Odin Sphere Leifthrasir Review

©Atlus Co., Ltd. ©Vanillaware

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Player(s): 1
 
To say Odin Sphere Leifthrasir was a good remake is an understatement. To say it was a good game is also an understatement. In a gaming landscape where remasters are commonplace, it’s nice to see one that is both a complete overhaul while still remaining faithful to the original title. If you have a PS4, PS3, or PS Vita, this is a title worth your time and money (and has bonus cross save functionality!)

©Atlus Co., Ltd. ©Vanillaware

The core of Odin Sphere is 5 concurrent stories set in the world of Erion, centered around the Cauldron War. These stories are being read by a young girl named Alice, and once a story is unlocked it can be replayed at any time. Each story offers a different perspective on the overarching events occurring in Erion, and make use of a different player character with a different playstyle, with 2 final stories involving the culmination of everyone’s story lines for a literal Armageddon event and the aftermath. New to the remake is beautifully remastered art and full voice acting in English and Japanese.

©Atlus Co., Ltd. ©Vanillaware

Mechanics shared between the classic and refined modes include the beloved alchemy and food systems. Alchemy is pretty straightforward: mix items to get other items. I think nearly every item you find and can use in-game can be used for alchemy, which is pretty handy when you might need a health potion or poison in a pinch. You can perform alchemy at almost any time when you control a character, so mid-boss fight you can scrounge together items on hand to turn the tide. Food in Odin Sphere is downright important: food heals, food gives EXP, and food increases your total HP. Sometimes, the food you eat even leaves you with a seed to grow more food or an item to attack a foe with or use in alchemy. There are also several restaurants in-game as well as summonable in area maps that allow for massive gains of EXP and HP increases, and are well worth grinding. 

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New in the refined mode are expanded maps, additional bosses, and a rather in-depth skill and ability tree. Each character has their own skills and ability to level for, and require searching for hidden locations on the map to acquire all of them. These skills and ability range from better combos to healing when landing critical hits to character-specific boosts to increased EXP from food and more. All are obtainable on a single play through for each character, and allow for a greater range of playstyles.

©Atlus Co., Ltd. ©Vanillaware

Each story in the game is pretty straightforward: a chapter consists of some cutscenes, map exploration leading to a boss fight, a cutscene, a boss fight, then more cutscene. The maps themselves get increasingly larger as you progress through a character’s story, and are filled with mid-bosses, hidden items, and only a handful of puzzles. However, you’ll visit the same areas with different maps for multiple characters, and have to deal with the same, sometimes terrible, bosses along with them. This can cause the game to get a little stale in places (How many times do I have to beat up this dragon? This airship again!?) Still, the game does try to keep each player from visiting the exact same places, and has them do so at different points in their story. 

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The five characters differ wildly in playstyles, and with little segue between them can cause transitioning from story to story a little difficult. Case in point: the 2nd story is about a sword wielding rabbit-like creature named Cornelius, and I got used to how I had some of his skills set up and jumping around a lot. The 3rd story is about a fairy named Mercedes who uses a bow and can fly. Drastically different. But I think forcing the player to move through all these characters and playstyles is good, making them rethink previous strategies for the same boss.
 
There are a whole slew of trophies in the game, including a platinum, and the game can be completely platinumed on a single play through of the refined mode. I put in about 41 hours to hit platinum, and that included a boss rush, and backtracking for missing abilities and cutscenes necessary to get the full ending. This does not include trying to play through the story on classic, or the Xtra New Game that’s unlocked once you beat the game (essentially a New Game+).
 
I don’t think I can praise this game enough. The combat is smooth and rewards those who love high hit combos, the game runs at a full 1080p at 60fps, there’s no lag to speak of, and visually it’s one of the most stunning games to be released this year. It’s a bit on the loud side volume-wise, but that’s nothing that can’t be addressed with your remote control. Sure, by the time you’re done some things will feel repetitive due to the nature of the story, but there’s so many well done mechanics and so many interesting things going on that it’s worth sticking through to the end. 

©Atlus Co., Ltd. ©Vanillaware

- Janette G (anarchymarie)

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Graphics: PERFECT
Sound: GREAT
Gameplay: GREAT
Value: AMAZING

OVERALL: GREAT AND A HALF

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