Just ordered Odin Sphere

[The Creation]

i haven't even heard of this game till this afternoon. it has only been released for 3 days and already it's getting rare to find. better act fast if you want it.

in case you don't know what it is. it's a 2d side scrolling beat em up RPG not unlike valkyrie profile. it's the great reviews and the amazing artwork that got me interested. the only downside i saw was the slowdown.

check out gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/odinsphere/index.html?q=odin%20sphere&tag=result;title;0) for more info.

[HitokiriShadow]

From what little I know of Valkyrie Profile, they play vastly differently. I picked up my copy the other day. I'm not sure how many copies GameCrazy got, but the only other person that pre-ordered it there was one of the employees. My thoughts on the game based on about two hours of play can be found here (http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/showpost.php?post/454481/).

[Chacranajxy]

i haven't even heard of this game till this afternoon. it has only been released for 3 days and already it's getting rare to find. better act fast if you want it.

in case you don't know what it is. it's a 2d side scrolling beat em up RPG not unlike valkyrie profile. it's the great reviews and the amazing artwork that got me interested. the only downside i saw was the slowdown.

check out gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/odinsphere/index.html?q=odin%20sphere&tag=result;title;0) for more info.

It is... um... completely unlike Valkyrie Profile. Have you played Valkyrie Profile?

[The Creation]

actually i was just giving it as an example. since valkyrie profile is also a 2d side scrolling rpg (can't think of any other rpg that works this way, at least i can't.) i know the combat is obviously different since one is real time beat em up and the other is semi real time turn based.

by the way, is the slow down really as bad as people claim it to be?

[Johnny]

Yeah, can't wait for this. My copy shipped on Wednesday and unfortunately didn't arrive today, but I should have it on Monday.

[MadL]

by the way, is the slow down really as bad as people claim it to be?

I'm in the middle of Stage 3 of Valkyrie right now, so after two Big Bosses and probably five or six Mid-Bosses, I haven't noticed any big slowdown issues. The only thing I can think of is that sometimes the game stops for a second when you hit a chest or score a hit chain on an enemy, but I'd treat it as dramatic effect; doesn't seem to affect gameplay (any difficulty with the game I'm having is due to my own sucky hand-eye coordination ;) ).

I'm enjoying Odin Sphere so far; beautiful graphics, pretty good voice acting so far (listening to the English track), and to this point it's been challenging without being cheap. Like Hitokiri Shadow said, one of the big challenges is item management, because empty inventory slots are at a premium.

[The Creation]

thanks. just curious, did you play it on ps3? is there even a difference? i heard ps3 has faster load time but i don't have a ps3 anyway. i hope my old ps2 can handle this.

[GHardin]

Currently I am at the beginning of Valkyrie 3-1; I have encountered a little slowdown, but it's nothing major...it really only happened as I got hit repeatedly by a cheap attack. Other than that, I can't say there's much wrong yet. The game does have frequent loading, but it's fairly quick and painless.

[martod]

I've been to four different video game stores. All sold out of Odin Sphere. One clerk said they only received two copies outside of the preorders. :sigh:

I'm not worried about the slowdown that much. I am worried about the difficulty. Is the game as nightmarishly hard as some reviews make it sound?

[Soulblazer]

I bought it the day it came out. I am going to play it next after I do a few more things in the newest .hack game. It may seem to be hard to find now, but if it is really selling well and getting good reviews, I am sure they will make more copies.

[HitokiriShadow]

I've been to four different video game stores. All sold out of Odin Sphere. One clerk said they only received two copies outside of the preorders. :sigh:

I'm not worried about the slowdown that much. I am worried about the difficulty. Is the game as nightmarishly hard as some reviews make it sound?

Most of the slowdown I've had is when I was hitting multiple enemies at a time, and by multiple I mean like 8 or so. In those situations, the slowdown didn't really hurt me. I haven't really encountered it outside of that.

As for the difficulty... it's not nightmarish (yet) but it is certainly challenging. And it probably will get VERY difficult as the game goes on. Individually, most enemies aren't much of a problem. But you frequently deal with packs of enemies, usually with some that can induce status effects. Both bosses I've fought so far have been pretty tough. The first one took two tries and I used most of my items in the process. The second boss only took one try, but I used all of my healing items and barely survived (with about 10HP).

[MadL]

thanks. just curious, did you play it on ps3? is there even a difference? i heard ps3 has faster load time but i don't have a ps3 anyway. i hope my old ps2 can handle this.

I'm using a PS2, so you should be fine. That's the beauty of consoles -- no worrying about having to upgrade your video card every year ;) (actually, if anything, I'd think the PS3 would have more trouble since it's acting as an emulator, IIRC).

Re: the difficulty -- I'd agree with HitokiriShadow's "challenging, not (yet) nightmarish" assessment. For me, there was a bit of a learning curve at the beginning; I ended up dying several times early on before I got the hang of things. The bosses seem to be scaling up pretty quickly -- I thought Stage 3's Big Boss had a much longer lifespan than the first two.

Individual non-boss battles within stages are ranked from one to five stars. One- to three- star stages are usually reasonable; personally, I've found that I usually die at least the first time I hit a four- or five-star stage. Even the toughest stages can be beaten, though; you can usually discover what went wrong the last time and be prepared for it when you return (fortunately, there's a "Retry" option to let you start over from just before the battle with the items and status you had previously).

Sometimes an enemy will get in a cheap shot, but there's been no controller-throwing "boss unleashes miraculous 25-hit combo just as you're about to deliver the final blow" moments for me so far. Overall, I'd this game plays tough but fair at present (I'm in the middle of Stage Four of Valkyrie at the moment). It just takes some trial and error to find out what works and what doesn't.

Do be sure to save often, though. :)

Edit: Okay, I'm at Chapter Four's Big Boss, and the bosses are definitely scaling up very quickly. I'd say it's about to tip over into "nightmarish" -- this boss has a weapon that wipes out three-fourths of your life with one hit.

Edit #2: Up against Chapter Five's Big Boss now. Seems that the designers decided the tough-but-fair angle was too much work and made a cheap-shot artist instead. Nothing like trying to beat a boss who can kill you with one hit from across the room.

Edit #3: Still at Chapter Five's end battle. I'd say it was "nightmarishly" difficult now. I'm sorry, but when you can carefully winnow down the boss's life bit-by-bit until it's almost dead, only to have the boss kill you with one @#$&!*! hit from across the room, that's just cheap, IMO.

[pete5883]

by the way, is the slow down really as bad as people claim it to be?
I've heard the slowdown is worse with some of the later characters in the game.

[MadL]

Odin Sphere does slow down quite a bit during stages in the Netherworld, sometimes to a crawl, especially if you've got the level map on.

[Soulblazer]

The slow down in the epilogue boss fight for the first character can get pretty bad. It all depends on how many moving objects are on the screen. Since more and more creatures are spawning around the map, it can get very ugly.

[untoldsorrow]

The slow down in the epilogue boss fight for the first character can get pretty bad. It all depends on how many moving objects are on the screen. Since more and more creatures are spawning around the map, it can get very ugly.


That sucks. Unfortunately I can't find a copy for me to pick up. Then again, I haven't been looking hard, hopefully I can find it this week since GS is having a B2G1 Free sale on used games.

[The Creation]

just beat this wonderful game. truly an outstanding overlooked gem. i also bought ff12 LE from ebgames. haven't played it yet but i doubt the characters will be as memorable as this one (LOVED the character designs.) now if they can just make an odin sphere anime.

[Soulblazer]

So did Book 6 require any extra leveling of the 5 characters to have any success?

[indigo0086]

I put it on my goozex request list but it's going to be a while before anyone trades it in.

[The Creation]

well in my case i went back and made sure everyone was properly stocked with powerful healing/supportive items such as elixirs, painkillers, unlimited power (a MUST for Mercedes,) regeneration.... i didn't even know i could make healing tonics in Gwendolyn's book so i bought lots of milk ha stupid me.

my suggestion to you is that you should level up your characters to about 40 psypher and maybe 35 hp (eat lots of food, i ate napple sorbet/napple pie.) if you wanna unlock ALL of the ending scenes you need to beat Armageddon 4 times i believe.

oh and if you are going back to level up different characters use soft reset function: R1+L1+R2+L2+SELECT+START. i didn't know that when i first played so i had to hard reset.

[cxt217]

Interesting thing...I was in Best Buy earlier today and saw that they were carrying it.

So it seems to be making some impact (Best Buy is the 2nd largest retailer of video games after Wal-Mart in the US.).

C.T.

[Invisible Crane]

Is this game getting a UK release?

[Johnny]

Is this game getting a UK release?

None planned. May get a release down the line but if ever it'll be towards the end of the year I'd imagine, if even this year at all.