Odin Sphere Leifthrasir--Review

SPOILERS AHEAD

I ran out and got Odin Sphere Leifthrasir remastered for the PS4 since I was able to get it new for a reasonable $19.99 at GameStop. I felt that the game is a must, especially given its Metacritic score of a rather high 87, which is more like a 100 from my calculations.

Let me explain. For some reason, JRPGs tend to get rated much lower than they deserve (there are of course some exceptions) so I always add 10 to 20 points to the score. Dark Souls only got a lowly 89 during a time when 10's were given out like candy, and it's now acknowledged as a masterpiece and reference standard, so the extra 11 points goes to 100. Eternal Sonata was scored even lower at 80, so adding 20 points leads to a more accurate 100.

Story
Although the story follows the usual save the world theme, it's told in a complex, creative narrative where you follow 5 heroes, whose stories are intertwined with each other. Further, not all of their goals are saving the world, so it's intriguing how they all come to this unforeseen outcome. You first play as Gwendolyn, daughter of Demon Lord Odin, King of the Valkyries, and through that play through, we meet Oswald. I thought that after Gwendolyn's story arc ended, Oswald will then join her team, and then other characters along the way, with the party system that JRPGs tend to have, to achieve the collective goal.

Therefore, I was taken aback that after Gwendolyn's story ended, you then play as Cornelius, going through the same areas but in different sequence.  You then play as Mercedes, Oswald and then Velvet.

The story was not as gripping as a Final Fantasy VII, Horizon: Zero Dawn, or a Persona, but it's interesting to see how these characters deal with their situations, how some were actually antagonists of each other, and how at the end, they've come to realize that they all are serving the same end goals. Because of the intertwining, the story is complex and the characters are compelling psychologically.

I felt that the story didn't lead to my staying up at all hours like the games I mentioned above (which helped me meet my goals of getting 8 hours of solid sleep, targeting 11 PM to 7:30 AM), but the game made me want to go through an NG+ to relive the story, as I missed some points with the political intrigue, and because story isn't presented chronologically.

Character Portrayal
I feel that this is where the game shines, as the characters are interesting as they all are trying to figure out what their true purposes are, and how they can change their destiny. I listed one example, do not click to avoid spoilers:

Gwendolyn desperately wants her father's love, and the first part of her story shows her following his every command, and only disobeying her father because it's in his best interests. He punishes her disobedience by putting her to sleep and tells her that whoever wakes her up, she will fall in love. The reality, as the story plays out, is that one can wake her up by kissing her, but her heart cannot be controlled.

When Oswald wakes her up (only when he realizes that she won't be forced to love him as they both thought), and she starts falling in love with him, she then questions her relationship with her father. I felt it was nicely done as she recognizes that her father will never love her, and realizing his shortcoming (understatement), it appears that she forgives him, wishing him the best, but leaving him and moving on with her life.

Music
It appears that the soundtrack consists of 4 songs (I may be exaggerating), so although the music is melodic, it's rather repetitive, and none of the music has that epic quality of Wild Arms 3 Boss fight music. Just to name 2 (otherwise this post will be too long!): Black as Sin, Red as Blood and Crossfire Sequence (Janus's Theme), where I intentionally prolonged most if not all of the Boss fights so the music can repeat.

However, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, like many other games, is an example where you can listen to your own favorite music while playing the game.

Graphics/Framerate
This remastered version is the very definition of stylized animation that will never become dated. The reason is that it looks like watching a cartoon. There are no jaggies, so the lines are clean and crisp. There were no problems with framerate, and I believe it's listed at 60fps even. The loading screens are rather quick. The developers did a superb job remastering the game to modern gaming standards.

Gameplay
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is an action RPG, with no turn-based elements. The action does halt when you open up your menu to perform a special skill or consume potions, so it's not like Dark Souls where the action continues even as you're drinking an Estus (and often getting hit by the Boss as a result).

Through button configuration menu, you can chose any face button (except for triangle reserved for Oswald's Berserk mode) for normal attack, special skill attack, and jump. The L1 bumper button is the default to open up your skill menu to perform one of your special skills, and the R1 bumper button is the default to dodge.

In other words, I appreciate that you have ample choices in defensive maneuvers such as jump, dodge, and guard (guard is holding down the normal attack button). Successfully guarding allows your POW meter to replenish--some of the special skills use POW. POW meter can also regenerate right after you stop using POW skills.

Other skills use the PP meter, which only regenerates if you drink a potion, or with the Phozons you get when you kill enemies (though PP fills up very slowly this way), so you have to be more cautious using the PP skills compared to the POW skills. I noticed that the Phozons also add to your experience meter so you can level up that way as well, but this seems to be much slower than cooking, which is the best way to level up (more on that later).

You can program your special skill attack to one of the face buttons as mentioned above, and I chose the square button. Other skill attacks can be programmed to the square button (or whatever button you chose) while pushing up, down, left and right. To make it easier on myself, I programmed all the shortcuts to the main skill attack I use the most, such as Oswald's Vile Claw (which is a must).

The rationale is that in the heat of the battle, it leads to button mashing.  Wanting to use Vile Rush, I inadvertently would press right (or any of the other directions) AND square at the same time (instead of just square), performing the wrong skill instead of the needed Vile Rush.

Therefore, by making all the shortcuts programmed to "Vile Claw", if I'm inadvertently pressing up, down, left or right and the square button simultaneously, it will always register Vile Claw. If I ever want to use Oswald's Madness skill, I open up the menu (L1) and select "Madness". The action stops whenever you bring up the menu, so you have the time and luxury to do so. Therefore, I didn't see the need to program any of the other skills.

For each battle, you get ranked anywhere from, best to worst, S to D. You get the same reward objectives (often a key, ring, a high-ranking item), and I believe the better ranking you have, the more money you get, so it's not "bad" if you get lower than an S.

Oswald, aka Beast Mode!

I noticed with all the other characters, I tend to get almost all S's and some A's. The good news is that you can replay the stage battle for a better score.  However, with Oswald, I was getting B's and C's during the first playthrough, and almost got a D! It became frustrating to the point that I needed help. Indeed, Googling, there were quite a few people finding Oswald unfortunate.

But in NG+, he's actually the most overpowered (even surpassing spin-to-win Cornelius, and Mercedes and Velvet who I thought were also OP in NG), perhaps because I got used to his quick speed and therefore able to position him better. During NG+, when there are huge stacks of enemies, I was able to rack up combo counts up to 999, and scoring over 2000, of which you only need 1000 for S Rank!

Here's advice on Oswald if you have trouble:

Continue to level up Oswald's Phyzer until you get Vile Claw. Level up Vile Claw as much as possible, and set it to your shortcuts. As soon as you get Madness, level that up as well. In the meantime, also leveling up Phyzer. In other words, Phyzer, Vile Claw and Madness should be the skills you focus on leveling up first.

Once you max out these skills, or if you feel that your attacks aren't strong, you can focus on passive skills Extent of Madness (to prolong Berserk mode), Assault High (more damage with increased combos, and Vile Rush racks up very high combos), and Beat Down (increased damage to downed foes, which happens a lot with Vile Claw).

Before each battle, check to see if your Berserk meter is full. If it is full, and you need the S rank, go into Berserk mode. Spam Vile Rush until your POW meter runs out, do normal attacks until the POW meter fills just enough that you can perform another Vile Rush, and alternate quickly between normal attack and Vile Rush.

Once Berserk mode is over, use the Madness skill for temporary Berserk. Follow the same Vile Rush/normal attack technique: spam Vile Rush as much as possible, once POW meter runs out, do normal attacks, and as soon as you get enough POW meter, squeak in another Vile Rush.

If you have enough PP, and your Berserk meter is not full yet, go into Madness again and repeat Vile Rush/normal attack.

If you don't have enough PP to do another Madness, fill up your Berserk meter by doing the Vile Rush/normal attack technique. Vile Rush fills up the Berserk meter quite quickly. Then go into Berserk mode once the meter is full, and follow the Vile Rush spam method as described above.

However, I noticed that you only need 1 Berserk meter and maybe 1 or 2 Madness routines to finish each battle stage. Boss Fights, you just have to keep repeating this process over and over.

As Oswald doesn’t have good air attacks, I stock up on Whirlwind potions for aerial enemies, carrying 6 just in case. For that Ben Frost mini-boss (the one with the pink horn), I throw Whirlwind in front of him, and then attacking his horn and/or his allies to add to the combination count. I managed to get an S even in NG+.

When you defeat enemies, you gain Phozons that you use to improve your normal attacks (Phyzer weapon), and the various special skills. You can also use Phozons to "water" your seeds into fruits and vegetables that you can eat that levels you up. However, I recommend using Phozons to strengthen your weapon and skills. Then, cook food (Maury's restaurant and the Pooka cafes) to level up, rather than spending the Phozons growing plants (but only fertilizing seeds if you need a fruit/vegetable per the recipe, though you can usually get these items as rewards or in treasure chests).

The cooking, which is the fastest way to level up your character, is tedious as you have to ring Maury's bell and wait for him to set up his kitchen. Press X to talk to him, taking time again to put down your weapon and sit. The game allows you to skip repetitive scenes, but not for this particular sequence for some odd reason. Further, some of the recipes are rather nauseating (all that yogurt and cheese!), but it's a unique way to level up, and you can level up rather quickly if you grind for these ingredients. You get ingredients as stage battle rewards, in treasure chests, enemy drops, buying the ingredients, or watering plants with Phozons.

You can also level up just as quickly as cooking by dining at the Pooka cafes, but you need special Valentinian coins that you gain in battle, treasure chests, and sometimes by whacking sparkles on the floor. The two cafes are in the same area, the left one includes savory meals, while the cafe on the right serves deserts. I found that the desert cafe was actually more cost-effective, having more experience/coin ratio.

Game Balance
I find that this game excels in balance. By the time I finished the game and heading into the Boss Rush (fighting all the bosses) for one of the trophies, all my characters were around level 55, and 50 is the recommended level. I didn't even do that much grinding. I think if you get all S ranks and cover every single area and hidden room, you probably can get to level 50 with no grinding. Of course, you'll need to cook and go to the cafes to level up with the ingredients and money you earn through the battle sequences and searches, but you don't have to do any extra battles beyond this.

Further the starting level in NG+ is also level 50, so you're at the right level if you want to do an NG+ playthrough.

Replay Value
I found NG+ brilliant and exciting as you get more powerful rings, and I enjoyed the game more since I understood the story better the second time through. On first playthrough, the story can be confusing as mentioned before, since the characters' stories start at different times in the history, as the game isn't presented in a linear, chronological way.

Since I haven't mastered the mechanics the first playthrough, as I'm not an "elite"gamer, I enjoyed NG+. However, I believe that most might feel tired of the gameplay, as you're going through the same areas 5 times with different characters. Even though each character feels different, especially Mercedes as the only one with ranged attacks, it becomes repetitive.  Indeed, there were times when I almost felt like taking a break and doing yet another Dark Souls 3 NG cycle, so even for me, the gameplay is not quite at the "addictive" level.

Conclusion: The game's presentation, story, character development, and technical aspects (framerate/graphics) are very polished. The gameplay is balanced perfectly and NG+ is done well as you gain better equipment. Because you play as 5 different characters going through the same areas, and fighting the same enemies and bosses, the gameplay can be repetitive and at times, tiring, although each character has a different feel to the combat, including one ranged character. Even so, this game is a must-play for any RPG enthusiast.

Rating: B+, great to almost superb.

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