Odin Sphere PlayStation 2

1. Kaprawiec

   Oct 13, 2014

   10

   Best game from Vanillaware i played. Beautifull graphics, excellent combat system, cool cooking motive and overall a great atmosphere. I wishBest game from Vanillaware i played. Beautifull graphics, excellent combat system, cool cooking motive and overall a great atmosphere. I wish they made it accessible on my Vita, because it would be perfect to have on the go.
   Graphics 10/10
   Sound 10/10
   Gameplay 9+/10
   Verdict: Wayyy better than Dragons Crown, its one of the best games i played on my PS2. Strongly recommend it.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
2. ScottJ.

   May 28, 2007

   10

   This game is a must-own for anyone with a PS2. I was hyped about it and I wasn't let down. It's a wonderful blend of genres that This game is a must-own for anyone with a PS2. I was hyped about it and I wasn't let down. It's a wonderful blend of genres that brings to mind action RPGs like Secret of Mana (if it had been heavier on the action and lighter on the RPG). This game is pretty enough that your friends might enjoy just watching you play.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
4. GregG.

   Sep 15, 2007

   10

   I held back on this game for just a bit, because of the comments about repetitive gameplay. However, I finally gave in and picked it up, and I held back on this game for just a bit, because of the comments about repetitive gameplay. However, I finally gave in and picked it up, and it is an absolute masterpiece. The item/cooking/alchemy system is brilliant, the combat is a blast, and it's nice to see an RPG that actually requires a bit of skill. A must-have, and one of the best games I've played in years. In all fairness, the voice-acting is poor, and there is definitely slowdown. But those problems really pale in comparison to this game's strengths.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
5. JohnV.

   May 25, 2007

   8

   The Good: Amazing artwork (sometimes jaw-dropping) Addicting gameplay (especially the farming/cooking aspects) Old school feel (like a The Good: Amazing artwork (sometimes jaw-dropping) Addicting gameplay (especially the farming/cooking aspects) Old school feel (like a super-charged SNES game) The Bad: Load times (my god, 25 seconds to enter a restaurant) Repetitive levels Sometimes stiff animations Initially bland storyline Bottom Line: I thoroughly enjoyed this game, although it falls short of perfect due to its load times and sometimes stiff feel.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. VidyaBum

   Jul 30, 2014

   8

   Odin Sphere is almost great. As in it's got everything to be great but falls short. In pretty much every aspect this game ends up feeling aOdin Sphere is almost great. As in it's got everything to be great but falls short. In pretty much every aspect this game ends up feeling a little too clunky and unpolished to truly be a great game, but the spirit is there, that's for sure.
   
   Combat is addictive and fun and never stops pushing you back to the wall. The swarms of enemies can be a load of fun to beat into a pulp and excel at giving you a sense of constant threat; Simply put, you're never bored with this game's combat.
   
   The alchemy system offers great variety for fighting, healing and different powerups and options such has halving damage or unlimited power(which is necessary to attack constantly and not get tired). There is an insane amount of time to lose in trying every potion and finding the use of each of them.
   
   Visuals are excellent and the music and general sound effects are very good too. The story is divided by the tales of five different characters, each of them bringing a new point of view on the world's events, and each of them being the protagonist in their own little story(none of them being short, it usually takes me 6 hours to finish any of them).
   
   With that said, the weakness of this game shows up in every single aspect I just mentioned.
   
   For the visuals, while the drawings and many animations are really good, some aren't, and it shows particularly with the cutscenes and the characters' mouth movements. It honestly looks poor. This isn't a big problem but it harms the attention I could give to the story if I wasn't so bothered by how unnatural some movements look.
   
   For the story, the writing is all about the fantasy: characters speak like heroic fantasy characters and not in any way like real people. This has the merit of reinforcing the game's fantasy side, but it weakens the invidividual characters quite a bit since they don't feel very real. For a fantasy story it might not be a big problem, but it's told by portrayal of five protagonists.
   
   None of these characters are bad BTW, but I can recall only one that I truly appreciated, the Pooka Prince. Rest ranged from eh to ok I guess. None shoned.
   
   For the sound, it's ok. Really, I'm always very critical of music and I found this game to be ok, no more. Some themes get boring but never tiring. It's on the good side, but there isn't a song I would listen to out of the game.
   
   Now for the two really bothersome aspects that keep this game from being great. While the elements cited earlier certainly harm the game, in my eyes especially because the story is one of the stronger points of this game, it's really the clunkiness of the combat and alchemy that give me a lot of trouble.
   
   For the Alchemy, it's fairly simple: everything relies on you picking up different vegetables and items and mixing them together in a bottle. With one different potion for every letter of the alphabet, so you'll very often have to go back into the menu to see what potions you can make with one ingredients. That's a time loss.
   Then you have to take care of the mixing itself: pick an empty bottle, fill it up with certain items, and then add your final ingredient. Except it's terribly long to make. You go in the menu, select the bottle, select your first ingredient you want to sacrifice, and mix. The bottle falls on the ground. Pick it up, go in the menu, find the bottle again, select the second item, the bottle falls again.
   When you have to add 8 random items plus a final ingredient to make just one potion, that shouldn't take you to pick up the same bottle and re-select it 8 times!
   To say the least this is long and unpleasantly designed.
   
   Then there is the combat. The biggest problem I have is the control. You will face enemies in midair that demand good jumping controls, which this game very sorely lacks. You'll press the button and do a huge jump, and then you'll tap the button and do the same jump. To attack an enemy just a little above you, you have to do this huge jump up and hit it on the way down, as the input lag can sometimes forget your command to jump if you press the attack button right after the jump button.
   
   Some bosses such as Wagner or the sorcerers are outright dickish with attacks that are extremely hard to avoid if not impossible, or immediate teleportation as soon as you hit them. There is nothing more frustrating than constantly trying to just do a simple 4-combo attack and be surprised by a miniboss that literally teleports above you and deals a huge amount of damage. The crazy number of enemies in both normal fights and boss fights is the worst: sometimes, you'll get swarmed by literally 15 foes at the same time, and good luck dodging that with bad jumping and generally imperfect controls.
   
   To sum up the combat, the biggest problem I have is that OS wants to be hard. It wants to be challenging with lots of monsters, bosses and very fast and varied patterns. But the control is just too clunky for you to face the challenge well enough.
   
   An almost excellent game that lacks polish.… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful
7. Stealthgear

   Jan 20, 2013

   7

   Great Graphics and its gets addictive. This is more of a strategy game than action game. If you button mash you will not win. I think theyGreat Graphics and its gets addictive. This is more of a strategy game than action game. If you button mash you will not win. I think they should have allowed more action. The herb mixing system is very fun. I almost have to print out a guide because I do not have good memory. The story is OK and the voice acting is awesome. Its not a full RPG experience though. The levels are all round circles...hence the Sphere. That was disappointing to me. This is probably the best Atlus game, since every other Atlus game I've tried I consider for retarded people (sorry). If you wanted streets of rage or devil may cry, you will be disappointed, but its an OK game and its pretty long. They could have made the levels more interesting. They could have also made the save system more apparent. Its a better than average game and you should probably get it if you have PS2. Its better than Persona and all those RPGs once you get the hang of it. Make sure you turn on easy mode though. Beautiful game so get it.… Expand

   • 0 of 2 users found this helpful
8. PneumaticHat

   Nov 8, 2012

   5

   I see what Vanilla Ware were going for, but the game just isn't that accessible or consistently enjoyable. You will die without grinding forI see what Vanilla Ware were going for, but the game just isn't that accessible or consistently enjoyable. You will die without grinding for the right items for the right rooms. You will die without grinding for the right amount of experience points. You will die for trying to avoid stockpiling healing items to cope with the tons of unavoidable hits. Odin Sphere is a farming-intensive game, plain and simple, and if not for the gorgeous production values it would have raked in mediocre scores from every reviewer around. Even the graphics manage to hurt it, as the PS2 version suffers from terrible, unforgivable slowdown and the worst load times since Shadowman. Frequently, restarting a level (which you will do, all the time, either because you died or you're grinding), means a 30-second load screen, skipping a cutscene, then another 30-second load screen. Between each stage's 7 or 8 areas are 10 to 15-seconds of loading, and each room then takes another 15 seconds to load enemies in. Coming into a battle ill-equipped, which also happens constantly and can make some battles literally impossible, means at least 5 minutes of sitting around staring at a spinning icon while you replay the entire level. This is far too frustrating to merit the slim chance of a smooth playthrough.
   
   At the end of the day, Odin Sphere is fun very rarely, and only once you've mixed enough potions and slogged through enough repeats of the same dungeons to setup a perfect battle. That really disappoints me, too, because freed of all the limiting nonsense and flat terrain, the core game would revolve around solid 2D platforming goodness. I love to see experiments in game style, but originality can't hold its novelty when weak design keeps taking center stage.… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful

See all 19 User Reviews