Odin Sphere - gaming mediocrity in a candy-coated shell of graphics goodness

[Ichirou]

This game is frustratingly average.  It's such a shame that Vanillaware went to all the trouble of making it so jaw-droppingly beautiful and then dropped the ball on the gameplay front.  They couldn't even be bothered to make a few more enemies for the thing?  As I understand it, the project was shelved for a YEAR while it was translated to English, you would think that they would spend that extra year designing a couple of extra enemies...

Not only that, but fighting in the same background nine or ten times for each stage gets boring, especially when you are repeating the exact same stages over and over with each new character.  I'm in Mercedes's story right now.  I swear I'll finish this game, but after that I am never touching it again.

Does anyone know if GrimGrimoire is as mediocre as this?

[Ichirou]

Artistically (graphics, soundtrack), the game is a remarkable achievement.  In terms of gameplay, it is astoundingly mediocre.  GAFfers overhyped this game...as they tend to.  I blame duckroll and his joygasms whenever he posted each time he finished a stage or started a new character.

[Himu]

The fact that they fucking delayed P3 for this game pisses me the fuck off. The fact that it seems almost everyone is disappointed with it makes me even more annoyed.

[demi]

I think I found my choice for the homojapsexual contest

[Ichirou]

The game also suffers from massive slowdown whenever there's too many enemies on screen or during certain boss fights.  This should have been fixed.  It makes me feel like I'm playing an NES game if it can't handle more than six oncreen enemies.

This is a "C+" game at best.

[Mr. Gundam]

I think I found my choice for the homojapsexual contest

We should all say "fuck this" to the homojapasexual contest and play Persona 3 together.

[demi]

I don't like Persona, and especially #3 after reading impressions and playing it at E3.

[Ichirou]

The fact that they fucking delayed P3 for this game pisses me the fuck off. The fact that it seems almost everyone is disappointed with it makes me even more annoyed.

Not only that, they didn't even make good use of the delay by using it to switch to the new director's cut edition which supposedly has the "true ending."

[Himu]

I think I found my choice for the homojapsexual contest

We should all say "fuck this" to the homojapasexual contest and play Persona 3 together.

Persona 3 is going to rock. SMT

[MrAngryFace]

I just beat the first .hack series, I rock Odin Sphere, FU ODIN

[Mr. Gundam]

I think I found my choice for the homojapsexual contest

We should all say "fuck this" to the homojapasexual contest and play Persona 3 together.

Persona 3 is going to rock. SMT

I hope to God it rocks. I don't want to listen to you bitch about it all fucking summer. 

[Himu]

I think I found my choice for the homojapsexual contest

We should all say "fuck this" to the homojapasexual contest and play Persona 3 together.

Persona 3 is going to rock. SMT

I hope to God it rocks. I don't want to listen to you bitch about it all fucking summer. 

If P3 sucks ass there will blood. BLOOD I SAY. But it can't suck. It's SMT.

[Ichirou]

I hear P3 has hot dating sim elements. 

[Himu]

I am pumped for the supposed non linearity omg.

[MrAngryFace]

P3 will own my pants.

[Himu]

PERSONA 3

[Van Cruncheon]

odin sphere

[demi]

I CHOOSE ODIN SPHERE FOR MY JAPSEXUAL GAME

[Ichirou]

Hey, I already own it and I think Drinky does too.  And I need to finish it anyway, so I would be cool with doing that game for the competition.

[Beezy]

I have it too, but my nephew is being stingy with his PS2 right now. I think I was on the last chapter of Gwendolyn's story.

I have my problems with the game, but I think it's because I keep trying to play it like a side-scrolling action game, which it's really not. I still think it's decent though, and the story is interesting enough to keep me playing (once I get back the PS2 that is).

[Ichirou]

I have it too, but my nephew is being stingy with his PS2 right now. I think I was on the last chapter of Gwendolyn's story.

I have my problems with the game, but I think it's because I keep trying to play it like a side-scrolling action game, which it's really not. I still think it's decent though, and the story is interesting enough to keep me playing (once I get back the PS2 that is).

How old is your nephew?  Spank his stingy ass and tell him Uncle Beezy needs to play Odin Sphere.

BTW, are you playing it in English or Japanese?

[Beezy]

He's only 5. I'm gonna take his PS2 tomorrow night while he has to go to sleep for school.

I'm playing it in english. I liked the voice acting, so I never bothered to check how the japanese voices were.

[Ichirou]

I just deducted 10 wacky jappy points from your wackiness score, Beezy.  English voices when the game has a Japanese language option? For shame!  What would Crystal Kay think?

[Beezy]

 

She would be happy to know that I'm not just some otaku japanophile who thinks "everything in japan is better!" Or as Drinky calls them, japafags.

[Ichirou]

lol, japafags.  I should start a Japanese Weirdness thread, man.  I have links to a bunch of bizarre news articles about Japan.  There's some odd stuff going on around here.

[Beezy]

lol, japafags.  I should start a Japanese Weirdness thread, man.  I have links to a bunch of bizarre news articles about Japan.  There's some odd stuff going on around here.

Lol do it. There's always something weird/funny going on in Japan.

[Ichirou]

Done!  Check it out at The Hot Dog Bar.

[Beezy]

 

[tiesto]

Yeah I'm about to finish Gwendolyn's story and I am starting to not feel it... the game seems to be mostly inventory management, and the controls are rather sluggish. It's a shame, there's some good stuff in here, but I'm not sure if its worth getting to. Hearing about reusing the same stages for the different characters is annoying.

How long is this? I hear its 50-60 hours... but I'm almost done with Gwendolyn's and I'm about 5-6 hours into it. Are the other stages about as long, because then it wouldn't be so bad?

[MrAngryFace]

.hack GU > ODIN SPHERE

[Ichirou]

Yeah I'm about to finish Gwendolyn's story and I am starting to not feel it... the game seems to be mostly inventory management, and the controls are rather sluggish. It's a shame, there's some good stuff in here, but I'm not sure if its worth getting to. Hearing about reusing the same stages for the different characters is annoying.

How long is this? I hear its 50-60 hours... but I'm almost done with Gwendolyn's and I'm about 5-6 hours into it. Are the other stages about as long, because then it wouldn't be so bad?

Gwendolyn's story took me about eight hours and then I did Cornelius and it took me about five since I was used to how the game worked by then...now I'm in chapter 4 of Mercedes's story and I'm at 4 hours...so I think overall it'll be about 40 hours or so.

[bluemax]

This game would've been good if it were 20 hours or the load times didn't suck ass.

I ripped the copy I rented from gamefly, and the load times are even worse. So bad that I might actually have to rerent it or buy it if I ever decide to go back to it. The action was just too disjointed for me though. Too much time spent either loading or in inventory and not enough time button mashing enemies.

[drohne]

well that's cheering considering i JUST FUGGIN ORDERED IT

at least i paid for most of it by trading in cackdown. and i liked princess crown. for which drinky wrote the faq. which is full of animu queerness. but is otherwise a very useful document

[MrAngryFace]

lololol

[tiesto]

HEY YOU SHOULD DOUBLE JUMP AND THEN PRESS DOWN+ATTACK.  DO THIS FOR OH I DON'T KNOW THE WHOLE FUCKING GAME

Yeah, I'm finding that this is a nice strategy to use...

That move gives me Actraiser 2 vibes

[bork]

Yeah, it's a shame the game play needs more added to it; when I got it, I too was completely mesmerized by the visuals.  It's the same problem Princess Crown had.

Still, it's enjoyable enough and better than .hack.   

[Ichirou]

This game needed three things:

1. More attacks per character.

2. More backgrounds for stages.

3.  More enemy varieties.  I would even have been happy with some palette color swaps.

With those things, I would easily raise the grade from C to a solid B+.

[Ichirou]

They should greatly simplify the item synthesis too... having different levels of the material bottle was a crazy idea.

They should just have given us different colors of material to be able to make the different types of items.  Would have been much easier than using numbers.