Odin Sphere

I remember that back in June, I promised I’d talk about this game. Well, now’s the time. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, Odin Sphere is a 2-D action/RPG from our friends in Japan—specifically, developer Vanillaware. They’ve crafted a few other titles, more recently Grim Grimoire, which came out around the same time as Odin Sphere (but which reportedly isn’t as good; I can’t say because I’ve never tried it). They’re also developing a new title for the Wii, which makes me very excited. So far, it seems, there aren’t many great “hardcore” titles for the Wii, save for Metroid and a few others, so any other deep games are definitely welcome for Nintendo’s little chart-topper.

Anyway, back to Odin Sphere.

It’s funny to think that the PS2, even amid the sway of the next (present?) generation of consoles, can boast graphics worth talking about. Last year’s Okami definitely opened a lot of eyes with its breathtaking visuals, and this year, Odin Sphere deserves that honor. It’s quite honestly one of the most beautiful 2-D games you’ll ever see.

Part of the reason it looks so fancy is because the characters are made up of multiple moving parts, sort of like puppets. It may sound strange on paper, but it looks absolutely awesome on your TV.

The heart of the game lies in beating the crap out of enemies using one of the five main characters. Essentially, the game is split into different “books,” wherein each book represents a character. So no, not all the characters are available at first, and no, you can’t switch them out mid-level. But to tell you the truth, sometimes there’s so much stuff going on at once that you won’t have time to think about switching characters.

A sampling of the heroes you’ll play.

This is the point where the critics come in and start howling about slowdown. The popular thing to do in many Odin Sphere reviews, it seems, was lament the slowdown. O, woe the framerate! Yes, sometimes it slows down. Does it do it often? No. Is it horrible? No. Twilight Princess had some really nasty slowdown every once in a while—not to mention some really fugly textures—but I didn’t hear the critics wailing then. Hmm…

At any rate, Odin Sphere is a visual masterpiece. The whole time you’re playing, it feels like you’re looking at one of those Ye Olde Fairytale tomes, replete with nifty, old-European-style drawings and a nifty, old-European-style tale. Most of the story is lifted from Norse mythology, which the Japanese really seem to be digging these days. I mean, we have Valkyrie Profile…Odin Sphere…uh, I thought there were some other ones…

Anyway, I’ll cut this short for now and let you savor the thought of beautiful 2-D goodness. I know I haven’t really touched on the gameplay yet, but I think I can save that for another day. After all, you can never write too many blogs on a game as cool as Odin Sphere.

 

Victory for Sale

Ah yes, guilty pleasures. We all have them. My guilty pleasure of the moment happens to be indulging in the latest in ancient Chinese warfare: Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires.

A big bonus is that I’m running the Xbox 360 version, which means achievements. Delicious achievements like “Hire 20 Officers,” in which you, uh, hire 20 officers and get a sparkly 20 points for your hard-earned gamerscore. In fact, most of the achievements give you 20 sparkly points, which is pretty cool.

At any rate, I know that Dynasty Warriors happens to be the whipping boy of industry critics. Since Koei sees fit to release a Dynasty Warriors game every, oh, three days, reviewers see fit to hand out mediocre scores in bloodthirsty revenge. After all, aren’t all the Dynasty Warriors games pretty much the same thing over and over and…well, over? Yeah, they are. Which is why I only have two of them.

The last DW game I played was number 3 for the PS2, which came out a number of years ago, so thankfully I’ve been out of Koei’s “let’s go green and recycle our games” loop for a while. This means that when I pick up a DW game, it’s actually fun and exciting for me.

This dude’s gonna rock you some bamboo sticks.

So, anyway, the moral of the story is that I’ve been having a lot of fun playing a game that most people think is boring and overdone. I think what keeps my attention is the fact that you can create your own awesome ancient Chinese generals replete with awesome ancient Chinese names. My ancient Chinese general of choice happens to be a rather diminutive woman with a large sword who looks like she could, perhaps, be Cloud Strife’s mom. She’s my ruler, and so far she pwnz owns half of China. The rest of China is shaking in its boots because I’m ready to go in there and invade and then force all their smithies to level up by 20. You don’t mess with me in Dynasty Warriors.

You don’t mess with me at all.

Massively Excited

Okay, so this weekend I just learned something awesome: Mass Effect is going to have a Limited Edition. *squeal!*

Okay, I know that for some of you, this is old news. But it’s news for me, and super-exciting news, at that. I’ve been wondering and wondering if and when Bioware’s next magnum opus is going to have a Limited Edition (after all, Jade Empire had one!) , and lo and behold, they are.

But there’s a catch.

So far, it seems, the limited edition will only be available online. Darn. This means paying shipping and handling if you want to get your grubby little paws on it on November 20th, like me.

Now, I’m someone who prefers going to stores. I like to stand around for twenty minutes picking out the right case. (Of course, when I stood around for twenty minutes picking out my copy of the Halo 3 LE, I ended up getting the one that looked like it had been packaged by angry cats.) Instead of lovingly choosing which exact copy of Mass Effect I want, I’ll have to settle with what the fates (read: EB shippers) hand me. Still, I think I kinda like the idea that the game will mysteriously show up on my doorstep, ready to introduce itself to my 360.

Still, that’ll cost me. Though EBgames has a nice little “Street Date Delivery Guarantee,” I know that guarantee comes with a hefty shipping price. Of course, I could always go with Super-Saver shipping from Amazon.com, but that’ll also extend the time I wait to get the game, and with the Thanksgiving Holiday hitting right after release, waiting is not so cool. Not when I’ve already been waiting since…oh, I finished Jade Empire. That was two and a half years ago. I will not be waiting any more than I have to for this asskicker of a game.

There’s also a fancy pre-order disc you can get with your reserve of the game. It comes with such awesome things as:

A documentary introducing the game

12 unique gamer pics

Two unique themes- Four exclusive pictures in each theme

Three tracks from the Mass Effect soundtrack

Four historical Mass Effect trailers (from X05 to E3 ‘07)

Blue Dragon demo and videos from Halo 3 (two), Halo Wars, and Lost Odyssey

Now, as for the demos and whatnot, who really cares when you’ve got Xbox Live and access to those anyway, but I really like the idea of Mass Effect themes and Gamerpics. Some of you may not, in which case you can simply pass on the disc, but I love all things Bioware, so I can guarantee you that I’ll be splurging on this game. After all, I did pimp out my 360 with that faceplate/skin combo from MadCatz:

Holy crapz!

Wow, I leave for a few months and look at what happens! Apparently I get more visits than I thought I would! Anyway, while I don’t have time to write a right proper blog right now, I would like to tell you about something funny I discovered while browsing the Internets late one night. It’s Halol, a lolcats-type of site where instead of cats you have Spartans and Elites in all sorts of funny poses and whatnot. If you’re a Halo fan (like me), you might want to check it out.

In other news, I tried the Virtua Fighter 5 demo on Marketplace a few days ago. Hot damn, people, that is a SWEET game. I have VF4 for my lonely little PS2, and though I played it for a while, I could never seem to get into it like I could with Soul Calibur and DOA. This one, however, feels like a top-notch, high-quality fighter. And it flows like water. Seriously. It’s even better than playing SCIII’s ninja class—every move you make seems to flow into the next, even if you’re button-mashing. (Which I admit to doing in the demo because I had no clue what the heck any of the combos were.) Anyway, I can guarantee you that I’ll be picking this one up when it (apparently) launches on Halloween.

Leave it there, come on, clean the pile!

Hey folks.

Just wanted to say that I’m still awfully busy, even though the Halo Beta’s been long done. But do not fear–I will still post about myriad cool things, just not every day. Or, uh, every week.

But give me a little time and I should be able to get some quality blogs up again in the next few weeks. There’s actually a bunch of cool stuff I’d love to talk about, including Odin Sphere:

The game itself looks this awesome, too.

To fan the embers of your curiosity, I’ll tell you that it’s a 2-D (that’s right!) action-RPG with mind-blowingly awesome graphics. And it’s on PS2. And it’s $40. And it’s Game of the Month in EGM, play, and has gotten a ton of good reviews elsewhere because, quite frankly, it’s as close to a perfect game as you’re going to get. Why is this? Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

Or you can just read play’s gushing review HERE.

Put the cake in the oven for a while…

Hey folks—I just wanted to let everybody know that I’m deep in the Halo 3 beta, and it looks like it’ll be a while before I resurface. New posts will probably be sparse for the next few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving for good. I just want to spend some quality time with Master Chief while I can. You should go out and do the same.

I hear he’s nice to curl up next to on a cold Spring night.

Hey baby.

May the Force be…on a stamp?

That’s right, folks—the United States Postal Service is holding a vote for a new Star Wars stamp. This has been going on for a while, but since the polls are still open I figured those of you who missed out might still get a chance to cast your ballot. Click HERE to read the details and check out the ass-kicking variety. Seriously, they’re awesome.

So far, it’s a close race between Yoda and Darth Vader, but you know you really want to vote for these guys:

White is the new awesome.

Go on and exercise your democratic rights. Come on—you need something to do while your Halo Beta finishes downloading.