Crap it just hit me after spending the last 3 days playing nothing but Etrian that Odin Sphere is shipping today. Anyone planning on getting it, or has gotten it today? From the previews combat is real time, is the combat system similar to Super Paper Mario where you have stats but combat still relies on your reflexes?
Also, Pirates: At World’s End.
Pre-ordered mine: Frys is currently offering it for $35 with free ground shipping. Knowing them I won’t get it `til next week, but that’s OK, busy with LOTRO right now.
Thanks unbongwah, you saved me a walk to a brick and mortar.
All signs have been pointing to Odin Sphere being excellent, so I’ve been planning on getting it for the past couple weeks now.
EDIT: Ack, I forgot Fry’s charges Californians tax! Heh.
You know, this is one of those reasons I was thinking I might want a working PS2.
But more because I like hot half-dressed anime chicks than anything.
Thanks for that, I’ll order it tonight since I’m also busy with another game right now.
Thanks for the link unbongwah!
Preordered from Frys, they didn’t say how long ground shipping was, I guess its about a week?
Been playing Odin Sphere a bit at work. It is drop-dead gorgeous 2D work. The story is pretty standard JRPG stuff, but the visuals are just like nothing else I’ve ever seen in a game. It’s very clearly by the Princess Crown people, and the combat is actually relatively close to a good fighting game more than an action RPG. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Damn that sounds awesome. I always thought fighting games would fit in naturally within an RPG framework.
Just read 1up’s review 8.5 Looks like the game is an unconventional Rpg, so it’s right up my alley. Out of curiosity what kind of graphics engine is the game, ex: Is it sprites or polygons?
Sprites.
Gorgeous hand-drawn sprites and backgrounds, with more parallax scrolling than should be legally allowed. It’s what people thought games were going to become before the PSX came along and everyone realized 3D was the future. It’s like looking into an alternate universe’s sixth gen and seeing what they’re playing.
I know some of that sounds ridiculous, but as someone who always loved 2D animation in games and movies, Odin Sphere is like ambrosia to me.
Even more parallax scrolling than Altered Beast on the Atari Lynx???
Same: I like 3D just fine, I just wish it hadn’t displaced gorgeous sprite-based games in the process; just like I wish CGI films hadn’t displaced traditional cel animation. Not too fond of OS’s cutesy SD character design, but otherwise this game looks stunning.
Is this an action RPG like Radiata Stories?
A guy here at the office got it and we were discussing this. The look of the game is definitely 2d but we think they’ve used lots of 3d tricks in order to get that appearance on the PS2. Looks awesome, I’ll have to pick it up, still have to finish GoW2 also.
Shadow of the Beast, maybe?
The Gamespot review mentions frequent, long load times. What’s your experience, Matt?
The load times between action stages are pretty long, probably because of all the animation and art needed to load. They’re not unbearably frequent, but they are PSP length.