Odin Sphere

You have got to love this game! It's called "Odin Sphere", and it's one of the most unique and awesome games I've ever played.
The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The characters are drawn and colored flawlessly in 2D, as well as the background and items. With art this beautiful, you'd forget 3D ever existed...
The battles are real-time, and not turn based. It's armed with the basic controls of a real-time game: attack, jump, and special attacks. Also, each character has an ability different from the others, which keeps you from getting tired of the action.
The story itself is unique; Basically, you play through each of the 5 character's stories as ragnarok draws nigh...You'll achieve a good or bad ending depending on the conditions you meet.
Make no mistake...Odin Sphere may look innocent, but it can be one of the most frustrating RPG games you've ever played. According to one gaming site, the game's over-all difficulty is hard, hence even if you set the difficulty to "easy", it's still hard enough to make your head ache. Believe me, this is the only game where I died more than 10 times just trying to beat a "mini-boss". Sometimes this can frustrate you to the point where you can't stand it, especially if the boss battle is over-kill. but that's all part of the challenge the game offers.
There are some minor setbacks, though. There are times where the game "slows down", and everything goes into slow motion. This happens when a flood of monsters appear, and it is absolutely irritating. The character animation can get stiff at times, but it's all forgiveable.
I recommend this game to those who are looking for a challenging game.

REFERENCES: Gamespot, Wikipedia
GENRE: Action RPG
PLATFORM: PS2
DEVELOPER: Atlus, Vanillaware
PUBLISHERS: Atlus, Square Enix
REVIEWER: Densio C.
PICTURE: Photobucket