Odin Sphere

As far as pinoyGR is concerned, Odin Sphere is one of the best 2D Action RPG game released in 2007, para na nga di 2D eh! parang.. 2 and 1/2D. Bigyan mo lang to ng 20 minutes na paglalaro ma aadict kana siguro. Anyway hinay hinay lang baka ma sira PS2 mo.. hehe..

Plot

Odin Sphere has five stories. The protagonist of each story is connected to the royalty of each of five warring nations in the world of Erion. Each of these protagonists wields a Psypher, a weapon with a large crystal capable of absorbing Phozons, energy sparks released when something (such as an enemy) dies. These five stories overlap and interconnect making it possible for the protagonist of one story to be the antagonist of another.

Setting

Ragnanival, the realm of the Demon Lord Odin, is embroiled in a war with the forested realm of Ringford, home of Queen Elfaria and her fairy subjects. Odin seeks the Crystallization Cauldron, which the fairies possess, in order to create Psypher crystals.

The battleground for this war is a sandy wasteland located between the two countries, the remains of the once prosperous nation of Valentine. A mysterious disaster devastated the country; all that remains of Valentine are the Pookas, cursed humans in the shape of anthropomorphic rabbits, their currency, and the magically-endowed descendants of the late King Valentine.

Cautiously neutral in this conflict between Ragnanival and Ringford are the city-state of Titania, under the rule of a doddering old king, and the volcanic nation of Volkenon, ruled by the Inferno King Onyx. Behind the scenes, a circle of deceitful wizards known as The Three Wise Men, scheme and plot while Queen Odette of Endelphia, patrols her netherworld home for intruders.

Gameplay

Odin Sphere is divided into several chapters, in which the story of one of the five playable characters is progressed. Within each chapter, the player can get information relating to the upcoming mission and buy and sell goods prior to setting off to the next destination. There is an overarching chronological story that is split among the 5 characters, with their individual stories intersecting at places (for example, early on within Gwendolyn's progression, Gwendolyn will fight Velvet, an event duplicated in Velvet's story progression.) As a result, the player will learn the entire picture of the events within the story from each characters' point of view. Only one character story is available at the start, but as the player completes those stories, they will unlock the other characters.

Within each destination is a series of levels connected in a bidirectional graph; these levels include regular combat levels, shop levels, and minor and major boss levels. Regular combat levels have a 1 to 5 star rating indicating their difficulty, allowing a player to opt to avoid a path if it's too difficult at their current ability level. The minor boss will be indicated by a blue "B" and the major boss, a red "B". Defeating the major boss will advance the story to the next chapter. Both combat levels and boss levels also have a fixed reward shown on the area map that can be obtained once with successful completion of the level. A shop level will have a salesman ready to sell and buy goods.

In each regular combat or boss level, if the player has not yet completed that level, they will need to defeat all the foes in order to leave that level. The player will receive a fixed level reward for this, as well as additional rewards for outstanding performance, including using less time to complete the level, and taking minimal damage. Once this is completed, exits to other nodes on the area map will be open for travel. If a player revisits a completed level, they can directly travel to an exit, or wait to fight foes that appear.

Levels are represented in 2D as large circle; the player can continue to run in one direction and will return to the starting point after some seconds of travel. A radar map, similar to the one in Defender, shows the position of the player, enemies, and objects on the level, while a smaller map shows the location of the exits from the level. Combat is similar to many 2D fighting games, though includes a "power bar" representing how many consecutive actions the player has performed without pausing. Should the power bar empty, the player must wait a few moments for the power bar to refill while the character stands vulnerable in an exhausted state; however, a player can refill the power bar faster by stopping actions for a short period of time while still retaining control of the character.

Psypher Weapons and Phozons

Each character has a weapon called a "psypher" made of crystals from the Netherworld, which can be used to absorb "phozons" from defeated foes and other sources. As the weapons absorb more Phozons they will increase in power, doing more damage and providing new magic for the player to use. Magic requires consumption of a certain number of Phozons, though does not detract from the Psypher level.

Alchemy

The player can combine two items within the inventory to generate a new item, following specific alchemy recipes learned through gameplay. Most of these items require a "Material" bottle which the alchemy result is stored into. Material bottles can be improved in level by alchemizing two of them together to get a material bottle valued at the multiplicative product of the two original bottles (for example, Material 2 alchemized with Material 3 will give a Material 6 bottle). Certain alchemy recipes require a Material bottle of a certain level. Material bottles release Phozons when made into an alchemy recipe, with higher material levels yielding higher amounts.

Plants, Food and Cooking

The player has the ability to plant seeds in the current level. Most plant seeds require a fixed number of Phozons to grow (automatically pulling them from defeated foes), and once ripe, they will provide fruit and other items that the player can pick up and use, after which the plant withers and disappears. Food, when eaten, provides experience towards increases in hit points. Food can also be combined through cooking at the "Pooka Village" cafe and restaurant to make better dishes with larger experience gain and additional hit point bonuses. In addition, there are eggs that can be dropped, hatched, and fed seeds to grow chickens that either can be used to gain more eggs, or can be killed to create meat.

- pinoyGR