, Fairies, dwarves, talking dragons, sorcerers, undead kings, special rings and a massive cauldron that is written in a prophecy to one day destroy the world. Now, I don't want to ruin anything but lets keep it simple, there are memorable characters, intense boss fights and twist that will keep the story fresh and attractive throughout. In the end, like all rpgs the story has a major impact on how the game will be received and this game doesn't disappoint.
Gameplay: The gameplay in Odin Sphere is broken down into three main categories: Combat, Cooking/planting, alchemy. Lets start with the combat system: each character has different yet a familiar combat structure. For example, Gwendolyn has here basic attack, which can become a combo when the button is pressed a specific number of times. If the button is held she can block; since she is a Valkyrie her arsenal of attacks also includes her darting down towards the ground like a jouster. Each character has this similar structure with different attacks and powers; for example, instead of Oswald blocking by hold the button down he changes into his shadow form. Essentially, Odin sphere is a traditional 2D side scrolling action game with a twist. Instead of just being a mindless button masher a power bar is implemented. If the user just presses the button like crazy he will deplete the bar and become dazed for quite sometime until the bar is refilled. I believe this does allow for strategic play especially during boss battles. This power bar isn't just for preventing button mashing but also to gain the attention of the other systems. Like the psypher and alchemy system: first the psypher. Each main character carries a special weapon called a psypher, this weapon allows the user to suck up the souls of the downed combatants, which are called phozons, these are used to level up the weapon. In Odin Sphere there isn't a overall level or system, instead there is two main levels the psypher and HP. When leveling up the psypher your sword does more damage and gains special abilities like: phozon burst which releases a massive burst of light around the main character damaging everything around him. Leveling up your HP garners more life for you character, this is achieved by eating food. Eating food can come in two different ways either planting seeds yourself and eating the fruit or saving up different materials like: cheese, milk and eggs to make a special recipe aka an omelet. Now the final system is the alchemy system, basically you can take any item and mix it into what is called a material which is a bottle that holds the concoction. Anything and everything can be mixed into the bottle which follows a basic numbering system. For example, the most common material is labeled zero. Taking that bottle and added a seed for example will create a material with the ID of 1; taking that and mixing in another seed will create a material of 2. So your probably thinking to yourself: "So if everything can be mixed into the material to increment it in value how do I create potions like heal, napalm, toxic or antidote!!" Well throughout your travels when you step on a piece of ground that doesn't agree with you it will squeak. Jumping up in the air and landing on the same spot will pop up a little mandragoras. These little walking veggies are the corner stone of the alchemy system. For instance, if you have a material with the value 2 and you combine it with an onionne it will create a napalm potion. These potions are specific so only a material ending in 2 and a onionne can create napalm or whatever the scroll instructs for the potion. Also, depending on what value the material is will determine how many phozons will be release. Back to our napalm example, when a material of 2 and onionne are combined only two phozons are release but say you combine a material of 12 with an onionne this will release more phozon. The alchemy system is limited to 99; but this is were the genius of Odin Sphere truly shows its color. When creating alchemy and plants the user has to make a decision to either use those fruits for the alchemy system or to eat or vice versa, you can use the newly created alchemy potion to grow fruit or you can use those loose phozons to power up the psypher. These conflicts are constantly driving the user to make decisions based on the situation at hand. Whats so great about this conflict is that each system works so perfectly with one another that nothing feels out of place or useless. Having a constant balance of alchemy and seeds along with distributing the phozons to both your seeds and psypher becomes a duty in itself. This system is so indepth that its crazy to believe that this game is consider shallow by some.
Sound: The music and sound effects in Odin Sphere are top notch. Even the opening theme is crafted with a beautiful whimsical score that could easily triumph over the likes of Zelda or Metal Gear. Each location in the game has its own theme song which adds to the uniqueness of each locale. In the end, this game provides an amazing score that I'm hoping wont go completely unnoticed. The other totally awesome aspect of the sound is the voice acting is completely in english and japanese; the japanese actors are awesome and really convey a sense of emotion into their voice. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the english actors, for some reason they all sound like little kids; I don't know why english actors always sound like this in rpgs but I suggest the japanese dialogue with english subtitles.
Graphics: The graphics in Odin Sphere are breath taking; everything is hand drawn and you can really see how much time and effort was placed into creating such a beautiful game. The characters look beautiful, with stunning detail and flare, their animations are equally impressive. I'd have to say that the environments and bosses/kings and queens are by far the most impressive of them all. For example, one of my favorite characters King Odin will literally take up half the screen when he enters the frame. His appearance along garners a sense of badassness that I haven't seen in a long time in video games. The dragons: Hindel, Belial, Wagner all carry that same stature of badassness when they enter the fray. As some may know, I'm kind of a 2D whore so I was in heaven when I played this game but for those of you that don't really like 2D games give this a change the visual will not disappoint. Since this is a review I most warn that though the graphics are amazing the game does take a hit for it. When playing in the Netherworld and in certain boss fights like Belial the game will slow down though this doesn't really hurt the game it is annoying and really doesn't make any sense.
Conclusion: This game isn't perfect by any means; the gameplay can get repetitive and the constant loading in between every single stage does get annoying. Yet, I played this game for 62h 30m 28sec and I did not at one time feel bored or tired. I personally, liked each story but everyone will have a different opinion on the characters and scenarios. I found that each book covey's and overall theme of life. Gwendolyn's is a theme of acceptance; trying so desperately to garner the attention of her father drives her to a level of treason. Cornelius's theme is one of false identity and trying to prove your existence. Mercedes' theme is one of human ambition and the position ones life will inevitably take. Oswald's theme is realization of human intention; the fact that his adopted father only saw him as a tool, as most parents do when they are trying to score that sweet professional athlete contract. Velvet's theme is obviously one of fate and how we inevitably end at the point we're all destined to. To me, this is the greatest portion of Odin sphere, I personally saw those themes in the story some people may gain something different and yet some people probably though the story sucked. To me, a game that makes you think beyond the elements of the specific story arc is not only grabbing attention but allowing the option of approval. This being said, I suggest that everyone at least try this game and experience the first book just to get a feel for the events at hand.