Odin Sphere

[Shadow Not Shade]

The more I play this game the more it annoys me. The way the POW meter makes sure that if you attack too much you'll stun yourself, the huge amounts of animation lag (if the big warriors are blocking and you attack low, it takes longer to recover from your successful strike than it does for them to take the hit, jump into the air, and then stomp on your head), the way that I have to play most of the game staring at the corner of the screen with the map because that tells me more about what's going on than the other 90% of my TV, the unavoidable hits, the major boss battles drag on for so long (and are all accompanied by a sure sign of a lazy developer: enemy spawns in the middle of boss fights), the occasional fights that run at about 5fps... it's like the game was designed for the sole purpose of making sure 2D games don't get a comeback.

The POW gauge shouldn't really even be an issue if you're planning out your attacks and not mashing. I got a sixteen hit chain in on an enemy yesterday before the gauge started beeping at me, and that's enough damage to kill almost anything but bosses. Pepper the enemy with 2-3 hit combos and save the full 4-hitter for when you really need it, would be my advice.

Enemies spawn during boss fights so you can harvest phozons for plants/spells. They're also good for keeping chains going while the boss is performing an attack and you can't get near him. In a lot of the boss fights thus far they aren't really much of a threat either.

I dunno, it seems to me the people saying OS has poor controls and such are treating it more as an action game than an action-rpg. The enemies in the game have to deal with the same limitations the player does, so I've never felt the game was imposing some sort of handicap on me. All the various game systems balance each other out pretty well imo.

[Shadow Not Shade]

Don't have either of those spells and I don't bother with the spawns. I also only have a couple recipes so far. Currently I think I'm in Valkyrie chapter 6 (just beat Leventhan) with my levels at 21/21.

Painkiller's not a spell, it's a potion. Read the alchemy texts in the file menu to figure out how to make them.

It cuts the damage you take in half and prevents knockback, which helps to speed battles up a bit.

I sucked at it for a while and only used it to make warmer/cooler/shine potions, but then I remembered how to make the other stuff. Having a ready supply of Painkiller and Napalm really helped during the final few stages.

[icarusfall]

The system for getting between different stages eats out of a line up of asses.

[MechDeus]

The POW gauge shouldn't really even be an issue if you're planning out your attacks and not mashing. I got a sixteen hit chain in on an enemy yesterday before the gauge started beeping at me, and that's enough damage to kill almost anything but bosses.

That's nice. You're trying to provide rationalizations for problems that shouldn't exist in the first place. On some of the bosses I can kill them without getting hit yet the game is forcing me to run away and take a break once in a while for absolutely no reason at all. It's stupid.

Enemies spawn during boss fights so you can harvest phozons for plants/spells. They're also good for keeping chains going while the boss is performing an attack and you can't get near him. In a lot of the boss fights thus far they aren't really much of a threat either.

It's not that they're a huge threat, it's for the random times when they get lucky and all of a sudden a bomb pops up at my feet and kills me, or when they contribute to dizzy/freeze/flame damage, or when I have to specifically drag out the fight due to luring the boss away because he's surrounded by guys with super armor. Only during one fight so far did enough enemies generate that I was able to get enough phozons to cast anything (Gwen's last fight), if they wanted that they could've done something like had the boss release some when you get past certain points on the lifebar (not that you should need the crutch in the first place).

I dunno, it seems to me the people saying OS has poor controls and such are treating it more as an action game than an action-rpg.

Or it's just that it's shitty. I don't have these issues with Zelda, Battle of Olympus, Secret of Mana, or most other games in the genre.

Painkiller's not a spell, it's a potion.

I know, but I was too lazy to type out the seperation. I only found a couple Cubanes before Gwen's final level so I couldn't really make any anyway. Besides, I had enough H potions to outlast anything, to the point where I started making up my own rules to try and not abuse them so much.

[VividAriah]

You might be stabbing yourself in the foot with that 21 weapon level at that point in Gwendolyn's story. I recently had to restart from scratch and found I could push her weapon to 37 as I hit her final boss. My first go had me at 33/22.

On another note, you're gonna fucking HATE Oswald.

[MechDeus]

Wow, I think I was at 25/26 when I beat her section. Definately among the most slowdown I've ever seen in a videogame, in any case, although the boss wasn't that hard so long as I zerg rushed. Never figured out how to stop her from healing but when I went balls out I killed her before she got the chance.

When I started Corn's part I focused on weapon powerup and ignored health boosts but he's still dealing less damage to regular enemies (Gwen was taking out bee's nests in two combos and it's taking Corn three). Kinda wierd, but it could be that it feels like he progressing slower. I'm at his chapter 4 but only 16/8, and I'm clearing out every room like I was before.

[Master]

I'm not a big fan of the slowdown or the inventory system, but I am loving everything else about this game.

[Busu-Otoko]

You can buy extra inventory space pretty early, thankfully.

Really, Hmmm... maybe i'm not far enough in the game for that. What chapter do you need to be in to be able to buy that?

[Tain]

I think I bought a small bag from the castle trader right before entering the snow area.

[MechDeus]

You can get small bags and pouches almost right away, although I personally don't really consider the price worth it until you can get large bags (especially because proper resist items help a lot and those all run 100g each).