[PS2] Odin Sphere - Hot sex from Atlus

Holy shit, talk about a bait-and-switch. The animation looks absolutely godly, or at least not-bad. Hopefully the music/voices are decent, because so far it looks nice.

Where did that SCEA 2D game myth come from in the first place? They're unlikely to publish niche titles, many of which are 2D. It has more to do with what people buy over here, than anything else.

Googled Odin Sphere and found a thread on GAF with some scans.

Spoiler:

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Okay, I rarely get all that interested in RPGs but the unique approach to graphics have got me. I need to know when this is coming out.

Quote:

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — FEBRUARY 9, 2007 — Atlus U.S.A., Inc., a leading publisher of interactive entertainment, today announced the acquisition of the North American publishing rights to Odin Sphere, an Action RPG designed exclusively for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and slated to be in retail stores in late spring of 2007.

Personally, I'd like a concrete date rather what we've got now, since then we know they're aiming for a specific point rather than teetering on releasing it or not.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Crazy Redd

Acer just wants it because one of the characters is a furry.

Cornelius? Yeah, but according to the 1UP article on this game, he's not even a "furry" but some transformed guy. About that article, it definitely went into more detail about various aspects of the game. The story flow apparently tracks each of the characters in chapters, though there are definitely parts that link each of them together.

Oh and item use apparently can turn the tide of battle easily, though leveling also works.

Furry, loli, oldman Odin, this game has something for everybody. =/

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by a lurker

those are sprites?

=o

Ah, I completely forgot to link to the 1UP article and the special mention of the sprites in this game. Needless to say, I was surprised that they're as big as they say.

1UP Preview of Odin Sphere

Originally Posted by 1UP

Odin Sphere has a unique look for a modern RPG. Each beautifully drawn background is a stage for your performance, painted with a wide range of colors and lighting techniques. The main characters are all large sprites standing half a screen tall, while bosses and other characters are even larger -- some occupying the full height of the screen.

Look at Odin or what looks like the fairy queen, as examples of NPC enormity or that big monster in the teaser/trailer.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Tritoch

Wow, this is certainly an unexpected game to look forward to. I've never read anything about Princess Crown, but those graphics look amazing and when done right I'm a big fan of RPGs that seperate the story out into chapters for each character, occassionally tying them together.


According to RPGamer's article, the Japanese release date is May 17th. Still nothing concrete for the NA release, but it'll be after that.

Thanks for the heads up. When I was looking for more info on this, I got a whole slew of dates from March '07 to Sept '07 and that May date was one of them.

Edit: New scans/screenshots for Odin Sphere. Thank the good folks over @ GAF for these. Looks incredible. Oh, drohne from GAF explained what technique they're using for the animation and how they could do it without hiring animators and bumping the dev cost through the roof:

Originally Posted by drohne @ GAF

princess crown used multi-jointed sprites, sort of like the bosses in old treasure games, which meant the animations didn't have to be individually drawn. this seems to be the same way. that's probably why they can produce such gorgeous original art on what i assume is a fairly modest budget.

Odin Sphere Official site (JP)

Odin Sphere Official site

Main Characters

Gwendolyn

Quote:

Daughter of the Demon Lord Odin, sorcerer king, and a princess of the Kingdom of Ragnanival in the frozen north. She is a courageous Valkyrie whose name is known and feared on the battlefield, yet her older sister Griselda is even more skilled in the ways of war. Growing up in her sister's shadow has led Gwendolyn to be quiet and reserved, but she will stand up against anyone when necessary.

Cornelius

Quote:

The prince of the kingdom of Titania. One day, Cornelius awoke to discover that he was in a land he had never seen before, and he had been transformed into a beast. His love for Velvet, a foreign princess, drove him to make his way home, yet he feared in his heart that she would stop loving him if she knew what he had become. Cornelius is a serious young man with a strong sense of justice, but his youth leads him to hold naive, idealistic views.

Mercedes

Quote:

The princess of the Fairy Kingdom of Ringford, and next in line to be Queen. She is a bit timid, but won't hesitate to act recklessly to prove her abilities to her mother. Following her mother's death, Mercedes is forced to become Queen at an early age. She strives to become a mature and strong leader to live up to the memory of her mother.

Oswald

Quote:

A cold-blooded human warrior serving the Fairy Kingdom of Ringford, Oswald is renowned and feared as the Shadow Knight, the man who slew a great dragon. He was abandoned as a child, but was taken in by Melvin, nephew to the Fairy Queen Elfaria. He is a stoic man who lives to serve his adopted father, and cares little for the consequences of the actions he is ordered to perform. As a result of his training and skill, he places little value in his own life.

Velvet

Quote:

The surviving princess of the kindom of Valentine, which was mysteriously destroyed in a magical explosion. To hide her identity she fled to the forest of Elrit , and became known as the Forest Witch. She pieces together the prophecies foretelling the end of the world. Though usually serene and composed, she is now desperately trying to figure out a course of action that will somehow halt the Armageddon. She detests her father, Odin, because his actions caused the death of her mother.

Screenshots

Spoiler:

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Crazy Redd

English website is up WITH English screenshots. Atlus is going quick with this one.

http://www.atlus.com/odinsphere/

Spoiler:

Heh, I just got down talking to Tritoch about how long this may take to show up. By the looks of it, they're trying to get this out of the door quickly. Anyways, looks like they've got the character art up without the backgrounds. The screens on the English site look like they've been blown up or something (blurry, more aliasing than the screenshots above, etc).

I'll update the post above with the character art/names/info.

Edit: Just noticed that Oswald seems to be the only one who's not royalty, as well as having the typical "unknown past" introduction/info. On top of that, his description makes him out to be older than the others or at least more world-weary.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Here's 15 more pictures from the world section of the website that you missed. =)

Spoiler:

Also, lol'n at Miles for hotlinking from Atlus' website.

Wow, you hosted all of these up on imagesocket? I just linked them from their site too.



She looks ghastly. The only thing keeping her from being a green skeleton is her face, because aside from that, you can see her spine and hands/arms are skeletal. Awesome art for what's probably going to be a dark queen or whatever.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Unless I personally know the person who I'm hotlinking from (like perhaps the possibility of Merv if he hosted pictures that I wanted to use or Blah for mp3 tags) and that their site is reliable I don't hotlink. It's just good Internet etiquette and saves you from a lot of avoidable crap like hotlink blockers and website death. Also, I don't use imageshack as much these days since a bunch of people around here can't seem to access it anymore.

Ah, well I generally save only a few screenshots/pieces of art and host them on photobucket. In cases like these, I don't think (as Miles said) they'd mind the increased exposure they net for their title.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

True. However, what if it had only worked for Miles as he posted since the pictures were in his cache and Atlus had put up a hotlinking blocker? My no hotlinking policy prevents any cases of that. Just something to keep in mind.

Oh, that's happened to me before, though not with any company's site. Folks here just pointed out that they couldn't see anything and told me to clear my cache to see what they meant.

If it happens? Eh, not like there's much wrong with picking the screenshots/art you think is best and linking to it for those who want more.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Well, I think in you're missing the point that I don't like taking those chances and I don't like seeing it happen either since it's very easy to prevent.

Eh, personal preference. I rarely hotlink images in the first place, let alone this many. If a blocker is in place, it's easy to fix and get some pictures showing again.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

True enough that it's easy to fix but please read my post again.

Quote:

Unless I personally know the person who I'm hotlinking from (like perhaps the possibility of Merv if he hosted pictures that I wanted to use or Blah for mp3 tags) and that their site is reliable I don't hotlink. It's just good Internet etiquette and saves you from a lot of avoidable crap like hotlink blockers and website death. Also, I don't use imageshack as much these days since a bunch of people around here can't seem to access it anymore.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Well, I think in you're missing the point that I don't like taking those chances and I don't like seeing it happen either since it's very easy to prevent.

Wait, you mean following proper netiquette with regards to hotlinking? Can't say I've thought about it like that, since my goal is just to get the pictures up. And if they get blocked? I'll host a few myself. It doesn't bother me when I see it happening.

Though much of that apathy is probably due to uploading being a chore on this connection.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Well, that's good. I know that you are at least responsible. I just have my scruples. Also, I like taking stupid shots at Miles because I less than three him so.

Hotlinking is the easiest solution unless you have some sort of insta-host and copy hosted image location macro built into firefox or something.

That little imageshack thing Elixir put up would definitely trump hotlinking in terms of use it could be configured for any other hosting site. If this is already the case, would someone be so kind as to provide a link?

Quote:

Not to mention it's extremely inconsiderate and hogs bandwidth of other sites.

Yup, that's the internet for you. While I was aware of many unwritten rules of conduct, I didn't know there was an actual list of these things.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Wow, this trailer is absolutely fantastic. Check it out:

Official Japanese trailer

The music, the voices and the artwork are all top notch. I can see where some folks might not like how the characters move, but I think it looks decent enough.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Dizzy

The game looks amazing. It seems that they are using the "puppet" method for animation. Basically the character sprite is not one single sprite. One sprite is one arm, another the leg, etc. so they can move them freely and not having to draw every single frame of the sprite. This has been seen in many Bandai games for psx (Gundam fighting series, Inu Yasha, etc.). It saves animation frames and it looks more fluid.

When are we supposed to see this game in English? End of the year?

Localization is apparently under way, given that we already have a good number of screens in english. BTW, you're dead on with the animation technique. Maybe August?

Originally Posted by drohne @ GAF

princess crown used multi-jointed sprites, sort of like the bosses in old treasure games, which meant the animations didn't have to be individually drawn. this seems to be the same way. that's probably why they can produce such gorgeous original art on what i assume is a fairly modest budget.

So, yeah this is 2-D. Not to mention, it has layered backgrounds with their own animations and details. Definitely a nice touch there.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by SouthJag

According to GameStop's release date list, I believe this game hits stores May 15th or somewhere thereabout.

That can't be, since the trailer has May 17th at the end. I'm assuming that's the Japanese release date, and not the one for NA.

BTW, what are the chances of the NA version being released soon (1 month or 2) after the Japanese version?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Kairi Li

Whats the gameplay like in this game? Full action or mixture or turn base and action like VP2? The trailer makes it look like a side scrolling action RPG.

It's a side scrolling RPG, not turn based. Apparently this game isn't easy, with comments on dying often being pretty common. Luckily, they also mention that retries are pretty quick. Eh, know what? I'll just put up the play magazine pages again along with the 1Up preview.

Originally Posted by 1Up's Odin Sphere preview

Most enemies have fairly simple attack patterns, but they're awfully good at applying them to painful effect. And when you do die -- which will be often -- you can restart immediately from the beginning of your most recent battle with everything you brought into the level restored, making do-overs almost entirely painless.

And just after that, it pretty much confirms the previous mention of dual language tracks:

Originally Posted by 1Up's Odin Sphere preview

Atlus is definitely catering to their hardcore fanbase with Odin Sphere -- the game features both English and Japanese language tracks. But its unique style, sheer visual virtuosity and lush score by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII) lend it an appeal that transcends genre boundaries.

Here's the latest trailer + game demonstration. It's a pretty good indication of how battles flow in this game, as well as some other odd looking activities.




Page 16


Page 17


Page 18


Page 20


Page 21


Page 22


Page 23

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Last I heard, there was an artbook bonus for japanese folks who preordered but I've heard *nada* about any such extras for preorders on this side of the pacific.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Alright, thanks to duckroll @ NeoGaf, we've got Famitsu's Odin Sphere review score and comments:

Originally Posted by Famitsu

- Difficulty is high, but the controls are relatively simple but very intuitive and work well
- The item creation aspect and how its used in the game is unique, but when there are too many items in your inventory management can be hard
- Great directing with powerful music and voices, there's quite a lot of volume in the game
- Lots of loading
- Lots of stages look the same
- In some of the boss fights there appears to be slowdown

9/9/7/7 - 32/40

Clearly not the 10/10 godsend that Play made it out to be, that's for sure.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Still, a couple of nines from Famitsu is nothing to scoff at. I guess it just goes to show that I was kinda right about Play's review there. I'm willing to bet gamerankings will average it at about 80 or so after all is said and done.

Oh, I'm definitely not slamming it. I just pointed out that it was unlikely Play's 10/10 review would be the consensus on this one. But yeah, I'm definitely expecting some solid 80-85 scores across the board. The difficulty and slowdown are two things that'll probably be of note in other reviews, too.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Duckroll just posted some shots of the artbook for the game. They definitely look sweet, but either they didn't take very many pics or it's not that long.

How ya doing, buddy?