PS2 Preview: Odin Sphere

Odin Sphere is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. Ok I admit it I haven’t yet gotten around to playing Okami yet (next week I swear!) so maybe I’m not the most apt to judge. I think you get the idea though. Even if I can’t personally verify that it is better looking than Okami, simply the fact that it can be compared to that kind of beauty gives you an idea of just how amazing Odin Sphere is to behold.

Now I can already hear the graphics monkey’s making their way to the forums to yell at me, saying that Gears of War is the best looking game ever made, or that Crysis will blow it out of the water. They always do, they’ll scream and cry about polygon counts and frame rates; it’s in their nature. If that’s what you’re thinking right now then I urge you to sit down, watch a video of Odin Sphere in motion and then we’ll discuss whether this game belongs on a Gamestop shelf next to GoW, or in an art gallery next to Monet and Cezanne.

I won’t waste too much more time talking about the way Odin Sphere looks, because…well you can just see for yourself in the videos below. What is obvious is that a tremendous amount of time and care went into crafting these two dimensional sprites. You probably don’t really know though. Odin Sphere’s developer Vanillaware hasn’t released a game since 1997’s Japan-only Sega Saturn title Princess Crown. We haven’t heard a peep out of these guys since, so it’s pretty safe to assume that at the very least this game has been in development for over five years, but who knows they could have been working on this the whole ten years. 1up.com’s Jeremy Parish makes a great point when he compares Odin Sphere to the original animated version of Pinocchio (no not the Jonathon Taylor Thomas version.) Pinocchio almost bankrupted Disney because of the amazing amount of time and technical expertise that went into making the film. Nearly a dozen layers of film were overlapped to create the experience. So goes it for Odin Sphere; everything moves; everything has life. The graphics exist on several different planes that are all interwoven to create one cohesive masterwork. I imagine these graphics took Vanillaware and Atlus on a long financial journey that nearly dried up a river known as their bankroll.

Enough about the graphics though. What is the game actually like? It’s a little hard to pin down as it plays much like a side-scrolling beat ‘em up, controls like a platformer, and has a very deep set of Role-Playing elements to tie it all together. Don’t panic though, this isn’t some dull turn-based level grinding affair. Everything is action packed the whole way through.

Without the level grinding though, experience has to be acquired through some other means. Your characters do not actually gain experience through battles, only your weapons do. Characters gain experience through cooking sequences. No, it’s not like Cooking Mama. It’s actually not far off from Final Fantasy X’s system of leveling up summons. I know that’s getting a bit obscure on you, referencing a small part within a 5 year-old game. That’s the best I can come up with though so deal with it!

The only problem with Odin Sphere is that it seems destined to fail at the retail counter. This is the type of game, like Okami, that gets passed over by the gamer-at-large in favor of the latest triple-A blockbuster or some movie-licensed tripe. Make no mistake though, this really does look and act like a triple-A title, it just probably won’t get triple-A sales.

Throw into this mix a wonderful soundtrack scored by Final Fantasy XII-Vagrant Story compaser Hitoshi Sakimoto and you’ve got one of the most artsy fartsy games gaming has ever seen, but we at CB Games love to see this kind of stuff. When style is backed-up by substance gaming can be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Author’s Note: In case you need any other impetus to buy this game, try this on for size. I will personally guarantee that the after market values (re: ebay prices) on this bad boy are going to sail through the roof. This is going to be right up there with Rez and Radiant Silvergun competing for highest price.