Odin Sphere?
- Thread starter MC80a Liberty
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Despite a massive pile of games I really need to open up and play ( I keep meaning to, but then something like the Suikoden series or Planescape: Torment will call out to me and I forget ) I'd also be interested in hearing opinions on Odin Sphere. If I do buy I'm sure I'd get around to playing. Eventually. Someday. At some point before the heat death of the universe.
Honest!
Honest!
I generally only play one world 'level' per gaming period, so done for the day having just beaten the first zone's boss, the dragon Belial. So thoughts so far...
Okay, as GH said, the game is very pretty. The gameplay is supposed to be set as storybooks that a little girl is reading (why is a little girl reading about war, death, and murder?!?). Basically, as you finish the game with a character you're supposed to unlock another character who tells the story from another perspective, revealing new things about what's happened and such, as I'm sure you know.
The characters don't show too much personality due to the lack of visual cues to show they're sad/happy/furious/etc, although the voice acting tries to make up for it. The japanese voice acting has a fair handle on the emotions they're supposed to be showing at least (the english voice acting is passable but not as good though). Still, our generation is a little spoiled at this point and gotten used to those visual cues we can get in real life interacting with others being available in a game. I don't think this is too bad a thing personally however, as my favorite games tend to be the old classics that don't even have the voice acting.
You start as Gwendolyn, the daughter of Odin who just inherited the spear of her 'nee-sama' (I don't know if she's supposed to be her real sister or just the japanese use to refer to someone older you're close with. The english translation uses a mention of sister though, so I'm inclined to think she is) after she dies. Gwendolyn wants to be loved by her daddy so she decideds to murder the fairies in his name (and boy she does a good job in my hands!) while the rest of Odin's army sits on their butts and watch Gwen go, go, go...
So that's basically the starting setting. You go through a tutorial on the system, then go chat with some of Odin's servants and army including a chance to start buying on stuff, yada, yada, yada. Anyhow, note that you can only equip -one- item at a time. You can switch between items at any time though, so don't let your being able to use only one at a time to stop you from buying stuff.
Once you're done with the buying and talking to people, you can enter the warzone, which is the first zone you have to fight through.
'Maps' consist of interconnecting little areas where you can fight the enemies, and the first time you enter you need to clear the zone of all of them. You get bonus items/money for finishing them off really fast, so try to do that when you can. Each area consists of a 2D circular battlefield, where if you move one way from your starting point, you'll eventually reach the same starting point. When you enter a zone for the first time, all exits shut off, including the one you came in through. You need to clear the level, at which time all exits become available, not just the one you came through.
You at one point will get a map, which will allow you to see which exits to take to get anywhere. In the map, you'll see that the battle regions look like a field, a blue B, or a purple B. A field means you'll be facing minions you have to wipe out. They'll have a number of stars by them to denote their difficulty. The more stars, the more minions you have to wipe out, and the more difficult they might be. A blue B denotes a mini-boss, usually including a few or one minion. Minions reapper a period afteryou wipe them out until you finish the mini-boss off. A purple B is the final zone's boss, again, same thing with minions as in the mini-boss areas.
Gameplay, again as GH says, takes some getting used to, worse for some others (like me). They're a bit different from what I'm used to, and I find myself pressing the wrong button on many occasions, especially since I've used nintendo systems forever and only just recently got a PS2 (Bah!!!!). It's supposed to be hard to mess up and do a command you don't want to because outside of the [] button being for killing and defending, each command requires two buttons being pressed in sequence, the X button the second to confirm the item use from O button, or special attack from /\ button. Of course, being used to the A/B combination from nintendo where A is confirm and B is cancel, with the opposite being the case with X and O buttons which are in the same layout, you can imagine I go "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" manytimes, and no way to change button commands. If you're used to the PS2, this won't be a problem I'd think though, and for the most part, it's easy to get used to despite some oddities besides my brain being hardwired for that nintendo confirm/cancel.
One thing that you might find annoying is the cute sequence you have to go through to start your game. As soon as you load the game, you start of as a little girl entering an attic with a cat and a book (more books become available if you finish the game with each character, for a total of 5). You pick the cat up to view the drama scenes (Odin Sphere's version of FMVs), and the corresponding book to play as a character. It's cute, but having to go through it each time when you start with only one character available may annoy you. It hasn't annoyed me yet though outside of wondering why a little blonde girl is reading about war and war-related topics.
Oh, one thing you need to know. You're levelling up two things in this game. Your HP, which gets exp by consuming food which grands you both HP exp and heals you somewhat. You heal fully and raise your HP when you level it up. The second thing you can level is your psypher, which is basically your weapon. In the case of Gwendolyn, the magic spear she received from the dead Griselda. The psypher is a magic weapon that powers up by absorbing the souls of dead enemies (well, not really souls, but I'll call them that because that's what it looks like to me
).
One final thing. The game includes a 'home' and 'restart' command in the pause menu. Clicking 'restart' will allow you to leave a boss/mini-boss area and go level-up in other areas. Clicking home sends you to the start of the zone, and basically, lets you fight all over again. This is very important for one reason. The game's not easy. I had a bitch of a time fighting the first boss, Belial with HP at level 5 and no special attacks available. I had to eat a total of 5 breads (500HP) and one mulberry (only 20HP, but grands 70exp to your HP level) Another friend having used the home command to go through the zone a second time before going to fight the dragon and didn't take nearly as long or require more than two breads.
So keep in mind that the game encourages and in fact almost requires level grinding unless you possibly play in the easy mode (three levels of difficulty, default being medium). I'd imagine you actually might even need level grinding in easy mode.
Anyhow, I am enjoying it and the challenging aspects of it. It's not for everyone though, and for those who don't like level grinding in RPGs, you probably have no reason to go anywhere near this game.
Okay, as GH said, the game is very pretty. The gameplay is supposed to be set as storybooks that a little girl is reading (why is a little girl reading about war, death, and murder?!?). Basically, as you finish the game with a character you're supposed to unlock another character who tells the story from another perspective, revealing new things about what's happened and such, as I'm sure you know.
The characters don't show too much personality due to the lack of visual cues to show they're sad/happy/furious/etc, although the voice acting tries to make up for it. The japanese voice acting has a fair handle on the emotions they're supposed to be showing at least (the english voice acting is passable but not as good though). Still, our generation is a little spoiled at this point and gotten used to those visual cues we can get in real life interacting with others being available in a game. I don't think this is too bad a thing personally however, as my favorite games tend to be the old classics that don't even have the voice acting.
You start as Gwendolyn, the daughter of Odin who just inherited the spear of her 'nee-sama' (I don't know if she's supposed to be her real sister or just the japanese use to refer to someone older you're close with. The english translation uses a mention of sister though, so I'm inclined to think she is) after she dies. Gwendolyn wants to be loved by her daddy so she decideds to murder the fairies in his name (and boy she does a good job in my hands!) while the rest of Odin's army sits on their butts and watch Gwen go, go, go...
So that's basically the starting setting. You go through a tutorial on the system, then go chat with some of Odin's servants and army including a chance to start buying on stuff, yada, yada, yada. Anyhow, note that you can only equip -one- item at a time. You can switch between items at any time though, so don't let your being able to use only one at a time to stop you from buying stuff.
Once you're done with the buying and talking to people, you can enter the warzone, which is the first zone you have to fight through.
'Maps' consist of interconnecting little areas where you can fight the enemies, and the first time you enter you need to clear the zone of all of them. You get bonus items/money for finishing them off really fast, so try to do that when you can. Each area consists of a 2D circular battlefield, where if you move one way from your starting point, you'll eventually reach the same starting point. When you enter a zone for the first time, all exits shut off, including the one you came in through. You need to clear the level, at which time all exits become available, not just the one you came through.
You at one point will get a map, which will allow you to see which exits to take to get anywhere. In the map, you'll see that the battle regions look like a field, a blue B, or a purple B. A field means you'll be facing minions you have to wipe out. They'll have a number of stars by them to denote their difficulty. The more stars, the more minions you have to wipe out, and the more difficult they might be. A blue B denotes a mini-boss, usually including a few or one minion. Minions reapper a period afteryou wipe them out until you finish the mini-boss off. A purple B is the final zone's boss, again, same thing with minions as in the mini-boss areas.
Gameplay, again as GH says, takes some getting used to, worse for some others (like me). They're a bit different from what I'm used to, and I find myself pressing the wrong button on many occasions, especially since I've used nintendo systems forever and only just recently got a PS2 (Bah!!!!). It's supposed to be hard to mess up and do a command you don't want to because outside of the [] button being for killing and defending, each command requires two buttons being pressed in sequence, the X button the second to confirm the item use from O button, or special attack from /\ button. Of course, being used to the A/B combination from nintendo where A is confirm and B is cancel, with the opposite being the case with X and O buttons which are in the same layout, you can imagine I go "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" manytimes, and no way to change button commands. If you're used to the PS2, this won't be a problem I'd think though, and for the most part, it's easy to get used to despite some oddities besides my brain being hardwired for that nintendo confirm/cancel.
One thing that you might find annoying is the cute sequence you have to go through to start your game. As soon as you load the game, you start of as a little girl entering an attic with a cat and a book (more books become available if you finish the game with each character, for a total of 5). You pick the cat up to view the drama scenes (Odin Sphere's version of FMVs), and the corresponding book to play as a character. It's cute, but having to go through it each time when you start with only one character available may annoy you. It hasn't annoyed me yet though outside of wondering why a little blonde girl is reading about war and war-related topics.
Oh, one thing you need to know. You're levelling up two things in this game. Your HP, which gets exp by consuming food which grands you both HP exp and heals you somewhat. You heal fully and raise your HP when you level it up. The second thing you can level is your psypher, which is basically your weapon. In the case of Gwendolyn, the magic spear she received from the dead Griselda. The psypher is a magic weapon that powers up by absorbing the souls of dead enemies (well, not really souls, but I'll call them that because that's what it looks like to me
).One final thing. The game includes a 'home' and 'restart' command in the pause menu. Clicking 'restart' will allow you to leave a boss/mini-boss area and go level-up in other areas. Clicking home sends you to the start of the zone, and basically, lets you fight all over again. This is very important for one reason. The game's not easy. I had a bitch of a time fighting the first boss, Belial with HP at level 5 and no special attacks available. I had to eat a total of 5 breads (500HP) and one mulberry (only 20HP, but grands 70exp to your HP level) Another friend having used the home command to go through the zone a second time before going to fight the dragon and didn't take nearly as long or require more than two breads.
So keep in mind that the game encourages and in fact almost requires level grinding unless you possibly play in the easy mode (three levels of difficulty, default being medium). I'd imagine you actually might even need level grinding in easy mode.
Anyhow, I am enjoying it and the challenging aspects of it. It's not for everyone though, and for those who don't like level grinding in RPGs, you probably have no reason to go anywhere near this game.
While that was a good review, I have something to add:
The game is repetitive as hell.
I played through the first two chapters yesterday (just bought it), and I'm bored out of my mind.
The alchemy system is confusing, and you can't hold enough items to make good use of the ones you HAVE. I've had to constantly waste seeds, healing items, and potions for no reason, just so I can pick up new ones...for tutorials.
Even after tutorials, you just can't hold enough items for it to be NOT incredibly frustrating.
I bought it yesterday...I plan on returning it today. Or tomorrow.
The game is repetitive as hell.
I played through the first two chapters yesterday (just bought it), and I'm bored out of my mind.
The alchemy system is confusing, and you can't hold enough items to make good use of the ones you HAVE. I've had to constantly waste seeds, healing items, and potions for no reason, just so I can pick up new ones...for tutorials.
Even after tutorials, you just can't hold enough items for it to be NOT incredibly frustrating.
I bought it yesterday...I plan on returning it today. Or tomorrow.
You do get access to more bags later on to carry more stuff but yeah, it does kinda suck to waste stuff.
The idea though, is that you don't want to be carrying that much in terms of goods and organize them strategically based on your preferences in gameplay style.
But really, with only two bags (8 items per bag I think, so 16 items) at the start of the game, you may want to carry:
- 1 to 3 wearable items (remember, you can only use one at a time, so why carry lots?)
- 0 empty upgrade bottle
- 0 to 6 potions
- The rest should be a mix of food and seeds based on your gameplay style.
I generally keep 4 breads and the rest mulberry seeds so far, and I eat mulberry fruits as soon as they're ripe even if I have full HP, unless I'm entering a mi-boss/boss stage and close to level-up. Using up food items mean you level up your HP and get more hit points meaning you live longer even if you're often overwhelmend by swarms or the like, or chowed down by bosses. Keep that in mind.
My specific carrying list roughly:
- 3 wearable items (power up, souls up, defense up)
- 5 potions (varying on stage or boss)
- 5 breads (increase number of seeds and lower breads at lower levels or if not fighting bosses)
- 1 mulberry fruit
- 1 mulberry seeds
- 1 empty slot
- 0 empty bottles
My strategy:
Wearable items - Use power when attacking with a need to do a lot of damage, defense when defending from a mini-boss or boss attack or have been status effected or low on HP and no HP items, the more glowy orbs/souls one at any other moment to improve your weapon.
Potions - two defense potions and three damage potions (such as napalm) when fighting bosses, any other assortment at any other time. Rarely use status cure potions since they usually do little damage and you can walk them off or button mash to get out of them without suffering too much damage.
Eatables/Seeds: 5 breads equal 500 HP in 50HP increments, mulberries equal 70 EXP to HP, and seeds can be used to get some emergency food once there's few enemies left or if you get close to level up after using up the mulberry.
Empty Slots/Bottles: Bottles are useless until you have at least three bags. It's just not worth using up space for them outside of tutorials, and you'll need the extra empty slot (eat the mulberry fruit to have to a second space even if you have full HP, you only ever need two spaces at a time to use alchemy that I've seen). Once you get more bags it may be worth it, as you'll rarely have enough money to buy everything you'd want, you'll save money by making the potions you know you'll need. Personally, I say don't bother till you have four bags and just have that fourth bag for bottles and those underground thingies.
Also, the alchemy isn't that confusing, I thought. You select a bottle and then another item, and the bottle will upgrade, either a bottle of higher number or an actual usable item. You really shouldn't bother with them though when you have only two bags as mentioned above, but it's not complicated. The only thing I find stupid about alchemy is that after you make a potion, it drops to the ground and you have to pick it up. Why not let it stay in the inventory?
However, I do have to agree with the repeatability of the game, with encounter after encounter per stage, and almost always its the same enemies from the last stage though sometimes with some new nasty trick. I'm enjoying the game enough to play through once (I like the story 'fmv' scenes and bosses), but I seriously doubt that once I finish gwendolyn's story I'll look at playing with one of the other characters, not for a good long while anyhow.
The idea though, is that you don't want to be carrying that much in terms of goods and organize them strategically based on your preferences in gameplay style.
But really, with only two bags (8 items per bag I think, so 16 items) at the start of the game, you may want to carry:
- 1 to 3 wearable items (remember, you can only use one at a time, so why carry lots?)
- 0 empty upgrade bottle
- 0 to 6 potions
- The rest should be a mix of food and seeds based on your gameplay style.
I generally keep 4 breads and the rest mulberry seeds so far, and I eat mulberry fruits as soon as they're ripe even if I have full HP, unless I'm entering a mi-boss/boss stage and close to level-up. Using up food items mean you level up your HP and get more hit points meaning you live longer even if you're often overwhelmend by swarms or the like, or chowed down by bosses. Keep that in mind.
My specific carrying list roughly:
- 3 wearable items (power up, souls up, defense up)
- 5 potions (varying on stage or boss)
- 5 breads (increase number of seeds and lower breads at lower levels or if not fighting bosses)
- 1 mulberry fruit
- 1 mulberry seeds
- 1 empty slot
- 0 empty bottles
My strategy:
Wearable items - Use power when attacking with a need to do a lot of damage, defense when defending from a mini-boss or boss attack or have been status effected or low on HP and no HP items, the more glowy orbs/souls one at any other moment to improve your weapon.
Potions - two defense potions and three damage potions (such as napalm) when fighting bosses, any other assortment at any other time. Rarely use status cure potions since they usually do little damage and you can walk them off or button mash to get out of them without suffering too much damage.
Eatables/Seeds: 5 breads equal 500 HP in 50HP increments, mulberries equal 70 EXP to HP, and seeds can be used to get some emergency food once there's few enemies left or if you get close to level up after using up the mulberry.
Empty Slots/Bottles: Bottles are useless until you have at least three bags. It's just not worth using up space for them outside of tutorials, and you'll need the extra empty slot (eat the mulberry fruit to have to a second space even if you have full HP, you only ever need two spaces at a time to use alchemy that I've seen). Once you get more bags it may be worth it, as you'll rarely have enough money to buy everything you'd want, you'll save money by making the potions you know you'll need. Personally, I say don't bother till you have four bags and just have that fourth bag for bottles and those underground thingies.
Also, the alchemy isn't that confusing, I thought. You select a bottle and then another item, and the bottle will upgrade, either a bottle of higher number or an actual usable item. You really shouldn't bother with them though when you have only two bags as mentioned above, but it's not complicated. The only thing I find stupid about alchemy is that after you make a potion, it drops to the ground and you have to pick it up. Why not let it stay in the inventory?
However, I do have to agree with the repeatability of the game, with encounter after encounter per stage, and almost always its the same enemies from the last stage though sometimes with some new nasty trick. I'm enjoying the game enough to play through once (I like the story 'fmv' scenes and bosses), but I seriously doubt that once I finish gwendolyn's story I'll look at playing with one of the other characters, not for a good long while anyhow.
Here's a tip that you can use that not only doesn't waste items but gives you a lot of Phozons. Notice that when you do alchemy, if you successfully combine a potion, you release Phozons. The number that you release actually depends on the material number that you use to combine that potion. The minimum that is released is 2 phozon. Meaning that making a potion with Material 2 or less will always give you 2 phozons. Making a potion with a Material 3 or more will release phozons respective to the number of the material. So that means making a potion with Material 99 will release 99 phozons.
Here is where the good stuff comes in. If you add a Material to something that doesn't give a potion, you increase the material number by, usually, one. Now also if you add material to material, you will multiply the numbers.
Example, if you have a material 9 and add it to a material 10, you'll get material 90. Or a material 6 to material 6 you'll get material 36. Now when you mix something, only the last digit matters therefore material 10, 20, 30 and so on is considered material 0; material 11, 21, 31 and so on is considered material 1.
So you have material 90, which is considered material 0 and add it to an Onionne. Voila! You'll get Antidote plus 90 Phozons! Very convinient when you want to level up quickly to around level 30+.
That means if you have something you don't need but you feel reluctant to throw away, just add it to a material bottle and increase its number. Be aware that the maximum number for a material bottle is 99. There is no material 100. Also sometimes an item can increase the material number by more than one.
Here is where the good stuff comes in. If you add a Material to something that doesn't give a potion, you increase the material number by, usually, one. Now also if you add material to material, you will multiply the numbers.
Example, if you have a material 9 and add it to a material 10, you'll get material 90. Or a material 6 to material 6 you'll get material 36. Now when you mix something, only the last digit matters therefore material 10, 20, 30 and so on is considered material 0; material 11, 21, 31 and so on is considered material 1.
So you have material 90, which is considered material 0 and add it to an Onionne. Voila! You'll get Antidote plus 90 Phozons! Very convinient when you want to level up quickly to around level 30+.
That means if you have something you don't need but you feel reluctant to throw away, just add it to a material bottle and increase its number. Be aware that the maximum number for a material bottle is 99. There is no material 100. Also sometimes an item can increase the material number by more than one.
Ah yes, I forgot about that little trick, though I didn't know you could end up getting 99 phozons per merged item.
But given that, it's probably worth replacing either a wearable, potion, or bread from my list with an empty bottle for that (or make your own split and make sure you have one empty bottle even before you get more item bags), especially since you get lots of goodies that can go to waste after completing a stage quickly, and it'd work well with the items up ring, that increases the chance of an enemy dropping its own chest of goodies. You'd level your weapon up much faster that way.
But given that, it's probably worth replacing either a wearable, potion, or bread from my list with an empty bottle for that (or make your own split and make sure you have one empty bottle even before you get more item bags), especially since you get lots of goodies that can go to waste after completing a stage quickly, and it'd work well with the items up ring, that increases the chance of an enemy dropping its own chest of goodies. You'd level your weapon up much faster that way.