A kiss from Goddess of Death.
User Rating: 8.8 | Odin Sphere PS2
It seems Gamespot is rather stingy when it comes to side scrolling RPG with Norse mythology theme. Both Valkyrie Profile received rather unimpressive rating from Gamespot and Odin Sphere again received rather unimpressive rating as well. Odin Sphere is rather loosely based on Norse mythology. You will notice right away it isn't that accurate when you see Valkyries being more of female warriors rather than goddess of death who takes souls of warriors to Valhalla. Well who says they had to use Norse mythology word for word? Odin Sphere ends up creating very unique fantasy setting that is worthy of you to explore. First thing you will immediately notice is stunning visuals. The deformed characters in 2D world at first might not be as impressive until you see them in motion. Aside from Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, I have not seen PS2 game look this good. Compare this game to any game visually and aside from technological achievements, this game will not fall behind to any other game visually. The character designs are very creative and unique, the background details are colorful and sharp. It is incredibly bright and beautiful for your eyes to feast on. It sucks to know that real world isn't that beautiful. As for presentation goes, it doesn't end with visuals. The voice acting for BOTH English and Japanese is excellent. (Thank you Atlus, Thank you. LEARN FROM THIS SQUREENIX.) It is rare to find Japanese game to have good English voice acting, but here it is. One of the finest voice acting seen so far in games, it is at the level of MGS series and Final Fantasy XII. All this presentation is heightened with the excellent music and the plot that sets certain mood for the game. Despite the colorful design and deformed and cute characters, the mood of the game is rather mellow. The sorrow of these characters soaks the beautiful world to tell you very satisfying story. Still, the presentation does have minor flaw, and that is slow down. It doesn't come often but when there is large character or large number of enemies, you will notice some severe slow down. It doesn't happen very frequent but it does happen frequent enough for you to need to expect the slow down, especially when you do see plenty of enemies and if you use magic that uses big special effects. Still, it doesn't hurt the game that much. Story, music, graphics, voice acting, and overall mood the game sets off I guess could go under presentation, and in RPG that is 80~90% of the game. If the presentation is solid, then the game is solid for RPG period, as long as the battle system doesn't frustrate you. However, Odin Sphere is side scroll action RPG. Actually, it is much closer to side scroll action game than it is to RPG so the gameplay in this case is very important. Unfortunately, this is where the game does have good number of flaws. First the control is rather unresponsive. Too often your character has these delay between each moves and that is when you will often be hit. Even if you pound jump button, your character will remain where they are and get hit. In side scroll action game, the responsive control is VERY important and Odin Sphere unfortunately doesn't provide tight control. Still, it isn't that bad and you can get by. Better control would've made it so much better but that alone doesn't make large enough dent on the game. However there are specific design flaws for gameplay. First the exploration for the game is near non-existent. This is quite unfortunate because if they made location you can visit similar to Valkyrie Profile, it would've gave you the sense of exploration which is very important in RPG game. There is void of side scroll platform aspect in this game. Very often you will be stuck in flat world that is connected from beginning to the end. So if you just keep going forward, you will end up right back at where you were. And there will be enemies for you to defeat and once you defeat them you will be graded for it. Then you choose one of the exits and move on to another endless flat level. It mostly feels like you are going level by level and defeating whatever foes there until you reach boss stage. You can choose which exit to enter and you can go back. On the map these locations are represented as circles with dots and dots represent the exits. These circles are connected to lines on the map so you will know which zones you are going to, so the exploration aspect of the game isn't completely void, but the "sense" of exploration is sucked right out of the game as it feels like you are just going level by level to the zones that doesn't require you to explore.
If the level design was more similar to Valkyrie Profile or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the sense of exploration would've been heightened to please RPG fans. Still this unique style of exploration gives different experience for the players to enjoy, but in the end the world of Odin Sphere doesn't feel like a world you can explore and loses quite a bit of RPG feeling to it. Overall, Odin Sphere is quite solid game with some flaws you need to overlook. The fans of Norse Mythology might be disappointed to find out that the game is loosely based on it, and if you do enjoy Norse Mythology, Valkyrie Profile might be better fan-fiction-like story based on Norse Mythology as they are more faithful to the mythology. To the fans of side scroll action game, this will entertain you, but the lack of exploration and flat zones will make you desire for something more. To the fans of RPG genre, this is what you will enjoy greatly with the excellent presentation and interesting storyline. Odin Sphere is unique experience and one of a kind game. It is also proof that 2D genre needs more attention as there is room for growth. Also it is a proof that technology isn't the only way to make stunning visuals.
