TEAL: Odin Sphere

It was hard to pin down exactly why I enjoyed Odin Sphere. The art's great, the leveling system is engaging, and the battle can be challenging, even when I'm now simply under-powered. Ultimately, I think that what upped my enjoyment of the game is that I felt cheated in so many battles.

I'm willing to concede that this is due to my own choices: I refused to level grind for the first five books. Quite often this led to one-hit deaths and countless retries. Surprisingly, I was able to forgo the RPG route of defeat and instead approached it for Odin Sphere's action side: I memorized. In classic action fashion, most of the bosses could be taken down through finding their pattern and attacking accordingly.

And after trial through irking trial, taken down they were, which is why I was able to get so much fun out of the game. It's just like me with programming. The fun for me comes from finally breaking through an error or bug after trying and cursing and trying again for ages.

Besides that, the whimsical (I mean, when it isn't dealing Armageddon) style and setting gives me the same warm feeling I got from playing GRiMgRiMoiRe. It kind of makes me wonder if Muramasa will  give me the same fantasy high. Regardless, I think I'll get the same difficulty high while I play (and scream at) The Demon Blade.

…and now I have to find and listen to Wagner's Ring Cycle.