Odin Sphere: Repitition in a great game, is still great gameplay

I played through as Gwendolyn, and that was fantastic; great story and gameplay. But the story was over after about 10 hours. I knew from the instruction booklet that I could control different characters so I guessed, correctly, that when I was done with the Gwendolyn story I would be in control of another character.

Cornelius was next, and the story, at first, was even more intriguing to me because it's begins before Gwendolyn's story and fills in some of the details. But, almost all the boss battles were the same bosses, who used the same tactics. And I only remember two levels that were different.

Now I'm on Mercedes' story. And the bosses are the same again.

I had intended to criticize the game when I began this post, but now that I've sat to think about it, I don't think I will. I was going to say that the repetition was getting old, and I do wish that they could throw in a few different bosses to fight. But, now that I think about it, how repetitive is Final Fantasy? The boss battles are unique, but everything else is just as repetitive, if not more so.

Aside from that, there are new recipes, but you can still use the recipes you collected before. Same goes for alchemy. You start fresh with each new character; they're at level 1 and they only have two bags for inventory, and they don't have access to the better ingredients you need to make the better recipes. Of course I won't know until I've finished more of the game (I'm at 20 hours and I don't think I'm even half way through) but it seems like they've come up with a unique way to force you to level all your characters. Instead of forming some kind of unlikely party they just tell the story of each character individually. And it works.

The latest character, Mercedes, is quite different in her combat style. She has a crossbow that controls more like at machine gun. It requires reloading, instead of recharging, and she can fly indefinitely. The first two characters controlled much the same, but Mercedes is quite different. Most enemies I kill are off screen; I rely on the radar much more.

And, best of all, the story continues to be engaging. It's taken a bit of a turn for the silly, with talking frogs and unicorn soldiers, but it's a refreshing break. The fairies are all very hot! They're all hips and legs, and they all wear bikini bottoms.

I hate for my first mention of the beauty of the artwork in this game to be a pervy one about how hot the fairies are, but there it is.