360 degrees! All the way around! What do you mean, 'depth'?
From one action RPG to another - but the similarities between Mass Effect and Odin Sphere pretty much end right there. This is not your typical action RPG, or it certainly isn't my typical idea of an action RPG. Two-dimensional side-scrolling artwork? Well, I mean, there's no reason it couldn't work, right?
I had no idea what Odin Sphere was when going into it, and after playing it for an hour and skimming the Wikipedia article, I still couldn't give you any hint as to what the story of this game is. It's a fantasy beat 'em up that dabbles in alchemy and fills its levels with colourful artwork.
If that poor description sounds interesting, then do read on.
Fun Times
Odin Sphere starts with a girl in an attic, a black cat wandering around her, and a book out of place in the middle of the floor. The anime look of this girl isn't appealing, but I can't say the same for the background art. That's some level of polish I wasn't expecting to see on a PlayStation 2.
I just didn't bother with these kinds of games, and you can tell when it took me a few seconds to realise this wasn't a cutscene but was interactive, and I could pick up and read that book to get the game going.
Odin Sphere, or perhaps it's better to say the book titled 'Valkyrie' within Odin Sphere, follows the tale of Gwendolyn, daughter to the King, skilled in combat, fighting beside her mortally wounded sister, Griselda, who gives her a fancy spear to fight with.
I have absolutely no idea who this guy is, but he's skinny and far too young for the job and his hair and dialogue - which is all voiced - scream anime. It all does. And if not anime, then 'not English', by which I mean 'flowery' or 'annoying' or 'not what I want to read'.
Thankfully, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of it, as we're let go to learn how Odin Sphere actually plays.
A stage of this game is a circular, infinitely side-scrolling arena. Walk in one direction long enough and you'll be able to see the same lovely backdrops scroll by again and again. But you're not here for sightseeing. The first thing you're taught is to dish out some punishment in the form of melee and eventually magic attacks.
The square button will swing your spear in the direction you're facing, and simple combos ensure you keep dealing out damage, but push yourself too much and your power, or stamina, will run out, requiring you to catch your breath before fighting again.
After learning the basics, we can return to the King, who is concerningly called the Demon Lord, to tell of the battle and the death of Griselda.
Back at the castle, we can engage in conversation with some of our forces, some of the people - and animals - that work in the castle, as well as buy provisions from the trader, again all taking place on this long side-scrolling painting that is nice to look at.
You can't see a whole lot of the character details at this scale, especially small characters, even with the crispness of emulation. I wonder if Odin Sphere looked this good on old TVs, on original hardware, but reading of a remake for HD consoles kind of leads me to believe that no, it didn't.
Anyway, another cutscene between Gwendolyn and her conscience or something, as depicted by a ghost bird, separates us from the next step of our journey through the tutorials - and there's a fair bit to learn.
Defeating enemies releases Phozons into the air, little specks of pink light that you can collect by holding down the R1 button and striking a pose. Doing so charges up your spear, and allows you to perform some magical tricks, like sending cyclones through the level to sweep the screen clear of enemies.
While the stages are circular, don't be so foolish as to cast any cyclones in the wrong direction, though...
Eventually, the levels open up with multiple exits and form a small web of connected stages that'll contain shops and boss fights, and any maps you pick up handily label what you'll find in a given stage, though I don't know for sure what all the labels mean. I assume 'B' means 'Boss', though, and sure enough, it does.
I wasn't expecting napalm to feature in a fantasy action RPG beat 'em up, but it's the first offensive potion I've picked up on my travels. There are potions to heal you, potions to remove poison effects, and, it seems, potions that are straight up napalm. This horse thing doesn't like it, and who would? But with no napalm left, I'll have to resort to what I know: pressing square an awful lot.
An awful lot but not, as the text archive reminds you, every second of the fight. You'll run out of the stamina to do so, for starters, but Odin Sphere wants to point out that this isn't just a game about pressing square to attack. Making use of items and magic is just as important. Staying alive and scoffing some berries to regain health and stamina is as important as inflicting combos on your foes.
You can jump and glide for quite a long length of time, and end with an impressive diving thrust from above. It's a little tricky to aim, but if flying enemies won't come down to you, at least you have the skills to go up to them.
A mini-map at the top of the screen shows you key interactables, usually enemies or pickups, and it's hard not to see a ruddy great big dragon there. It's so big and helpful a mini-map indicator though that you can easily sneak up on him and attack him repeatedly from behind.
Given that he can inhale you and sends all kinds of debris to rain down on top of you, running away to the other side of the stages to wrap around behind him is the best plan I've got.
It works, and we get to learn a little more about just why we were fighting in the first place. Note that I don't even know who we're fighting, what our relationship to each other is, nothing. The only reason I'm still playing Odin Sphere is that it feels really nice to play.
The gliding is a little fiddly and having to stop in place to collect Phozons or eat berries does get a little annoying, but the actual fighting is bright and satisfying. If it wasn't, this story and its characters would only be compelling for the unusual artwork, but what fancy artwork it is.
Anyway, that's our next quest. Find this woman and bring her to the King.
Frustrations
It sounds simple, but Odin Sphere was about to dump yet more mechanics onto its action gameplay. More RPG stuff. More reasons, truth be told, for me to not like it so much.
The first was this trader at the castle. I had money, but not the right money, and couldn't even buy a block of cheese from him. I don't know if cheese is even any good. Food is an important part of Odin Sphere, restoring more than your health. You can even plant seeds in a stage and watch them grow over time, absorbing Phozons on your behalf, turning them into berries you can eat for sustenance - assuming you don't want those Phozons for your weapon, I guess?
Obviously, I won't be planting cheese anytime soon, but I seemingly won't be buying it any time soon, either.
As we're now in a fantasy forest, we get to learn all about alchemy. All about alchemy. There's a lot to learn. You need materials, and actual materials, and if you're hoarding items you'll need some expert inventory organization, too, all so that you can lug around potions instead of berries, or whatever.
Mix a Material with a material to make something. Mix that something with more Material to make stronger somethings, or different somethings, or something. Odin Sphere essentially dumped an entire mechanic on me at this point that lost me. There and then, I moaned and hoped that I'd be able to play without faffing around with alchemy.
I'm reminded of the oils and whatnot that you can apply to your weapons in The Witcher III to make killing beasts easier, the idea is to prepare for battle before you enter it. Make potions and oils that work against such-and-such, apply oil to the sword, kill such-and-such with that oil-covered sword for a better chance of killing. Or something.
The entire process was a complete waste of my time because all I cared about was swinging the sword right into the beasts' face. I even installed a mod to create and apply the oils for me, the instant I needed them, because the mechanic would otherwise have gotten in my way - and if it was an absolute necessity for play, I might have abandoned playing The Witcher III entirely.
Back to Odin Sphere, having to carry around two or three items - therefore taking up two or three of your precious item slots - and having to pause in the middle of a stage to hold the item wheel open, choose a Material, choose something to mix it with, create a potion... alright, on paper that doesn't sound too annoying, but in practice, it's not something I find interesting in video games, to the point of avoiding it like the plague. I hate it in The Witcher III, I hate it in the Resident Evil series, not that I've played much, and I hate it in Odin Sphere.
All I want to do in Odin Sphere is enjoy the action side of things, because, weird though it may feel and look at times, it is enjoyable, especially with the art on display. For some reason, I was able to turn myself invisible, thus removing some of the artwork from the screen, but it was no help for me in overcoming this witch and taking her in.
The web of stages is presumably there for players to explore in their own way. I rushed to the 'B' because that's where the action would be, but I am very much unprepared for what awaits me. Unprepared and impatient.
Final Word
As the clock ticked over the hour mark, I'd certainly played Odin Sphere for longer than I thought I ever would, but that's partly because I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, and was impressed by the artwork.
I was going to write 'captivated' there, but I don't think that's the right word. It isn't artwork that I need to consume more of. I don't like most of the characters, including the one I'm playing as, but it's done so well that I can't help but see a little more of it. Another cutscene, another stage, another plot point.
I still know so little of the plot. Something about a magic cauldron. That's it. I don't know who we are or why we're fighting. I don't know the backstory to this world, these people, nothing. On the one hand, that's quite bad. Some games are slow to reveal themselves, certainly, but they get there. Odin Sphere doesn't look like it'll get there any time soon.
On the other hand, though, you are kind of pulled along to experience more and more. Stages are short and can be quite action-packed, and picking and choosing your path at least allows you to experience the game at your own pace, much like reading a book - the book of the Valkyrie's that some little girl is reading in some distant future.
I still can't explain Odin Sphere in any way that makes sense in terms of story or characters, but in terms of gameplay, it is this wonderful, though sometimes faffy, mix of action, beat 'em ups, and RPGs, and looks top quality - though yes, it helps if you like at least some of the look in the first place.
I'm glad to have played something that was actually new to me. Infinite side-scrolling is something from the early days of arcade shoot 'em ups, but here it is combined with painted sprites to show us a fantasy realm of colourful monsters that require a slap in the face from a magical spear. How is that not a head-turning sentence?
Give Odin Sphere a look at the very least, and preferably a bit of a play too. I don't think it's likely I'll be sticking with it, or perhaps even watching it, but to have played something new to me is why I go through this 1001 list in the first place, and it's nice to have done so once more.
Fun Facts
Even the mighty PS2 couldn't handle the high-quality artwork that was initially thrown at it, resulting in a reduction of visual quality. Perhaps the remake, the bizarrely named Leifthrasir, is worth a look at too?
Odin Sphere, developed by Vanillaware, first released in 2007.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2007, via emulation.