Odin Sphere is captivating from the second it begins. The fantastical storybook art style and epic score are like little pieces of candy that entice the player and beg to be consumed. The 2D hand-drawn artwork surpasses most any game on the market, with highly detailed and oddly caricatured character design, as well as unusually interesting backgrounds on which those individuals perform. Nearly everything is in motion - characters undulate with each breath, trees wave in the wind, stars swirl, mist wafts, etc. The world of Odin Sphere seems very much alive and possesses almost disturbingly fluid properties.
The entire concept of Odin Sphere is very creative. All of the events in the game take place within a small girl's storybook, and at the outset we see her sit down in a big comfy chair to do a bit of reading. Each area of the world (or chapter in the book) is made up of a web of smaller areas, connected at specific points. As in most beat-em-up titles, each of the stages is a straight 2D run from left to right, with various enemies showing up to spoil the party. The unique thing about Odin Sphere's levels is that they circle back around to the starting point, and form a continuous loop that can be traversed in either direction. Since there is no endpoint, the level is complete once all foes have been vanquished. At that time the player is scored, ranked, and rewarded based on performance, and the stage's exits open up. Because levels arranged in a web-like fashion, the path by which players may complete a chapter is not always the same. One may wish to defeat all enemies and collect all possible items, or alternatively, may want to make a beeline for the area's boss.
Probably the most stunning examples of the game's aesthetic might are the boss characters, of which there are many. It's too bad that they are often so large that the focused confines of the screen are too small to display them in all their glory. As a matter of fact, it is uncommon that many of the larger, nicer-looking enemies are on the screen for any great length of time, as the hectic hack-n-slash gameplay keeps players running all over the place...all of the time. This is not a terrible tragedy, however, because gathering too many sprites on the screen at one time could cripple Odin Sphere's fragile frame rate. As early as the title screen, slowdown is evident, and the problem reappears throughout the game - at times dipping near unplayability.
Odin Sphere's gameplay is very interesting. The game is caught between the classifications of action/rpg and side-scrolling beat-em-up, but never achieves the quintessential feel of what either genre is capable of being. As beat-em-ups (or hack-n-slashes) go, Odin Sphere is rather repetitive, boiling down to basic mashing of the square button with some aerial maneuvers thrown in and a HEALTHY amount of attack-and-retreat tactics. The game features special skills and items, but the aforementioned strategy generally remains intact. The RPG elements in the game are limited to gaining new psypher abilities by way of experience points, buying and selling items at vendors scattered about the world, and performing alchemy.
Alchemy, or maybe just inventory management as a whole, is an exercise in tedium that many gamers would do better to pass up. That isn't really an option, though, as it it pretty integral to the gameplay. Players are allowed such a limited carrying capacity that it is hard to make it through a full chapter without spending a significant amount of time juggling items. Most of these items are either synthesized from "material" and some other item or grown from seeds fed with phozon (the game's experience points). While the idea of creating a brand new item by combining its constituent parts is what I'll take the liberty to call "appealing," the execution of the idea just feels like an out-of-place or tacked-on endeavor.
The audio in the game is both beautiful and painful at the same time. The musical score is a beautifully orchestrated and not-so-repetitive pleasure to listen to. Nothing strikes a sore note, so to speak. The voice acting, on the other hand, can leave ACTUAL sores all over your ear canal if you are exposed to it for too long. Dialog is generally ridiculous, and despite a handful of solid performances, the actors make listening to said dialog even more of a chore. I found that changing the spoken language can provide some respite, simply because I don't know exactly what each sentence should sound like in Japanese. That workaround seems slightly counter-productive, however, since gamers really just want to hear smooth dialog - in a language they understand.
Overall, playing Odin Sphere is much like tearing through golden wrapping to find an empty box, or wearing a pair of perfectly shined, but soleless shoes. Something is missing, and that something is essential. The game is worth a rent, though, if for no other reason than to experience the brilliant veneer on this only quasi-enjoyable and experimental game.
P.S. - Bonus love for the cool title.
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