Topic: Odin Sphere

[Quemaqua]

Check out the movies and screens at GSpot.  The game looks totally crazy and interesting.  I really don't know what to make of it, but it looks really neat.  I'm waiting for a review, but it seems like something I could find fun.  The visual style is really unique, and you can see this much better if you look at the images and *then* look at the movies.  The movies are necessary, I think.

[angrykeebler]

i have this pre-ordered... the 4 scores from Famitsu are 9/9/7/7 so apparently it is a pretty cool game

[Quemaqua]

Glad to hear it.  Methinks I'll have to snag it at some point when I become independently wealthy.

EDIT - GameAlmighty review which seems pretty positive.  I dig.  And Sakimoto does the soundtrack, which makes me pretty happy.  I'll have to grab this before it gets hard to find.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade have been raving about the game in their newsposts and podcasts.  I would like to buy it, but I'm not even going to think about getting another RPG or game until I finish Rogue Galaxy.

[sirean_syan]

Apparently they didn't get Sony's memo to stop making cool games for the PS2.

I like... and want. I imagine this is the sort of game that'd be worth picking up quickly.

[Quemaqua]

If my credit card is paid off by Tuesday, I'll be getting it... Tuesday.  I guess instead of Dawn of Mana, which I'll put off until I feel less sad about it potentially being not fun.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I'm pathetic.  I preordered Odin Sphere and Dawn of Mana today.  They come in Wednesday.  But actually, I'm really, really looking for OS even more now because I've been playing Princess Crown, the Jap-only Saturn game that Odin Sphere is supposedly the spiritual successor to.  It was released by Atlus in Japan for the PSP in 2005, and sadly they didn't take this opportunity to give it to us either, which is a real shame, but I did find lots of translational materials online, so I've been printing several hundred pages of it at work (oh god I hope they don't catch me).  It isn't too difficult to play if you've got a translation, as a lot of the menu stuff is either graphical or actually in English, and the dialogue is typical RPG-style stuff so it's easy to follow along with on a separate page.  Anyway, it's totally fun, cute, and really gorgeous looking, so I absolutely can't wait to see how nice Odin Sphere looks.  The gameplay is really quite unique and fun, though really simple, and while there isn't much in the way of attacks, you get a lot of items to play with that sort of help alleviate that.  But the presentation is amazing.  I can't believe they didn't bring the PSP version to English audiences.  It's the most idiotic thing I can imagine.  We never got it, there's obviously enough people interested for someone to translate it, and the PSP lacks a lot of quality titles, not to mention anything even remotely similar to this.  And they wouldn't even have to record voices!  Just replace text!  Arg!  I'm almost inclined to write to Atlus about it because I"d love to have an official translation.  It's really unique and fun.

The Magical Underworld Store version of the game is only 100MB, so I highly recommend trying to nab it and play it with the translational stuff.  You can find all that here, though I also have a document with it in non-HTML format (which is missing a couple chapters, but is mostly complete).  Combine those with a FAQ on what the items do, and you're good to go!  If you can't find a copy of the game or are confused on anything, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

EDIT - Sorry, forgot the link.  Here it is again in full - http://www.andriasang.com/princesscrown/pcrown/translation.html

EDIT x2 - I am completely in love with this fucking game.  No, seriously.  I can't put it down, and that's fairly agonizing when I'm forced to carry 180 some odd pages around with me when I play it.  If Odin Sphere is anything like this, you better go get it before it disappears into cult classic land never to be seen again.  And again, if you have the capability, try Princess Crown.  It's amazing fun and a half.

[angrykeebler]

Picking this up today! I am excited!

[Quemaqua]

I picked it up today also, but I don't want to start it because I haven't finished Princess Crown yet!  =T  I'm thinking maybe I'll tackle Dawn of Mana first.  I don't know.  Damn it.

EDIT - GSpot has the review.  Gotta' say, less than I was expecting, especially given what I've been experiencing with Princess Crown.  My guess is this was scored low, but time will tell I guess.  Still, the review is positive on the whole, and I don't think any of his complaints are valid except for the framerate issue.  That kinda' sucks, but ah well.  The item stuff is half the fun in PC, so I can't think of that as a problem.

EDIT x2 - Also of note: Hitoshi Sakimoto did the soundtrack!  I absolutely loved him with FFXII, so this pleases me, though they spelled his name wrong on the back of the box, haha.  Hiroshi.  I was confused for a minute.

[JacksRag(e)]

So, I picked it up yesterday.  The game's beautiful and punishing.  Sometimes, those guys just overwhelm you, buh.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Fuck, why did I watch the video review on Gamespot?  Now I really want the game, fuck.  I think I'm getting close to beating Rogue Galaxy, now I just need to money to get Odin Sphere, hopefully my next paycheck on the 31st will cover it.

[Quemaqua]

At least it's only $40 instead of $50!

EDIT - GameRankings says that people dig it.  The user rating is only 7 something, but almost all the reviews are 80+.  Two (RPG Fan and RPGamer, both sites I trust) are in the 90s.  The only ones that are in the 70s are GSpot and HonestGamers, and I already kinda' thought GSpot's review didn't seem terribly spot on.  I can't judge too harshly because I haven't played it, but from playing Princess Crown and watching vids of it, I'm quite sure it'll be a 90s game for me.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I got this game yesterday and I'm loving it.  I'm probably about 6 hours in I think.  The learning curve is a little bit higher than your normal RPG, but I'm starting to get the hang of things now.  So far I have to agree with some of Gamespot's comments, the slowdown is noticeable, especially on boss battles, but it doesn't cripple you or anything.  Also the item storage system is a bit weird, you buy extra bags to hold more stuff, so I redid a stage 2 times to get some money to buy 3 extra bags to the point where I couldn't equip anymore, now I'm running into vendors who are selling slightly bigger bags and I can buy them but not equip them, its kind of frustrating and it will piss me off if I fucked myself somehow on that, unless there's some way I can unequip a bag I don't know about.  The game is pretty damn fun despite the little negative things about it.

EDIT: Okay it seems I didn't screw myself on the bags, so that complaint isn't valid, hooray!

[JacksRag(e)]

You know, I've been playing for a couple hours and gone through a couple bosses, but I still haven't noticed any lag or slowdown at all.  Everything's been smooth the entire time.  Odd.

[TheOtherBelmont]

You know, I've been playing for a couple hours and gone through a couple bosses, but I still haven't noticed any lag or slowdown at all.  Everything's been smooth the entire time.  Odd.

The most noticeable slowdown for me happened on the Chapter 3 and 4 bosses.  It wasn't all that bad though, I was still able to play just fine.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I am loving this game, I'm about 20 hours in.  I really like how they borrow elements from Norse mythology and lots of stuff from Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen".

[TheOtherBelmont]

Yay for triple posts!  This deserves another post though, I just beat the game and clocked in at about 43 hours.  I loved it, the minor flaws of the game (the slowdown and loading times) don't take hardly anything away from the game whatsoever.  The story, artwork, and music all went together to craft something amazing.  I won't divulge too much info on the story as to not ruin it for Sy, Que, or anyone that is playing.  I think GPW would like this game seeing as he is a fan of Valkyrie Profile and this game has some similarities to it, especially the Norse mythology.  I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs and maybe even action/sidescroller fans.

The spoiler ahead is very, very minor and doesn't ruin the story just a certain gameplay element you may want to consider reading about:

(click to show/hide)

A word to anyone playing this game though, I looked up if there was multiple endings based on the actions you do in the last section of the game and there is.  Luckily, I managed to get the true ending, which is very fulfilling compared to some of the others.  This is just a minor spoiler but it is important if you want to get the true ending which is really worth seeing.  After you beat the books with the 5 characters, a new book will appear which consists of 5 boss fights and you have to pick a certain character for a boss and after that boss is defeated you cannot use that character again.  Getting the true ending requires you to pick the correct characters for the correct bosses, this order is based on a piece of text you acquire during the end of the 5th characters story so it is VERY important that you read that, seeing as it gives you clues on the order of characters you should use.  If anyone can't figure it out and wants me to give them some hints or tell them the order I will on a PM.  I only stress this because apparently the other endings aren't nearly as good as the true ending I acquired and also if you pick the appropriate character for the appropriate boss it makes the boss fights easier to a certain extent.

[Quemaqua]

Glad you liked it, man.  I really want to get into it but am so focused on other stuff right now I don't think I can jump in yet.  I was also going to wait until I finished Princess Crown, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.  I really like the game and everything, but the concept is starting to wear thin for me before the end.  I think it's mostly due to the game's age and the limited approach it takes.  Odin Sphere seems quite a bit more interesting on the whole, and a bit more open, especially where the battles are concerned.  Princess Crown is 100% always pure one-on-one action, like a fighting game.  Odin Sphere seems to be more like a brawler.  The Princess Crown approach was still quite fun for a while, but I don't know that it's got the longevity to last me to the end.