Odin Sphere is an amazingly beautiful RPG that grows on you.
+ Gameplay & Controls +
The controls are ridiculously easy (i.e. X to Jump, Square to Attack/Block and Triangle for a special "Psypher" attack) and you can pull off impressive ground and air combos with the characters. You'll have quite some fun button mashing the rest of the time. However, the biggest problem comes after you acquire items. As you start off, your bags can only hold 20 items and while you have the option to buy additional bags, they fill up FAST. Luckily, the game acknowledges this management problem by having the character use the items either for alchemy and restaurants/cafe. The former helps make useful items for battle and the latter boosts your EXP and stats. Also, this is probably the smartest addition for an RPG: Eating = EXP. Anything that's edible not only replenishes your HP but gives you EXP so you don't have to worry about grinding to get to a certain level. Just make sure you have enough food! + Graphics & Sound+
Games today are really exceeding the current gen and next gen's capabilities (look for Square Enix's next series, The Last Remnant, that utilizes the Unreal Engine). This game not only sticks to 2D but it is fluidly animated. Environments and characters look strikingly colorful and beautiful. Unfortunately, a game that looks that good can't go as smoothly as expected. You will experience lag when there are too many characters or items on the screen. Also, there are frequent loading times that will begin to irritate you. You have the option to listen to either English or Japanese dialoge. While I usually go for Japanese audio for obvious reasons, the English voice acting is done surprisngly well. if you watch a couple of animes, you may recognize a few voices in there. And in case the soundtrack sounds somewhat familiar, it's because it's composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who was responsible for FFXII's music. He did a wonderful job making this game feel like an epic. + Overall +
This is another Japanese RPG but the presentation helps bring the experience to an all new level. Do not pass this up or you'll miss out on one of the best few (and hopfully not the last) games on the PS2.