Introduction
Odin Sphere is a side-scrolling action game for the PS2 set in the fantastical world of Erion that follows the stories of five warriors beset by tragedy, torment, and hunger. The little girl falling asleep in her mother's attic above is Alice. She's the one who reads those epic tales of war, conflict, and cooking.
Playing this game for a few minutes got me hooked. The illustration is magnificent. The plot is compelling and the characters rich. The acting is smart. The game is so good that it compelled me to go LP another game by the same company that wasn't nearly as good. I rather like this game.
K1wi will be joining me for this one, too. Because of her new life on the moon by way of the antipodes and our collaboration taking place by what amounts to arcane astrological ritual, I will not be able push out updates more frequently than two per week.
No spoilers in this thread, please.
Yes, the game has been out forever. I don't care. The game's plot is interesting and the intertwining threads detailed enough that there ought to be plenty to talk about outside of spoiler tags. Do not spoil the game's story and do not use spoiler tags in this thread for anything whatever.
The game is rather long.
You're getting a full story for each of five characters and then a sixth dealing with what happens after that. I'll try to keep each video to one whole chapter, and pare off a lot of the inventory management and any grinding (of which there shouldn't be too much anyway).
This, more than anything else, is why I regret not being able to do more than two videos per week, and avow to be as regular.
The game is hard.
I'm going to play on hard mode and cut out the parts where I die repeatedly to the doubled-up minibosses and certain boss fights. I think of "hard mode" more as "long mode" considering how the game handles defeat, and it's all cut out anyway so you get to see the harder versions of enemies without the grinding sense of repeated fights.
What's with the lag?
If I can get through Gwendolyn's story then we'll be past the very worst of it. In addition to celebrating the era of 2D gaming, Odin Sphere has the unintentional homage to classic systems' rendering limitations in the form of population lag. There is sometimes just too much shit going on onscreen and it slows down. I've noticed a dramatic improvement playing it on the PS3, but not a total remedy, if you can believe it.
In a way I'm almost happy for the lag, as it only happens when things are so hectic that it would require superhuman reflexes to react to all of it at full speed.
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Book One: Valkyrie
Gwendolyn serves her father, King Odin, as a Valkyrie warrior of Ragnanival, home to the Aesir. All her life she has known nothing but martial duty in the many wars that Ragnanival has had with her neighbors, and quiet longing for her father's affection and recognition. We join her on the eve of another conflict; this time against Queen Elfaria and the Vanir of Ringford Forest.
Book Two: The Pooka Prince
Cornelius, son of Edmund: Beast Slayer King of Titania, grandson of Gallon, spends his days traveling from the court to the forest of Elrit to meet with his lover. Cornelius has few worries and no obligations at all, save to listen to his father's constant petitions for him to pay more mind to affairs of state.
Cornelius' life is changed in an instant, as he awakes to find himself transmogrified into the form of a beast, wandering the Netherworld Endelphia.
Book Three: Fairy Land
Mercedes leads a pampered life as a Princess, daughter of Queen Elfaria of the Vanir of Ringford Forest. She enjoys passing the days using her mother's psypher crossbow to hunt frogs for sport. The conflict with the Vanir shatters her sheltered life and forces Mercedes to grow up all at once or be crushed.
Book Four: The Black Sword
Oswald has spent his entire life in service to Melvin of Ringford Forest. Given a psypher and trained as a swordsman, he knows only the strict expectations of his foster father, and fulfills them with a razor's edge. The same dark power he wields to deadly effect on the battlefield torments his soul, eroding all but his most pure affections for his only family. But if something were to taint that...
Book Five: Fate
Velvet lives with her brother Ingway, and with the knowledge that their mother, gifted with prophecy, foresaw a terrible curse and death for the both of them right before the end of her own life. With only her wits and Graveryl chain psypher as assets, this lost princess of the fallen land of Valentine seeks to understand the ancient prophecy that foretells the end of days, and hopes to oppose the doom it represents to her beloved, if horribly transmogrified, citizen-pookas.
Inventory Antics:
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Book Six: Armageddon
Ingway's use of the secret magic of Titania to transform himself into Darkova has left his mind addled and his body in flux. Traces of the potent spell reach far and wide.
With Odette vanquished, the Halja seek out a new potentate from among the damned, and find their hearts' darkest desire in the form of the greatest prisoner the former queen ever kept.
The seas grow uneasy as the root of the land buckles under the weight of the risen dead. The ground sinks and the sea rises, threatening to extinguish the Fire Kingdom.
The ghost of King Valentine enacts an insane desire to wreck vengeance upon the world for causing all his pain.
Deep in slumber, the mightiest beast who ever lived absorbs the magic power of three boons, and rapidly grows to majority and monstrosity.
