Ode to a Sphere (warning: TEXT)

Isuka · Post by **Isuka** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:40 am

Well, I nabbed it by pure chance while buying Dawn of Mana and my first impression was that it felt just a little like a merge between Valkyrie Profile and Vagrant Story (of course without any dungeon crawling elements), but I didn't play it much, have loads of games still pending.
On the other hand, if anyone is interested solely in the graphic style and has a thing for 2D RTS with Harry Potter excerpts, better wait and make reservations for gRiMgRiMoiRe.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:04 am

Yeah, I was planning on mentioning GrimGrimoire at some point, for obvious reasons. It looks good, but I suck at RTS, so I don't think I'll be playing it.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:25 pm

So I started playing this game and I have one quick question. When will I be able to obtain a new bag either by purchsing it through a vendor or winning a battle? Right now, I'm in the second chapter of Gwen's game--after beating the first mini-boss in the forest.

GG! is right about the item management being ridiculous in this game. I even try not to be too much of a pack-rat and use my items as much as I can and I still somehow end up with having not enough room. It is especially an awful design flaw seeing that there is alchemy in this game and you have to save several seemingly useless items to create a potentially more powerul potion. ARGH!

And about the load times, Locit's right. The duration between loads isn't long, but there is a lot of loading sequneces in this game.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:08 pm

Yeah, you can buy bags soon after the beginning. I've seen three sizes so far.

Something that's pissed me off is that there is apparently no way to drop an item and pick it up again. Like, if I want to drop a seed to make space for a material, I have to actually use the seed -- that is to say, waste it. So far the only way I've found to drop items is to empty a bag, but I think you have to have a free space in another bag in order to even do that.

SDHawk · Post by **SDHawk** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:11 pm

You can drop items by holding down while pressing the use item button.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:16 pm

Ah, thank you muchly. I'm off to try that, then.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:33 pm

Again, warning anyone playing not to pick up the small bags. Wait at least until 5 slot bags come up, and try and save a spot or two (out of five, I think) in your bag lineup for the 8 slot bags towards the end. You can store a shit-ton of healing tonics (which are easy to make once you learn how) in them.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:23 pm

Which chapter in Gwen's game do the 5-slot bags come up? That's the bag I'm waiting for.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:52 am

I'm not sure which chapter, but I think I recall them being about a quarter of the way into her game. Maybe even a little bit earlier. Just be sure to check all the peddlers on each level and you'll find them without much hassle.

Majestic Joey · Post by **Majestic Joey** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:42 pm

I have one complaint about this game. SLOWDOWN.

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:49 am

GG!'s review was a bit frightening, but I went ahead and bought the game anyway because, honestly, how could I say no to a game that's so gosh darn pretty? Either way, I'm quite enjoying it; so far, my only complaint is that aside from the attacks, storyline and level progression, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the characters.

I mean, I'm on chapter 5 or so of Cornelius' story, and I've only seen one boss that Gwendolyn hasn't fought. While it was an awesome boss, I was expecting a lot more variety- I mean, at the very least, they could've given those bosses vaguely different attack patterns. They all share the same 7 levels, too. I'm not sure how long I can keep at it if I'm going to have to play the same game 5 times over a span of 50+ hours.

On the slowdown, the only instance I've encountered where it was really a problem was the battle with Odette. It ruined what otherwise would've been a really neat boss. Well, that and the constant enemy spawning, which was ridiculous.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:32 am

Um...is it just me or does Gwen feels stiff or wonky to control? It just seems that the attacks seems a bit on the slow side.

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:28 pm

It's even worse with Cornelius, and I'm sure that every other character is no different. Actually, I've found that the stiff controls are the major contributing factor to the game being as hard as it is, but it didn't take me too long to adjust.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:54 pm

Yeah, it's like a small delay for them to block, excute a combo, and even to eat which I think is stupid.

Post by **Delphine** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:29 pm

And you know what's great? During slowdown, your character slows down <i>more</i> than everything else!

Ritz wrote:50+ hours.

Nah, once you get the hang of it, each character takes about 4 hours to complete. I don't know what those other two stars are in the save file yet, but I'm sure the inevitable Sonic Team style Final Ending doesn't eat up too much time.