09 October, 2008

Game Journal: Odin Sphere (Combat)

THIS POST CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF GAMEPLAY SPOILERS FOR ODIN SPHERE

Combat
Combat was not the game's strong point.

This was partly a trade off for having large, beautiful graphics. But getting attacked from off screen was such a pain that I found myself spending as much or more time watching the "radar" in the top right than I did watching the main screen.

This was also because the game rewards taking no damage by showering the player with loot if they win quickly and take almost no damage and giving them a solitary item if they take too long or take too much damage. Considering certain opponents have special attacks that will instantly knock you down three loot grades, the game is largely about avoidance. Good luck with that.

Enemies often attack in waves with many ground and air attackers vying for a piece of you. Blocking only halves the damage you take, so you still lose grades for doing it. Plus you lose "Pow", your stamina, so you still have to run away to recharge. If your pow runs out, you just stand there dizzy and take hits.

The only strategy I found to be somewhat successful was "charging" strikes. Gwendolyn (the character in the first campaign), can't technically charge an attack. And most enemies will just beat on you if you only hit them with the first three blows of her four hit combo. So I'd watch on the radar as they approached and start swinging at air. They'd usually arrive in time for the third and fourth hits, knocking them on their butts. Even this wasn't foolproof, and sometimes they'd still be standing and hitting me. But it was the closest thing to a successful strategy I found.

Bosses were a different matter. I've always been pretty good about picking up the cues designers use to tell players how to tackle a boss. One on one, most bosses in Odin Sphere were pretty easy. Wait for them to make a move. Avoid. Get off a combo. Repeat. To keep things challenging, they'd often add a couple weak enemies to harass the player. That was fine. But fighting two bosses at once was a recipe for boredom and frustration as waiting for both enemies to be in a state that made it safe to attack them was a pain. Plus, if I was in the middle of a combo and the second boss started to charge from way off screen, there seemed to be no way to cancel out and dodge (maybe ducking?).

Combat Summary
The combat in the game never let me feel like I was in control of a fight, like I had solid choices. Even the best choice would randomly fail. Luckily I enjoyed farming so much that I was overpowered. But I prefer to win with skill rather than force.

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