Knights of the Round
Next-gen 2D is here, it just happens to be that Odin Sphere landed on the PS2.
Published: June 11, 2007
A few hours into the game, however, you'll be treated to the cooking system, which is essentially a slightly more complicated version of the existing item synthesis option, the difference here being that cooked food -- found in either the bistro or kitchen of the Pooka Village that can be accessed during some levels and at specific safe points during the game -- is worth way more experience and often has an instant health bonus even if you don't level up just by eating (and it's possible, even at high levels, to unlock food that will let you gain multiple levels with just one meal). The catch? You have to bring your own ingredients (and yes, the ultra-high experience items are made from rare materials), and you have to pay with a specific currency. While item sellers will take any denomination, the restaurants demand specific coins, adding yet another requirement to the food. If you have all the ingredients, though (and at times you'll have to grow them back out in the main world), the rewards are well worth it.
As mentioned before, five different perspectives and sub-stories are interwoven into the game's over-arching story (which is fairly loosely based on Richard Wagner's epic four-play Ring Cycle -- birthplace of the "Ride of the Valkyries" theme. Fitting, no?) wherein Odin, the Demon Lord of Ragnanival is caught in bitter war with the Faries of Ringford over a mysterious Caldron that apparently is the impetus for the end of the world. What begins with the tale of Odin's sheepish daughter Gwendolyn spreads out over the course of the game to encompass characters that at first seem like enemies, some that are enemies, and mixed in between are tales of love, courage and sacrifice.
In a genre rife with hackneyed, cliché-ridden quasi-plots and half-baked narratives, using Wagner's The Ring as the base for the story (even if it's just a basic guide) helps the game's myriad storylines intersect and break away in compelling, sometimes tragic ways. Dialogue is treated with an almost Elizabethan tone, and the feel of the game has that same multi-layered quality that gives it an almost operatic tone. Though you're essentially forced to replay the same basic levels and even bosses over again with each new character (though rarely do they happen in the same order), the storyline bits in between are what carry things when familiarity is on the verge of breeding contempt. If the storyline is the masonry, however, the gameplay is still the brick.
The gameplay, and the visuals. Yes, fine, I'll admit it, I am a pretty graphics slut. If something is pretty enough, I'm more than willing to overlook some minor things, but lest you think that might cloud my judgment here, remember two things: one, I'm keenly aware that most games that are exceptionally pretty, like most uber-hotties, are often lacking in the depth department, and secondly, now matter how pretty game, you're going to be seeing the same things over and over and over and over and over again. And then again when it's all over. Despite all this, I can't help but be absolutely flabbergasted by how friggin' pretty game is.
Part of it is the sort of oil panting quality of the backgrounds (which sport some swanky ass parallax scrolling a good four levels deep), but just as much is the sheer amount of attention to detail. The first time you see the little girl in her attic pick up a book and then dive back and sink into the big chair to start reading, as you watch the chair's cushion sink, or when you can choose to recap earlier scenes while petting the little black cat (complete with purring sounds), you get a sense that indeed 2D artwork is long from dead, it just apparently was taking something of a nap. Once in the game proper, seeing everything from screen-filling bosses to simple enemies (including bears with knapsacks, yeeaaaaaaah!) animated with the same kind of flair is jaw-dropping.
