OH SNAP WE'RE IN THE RING CYCLE
Right, so. Now that I'm at the line of final bosses in record time (for me) I guess it's about time I get around to pimping Odin Sphere. I bought it on impulse when bumming around in the city with sarisa and chirachira in post-con antics (WHICH WERE AWESOME). My logic was this: "It's new. It's an Atlus game. I'm vaguely interested. Better get it now because next year it's going to cost a few limbs." It turned out to be well worth taking a chunk out of my (still goddamnit) unemployed ass. Seeing as I've been playing it for most of the last week and have just now emerged to tell the tale. (okay I lie, other stuff happened to...like hanging with Chira! Hi Chira! I still love you! Hope the comic or HP pr0n or LJs crusade against HP pr0n hasn't eaten you yet!)
Anyway, as it is not a Final Fantasy game, there is a sad lack of people that a) know that the game exists b) know that it is feggin' GORGEOUS (seriously, just check out the trailer) or c) know the joys of prancing through the fairy forests with your pert little ass ON FIRE while collecting the right ingredients so that your character can scarf on cheesecake for three hours. I want to die
And so, have a pimp post:
Odin Sphere is a little girl's bed time story. Like all bed time stories, it involved various counts of grisly war, regicide, fratricide, filicide, unholy transformations, shambling corpses, bastard children, boobs, abusive fathers, and my god what are you wearing, Princess? It is a fairytale of the most traditional sort. You follow Alice (aforementioned little girl) as she reads a series of books in her grandfather's attic. Each book follows the journey of a different character through a fantastical realm in which there are dragons and valkyrie, and you run in circles a whole lot. Each of these stories is at the heart it's respective heros personal journey, but each and every one of the contributes to a greater overreaching plot which involves prophecies, war between nations, and a healthy helping of Norse mythology! And we all know what Norse mythology means, don't we? GOTTERDAMMERUNG FOR ALL.
and some Swan Lake, and some Shakespeare, and some Brother's Grimm....er, let's move on--ODIN SPHERE ROLE CALL
The Main Players
Gwendolyn: Valkyrie heroine of the first book and arguably the Main Main Character of the game by virtue of her prettiful wings landing her on the cover of all the official merchandise. That said, nobody loves Gwendolyn. Her sister loved her, but she's dead. Her mother loved her, but she's dead too. Her troops love her, but they don't count. Odin, Gwendolyn's father and king of the HARDCORE warlike kingdom of Ragnanival, MIGHT love her, if he ever stopped being a scheming, power-hungry fuckhead long enough to think on it. Nobody loves Gwendolyn (except Oswald), but despite these circumstances she is still a poised, proud Valkyrie princess, armed with her late sister's sword and a dive bomb attack that YOU'LL REALLY MISS FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. Despite her delicate, ballerina-esque appearances, Gwen is actually the heaviest hitter of the game, with the potential for quadrupling her attack power with the right set of skills. Her story borrows heavily (read: flat out steals) from The Ring Cycle. That's Wagner, for those of you just joining us, which is how you know that she is HARDCORE.
Eve if she has a little blue bird following her around to tell her how much she sucks.
And nobody loves her.
except Oswald.
Cornelius: You know when you wake up and it's dark and it's cold and you don't know what happened last night except that you're not wearing any pants? Yeah. Sucks a lot more when you've also been turned into a rabbit. Cornelius, the young Prince of the neutral nation Titania, just wanted the simple things in life. Good hair. A Pony. Hanging out all day in the woods with his half-naked girlfriend. Pants--you know, the basics. Unfortunately an erstwhile curse has left him trapped in the land of the dead with nothing to his name but a mysterious magic sword and a cute, fwuffy widdle tail. Not that this stops him from kicking any behind, mind. What he lacks in Valkyrie firepower he makes up for with a nasty spin attack which can leave you bouncing off of large enemies for hours. Book 2 is just Cornelius' really bad hair day, okay, with a definate Shakespearean flavor to add insult to the injury. Most of his conversations go along these lines:
Cornelius: Excuse me, could you tell me where I might find--
Other Person (Probably a Boss): FOOL YOU SHALL PERISH.
Cornelius: ...well, this conversation has not gone the way I expected!
That said, Cornelius manages to have the dubious distinction of being the least psychologically damaged character in the game, due to being a truly noble, upstanding sort. The half-naked girlfriend probably helps. Also, he is voiced by The Prince of Persia. We like Cornelius.
Mercedes: Mercedes was just a normal girl who liked gunning down frogs in a machinegun like fashion with her mother's magical crossbow. Then her mom died and it became her crossbow. Oh, and the kingdom becaome hers too. Did we mention that we were at war, Mercedes? Mercedes is the new Queen of the Vanir--or the fairies--who have been at war with the Aesir (Odin and his posse) over the possession of a big whopping artifact on which hinges the plot of the whole damn game. Needless to say, with the old queen gone and the new queen all of, like, twelve in fairy years things aren't looking so good for the Vanir. Mercedes reacts like we all would in discovering oneself thrust into rulership of a country coming apart at the seams. She freaks the hell out. Then she picks herself up and guns the opposition down, all on the valuable advice of a surprisingly well-spoken frog. Oh, yeah. This game went there.
Mercedes story borrows heavily from... ...The Frog Prince. It's also a pretty rockin' high political KINGMAKING drama. Mercedes is frail, starting off with the lowest HP of any of the characters in the game, but she makes up for it with her ability of flight, and some of the cheapest moves known to man.
Oswald: You think life sucks, and then it turns out someone sold your soul to the Queen of the Dead without telling you. Needless to say, Oswald is DARK. He is called the SHADOW KNIGHT. He is all TORMENTED. He has a alternate form in which the DARKNESS HE WIELDS temporarily CONSUMES HIM and he RIPS THINGS APART. With his ANGST. Said darkness springs form the cursed sword that he wields, a blade called the Belderiver, a blade so DARK and SINISTER that even its own maker regrets its birth. In Oswald's defense, he has his reasons, as his life really does just plain suck. Dragonslayer, erstwhile gay for pay soldier fighting currently for the fairies, contractually obligated to serve death, Oswald was raised by Mercedes' cousin Melvin (yeah, I know) after his human parents abandoned him. In the manner of a good adopted father, Melvin raised him to be his one man BRUISER SQUAD, much feared by enemies and allies alike (EW DON'T STEP ON MY SHADOW OSWALD, YOU'LL GET DEATH CURSE ALL OVER ME). As a result of such a sheltered upbringing, Oswald is easily confused by some things. His budding affection Odin's younger daughter would be one of these things. Nobody loves Oswald, but boy, Oswald sure would like it if Gwen loved him. :(
Ironically, Oswald is one of more rickety characters to start out with. His Shadow Form doubles his attack strength but severely weakens his defense, drains quickly, and leaves him in a stagger if you don't shift him out of it fast enough. Oswald's all offense with very little to guard him, reflecting on his DARK and WILD lack of regard for his own life in battle. He makes up for it with speed, a good doublejump, and by being hysterically funny. Oswald threatens the shopkeepers for kicks, guys. Pity he doesn't get them to give you stuff for free. Damnit, Oswald.
Velvet: Cornelius' aforementioned half-naked girlfriend. Velvet's job for most of the game is to A) steal shit B) get captured C) stand around in an anatomically impossible fashion making cryptic statements alluding to the end of the world. As the bastard child of Odin and a Princess from the dead nation, Valentine, Velvet's family history's a bit complicated. Her father both loves her (more than Gwendolyn) and is unable to admit to her existance, feelings which she answers with nothing but contempt, blaming Odin for her mother's death. There's little else that can be said about Velvet that's not gigantically spoilerish, as hers is the last book before THE END OF DAYS kicks into high gear. She fights with a chain, allowing her to attack from both short distances and long, as well as swing from tree to tree like spiderman, and miraculously never flashes anyone, considering she's not wearing any pants. As such, she'd probably take Cornelius' current pantsless state a lot better than he thinks she would.
Minor Characters Who I Will Not Being Going Into In Depth Because You Need To Play The Damn Game:
Ingway: Velvet's Morally Ambiguous But Equally Half Naked Twin Brother. Steals her stuff. Speaks with an inexplicable English accent that Velvet Very Clearly Does Not Have. Give me back my skirt, Ingway.
Lord Brigan: I AM A SEXIST DICKHEAD. BRING ME MORE BOOZE AND WOMEN AND TREMBLE BEFORE MY MIGHT AND VISIBLE PUBIC HAIR AS I AM BEATEN DOWN IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER. HA HA HA.
Mercedes' Frog Friend: ...is made of win, that is all.
King Onyx: Immortal ruler of the Fire Kingdom. Shirtless. Speaks with bad fire related puns all the time. Attended to by hot chicks with beehive hair. May possibly have come to have sex with your family.
Beldor, Urzur, and Skuldi: Old dudes who cause problems.
Belial: Blue dragon. You fight him a lot.
Hindel: Green dragon. Relatively nice guy.
Wagner: I, WAGNER, KING OF THE DRAGONS SHALL END YOU-- look, you'd have a chip on your shoulder too if people kept poking you with sticks. Wins for Best Choice of a Name For A Dragon Ever. May have been gay for Hindel, in a dragony kinda way.
The Pooka: Cursed beasts like Cornelius. They were once people. Now they are fuzzy little rabbit things. For all their personal problems, the pooka are generally pretty helpful guys, running shops, restaurants, and cafes where you can buy/bring ingredients to cook food that give you some tasty stat upgrades. Now don't you want to hand over all of that Valentinian gold?
Anyway, as it is not a Final Fantasy game, there is a sad lack of people that a) know that the game exists b) know that it is feggin' GORGEOUS (seriously, just check out the trailer) or c) know the joys of prancing through the fairy forests with your pert little ass ON FIRE while collecting the right ingredients so that your character can scarf on cheesecake for three hours. I want to die
And so, have a pimp post:
Odin Sphere is a little girl's bed time story. Like all bed time stories, it involved various counts of grisly war, regicide, fratricide, filicide, unholy transformations, shambling corpses, bastard children, boobs, abusive fathers, and my god what are you wearing, Princess? It is a fairytale of the most traditional sort. You follow Alice (aforementioned little girl) as she reads a series of books in her grandfather's attic. Each book follows the journey of a different character through a fantastical realm in which there are dragons and valkyrie, and you run in circles a whole lot. Each of these stories is at the heart it's respective heros personal journey, but each and every one of the contributes to a greater overreaching plot which involves prophecies, war between nations, and a healthy helping of Norse mythology! And we all know what Norse mythology means, don't we? GOTTERDAMMERUNG FOR ALL.
and some Swan Lake, and some Shakespeare, and some Brother's Grimm....er, let's move on--ODIN SPHERE ROLE CALL
The Main Players
Gwendolyn: Valkyrie heroine of the first book and arguably the Main Main Character of the game by virtue of her prettiful wings landing her on the cover of all the official merchandise. That said, nobody loves Gwendolyn. Her sister loved her, but she's dead. Her mother loved her, but she's dead too. Her troops love her, but they don't count. Odin, Gwendolyn's father and king of the HARDCORE warlike kingdom of Ragnanival, MIGHT love her, if he ever stopped being a scheming, power-hungry fuckhead long enough to think on it. Nobody loves Gwendolyn (except Oswald), but despite these circumstances she is still a poised, proud Valkyrie princess, armed with her late sister's sword and a dive bomb attack that YOU'LL REALLY MISS FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. Despite her delicate, ballerina-esque appearances, Gwen is actually the heaviest hitter of the game, with the potential for quadrupling her attack power with the right set of skills. Her story borrows heavily (read: flat out steals) from The Ring Cycle. That's Wagner, for those of you just joining us, which is how you know that she is HARDCORE.
Eve if she has a little blue bird following her around to tell her how much she sucks.
And nobody loves her.
except Oswald.
Cornelius: You know when you wake up and it's dark and it's cold and you don't know what happened last night except that you're not wearing any pants? Yeah. Sucks a lot more when you've also been turned into a rabbit. Cornelius, the young Prince of the neutral nation Titania, just wanted the simple things in life. Good hair. A Pony. Hanging out all day in the woods with his half-naked girlfriend. Pants--you know, the basics. Unfortunately an erstwhile curse has left him trapped in the land of the dead with nothing to his name but a mysterious magic sword and a cute, fwuffy widdle tail. Not that this stops him from kicking any behind, mind. What he lacks in Valkyrie firepower he makes up for with a nasty spin attack which can leave you bouncing off of large enemies for hours. Book 2 is just Cornelius' really bad hair day, okay, with a definate Shakespearean flavor to add insult to the injury. Most of his conversations go along these lines:
Cornelius: Excuse me, could you tell me where I might find--
Other Person (Probably a Boss): FOOL YOU SHALL PERISH.
Cornelius: ...well, this conversation has not gone the way I expected!
That said, Cornelius manages to have the dubious distinction of being the least psychologically damaged character in the game, due to being a truly noble, upstanding sort. The half-naked girlfriend probably helps. Also, he is voiced by The Prince of Persia. We like Cornelius.
Mercedes: Mercedes was just a normal girl who liked gunning down frogs in a machinegun like fashion with her mother's magical crossbow. Then her mom died and it became her crossbow. Oh, and the kingdom becaome hers too. Did we mention that we were at war, Mercedes? Mercedes is the new Queen of the Vanir--or the fairies--who have been at war with the Aesir (Odin and his posse) over the possession of a big whopping artifact on which hinges the plot of the whole damn game. Needless to say, with the old queen gone and the new queen all of, like, twelve in fairy years things aren't looking so good for the Vanir. Mercedes reacts like we all would in discovering oneself thrust into rulership of a country coming apart at the seams. She freaks the hell out. Then she picks herself up and guns the opposition down, all on the valuable advice of a surprisingly well-spoken frog. Oh, yeah. This game went there.
Mercedes story borrows heavily from... ...The Frog Prince. It's also a pretty rockin' high political KINGMAKING drama. Mercedes is frail, starting off with the lowest HP of any of the characters in the game, but she makes up for it with her ability of flight, and some of the cheapest moves known to man.
Oswald: You think life sucks, and then it turns out someone sold your soul to the Queen of the Dead without telling you. Needless to say, Oswald is DARK. He is called the SHADOW KNIGHT. He is all TORMENTED. He has a alternate form in which the DARKNESS HE WIELDS temporarily CONSUMES HIM and he RIPS THINGS APART. With his ANGST. Said darkness springs form the cursed sword that he wields, a blade called the Belderiver, a blade so DARK and SINISTER that even its own maker regrets its birth. In Oswald's defense, he has his reasons, as his life really does just plain suck. Dragonslayer, erstwhile gay for pay soldier fighting currently for the fairies, contractually obligated to serve death, Oswald was raised by Mercedes' cousin Melvin (yeah, I know) after his human parents abandoned him. In the manner of a good adopted father, Melvin raised him to be his one man BRUISER SQUAD, much feared by enemies and allies alike (EW DON'T STEP ON MY SHADOW OSWALD, YOU'LL GET DEATH CURSE ALL OVER ME). As a result of such a sheltered upbringing, Oswald is easily confused by some things. His budding affection Odin's younger daughter would be one of these things. Nobody loves Oswald, but boy, Oswald sure would like it if Gwen loved him. :(
Ironically, Oswald is one of more rickety characters to start out with. His Shadow Form doubles his attack strength but severely weakens his defense, drains quickly, and leaves him in a stagger if you don't shift him out of it fast enough. Oswald's all offense with very little to guard him, reflecting on his DARK and WILD lack of regard for his own life in battle. He makes up for it with speed, a good doublejump, and by being hysterically funny. Oswald threatens the shopkeepers for kicks, guys. Pity he doesn't get them to give you stuff for free. Damnit, Oswald.
Velvet: Cornelius' aforementioned half-naked girlfriend. Velvet's job for most of the game is to A) steal shit B) get captured C) stand around in an anatomically impossible fashion making cryptic statements alluding to the end of the world. As the bastard child of Odin and a Princess from the dead nation, Valentine, Velvet's family history's a bit complicated. Her father both loves her (more than Gwendolyn) and is unable to admit to her existance, feelings which she answers with nothing but contempt, blaming Odin for her mother's death. There's little else that can be said about Velvet that's not gigantically spoilerish, as hers is the last book before THE END OF DAYS kicks into high gear. She fights with a chain, allowing her to attack from both short distances and long, as well as swing from tree to tree like spiderman, and miraculously never flashes anyone, considering she's not wearing any pants. As such, she'd probably take Cornelius' current pantsless state a lot better than he thinks she would.
Minor Characters Who I Will Not Being Going Into In Depth Because You Need To Play The Damn Game:
Ingway: Velvet's Morally Ambiguous But Equally Half Naked Twin Brother. Steals her stuff. Speaks with an inexplicable English accent that Velvet Very Clearly Does Not Have. Give me back my skirt, Ingway.
Lord Brigan: I AM A SEXIST DICKHEAD. BRING ME MORE BOOZE AND WOMEN AND TREMBLE BEFORE MY MIGHT AND VISIBLE PUBIC HAIR AS I AM BEATEN DOWN IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER. HA HA HA.
Mercedes' Frog Friend: ...is made of win, that is all.
King Onyx: Immortal ruler of the Fire Kingdom. Shirtless. Speaks with bad fire related puns all the time. Attended to by hot chicks with beehive hair. May possibly have come to have sex with your family.
Beldor, Urzur, and Skuldi: Old dudes who cause problems.
Belial: Blue dragon. You fight him a lot.
Hindel: Green dragon. Relatively nice guy.
Wagner: I, WAGNER, KING OF THE DRAGONS SHALL END YOU-- look, you'd have a chip on your shoulder too if people kept poking you with sticks. Wins for Best Choice of a Name For A Dragon Ever. May have been gay for Hindel, in a dragony kinda way.
The Pooka: Cursed beasts like Cornelius. They were once people. Now they are fuzzy little rabbit things. For all their personal problems, the pooka are generally pretty helpful guys, running shops, restaurants, and cafes where you can buy/bring ingredients to cook food that give you some tasty stat upgrades. Now don't you want to hand over all of that Valentinian gold?