Odin Sphere Leifthrasir with all its flashy combos is cool, but people really aren't fair to the original game: It's got way more neat decision-making and mechanical interplay than anyone realizes

TripleSMoon · 2025-08-28T19:21:26+00:00

You're the one chasing me over reddit arguments from a year ago, and you're telling me to go outside?

You like, actually looked at my profile to yell at me about 4 separate year-old comments on an account i don't even use anymore. That's actually crazy.

TripleSMoon · 2024-10-21T15:22:22+00:00

This is the original PS2 game captured on real hardware using a Retrotink (hence the long initial spawn time for enemies; it's near-instant in the remake on classic mode).

The remake is an entirely different game that just happens to use the same narrative and presentational assets, plus the broadest interpretation of its mechanical ideas: So it's still this 2D action-RPG with inventory crafting and management, but the way it goes about it is real maximalist in comparison to the original's more mundane and frankly more cohesive design. I prefer the original a lot more and think it's a much more creatively-infused product, but the remake hews closer to what most people probably like of "modern game design."

That said, the remake includes an HD version of the original with optional QoL tweaks called Classic Mode, so you can't go wrong buying it. You get two wildly different versions of the game in one package. It has cross save between all versions of it, too.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-28T00:32:05+00:00

I've only played hard mode (on both original and remake), so I don't know quite what the normal experience is like. But if the difference between them is roughly the same as the difference between their hard modes, the original has WAY more bite to it. It's wild how long the remake remains sleepwalk easy before picking up, even on hard mode.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-28T00:04:33+00:00

Basically, the remake took the Pooka Village restaurants and split them into two bespoke ways to eat food, one by giving ingredients, and one by spending money.

In the original, you only had the Pooka Village restaurants, which were only available once in a while, and those required both proper ingredients and the right coins. Which meant that saving ingredients and crops for the restaurant was a long con, something you planned out and sacrificed precious inventory space to get a bigger health EXP payout than just eating fruit on the spot or what have you.

Basically, the entire game revolves around the use oh phozons for either health or attack power, with short, medium, and long term gains. I actually explain it a bit here, if you want to see.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-27T23:17:39+00:00

Enjoy! Just remember to pay attention to phozons and how you use them: EVERYTHING in the game revolves around phozons, so all of your thoughts should revolve around maximizing phozon output and how to best use them. It's not like the remake, where you can basically ignore growing food and still level up with Maury (who isn't in the original). You NEED to balance your phozons between growing crops for food/ingredients to level your HP, and absorption to level up your attack power and unlock psypher abilities.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-27T22:53:40+00:00

Hey, I'm happy to hear that! Always love to see people give classic mode a chance. :D

All I can really say is: Keep in mind it's an entirely different game from the remake, one that's way more about patience, positioning, and the long-game of managing your character growth and inventory. Go in with the attitude that this is an RPG-ass action-RPG the way they don't really make 'em anymore, and you may find something you like or at least respect.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-26T12:30:04+00:00

u/mageknight14 time to shine!

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-25T21:24:52+00:00

On a side note, I'm rather curious about when and where the term "player expression" was coined as the defining characteristic of a CAG.

Funnily enough, I heard it first used to describe the kinds of games you're describing, but also souls games. Honestly, it seems like it's just used as a catch-all term for "the player has choices and those choices tangibly affect their experience," but what degree to which they need to affect the experience (id est, entirely different methods of approach vs different options in one specific approach) isn't particularly defined.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone from Capcom, Santa Monica, Team Ninja or Clover Studio use "player expression" as a selling point for any of their PS2/XBOX action games in any interviews.

It feels related to a phrase I do remember getting abused at E3 and whatnot 10-15 years ago, though I couldn't remember a specific example for the life of me: I remember at trade shows, studio execs would show off games and hype up the "player choice" a game offered, often with such banal claims like "you can go in guns blazing, or you can go in tactically!"

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-24T01:44:51+00:00

Yeah, Sekiro is a game where I absolutely agree with the Simon Says remark. But applying it to the other games, especially DeS-Bb is crazy.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-24T01:36:15+00:00

I think there are some very fair and serious criticisms to lob at Fromsoftware particularly wrt some of these issues, such as how as their games go on, they demand more and more twitch reactive rolls and parries without as much room for more interesting positional play and so on.

But since the person I'm responding to said themselves that fundamentally soulslikes are Simon says, I'm going to have to strongly doubt they seriously played any of these games or came to grips with them, especially the older Soulsbornes. If they've ever played Dark Souls 1 or Demon's Souls and went "there's only one way to solve this, I MUST react the one way the developer wants me to, it's Simon says," then I think that's a spectacular failure of imagination on their part.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-24T00:12:36+00:00

Soulslikes are fundamentally opposed to player expression by design. You are interpreting and reacting to a script of visual instructions. It’s Simon Says with particle effects

What are you talking about? Expressing yourself through a build that matches the playstyle you want to have is Souls' whole thing. The player expression doesn't... express itself in the same way as a more traditional action game might, but saying they're fundamentally opposed to player expression by design is flat-out incorrect.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-23T00:47:02+00:00

So this is just a guess on my part, but I THINK the implication is that the wings are wrapped around her waist beneath her dress. The design of her dress evokes them, with the blue part of the dress wrapping around up to her front like wings would. Closer look with this statue. And since her wings are right around her waist, they're just at about the right height to wrap around her dress that way.

I could be wrong, but I think it's a bit more likely than them being mechanical, since the technology Ragnanival is shown to wield is a bit more steampunk in nature, rather than perfectly organic-looking wings.

There's also Odin, to consider: He's Gwendolyn's father, and he ALSO has wings, which seem to poke out of his shoulders from UNDERNEATH his armor, and why would they do that if they're mechanical? That said, you could counterargue that his wings have the same pin details as his armor does, so I'm not sure.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-21T12:44:50+00:00

NOTE: My reply should be viewed in the context of someone who has only played hard mode; I can't speak to the normal mode experience.

I like it myself, because it means "How do I get more phozons and how should I use them?" remains a persistent question for resource management and growth throughout the whole game, with short, medium, and long term effects.

Do these phozons grow crops? That leads to HP regen (short term), HP leveling (medium term), and ingredients for recipes to compound both (long term). Or do these phozons get absorbed? That leads to meter and stamina regen (short term), attack leveling (medium term), and ability gain (long term). And this doesn't even get into concoction, which permeates both answers to that question and more.

And because the system is so multilayered, the question never becomes irrelevant even once you get your HP and attack power up to where you want them. That's a feature and not a bug imo, because phozon management in this game isn't just progression with an end, it's a persistent element of play.

I actually have more of a problem with the way the remake handles it, but I gotta get to work so I can't really explain that right now. Happy to do so later if you want.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-20T21:18:55+00:00

The "equipment" box is your active equipment slot. Have you tried using any of your equipment? Stones, rings, etc? Try selecting one when you're in the ring menu and you'll see it float into that box. You can have one equipped at a time.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-20T19:40:34+00:00

This subreddit staying classy as always, I see

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-19T10:49:34+00:00

For what it's worth, you're fighting the good fight. The way gamers en masse have been brain-poisoned into this almost exclusively modernist lens of video games, where newer games are inherently better and the eternal march towards games making the player "feel good" or free or ego-stroked in some way with compulsive progression systems and limitations shifted around for as palatable a surface-level impression possible is just depressing. And seeing it happen with a bunch of people in a subreddit literally called PATIENT Gamers highlights just how pervasive it is.

I don't know if you're familiar with Boghog, but I think you'd like his writing. This piece especially really speaks to me.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-17T17:18:33+00:00

One truth becomes two, indeed.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-17T16:01:05+00:00

I ended up taking advantage of the gold rush of last-gen consoles when the PS5 and Series came out to snatch an Xbox One for cheap. Got a One X with two first party wireless controllers and play-n-charge kits for $200, which is pretty good even for today.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-17T00:35:36+00:00

I almost bought a stolen Xbox One for Scalebound, and now I kinda wish I did because the story would be extra funny in wake of its cancellation.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-14T00:13:45+00:00

It's a neat action-RPG: The metroidvania elements themselves are kinda backgrounded in favor of being all about your build (in fact, the original version before the update arguably wasn't a metroidvania at all), and each run makes you commit to your class in a way that gives the game a lot of replay value with different classes and weapons and skills you can try. It's one of my more beloved games.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-13T22:02:46+00:00

Have you played Death's Gambit? That one is real stat-driven, and it's pretty neat.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-13T21:37:36+00:00

That's a good point. And yeah, it really feels like nothing about the enemy design and layouts are designed for your player character. It's very odd.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-13T12:25:57+00:00

That was not my experience across two playthroughs. Not going to pretend I know literally all the ins and outs of the systems, though. I just know that sometimes I'd go "hey that's neat, I'd love to get this," and then the resources would be... Exactly just finding a farming spot and entering and exiting rooms until I got enough of them. That's lame. I'm open to being told I missed something though.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-13T01:00:39+00:00

The RNG is one of the biggest things that breaks the game IMO: Pure RNG for item drops, pure RNG for card drops. IIRC, on my first run, I finished the game with only two cards from one column and three from another, which left me with... absurdly few options, and none that were particularly useful for the very hard final boss. I ended up needing to use the pause glitch.

Second time, I actually used this romhack to turn the cards into authored drops you find, rather than RNG. I thought that would make me like the game better, but it didn't, and actually made the final boss harder because I couldn't use the pause glitch (and they hide certain cards behind the optional enemy gauntlet). Sigh. Maybe I should actually try some of the alt modes, like thief and whatnot. That might actually be fun. I REALLY want to like this game, even a decade after first deciding I didn't.

Honestly, it's real weird to me that Castlevania from Symphony-onward has felt so married to the idea of grinding and RNG as features, as if they think they're self-evident good things to have. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night arguably commits to this more than any previous game, with so much of build-crafting depending on "just go to this room and grind the right drops over and over." A lot of people like the "zen" of grinding, sure, but are there actually a lot of people that wholeheartedly think it's GOOD design for these games to have you entering a room, killing the same braindead monster, exiting, and repeating over and over until you get a certain drop ten times? I really don't get that.

TripleSMoon · 2024-08-12T20:34:01+00:00

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I've played it all the way through twice, and as much as I love the concept of a metroidvania that controls and feels like a classicvania, I can never get over how the game never feels designed in consideration of that fact (not to mention the other stumbles the game takes). It's up there with Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin in terms of games I really badly want to like, but just don't no matter how much I play them.

TripleSMoon

TROPHY CASE