Odin Sphere is freaking wonderful

What's so freaking wonderful? The Story, the artwork, the music, and the gameplay. What else is there? In short, this game is oh, so good and I enjoyed every aspect of it.

At first the gameplay did not appeal to me. The game is somewhat of a cross between a 2D brawler and an RPG. I didn't like the 2D brawler feel of the game; it was too repetitive. Adding the RPG elements took this feeling away and I immediately fell in love with one key aspect of combat: Every battle is repeatable. If you fail to beat a group of enemies or a boss, you get an infinite number of chances. The game is automatically restored to the beginning of the battle; no saving, quick-saving, or thinking involved! I wish this was true of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. I think it would encourage more experimentation in battles if this was the case.



The story of Odin Sphere is what shocked and delighted me the most about playing. I wasn't aware at how forgiving I had become regarding tired plot lines in my games. The standard RPG plot goes something like this: A band of rebels teams up to save the world against all odds. The standard 2D brawler plot goes something like this: Those guys are bad; kill them. The mixture of the two genres has produced a storyline that is deeper than anything else I can remember. The characters are deep and have very real emotions.

The biggest failing of Odin Sphere is the repetition. You play as one of five characters in the game, not in a party, but as an individual with a unique story. All the characters inhabit the same world and travel down the same paths and explore the same maps and fight the same bosses. Every time you begin a new character you start at the ground level and have to work your way up. And the method for working up is exactly the same as it was before. There are five characters in the game, so you essentially play through the same game five times. They mix up the fighting mechanic, but nothing can cover up the fact that they really phoned it in when it comes to the number of levels and bosses.

However, the repetition CANNOT be too deep a criticism. Every single role playing game is repetitive; it practically defines the genre! I can't tell you how many wolves I killed in Final Fantasy XII, nor can I tell you how many slimes I killed in Dragon Quest VIII. Repetition is the name of the game. And the story of Odin Sphere pulls you through.

The artwork is beautiful. Everything has a hand-painted look to it, even the character designs and animations. This helps to create a fantastical world that becomes the perfect backdrop for the fairly-tale-like story. The outrageously huge king Odin is ridiculously masculine. The fairy kingdom is lit by fireflies and populated by gnomes, fairies and unicorns. The lava-filled fire realm glows with the light of bubbling lava and outlines the fiery vixens you must defeat. There are cities in the clouds inhabited by bird women, and cities underground inhabited by pooka. The world is so fantastical and rich that it really keeps you interested. I could spend an hour just watching the background pass; it's that beautiful. It's fun to get lost in the fantasy of this world.



There's another aspect of the artwork that appeals to me; let's call it fan-service. One of the characters, named Velvet, has a dark red riding-hood-like costume covering her head and not much else. She has dark stockings that come up to mid thigh, a revealing bikini-skirt, and a belly dancer's top, complete with gold ruffles. When she moves or changes direction, her chest jiggles. To top it off, her weapon of choice is a chain, that she holds wrapped around her wrists. The queen of the underworld has no flesh on her except on her face and gi-normous chest, which she keeps carassing. It's all fan service. It's so Japanese. I love it!

Bottom line, this game is fantastic. I can't imagine it keeping non-RPG fans happy, so it's not for them. But if you like the genre then you just might love this game, as I do.