A beautiful and compelling adventure.
You will play the role of five different characters from different countries on the continent known as Eferion. The story revolves around the the Cauldron, a magical and powerful artifact and the prophecy of Armageddon. Some of the countries are at war and each character will offer a unique perspective of the story. Love is one of the most dominant themes of the story, whether it's the love between father and child or between lovers from rivaling countries.
You start out as Gwendolyn, a Valkyrie and the daughter of king Odin, who desperately seeks affection and approval from her father. After completing her campaign you will play the role of prince Cornelius of Titania. His father does not approve of his relationship with the princess of Valentine. The next character is the fairy princess Mercedes, after her mother dies from the injuries suffered on the battlefield, Mercedes fights to retain her rightful place as the queen. Oswald is the next character in line. Oswald's adoptive father sold his soul to the queen of the Netherworld in exchange of power. Is Oswald simply a tool in his father's way of becoming king of the fairy kingdom? The last character is the princess of Valentine, Velvet, who fights to stop the prophecy of Armageddon and the destructive powers of the Cauldron.
Odin Sphere is a pretty basic beat 'em up at it's core. The game is divided up in levels and you fight enemies on a 2D field. Each level is again divided up in several parts and you can choose to complete every part of the level or follow a path that takes you directly to the boss battle. Every character offers a different fighting style that saves the game from becoming too repetitive. Magic can be performed by consuming phozons, a magical force that exists in every living being. You acquire phozons from killing enemies, growing plants and creating potions. Your magic level rises as you collect more phozons unlocking abilities and spells. The characters share most abilities though a few are exclusive for each character.
An extensive and sometimes overwhelmingly time consuming item system is one of the games prominent features. You can create spells and healing potions by combining items. You gain experience by eating food and you can grow animals and fruits that works as healing items and offer a fair amount of experience, or use the items as ingredients at the Pooka kitchen for more experience points. Items are carried in bags. These bags varies in size, the smallest one can carry three items while the largest bag can carry up to eight items. In total you can have up to six bags. Compared tp other RPG's the number of items you can carry is very limited resulting in heavy item creation and management. Although the item system is fun, it takes up too much time, I spent more time on managing items than anything else.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
The visuals in the game are simply amazing. The beautiful backgrounds and the detailed characters create a colorful world of magic and monsters. The graphics have almost a painted quality to them and everything is brought to life by masterful techniques of animation. The screen can be a bit crowded sometimes resulting in some noticeable slowdown that forces me from giving the graphics a perfect score.
Graphics: 9.5/10
Further enhancing the production is the sound design. The English dubbing of the game is very good, and addition to that the game also offer to play the game with the original Japanese voices. All the sound effects are great and adds life to the beautiful scenery and the actual gameplay. The soundtrack is fantastic and it is composed by notable composers such as Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.
Sound: 9.5/10
The game is large and offers a lot of items to collect and a lot of levels to complete. Odin Sphere also offers different endings that adds to the replay value. You will spend a lot of time with this game if you decide to stick with it.
Value: 9/10
A lot of gamers seem to be put off by the repetitive nature of the game and the excessive inventory management, but if you get past these issues you will find a compelling game with fantastic visuals, a beautiful score, fun and addictive gameplay, great storytelling and interesting characters.
Final score: 9/10