Tomas Elliot presents: a game you MUST get your hands on

[Tomas Elliot]

Howdy people. Today I am here to tell you about another game I came across, in my quest to expand my library of PSX/PS2/PSP games: Odin Sphere. I have been playing it in the past few weeks and well, it is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played, a true masterpiece in some aspects, and still a solid title in others.

You all know me, I cannot enjoy a game, specially an action RPG like this, if it doesn't have a deep, compelling plot: therefore, the mere fact that I am here recommending it should be enough of a guarantee that yes, the plot is indeed deep and compelling.

So much so in fact that I could spend hours, days even, blabbering about the great work they did reworking the norse myths into an engaging, original narrative, and how they managed to make it JUST complex enough to take some thought to fully grasp, without making it needlessly complicated, and how clever the references to Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungen are and yadda yadda yadda.

But seriously, screw all that. Just look at these screenshots:

Look at the sheer beauty of those dragons. Look at the details in the wings of those fairies. Look at how gorgeous those backgrounds are. How does an old game for a low-res console manage to look so gorgeous? Easy: everything in it is hand-drawn. Every single sprite, every single animation, every single background, everything was manually drawn and it shows. Many reviewers have called this "the most visually pleasing game on the PS2".

But the characters don't just look good: they also evolve and develop, they struggle and grow and fight and fall in love in a plot that, and this is another clever aspect, is told from many different points of view. Five, to be exact:

From left to right, you have the insecure valkyre Gwendolyn, the charming sorceress Velvet, the mysterious knight Oswald, the precocious fairy Mercedes, and the cute rabbit Cornelius. The game is divided into six "books" (one per character plus a "true ending" one), each divided into six "chapters", through which you have to play: you begin with Gwendolyn's and then you proceed to unlock the others. A feature is included to allow you to see the chapters in chronological order (because for example Gwendolyn's story involves a timeskip, so her last 3 chapters chronologically take place after everyone else's stories, Cornelius' story begins before Gwendolyn's, and so on). To fully grasp the extent of the plot, you will need that feature.

Of course, the game is not immune to issues: the battle system is clunky at times, the camera is too zoomed in and cannot be regulated, and there is an annoying lag whenever a large amount of enemies are on the screen at once (this is particularly problematic against Odette, a recurring boss whose fighting style consists in summoning hordes of mooks to zerg rush you). But the pros outwheight the cons by a wide margin, so much so that even an esigent gamer like myself can love the game despite the obvious problems.

So, why am I getting so worked up over an old PS2 game, to the point of telling you all to get your hands on it? Easy: because Atlus has recently remade the game for the PS4, and the CEO of the company has openly declared that it will be released in the west in late spring, both in physical copy and via PSN, with English, French, Spanish and Italian localizations. You see those issues? they are going to disappear, because the battle system is being completely revamped. You see those gorgeous graphics? They are going to look even more gorgeous in full HD. And the lag will of course be a non-issue on the PS4, a machine capable of performances the PS2 could only dream of. So yeah, if you own a PS4, you MUST keep your eyes open. And as soon as this game becomes available in your region, by all means do get it. If you miss it, you will regret it, I can guarantee it.

So yeah, this is all I wanted to say. If you have seen the demo version, or if you are a nostalgic geezer like me and you have played the PS2 version, feel free to post your thoughts.

[pokemaster102]

...ermagerd THIS IS AMAZING but i dont have a ps4 time to wait 20 years for a ps4 emulator...and by the way i love the "b-baka" think under your name lol


edit : i guess there's still youtube lol

Edited January 18, 2016 by pokemaster102

[Tomas Elliot]

[REDACTED]