The “RPG elements” I referred to came in several forms, but they all manage to interfere with the game’s flow in one way or another. A prime example is the ‘POW meter’ which determines how often your character can attack before they become fatigued. I do not see the necessity for such a meter aside from forcing the player to retreat and recharge, in other words: extend the game. There were items which allowed for more liberal spamming of the attacks, but they were uncommon. Other RPG elements include the dialog exchange areas where you do nothing, but talk to characters and have them flesh out the story to you. These were usually found in between worlds and felt very disjointed from the game.

An alchemy system allows for mixing of ingredients into useful potions for buffs and healing. These ingredients can be found in shops and on the battlefield. There are also seeds which you could plant duringbattle which absorb precious phozons in return for food and other ingredients. Have you ever seen sheep grow from seeds? Play Odin Sphere and you will see plenty of silliness like this. I will admit that I enjoyed the alchemy and seed planting, however on more than one occasion, I wasted seeds thanks to lack of phozons available.

Surprisingly, all dialog found in Odin Sphere was voiced and delivered quite well, albeit melodramatic. I was very pleased by the voiceover decision since it brought a lot of needed enthusiasm into what would otherwise be an unimaginably dull story. Hey, somebody has to sell the story! To be frank, the story was nothing special . That’s too bad because, I would have gladly forced my way through the game if the story was compelling enough.

So there you have it. As pretty as Odin Sphere is, as soon as its beauty and charm ceased to impress me, I had to drudge through until I could take no more. I stopped playing Odin Sphere just before the end of the 4^thcharacter since every time I looked at the game I cringed and sighed; it was no longer fun. What pains me more is the fact that Odin Sphere’s problems would have vanished if they had dropped the RPG elements and converted the game into a side scrolling hack and slash. Shoehorning the RPG elements into the game proved detrimental. By funneling the game’s story and characters through a flimsy story and an extremely basic combat system, Odin Sphere turned from something charming into something only the most forgiving could enjoy.

Verdict:
For Fans Only

For more information, check out the Odin Sphere official website.

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Tags: LTTP, odin sphere, rpg
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.