Review by Zoelius
"Pure Bliss"
 
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a remastered port of the hit PS2 title released way back in 2008. This remastered port isn't just a simple port, Vanillaware has literally redone the entire game system and change the game for the better. The game now has the polish that is found in recent Vanilliaware titles. Vanilliaware claims the Refined version found in Leifdrasir is supposed to be their original vision of the game, but due to time constraints the game was released in an extremely flawed state back in 2008. For players that have played the original Odin Sphere, they will remember the game for having amazing visuals but with very flawed gameplay. Players of the original game will discover the game has major slowdowns and the game also became repetitive quickly. Of course this remaster also includes a Classic mode for players that want to the enjoy the original version.
 
Story: Odin Sphere takes place in the world of Erion which has several nation in constant war over the Crystallization Cauldron, a creation left behind by the Kingdom of Valentine. A nation so powerful that was mysteriously vanished overnight. You will get to play as one of the five protagonist from one of the major nations in Erion. Each having a major role in the upcoming Armageddon. The game requires you to beat the game with one character to unlocked the next protagonist. Odin Sphere's storyline is excellent, it's Vanillaware's own spin on Ragnarok from Norse Mythology. The story is not told in Chronological order and the storyline will overlap each other, with some playable character as an antagonist to another.
 
Gameplay: The battle system is a lot more smoother and the UI has been greatly improved. The battle system has the biggest makeover over the original. Every character in the game attack faster and require no POW gauge to attack (Except one character). In the original game each attack will consume a bit of POW eventually leading you a dizzy state when attacking, it sounded like a good idea on paper but it didn't work out gameplay wise. Blocking will also nullify damage if blocked from the correct direction of attacks, (In the original game, blocking attacks will only reduced a small fraction of the damage which make blocking a completely useless feature, it is better to avoid an attack then to block.) Characters have new skills which can be used at the cost of your POW gauge (They work similar to the Tales of series) or PP for Magic. Once the skill has been acquired, you can use it through the Skill menu or have it assigned to a button shortcut. Players will now upgrade their characters using the new Skill Grid system, you can use the phozons (Floating orbs, that are collected for exp and other use), you have absorbed to upgrade your character however you like, from new skills to new abilities. Most new abilities are hidden through out stages or given as a reward after clearing a chapter. With each character having a massive upgrade over their original counterpart, its only fair the every boss type enemy that were from the original game has given new attacks and along with more aggressive attack patterns. There is also new types of mini bosses found throughout the game. Overall the new skill tree system is a lot of fun and its perfect design for players that love building their characters up.
 
Characters can level up by eating food. When consuming food you will receive exp and have your HP increased permanently. A major change in this system is there is two separate types of kitchen for food recipes. A character name Moree can be found throughout the game by cooking you food recipes if you found the corresponding recipe along with the right ingredients. While Pooka kitchen will cook recipes for you as long as you have some Valentine coins (A separate currency that only Pooka accepts) in your inventory. This makes the leveling system a lot tedious, as the original game requires a bit of everything to make one food recipes. Now its simplified to collect ingredients for Moree or just pay the Pooka chefs. The original game requires you to find everything before the Pooka Kitchen can even make a single dish for you. This process was tedious and doesn't really make much sense, like I need to bring a recipe and supplies to a restaurant before they can cook for me?
 
The new UI makes everything easier to use. The new alchemy system is no where as tedious as the original, you can add ingredient to make magic items or can even use one of the pre-selected recipe you have previously learn. The game will even let you create items for recipes you have not learn as long as you put the right recipe in, the original game would only let you create items for recipes you have found, which really limit the earlier characters in options. Inventory system is also a lot less clunky, they have separate tabs for easier arrangement and additional inventory space can be found by clearing certain areas of the game.
 
Their is also new text documents found in the game that provides more information about the world of Erion. This will give players a better insight regarding some of the things that weren't explained or left very vague in the original. For example some of the same documents only contain a few sentence of detail in the original, now you will get two full pages full of detail on the world of Erion. This gives veteran players something new and want to know more about the world of Odin Sphere.
 
Graphics: The Graphics of Odin Sphere is pure eye candy, even the original game still hasn't aged one bit. With superior hardware, the game has next to no slowdowns and everyone can now enjoy the visual of Odin Sphere at the fullest. With a higher resolution everything is a lot more vivid, details are much clearer. There is also new backdrops for every location making many places look less disjointed. A bad example of this, would be somewhere in the original game, where the boss fight takes place in a sewer, but the stage map did not have a single sewer area in sight making it look disjointed when you have scenery changes for the story.
 
Music: The Soundtrack for this game is great. It's composed of mostly tracks from Hitoshi Sakimoto who is well known in RPG community. There isn't many songs in Odin Sphere but each song is very strong and sets the atmosphere immediately. If you are expecting new songs in the Remastered, there is a really few new tracks. Which plays out in more subtle moments, usually in the non battle areas of each stage. Which can be hard to find, one of the locations has been replaced with completely new music, instead of reusing music from the previous locations. Many of the previous songs that has lyrics seem to be completely remixed. Although I prefer the original rendition of it, you can still hear them if you decide to play Classic Mode.
 
Odin Sphere Leifdrasir is the definition of a perfect remaster. Not many games are given a second chance to fix what they did wrong originally. What Vanillaware did to this game is phenomenal. Instead of simply porting the game, they took the original game fixed up every problem the original game had without screwing the core game, they didn't change the plot. Vanillaware simply fixed what was wrong with the original, and also improve on every aspect on what they did right. Developers should take this game as an example of how to do a port instead of simply upscaling a game and put it next gen consoles and call it a day.
 
Reviewer's Rating:   5.0 - Flawless [EDIT: 5 sur 5 donc note max]
 
Originally Posted: 02/25/16, Updated 02/29/16
 
Game Release: Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir (JP, 01/14/16)

The original Odin Sphere was infamous for its bouts of slowdown whenever the action became too hectic. A drop in frame rate is present in the remake on the Vita, but not only is it much rarer, it's also easier to handle. It was most noticeable in two of the early boss battles, and in the underworld where dozens of bones were flying across the screen. At no point did the frame rate hinder my experience, and these dips were often over in a second or two.