Odin Sphere - Gameplay

Gameplay

Odin Sphere is divided into several chapters, during which the story of one of the five playable characters progressively unfolds. Within the acts of each chapter, the player can obtain information relating to the upcoming "mission", as well as buy and sell goods prior to setting off for the next destination. There is an overarching chronological story that is split among the five characters, with their individual stories intersecting at places (for example, early on within Gwendolyn's progression, Gwendolyn will fight Velvet, an event duplicated in Velvet's story progression). As a result, the player will slowly experience the entire sequence of events from each characters' limited point of view. Only one character story is available at the start, but as the player completes those stories, the "books" for other characters unlock one at a time.

Within each destination is a series of smaller boards or levels connected in a bidirectional graph; these levels include regular combat levels, shop levels, and minor and major boss levels. Regular combat levels are marked with a 1 to 5 star rating indicating their difficulty, allowing the player to opt to avoid a path if it's too difficult at their current ability level. In contrast, shop levels contain no enemies, but instead feature a travelling salesman ready to buy and sell goods. The player is usually required to defeat at least one minor boss to reach the major boss, which when defeated, causes the story to advance.

In each regular combat or minor boss level, if the player has not yet completed that level, they will need to defeat all the foes in order to leave that level. The player will receive a fixed level reward for this, as well as additional rewards for outstanding performance. Once this is completed, exits to other nodes on the area map will be open for travel. If a player revisits a completed level, they can directly travel to an exit, or wait to fight foes that appear.

Levels are represented in 2D, but with the left and right edges joined so as to form a continuous circle; the player can continue to run in one direction and will return to the starting point after some seconds of travel. A map shows the position of the player, enemies, and objects on the level, while a smaller map shows the location of the exits from the level. Combat is similar to many 2D fighting games, though includes a "power bar" representing how many consecutive actions the player has performed without pausing. Should the power bar empty, the player must wait a few moments for the power bar to refill while the character stands vulnerable in an exhausted state; however, a player can also refill the power bar by voluntarily stopping all action for a short period of time.

There are three additional aspects to Odin Sphere's gameplay:

Psypher Weapons and Phozons

Each character has a weapon called a Psypher made of crystals from the Netherworld, which can be used to absorb Phozons from defeated foes and other sources. As the weapons absorb more Phozons they will increase in power, doing more damage and providing new magic for the player to use. Magic requires consumption of a certain number of Phozons, though does not detract from the Psypher level.

Alchemy

The player can combine two items to generate a new item, following specific alchemy recipes learned during gameplay. Most of these items require a "Material" bottle which the alchemy result is stored into. Material bottles can be improved in level by alchemizing two of them together to get a material bottle valued at the multiplicative product of the two original bottles (for example, Material 2 combined with Material 3 will give a Material 6 bottle). Certain alchemy recipes require a Material bottle of a certain level. Material bottles release Phozons when made with an alchemy recipe, with higher material levels yielding higher amounts. Different potions can only be made after finding the recipes for that potion, with no results even if the player accidentally performs the correct alchemy.

Plants, food and cooking

The player has the ability to plant various types of seeds at any location within a level. In order to grow, most plants require a fixed number of Phozons, automatically absorbing the Phozons around the area. Once fully developed, they provide fruit and other items that the player can pick up and use, after which the plant withers and disappears. When eaten, the player's HP Experience will increase. Food items and other ingredients can also be combined when visiting the "Pooka Village" cafe and restaurant to make delicacies which grants larger amounts of experience and additional hit point bonuses. The majority of any characters hit points often comes from these foods. Similar to Alchemy, the player must first find recipes scattered throughout the game before certain dishes can be prepared.