A look back at: Odin Sphere

This one I just sort of found out about. It's got the most convoluted timeline for several interesting plots, and for an action RPG, extremely challenging gameplay.

All of the gameplay is a 2D side-scroller, but with tough enemies, weak characters, and a few abilities to use at the disposal. It's so easy to die no matter which character you use, and the Phozon concept only really helps for leveling up, same with eating foods. Not too useful in battle. Alchemy is probably the only real interesting way to do things in this game, and I use it almost exclusively when the fightings over. Oh yes, and you get these ranks depending on how well you do in every battle, which honestly I don't really care that much for. You know another thing making this one really hard? The extreme graphic detail, which for a PS2 game is quite nasty to contend with when so much action is exhibited in the playing fields.

Sure the game has some very interesting ways of leveling up HP and Psypher energy indeed, and a lot of it can be done after the battle. I wish that the special moves in this game were actually unique, when it seems all but one of them have the all-powerful Cyclone spell and it seems that most of the other spells are not really that useful. Having to drink potions to keep both hot and cold elements from sapping health is also really annoying. Due to the different settings and what may be encountered, it's a good idea to have certain accessories on hand to block out the harmful effects, like wearing one amulet to prevent poison which predominantly shows up in the forest level. And then there's always one particular area with 5 stars and just the nastiest hordes attacking at once.

All of Odin Sphere's characters do end up memorable, friend and foe alike. Yet the storyline is screwed up in a number of ways. Why is Gwendolyn's chapter, chronologically the last in the timeline, the first to be played?  Many of the other chapters happen before that chronologically, often intertwining with one another. You look at characters like Valentine and think they are just flat-out insane, in comparison to the more ambiguous ones like Odin and Ingway. The NPC interactions in certain non-combat areas are quite interesting, like when Oswald is in the netherworld. I gotta give the final chapter at least some credit in its nonlinearity, yet the correct way to do things without still losing even when you beat the final bosses could be difficult to figure out. Certainly a story-driven game that really could have done a whole lot better if it didn't skip around a timeline so very often.