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Odin Sphere |
Odin Sphere is an action / RPG released on Playstation 2 on May 22, 2007, developed by Vanillaware and published by Atlus. This game is considered as a spiritual successor of Princess Crown another game of Atlus. The game is inspired by Norse mythology, echoing some references as the Valkyries or the god Odin.
The game is divided into 5 stories following the adventures of 5 characters in the world of Erion. The universe of the game is the scene of a great battle between the country of Ragnanivale, realm of the Demon LordOdin, and the people of fairies of Ringford forest, headed by the Queen Elfaria. The two armies clash on the ruins of the city of Valentine for possession of a mysterious Cauldron containing a terrible power.
The game begins by taking control of the daughter of Odin named Gwendolyn, who is a Valkyrie. The second scenario make the player embody Cornelius, prince of the kingdom of Titania, transformed into a Pooka, kind of humanoid rabbits. Then there is the Princess Mercedes, daughter of Elferia who will bear a heavy burden. The fifth story is devoted to Oswald, a mysterious black knight. Finally Velvet, princess of the ruined kingdom Valentine, is the heroin of the last chapter. All the stories of these 5 characters will intersect at many points providing information on the global history. They all are fighting their way in using weapons called Psypher forged from special crystals.
The game has 2D of rare quality, providing a very strong artistic style. The animation is perfect like an interactive cartoon. Graphically speaking the game is a big hit. We have to cross various and beautiful environments, such as the Netherworld, ruled by queen Odette, or the volcanic kingdom of King Onyx.
Each character has a noticeably different gameplay, for example Princess Mercedes fights by using his crossbow, while the Pooka prince armed with a short sword can make effective air attacks. The progression in the various stages is singular. We advance in circular areas moving in horizontal scrolling. Each level is filled with enemies and has a boss at the end. Every enemy killed releases phozons, a kind of small orbs that increase the power of Psypher in order to launch devastating attacks.
The game also includes 2 interesting gameplay elements: the alchemy and cooking. We can thus use alchemy by collecting material bottles and ingredients in the stages for concocting elixirs. The cooking can only be practiced by going into the restaurant. With the proper ingredients and a few coins we can be buy dishes and desserts. We must nevertheless have found the recipe of each dish in order to cook it. The dishes cooked give points once eaten which increase permanently the health points of the heroes. Some ingredients such as fruit should be picked on trees that need to grow in the stages by planting seed and then giving it phozons.
Odin Sphere is a very good Action / RPG with the perfect 2D graphics proposing a rich and exciting adventure, even if the action suffers from time to time of embarrassing slowdowns.
