Coming out rather soon, demo available.

So after poking through the demo two things come to mind: Yes, the visuals are gorgeous at 1080p resolution; Do I want to play Odin Sphere in 2016?

Gameplay wise being a single-player brawler in 2016 feels anachronistic, but more importantly a little bit too thin.

Also this is a full price release at $60, with the PS3 and Vita versions at $50 and $40 respectively.

For me, the price isn't quite there for an immediate buy.

I'd consider more of a sidescrolling action RPG than a "brawler". There's a lot more going on than just hitting dudes a bunch.

I played the original when it came out and enjoyed it, even if it did get kind of repetitive after awhile. There's enough depth to the combat and mechanics to be entertaining, but there was a whole lot of rehashing of areas and enemies across the different characters.

It does sound like they're doing more than just porting it though, so I'll probably end up picking it up eventually. If there wasn't so much coming out within the next month I probably would get it sooner.

(As an aside, it kinda weirds me out seeing "SEGA of America" listed as the publisher instead of Atlus USA. It's been a number years since SEGA bought them, but this is the first time I've seen SEGA's name supersede Atlus.)

Does it run at a steady frame rate?

I loved Muramasa on the Vita so I really can't decide on which version to get.

@csl316 said:

Having played through around half of Leifthrasir so far, I can say the framerate on PS4 at least is generally pretty solid, but when you have a screen full of enemies and effects (like way full) it can get a bit wobbly. Doesn't happen enough to sour the experience.

The package comes with the revised version of the mechanics and combat AND the entire original game, both in HD. It is a bit difficult to go back to the original when the update modernises it so much, but it is nice that a full HD version of the original is there as well.

The revised version revamps the speed and fluidity of the combat to something akin to Muramasa. In the original you had to be a bit deliberate because your attacks were tied to stamina and if you overly drained it you would be stunned, but the revamp does away with that and instead has a build/spend meter that you build with attacks/over time and spend to use physical arts. Absorbing phozons builds your PP gauge which you use for spells, but instead of charges like in the original the PP gauge is more like a traditional mana bar and spells have a specific cost.

Since you can be fairly liberal with skills and spells, some skills and spells giving you super armour, and being able to dodge and air dodge and generally just flip around the screen like a crazy person the game is certainly a bit easier but a bit more fun than the original, which discouraged you from going all-out and was a fair bit slower and less fluid in general.

They also cut down the time you would spend with the phozon economy of the original by overhauling how that system works. In the original you would absorb phozons (souls of enemies) either into your weapon in order to level it up and do more damage, or plant seeds that would absorb the phozons and grow into food or ingredients (or sheep) which were used to level up your character. This meant that you had to do things like plant a seed at the start of a fight, kill the enemies, wait for the plant to grow, and usually harvest the plant while still in combat so it wouldn't spoil from being on the branch too long. In the revised edition you can still do all this, but in an effort to keep combat moving they let you do a lot of the plant growing in your downtime by making phozon absorbed by your weapon a currency. You can either spend it on skills, spells and upgrading your weapon or you can release phozons that you have in your weapon into the air again, so you can raise seeds whenever you want to.

Demo was fun but not all that different from the original aside from smoothness.

If you're still wondering, I recently reviewed the Vita version and the frame rate is steady for the vast majority of the time. One boss hitched a couple of times, and there were a couple of areas that took a fairly big hit to the frame rate (<5% of the game at most; most were areas where there was a dust / snow storm that needed an item to pass, so no combat. I think [no way to test] these areas dropped from 60 to 30fps, so not terrible). In total of 30 or so hours I spent with the game, there's only about 10-15 minutes or so where the frame rate wasn't stable. Overall it's a great version of the game.

Obviously the PS4 version is higher res. (1080p vs. 544p), but the Vita version still looks great on the Vita screen. I'd just base a decision on if you want a portable version or want to play on a TV.